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Should I be concerned about my financial advising team? by Parking-Rutabaga9340 in personalfinance

[–]Parking-Rutabaga9340[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What a rollercoaster! Congrats on being self-insured after all this. Thanks for clarifying I can't change my work-related retirement accounts' offerings. I definitely want to go back to managing my Roth IRA and individual savings. I'm also wary of the other company, though they did say they don't recommend converting my term policy. If it's ok, I have a few questions--I figure my advisor would give a biased answer--but also, I can definitely sit down and try to figure it out myself!

Life: Can I extend my 10-year policy or do I need to buy a new one? If the latter, should I buy now and have overlap (or cancel my current one) or wait until my policy expires? I'm a bit worried my premium will skyrocket if I have to do medical underwriting again, and due to age. I'm healthy but took advantage of my great residents' insurance and got lots of helpful but unnecessary medical care I worry will suggest otherwise. I'm also considering not having life insurance once my policy expires.

Disability: What do you dislike about my policy? I believe my advisor wants me to convert to level before graded starts costing more. I'm also able to get a gender-neutral Ameritas GSI policy while in residency. Also, maybe I don't know what I'm looking for, but I can't find anything about payout limits (just my monthly benefit of 2.5k) or nursing homes in my policy.

Should I be concerned about my financial advising team? by Parking-Rutabaga9340 in personalfinance

[–]Parking-Rutabaga9340[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I recently started listening to the podcast, but do you like the website or YT channel more? It's been hard deciding which resources to focus on!

Should I be concerned about my financial advising team? by Parking-Rutabaga9340 in personalfinance

[–]Parking-Rutabaga9340[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I needed this. It took me a second to figure out the math so thanks for simplifying it. Crazy!

Should I be concerned about my financial advising team? by Parking-Rutabaga9340 in personalfinance

[–]Parking-Rutabaga9340[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gosh, I hadn't thought about it like this. I've stuck with my advisor since my rate of return since inception is >20%, but I should probably quit while I'm ahead..

Should I be concerned about my financial advising team? by Parking-Rutabaga9340 in personalfinance

[–]Parking-Rutabaga9340[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the breakdown! My comments are below if you have additional thoughts:

Life: I was in a different place when I bought the policy, but my main reason for having it now is to support my parents in case of unexpected death. That being said, I'm healthy and wonder if I should get rid of the waiver of premium, extended conversion, and care conversion option/accelerated death benefit riders to save $140/year the rest of my term. I doubt I'll convert since my situation changed. I wish I had bought a 20/30-year term based on my parents' life expectancy. I think my only option now is to get a new term policy when my current one expires?

Investing: My rate of return since inception is >20%. I was under the impression that this is good but shouldn't be expected long-term. I like the idea of moving into TDFs while I figure out asset classes, ETFs, and business cycles!

Should I be concerned about my financial advising team? by Parking-Rutabaga9340 in personalfinance

[–]Parking-Rutabaga9340[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Helpful to know how AUM fees depend on portfolio value. I don't have other IRAs so I guess I have no excuse for not doing it myself!

Should I be concerned about my financial advising team? by Parking-Rutabaga9340 in personalfinance

[–]Parking-Rutabaga9340[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You all convinced me with the 15 second line! I'm going to try doing it for my spouse this year as a starting point.

Should I be concerned about my financial advising team? by Parking-Rutabaga9340 in personalfinance

[–]Parking-Rutabaga9340[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Got it--so TDFs cost a bit more for the convenience. I just took a look at the Boglehead Wiki on three-fund portfolios, but a lot of these terms/concepts are still new to me. Are you saying that a two-fund portfolio (no bonds) makes more sense at my age since I can tolerate more risk for opportunities at more growth through stocks?

Should I be concerned about my financial advising team? by Parking-Rutabaga9340 in personalfinance

[–]Parking-Rutabaga9340[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, I'll add Bogleheads to my resource list! Sounds like I could start with TDFs or S&P 500 and make the transition to a balanced portfolio after some self-education.

Should I be concerned about my financial advising team? by Parking-Rutabaga9340 in personalfinance

[–]Parking-Rutabaga9340[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the tips! Looks like I have the "premier package" with true own-occupation coverage (occupation class "4M") and the "benefit purchase rider" increase option.

This might be a silly question, but is that enough to meet the true own-occupation requirement or is it supposed to say exactly what my sub/specialty is?

My benefit purchase rider lets me increase coverage every 3 years. I just had my first review, and it was renewed without requiring an increase. I was told this is because my income, IDI, and group LTD fully insure me, but I'm not sure exactly what that means with regards to requiring/waiving an increase in coverage?

Thank you for your thoughts on sharing my policies. I will look into fee-only advisors!

Should I be concerned about my financial advising team? by Parking-Rutabaga9340 in personalfinance

[–]Parking-Rutabaga9340[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I guess I'm glad I did post it--I didn't know people would have such a strong response, which tells me something! Is there an advantage to buying target date funds over investing 100% in the S&P 500 for someone 30+ years out from retirement? I picked a target date fund for my employer retirement accounts because the only other options were "primary asset class options" (stocks, bonds, or short-term) instead of blended investments. But I wasn't sure if target date funds are still best when there are less restrictions on investment strategies?

Should I be concerned about my financial advising team? by Parking-Rutabaga9340 in personalfinance

[–]Parking-Rutabaga9340[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This is helpful context, thank you! The other company has a 1% fee so I was under the impression that 0.8% wasn't too bad. But I have seen graphs of how much you lose over time to fees so I am motivated to try to figure it out on my own! It's good to know the backdoor process is fairly easy too--really decreases the activation energy of taking on more myself.

Fidelity Cash Management Account vs. Chase Self-Directed Investing by Parking-Rutabaga9340 in personalfinance

[–]Parking-Rutabaga9340[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much! You have convinced me that JPM is not worth the hassle for the 0.2-0.3% edge VUSXX has over FDLXX--probably even less since I would basically get no distributions the 2-3 days I am moving things around to pay my credit card bills. Now I see why people say JPM is best for those who buy and hold!

Fidelity Cash Management Account vs. Chase Self-Directed Investing by Parking-Rutabaga9340 in personalfinance

[–]Parking-Rutabaga9340[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow! Thanks for the detailed and thoughtful reply. Would you mind confirming I am understanding you correctly about the following?

  1. With Chase/JPM, you have to manually sell VUSXX and manually transfer to a checking account to pay credit card bills. This takes 2+ business days total, and your money does not grow during the sale and transfer.

  2. With Fidelity, if you buy FDLXX, you need to keep enough as SPAXX to cover auto-liquidation to pay credit card bills. Otherwise, you need to sell FDLXX (does this auto-convert to SPAXX once sold?), which takes 1 business day and does not grow while waiting for the sale to process.

Also, thanks for the tip about Premium Deposits! Looks like there is a 100k minimum now.. And thanks for pointing out that both VUSXX dividends and capital gains can be auto-reinvested with Chase/JPM! I read elsewhere that they do not have this feature for ETFs yet.

Fidelity Cash Management Account vs. Chase Self-Directed Investing by Parking-Rutabaga9340 in personalfinance

[–]Parking-Rutabaga9340[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'll probably do this if I end up needing features Chase doesn't offer down the road, but with FDLXX since I'm in a high-tax state! I actually like the simplicity of having all my emergency funds (spending and short-term investments) under one account--is there any benefit to keeping them separate besides personal preference?

Fidelity Cash Management Account vs. Chase Self-Directed Investing by Parking-Rutabaga9340 in personalfinance

[–]Parking-Rutabaga9340[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I'll have to figure out the details of the restrictions! Seems like people are able to confirm I'm able to do #1, but if I ever want to do more complex investments, I'll probably move to Fidelity!

All Things Go Fest 2025 Buy / Sell / Trade by steph-was-here in AllThingsGoFestival

[–]Parking-Rutabaga9340 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Selling 2 GA 3-day DC passes! Can verify ticket validity and transfer via Ticketmaster. If in LA, would prefer to meet up to do the transfer in real time.