This post is entirely dedicated to complaining about my company's back-door ROTH IRA with Empower. Yes, I feel both luck to have the option and the money to do it. I feel like royalty complaining that there is a pen in the wrong place on a desk.
I receive a paycheck every 2 weeks, on Friday.
On Monday I call empower and have to, over the phone, ask to transfer the money from my post-tax 401k to the empower account I opened for this purpose. For awhile I could move the money to my etrade account for free but Empower wisened up and started charging $50 each time, so I opened an empower acct so the fund transfer would be free. Surprise, a $35 maintenance fee showed up this month, hopefully that's annually but I'll follow up and ask because I'm on the phone with a real live person every two weeks.
Then I wait a few days for the money to land in my account before I can invest it, where it will grow tax-free. I have to compute the stock/bond cost and what percentage by hand, and make the trades.
This whole process takes so much mental energy to remember to do and to call/log-on etc. It's usually a week before the money is safely invested.
I wish I got paid and wah-lah pressed a button and it was all taken care of.
Okay, thanks for listening!
