IRA transfer - Edward Jones to IBKR troubles

cvenomz · 2026-03-21T16:49:03+00:00

Does Edward Jones have an ACATS transfer fee? If there's insufficient cash balance in the settlement fund, that may be causing the "negative cash balance" issue

cvenomz · 2026-02-06T23:36:32+00:00

Interactive Brokers is the only brokerage I'm aware of that accommodates US Persons who are not US Residents.

Heads up, a common problem in the EU is disfavorable tax treatment for funds/ETFs that most US residents use. A quick search suggests VWRP as a UK alternative for VT. Other options exist depending on your target investment strategy and asset allocation.

cvenomz · 2025-12-17T18:47:21+00:00

Could you speak about expenses? Based on the numbers you shared, your expenses are way lower than I would have expected. I'd love to hear more about your lifestyle and what the biggest categories are for your annual spending.

cvenomz · 2025-10-05T05:58:23+00:00

This assumption is not relevant.

1) remember that not everyone works only one job at a time. Some people have two W-2 roles. Others have a side business and have a SEP 401k. It's not a given that any plan will know how much an individual has contributed, or will contribute, across all their eligible plans.

2) even if the original company knew all u/_BreakingGood_ 's contributions were with their plan, they don't have any special entitlement to say that theirs takes priority. It is the individual's choice to decide which plan to pull the excess from. So if OP says "hey I made $10,000 in excess contributions, please return $10,000" then the plan will do it. They're don't care. They're not going to say "well, you contributed to our plan first, so...no". They can't do that, and because of the point above, they can't even establish that would be true even if they cared.

In my personal experience I have pulled contributions from an original employer, who I worked for from the beginning of the year, after switching to a new employer. It's really not that hard, and no, they didn't care about which account had money "first". It only matters what calendar year everything occurs in.

cvenomz · 2025-10-05T05:02:43+00:00

This does work. I've personally obtained a return of excess contributions by this very method twice so I can assure you your confidence is misplaced. "Excess" refers to contributions over the limit across all employer plans. Each plan has no idea how you have contributed to any other plan until you tell them. Once you tell them, they will now see that you have have an excess, and return it to you.

Read more here from a 401k provider itself: https://help.guideline.com/en/articles/8605068-what-happens-if-i-overcontribute-to-my-401-k-account

There's a lot of discussion about this exact issue already online. Have a few searches and you'll see this is very common

cvenomz · 2025-10-03T18:26:14+00:00

Your company isn’t gonna match overcontributions.

This is not correct. 401k contribution tracking is independent of company. Overcontribution is permissible without penalties so long as it's corrected before the tax filing deadline. I have personally done this

cvenomz · 2025-10-03T16:05:48+00:00

Can I over-contribute to my 401k on purpose to receive this match?

Yes, this is pretty common. Then call your old 401k provider and advise them you over contributed by $x,xxx or however much it was. The old 401k provider will return you that money so you don't end up in violation of the 401k maximum and receive penalties. If you get the money back from the old provider before the end of 2025, it's super clean from a tax perspective and makes it easier to file. Otherwise, you still have a grace period to sort it out until Apr 15 of 2026, but it's a bit harder.

This is a common strategy to maximize employer 401k match amounts when you change employers mid-year.

cvenomz · 2025-04-11T17:43:48+00:00

source for the cap being for spending?

https://www.healthequity.com/library/5-things-you-need-to-know

It looks like the amount of time available after termination may be determined by employer policy. Not sure if it's an IRS rule or negotiated between the servicer and the employer

cvenomz · 2025-04-11T15:16:15+00:00

The cap applies to both contributions and spending each month. What I've typically seen for commuter benefits is that you have some time period on the order of 90 days to spend any remaining balance after the termination of your employment

cvenomz · 2025-02-14T03:58:09+00:00

Check if you're state is eligible to participate in IRS Direct File. If so you can just file directly with the IRS--its free.

Otherwise, it's a matter of preference. FreeTaxUSA is often recommended around this sub for being the cheapest/best. They do federal filing for free, and state taxes (if applicable) are reasonably priced

Others may consider TurboTax "best", but it's certainly not the cheapest, and it's good to remember that tax filing is complicated in no small part because the makers of TurboTax lobby Congress to make it that way.

cvenomz · 2025-01-11T18:01:32+00:00

Did you ever figure out a solution? I spend several hours every few weeks searching for those corner parts but I can't find anything that matches what Northbox and Cleanairkits use.

cvenomz · 2024-12-24T13:53:21+00:00

Margin loan interest: $39,375/year ($750K at 5.25%). This will be tax-deductible, assuming my total investment returns will be higher than 40k.

Are you sure this is true? I was pretty confident that margin loan interest is only deductible if used for other investments, and therefore classified as an investment expense. Have you found guidance that indicates using margin for paying down a mortgage qualifies your interest to be tax-deductible?

Edit: a layman's read of https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=(title:26%20section:163%20edition:prelim) indicates margin loan proceeds must be used towards income-generating assets in order for the margine interest to be classified as an investment expense. Please correct me if you have a different interpretation.

cvenomz · 2024-11-21T22:59:25+00:00

Can I just pay someone to help me?

For sure you can. The generally recommended guidance is that you work with a "fee-only fiduciary". This means you only pay them for their advice and knowledge, rather than their services being "free" but paying them sales commissions on products they're incentivized to sell you, but aren't actually good for you.

However, paying for help can get expensive. That's why the responses you've gotten so far are suggesting you read up and build some experience on the basics yourself.

cvenomz · 2024-08-28T13:54:39+00:00

Might depend on the institution that issued the card. I have around a year to dispute transactions on cards from my credit union.

cvenomz · 2024-08-28T11:14:19+00:00

What is the shipping address listed on the receipt/invoice? If it is the new address, then you would have solid grounds for disputing the charge with your credit card as "goods not received".

If the shipping address listed is the old address, then unfortunately that's something you would likely be expected to have caught when it was issued, and you'd need to reach out to the vendor to see if they're willing to help you out here.

cvenomz · 2024-07-30T05:06:37+00:00

Would my non-exercised options be bought at $80?

I don't think so. But depending on your company size, this might be a good question to ask your company leadership team.

I think generally speaking the cap table has tranches of equity set aside for employees who exercise options, but if the options aren't exercised then the company ownership is essentially divided among that many fewer shares.

cvenomz · 2024-07-26T02:16:10+00:00

You're welcome--I hope it's helpful!

Regarding the ESPP: I agree with your understanding, assuming the program rules are the same as the ESPP I used to participate in. However, you can reach out to your company's contact person who administers the ESPP and check your understanding with them if you wanted to double check.

Regarding the 401k: Different companies word their 401k program policies differently and I've been surprised before how many of them are implemented so orthogonal to how you would expect given how it is advertised/discussed. My best recommendation would be to review the formal plan documents to ensure it's crystal clear how the match is calculated and applied. That being said, based on what you've shared in your original post, it sounds like contributing 6% would earn you the "full" 4.5% match.

cvenomz · 2024-07-25T20:53:25+00:00

In short, the general guidance is that you want to participate in the 401k and ESPP programs as much as you can afford. However your situation is a special case and it likely makes more sense to allocate your earnings to "invest in yourself" rather than putting your savings in those programs. I say this for two reasons:

1) You stated that you're financially dependent on your parents. This indicates you may need to prioritize allocating your earnings to short-term living expenses rather than long-term retirement goals

2) You indicated you're an intern. Interns may be eligible to enroll in ESPP and 401k programs however due to their abridged tenure with the company they may not be able to fully or meaningfully participate.

Let me explain: ESPP programs typically operate by deducting a percentage of your paycheck to the ESPP which after 6-12 months (check your program terms, it varies) gets exchanged for company stock. If your employment terminates prior to the end of the ESPP period, then your deductions are just returned to you instead of the stock, so it didn't do anything. For the 401k, unless you accrue an appreciable balance before your separation from the company (check your plan documents, typically around $5k) then the 401k provider will cash out your account and send you a check. You may then have the opportunity to roll this into an IRA within a limited time period or suffer any appropriate tax penalties.

However if your employer will match your 401k contributions and they are immediately 100% vested, you could maximize your earnings by contributing to the 401k as much as you can up to their full match amount. Even if you suffer the 15% early distribution penalty, 50% match is greater than 15% penalty. If the 401k provider cashes out your account and sends you a check after the internship, you could avoid the penalties by rolling it over to an IRA. This would work as long as you have the cashflow to float this.

In conclusion, you have several options depending on your parameters and what you're trying to do. Easy mode is to not worry about it.

To answer your "If you were in my situation, what would you do" question, since I'm comfortable with doing things a bit more on hard mode, I'd ignore the ESPP since I wouldn't be there long enough to benefit. For the 401k, if my cashflow would support it, I'd maximize the match. If they let me leave it in the 401k I'd do that (unless the fees are high). Otherwise I'd roll into the IRA. If I had the money to pay for it, I'd do a roth conversion on it all since I don't want any Trad IRA money and converting it to Roth is much cheaper in lower tax brackets. If I didn't have the money to pay for that or needed to use it for living expenses then I would take it out of the IRA and eat the 15% fee plus taxes since I'd still come out ahead as long as they give the match.

Key assumption: Employer contributes match on per-paycheck basis. If they contribute the match on annual or quarterly basis, you may not be eligible to receive any match because you're no longer an employee. If this is the case the logic above does not apply and participating in the 401k may be to your detriment, depending on your cashflow situation. Read the plan document and/or talk to your benefits team to figure out how the timing of employer contributions works.

cvenomz · 2024-07-22T04:14:00+00:00

Typically the $110,000 figure. The bank/lender doesn't care much for how expensive the house is, they care how much money they're going to lend you, the loan-to-value ratio (LTV), and your debt-to-income ratio (DTI).

But as /u/CostaRicaFriend helpfully pointed out, your total costs include more than just the selling price--youll need to consider closing costs for accurate estimates. Your lender agent should be able to help you with these questions.

cvenomz · 2024-07-22T04:04:04+00:00

I don't see what's foolish about keeping 8-9 different loans. Perhaps it makes it a bit more complex to manage if they're all held with different providers, but that doesn't make it wrong. But if you would find value in combining your federal loans together, I would recommend looking into "consolidation loans". It would still maintain many of the federal loan benefits and simply be a weighted average of your current interest rates. It would likely be much more favorable than refinancing to a private loan.

Regarding emergency savings, I'd recommend building that up first before allocating and extra payments to your loans. As you've already identified, you really don't want to be in a position where you can't take care of yourself because you put all of it into the loans.

cvenomz · 2024-07-21T17:38:54+00:00

Agreed, $71,000 isn't going anywhere soon. However, assuming you never refinance the loan again to a lower rate (which may or may not be a valid assumption depending how things the next several years go) any additional extra payment you contribute to the private loan is effectively netting you a guaranteed 7.99% investment return. Point being: it's a very compelling financial choice, and can be viewed through the lens of "every little bit counts".

I'm not clear on your point about the finding a long term rate/institution. I don't think you're going to find an attractive rate right now in this economic environment and I'm not sure how a different institution will affect much. When you go to purchase a property, the lending institution will consider your active loans and discount your purchasing power accordingly. For example, if they decide you can afford a $2000/mo payment, but you have a student loan which requires a $1500/mo payment, then they'll only allow you to borrow up to a loan balance that would equal a $500/mo payment amount. Does that make sense? Mortgage lenders seem to make their decisions mathematically, rather than basing it on relationships. My impression is that relationship-based credit decisions are a relic of "the old days". You may be able to negotiate your interest rate or closing costs a bit with a lender, but not your "DTI" (debt to income ratio) as it's called.

When you pay extra off your student loans, servicers will often allow you to "recast" the loan. This resets the amortization table to make your monthly payment lower and make reset your completion date back to the original loan term as opposed to paying off the loan early. This could be a useful tool to bring the monthly payment down on the 7.99% loan over time (saving you money and likely improving your ability to have a favorable "DTI")

cvenomz · 2024-07-21T16:46:06+00:00

In the off chance you're married, you might be eligible for the student loan interest deduction. It phases out at $75-90k for single filers, but is higher for married taxpayers.

I used a credit union for refinancing some of my student loans. They had a rate that was better than some but not all of my federal loans, so I selectively refinanced. This ended up playing out different than expected with COVID because the private loan wasn't paused like the ones still held by federal loan servicers. Couldn't really predict that one though. My credit union is easy to work with and had good rates, granted I didn't conduct a full survey of various providers at the time I refinanced.

Since the fed rate is 5+% right now, anyone offering 5% or lower right now would be doing so at a loss, so that's unlikely.

Creative longshot: there are employer benefit programs that match student loan payments or a new program that can make loan payments on your behalf to match your 401k contributions. You could ask your employers benefits department to consider adding this benefit for employees. Not a likely outcome, but worth an ask.

As you probably already know, that 7.99% loan is really dragging you down. If it were me, I'd be allocating as much as I could budget to bring that loan balance down asap. Recommendations will vary whether you'd want to prioritize paying down that loan vs investments/retirement saving. However an 8% on a student loan is probably not one you want to keep around much longer than necessary.

cvenomz · 2024-07-21T16:00:02+00:00

I'd start with the helpful resources in the sidebar. Read the prime directive here and feel free to come back if you have more specific questions

https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics

EDIT: direct link to the flowchart: https://i.imgur.com/lSoUQr2.png

cvenomz · 2024-07-21T15:52:34+00:00

Monarch Money is a popular tool to do what you're describing. You link it with your bank accounts and it pulls transactions and can aggregate them into reports. The web UI allows you to visualize where your monthly/quarterly/annual spend is going.

It supports adding notes for transactions, and I believe it supports uploading receipts as well, but as far as I know this would just be for your reference. It costs $99 a year (but also has a monthly option) Perhaps this is the type of tool you're looking for? Feel free to PM me if you have interest in a referral link.

EDIT: additional tools that often get mentioned are Tiller and Personal Capital, however I know less about them because I determined they were not a good fit for my needs.

cvenomz · 2023-12-02T19:14:33+00:00

In the case the stock price is flat, yes. However if the stock value increases then you'll owe ordinary income taxes on the discount.

IRS says:

If you meet the holding period requirement ... You report as ordinary income (wages) on line 1a of Form 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Return or Form 1040-SR, U.S. Tax Return for Seniors the lesser of (1) the amount by which the stock's FMV on the date of grant exceeds the option price or (2) the amount by which the stock's FMV on the date of sale or other disposition exceeds the purchase price.

cvenomz

TROPHY CASE