Vanguard Shock: Too Old to Manage Accounts?

[Trooper]

Once per month, I log in and type balances into a spreadsheet which drives my asset allocation calculation. The spreadsheet is password protected and stored in the cloud. If the need arises to simplify, hopefully I will be aware enough to react in time.

 

[devans0]

We have consolidated our accounts into one fund family, making everything easily accessible. We usually look once a day, just to keep on top of our accounts. Everything is automated, with monthly transfers to pay expenses and bills. I print out and electronically archive a summary, monthly.

I usually handle the investments. I keep an investment policy statement in with our important papers, in our safe. If anything happens, we can simplify even more, to a three fund system. Both my wife and daughter have accounting degrees and can easily pick up everything from that. Our daughter has a copy of the IPS, too.

We've covered what we can.

 

[PatrickA5]

We've combined all retirement accounts at Vanguard. We're down to 4 IRA's, 1 checking and 1 529 account. I think we're as simplified as we're going to get.

Somewhat related, I've been working on accumulating all of our data into our "Get It Together" book (see at Amazon). It is basically a notebook with about 30 chapters that provide our beneficiaries with just about every piece of information they could possibly need from last wishes to web links and passwords for my frequent flyer miles. It is a HUGE undertaking, but once I'm done it will be fairly simple to make any changes quarterly or annually. I include my Vanguard latest quarterly statements in the book. Hopefully, I won't forget to tell my kids about the book.

 

[Mulligan]

My Dad is starting to slip and knew it. So he put all his Scottrade (TD now) accounts last month on lockdown where he cant trade anymore. He can just look at it. They now manage his money for a specific fee. Allocation was in funds and appropriately conservative.

 

[Sunset]

Yep - this is the third time you've posted it here...

Most Excellent..... I didn't want to tell him.

 

[almost there]

I started using "Personal Capital" about 2 years ago. Great free tool.
Everything on one page. Real time. Easy to see everything in seconds.
All accounts (dozens) Banking, CD's, Brokerage accounts, VISA, Checking, Savings, ETC. Plus it tracks spending, income. Best thing I ever signed up for.
Gave my sign on info to my son. In an event, he will be able to see everything in one place.
https://www.personalcapital.com/
Just my 2.

 

[donheff]

I am only 69+1/2, but I try to log in several times a week to reconcile what I *think* is in there, with what is really in there. Vanguard urges us to log in frequently for fraud prevention so that is partly why I do that. Whenever I log in, I record the balances of each fund in my Excel file so I don't have to rely upon my memory for that.

Even now, I have noticed that I don't always log in every single day as I once did. But honestly, I can't imagine not logging in when my monthly dividends are due, just to see how much they were! . And also I log in often "just because". (EDITED to add: because of this thread, I just logged in and yes, the amounts were the same as I had figured, to the dollar, for every account).

Same age, roughly the same approach. I keep a Google SHeet with all our holdings that updates prices daily with a GoogleFinance function call. I don't have it, Quicken, or any other third party log into my actual accounts because I am paranoid. So I periodically log into the accounts and update my spreadsheet to account for changes due to distributions. I would immediately see a difference. I did once get a surprise when an account was off because I had postponed updating the account after a withdrawal and then forgot about it. Definitely cause a flutter in the stomach.

I too worry about flaking out at some point like Al does. I hope I have enough sense to get my kids involved as that approaches.

 

[pb4uski]

Nothing I have is online, it's all on paper. I keep the statements in a 3 ring binder. Every month I...

And even if I forget a month, a new statement arrives next month -

Dad? Is that you?

Jeesh Robbie, my Dad kept his monthly statements on paper in a 3-ring binder. (He would be 88 today).

 

[pb4uski]

Fortunately, I am still relatively young, and I have a mind like a steel whatchamacallit. ....

We always got a giggle out of my grandmother who would proudly proclaim that she had a mind like a steel sieve.

 

[street]

I would not have anything against an annuity after say, age 75 or so, to simplify things. Or whenever I reach that point where I feel myself slowing down.

Other techniques to simplify could be: Everything in ONE big fund. Not much to keep track of. One of those "asset allocation funds" or whatever your fund family calls them. 40% stocks, 40% bonds, 20% cash etc etc

As mentioned in another thread, 20% in the market and the rest in money markets or short / intermediate term bond funds. Two funds to watch and the totals will barely change anyway in good times or bad so there's not much to keep track of.

The events mentioned in the OP don't happen all at once. You sort of "get the message" over a period of some time and realize you need to tend to things.

As it says in Desiderata: Surrender gracefully the things of youth.

I'm just not sure if the emphasis should be on "surrender" or "gracefully"?

It has been something I think about often and I'm only 60. I do like the way you think on this subject.

 

[Alan]

It is something that concerns me and for years have been simplifying our finances since our very good friends had the awful situation where the husband dropped dead in the kitchen at age 60 and he was the one that handled all their finances which were quite complicated. A few months ago my wife’s BIL was diagnosed with 4th stage pancreatic cancer just before his 66th birthday so he is now training my wife’s sister on how to handle the finances.

I had got us down to us each owning 1 IRA and 1 Roth, and having all our after tax investments in my wife’s name only and invested in a single ETF. All this is at Vanguard and we each have agent authorization over each other’s accounts. Within 5 or 6 years our IRAs will have all been converted into our Roth’s. We also have a bank account in the UK and the USA, with HSBC and linked together.

However I still have 2 US private pensions and 2 UK pensions plus in a few years we will both be receiving US and UK SS.

Periodically I get my wife to sit down and do some of the finances with me such as transferring dividend income from her Vanguard account to our HSBC US account then on into our UK account. Every January we sit down together while I update the “What to do when I’m gone” instructions which I keep with our wills.

Taxes however are another issue so this year for the first time I’m employing a tax advisor to do our returns. We have 4 returns to complete these days, US Federal now with Foreign tax credits since we live in the UK, a Louisiana State return, and 2 UK tax returns (each person is taxed as an individual and we each have foreign pensions and/or investment income so are among the 10% of UK taxpayers who have to file each year).

 

[Throwdownmyaceinthehole]

Every Friday morning DH does the Friday Report on balances. Every month I do the State of the Union on expenses. I am a bit more concerned that we have most of our assets with just one firm, Vanguard. My faith in cybersecurity is dwindling fast, and one intrusion could wipe us out. That's my fear, but I haven't talked DH into spreading it out because he worries about not having it all in one place to make it easier to check.

 

[Dog]

Our assets are spread between Vanguard, TSP and NFCU (CDs and MM). I also have $ in a 401k. I check these accounts at least weekly and update a spreadsheet every other month and update DH of our net worth.
DH is currently assisting his aging parents that won’t budge (or purge items) from their aging home even though they both have health issues. His Dad refuses to discuss anything. Thankfully my parents were thoughtful and handling their affairs went relatively smoothly.
I too worry about recognizing the signs for slippage. I tried to talk to our one and only DD recently about where, what and when for our aging and finances. She burst into tears and said she didn’t want to think about it (she is 34). I’ve got everything documented for her, but will be checking into the book mentioned, “Get It Together”.

 

[MBAustin]

I'm going to make 2018 my simplification year - we still have funds in multiple places and I think I'll consolidate most into Vanguard (rollovers for the IRAs and transfer into the Brokerage feature for the rest). Although I do most of the actual financial transactions, DH does do the monthly spreadsheet update so I know he knows what we have where. But simplifying will still be a good thing.

 

[Spock]

I'm going through this now with my Dad's finances. He gets 2 inches of scam mail EVERY DAY and responds to all of it. I could go into tons of examples, but this isn't the place for it.
He has a trust drawn up that allows for transfer of control to me
BUT!!!! I have to get his primary care Dr. to sign a statement that Dad is incompetent.
The Dr. spontaneously gave Dad an assessment based on the Drs own observations without me even asking him to... almost there, right??
NOPE! The assessment is computational... "count backward from 100 by 7" etc.
Nothing in the assessment to cover "judgement" or being able to discern scams.

Bottom line: If you're going to trust your "executor/trustee" to handle your affairs when you are unable to, either trust that person enough to determine when its time to take over or name a different trustee.

 

[RobbieB]

Dad? Is that you?

Jeesh Robbie, my Dad kept his monthly statements on paper in a 3-ring binder. (He would be 88 today).

Hehe, yup that's where I learned this system. My Pops was scared to death of computers and never bought or used one. His statements came in the mail. This made it easy for me to know where everything was when I moved him in with me after he got sick and easy to process it all after he died.

Hey Pops, what's that password for Fidelity...

So now when I have a problem it will be easy for someone to just open the binder and look.

 

[limeyx]

I take screenshots and make notes of various accounts, and download the statements as I've finally figured out DW is right that we should save the statements.

I had sort of a similar thing, looked at my account and saw it was 1/2 of what I expected, and wondered a bit why, then looked at my notes and realized I had transferred a bunch to a different brokerage (Duh!!).

But it's hard to keep track of multiple things without notes.

Yeah I've been downloading statements monthly also...

I wish there was some automatic way to download them into my Google Drive but then I guess in theory the company would be able to meddle with my files in the drive if I was really paranoid ...

 

[splitwdw]

Although there was a time when I checked my Vanguard accounts almost daily, I now rarely even look at things such as performance, balances, etc.

Yesterday, I noticed the balance on our Vanguard accounts, and it was only two thirds of what I remembered. I puzzled over it—not yet panicking. I looked at a graph of our balance over time, and there were no sudden changes. There was the dip in 2008. Everything was consistent.

Finally, by looking at my annual rebalancing notes, I figured it out: For some reason, Vanguard had just stopped including DW's IRA balances on my page (without notifying me). I fixed that, and everything makes sense again.

But here's the thing: At one point while puzzling this out, I convinced myself that I'd just mis-remembered the higher balance. That is, I didn't trust my memory. If I hadn't had my local notes, would I have figured it out?

It made me think about a time when I might become too confused to manage my own accounts.

I have my Fidelity account setup for all electronic alerts and notifications. Don't know about Vanguard but Fidelity sends "notifications" to my account through their message center. Those notifications on Fidelity only show on my account for 60-90 days. Maybe you did receive notification but since you aren't checking your account they are deleted after a certain amount of time. You should be checking your account more than once a year or turn it over to someone that will. Maybe this is the reason to stop fishing so much, lol.

 

[foxfirev5]

Hehe, yup that's where I learned this system. My Pops was scared to death of computers and never bought or used one. His statements came in the mail. This made it easy for me to know where everything was when I moved him in with me after he got sick and easy to process it all after he died.

Hey Pops, what's that password for Fidelity...

So now when I have a problem it will be easy for someone to just open the binder and look.

Actually a good backup system. DM has all of her info in detailed paper file which is very easy to follow. Likewise I have told the kids about the black book to solve my overall financial picture. Its much easier to get a clear picture vs assembling a puzzle of even a few online accounts.

 

[TromboneAl]

Yep - this is the third time you've posted it here...

The only reason I know you're joking is that before posting, I did a search for some of the words I might have used, and didn't find anything.

 

[Elbata]

Here's a related story:

An old school friend and I got together to watch the total eclipse.

We were talking about our memories, and I explained that I use my older sister and mother as benchmarks.

That is, I have a feeling for how my sister's memory is (ten years older—74) and how my mother's memory was before she died (age 92. She'd read a book and you could give her the same book, and she'd happily read it again, not remembering that she already read it).

IOW, I felt that as long as I was above that glide path, I wouldn't worry.

Then I stopped, and asked my friend, "Did I tell you that before?"

He said, "Yeah. Twice!"

That's funny. I just hope I haven't told some of my same stories too many times here.

 

[retired1]

Good points... and valid concerns. I keep an Excel spreadsheet with "approx" balances at each brokerage/bank. It gives a good snapshot of my net worth as well as a reminder where I've the accounts. Now if I forget where I keep that Excel....

 

[sengsational]

I'd like to do that, but the closest I can come is six accounts!

My IRA account
My Roth IRA account
Our taxable account
Lena's IRA account
Lena's Roth IRA account
My HSA account

I've considered changing them all to the same asset allocation account, but that wouldn't simplify things a lot.

Once per month, I log in and type balances into a spreadsheet which drives my asset allocation calculation. The spreadsheet is password protected and stored in the cloud. If the need arises to simplify, hopefully I will be aware enough to react in time.

Yeah I've been downloading statements monthly also...

I wish there was some automatic way to download them into my Google Drive but then I guess in theory the company would be able to meddle with my files in the drive if I was really paranoid ...

I have a consolidtion spreadsheet that's completely automated. I open the browser and log into LastPass. Then I run a macro that grabs a snapshot from all of the various institutions. Sounds better than it is, though, because small changes in the web sites break the macro.

But the good news is that maintaining the macro is a lot harder than monitoring the finances, so that's my canary in the coal mine.