Procedure for making a withdrawal?

[Mikegt4]

I just completed a 401k rollover from my former employer's retirement account administrator to Vanguard. Unfortunately it took nearly a month to complete due to the administrator dragging their feet. Vanguard was great, less than 36 hrs. to complete the rollover from the time I dropped the "FBO" checks in the mail !!!

Part of my rollover was directed to a MM fund in anticipation of a withdrawal before the end of the year to take advantage of a low income/sizable tax deductions offset for 2014. Needless to say I need to do this in the next few days.

Having never done this before I am not sure how to go about this (Vanguard is closed for the holiday so I can't call). I see "buy, sell , exchange" on my account balances page but I don't want to click on something that I shouldn't.

Can one of you more experienced with the process give me a quick rundown of how it works so that at least I have an idea before calling Vanguard on Friday?

Thanks

 

[golfnut]

Assume the MM account is with Vanguard. If so, hit the exchange button, enter the amount you want transferred and then direct it to the MM fund.

Hope this helps.

 

[NgineER]

If you need withdraw money from MM to your local bank savings or checkjng, you'd need to sell and have proceeds directed to your bank.


Alternatively you can write a check to yourself and deposit into your checkjng or savings if you have not yet set up electronic transfers.

 

[GrayHare]

If you want to withdraw from the MM, use the sell option.

 

[jebmke]

The key for getting the income into 2014 is to make sure that you transfer funds out of the IRA no later than December 31. This doesn't need to leave Vanguard quickly. If you have a taxable account, make the transfer (this may be an "exchange" in VG terminology) to the taxable account. If you don't have a taxable account, you can probably set one up fairly quickly online.

 

[LOL!]

If you got a checkbook of checks to go with your money market fund, then you can write a check. My bank account doesn't put a hold on such a check (I'm a good customer), so that is faster than doing an online transfer which takes a couple of days.

But you can submit a transfer now, today, and it will go through on the 26th and you will possibly have the money in checking on the 29th or 30th.

One big snag is that Vanguard often puts a hold on withdrawing money on deposited checks for awhile. They let you move around in Vanguard, but to suck the money out, they may require 10 to 14 days more.

 

[harley]

The key for getting the income into 2014 is to make sure that you transfer funds out of the IRA no later than December 31. This doesn't need to leave Vanguard quickly. If you have a taxable account, make the transfer (this may be an "exchange" in VG terminology) to the taxable account. If you don't have a taxable account, you can probably set one up fairly quickly online.

This is the one. I just did something similar today with my Roth conversion. You go to the IRA account, choose the MM fund, click exchange, specify the amount, then you will get prompted as to where to put it. I'm assuming you have an after tax VG account too, so you just choose that one, and probably move the money into the same MM fund in the after tax account. You can then transfer it to your bank of choice at your leisure.


I only do this once or twice a year, and it's an adventure each time. I find VGs terminology and procedures confusing, but you get what you pay for. Just a hint, it's fine to play around in there. They ask you for confirmation so many times it would be very difficult to accidently do the wrong thing.

 

[Mikegt4]

Thanks for the quick replies.

The money that I want to withdraw was put directly in the MM account as part of the rollover process.
I have set up for electronic transfers to my banking account.

Apparently it isn't a difficult process, I just am a bit nervess about getting it done before the end of the year. My 401K had 2 pre-tax accounts, I received a check for one account in about one week. Another week after that I got an e-mail from them to call them right away. I did and they said that they couldn't send the check (second account) to Vanguard, only to me (exactly what they did for the 1st check!!!). It took about 7 more days to get that check. Within a couple of hours I was at the Post Office mailing the checks to Vanguard (5pm), at 9am the second day my account selections at Vanguard were bought and the rollover complete. I can't say enough about the excellant staff at Vanguard. On the other hand people at the 401k admin. were probably flipping burgers a couple of months ago. That goes along with their high fees and slim investment selection.

Thanks all

 

[fritz]

If you already have your checking account set up with Vanguard for direct deposits (from what you've said in your posts) - you should be able to sell out of that rollover IRA money market account and direct deposit to your checking account in the next business day. The initial delay with setting up your bank account to accept ACH transfers from your Vanguard accounts is already done. This should be an option that pops up when going through the sell process ("deposit in checking account #000"). FYI - you can have more than one bank account set up to transfer to with them.

If tax withholding is not already done - you'd have to select how much Federal withholding to do when you set up the sale from the account (doesn't do State withholding, unless mandated by your state IIRC). You'll have plenty of opportunity to review your actions as mentioned or cancel out - they do ask you to confirm before anything is completed. When you click on submit after it asks you to review - it will give you a confirmation number to print out. You could give them a call tomorrow and they'll walk you through it if you prefer. Should be the fastest way to transact before the end of the year, and receive the money. Might take a day or two to actually show up in your bank account.