Investing, Stock Market and Retirement Planning Thread

[NTP66]

Why would my employer mandate everyone being enrolled in our 403B program at 4%? I'm at 7%, so it's no big deal, but they are now requiring everyone contribute at 4% (there is a waiver to get out of it, however). They are saying it's to make sure staff are preparing for retirement, but that sounds...odd.

Is it that our retirement accounts are undercapitalized? Or does the university save money on taxes if more gets invested in pre-tax accounts?

This is common practice now. I know quite a few people who started new jobs within the last year, and every one of them was immediately contributing 4% to their 401k/403b, but had the option to change it after the fact. I think it's a good practice, personally, since a majority of people simply aren't saving enough for retirement.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

There has been a big push in general to make enrollment in retirement plans mandatory unless you opt out. Automatic enrollment is seen as a way to help people with abysmal retirement prospects save for retirement. i think there has been legislation bouncing around congress requiring it.

[DigitalGypsy66]

I just can't believe they would do something that doesn't benefit the university first. Maybe I'm too cynical.

[Beveridge]

They don't save anything because it isn't their money. They are still paying you X whether you put in Y% to retirement or not. Your take home pay would be reduced by that requirement if you do less than 4%, but no gain or loss by University.

[willeyeam]

there is some legal obligation to let participants have adequate notice that the plan is available to contribute to, which creates a gray area. Maybe one email or document isn't enough.. someone retires and "I didn't know I could have been contributing all these years, see you in court" is a possibility. Auto-enroll takes that out of the equation

[count2infinity]

Not a good day for the ole dow...

[Dickie Dunn]

Almost back down to where it should be. An overvalued marketing becoming more overvalued in the midst of a pandemic and global economic shitshow makes my brain hurt. Deep pockets driving the market to make money off of volatility overriding metrics and long term investing.

[mikey]

Great day for mikey daytrader. I shorted the airline index fund earlier in the week and the money printer was set to "turbo" today.

My friends tried to convince me that 306.50 is the SPY floor. I said no. Then got FOMO. Bought in on a 311.50 call for tomorrow. Immediately hated it. Flipped it for a +10% return in about 8 minutes and then the market tanked down to like 303. All the dumb money got their dicks kicked off yesterday...the "max pain" phenomenon that exists to do psychological damage to small-time idiots like me got hurt and scared yesterday so I hit a bunch of short positions...

[NTP66]

Almost back down to where it should be. An overvalued marketing becoming more overvalued in the midst of a pandemic and global economic shitshow makes my brain hurt. Deep pockets driving the market to make money off of volatility overriding metrics and long term investing.

So long as it doesn't drop 1500 every other day...

[Troy Loney]

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/12/cramer- ... aders.html

A noble profession.

[NTP66]

The Dow is up almost 3% today?

[mikey]

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/12/cramer- ... aders.html

A noble profession.

This is what I talked about yesterday about "max pain". To be fair, to pros, this is like someone sitting to your left at the blackjack table and hitting on 19...I don't blame them for trying to flush people out...

[shafnutz05]

The Dow is up almost 3% today?

It's not even worth following on a day to day basis, that's for sure.

[NTP66]

Every time I see you post in this thread, I assume my Marcus account APR dropped again.

Oh @DigitalGypsy66... 1.05%.

[DigitalGypsy66]

[NTP66]

[NTP66]

@mac5155 @robbiestoupe

Don't both of you have FSAs you were worried about losing money in this year? I can't find many articles outside of this one, but I received an e-mail from work today stating the following:

Recent legislative changes now allow employers to make Flexible Spending Account deadline changes for plans ending in 2020. Work has extended the deadline to incur claims for your 2019-2020 Healthcare and Dependent Care FSA funds.

The new deadline is December 31, 2020. You have until January 31, 2021 to submit eligible 2019-2020 FSA expenses that you paid for out-of-pocket. If you are using your Payflex card to pay for products or services after July 1, your 2019-2020 healthcare FSA funds will be used first before your 2020-2021 account balance. Also, we will continue to allow employees with a DCFSA to make changes to their elections at any point during the plan year if their dependent care situation changes.

This article mentions that employers don't actually have to follow the guidelines:

“Just keep in mind that employers don’t have to follow the guidelines,” said IRS spokesman Eric Smith. For example, employers don’t have to exercise the option to offer a special midyear election that would allow workers to sign up for a health-care plan, end participation, or raise or lower FSA contributions.

“So employees whose employers offer FSAs are well-advised to ask or watch for communications from their plan administrator about their options, if any,” Smith said.

May want to inquire your employers to see if anything has changed.

[mac5155]

Cool. Thanks. The nice thing about mine as of January this year, is my sister is the payroll manager over ours

Her and my wife work together.

[robbiestoupe]

We received a work email early on during the shutdown that we could change our DFSA. Not sure if they were implying FSA as well.

Either way, looks like I’ll end up using both. Kids went back to daycare/summer school this week

[mikey]

This sideways nonsense market makes my wee wee soff...

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

well, my company that I’ve been working at for 5 years just announced our IPO

this is gonna be weird/interesting

[mikey]

Got some insider trading news? If so, PM me.

I am singlehandedly skyrocketing IDEX...up 300%, and so are my friends that listened to me... $$$!

[DigitalGypsy66]

I got a retirement plan update from my employer:

Retirement Plan Portfolio Manager service
TIAA's Retirement Plan Portfolio Manager is a fee-based advisory service that offers professional management
of your University Retirement Plan account. Your account will be reviewed quarterly and automatically
adjusted to help keep it on track with your retirement goals.
If you enroll in the service, an annual fee of 0.30% will be deducted from your account on a quarterly basis. The
fee is based on an average daily balance of your account during the quarter.

For example: If you had an average balance of $10,000 in your account, the annual fee would be
$10,000 x 0.003 = $30, a quarterly fee of $7.50, which would be deducted on the first day of the subsequent
quarter and continue on a quarterly basis as long as the account is active. You may terminate your participation
in the program at any time upon written or verbal notice to TIAA.

Is this something worthwhile? I have the Vanguard 2035 plan now, which I can manually adjust if needed (which I usually don't touch it).

[NTP66]

Source of the post Is this something worthwhile? I have the Vanguard 2035 plan now, which I can manually adjust if needed (which I usually don't touch it).

IMO, absolutely not. There's nothing wrong with target date funds provided that you are using the asset allocation in the glide path and not the actual year of the plan.

[willeyeam]

f that noise