Where should I open new Roth IRA accounts

[ochotona]

Schwab is a good place. You can get many, many different kinds of ETFs and mutual funds which trade for free and are no-load. Their private label ETFs track their respective indices OK, and the expense ratios are near zero. They are in a price war with Vanguard.

You can buy and directly hold in your accounts US Treasuries, corporate bonds, municipal bonds... the actual bonds, not funds. And you can search and find the best CD rates in the country, and these can all go into your account. They simplify selection by having a Select List, if you don't want to wade through the 1000s of securities.

Their mobile app is good; website is a bit convoluted, but you get used to it. The Recognia technical alerting system is kind of cool. I have "set-it-and-forgotten-it" a bunch of alerts which will tell me when big changes are afoot in my holdings or prospective holdings.

Their advice stinks, however. Go there to buy the food, but don't use any of their recipes.

[Pointedstick]

A big problem with Schwab is that you can't sell individual bonds without being hit with a $75 fee per bond. I've complained about this and they keep saying they're working on phasing it out, but that hasn't happened yet.

Vanguard FTW.

[ochotona]

A big problem with Schwab is that you can't sell individual bonds without being hit with a $75 fee per bond. I've complained about this and they keep saying they're working on phasing it out, but that hasn't happened yet.

Vanguard FTW.

I guess I haven't jumped off that bridge yet! I bought, but I'll hold my T-bonds to maturity (2022).

[drumminj]

Look at what Reub went through... he's damn lucky he didn't lose his gold via theft, oversight or what not.

Can you provide a link to this story? A quick search didn't turn up anything.

I'm skeptical of banks/safe deposit boxes as well, but do have/use one as part of a physical diversification plan.

[MachineGhost]

Look at what Reub went through... he's damn lucky he didn't lose his gold via theft, oversight or what not.

Can you provide a link to this story? A quick search didn't turn up anything.

I'm skeptical of banks/safe deposit boxes as well, but do have/use one as part of a physical diversification plan.

Its on here somewhere. As I recall, Sandy flooded the bank vault but his container was fortunately located higher than what the top of water level reached. I'd say you need two things to use a bank vault for protection against the bank's and/or employee's theft and/or incompetence or hand waving away: take a snapshot of your filled vault container with a date and timestamp included in the picture; and give up your privacy and buy insurance on it. I'd throw in pictures of front entrance of the bank showing the address, the vault entrance, the vault room, etc., for good measure as well. Can't trust these jokers anymore. And always watch and make sure the bank employee literally turns the key and locks your container instead of faking it. They're the bottom of the totem pole hired off the street -- this isn't Switzerland.

[dualstow]

That's an interesting point about watching the box get locked. I guess I'm always there because he has to hand the key back to me -- my bank still uses two keys! -- but he probably could fake locking without my noticing. Or could have in the past.

One of these days when I have enough gold I'll spring for insurance.

[Mountaineer]

Dang it! You guys are making me paranoid. Should I be concerned that the 2 dozen ex-Seals I have guarding my bunker don't really have my best interest at heart? Should I put in an automated system complete with a 100yd perimeter of mines, dogs, barbed wire, radar, sonar, and lasers?

[dualstow]

Dang it! You guys are making me paranoid. Should I be concerned that the 2 dozen ex-Seals I have guarding my bunker don't really have my best interest at heart? Should I put in an automated system complete with a 100yd perimeter of mines, dogs, barbed wire, radar, sonar, and lasers?

Nah, it would just become self-aware and tease the dogs with the lasers.

[WiseOne]

Returning briefly to the topic of solo 401K account restatement:

My post above about a 6 year cycle based on the date of account opening (info from Fidelity phone rep) was wrong. It is in fact a 6 year cycle on the IRS's schedule, with a 2 year window to submit a signed form to your brokerage. The last window closed this past April 30th. Not being clairvoyant, I managed to miss the deadline along with (probably) thousands of others.

After reading the IRS pages on this, I decided to fill out Fidelity's form, backdate it to April 30th, and send it to them. It's 4 years until the next restatement window opens. If I get audited during that time, I'll show the IRS agent the form and let them try to get the copy from Fidelity (good luck). If I don't, then I'll send in the form in 4 years and problem solved. I figured that it's highly unlikely the IRS will suddenly decide to go after thousands of small-fry solo 401K account owners for failing to sign an obscure form on time. It would be an extremely unpopular move to say the least.

Dualstow, congrats on getting the form in on time - I guess your brokerage must have alerted you in a way that was humanly possible to detect. That's Vanguard? Fidelity may have sent me a message, but they send so many messages (>1 a day) that I got lazy about going through them, as I figured they'd send an email if something urgent was buried in the mix. And they only keep them for 90 days even if you haven't read them.

[dualstow]

Dualstow, congrats on getting the form in on time - I guess your brokerage must have alerted you in a way that was humanly possible to detect. That's Vanguard? Fidelity may have sent me a message, but they send so many messages (>1 a day) that I got lazy about going through them, as I figured they'd send an email if something urgent was buried in the mix. And they only keep them for 90 days even if you haven't read them.

Sorry for the late reply - I was out of town.

That was Fidelity! I'm mostly in Vanguard, but they didn't have a solo 401(k) when I set mine up. I guess Fido sent me the paper forms and I took care of them before forgetting about the whole thing until Barrett's post and my follow-up.

[ochotona]

Which are the best IRA companies if I use TLT for rebalancing? Shwab? Fidelity? Barrett explained that Fidelity is good for buying units of LTTs. I am thinking of leaving TD Ameritrade behind.

I recently realized I can fund Roth IRAs with some of the proceeds from my home sale. As I have read, holding TLT in a Roth IRA is a good idea for rebalancing. But is their still concern about the structure/exposure of TLT? 24,000 Dollars would be contributed in 2016-17.

If I go with Shwab, I read on this forum about the checking account to use when traveling- convenient in the next year.

Thanks.

WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA

Kevin, you cannot throw $24,000 into a single Roth account over a two year timespan! You can do a maximum of $6,500 a year if your AGI is below $183,000. you must have earned income at least equal to the amount you want to put into the Roth.

If your wife and you both have enough earned income greater than $6,500 you can push $26,000 into two Roths over two years, but I though you were just about retired. Do you have earned income?