Tell him to give me a call on the 15th.
Phew, I just got my 401(k) rollover checks in the mail. Now I can stop worrying that they’d be lost or stolen.
But I can’t drive to a Schwab branch to deposit them until this Tuesday. It’s too late today to drive to one, and they’re all closed for the weekend, and they’re all closed on Monday for Juneteenth. So Tuesday it is. But I’m still ticked that I missed out on a month’s interest that I would have gotten had that money been stashed in a money market fund like I had planned.
I’ve been retired for over a month now. I’m getting used to every day feeling like the weekend.
My sleep pattern has been weird for awhile so being retired has been a blessing for that - if I wake up at stupid o’clock and can’t get back to sleep for 3 hours, it doesn’t matter since I (usually) don’t need to be anywhere early. I’ve blocked out 11 pm to 9 am for sleep and somewhere in that time frame I usually manage to get 7-8 hours.
Rollover checks deposited in their respective IRA accounts. Phew. Now I’m enjoying drinking a leisurely milk tea and not being in an office on a Tuesday.
Hurray! I swear, it seems like the first month of retirement is more stressful than work ever was, but once you’ve hacked your way through the red tape, it’s such a great feeling not to have anyone but yourself to answer to.
When I looked up the hours of this Schwab branch, I saw a yelp review of that branch, and it got low ratings. There was a whole lot of complaining that they were rude, incompetent, understaffed, etc. That made me worry that I was entrusting the wrong institution with my retirement funds.
Then I thought to look at a review of Fidelity, which I know a lot of people here love. Fidelity also got a lot of thumbs down for being rude, incompetent, understaffed, etc. That made me feel better. I guess a lot of people only post to yelp when they’re sore about something.
ETA: while typing this, I was also simultaneously on chat with Schwab. I remembered that Schwab reimburses you the transfer fee that your 401(k) place charges you when you rollover. In five minutes flat, Schwab reimbursed me $200. Each account dinged me for $100 when they transferred out the money. So thumbs up for Schwab on that.
Just know that Fidelity Investments, which I (and others on the Dope) like as an investment firm, is different from Fidelity Bank. Fidelity Investments does maintain a number of ‘Investor Centers’, which may have been the subject of the reviews you saw. I myself have never been to one of these locations, as I deal exclusively online with Fidelity Investments.
Also, a Google search reveals that there are a number of different banks with the word ‘Fidelity’ somewhere in their name. I found different Fidelity banks headquartered in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Kansas.
I would be interested in the review of Fidelity that you referenced. Can you post a link? Thanks.
Thanks. Those reviews were indeed of the Investor Centers of Fidelity Investments.
Guess I’ll stick to online and phone support!
Congrats on the successful transfer.
Milk tea! I gotta say Teela, that you REALLY know how to party. I’d have gone for good champagne or at least grocery store prosecco. Shows what little I know. 
It’s because it’s something you’ve not done before instead of routine. If you can remember your first day of school, any of the three levels, I’d bet it’s a similar feeling.
Good milk tea is a great morning drink, depending on the tea, of course. Far better than prosecco, IMO. But hey, maybe a mimosa…
Heh. I don’t drink alcohol, and I really love a good Assam milk tea with boba in it. The Schwab branch was a bit distant from where I live, and in a district with many good restaurants, coffee and tea joints. It was a perfect time and place to celebrate with a superior milk tea.
Well, on to the next steps in retirement: Mr. brown must do his rollover, and then we have to set up our portfolios to produce income.
Mr. brown has a buttload of stock from his last employer, and we were going to liquidate it and include it in his portfolio, but it continues to appreciate in value and pay pretty good dividends besides. It’s against all conventional, conservative investing wisdom, but I think we’re going to let it ride. If it does as well as most brokerages predict, it might soon be worth more than his 401(k).
So, so true.
Longer than a month for me, I’m afraid. 3 months in and I’m still juggling and praying.
I have one last investment account - a 403b - that is requiring a snail mail transfer. I emailed a 10-page form to them, now I have to wait for them to mail a paper check to Fidelity and put it in my account. We’re talking 70k. C’mon, USPS, do that thing you do!
mmm
I was at a show last night and ran into two long time former colleagues. One retired a year after me and one has two weeks to go. It would be difficult to find three happier people.
Hey, it just occurred to me. We’re transferring big blocks of money from representing our life’s savings from institution to institution. Won’t this trigger the interest of IRS auditors? I understand that transfers over $10,000 catch their attention. All this year we’ve been moving around large sums of money as we do rollovers and other financial re-arranging in preparation for retirement.
Nope! The IRS is accustomed to these kinds of transfers - money launderers and drug traffickers usually stay away from 401k’s (because of all the red tape, probably). If I’m recalling correctly, there are a few lines on the tax forms that you’ll fill out with HUGE numbers, and they cancel each other out, taxwise.
Yep. The 10,000 is cash deposits (or withdrawals).
Transfers such as you are doing are routine.
Maybe if you were transferring money to an overseas bank, that might get someone’s attention?
Cross-posting from the 'Raffe.
Today it was Mr. brown’s turn to start his rollover. Our experiences couldn’t have been more different. He worked for a gigantic, well-regarded employer, and their 401(k) people were reachable, fast, and efficient. He was able to do it all by phone, and his rollover checks will be directly mailed to Schwab, FBO Mr. brown. All my issues were caused by the crummy 401(k) company that my 100-person company employed.
So in about a week or so all of our nest egg will be in one place and then we can start thinking about a portfolio that provides income. Maybe. With money market funds paying about 5% and being very stable we’re kind of already there. (Checking) Good gosh, now CDs are paying north of 5%. It feels like the early 2000s again.
I turn 59 in August, and am planning to time my retirement to coincide with Medicare eligibility at 65. So that means six more years at the grind. I am really looking forward to retirement. My wife and I kind of got a weird preview of what it’s like to spend every day all day together and found we got along with each other quite well. I’ve heard that there’s a statistical bump in divorce rates among married couples who have recently retired and find themselves spending long periods of time together after decades of seeing one another around work schedules.