Author Topic: Ready to Reinvest  (Read 1347 times)

newelljack

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 74
  • Location: California
Ready to Reinvest
« on: September 21, 2016, 11:42:04 PM »
Before I got married and racking up debt, I had a Roth IRA that I contributed to a few times. I also had a job with a 401k for a very short time. Both accounts are with Fidelity and have long-since been neglected and hungry. I am ready to start contributing again and would love everyone's advice. Here are my details:

DW and I work in public education in California, so we have an option for 403b, but no match (we have automatic deductions into the state employees pension plan, yay)
AGI exceeds the tIRA deduction limit with an employee plan available
My Roth currently has $5,400 in a Biotech fund with 3 year average returns over 11% but a 0.78% expense ratio
I rolled over the 401k into a tIRA that now has $5,400 as well with better 3 year average and a 0.81% expense ratio (this may sound dumb, but I've never seen a "charge" for those expenses, are they just taken out before returns are reported?)
I am looking to start stashing away just a couple hundred/mo to start

Do I...
1) keep these funds as-is and open a new Vanguard Roth to purchase VTI?
2) keep these funds as-is and contribute to the existing roth?
3) roll the Fidelity accounts over to Vanguard, keeping the Roth a Roth and the trad a trad and add my investments to the Roth?
4) contribute to the 403b at work, whose Total Market fund has a 0.0% expense ratio?
5) am I missing something?

I know it is expensive advice, but I appreciate any guidance you fine folks can offer.

My DW also has some old Disney stock from when she was a kid (worth about 3k now, only about a 2% annual return) and 460 in EE savings bonds that I would also love to put to better use...

newelljack

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 74
  • Location: California
Re: Ready to Reinvest
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2016, 11:52:59 PM »
Holy smokes, I just found this site that calculates the total expenses of accounts over time based on their expense ratios. It's scary, I need to get out of those Fidelity accounts!

http://www.begintoinvest.com/expense-ratio-calculator/

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!