Where to send pension payments?

[stephenson]

The little things ... trying to hack my way through them ...as always, I appreciate everyone's thoughts!

I have a couple of kinds of money coming in each month/quarter ...
1. I need to tell my recently retired megacorp where to send pension annuity ... my normal "paycheck" was going to a local bank, but since we have already moved it is not local any longer ...
2. I have military pension going to Vanguard
3. I have a small VA component going to TR Price

There must have been good reasons for this ... right? Sigh ... maybe not ... Seems long ago

So, I have rollover IRAs with both Vanguard and Fidelity ... I have leftover accounts with BB&T and NFCU ...

I would like to simplify somewhat ... our circumstances are like most. We need an operating account for small check writing (although this is less and less frequent as we use credit cards and payoff each period - points!), we need to occasionally write big checks for major purchases where they don't take credit cards ... everything else is investment/savings ...

Would LOVE some recommendations or thoughts on what you may done and learned the lessons from ...

Thanks!!

 

[exnavynuke]

I'm a big fan of "simplifying" accounts such that each account has a specific purpose. If the account doesn't have a specific purpose by itself (that isn't a duplicate of another account) then I don't see any reason to keep it. If it's a duplicate of another account, I'd decide which I prefer and merge them into just one if possible.

 

[Just_Steve]

My pension and all other payments go directly into my checking account and I then put the money where I want it contingent on the budget.

 

[RobbieB]

Me too;

Merrill Lynch has all my equities.
Morgan Stanley has all my muni bonds
Fidelity has all my muni bond funds
BofA and Chase have my cash.

 

[Gotadimple]

So which account do you use to pay the credit card statements? Wouldn't you need to fund that account from one of your pensions? Do you now have a local bank?

Couldn't one of those pension payments flow into local checking? Then have your checking account linked to your Vanguard and Fidelity accounts (if those are where most of your investments live). Then any excess cash you can "push" to Fidelity/Vanguard or "pull" by Fidelity/Vanguard or push/pull back into local checking if you need the cash.

- Rita

 

[Dash man]

My pension goes to my USAA checking which is used for all bill paying. I have a second USAA checking account for my rental property. USAA is also where my three brokerage accounts are (tIRA, Roth IRA and a taxable account. CDs are with PenFed and Synchrony Bank and savings are with Ally and Synchrony. DW has a Fidelity account for her 401k. We tried to simplify, but you need to put cash where it works best for you and everything else where they don't hit you with lots of fees.

 

[H2ODude]

Investments all at FiDO and an Amex online savings account (0.9% - woohoo). Income taxes paid from there. All else....

Goes through local credit union have had since employed. Pension goes there, and monthly move my ~3.1% annual from FIDO to there. Just about all we can pay with Visa goes through the FIDO Visa which gets paid from credit union. All works pretty simple, can move money anywhere - Amex online SA, FIDO, CU, Visa payment via internet. Our system is pretty much monthly based, any left over accumulates in CU savings. Way to much there now, need to plan a big trip.

I know there's that "diversify in case _____" argument, but having all IRA's and brokerage at FIDO is just simple, like I like it (for example, Roth conversions). The only reason for the Amex on line savings is Fido has such low rates on cash, of which I have a pile now as don't see a clear positive market direction (well, have I ever?).

 

[DrRoy]

My pension and all other payments go directly into my checking account and I then put the money where I want it contingent on the budget.

+1. My 401K is at Merrill and all else at Fido.

 

[nun]

My pension and rent checks go into my checking account. That covers my living expenses. I reinvest all dividends in my investment accounts and only make withdrawals to cover large expenses like buying a car. I have another 15 years before I have to make RMDs.

 

[stephenson]

We're collapsing a variety of incomes into the bank we're been using to auto pay multiple bills ...easier right now to not change ...will operate out of there for now and see how easy or hard it is.

Thanks, as always, for all the great comments!

 

[target2019]

For in-laws we have worked to have all income and expenses go through a single checking account: Bill pay, Pension, IRA RMDs, SS, Brokerage Dividends, LTC reimbursement, etc. At tax time this is incredibly helpful.

 

[PERSonalTime]

What is FiDO?

 

[Souschef]

What is FiDO?

Fidelity

 

[mickeyd]

I have directed all income to my USAA checking account (VA, Military retire, pension, SS etc) and redistribute it as needed to my VG account, Ally savings or spend it at the end of each month's checkbook reconciliation.


Keeping it simple for 70+ years.

 

[Bamaman]

I'd have enough to cover my monthly expenses to go into one checking account.

Everything else, I'd have going into Fidelity or Vanguard. And it'd be "put to work."

Nothing worse for someone to leave this world suddenly, and all their business is straggled out at many places. The FIDO and Vanguard accounts can also have "beneficiaries and secondary beneficiaries" setup.

 

[Rambler]

We have a brokerage acct with Schwab, a checking acct with Schwab Bank from which major purchases (major means cars, property) and taxes are paid, and a checking/day to day operations acct with Chase from which all day to day purchases and monthly bills are paid. Monthly bills includes auto-pay type bills that run thru the CC (BoA).

Beyond that, I have several thousand dollars left in a largely ignored account with Wells, that I set up years ago so my folks could pay a few bills for us while we were overseas. Later that acct was used to fund the kids' college expenses. We're all done with that for several years now, but haven't bothered closing the acct. Both kids also have accts there, and we've left it that way because I can transfer funds to them quickly in an emergency, if it were ever needed. That said, we told them we were finished funding them when they were done with university, and we've kept to that. Now that I think about it, maybe it's time to close that one out.

 

[Nodak]

My pension and 401K money goes directly to my checking account. My little social security income goes to my savings account.

 

[Cobra9777]

All our accounts are at Fidelity except some cash reserves at Ally. We use a Fidelity cash management account (CMA) for all regular banking activity. Recurring income is directed there, including 2 pensions, rental income, and dividends from our taxable brokerage account. We pay for almost everything with cash-back CCs including most recurring bills. The CCs themselves are paid using the bill-pay function in the CMA.

Transferring money is ultra simple since it's all inside Fidelity. For example, my annual HSA contribution is just an online transfer from the CMA to the HSA, which is then immediately available for trading. We had a local CU account for decades but closed it after retiring. I was constantly transferring money between Fidelity and the CU with a 3-4 day delay in availability. Fidelity's CMA can do nearly everything a regular bank can do, so we decided to move our day-to-day checking/banking activity to the CMA and moved our cash reserves from CU savings to Ally.