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45 - Want to Retire - Nervous - Have Questions! (Vanguard, Insurance, Home)
Old 05-06-2012, 11:44 AM   #1
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45 - Want to Retire - Nervous - Have Questions! (Vanguard, Insurance, Home)

Hello All...

LONG POST...SORRY!!!! (Maybe overkill for a newbie but thought it better to get it all out their.)

Reading for some time now and I will start right off by saying that I am not as versed on all the terms etc used in the retirement world. As such, back in 2007 we went with Ameriprise to help us setup for our future lifestyle as we needed someone who understood such things. I am the type of person that wants to learn these things, but, well, it does not come easy. I am more or a tech person and finance is not easy for me personally. (Example...I really would not know when no longer working, where to take money from first etc. or even how to get it out.)

So, I am not sure how all this works and how to seek advise etc from those who have been their and done that, so I think I will just dive right into our story and financial picture. And I write this with my wife's OK.

Quick Info...

My age is 45 and my wife is 37.
Married 17 years, no children.
Location, Upstate NY
At age 40 I had a mini-stoke that change my life outlook. (I want to "live" more.)
Started a on-line business back in 1999.
2005 Started with Ameriprise with $200K
Built that to $500K though 2011 by adding to it.
Sold main business in late 2011
February of 2012 $1M went into the accounts.
Expect $600K more to go in this year and next year ($1.2M total after taxes). (Note, may be able to take lump sum for $85K reduction.)

IF I PUT IN TOO MUCH INFO THAT I REALLY SHOULD NOT EXPOSE...PLEASE LET ME KNOW!

Current Holdings....Numbers are approximate...Cut and pasted the funds from the statement.

3 Business REIT's (All with very proven history.)
Total: $220K

SPS Advantage with ONE Features
Mutual Funds1
ATIAX INV SMALL COMPANIES - A INVESCO FUNDS
ATDAX INV ENDEAVOR - A INVESCO FUNDS
COLNX COL NY TAX EXEMPT - A COLUMBIA FUNDS GROUP
EVGOX EATON GOVT OBLIGATIONS - A EATON VANCE GROUP
FDBAX FED BOND - A FEDERATED FUNDS
FGFAX FED INTL LEADERS - A FEDERATED FUNDS
PZFVX J HANCOCK CLASS VALUE - A JOHN HANCOCK FUNDS
JHNYX J HANCOCK NY T/F INC - A JOHN HANCOCK FUNDS
MRGAX MFS CORE EQUITY - A MFS FAMILY OF FUNDS
OTCAX MFS MID CAP GROWTH - A MFS FAMILY OF FUNDS
OIGAX OPP INTL GROWTH - A OPPENHEIMER FUNDS
OPOCX OPP DISCOVERY - A OPPENHEIMER FUNDS
RMUNX OPP ROCHESTER MUNI - A OPPENHEIMER FUNDS
WEMAX WELLS EMG GROWTH - A WELLS FARGO ADVANTAGE

Total: $800K

Mutual Funds2
INBNX Columbia Diversified Bond Fund Class A
APIAX Columbia Multi-Advisor Intl Value Class A
AMVAX Columbia Mid Cap Value Opportunity Fund Class A
LEGBX Columbia Large Cap Growth Fund Class
NMSAX Columbia Small Cap Index Fund Class A
LEGAX Columbia Large Cap Growth Fund Class A

Total: $15K

RiverSource Life Insurance Co. of New York RiverSource Retirement Advisor Advantage Plus VA Account
MorStly UIF Md Cap Gr
Fid VIP Contrafd Cl 2
Wanger International
Wanger USA
WFADV VT OPPORTUN C2
Invesco Intl Gr Sr II
AllBern VPS Intl Val
COL VP Div Bond Cl3
COL VP Div Eq In Cl3
Goldman VIT MidCap Va
FT VIP Small Cap Valu
Opp Main St Sml & Md

Total: $290K

Strategic Portfolio Service Advantage
Mutual Funds
CFICX CAL INCOME - A CALVERT GROUP
LACAX COL ACORN - A COLUMBIA FUNDS GROUP
MAIOX COL MARSICO INTL OPPS - A COLUMBIA FUNDS GROUP INEAX COL HIGH YIELD BOND - A COLUMBIA FUNDS GROUP
AMVAX COL MID CAP VAL OPP - A COLUMBIA FUNDS GROUP
APIAX COL MULT ADV INTL VAL - A COLUMBIA FUNDS GROUP
FLSAX FID ADV LEVER CO STOCK - A FIDELITY ADVISOR FUNDS
TAGRX J HANCOCK L/CAP EQTY - A JOHN HANCOCK FUNDS
WFSAX WELLS SMALL CO GROWTH - A WELLS FARGO ADVANTAGE
SMVAX WELLS SMALL CAP VALUE - A WELLS FARGO ADVANTAGE
WEMAX WELLS EMG GROWTH - A WELLS FARGO ADVANTAGE

Total: $224K

Personal Stock Investing: $150K
(OptionsXpress)

Current Cash: $320K (Two bank accounts)

Amerprise Adviser Rate... .45% + $800 a year to re look the portfolio. (He has not made ANY changes sense 2009 in our portfolio.)

PERSONAL DATA:

Home...Owe $200K 14 years left on a 15 yr at 3.5% (Value $400K)
Motor Coach - Own (Value $190K)
Cars (2)... Own
Other Debt...None

Property Taxes: $12K a year.

ALL Overall Monthly Expenses based on current lifestyle (with taxes/health/etc): $9,000.00

Current Work Status...About $120K a year all personal income. Wife does not work. Would like to maybe just stop and live life.

Ok, yes, I have plugged into FIRECalc based on 35 years and also played around with numbers etc. That is not why I am writing as we seem to be OK. However....

The issues are these...We live in upstate NY paying a lot of $ in property taxes. To give you an idea...Home only assessed at $305K yet our taxes are $12K a year. Yes...Ouch! Also because we are in NY, my personal income tax is quite high...about 8%. Again...Ouch!

We love our home. We have been in this home for 7 years and made it everything we wanted. But the upkeep is quite high as it is large and we sit on 4 manicured acres.

Sense my mini stroke we bought a motor coach and travel quite a bit. As such, we think about the "Cost of Nothing" as it relates to the home. That is how much do you spend for insurance, health insurance, telephone even if you don’t make any calls, cable TV, electricity even if you don’t turn on the lights, heat, water, sewerage, taxes, etc. For example, even if you have no mortgage, but still owe several thousand $$$$ or so a year on property taxes, that is part of the cost of nothing.

So, we are looking at ways to save money and use what we have wisely yet still enjoy the life we live. This is where your combined community knowledge may help.

The questions we present to the community...

Moving funds to Vanguard? I checked with Vanguard and all our above accounts, except for the REIT's, can be moved to them without issue or cost. Would this be a good move to make? Our current planner really has not done much for us that we can tell. We have made NO MONEY on our portfolio really. (Not sure if that is solely market related or what.)

Are we correct in thinking that even now, with the funds with have with Ameriprise, that it is costing us $4K a year plus the fund costs? And thus when we do have the other $1.2M in, it would be $8K+ a year? If correct, could we thus save this money by going to Vanguard?

The fear here is that we have limited knowledge on where things should go and how to best make our funds work for us. (Tax wise etc.) Even getting it back out. How, from which accounts, etc. Can Vanguard help with this also? Again, the thought here is to save costs. I have NO IDEA really what all the above funds even are. I am trusting a professional.

We Travel...Thoughts on staying in NY vs moving? Seeing we currently travel quite a bit, like 4 to 7 months of the year, are we just foolish to stay in upstate NY? It is just a hard thing to leave base on what we have done with the home. We understand that moving to Florida or Texas would surely save us $, but, well, again, hard choice emotionally. Are we just being foolish with our age and not making the move? Based on our funds and age, are we forced to need to make a move?

Health Insurance? One of the biggest things we all here have in common is the cost of paying for health insurance on our own. Right now, that alone accounts for $15K a year for my wife and I. We are both healthy at this time and are looking for ways to cut back on this. The items we would like for insurance to cover would be emergency room, hospital stays, and prescriptions. We only see the doc really once a year if that. And unless it is a major thing, we can cover the smaller items of course. What are other doing in this regard? Suggestions on nationwide programs etc?

Ok, enough already with the typing. We just have concerns etc and it mostly revolves around feeling secure and saving where we can. I will also say, while I should be happy where we are etc, I have been nothing but depressed from the time I had my eye opening event. Even lost motivation to excel like I used to. As such, this also has not helped us at all though all this with the choices we are trying to make. It's been tough on my wife, that I know. She has been very supportive standing by me through my mental ups and downs. It has not been easy. We had visions of wanting to do things like a cruise in Europe and though the Panama canal and even a African Safari. But based on my fear of being stable enough for the future and maybe not working, well, I am not sure that will come true. And I so want that for her. And I being overly cautious?

All in all, thanks for reading. Thanks for listening. And thanks for any advise or guidance you may be able to provide.

Respectfully Submitted
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Old 05-06-2012, 12:57 PM   #2
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Hi Nathan72, and welcome to the Early Retirement Forum.

I'm sure some of our more knowledgeable members will be along shortly to answer some of your questions!

Personally, I love Vanguard. I have federal retiree health insurance and will soon qualify for Medicare. And, I don't like travel, but see no reason for you to rush the decision about possibly moving.
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Old 05-06-2012, 01:43 PM   #3
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Welcome!

In regards to your Ameriprise situation, I would immediately dump that advisor and make the switch. He has you in some high priced products and mutual funds designed to line his pockets and not yours. Not only would I switch the money to Vanguard but I would strategically get out of each of those funds and stick to the core-3. Total stock market index, total international stock index, and total bond market index. It really doesn't need to be much more complicated than that.

Also, depending on the rate that $360k cash is sitting at, I'd just pay off the house at 3.5% and be done with it.

I'd also by $10k in I-bonds from treasury direct in your name and $10k in your spouses name.

You can do much better by yourself. Have you heard of the site bogleheads.org? I'd check that out too and do a little self education. It would make a big difference in your peace of mind.
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Old 05-06-2012, 01:55 PM   #4
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It's tough to give up a home that you love. Unless you move into an RV park, you will have " nothing" expenses somewhere. So the true cost would be the difference between downsizing or moving and what you have now. That difference could be covered by firing your advisor and moving to Vanguard. Once you have moved your accounts, then you can reassess your living situation. What you invest in will depend on how involved you want to be in the process. There are many low cost portfolios from simple to complex that you can choose.
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Old 05-06-2012, 02:33 PM   #5
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Welcome aboard, you've done well for yourself so far, congrats.

There is no reason to be nervous - you don't have any deadlines to meet. Take the time to get comfortable with each decision, before acting! If you're uncertain, keep learning and asking until you're fully comfortable however long that takes. Investing successfully is not rocket science, there's a whole community of very successful DIY investors all around you, but you won't read about them in the media very often and they don't have ad campaigns like brokers.

I won't attempt to comment on everything in your post (it would be even longer), but a few comments:
  • The good news is there are people paying higher fees. The bad news is you're still paying way more than necessary. I am sure there are good Ameriprise reps, but there are probably many more who won't act in your best interests. My wife worked in a large Ameriprise branch near Chicago for about two years - she left mostly because she was appalled at how they systematically abused clients. The top guy at that branch was a completely unethical sleaze, though he looked and sounded like a million bucks.
  • That's simply way too many fund holdings even if your portfolio was ten times the size. Only reason I can think of for your Ameriprise rep to recommend so many holdings is to make investing look difficult so you won't try to do it yourself. The level of duplication among your holdings is unforgivable, I'd leave Ameriprise for that alone. I'd recommend Vanguard, but Fidelity and Schwab are OK too.
  • As mentioned above, you'd be well served to design your asset allocation with only three funds, Total Stock Market, Total International and Total Bond in equal amounts of any of the "lazy portfolios." From there you can tweak allocation % for your risk tolerance and/or slice the holdings further, but it's unlikely you would ever need more than a dozen funds if that. The tweaking may slightly improve your risk & returns, but not orders of magnitude, so you're not leaving a lot of money (if any) on the table with a simple lazy portfolio. Maybe start here Getting Started - Bogleheads for some background.
  • It wasn't clear to me if you have any tax deferred/sheltered accounts. If so, placement of assets comes into play. Principles of Tax-Efficient Fund Placement - Bogleheads
  • Only you can decide if the cost of living in NY is worth it to you. As you realize, there are many other places you can live with much lower cost of living. People can be happy living almost anywhere, higher COL doesn't correlate to a better life. Friends, family, climate, culture and a host of other things go into the decision too, the priorities are unique to each of us.
  • Health care is one of the biggest issues for most early retirees. Paying $15K/yr isn't put of the ordinary. You might be able to increase your deductible and lower your premiums, but your out of pocket costs may increase and offset the savings. Only way you can influence your total cost is to keep you and your family healthy. But it's still pretty expensive. There are many health care threads here you can review, but there's no silver bullet in any of them.
In addition to the link above, the whole Boglehead wiki Bogleheads is a great place to start educating yourself.

Best of luck, take your time...
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Old 05-06-2012, 02:53 PM   #6
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I agree that your advisor HAS to be doing what he is doing to make up for the relatively low charge of % of assets under management. That is, I suspect he is getting commissions by putting you into all those different funds. Way too many funds, and who knows what their expense ratios are taking out of your portfolio. I too like having a pro to maximize my tax advantages and keep my mix right, but found there a few who will do so for a much much more reasonable fee based only on the time it takes to manage. Nowadays a passive portfolio of $5 million takes no more time to manage than $2 million, but tsome of hese thieves will be happy to charge you thousands of dollars a year more anyway like more money costs more to manage.
I am not sure about advertising for any particular advisor here, though this is the place I found out about my advisor. Evanson Asset Management. There are a few others like Cardiff who also are fee based on service who concentrate on simple low cost index funds managed by Dimensional Funds Advisors which Do it yourself investors cannot buy. If you have the time and the knowledge you may be best with a few Vanguard index funds. At a cost less than half what you currently pay you could have access to DFA and a professional advisor.
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Old 05-06-2012, 03:22 PM   #7
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I can't comment without more information.
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Old 05-06-2012, 03:44 PM   #8
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Hi All...

Thanks for the comments this far and the links. We will be going thorough them and seen what we can learn for sure. We will am almost 100% sure we will be moving our funds. The unknown here is after the move to another holding company, what we may loose by switching funds. (Getting out of a lot of what he has us in and making things more simple.) I am not sure on what might happen tax wise or what have you. But seeing we have not made anything, I think it is the right time.

In regard to... ''I can't comment without more information.". I am totally at a loss. Was that meant as a joke? Sorry...new here.
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Old 05-06-2012, 03:59 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nathan72
Hi All...

Thanks for the comments this far and the links. We will be going thorough them and seen what we can learn for sure. We will am almost 100% sure we will be moving our funds. The unknown here is after the move to another holding company, what we may loose by switching funds. (Getting out of a lot of what he has us in and making things more simple.) I am not sure on what might happen tax wise or what have you. But seeing we have not made anything, I think it is the right time.

In regard to... ''I can't comment without more information.". I am totally at a loss. Was that meant as a joke? Sorry...new here.
There shouldn't be much of a tax consequence since you say you havent made anything. You may even have losses. I assume you have a CPA helping you. Your biggest tax expense will be from your sale of business. You might explore the option of a 1035 exchange into an annuity with the proceeds of the sale. Especially if you are looking at 300k in taxes. Ther is a whole lot here to consider.
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Old 05-06-2012, 04:08 PM   #10
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Originally Posted by Gatordoc50

There shouldn't be much of a tax consequence since you say you havent made anything. You may even have losses. I assume you have a CPA helping you. Your biggest tax expense will be from your sale of business. You might explore the option of a 1035 exchange into an annuity with the proceeds of the sale. Especially if you are looking at 300k in taxes. Ther is a whole lot here to consider.
It wouldn't be called a 1035 but you get the idea. Deferring the taxes on the sale.
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Old 05-06-2012, 04:26 PM   #11
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hi Nathan72 and welcome.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nathan72 View Post
In regard to... ''I can't comment without more information.". I am totally at a loss. Was that meant as a joke? Sorry...new here.
Humor is part of our nature, and it is usually with the best of intentions.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nathan72 View Post

We Travel...Thoughts on staying in NY vs moving? Seeing we currently travel quite a bit, like 4 to 7 months of the year, are we just foolish to stay in upstate NY? It is just a hard thing to leave base on what we have done with the home. We understand that moving to Florida or Texas would surely save us $, but, well, again, hard choice emotionally. Are we just being foolish with our age and not making the move? Based on our funds and age, are we forced to need to make a move?
We lived in NY and chose to move to Fl because the higher cost of living in NY was not an advantage for us. The choice to stay or move depends on the cost of staying and what you get from that. If you plan to travel a great deal, a little time spent calculating the difference in cost of living where you are vs relocating might be worthwhile.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Nathan72 View Post

Health Insurance? One of the biggest things we all here have in common is the cost of paying for health insurance on our own. Right now, that alone accounts for $15K a year for my wife and I. We are both healthy at this time and are looking for ways to cut back on this. The items we would like for insurance to cover would be emergency room, hospital stays, and prescriptions. We only see the doc really once a year if that. And unless it is a major thing, we can cover the smaller items of course. What are other doing in this regard? Suggestions on nationwide programs etc?
You may not be eligible for health care insurance elsewhere. NY State has mandatory coverage, the policies are not the best but they are guaranteed, which is not the case in most states. A health care insurance agent can help you understand policy options for alternate locations. To get the costs down you should probably look for a very high deductible, at least $5K per person. Still, your costs for health insurance going to go up from here because of your age.
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Old 05-06-2012, 05:27 PM   #12
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Gatordoc50... Yes, we have already deferred tax payments based on the rest of the sale happening over 2 years. (The payments are bank secured guarantees) As such, while we will still owe $, we only will have to pay the taxes based on the calendar year received. But the amount is the amount regardless and we were advised that we still should make the quarterly payments or they could look to impose penalties as we knew we were to receive it.

MichaelB... Seeing I typed a book, I had to guess it was a joke. But no smile face. At first I thought SPAM post but then looked at the post count and concluded joke.

In regards to..."You may not be eligible for health care insurance elsewhere. NY State has mandatory coverage, the policies are not the best but they are guaranteed, which is not the case in most states."

Are you saying that we can not just get health insurance elsewhere? That NYS says we must be able to buy healthcare but other insurance in other states may say Nope, sorry? I really have never heard of such a thing. If that's that case...WOW! So thanks for that info!
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Old 05-06-2012, 06:40 PM   #13
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..........In regard to... ''I can't comment without more information.". I am totally at a loss. Was that meant as a joke? Sorry...new here.
Yes, you omitted your shoe size.

Welcome to the ER forum.
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Old 05-06-2012, 07:44 PM   #14
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At age 40 OP had a mini-stroke. Pre-existing condition, ya think?
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Old 05-06-2012, 08:21 PM   #15
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You have got some very good advice here today. You have WAY too many funds and they look expensive. (You have 41 funds! Holy smoke!) I agree with PennStateCLJ. The three funds he suggests are all you need. That is a Scott Burns Margarita Portfolio, by the way. And you do not need an adviser.

Be aware that your adviser has softened you up. He will play on Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt to keep your money in his pocket.

I also agree that you should just pay off the house.
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Old 05-06-2012, 09:51 PM   #16
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Paying off the house, particularly if you are definitely moving, is not so straightforward. we have decided that we are likely to move in next 3 - y years. so we refinanced our remaining mortgage with a 7 year ARM at a 2.75%. I would hope we can do better than that by investing what we would have to put up to pay off the remainder...and this way we should be out of the house and the mortgage before our rate ever goes up. and we get the tax deduction in the meantime.
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Old 05-06-2012, 11:33 PM   #17
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Ameriprise strikes again.

I'm amazed that their IT department hasn't targeted this discussion board for DDOS attacks...
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Old 05-07-2012, 04:34 AM   #18
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MichaelB... Seeing I typed a book, I had to guess it was a joke. But no smile face. At first I thought SPAM post but then looked at the post count and concluded joke.
Nah, not spam. That doesn't happen until new members have at least a dozen posts under their belts...

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Originally Posted by Nathan72 View Post

Are you saying that we can not just get health insurance elsewhere? That NYS says we must be able to buy healthcare but other insurance in other states may say Nope, sorry? I really have never heard of such a thing. If that's that case...WOW! So thanks for that info!
Yes, and yes. Here's a link to the NY State Web site for health insurance programs. Here you can find policies and prices, which are state regulated. Healthy NY: Welcome to Healthy NY (Home Page - English)

Here is a link to the Kaiser Foundation website on state insurance facts, where you can find information about health insurance regulation in each state, including availability of hogh risk pool programs and what states have mandatory insure policies for individuals. Kaiser State Health Facts
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Old 05-07-2012, 08:11 AM   #19
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Hey All...

Well it surely looks like we will be making a move to Vanguard. After talking with a Vanguard support person, Nicholas, it seems however that they can not just electronically move the funds from Ameriprise to Vanguard. All the funds, except the REIT's, can be moved, but it seems Ameriprise requires it to be done via paper with signatures. So, not sure how this all will be handled.

I would LOVE for this to be done as quickly as possible due to the fact that the markets are down thus closing funds and moving into another will not cost me. (Though more than likely will take a loss.) But at least I will be in better areas after all this. Based on the leveal of funds that will be with them, I guess we can get free advise from them. But I am thinking I will just follow what others have done here and keep it simple.

We do have retirement accounts also (Like SEP's and IRA's) , so I am guessing they stay right where they are. I mean, move them to Vanguard but they stay like they are.

MY wife is researching the insurances to also see where we can cut back.

Thanks for the links to Bogleheads. We are going to go though the videos etc and start our re-education. This time in controlling and managing our own money.

I mean, we done very well in saving etc from when we were married. I just hate to think, and now kind of know, we were burnt. Heck we started off together $22K in the hole, lived in apartment, paid off all the debt in 3 years while saving for our first home and started an on-line startup. Bought our first home 2 years later and, well, never looked back as we were off and running. But fast forward and boy are we lost now. So again...THANKS for the links.
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Old 05-07-2012, 09:58 AM   #20
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I don't think you are lost in reference to finances. Many of us have made at least a few (some of us quite a few) financial missteps along the way to our goal of financial independence. Many of us could not have started a business and then been able to sell it for more than a million dollars. You have done very well and seem to have reached FI at an early age. Follow the simple investment ideas given to you here and spend the time to learn about the best way to make what you have support you for the rest of your life. Perhaps more importantly, you have worked to make a good life. Now go out an enjoy it. Keeping the house in NY does seem expensive but only you can decide whether it is worth it to you or not. It looks like you can afford it if you want. I would be looking for a place with lower taxes and nicer weather.
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