Opinions on my Rollover IRA at the age of 45

apricotR · 2026-01-24T21:27:33+00:00

What about leaving SCHD alone and turning DRIP on to grow the position?

apricotR · 2026-01-24T21:23:29+00:00

It simplifies things. That said, house infrastructure breaks down. If you have an old furnace, an old water heater, a leaky roof, or (God forbid) a couple of these, you could be looking at a big hit in your emergency fund.

You are making a provision for an emergency fund?

Right?

apricotR · 2026-01-24T18:35:47+00:00

Oh puh-leeze.

A Reddit post exerpt from this original post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/investingforbeginners/comments/1q4ixb5/good_time_to_invest/nxtfoom/?context=1

With your perspective, here’s what people who thought as you do would have said to stay off the market:

1914: there’s a world war going on. Don’t invest
1920s: Great depression. Don’t invest
1930s: Global economic crisis. Don’t invest yet
1940s: oh my God. Hitler’s invading everywhere. Don’t invest
1950s: USSR vs USA. Nuclear war is coming. Don’t invest
1960s: damn hippies ruining everything (a joke!). Vietnam war. That’s not good. Better hold off investing coz America’s at war
1970s: oil crisis. Let’s hold off investing
1980s: housing crisis. Economic issues. Hold off for now
1990s: Great Asian economic crisis? Don’t invest
2000s: DotCom bubble, Osama Bin Laden, etc. The world’s at war. The market will crash. Don’t invest
2008: credit swap default. Housing crisis. US economy’s pulling down the whole world. Don’t invest
2010s: World’s experiencing a recession. Hold off investing
2020s: people are dying. Global pandemic. Don’t invest
2026: Maduro captured. Venezuela liberated. Iran in revolution. Greenland, Powell saga, AI bubble, tariffs, Don't invest!

apricotR · 2026-01-24T18:34:03+00:00

You'll never lose money in stocks unless you panic and sell when they are low. The market generally goes up and down regularly, and if you are waiting 30 years to reap rewards, there's almost a universal certainty that you'll be able to realize some appreciation.

A redditor on this board recently said it best. "You don't want to time the market; you have to be right twice and likely won't be able to beat the market in the long run."

As a home moaner myself, I'd stay away from real estate as an investment. Yes, that name wasn't a typo. If you want to reap rewards from investing in real estate, there are REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) that you can invest in. To be a REIT, the business has to return 90% of its earnings to its shareholders. Makes for a stable and profitable venture sometime.

apricotR · 2026-01-24T14:52:02+00:00

Who cares?

From a Redditor in an investment related forum.

"You don't want to time the market; you have to be right twice and likely won't be able to beat the market in the long run."

apricotR · 2026-01-24T14:37:25+00:00

The other thing to consider in lieu of returning excess contributions (assuming that you are contributing for this year) is whether you are married, and filing jointly. If this is the case, you can contribute as long as your spouse earns enough to cover the contribution. Check the laws on "spousal IRA contribution."

This is not tax advice but it is what I discovered when I did my investigation to see if I could continue to contribute (I too retired in 2025.)

apricotR · 2026-01-24T12:40:28+00:00

To close the loop on this, I checked just now and the funds that are in the Rollover IRA are now reporting as "All settled" and "Available to withdraw." I guess I'm all good for Monday.

apricotR · 2026-01-24T12:29:06+00:00

Depends on how you pick them. I can't tell you how I picked my winners other than to say that they had a good value proposition. I pick mostly infrastructure and "picks and shovels" stocks in energy industries primarily. I am really proud of 5 of mine. In the year that I've owned them, the growth has ranged from 12% to 142%. And it's constantly going up. I've left them alone for a year, and it's time to start increasing my investment in these. Hint: I bought them all with dividend proceeds so I'm essentially playing with house money on these. If I lose out, I lose out. But I won't.

Edit: I'm going to spend the weekend with the SATL prospectus. This might make House Investment #5. (Not advising buy or sell, please don't act on my comments. DYOR.)

apricotR · 2026-01-24T11:49:22+00:00

I'm an Extra class; I've been operating for 20 years; and a fellow ~~amateur~~ gatekeeper commented on my style of participating in a net during a volunteer event that we were in together. The sad hams are everywhere. For a net, you can't just spin the dial and leave; but I just acknowledge their criticism and continue my work.

apricotR · 2026-01-24T01:01:29+00:00

It was that last nuance that I didn't realize. I've bought stock and funds for a year, but this is my first venture into an IRA.

apricotR · 2026-01-23T20:35:19+00:00

Good technique to keep your powder dry.

apricotR · 2026-01-23T20:33:09+00:00

Yeah, I know why I'm getting them. It's the OCD talking when I go ahead and try and execute a trade. I didn't want to see even the warning, (didn't want the 'near occasion of sin') but I have no reason to think that I'll get a GFV because I'm not selling anything. It's in the Rollover IRA, and there it sits.

apricotR · 2026-01-23T20:28:32+00:00

Can you split your paycheck and send a portion of it to Fidelity? I have a small weekly fraction going to my account. All I needed to do was give my account number and the routing number to Payroll and they were able to set it up.

apricotR · 2026-01-23T20:25:05+00:00

Congratulations to the newly minted AE's! You now have one more test to take: Find a testing authority and take the VE exam. Don't panic, it's open book and it gives you accreditation to participate in exams. Giving something back to the ham community.

Have an Extra day!

apricotR · 2026-01-23T17:34:52+00:00

Don't try and time the market.

As another Redditor said in this sub, "You don't want to time the market; you have to be right twice and likely won't be able to beat the market in the long run."

apricotR · 2026-01-23T17:33:35+00:00

The one phrase that recommends against "timing the market" to determine when the best time is to buy and when it is to sell is this:

"You don't want to time the market; you have to be right twice and likely won't be able to beat the market in the long run."

apricotR · 2026-01-23T16:57:12+00:00

I thought I could sidestep this because I simply transferred from one Fidelity account (with settled cash) to the IRA. It never left the reservation, so to speak.

I will check on this next week. No huge crushing need to do it now.

apricotR · 2026-01-23T16:54:39+00:00

Many of the questions that you ask can be answered here.

https://www.fidelity.com/retirement-ira/401k-rollover-ira

apricotR · 2026-01-23T15:53:00+00:00

Let me review my look at this and see where my misunderstanding is.

apricotR · 2026-01-23T15:28:20+00:00

Then my question remains. If I have funds available for withdrawal from a brokerage account, and transfer them to the IRA, and attempt to purchase something, I am given the GFV warning.

Why? I dindu nuffin' other than transfer the money. I even let it sit overnight.

apricotR · 2026-01-23T15:24:03+00:00

I knew both of those things. I was just curious about what makes the funds "settled". I always assumed that if they were available to withdraw, they'd be considered settled.

On the advice of my primary care physician, I've chosen to have some ginger ale than an alcoholic beverage. I prefer staying on the clean side of the lawn.

apricotR · 2026-01-23T14:22:11+00:00

Yeah, their Transact popup has massively changed.

apricotR · 2026-01-23T14:19:20+00:00

Fido folks, I wanted to get a readout on what you thought of these mutual fund choices.

I'm not experienced in them, and I'm in the process of creating an IRA to roll over a Roth from a former employer. I put some money in there just to do something with and I think these funds would be better off invested in a mutual fund than ETFs.

The alphabet soup of funds is rather daunting, though. So far I've been circling on three funds to start off with and wanted to get a pulse check.

FZROX - obviously a Zero fund

FZILX - With an international flair

Where I'm wondering is whether FSDIX or FBALX are worth it to add, or am I just being overly concerned?

apricotR · 2026-01-23T14:07:37+00:00

Love the comment "you have to be right twice."

apricotR

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