Steel_Magnolia's Account Talk

Gosh :embarrest: I didn't see your post - about not being able to travel ....


When I came on -- I came straight here to say everything ... :o ... then back to work .... and now saw your post.

I hope a 'regional' works out for you.


OK - I'll leave you alone -- Now it's time to spread my 'child wings' and fly all over the place and just keep going until I can't fly anymore.


Goodnight all
 
SB that girl is gettin' big and a real cutie, you can see it all over Grampa's face.:D
 
Back to the home purchase.

Spent four hours with a building contractor yesterday getting a home inspection. The guy was very thorough and gave us a computer report in a 3-ring binder at the end of the inspection. He found several items of deferred maintenance. Not a surprise because the home is bank-owned. But he didn't find any fatal flaws. So the home purchase continues. Yay!

He says the house is built with steel trusses and studs, which is something we didn't know. He confirmed that the home meets all codes for disability access. And it's wired with CAT-5. I don't know what that is but my computer geek son thought that was pretty cool.

Now we will purchase a home warranty at closing and the seller with give us title insurance, so I think that takes care of our due diligence. Anything we've forgotten??
 
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And, something I learned in this process, for you to remember when/if you pull all funds from your TSP account. Long and his cohorts got me one last time.

The conventional wisdom posted on the TSP federal site is for you to put your funds into G so that they will be protected against a downturn. So that's what I did. I should have remembered that advice was from the FRTIB and treated it accordingly. If I had to do it over again I would NOT move my funds to G.

I've completed the paperwork but my account hasn't closed yet. If I had just stuck to my current allocation, the one I studied and chose very carefully after looking at hours of financial information, I would be $4,000 ahead. So far. Without today's gains. <grinding teeth>

For what it's worth,
Ann
TSP account is still not closed so I made an IFT today to get back in 20%, 10% each in C and S.
 
My IFT from 100% G to 80G, 10C, 10S never went through because my TSP account was emptied last night. So it took nine business days from the day I overnighted my request until the FRTIB closed my account.

Now do you think the money will be direct deposited tomorrow, or do you think they will hold my dough for a day or two to help with those overwhelming administrative expenses? <she says with eyes rolling>
 
My IFT from 100% G to 80G, 10C, 10S never went through because my TSP account was emptied last night. So it took nine business days from the day I overnighted my request until the FRTIB closed my account.

Now do you think the money will be direct deposited tomorrow, or do you think they will hold my dough for a day or two to help with those overwhelming administrative expenses? <she says with eyes rolling>

Don't keep us in suspense too long. :D
 
So my TSP account money was in my bank account when I checked this morning. I'm actually impressed. Ten business days from request to having my money.

That means I get to close on the house early. Woohoo!

And thanks for your visit, Nasa, have a cookie. <grin>
 
closing-always an exciting time-the 2x I've done it, that is. :rolleyes:

May your closing go smoothly, no surprises. :cool:
 
So my TSP account money was in my bank account when I checked this morning. I'm actually impressed. Ten business days from request to having my money.

That means I get to close on the house early. Woohoo!

And thanks for your visit, Nasa, have a cookie. <grin>
Thanks Maggie, Chocolate chip is my favorite.
 
Back to the home purchase.

So the home purchase continues. Yay!

Lady,
It's only because of you I even knew about hydrotherapy. I am hoping to move across the country and start LIFE all over. In every way I could possibly describe it is a change that is filled with Hope and Promise.

Anyway, we've been talking about different ways to make our home every thing we could want over the years and most involve various pieces of furniture (I'll design and make) that we will use in various ways.

The TOP Item is having a hydrotherapy tub -- which of course I would modify to enhance it. If there is room for that in your home it would be great for you to have.
 
I finally have a moment and wanted to bring you up to speed with what I'm doing.

First of all, I decided not to buy the big house with the beautiful rock work. We got right up to the last day I could change my mind, and I started thinking about what would happen if all the due diligence I did on renting this house to make my mortgage payment was ever wrong. Although we wouldn't have had a mortgage on the new house, we would have had to rent this house out to be able to pay the mortgage on it. And I decided that I wasn't prepared to renege on my mortgage loan if I couldn't rent this house. It didn't fit with the way I view my integrity. So we didn't buy the house.

Second, we already had our TSP funds cashed out by the time we decided not to buy the house. So I've been in a flurry of studies to decide what to do with the money. And I've decided that we will use Spouse's small TSP funds to do some various odds and ends. But I'm going to put my fairly large TSP $ back into an IRA fund with a broker. I have 60 days from date of withdrawal to get it done without penalty. I'm looking forward to being able to trade at will and have a few trading tools like stops and limit orders to work with.

So, third, I'm looking at various brokers. I already have a Scottrade account that has good tools and great customer service. But $7 a trade can add up fast. I had an account with ETrade that I closed because it was too expensive and I didn't use the bells and whistles. I had an account with Zecco once that felt clunky and slow to me.

Does anyone here have any experience with OptionsHouse or TradeKing?

TIA for any opinions you would care to share. And while you're here, have a cookie! <grin>
Ann
 
If you deposit $25K with Bank of America on the banking side - CDs, savings account or checking account - you would receive 30 free trades/month via Merrill Edge online investing. Otherwise you'll pay $5 per trade. I'm sure they have traditional IRA and Roth IRA accounts. I'm not sure how deep there margin account reservoir is but I'm probing it now.
 
If you deposit $25K with Bank of America on the banking side - CDs, savings account or checking account - you would receive 30 free trades/month via Merrill Edge online investing. Otherwise you'll pay $5 per trade. I'm sure they have traditional IRA and Roth IRA accounts. I'm not sure how deep there margin account reservoir is but I'm probing it now.
Thanks, my friend. Yes, I saw that and that WellsTrade has a similar offer. I'm trying to find someone who knows if OptionsHouse and TradeKing are even worth looking at. They have great pricing but others who are inexpensive really skimp on the software or the service.

Trying to make the right move with this kind of money is a tough decision. Thanks again for your input! Anyone else out there??
 
Popping in to dust and rearrange the furniture. That seems appropriate since I just rearranged my retirement funds. As some of you know, I cashed out my TSP account and it is now in a Traditional IRA.

The broker I finally decided on is Trade King. They have $5 trades, award winning service and a good trading platform. Before I deposited my funds I checked out their trading platform and the software at OptionsHouse. I really liked the fact that you could open a paper account at OptionsHouse and practice before you started using actual funds. But their trading platform was difficult for me to use for some reason. I guess I don't think the same way it did. Trade King's trading platform, however, was very intuitive for me. The only thing I'm not super impressed with is their research tools. I still have an account with Scottrade and I seem to still do most of my research there.

I have deployed about 3/4 of my funds. I've purchased some old-school stocks that have a good history of dividends. And I've purchased a significant amount of IWM and TNA, which are the analogs to the S Fund. I am watching the C Fund and I Fund analogs closely and will place limit orders to purchase them shortly.

I don't think it is the time to purchase any F Fund analogs and, sadly, the only analog to the G Fund in the Traditional IRA world is cash.

FWIW, and before you go help yourself to an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie!
 
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