By: Revanche

Rollover Redux

March 1, 2009

Not only is WAMU still charging the stupid $25 annual fee for 2009, they’re also charging a $75 distribution fee, costing my already depleted IRA fund a total of $100 in fees. Unbelievable. At this rate, I’ll be lucky to retain half the value of my original contributions. Then again, I only had several months to contribute at that employer after I turned 21, and before I quit, so it wasn’t a huge amount of money to begin with.

I would have balked, and did mentally, but sting though it might, this is the smarter long-term choice. Paying a hundred dollars now to roll the remaining money into my current employer’s plan under Vanguard is the equivalent of 4 years’ worth of annual fees. That money better be sitting in the retirement account for much longer than 4 more years! That’s my breakeven point.

This should have been done as soon as I established my retirement plan with the current employer, but I didn’t realize that it could be incorporated into my 403(b) without tax implications. In retrospect, it’s already cost me more than a hundred dollars in fees (a $40 distribution fee was charged when I first rolled it over). This is for keeps because I’m signed up for Vanguard’s emailing service which eliminates annual fees on my accounts and I have enough money in Vanguard to just keep it there once I leave this employer.

Just another stupid tax from back when I didn’t know to look out for fees charged for moving my money around. Come to think of it, I was shocked by the $40 distribution fee back in 2004, and could have sworn that I asked about it, but cannot for the life of me remember what the answer was. The cost of naivete and inexperience.

5 Responses to “Rollover Redux”

  1. Miss M says:

    Fees can really eat at your balance. I don’t think my old 401k is charging fees, I guess I should look more closely. I need to find out how I can roll it over, I’ve just left it sitting there. At the time I had over $5000, now it’s down to half of that šŸ™ It sounds like you need to bite the bullet and move that money.

  2. I need to do this too. I need to bite the bullet and move my money out of my ex-employer’s program b/c it’s killing me at $10/month of a fee.

    wTF!

  3. Revanche says:

    Miss M: Aw, boo for halving the value of yours as well. It’d be a good idea to move yours if it tidies things up. That’s the other reason I wanted to move it. But I’m glad it’s going to make sense financially.

    FB: $10/month??? WTF indeed.

  4. Sense says:

    Oh man. fees are so awful.

    LOVE vanguard–I have them for my Traditional IRA. too bad they didn’t have a monthly buy-in program for Roth IRAs like T Rowe Price does (I couldn’t afford the $3K a pop minimum for Vanguard funds)…

    TRP fees are probably costing me a bundle since I stopped contributing (no longer eligible b/c I no longer have any US income!)! …need to go check. Hmm, I dropped that ball.

  5. Revanche says:

    Sense: I thought there was a Star Fund that you could start with a lower minimum? I can’t remember anymore. Oh rats, that reminds me that I forgot to bring my paperwork to finish up the rollover, there was one last fax I had to send or something.

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