Investing/Retirement question
 

I have been sitting on an old 401K for a company I no longer work for. I left that money untouched for the past 8 years. It has almost doubled in value during that time.

I am really considering taking that money and transferring it to a Robinhood Gold IRA. They are doing a 3% match through the end of April if you sign up for the Gold (must keep Gold for 1 year $5 per month fee) I am well outside of the 5 year agreement for the IRA they require before penalty for early withdraw. I am figuring 7-9 years before Retirement.

I know very little about Robinhood. My current 401K is with Voya, and the fees are less than 1.5% annual. I would have to rollover to a traditional IRA as 98% of my 401K was before tax.

Is Robinhood any good for just setting up an IRA and not "investing" with it?

What do you mean by not “investing” an IRA? What kind of balance do you have in what you’re going to roll over? 7-9 years the value really should double again so picking a brokerage based on a sign up bonus probably isn’t the most financially sound decision IMO.

Find a good advisor who will do a comprehensive plan. The fees would be similar and you would have a much better outcome. This is one of the most important/life shaping decisions you can have yet you would choose not to use a professional with similar costs.

I’d spend it on hookers and blow

Gold is not an investment. Gold is a commodity like sugar, corn, or wheat. Think of gold as a store of value. When you purchase gold, you are preserving the purchasing power of your money. Gold increases in price during inflationary times because the price goes up with inflation.

I'm not an expert in this stuff, but I think there are a number of concepts getting jumbled up here. So a few thoughts:

1. You can roll an orphaned 401k into an IRA at any time with no penalties - no waiting period needed. You'll want to keep the structure the same (so traditional 401k --> traditional IRA and Roth 401k --> Roth IRA). If you're paying a 1.5% fee on your 401k, you should definitely do this ASAP, as that's eating into your gains significantly even if it seems like a small number.

2. Unless you're just letting it sit there as cash, all IRAs are "investment" accounts. You probably had some sort of default investment in your 401k like a target date fund, so that's why you might not feel like you were "investing," but you were. Likewise, in your new IRA account, you'll want to invest that as well. If you don't want to deal with figuring out individual stocks (which is the right move for most people), you can just pick another mutual fund (I recommend target date index funds if you have them available) to invest it all in.

3. I don't know much about Robinhood, but is there a reason why you're focusing on that one specifically? Robinhood is fine, but my perception is that they focus more on people who want to be active traders. If you're just wanting a place you can move it and forget it, I'd consider one of the traditional brokerages like Vanguard, Schwab, or Fidelity. They have an incentive to get you to move your accounts to them, so they're usually good at helping you with basic advice (not investing advice, but advice on accounts and how to roll things over) if you give them a call.

Talk to a real financial advisor, not someone here or somebody who slept at a Holiday Inn last night. I use Edward Jones and although some people don't like them my guy has done right by me. I'm not going for super high returns just steady, lower risk growth since I'm 62 and that's what they've done for me.

Spend it on a nice fancy $100 lunch

EJ is reasonable at low investment levels because they take their fees out as a percentage of your investments (and I do strongly dislike that they kind of hide this fact). It's not so bad when you're just getting started since, for example, 1.5% of $10k in investments is only $150, which is pretty reasonable. If you stick with them for decades, though, and you've got your life savings with them, that 1.5% is suddenly $15k, which is nuts.

But you're absolutely right that, generally speaking, it's helpful for a lot of people to have "your guy" who you trust to help you work through a lot of the complicated questions like the OP is asking. That has value, even if I personally think there are other, less expensive options once you've got a general plan in place.

Robinhood is a ****ing joke dude. If your money has doubled why move it anyways? Keep your nest egg safe. If you want to start an IRA with a meme trader set aside new monies and take a crack at it but don’t blow your wad right out of the gate.

Robinhood has limited options for investing so you need to have an idea of what you want to invest in prior to any transfer.

First Robinhood is a terrible company. Second the 3% match is only on contributions. I'm not sure they will count the initial rollover as a contribution and you don't mention making contributions, so I'm not sure this helps you.

Because instead of 1.5% annual fee you can invest in an index fund for 0.1% fee.

It says 3% match on all rollover if you sign up for their gold level. 1% match if you use their basic level.

I am just curious if Robinhood is legit. It sounds sketchy at best

Coin Base app obviously.

Very legit but very limited.
Not a full service investment firm.

That usually excludes qualified funds... Check the fine print.

I'm no expert on Robinhood, but I'll echo the comments that you can just move the money without worrying about timing. Rolling over an IRA from a past employer can be done at any time without penalty. Just be sure that you roll it over into the same type of account (i.e., Roth or Traditional).

Then invest it into some kind of equities, whether it's an ETF, target date fund, or individual stocks. If it's in a particular type of investment now, you can sometimes transfer the holdings without liquidating them into cash, and that's convenient. It kind of depends on who you're moving it from/to.

I would ask a professional. You could end up with a sizable tax liability depending on the type of IRA and how transfer is handled. Good luck.

At the old company, what is the real yearly return on that investment? How is that obtained (Annuity/Company stock/Mutual funds)? If its in the old company stock, if its in the old company stock your are betting on their profitability for your investment returns.

What do they charge you to manage that money or is it free? You CAN roll this over to a Roth ira but you will pay taxes on it in the year you do so. A tax advisor can help you through that. Remember you are required to take withdrawals from your IRA at 72 so you dont have to do that at 65

So many options sp its good to start thinking about it now, but understand that a CFP has a responsibility to his client on advice and disclosures whereas a "broker" is under a different standard

Its your money and that is power

I’m a CFP professional…ping me I’ll answer your questions if you want.

I think the “leave in period” is they’ll clawback the 3% match.

I don’t know how it works but apparently Robinhood gets some sort benefit for throughput or assets under management or something. That’s how they can “afford” the match.

No advice but I just checked my retirement countdown clock and saw 7 months and 18 days. Brought a slight smirk to my face.

Robinhood caught some shit during the GameStop thing because they wouldn’t let the mentors guys sell when it rolled over.

As far as I know they’re 0 fee and if you’re buying and holding ETFs you won’t run into any of the trading stuff. And even if you do if you’re not doing any highly volatile meme stocks I wouldn’t worry about it.

It’s 100% self directed though. You’re not getting any advice.

I think its best use could be for casual traders and for investing cash. It's got a 5% APY on cash investments. Even better savings accounts only get 4.0-4.3%. If you're just holding some funds to do some stock trading on your own, I think it's a nice little thing. Not sure that much of the rest of it is overly advantageous.

Charles Schwab just bought TdAmeritrade and the software called ThinkOrSwim

I personally love it and would recommend checking it out...been using ToS for years. A+

(if you use think or swim, it's self directed)

so you can open a schwab account and get think or swim free now)

I turned 65 and the social security office sent me a list of 3 profit sharing plans that I have money in that I’ve not done anything with in over a decade.
I had no idea. Totally forgot about them. Not chump change. $25K/$9K/$700

Only found the contact so far for the $700 one.

As others have stated,
1) You can roll 100% of a 401K to an IRA with zero penalty. I’ve done it multiple times.
2) Get competent advice from a legit investment advisor that works with investors of assets your size. This Robinhood deal sounds like bullshit to me. Most of my money is in Fidelity but managed by Goldman Sachs. Personally my wife and I both work in finance and are smart but we use a good financial advisor that has set a good plan for us. You should do the same.

NVDA back on track Rainman , up $30 but I expect a huge drop now that I post this

Currently 819.50

I used to have Scottrade and LOVED IT until TD Ameritrade bought it..Now they are getting gobbled up.

Had a bad experience with Schwab but many people love them.

Ive had both schwab and TD for a long time...


I REALLY loved think or swim (the TD ameritrade app). My main complaint with schwab was I loved Think Or swim but schwab didnt have anything even remotely close to how cool that app was...


so schwab was smart and bought TD , mainly to get that app... So now you can use that app with your schwab account as long as you are self directed.


If youre not self directed, maybe your problem was with your broker... and switching brokers might be a good idea. Some brokers are better than others or just see more eye-to-eye with what you want.


If youre bored and have the time and motivation, you should check out think or swim though, you might dig it!

The Scottrade java applet that showed real time trading was the bomb. Showed true bid and ask. Tick by tick.

I saw Think or Swim and pretty good but could never get used to it.

I went to Wells Fargo short term and then opened Robinhood.

I'm a believer in always rolling over your 401k to an IRA any time you leave an employer. It gives you more control and less expense than just leaving it sit in the 401k.

I have Charles Schwab now after I started on TD Ameritrade.

Is the think or swim free, I don't seem to see it?

I think they acquired just the customer base and assets but will make you migrate to their platform.

I believe Think or Swim has sunk, just like when TD took over Scottrade. :deevee:

That doesn’t appear to be free I don’t think?

it should be , I believe...

https://www.schwab.com/trading/thinkorswim/desktop

if you've got a self directed account , you should be able to install the desktop TOS client and log into it...

I was able to use the same user name & pw as the website

I don't have an account, but I think you should be able to follow the link, select the platform you want, log into scwab and download the software.

https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/

If you have any questions about retirement investing this forum is a great site.

It's free. I am gonna paper trade some things in there to test out some strategies.

Thank you both.

This must be a thing. WeBull is doing the same thing, but they'll bump it to 4.5% if you refer someone.

https://www.webull.com/ko-yield/1708508176523-bb98c7

I worked at the KC Board of Trade for 15 years or so, as an employee of the exchange, then as a trader. They sold out and let the Chicago BOT and the Merc have the bulk of that money - the current mayor of Chicago is chasing those fellows and all their tax revenue off to Florida. Anyway - don't overlook commodity trades - you've got to do some research but rule of thumb..if the dollar won't go as far, gold or wheat or silver-will. Head-sniffin' Joe Biden doesn't really get to mess with the price of commodities. Which is fine by me.

ETA: Time is an issue w/commodity markets - they 'run out of time' and you get the cash - or you sell your July contracts and buy December instead. It's not a 'fire and forget' market. It's exciting as hell when you're there -and right. It's pretty much designed to bilk the ignorant. But if you're interested, it's a good way to park money and make some if you park it correctly.

61 years young eh?

As a guy that hedges grain, I want no part of speculating any of that.

Yeah, it's free. I've primarily been using Schwab's Streetsmart Edge app, but have tried out Think or Swim. ToS seems much more advanced, but I haven't been a big fan of the layout. Schwab if fully shutting down Streetsmart Edge in the next month or two. So, I will have to fully convert to ToS.

If you look online, there are a few scripts that come close to detecting stocks with Minervini's VCP pattern. Not perfect, but a decent start.

Robinhood suspended trading on their site on orders from Wallstreet. I wouldn't trust them. It's really more of a trading platform anyway.

When I left a company years ago I rolled my 401K into a self-directed IRA where I now have rental properties, stocks, gold and Bitcoin. Equity Trust is the company I chose.

You most likely will not need to buy all those diverse assets. But if you ever decide to get into those, you could. Otherwise you're stuck with stocks/mutual funds only.

One really great thing about ToS is you can change many aspects of the layout. You can change menus, you can customize windows, you can add things to almost any column...


I had to spend quite a bit of time getting used to the layout and then when I started changing the things that bothered me most, I really ended up loving it.


Color Schemes:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cYCfinkrjCQ?si=n1ATBDE2pCk9nqHQ" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Charting
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hlxtb1FsQrw?si=f-IbCYkMY9D2CKUW" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Random Questions


<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ra-Ft0ri8uM?si=v6N5g5fElULLEXEy" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Thanks. I'll take a look at those videos. I have no doubt ToS is better as there are some limitations in Steetsmart Edge I've had to work around that I know ToS does not have. I'll come around to it when I have to. I've just turned into the grumpy old man who doesn't want change. i have my exact layout in Streetsmart Edge that I like and have used for a few years. Now I'll just need to take the time to eventually do the same in ToS.

Oh man I feel you!!


I _really_ loved the TdAmeritrade phone app.



So , my #1 is the ToS desktop app, but I dont really care for the ToS phone (android) app, but what I loved as my #2 was the TD Ameritrade phone app. So being able to use ToS on my desktop at the office and TDAmeritrade phone app in my bed or on the shitter was so great...



and so far, I dont think Schwab is doing to update that TD app on the phone (even though they BOUGHT the rights to it) , but I am hoping theres other grumpy old guys out there who can convince Schwab to being back the TD Ameritrade android app in the play store... LOL

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Janet Yellen gives an important update regarding crypto <a href="https://t.co/YZC0FNoKKI">pic.twitter.com/YZC0FNoKKI</a></p>&mdash; Tommy WorldPower (@TommyWorldPower) <a href="https://twitter.com/TommyWorldPower/status/1764830154780717335?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

ROFL

I forgot about profit sharing 401K’s that I had over the years. Turned 65 and the SSA sent me a snail mail telling me I have 3 accounts with these companies. Here’s their snail mail address.

$28K of free money so I send a letter asking for my money. 2 come back return to sender. 3rd says contact Voya, that’s where our other stuff is located.

Never got a notice about the account's. Is this normal?

Yep! :thumb:

hahaha that's ****ing awesome

All Y'all paid my salary for quite a while. You're in a different boat than I was in.