By Peter Anderson1 Comment – The content of this website often contains affiliate links and I may be compensated if you buy through those links (at no cost to you!). Learn more about how we make money. Last edited December 17, 2012.
I‘ve been looking more seriously lately for places to invest my money as we complete our large emergency fund and will start really delving more into the investing arena. When you look at the options available out there when it comes to investing and stock trading, there really area a lot of decent online discount brokerages. When it comes to choosing the right one, however, there are quite a few things we’ll be considering, not least among them, the fees, minimums and costs associated with having an account. If trades are too expensive, it will take a bite out of your returns.
TradeKing, one of the first discount brokers that I’ve looked at has $4.95 trades, which is definitely one of the lowest in terms of cost when it comes to the discount brokerages. Add to that the fact that they consistently get good customer service reviews, and have a good set of online research tools to use, and they’re near the top of my list.
TradeKing Background
A relative newcomer to the brokerage business, TradeKing was launched launched in 2005, and has since become one of the top online discount brokers. From Wikipedia:
Launched in December 2005, TradeKing offers online brokerage services for active stock and option traders. The firm was an early user of social networking for investors and traders, offering free blog support and other Web 2.0-based tools to registered members and account holders since the firm’s inception. In March 2007, the firm opened a second office in Charlotte, North Carolina.
TradeKing is member of SIPC, which means your investments are protected by SIPC insurance up to $500,000 and $100,000 of it can be in cash. This means that you are protected against the company going into insolvency. You are not protected against market losses.
Awards
TradeKing has earned quite a few awards over the years and has been recognized as one of the top online brokers. Among the awards:
Smart Money rated TradeKing #1 in customer service in 2010-2012
Barron’s ranked TradeKing #1 for site usability in their 2011-2012 annual review of online stock and option brokers.
Consumer Reports ranked TradeKing third out of 19 brokerages reviewed in an independent survey conducted in May 2007.
TradeKing earned four stars in Barron’s three-years running (2007, 2008, 2009) in Barron’s Annual Survey of Best Browser-Based Online Brokers.
TradeKing Fees, Commissions And Minimums
Probably one of the most important things to consider when opening an online brokerage account is to consider what fees, commissions and minimums you’ll see when using an account.
Stock Trades
TradeKing has one of the lowest rates for stock trades in the industry with $4.95 stock trades. That rate is regardless of how many shares are purchased or if it is a broker assisted trade. Compare that to some of their competitors, like ShareBuilder or OptionsXpress at $9.95 a trade, and you’re getting a pretty decent deal.
Options Trades
For option trades, they charge $4.95 per trade, plus 65 cents per contract. Compare that to some of their competitors as in the graphic below and you can do quite a bit better using them, depending on how much activity you expect to have. Trade more than 8 contracts and they’ll automatically lower the price to $8.95, plus 15 cents per contract. There’s only one base charge for multi-leg option-only trades.
Fees And Minimums For An Account
TradeKing doesn’t have account maintenance fees, monthly minimums, inactivity fees or additional charges for broker assisted trades. To see a full schedule of their fees, head on over to their site.
There is also no minimum account funding level to open a cash account and a $2,000 minimum to open a margin account. Here’s a comparison to some other popular brokerages:
TradeKing Tools
TradeKing has a variety of trading tools you can use including MarketGrader’s research reports, free technical analysis tools, interactive charts, tax reporting tools, probability calculators, profit and loss calculators, options calculators, options strategy scanner, stock screener and more! According to TradeKing their full suite of tools are a big reason Barrons’ gave them 4-stars (tops among web-based brokers) in their 2008 survey. In any event, they do have a ton of tools available for everyone to use – you’ll have no shortage of research, tools and calculators to aid you in making the most informed decisions possible.
TradeKing Community
Another one of the selling points of TradeKing is their well run blog and forums where you can chat with other traders, get advice, tips and tricks and learn from your fellow investors. There is also a section for groups where you can join other beginning investors, options traders, or those who like to specialize in different types of investments including value stocks, penny stocks, ETF’s, hedge funds, dividend stocks, and various segments of the market such as automotive, biotech, or individual companies.
Conclusion
When considering an online discount brokerage TradeKing is definitely one of the best best and most affordable options out there. They’ve got low fees, reasonable commissions and their slate of tools to help you make the right decisions are second to none. They’ve also been awarded for their customer service and for their general usability. When you consider all of these things together they are definitely at the top of my list and I have no qualms in recommending them.
Have you used TradeKing? What has your experience been like? Are you happy with them? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.
Open An Account With TradeKing Or Get Details. Click Here.
By Peter Anderson2 Comments – The content of this website often contains affiliate links and I may be compensated if you buy through those links (at no cost to you!). Learn more about how we make money. Last edited August 1, 2011.
When it comes to finding an online brokerage there is no shortage of options. One that we haven’t done a proper review of yet is actually one that has gotten quite a bit of buzz as one of the top brokerages out there, optionsXpress.
When looking at a brokerage there are a lot of things to consider. Chief among the things to consider are the costs associated with having an account. If trades are too expensive, your returns are taking a hit right out of the gate. optionsXpress is consistently among the most affordable, and in addition they’re consistently getting good reviews, and adding to their offering of trading tools and educational resources.
optionsXpress Background
From Wikipedia, here is a quick look at optionsXpress and their history since their founding in 2000:
optionsXpress Holdings, Inc. is a retail, online brokerage firm, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, that provides brokerage services for options, stocks, futures, mutual funds, and fixed-income investments in the United States and internationally. Its browser-based technology provides trading tools, enabling investors to identify, analyze, and execute a range of investment strategies.
Virtual Trade, optionsXpress’ virtual trading platform, gives customers the ability to test trading strategies and ideas under real market conditions, without putting real money on the line.
The Charles Schwab Corporation and optionsXpress Holdings, Inc. announced on March 21, 2011 that Schwab will acquire optionsXpress.
Awards
optionsXpress has received recognition in the industry as one of the top online brokers. Among their most recent awards:
2011 — Barron’s rated optionsXpress 4 stars – based on Usability, Trade Experience, Trading Technology, Range of Offerings, Research Amenities, Portfolio Analysis & Report, Customer Service & Access, and Costs – making it ten years in a row that the company is recognized for its excellence in the online brokerage industry
2011 – Kiplinger’s Personal Finance – 5 Stars for Costs and a “Mecca for Options Buffs”
“2010 Broker of the Year” by The Options Insider, based on tools/platform quality, quantity/quality of education, execution quality, commissions, and order routing
2010 — Barron’s rated optionsXpress 4 stars
2009 — Rated 5 stars (highest) for Trading Tools by Smart Money
As you can see they’ve had quite the good run of positive press, so that’s a good sign.
optionsXpress Fees, Commissions And Minimums
Probably one of the most important things to consider when opening an online brokerage account is to consider what fees, commissions and minimums you’ll see when using an account. Here are what you’ll see at optionsXpress.
Stocks: $9.95/trade ($0.01/share over 1,000)
Options: $14.95 for up to 10 Contracts, $1.50 per contract there. Active traders $12.95 up to 10 contracts, $1.25 thereafter.
Futures: As low as $2.99/contract
ETFs: $9.95/trade
Mutual Funds: $9.95/trade
Bonds: $9.95/trade
They’re not the cheapest brokerage out there, but their costs are still reasonable and in line with the other discount online brokerages.
Fees And Minimums For An Account
optionsXpress doesn’t require a minimum balance and doesn’t charge fees for periods of inactivity, volume or quantity of activity, or standard withdrawals or deposits.
optionsXpress Tools
optionsXpress has a nice offering of close to 30 online trading and educational tools that you can use, which sets them apart as a technology and education leader among the online discount brokers. Among the features you’ll find, via their site:
The Dragon: The Dragon help you “slay” the market! Scan for stocks and options that match your chosen criteria—from stock activity to P/E plays to percentage change. The Dragon ranks the top 50 results from your search with convenient links to pre-populated order forms, options chains and charts.
Market Calendars: Get a better handle on your investing days, weeks and months. Find out when earnings reports, futures and option expirations, dividend announcements and IPOs are coming with our wide range of handy market calendars.
Trading Patterns: Can you keep up with the Dow by keeping up with the Joneses? Find out by entering a security symbol into Trading Patterns to help find what other anonymous like-minded investors are trading. Who knows? Your next great investing idea might come from someone just like you.
Virtual Trade: Get your feet wet before you take the plunge. Our Virtual Trade feature allows you to utilize real-feel optionsXpress account screens, tools and resources to gain trading experience and test strategies without putting any money on the line.
Exchange Traded Funds Center: ETF traders can find everything they need—all in one place—in our Exchange Traded Funds Center. It’s a modified version of our Quote Detail feature, enhanced with ETF-specific tools and information for researching this growing marketplace.
Customer Service
optionsXpress also has a good customer service reputation, and they’ve got several ways you can contact them if you ever have questions or need help.
Phone.Phone support is available M–F, 9AM–10PM EDT at 888.280.8020. Trader support is available M–F, 9AM–5.30PM EDT 888.280.6505
Live Chat. Live Chat is available M–F, 8AM–10PM EDT | Sa, 10AM–2PM EDT.
Email. You will receive a response by the end of the next business day.
As you can see they’re open beyond normal trading hours, which isn’t the case for all brokers.
Conclusion
When considering an online discount brokerage optionsXpress has reasonable fees and a set of tools and educational resources that are second to none. They’ve also been awarded by Barron’s, Kiplingers and Options Insiders as a top notch brokerage. When you consider all of these things together optionsXpress should definitely be near the top of your list.
Have you used optionsXpress? What has your experience been like? Are you happy with them? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.
Open An Account With optionsXpress And Get A $100 Bonus!
Check out our comprehensive listing of discount brokerages and mutual fund companies
When it comes to picking the best brokerage account for your needs, the type of trader you are is crucial in your decision. Capital One ShareBuilder is an online broker that is part of the same parent company of ING.
Capital One ShareBuilder was created to make automatic online investments through automated withdrawals from your existing accounts so that your savings will grow automatically.
What’s all that really mean?
You don’t have to sit and worry about which day you’re going to invest money. You set up an automated plan, sit back, and watch your retirement account grow without a lot of checking in from you. It’s an easy, low-hassle way of starting to invest.
It’s very similar to the way that an IRA or 401K is managed by your financial advisor. Instead of investing once or twice per year, you build up a habit through consistent investments.
This is also a great way to start investing for new investors that have never traded stocks or invested in mutual funds. You are taking the thinking out of investing.
Set the plan, engage the automatic investments, and go back to worrying about the rest of your life.
Before we jump into the details of Capital One ShareBuilder, you should also look into other great investing options before you make your final decision. Check out these in depth reviews for more details:
Betterment Review
Ally Invest Review
Personal Capital Review
E*TRADE Review
Automated Withdrawals with Capital One ShareBuilder
Automated withdrawals can be used to your advantage in many different ways. For example, if you have ever owned a 401k or IRA, you may have noticed the deduction when you receive your pay stub at the end of your pay period.
Your financial advisor set this up so that the deduction goes straight into your IRA or 401k which is typically a collection of mutual funds.
These mutual funds are all made up of individual securities which commonly are shares of common stock. What Capital One ShareBuilder has created allows you to do the same thing except you are in control of your investment activities.
You can set up this automated withdrawal from either an existing checking account, a deduction from your paycheck, wire transfer or by simply mailing a check.
Upon setting up your account, you get to decide the frequency as well as the amount of these withdrawals which will be automatically transferred into your ShareBuilder account.
For example, if you receive$1,000 check bi-weekly, you can opt for $200 to be automatically invested into Capital One ShareBuilder.
ShareBuilder will take your funds and purchase shares in whatever stock, ETF, or mutual fund of your choosing and automatically invest the dollar amount. This gives you the opportunity to buy partial shares so that you can put the entire $200 in your account to good use immediately.
At the most simplistic level, this is essentially creating your own IRA or retirement fund that you personally manage. The fees that you will be assessed depend on the account level you sign up for.
Different Accounts That Capital One ShareBuilder Offers
Capital One ShareBuilder offers two different account levels. They offer a Basic Plan and a subscription-based Advantage Plan.
The Basic Plan has no monthly fee so it’s free to start. When using the automated investment method with the Basic Plan, you will be assessed a $4 fee for every automated transaction, as well as $9.95 for all real-time trades. You can trade Options with the Basic Plan as well for $9.95 per trade + $1.50 per contract.
With the automatic investing option you can limit the cost of your trades for stocks and ETFs to just $4 per investment. That is among the lowest in the industry.
The next step up is the Advantage Plan. With the Advantage Plan you pay $12 per month and receive 12 automated investment transactions per month for free. All automated transfers after 12 per month will be assessed a fee of $1.
If you need to make a real-time trade (rather than on an automated schedule) the fee will drop to $7.95 ($2 less than on the Basic Plan). Option pricing also drops $2 to $7.95 per trade plus $0.75 per contract.
Capital One ShareBuilder also kicks in premium research from S&P such as the S&P Morning Brief and a list of research team upgrades/downgrades on stocks.
Essentially if you plan to regularly invest funds more than 3 times per month then it makes a lot of sense to switch to the Advantage Plan. Three automatic transactions under the Basic Plan would cost $12.
With the Advantage Plan you get 9 additional automatic transactions for free compared to the Basic Plan. It’s like paying $1 per trade — a price that cannot be beaten with any other broker.
Both account types allow you to invest in mutual funds. The trade costs range from $0 (yes, free) for No Transaction Fee Funds to $19.95 for other mutual funds.
Excellent Research
Like any other broker, Capital One ShareBuilder offers a variety of tools to its customers. They offer screening options for mutual funds, ETFs, and of course stocks.
They have your normal market mover and watch list options as well. You can also research option chains and there is a calendar of upcoming IPOs so you can track which ones you want to invest in.
Capital One ShareBuilder also offers easy tax applications to keep track of your gains/losses throughout the year which you can easily export to typical tax software programs. If you trade a lot having clear and concise tax records is a huge benefit when it comes time to file your taxes.
Building a Diverse ETF Portfolio with Capital One ShareBuilder
Whether you are a new investor just trying to figure out how to invest each month or a seasoned investor looking to lower your investment options, Capital One ShareBuilder is a solid choice. Here are two examples of how you can use Capital One ShareBuilder to grow your portfolio automatically.
New Investor: Open a Roth IRA
The best time to start investing is right now. The longer you wait to begin investing, the more you have to save in order to hit your retirement goals.
If you are a new investor that is just trying to figure out how to budget for your retirement, starting with Capital One ShareBuilder’s Basic Plan is a great place to look.
With opening a Roth IRA you are investing after-tax income from your paycheck. IRS rules limit you to investing $5,000 per year into a Roth IRA. But even if you don’t have $5,000 (that’s $416.67 per month), any amount will help grow your account. Learn more about the Roth IRA contribution limits here.
Let’s assume you have just $100 per month to save for a Roth IRA. To make things simple we will invest 75% of your money into Vanguard’s Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) and 25% into Vanguard’s Total Bond Market ETF (BND). If you are just starting out you don’t need to worry about asset allocation as much as you need to worry about actually investing money for your future.
Here are the steps to take to set up that portfolio:
Open a Basic Plan account with Capital One ShareBuilder and get a $50 account bonus
During the account opening process, make sure you select “Open a Roth IRA”
During the investment selection process, choose Automatic Investment
Search for VTI (the total stock ETF from Vanguard) and choose to invest $75 per month with 1 automatic transfer per month
Then search for BND (the total bond ETF from Vanguard) and choose to invest $25 per month with 1 automatic transfer per month
Sit back and relax, you’re done!
That’s all it takes to get started with investing. You will pay $4 per automatic transfer (so $8) for your two investments each month.
As time goes on you can increase how much you invest or upgrade to an Advantage Plan to increase the number of transactions you have each month.
Seasoned Investor: Lower Your Trading Costs
If you’re a seasoned investor, Capital One ShareBuilder can still be a big help by reducing your automatic investment costs. (If you are a day trader that is not the plan or broker for you.)
Here are the steps to take to cut down on your investing costs:
Open an Advantage Plan account with Capital One ShareBuilder and get a $50 account bonus
During the account opening process, choose whichever account you need whether it is a Roth IRA, Traditional IRA, or a normal trading account
During the investment selection process, choose Automatic Investment
Search for your investments and how much you want to invest in each
Make sure you choose at least 4 automatic investments each month, otherwise, the Basic Plan would be the same or lower cost (3 trades x $4 = $12, which is the cost of the Advantage Plan each month)
Sit back and relax, you’re done!
This plan can save you significantly compared to other brokers.
Conclusion
If you consider yourself to be a day trader, then Capital One ShareBuilder is not the online broker for you. Their real-time trades, as well as options fees at $9.95 (or $7.95 with the Advantage Plan), are not attractive relative to other online brokers.
However, Capital One ShareBuilder is a great option if you want to set up an easy automatic investing plan in ETFs, Equities or No Transaction Fee Mutual Funds.
By picking these quality investment tools you will be able to set up automated withdrawals from a variety of sources to have your account grow steadily while only paying transaction fees ranging from $1 to $4 depending on which plan option you choose.
By setting up your account with Capital One ShareBuilder you will be able to theoretically replace your financial advisor using your own skills and Capital One ShareBuilder’s easy automated system to steadily save for retirement without the approximate 1% fee given to your advisor on an annual basis.
Setting up your ShareBuilder account will take no more than 20 minutes, and requires no extra paperwork than any other financial account.
Anybody that has tried to change their satellite or cable service knows how much of a pain in the butt it can be.
You’ll spend at minimum an hour on the phone and most likely by the end of it you’ll be so disgusted that even a hot shower won’t make you feel any better.
One of the biggest fears that investors have when starting with a new brokerage firm is what happens if you want to quit or break up with your financial advisor.
Are you going to be stuck in the same situation as trying to transfer your satellite service and are you going to be hit with massive amount of surrender fees?
Is this something that you worry about?
Let’s take a look how it works if you want to transfer your brokerage account.
If you’re in the process of hiring a new financial advisor or opening an online brokerage account, the first thing you want to do is ask,
“What happens if I ever want to leave? What type of cost or transfer out charges would I incur?”
If it’s really a concern of yours, I wouldn’t accept the explanation verbally. Get it in writing. Make sure you can see exactly how much you would pay if you had to pay anything at all.
Many people don’t realize how easy it is to actually transfer your brokerage account elsewhere. It’s easier than switching banks. It’s easier than dropping your cable. It’s easier than changing your cell phone provider. Yes, that easy!
The beautiful thing about transferring is that you actually don’t even have to talk to the institution that you’re currently with. Say,”What?” Yes, that’s right. You can actually transfer out without ever having to notify them that you’re leaving. How beautiful is that?
Brokerage Account Transfer Example
Let’s say for an example that you have a brokerage account with Edward Jones and you’ve been with them for four years. You’ve now decided that you want to work with XYZ Financial. Instead of contacting Edward Jones and telling them why you’re leaving, you would actually go to XYZ Financial, open the same type of brokerage account that you have opened at Edward Jones and then sign XYZ Financial’s transfer paperwork.
XYZ Financial’s back office should then contact Edward Jones’ back office and the transfer is all done for you. The reason that this is so simple is that most brokerage firms use an account transfer process called the automated customer account transfer service or ACAT.
The rules that govern the ACAT system require firms to complete various pages in the transfer process and in a very specific period of time window. If the transfer is made using the ACAT system, then the transfer should take no more than six business days.
Here’s brief description of the ACAT process directly from the SEC website:
Most account transfers between brokerage firms are made using the Automated Customer Account Transfer Service (or “ACATS”) system. The National Securities Clearing Corporation operates ACATS, and both the New York Stock Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. require their member firms to use ACATS.
These rules require firms to complete various stages of the transfer process within a limited period of time. If the transfer is made through ACATS, and there are no problems, the transfer should take no more than six business days to complete from the time your new firm enters your form into ACATS.
There are situations where the accounts may not be able to utilize the ACAT system. In those cases, you can expect upward to two weeks for the transfer to take place. In the last couple years, I’ve only encountered a few situations where an account could not be transferred utilizing ACAT. Most likely, you won’t run into this situation.
Brokerage Transfer Out Fees
What about cost?
All brokerage firms are going to charge some type of transfer out fee.
That fee can range anywhere from $55 on up to $95, at least what I’ve seen.
It may also be more for an IRA. Another potential cost that you may incur is an IRA custodial fee.
I know some firms will charge you both for the transfer out fee and a prorated cost of the IRA custodial fee. I know in one case a client had to pay $115 to transfer out his IRA. Ouch!
The only other issues that may come up is depending what type of investments you hold. I’ve seen some mutual funds that aren’t able to be transferred “in-kind” so they have to be sold at the brokerage firm that you’re currently with before the account can transfer. In that case you would have to contact them to give them instructions to sell what can’t be transferred. If you want to avoid the phone, you can always draft a letter with your instructions to liquidate the investments and then transfer the account upon settlement of those funds.
Please also note that insurance or annuities are a whole other animal when it comes to transferring. It’s pretty simple to change the broker record on annuity accounts, but there also may be surrender charges on the actually policy itself. Be sure to verify with the insurance company before liquidating any annuity contracts.
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We are going to under the cover and discover $14 an hour is how much per year.
For most Americans, this is hovering near minimum wage.
Let’s get this straight… This is not a livable wage.
If you are in high school or college and have support from your parents, then this is great spending money for you.
However, if you are making it on your own, $14 per hour will not make ends meet each month.
For most people, being at minimum wage is common and the goal is to make your way up the payscale and quickly!
In this post, we’re going to detail exactly what $14 an hour is how much a year. Also, we will break it down to know how much is made per month, bi-weekly, per week, and daily.
That will help you immensely with how you spend your money. Because too many times the hard-earned cash is brought home, but there is no actual plan for how to spend that money.
When living close to minimum wage, you must know how to manage money wisely.
More than likely, you are living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to survive until the next paycheck. Take a deep breath and make this minimum wage just a season.
The ultimate goal is to make the most of your hourly wage with inspirations to make more money.
If that is something you want to do, then keep reading. You are in the right place.
$14 an Hour is How Much a Year?
When we ran all of our numbers to figure out how much is $14 per hour is an annual salary, we used the average working day of 40 hours a week.
40 hours x 52 weeks x $14 = $29,120
$29120 is the gross annual salary with a $14 per hour wage.
Breakdown of 14 Dollars an hour is how much a year
Typically, the average workweek is 40 hours and you can work 52 weeks a year. Take 40 hours times 52 weeks and that equals 2,080 working hours. Then, multiply the hourly salary of $14 times 2,080 working hours, and the result is $29,120.
That number is the gross income before taxes, insurance, 401K, or anything else is taken out. Net income is how much you deposit into your bank account.
Work Part Time?
But you may think, oh wait, I’m only working part time. So if you’re working part time, the assumption is working 20 hours a week at $14 an hour.
Only 20 hours per week. Then, take 20 hours times 52 weeks and that equals 1,040 working hours. Then, multiply the hourly salary of $14 times 1,040 working hours, and the result is $14,560.
How Much is $14 Per Month?
On average, the monthly amount would average $2,426.
Annual Amount of $20120 ÷ 12 months = $2426 per month
Since some months have more days and fewer days like February, you can expect months with more days to have a bigger paycheck. Also, this can be heavily influenced by how often you are paid and on which days you get paid.
Work Part Time?
Only 20 hours per week. Then, the monthly amount would average $1213.
How Much is $14 per Hour Per Week
This is a great number to know! How much do I make each week? When I roll out of bed and do my job, what can I expect to make at the end of the week?
Once again, the assumption is 40 hours worked.
40 hours x $14 = $560 per week.
Work Part Time?
Only 20 hours per week. Then, the weekly amount would be $280.
How Much is $14 per Hour Bi-Weekly
For this calculation, take the average weekly pay of $560 and double it.
$560 per week x 2 = $1120
Also, the other way to calculate this is:
40 hours x 2 weeks x $14 an hour = $1120
Work Part Time?
Only 20 hours per week. Then, the bi-weekly amount would be $560.
How Much is $14 Per Hour Per Day
This depends on how many hours you work in a day. For this example, we are going to use an eight-hour workday.
8 hours x $14 per hour = $112 per day.
If you work 10 hours a day for four days, then you would make $140 per day. (10 hours x $14 per hour)
Work Part Time?
Only 4 hours per day. Then, the daily amount would be $56.
$14 Per Hour is…
$14 per Hour – Full Time
Total Income
Yearly Salary (52 weeks)
$29,120
Yearly Wage (50 weeks)
$28,000
Monthly Wage (173 hours)
$2.426
Weekly Wage (40 Hours)
$560
Bi-Weekly Wage (80 Hours)
$1120
Daily Wage (8 Hours)
$112
Net Estimated Monthly Income
$1,853
**These are assumptions based on simple scenarios.
Paid Time Off Earning 14 Dollars an Hour
Does your employer offer paid time off?
As an hourly, close to minimum wage employee, more than likely you will not get paid time off.
So, here are the scenarios for both cases.
For general purposes, we are going to assume you work 40 hours per week over the course of the year.
Case # 1 – With Paid Time Off
Most hourly employees, get two weeks of paid time off which is equivalent to 2 weeks of paid time off.
In this case, you would make $29120 per year.
This is the same as the example above for an annual salary making $14 per hour.
Case #2 – No Paid Time Off
Unfortunately, not all employers offer paid time off to their hourly employees. While that is unfortunate, it is best to plan for less income.
Life happens. There will be times you need to take time off for numerous reasons – sick time, handling an emergency, or even vacation.
So, let’s assume you take 2 weeks off without paid time off.
That means you would only work 50 weeks of the year instead of all 52 weeks. Take 40 hours times 50 weeks and that equals 2,000 working hours. Then, multiply the hourly salary of $14 times 2,000 working hours, and the result is $28,000.
40 hours x 50 weeks x $14 = $28000
You would average $112 per working day and nothing when you don’t work.
$14 an Hour is How Much a year After Taxes
Let’s be honest… Taxes can take up a big chunk of your paycheck. Thus, you need to know how taxes can affect your hourly wage.
This is why you always wondering why your take-home pay is so much less.
Also, every single person’s tax situation is different.
On the basic level, let’s assume a 12% federal tax rate and a 4% state rate. Plus a percentage is taken out for Social Security and Medicare (FICA) of 7.65%.
Gross Annual Salary: $29,120
Federal Taxes of 12%: $3,494
State Taxes of 4%: $1,165
Social Security and Medicare of 7.65%: $2,228
$14 an Hour per Year after Taxes: $22,233
This would be your net annual salary after taxes.
To turn that back into an hourly wage, the assumption is working 2,080 hours.
$22233 ÷ 2080 hours = $10.69 per hour
After estimated taxes and FICA, you are netting $10.69 an hour. That is $3.31 an hour less than what you planned.
This is a very highlighted example and can vary greatly depending on your personal situation. Therefore, here is a great tool to help you figure out how much your net paycheck would be.
$14 an Hour Budget – Example
You are probably wondering can I live on my own making 14 dollars an hour? How much rent can you afford at 14 an hour?
Using our Cents Plan Formula, this is the best case scenario on how to budget your $14 per hour paycheck.
When using these percentages, it is best to use net income because taxes must be paid.
In this example, above we calculated that $14 an hour was $10.69 after taxes. That would average $1853 per month.
According to the Cents Plan Formula, here is the high level view of a $14 per hour budget:
Basic Expenses of 50% = $926
Save Money of 20% = $371
Give Money of 10% = $185
Fun Spending of 20% = $371
Debt of 0% = $0
Obviously, that is not doable when living so close to minimum wage. So, you have to be strategic on ways to decrease your basic expenses and debt. Then, it will allow you more money to save and fun spending.
To further break down an example budget of $14 per hour, then using the ideal household percentages is extremely helpful.
recommended budget percentages based on $14 per hour wage:
Category
Ideal Percentages
Sample Monthly Budget
Giving
10%
$73
Savings
15-25%
$194
Housing
20-30%
$728
Utilities
4-7%
$121
Groceries
5-12%
$231
Clothing
1-4%
$24
Transportation
4-10%
$109
Medical
5-12%
$243
Life Insurance
1%
$21
Education
1-4%
$12
Personal
2-7%
$36
Recreation / Entertainment
3-8%
$61
Debts
0% – Goal
$0
Government Tax (including Income Tatumx, Social Security & Medicare)
15-25%
$574
Total Gross Income
$2427
**In this budget, prioritization was given to basic expenses. Thus, some categories like giving and saving were less.
$14 An Hour Salary Calculator
Now, you get to figure out how much you make based on your hours worked or if you make a wage between $14.01-14.99.
This is super helpful if you make $14.25, $14.50, or $14.75.
Living on $14 Per Hour
Living close to minimum wage can be a very difficult situation.
Is it doable? Probably not for long.
You just have to be wiser (or frugal) with your money and how you spend the hard-earned cash you have been blessed with.
A lot of times when people are making under near the minimum wage mark, they feel like they are in this constant cycle that they can never keep up with (which completely makes sense it is hard!).
When your thoughts are constantly focused on how you are struggling to keep up with bills and expenses, that is all you focus on.
You need to do is change your money mindset.
This is what you say to yourself… Okay, I am making near minimum wage for now. I have aspirations and goals to increase how much I make. For now, I am going to make sure that I am able to live on my 14 dollars per hour. I’m going to try and avoid debt and payday loans at all costs.
Other Tips to Help You:
Check your minimum wage for your state and city. You might find a higher minimum wage in a nearby city.
Look to living in a lower cost of living area to stretch your money.
Find ways to minizine your basic expenses.
Thrive with a frugal green minimalist lifestyle.
Decide if a roommate or moving back with your parents would help.
Bike or walk to work.
In the next section, we will dig into ways to increase your income, but for now, you must focus on living on $14 an hour.
5 Ways to Increase Your Hourly Wage
This right here is the most important section of this post.
You need to figure out ways to increase your hourly income because I’m going to tell you…you deserve more. You do a good job and your value is higher than what your employers pay you.
Even an increase of 50 cents to $14.50 will add up over the year. Even better $15 an hour!
1. Ask for a Raise
The first thing to do is ask for a raise. Walk right in and ask for a raise because you never know what the answer will be until you ask.
If you want the best tips on how specifically to ask for a raise and what the average wage is for somebody doing your job, then check out this book. In this book, the author gives you the exact way to increase your income. The purchase is worth it or go down to the library and check that book out.
2. Look for A New Job
Another way to increase your hourly wage is to look for a new job. Maybe a completely new industry.
It might be a total change for you, but many times, if you want to change your financial situation, then that starts with a career change. Maybe you’re stressed out at work. Making $14 an hour is too much for you and you’re not able to enjoy life, maybe changing jobs and finding another job may increase your pay, but it will also increase your quality of life.
3. Find a New Career
Because of student loans, too many employees feel like they are stuck in the career field they chose. They feel sucked into the job that they don’t like or have the potential they thought it would.
For many years, I was in the same situation until I decided to do a complete career change. I am glad I did. I have the flexibility that I needed in my life to do what I wanted when I needed to do it. Plus I am able to enjoy my entrepreneurial spirit.
4. Find Alternative Ways to Make Money
In today’s society, you need to find ways to make more money. Period.
There is no way to get around it. You need to find additional income outside a traditional nine to five position or typical 40 hour a week job. You will reach a point where you are maxed on what you can make in your current position or title. There may be some advancement to move forward, but in many cases, there just is not much room for growth.
So, you need to find a side hustle – another way to make money.
Do something that you enjoy, turn your hobby into a way to make money, turn something that you naturally do, and help others into a service business. In today’s society, the sky is the limit on how you can earn a freelancing income.
5. Earn Passive Income
The last way to increase your hourly wage is to start earning passive income.
This can be from a variety of ways including the stock market, real estate, online courses, book sales, etc. This is where the differentiation between struggling financially and being financially sound happens.
By earning money passively, you are able to do the things that you enjoy doing and not be loaded down, with having a job that you need to work, and a place that you have to go to. And you still make money doing nothing.
Here is an example:
You can start a brokerage account and start trading stocks for $50. You need to learn and take the one and only investing class I recommend. Learn how the market works, watch videos, and practice in a simulator before you start using your own money.
One gentleman started with $5,000 in his trading account and now has well over $36,000 in a year. Just from practice and being consistent, he has learned that passive income is the way for him to increase his income and also not be a slave to his job.
Tips to Live on $14 an Hour
In this last section, grasp these tips on how to live on $14 an hour. On our site, you can find lots of money saving tips to help stretch your income further.
Here are the most important tips to live on $14 an hour. Highlight these!
1. Spend Less Than you Make
First, you must learn to spend less than you make.
If not you will be caught in the debt cycle and that is not where you want to be. You will be consistently living paycheck to paycheck.
In order to break that dreadful cycle, it means your expenses must be less than your income.
And when I say income, it’s not the $14 an hour. As we talked about earlier in the post, there are taxes. The amount of taxes taken out of your paycheck is called your net income which is your home $14 an hour minus all the taxes, FICA, social security, and medicare are taken out. That is your net income.
So, your net income has to be less than your net income.
2. Living Below Your Means
You need to be happy. And living on less can actually make you happier. Studies prove that less is better.
Finding contentment in life is one thing that is a struggle for most.
We are driven to want the new shiny toy, the thing next door, the stuff your friend or family member got. Our society has trained you that you need these things as well.
Have you ever taken a step back and looked at what you really need?
Once you are able to find contentment with life, then you are going to be set for the long term with your finances.
Here is our story on owning less stuff. We have been happier since.
3. Make Saving Money Fun
You need to make saving money fun. Period.
It could be participating in a no spend challenge for the month.
Check out the 200 envelope challenge (which is doable on your income)
It could be challenging friends not to go to Target for a week.
Maybe changing your habits and not picking up takeout and planning meals.
Whatever it is challenge yourself.
Find new ways of saving money and have fun with it.
Even better, get your family and kids involved in the challenge to save money. Tell them the reason why you are saving money and this is what you are doing.
Here are 101 things to do with no money. Free activities without costing you a dime. That is an amazing resource for you and you will never be bored.
And you will learn a lot of things in life you can do for free. Personally, some of the best ones are getting outside and enjoying some fresh air.
4. Make More Money
If you want if you do not settle for less, then find ways to make more money. If you want more out of life, then increase your income.
You need to be an advocate for yourself.
Find ways to make more money.
It could be a side hustle, a second job, asking for a raise, going to school to change careers, or picking up extra hours.
Whatever path you take, that’s fine. Just find ways to make more money. Period.
5. No State Taxes
Paying taxes is one option to increase what you take home in each paycheck.
These are the states that don’t pay state income taxes on wages:
Alaska
Florida
Nevada
New Hampshire
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Washington
Wyoming
It is very interesting if you take into account the amount of state taxes paid compared to a state with income taxes.
Also, if you live in one of the higher taxed states, then you may want to reconsider moving to a lower cost of living area. The higher taxes income tax states include California, Hawaii, New Jersey, Oregon, Minnesota, the District of Columbia, New York, Vermont, Iowa, and Wisconsin. These states tax income somewhere between 7.65% – 13.3%.
6. Stick to a Budget
You need to learn how to start a budget. We have tons budgeting resources for you.
While creating a budget is great, you need to learn how to use one.
You do not have to budget down to every last penny.
You need to make sure your expenses are less than your income and that you are creating sinking funds for those irregular expenses.
Budget Help:
7. Pay Off Debt Quickly
The amount that you pay interest on debt is absolutely absurd.
Unfortunately, that is how many of these companies make their money from the interest you pay on debt.
If you are paying 5% to even 20-21% or higher, you need to find ways to lower that debt quickly.
Here’s a debt calculator to help you. Figure out your debt free date.
Make that paying off debt fast is your target and main focus. I can tell you from personal experience, that it was not until week paid off our debt that we finally rounded the corner financially. Once our debt was paid off, we could finally be able to save money. Set money aside in separate bank accounts and pay for cash for things.
It took us working hard to pay off debt. We needed persistence and patience while we had setbacks in our debt free journey.
Jobs that Pay $14 an Hour
You can always find jobs that pay $14 per hour. Polish up that smile, fill out the application, and be prepared with your interview skills.
Job Search Hint: Always send a written follow-up thank you note for your interview. That will help you get noticed and remembered.
First, look at the cities that require a minimum wage in their cities. That is the best place to start to find jobs that are going to pay higher than the federal minimum wage rate. Many of the cities are moving towards this model so, target and look for jobs in those areas.
Possible Ideas:
Cashiers
Back of the house restaurant staff
Landscape Laborer
Retail jobs
Paraeducators at schools
Janitors
Farm help
Warehouse workers
Fast Food Restaurants workers
$14 Per Hour Annual Salary
In this post, we detailed 14 an hour is how much a year. Plus all of the variables can impact your net income. This is something that you can live off.
How much is 14 dollars an hour annually…
$29120
This is under $30000 per year and you need to make at least $43k a year.
In this post, we highlighted ways to increase your income as well as tips for living off your wage.
Use the sample budget as a starting point with your expenses.
You will have to be savvy and wise with your hard-earned income. But, with a plan, anything is possible!
Learn exactly how much do I make per year…
Know someone else that needs this, too? Then, please share!!
By Peter Anderson16 Comments – The content of this website often contains affiliate links and I may be compensated if you buy through those links (at no cost to you!). Learn more about how we make money. Last edited February 10, 2014.
Our family has been out of debt for a while now, and one of the first things we did after dumping all of our debt was to increase our $1000 emergency fund to better be able to cover us in case of larger emergencies, not just small emergencies.
First we built up a 6 month reserve in our savings account. After we had built up 6 months in reserve, the economy had already tanked and my wife had quit her job to become a stay at home mom, so we decided that we’d like to bump up our reserves to cover 12 months of expenses instead.
We’ve now saved up that 12 month emergency fund, and we feel pretty secure should I lose my job or have another major health issue. One thing that we have thought about, however, is if we should invest a portion of our emergency fund?
Where Emergency Funds Traditionally Go: Savings, Money Market
When you read up on the traditional advice on where to put your emergency savings you’ll get some very conservative answers, usually ranging from a liquid checking, savings or money market account. Some will say to keep a small emergency fund of $1000 or more in your local checking. Next keep the rest of your emergency fund in a savings account earning the best interest that you can get. In this interest rate environment that is typically no more than 1% or so. Not much to write home about.
We’re currently using this strategy with $1000 in a local checking account, and then the rest of our 12 month emergency fund in an Ally Bank savings account. The money in that account is earning less than 1% right now.
CDs Or A CD Ladder
Some people suggest taking a different strategy where you keep a few months of savings in your local checking and online savings accounts (like 3 months), and then putting the rest of it in a CD Ladder where you’re earning a bit more on the money, while still leaving the money available within a few months if you really need it after your 3 months of savings in your liquid accounts. Another idea is to put the money in CDs that have smaller penalties for withdrawing early – in case you need to. For example, Ally has a 2 month interest penalty for early withdrawal, while others can have penalties upwards of 6 months interest. Be sure to check.
Investing In The Stock Market
Some people think that investing in the stock market with a portion of your emergency fund can be a good plan. Just make sure that you do have enough liquid funds (like 3-6 months) you can access right away, and then invest the rest, with the assumption that you could lose some of that principal.
One of the best options that I’ve heard of is to use your Roth IRA as a place to put some of your emergency fund. Since you can withdraw your contributions without penalty with a Roth, that can be a legitimate option for emergencies that crop up that won’t create unnecessary penalties or tax burdens.
Investing in a more liquid stock investment like Betterment.com or through another brokerage account where you can withdraw your money at any time can also be an option. Just remember that you could be forced to sell at a time when the market is down cementing losses, or creating taxable earnings.
I think the biggest thing you have to contend with here is the risk that is inherent in the stock market, where you could in fact lose a large portion of your money at any time. So is that really something you want to do with emergency funds that you really want to be there and be liquid?
Investing In Lending Club
Another place that I’ve heard of some people investing a portion of their long term emergency cash is at Lending Club.
Typically Lending Club investors can get somewhere in the neighborhood of 9-12% returns depending on how much risk they take on. While the returns can be pretty good, the funds you’re putting with Lending Club are typically going to be in 3-5 year loans, so the money isn’t terribly liquid if you need the money right away. You can always sell the notes on the secondary market, but you may end up losing quite a bit that way. You also have the risk of borrowers defaulting on their loans, although you can pretty well diversify your risks with Lending Club.
If I were to head down this road, it would only be with long term emergency funds, and not money I would need right away.
Our Current Strategy
I am by nature pretty conservative when it comes to our emergency funds, and I currently keep all of it liquid in either a checking or savings account, earning around .90% interest. While I’d like to be earning more interest on the money, I just like having that money there and available should we need it – and I think my wife also needs it even more than I do to have that sense of well being. If I were to put a big chunk of it in some sort of investment I don’t think she would have as much peace of mind.
Going forward I think we’ll continue our strategy, but if we build up and above the 12 months in savings, we may end up investing a portion of that somehow. I’m not sure how we’ll do that quite yet, but we’ll see.
What are you thoughts? Would you ever invest a portion of your emergency fund? Why or why not?
The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments.
Welcome to NerdWallet’s Smart Money podcast, where we answer your real-world money questions.
This week’s episode starts with a discussion about Social Security.
Then we pivot to this week’s money question from Amy, who wrote, “Hi, Nerds. I love your podcast and I wanted to get your take on a question I have. I am in my late 30s and I am just starting to think about investing for retirement. I have a decent amount of money in a savings account that I can use to invest. I’ve done a fair amount of research into investing, and index funds come up a lot as a smart option. My question is, aren’t ETFs an even better choice given that they’re more tax efficient? I plan to buy and hold and don’t expect to do much with my investments until I retire. Please help me figure out if ETFs end up costing investors less than index funds do when the time comes to sell them.”
Check out this episode on either of these platforms:
Our take on estimating Social Security benefits
Figuring out how much money we will need to live comfortably in retirement is a notoriously imprecise exercise. To make planning for our future selves a little easier, a team of Nerds created a Social Security benefit calculator, which generates an estimate of your Social Security benefit as a monthly and yearly figure. This number can help you figure out how much money you’ll need to have in other retirement savings accounts like IRAs to reach your retirement goals.
This number, while a useful data point, is still just an estimate. Your actual Social Security amount could be different depending on your income history and the age at which you retire. For example, today, you may plan to retire at age 62, the current earliest age of eligibility for Social Security. In reality, you may end up working until the full retirement age of 70. Delaying Social Security withdrawals for those eight years will significantly increase your retirement benefit.
Our take on tax-efficient retirement investing
Saving for retirement can feel like a never-ending chore, especially when you won’t see the fruit of your (literal) labors for several years. To entice us to save, the government offers tax breaks on certain types of retirement accounts, namely 401(k)s and IRAs. With traditional 401(k)s and IRAs, you get your tax break up front so that retirement contributions reduce your taxable income. Roth 401(k)s and IRAs, on the other hand, delay the tax benefit until retirement when you can make withdrawals tax-free.
Contained within those retirement accounts are the actual investments: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, index funds, ETFs or options. ETFs and index funds are popular options because of their relative low cost and promise of high returns. Generally speaking, ETFs have less tax liability than index funds. It’s possible to owe capital gains taxes on your profits on index funds without even selling a single share.
Our tips
Understand how accounts are taxed. Roth IRAs, 401(k)s, and other retirement accounts are taxed more favorably than brokerage accounts.
Consider different investment options. Once you have your retirement account, you have a number of choices like target-date funds or mutual funds.
Investments have their tax differences, too. ETFs are more tax efficient than index funds, but the difference is fairly small and it’s not typically a major factor in retirement accounts.
More about tax-efficient investing on NerdWallet:
Episode transcript
Sean Pyles: Choosing the right investments for your retirement accounts can be a head-spinning endeavor. Do you continually tweak your investment mix or just let things ride?
Liz Weston: And how do you choose between retirement accounts like 401(k)s and Roth IRAs?
Sean Pyles: Well, this episode we will help a listener sort out their retirement investment decisions.
Welcome to the NerdWallet Smart Money podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius Nerds. I’m Sean Pyles.
Liz Weston: And I’m Liz Weston.
Sean Pyles: OK. We’ll get to the part where we ask our listeners to send us their money questions in a bit. But first, Liz, welcome back.
Liz Weston: Hey, it’s great to be back. Thank you.
Sean Pyles: So Liz, you had a little eat, pray, love journey through Europe, spent a lot of time in France. Do you have any profound money lessons for us now that you’re back?
Liz Weston: Well, this is the biggest one, don’t wait until retirement to travel and do the stuff that you want to do. I’ve been taking paid and unpaid leaves multiple times in my career and they are so worth doing if you can swing it.
Sean Pyles: That sounds lovely. Well, I am glad that you’re back. And listeners, just so you know what’s up on our end too, my other co-host, Sara Rathner is about to head off on her own spiritual journey called maternity leave. So Liz will be back in the hosting seat with me over the next few months. All right. And now we are at the part where we ask our listeners for their money questions. So to keep it short and sweet, listeners, we know that you have burning money questions and it is our job to answer them. So send your money questions our way.
Liz Weston: Maybe you want some advice about how to make the expensive summer travel season more budget friendly, or you’re wondering about how to pay for a bathroom remodel or maybe your question is even less specific. Whatever you’re wondering about, please send us your questions. Leave us a voicemail or text us on the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373, or you can email us at [email protected].
Sean Pyles: This episode, my other co-host, Sara and I answer a listener’s question about how to choose the most tax efficient investments for their retirement account. But first, to kick off this episode, Liz and I are talking about another big part of retirement planning, Social Security benefits, specifically understanding how much you might get.
Liz Weston: It’s easy to underestimate how important Social Security is going to be to your retirement planning, but it is huge. Every thousand dollars in monthly income that you get from Social Security is $300,000 that you don’t have to save.
Sean Pyles: Wow.
Liz Weston: Yeah, and not only is that income guaranteed for life, but it’s inflation adjusted, so your buying power isn’t eroded over time and you don’t have to make a bunch of decisions about how to invest the money, it just comes to you. So one of our Nerds, Tina Orem, has created a calculator to help you estimate your benefit. Welcome to the podcast, Tina.
Tina Orem: It’s great to be back. Hi.
Liz Weston: Tina, right about now, a lot of our audience is thinking, “Huh, I’ll never see a dime from Social Security.”
Sean Pyles: Yeah. Well, we’ve been hearing for years that Social Security is going broke.
Tina Orem: Yeah. So in March, the Social Security Administration actually released a statistical analysis and it basically said that that part of Social Security, the so-called trust fund, is going to run out of money in 2034. And at that point, the estimate is that the taxes you and I pay on our earnings, basically a part of it, will still be enough to pay something like 80% of promised benefits. So, I mean, 80% isn’t nothing.
Liz Weston: Yes, and Social Security is the most popular federal program ever. I can’t imagine any politician who wants to get reelected allowing people who are getting benefits to have those benefits cut. So the program may change, but it is highly doubtful that it’ll go away.
Sean Pyles: Yeah. And also just to beat back the cynicism among my fellow millennials and my Gen Z brethren, I think the whole “Social Security is going to run out of money, so why should we even try” defeatism could be a self-fulfilling prophecy. So if folks in my generation really want this benefit, make your voice heard and ensure that it’s there for you. The battle is not over, folks. So anyway, Tina, let’s hear about this calculator that you devised.
Tina Orem: Sure, yeah. We put this calculator together because we know a lot of people wonder what they’re going to get from Social Security and when they’re going to get it. And I think that’s a reasonable thing to wonder, especially when you’re thinking about your retirement savings and those bigger questions of, how much money will I need every month and where’s that money going to come from? So this calculator is intended to help consumers with that. And I want to be sure to give a shout-out to our engineering team, the product team, our editors, we all helped produce this calculator. And I’m saying that not just to be sure to acknowledge and credit the people who worked on this, but I also want to tell people that this calculator is made by a team of people, and we vetted it and tested it and we put a lot of thought into how to make it useful and easy for consumers.
Liz Weston: Awesome. So what do people need to know about using the calculator?
Tina Orem: Okay, a few things. So the first thing I want to say is that the calculator is easy to use. You just enter your date of birth, you enter the age of which you want to start taking Social Security retirement benefits, your annual income this year, and then an estimate of your annual salary increases going forward. So that’s it. The second thing I’ll say is that this is an estimate, we don’t have access to the last 35 years of your personal income and earnings history. So that’s what the Social Security Administration uses to calculate your exact, to-the-penny benefit. So we make an estimate of your previous earnings based on what you tell us you earned this year. So the catch is, if you were out of the workforce for several years, or maybe you had income and it fluctuated a ton, or you were in a line of work where they may not have withheld Social Security taxes from your paychecks, your benefits are much harder to estimate with this tool.
But if you had a fairly steady paycheck and Social Security tax has been coming out of those checks, this tool should give you what we think is a pretty good estimate of the size of your monthly Social Security retirement benefit check at various points in time. And I say various points because there are three in particular that are of particular interest when it comes to Social Security: There’s the age at which you want to retire, there is what Social Security Administration calls your full retirement age, which I’ll get to in a second, and then age 70.
Sean Pyles: OK. So this might be a good time to remind folks of how Social Security benefits are actually calculated. Tina, can you give us a super quick, simple explanation of this very complicated matter?
Tina Orem: Yes, because it turns out the formula for calculating Social Security benefits is actually pretty complex. But simply put, how much Social Security tax you pay into the system over time influences the size of your eventual retirement checks. That’s the first thing to know. The second thing is that when you decide to start taking Social Security retirement benefits has a really big effect on the size of your check. And there’s one key age to that I want to point out, and that is what I said, the full retirement age. So that’s the age at which you’re entitled to 100% of your Social Security retirement benefit. And the Social Security Administration decides what your exact full retirement age is, and that’s based on when you were born. So for most people, it’s sometime between age 66 and 67.
Liz Weston: I’m guessing for most of our listeners who are born in 1960 and after it’s going to be age 67. You can start Social Security as early as 62, but you’re essentially settling for a permanently reduced check, and why would you do that?
Sean Pyles: This was one of the most interesting parts of the calculator as I was playing around with it is seeing just how much you can get monthly or annually by delaying your retirement even a year or seven years or something like that. You can get thousands of dollars more per year just by holding off the age at which you received these benefits.
Liz Weston: Oh yeah, it’s huge. And there’s been a lot of research done over the past few decades showing that most people are better off waiting. And that’s sometimes a hard message to get through: Like people want to grab the money when they’ve got it, but you really do get more than sufficient payoff if you wait.
Sean Pyles: And another cool thing with this calculator is that you see the Social Security break even age, which is the point at which the amount of benefits you receive having waited a few to start getting your benefits begins to outpace the amount you would’ve gotten if you’ve started getting them at an earlier age.
Liz Weston: Yeah.
Sean Pyles: All right. Well, Tina, what should folks do with the information they get from this calculator?
Tina Orem: Well, I think one good use of this information is to get an idea of what’s really going to be available to you when you want to retire. So for example, if you’ve used our retirement calculator and you have an idea of how much money you’ll need per month during retirement to live the life that you want to live, then knowing what portion of that is going to come from Social Security can help you get a tighter handle on how much you need to save for retirement.
Another thing the calculator I think will get you thinking about is when you want to retire. So if you know that you’re going to get a bigger monthly check by waiting to start taking benefits, would waiting work for you? How long is too long? When will it be no longer worth it or affordable to wait? So that information can help you get on the same page with your partner and with yourself frankly about when you’re really going to retire.
Sean Pyles: And where can people get more information around Social Security benefits?
Tina Orem: Yes. Well, NerdWallet does have a ton of helpful content about Social Security on the site, everything from how it works and different types of benefits that come from the Social Security Administration and what happens to your retirement benefits in certain situations and ways to maximize your benefits. And of course, you can always take a look at the Social Security Administration’s website or visit a local Social Security office.
Liz Weston: And we should mention that if you do have a more complicated situation, you can see your actual Social Security estimated benefits on its website by creating a my Social Security account. Probably a good thing to do anyway just to secure that and make sure that nobody else can get your information, but it’s a way to see what Social Security’s estimates are based on your actual earnings history.
Sean Pyles: All right. Well, Tina, thank you so much for talking with us and for building this super cool calculator.
Tina Orem: Yeah, my pleasure. I hope it helps people.
Sean Pyles: And with that, let’s get onto my money question conversation with Sara.
This episode’s money question comes from Amy. Here it is, as read by Smart Money producer, Rosalie Murphy.
Rosalie Murphy: Hi, Nerds. I love your podcast and I wanted to get your take on a question I have. I am in my late 30s and I am just starting to think about investing for retirement. I have a decent amount of money in a savings account that I can use to invest. I’ve done a fair amount of research into investing and index funds come up a lot as a smart option. My question is, aren’t ETFs an even better choice given that they’re more tax efficient? I plan to buy and hold and don’t expect to do much with my investments until I retire. Please help me figure out if ETFs end up costing investors less than index funds do when the time comes to sell them. Thank you, Amy L.
Sara Rathner: To help us answer Amy’s question on this episode of the podcast, we’re joined by investing nerd, Alana Benson. Welcome back to Smart Money, Alana.
Alana Benson: Thanks for having me.
Sean Pyles: Alana, it’s always so good to have you on because we have so many investing questions and our listeners do, too. But before we get into them, a quick disclaimer that we are not about to give any investment advice, we are not ever going to give you investment advice or tell you what to do with your money. This is for general educational and entertainment purposes. Okay, let’s talk about some different investment vehicles that people can use to invest or save for retirement. 401(k)s and Roth IRAs are pretty common, but what about straight-up brokerage accounts or robo-advisor accounts?
Alana Benson: So I just want to start off by clarifying some language for our listeners. First of all, saving does not equal investing. Saving can mean putting money into a savings account. It can mean stashing your money under your mattress. We do not necessarily say that that’s a good idea, or it can mean putting it into a high yield saving account. But investing means putting your money into a specific investment account, which is different than a bank account, and then purchasing investments from there. So a lot of people use that language interchangeably, just like to clarify, maybe we say saving for retirement, but really we mean investing for retirement.
Sean Pyles: Yeah. And one key important difference is that when you do have an investment account like a 401(k), you have to make sure that the money you’re putting into there is being invested because some people will make this really tragic mistake where they’ll put money into these accounts for many years and it will not have been invested, and then they’re not actually growing their money through investments and compound interest and all of that good stuff.
Alana Benson: Absolutely. That is a devastating mistake.
Sara Rathner: Yeah, the money defaults to essentially being held in cash in a money market account, same thing almost. So you should just be aware that what the money sits in when you put it in first before you tell it where to go is essentially cash. Once you tell the money where to go in terms of picking investments and you set up that automatic transfer of money from your paycheck into those investments, that’s when you can sit back and hope that the market works your way over the next 30 plus years, which it may or may not do, as we know.
Alana Benson: Yeah, and I think it’s really important as well to talk about where you invest, which means your account type, so a 401(k) or a Roth IRA. The actual account type is just as important as what you actually invest in from that account, which is stocks or bonds or mutual funds. So understanding the difference between an account, which is not actually an investment. So if someone says they’re investing in a Roth IRA, the Roth IRA is not the investment that’s going to make the money, it’s just the account type where those investments live. So they might be investing in stocks or mutual funds from their Roth IRA.
Sean Pyles: One thing we should probably clarify, as well, is that we talk a lot about Roth IRAs and 401(k)s because those are tax-advantaged accounts and we’ll get into what that means more in a little bit, but using a brokerage account or a robo-advisor account for retirement savings is not very common. People typically don’t use that as their primary investment vehicle, correct?
Alana Benson: That depends. I think if it’s someone who has a 401(k) available to them, then that’s going to be something that if you have an employer that offers that, that’s great. And 401(k)s tend to have much higher contribution limits, so you can actually put more money in. But if you don’t have an employer that offers that, or if you are self-employed, then you may be looking for other options.
Sara Rathner: So Sean mentioned 401(k)s and Roth IRAs, which are two different kinds of investment accounts that are often used for retirement savings. Is there a general order of account types for investing that financial advisors recommend?
Alana Benson: So typically the idea is to start with a 401(k) if you have one. 401(k)s are great, we talk about them a lot on this podcast. You often get an employer match through them, which equates to free money. So the idea is that you start with a 401(k). You contribute enough to get your employer match and then you consider pausing on that or put as much in that as you want if you don’t want to make this complicated. But if you’re OK with a couple complications, once you get your match, then consider IRAs. Traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, they both have different tax advantages, but the reason that you would move from a 401(k) to an IRA is because the tax advantage for IRAs is really strong.
So you get your match with a 401(k), then move to an IRA once you can max that out, then move back to a 401(k) and you could max out that 401(k). I like to think of it almost like a waterfall with buckets. So if water is pouring into the first bucket, you fill up that first bucket and then once it starts overflowing, it can start filling up the next bucket. So don’t feel stressed out if you can’t necessarily do all those things right away, but the first bucket is getting that match. If you can contribute enough to get your match, that’s awesome, then the overflow goes into an IRA once you can max that out, then into maxing out your 401(k).
Sean Pyles: And what about folks who maybe don’t have access to a 401(k) through an employer? Can you talk about how solo 401(k)s and SEP IRAs might fit in?
Alana Benson: Yeah. So solo 401(k)s are great, they’re designed for business owners with no employees. SEP IRAs are another option. Folks who are self-employed are really going to need to look at their specific circumstance, whether they have employees or if they don’t and figure out what retirement accounts are going to work best for them. That may be a conversation to have with a financial advisor just because those things can get a little complicated. But a really important thing is that once you figure out where, again, that type of account that you want to invest in, maybe the order in which you want to have your money flow through those investment accounts, then you can figure out how you want to invest. So we have the where, which is the account type, the what, which is the actual investments, and then the how, which is, “do you want to choose your investments by yourself and manage them by yourself or do you want to not worry about that?”
So, if you don’t want to worry about it, you don’t want to think about it or stress about it, you can have a robo-advisor do it for you, which is a pretty low-cost way. These are online algorithms that basically take your risk tolerance, your age, other personal factors into account, and then they build and manage a portfolio for you for a fairly modest fee, which is great. That makes it super easy. You can automate it, have money taken out of your bank account, and then you don’t have to worry about it. You could also work with a traditional financial advisor, but that will cost more. And then if you want to do it yourself, you know, there’s all kinds of research. You can do stock investing, you can use mutual funds or index funds. There’s lots of options and we have lots of information on how to do that on nerdwallet.com, but that’s really how of how you do this.
Sean Pyles: I want to go back to a term that we’ve mentioned a couple of times so far, and that’s tax-advantaged. Alana, can you explain how that pertains to 401(k)s, Roths and the like, and why it’s such a big deal?
Alana Benson: So tax-advantaged is just a fancy word for, “you get a nice tax benefit,” which is a good thing, you should be excited about any kind of tax benefit because most likely it will equate to more money in your pocket. So traditional 401(k)s and IRAs, you can say, “Hey, I contributed this amount of money,” and so you’ll get a nice tax break up front. But Roth accounts, so either a Roth 401(k) or a Roth IRA, they don’t offer an upfront tax deduction, but you get to take your money out tax-free in retirement. So you put it in after you’ve already paid taxes on it, and then that money grows tax-free for many, many years. So a lot of people find Roth accounts more attractive for that delayed benefit, but it will depend on you and your individual tax circumstance. But again, this is why you might move from a 401(k) if it’s a traditional one to an Roth IRA, it’s because of that really healthy tax benefit.
Sara Rathner: OK. So in contrast to tax-advantaged investment accounts like certain kinds of retirement accounts, there are also taxable brokerage accounts too, and those are either offered by traditional brokerages or banks or robo-advisors and they don’t have this special tax treatment, right? How are they taxed?
Alana Benson: Again, we just want to clarify some terms and I’m really, really glad you asked this question because these things can often get conflated, which is why I’m so adamant about what, the where and the how. Robo-advisors may be able to be tax-advantaged if you use them in the right account. So again, robo-advisors, that’s how your investments are going to be managed. Many robo-advisors offer retirement accounts like IRAs, but not 401(k)s since those are offered through your employer. But if you open a taxable account through a robo-advisor, yes, it won’t have those tax benefits, but if you open a Roth IRA and you’re having it managed by a robo-advisor, then you will be able to get the tax benefits.
Sara Rathner: So again, it’s not about who is furnishing the account, but it’s about the type of account that you have.
Alana Benson: Exactly, and that’s why it’s so important to pay attention to your account. A lot of people, they might start up with a robo-advisor, don’t have the background information and the robo-advisor maybe would put them into a taxable brokerage account, but maybe they’d prefer to be in a retirement account. So it’s important to have that background even heading into something like investing with a robo-advisor so you know exactly what you’re getting yourself into.
Sara Rathner: Right. So all that being said, let’s go back to how these accounts are taxed. If you’re looking at a taxable brokerage account for investing purposes, what sorts of taxes do you need to just be aware of when you’re making investment decisions?
Alana Benson: Yes, this is the joy of long-term versus short-term capital gains taxes, which are taxes, so we aren’t huge fans of them. But if you are investing and you are making money, there will come a day where you need to pay taxes on the profits that you make from selling your investment. So you hold an investment for a long time, hopefully you make a bunch of money off of it, that money you might need to pay some form of capital gains tax. If you’ve held onto an investment for more than a year, you’re going to pay what’s called long-term capital gains tax, and that tax rate can be 0%, 15% or 20% depending on a couple factors like your taxable income and your filing status.
In contrast to that, if you hold onto an investment for one year or less, you’ll have to pay short-term capital gains, which are taxed at your ordinary income tax rate or your tax bracket. And the end takeaway of all of this is that long-term capital gains are likely more advantageous for you. And so, if you can hold onto investments for longer than a year, you’ll be taxed at a better rate.
Sara Rathner: Good thing to keep in mind for anybody who is thinking about the taxation of their investments, and Amy and their question mentioned a concern about the tax efficiency of their retirement investments. So it sounds like in their case, the 401(k) and Roth strategy combined could be an option for them. But let’s turn to different investment options within all of these different kinds of investment accounts that we’ve talked about so far. How feasible or common is investing in an ETF or exchange-traded fund or an index fund through your 401(k)? And maybe we should also start by defining those terms for our listeners who might be unfamiliar with them.
Alana Benson: I think that’s a great idea. ETFs are funds, so funds are basically baskets of investments. It’s a whole bunch of stocks all stuffed into one investment that you buy all at once versus buying a single individual stock. Exchange-traded funds are a type of funds as are index funds or index mutual funds. And a couple different things are important here. So whether or not you’re actually able to pick your own investments as specifically as exchange-traded funds or index funds is going to depend on your specific 401(k) plan, so that’s something that you’ll need to ask your 401(k) provider about.
But a lot of 401(k)s will actually set you up with what’s called a target-date fund. Target-date funds are really interesting because they automatically adjust your allocation over time. So if you start investing when you’re 20, your target-date fund will likely have a riskier group of investments held within it. And as you get closer to your target date of retirement, which is why they’re called that, your allocation will shift to be more conservative over time, and that’ll just happen in the background. That’s what most 401(k)s are made up of. So going in and changing what you’re investing in a 401(k) is pretty rare. You’ll likely just be in the investment in a target-date fund that is selected for you by your 401(k) provider.
Sean Pyles: Well, just to get to the core of our listener’s question and ask it straight out, are exchange-traded funds or ETFs a better “choice” for retirement investing versus index funds since ETFs are more tax efficient?
Alana Benson: Yes. So ETFs technically are more tax efficient than index funds just because of how they’re structured. When you sell an ETF, you’re typically selling it to another investor who’s buying it and the cash is coming directly from them and then you have to pay capital gains taxes. But it’s a little bit different with an index fund. And the long story short is that you could potentially owe capital gains taxes without actually selling a share because of how they’re structured. That being said, this happens a lot less frequently with index funds and ETFs than it does with other types of mutual funds. And from a tax perspective, ETFs generally have the upper hand over index fund, that’s true, but it’s a pretty minute difference and you probably will not have a huge tax bill just because you invested in an index fund versus an ETF. So if you have the option, maybe go with an ETF. If you don’t, I really don’t think you should be too stressed out about it.
Sean Pyles: OK. But in general, if you are investing for retirement through a retirement account like a Roth IRA or 401(k), the ETF versus index fund question probably isn’t that big of a concern since you most likely are not actively buying and selling stocks within these accounts, right?
Alana Benson: I’d say that’s true. And I think also to get to the listener’s question is that she’s talking about potentially doing this through a 401(k). Again, I’d stress like it’s fairly unlikely that you can actually do that unless your 401(k) provider allows you to do that. So the time that you’d run into this question is if you were investing, like you said, through a Roth IRA where you have to pick your investments yourself. Again, unless you are using a robo-advisor, in which the robo-advisor would pick investments for you. And most of the time robo-advisors invest you in a handful of ETFs and index funds as well. So you’ll be in the same investments no matter what.
Sara Rathner: So it sounds like what’s worth losing sleep over isn’t necessarily these decisions that don’t have massive differences between them, but more so just getting started on investing for retirement in the first place whenever you’re able to and consistently setting money aside for retirement over time and just letting those investments hopefully grow.
Alana Benson: Exactly.
Sara Rathner: So everybody save for retirement if you can. Anyway, Alana, is there anything else folks should keep in mind when deciding where and how to invest for retirement?
Alana Benson: I think you really said it. Keep in mind that the importance of account types should not be understated. So don’t just open a standard brokerage account if you think you could benefit from the tax advantages of something like a Roth IRA. Really make sure you know what type of account you want to get into and then start worrying about what types of investments you want to get into.
Sean Pyles: Well, Alana, thank you for joining us.
Alana Benson: Thank you for having me.
Sean Pyles: And now let’s get on to our takeaway tips. Sara, will you please kick us off?
Sara Rathner: Of course. First, understand how accounts are taxed. Roth IRAs, 401(k)s and other retirement accounts are taxed more favorably than brokerage accounts.
Sean Pyles: Next up, consider different investment options. Once you have your retirement account, you have a number of choices like target-date funds or a mutual funds.
Sara Rathner: And finally, investments have their tax differences too. ETFs are more tax efficient than index funds, but the difference is fairly small and it’s not typically a major factor in retirement accounts.
Sean Pyles: And that is all we have for this episode. Do you have a money question of your own? Turn to the nerds and call or text us your questions at 901-730-6373. That’s 901-730-NERD. You can also email us at [email protected] Visit nerdwallet.com/podcast for more info on this episode. And remember to follow, rate and review us wherever you’re getting this podcast.
Sara Rathner: And here’s our brief disclaimer. We are not financial or investment advisors. This Nerdy info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes and may not apply to your specific circumstances.
Sean Pyles: This episode was produced by myself with help from Liz Weston. We had fact-checking help from Pamela de la Fuente, Kaely Monahan mixed our audio, Jae Bratton wrote our show notes and a big thank you to the folks on the NerdWallet copy desk for all their help. And with that said, until next time, turn to the Nerds.
Roth IRA’s are for retirement, right? Generally speaking, yes.
But because of their general flexibility, they’ve also come to be an increasingly important way to pay for college. .medrectangle-3-multi-633border:none !important;display:block !important;float:none !important;line-height:0px;margin-bottom:15px !important;margin-left:auto !important;margin-right:auto !important;margin-top:15px !important;max-width:100% !important;min-height:250px;min-width:250px;padding:0;text-align:center !important;
A recent GF¢ reader question prompted me to write this article explaining the ins and outs of using a Roth IRA to pay for college.
Here was the question…
“Jeff, we have an 8 and a 6-year-old and are a little behind in saving for their college education. But the kicker is we’re also a little behind in saving for our own retirement. We know how much you love the Roth IRA so we’re very interested in starting one. A friend of ours had mentioned we could also use the Roth IRA to pay for college? Curious to know your thoughts. Love the blog!!”
Okay, let’s see if we answer the readers question on using a Roth IRA to pay for college. But a first a quick primer on my favorite retirement too, the Roth IRA…
The Basics on Roth IRA’s
Roth IRAs are like traditional IRAs, with a couple of twists. One is that the contributions that you make to the plan are not tax-deductible when made. Another is that funds can be withdrawn from the plan tax-free, as long as you’re at least 59 1/2 years old, and have participated in a Roth plan for at least five years.
Like a traditional IRA, for both 2015 and 2016, the most you can contribute to a Roth IRA is $5,500, or $6,500 if you are 50 or older.
There are income limits in order to be able to participate in the plan. The Roth IRA income limitation for married taxpayers filing a joint return is $183,000 for 2015, and $184,000 for 2016. For all others (other than married filing separate) it’s $116,000 for 2015, and $117,000 for 2016.
There’s no tax deduction on the contributions, but that is more than offset by the fact that withdrawals can be taken on a tax-free basis. That’s the biggest advantage of the plan.
Since a Roth IRA is first and foremost a retirement plan, why should you even consider it for funding a college education?
The Benefits of Using a Roth IRA to Pay for College
Even though the Roth IRA was never intended to fund a college education, it has gradually developed into an important secondary purpose. And there are a lot of smart reasons why this is happening.
Here are a few:
Roth IRAs grow faster than taxable accounts. Investment income accumulates on a tax-deferred basis in a Roth IRA. That means that the investment earnings grow much more quickly in a Roth then they will in a taxable account, such as brokerage account or mutual fund.
Roth IRAs are self-directed accounts. This means that you can invest your account anywhere you like, and in any investments that you prefer.
You can withdraw money any time.This, of course, is a mixed bag. Your contributions can be withdrawn at any time without being subject to tax since there was no tax deduction taken when they were made. The distributions will be pro-rated between your contributions and investment earnings. That means that at least some of the distribution will be taxable if the money is withdrawn prior to your turning 59 1/2, and being invested in the plan for at least five years.
No restrictions on how the money is spent. Dedicated college savings plans, like 529 plans, restrict distributions for educational purposes only. There are no such restrictions on distributions from a Roth IRA. You could use the money to pay for college – or you could use it for retirement – it’s your choice.
No tax penalty for education-related withdrawals. If you withdraw the money before reaching age 59 1/2, you’ll generally have to pay a 10% penalty tax. However, the penalty tax is waived if the funds are used for education.
So far, so good.
The Downsides of Using a Roth IRA to Pay for College
In the interest of balance, I should also disclose that using a Roth IRA to pay for college is not without a few drawbacks.
The distributions will be partially taxable if taken early. There’s good news and bad news here – let’s start with the good news. Since there is no tax deduction for making contributions into a Roth IRA, the portion that is withdrawn that represents the contributions will not be subject to income tax.
Also, the 10% penalty tax for early withdrawals can be waived if the money used to fund a college education. And if you are at least age 59 1/2, and have been participating in your plan for at least five years, the entire distribution – including investment earnings on your contributions – can be withdrawn tax-free. The downside is if you are not 59 1/2, and/or have not been participating in the plan for at least five years, in which case the earnings will be fully taxable, even if the 10% penalty is waived.
Roth distributions can inflate your income. Speaking of distributions, the amount of the withdrawal will be added to your regular income, and must be reported on your FAFSA application. That will increase your income, and could hurt your ability to obtain financial aid and other benefits.
You may not be eligible to start a Roth IRA. Not everyone is eligible to participate in a Roth IRA, as I noted with the income limitations described earlier in this post. Even if you are eligible right now, if you start a Roth IRA for the purpose of funding your children’s education when they are very young, it’s entirely possible that you will exceed the income threshold at some point in the future, at which point you’ll be forced to stop the contributions.
Low contribution limits. As noted at the beginning of this post, your contributions are limited to $5,500 or $6,500 per year. That will probably be inadequate if you’re trying to fund college for multiple children, and especially if there are only a few years left before college begins.
You may be compromising your own retirement. The primary purpose of a Roth IRA is of course retirement, not college funding. If your Roth IRA is a major component of your retirement plan, you may want to seriously consider whether you want to divert money into education, and away from retirement. There are, after all, other ways to finance a college education.
Speaking of which –
Using a 529 Plan Instead
529 plans are specifically designed to fund a college education, and they are generally more effective for that purpose than Roth IRA’s. 529 plans are actually state-sponsored and state-specific, so there will be some limits on how and where you can hold the accounts.
A 529 plan functions much like a retirement plan, and very close to the Roth IRA. Just as is the case with a Roth, the contributions you make to the plan are not tax-deductible, however, the money in the account earns tax-free investment income for federal income tax purposes.
Funds that are later withdrawn for qualified higher education expenses can be taken without being subject income tax. If however funds are withdrawn and used for purposes other than qualified higher education expenses, the distribution will be subject to both federal income tax and the 10% penalty tax. Both the tax and the penalty apply only to investment income in the account, and not to your actual contributions.
One of the biggest advantages of a 529 plan compared to a Roth IRA is that there are no income restrictions limiting your participation in the program.
And the contributions are also a lot more generous. Currently, you can contribute up to $14,000 per year, per taxpayer, per beneficiary. That means that you and your spouse can contribute up to $28,000 to a 529 plan established for each of your children.
You can actually contribute more than this, however, $14,000 is the threshold that triggers the federal gift tax. If you plan to exceed the threshold, you’ll need to consult with your tax advisor as to the best way to proceed, as well as the specific returns that will need to be filed.
So Should You Use a Roth IRA to Pay for College?
In a perfect world, you have a 529 plan set up for each of your children, that would represent the foundation of your education planning. But if you can’t afford to do that, and you still want to make at least loose plans to fund their education in advance, a Roth IRA is an excellent way to go.
If you are in a position to do so, having both a 529 – as the base plan – supplemented by a Roth IRA, is solid financial planning. The Roth IRA can be set up primarily for retirement, but still be available as a secondary source of college education funding, should it be necessary.
If you do elect to use the Roth IRA for college savings, please don’t make the mistake of saving more for your kids and not enough for your retirement.
Whatever you choose to do, make sure you discuss all of the details and ramifications with your tax advisor. Since everyone’s financial lives and tax situations are different, you need to know if either or both plans will be a good fit for your family.
How Often Should You Rebalance Your Portfolio? – SmartAsset
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Choosing the right asset allocation matters for achieving your investment goals. But it isn’t just set-it-and-forget-it. Rebalancing your portfolio from time to time is necessary to ensure that you have the right mix of investments, based on your goals and risk tolerance. The question is, when do you need to rebalance? Knowing how often to rebalance portfolio allocation is a basic – yet important – investing lesson to learn. A financial advisor can offer valuable insights as you rebalance your portfolio.
What Is Portfolio Rebalancing and Why Is It Important?
Portfolio rebalancing simply means adjusting the weightings of different assets in your portfolio. This is achieved by buying and/or selling securities to bring your asset allocation back in line with your goals.
For example, say you prefer to hold 80% of your investments in stocks and 20% in bonds. But higher-than-expected returns have pushed the stock portion of your portfolio to 90%. To get back to your ideal 80/20 mix, you’d have to sell off some of your stocks or purchase more bonds to act as a counterweight.
Portfolio rebalancing matters for maintaining the appropriate level of risk in your portfolio. Say you’re more risk-averse and prefer to hold a higher proportion of bonds. If you don’t rebalance, you could expose yourself to more risk than you’re comfortable with if the stock portion of your portfolio grows.
On the other hand, failing to rebalance could mean you’re not taking enough risk to achieve your investment goals. You could end up with too much of your money in bonds or fixed-income investments, which could limit your portfolio’s growth potential.
Rebalancing regularly can help with maintaining a diversified portfolio. It’s also an opportunity to take a closer look at what you own to decide if those investments still match up with your needs and objectives.
How Often to Rebalance Portfolio?
Deciding how often to rebalance your portfolio is entirely a personal decision. You could do it monthly, quarterly, biannually or once a year. The advantage of using a time-based approach is that it’s easier to get into a habit of rebalancing, so you don’t forget to do it. And while you’re rebalancing, you may tackle other tasks as well, such as reviewing expense ratios for the mutual funds or exchange-traded funds you hold or commissions you’re paying to your brokerage.
You can also choose to rebalance once your asset allocation reaches a specific tipping point. So again, say you’re focused on investing 80% of your portfolio in stocks and 20% in bonds. You may set a rule for yourself to rebalance any time the stock portion of your portfolio grows to 85%. This is a fairly standard rule of thumb to follow, though you may choose a different percentage instead. For example, you may decide to rebalance if your asset allocation changes by 10% or 15%.
The advantage of rebalancing this way is that it allows you to avoid having your portfolio allocation be off-kilter for extended periods of time. If you were to only rebalance once a year, for example, it’s possible that you could go most or all of the year with an asset allocation that doesn’t match up to your goals or risk tolerance.
The key with either approach is to avoid overdoing it. Say you follow a set calendar for rebalancing quarterly. Rebalancing just because it’s time to rebalance may be counterproductive if your asset allocation hasn’t shifted course in a major way. Likewise, rebalancing once your asset allocation moves beyond a set percentage range could be problematic if it means paying more fees to your brokerage.
While many brokerages have adopted $0 commission trades for U.S. stocks and ETFs, fees may still apply to trade mutual funds or bonds. So even though rebalancing could help you to keep your portfolio in line, it may mean paying higher fees.
How to Rebalance Your Portfolio
If you want to rebalance your portfolio, the first step is to take an inventory of your current holdings. Specifically, you’ll want to break down what percentage of your portfolio is dedicated to different asset classes, i.e. stocks, bonds, cash and cash equivalents, real estate, etc. You can also drill down even further by looking at your allocation to domestic versus international investments and by market sector.
So if 80% of your portfolio is made up of stocks, for example, consider:
How much of that is U.S. stocks
How much is international stocks
Which stock sectors you own (i.e. healthcare, financials, utilities, etc.)
Whether you own more large-caps, mid-caps or small-caps
How much of your investments are in growth vs. value stocks
Digging deeper into your holdings can help you quantify which type of investments you need and want to have in your portfolio, based on your preferred investing strategy. If you set your asset allocation by age, for example, then your ideal allocation should reflect the level of risk that a person in your age range would typically be comfortable with.
Once you know what you own and what your ideal asset allocation should be, you can rebalance by buying or selling securities as needed. You may also want to consider asset location along with allocation. Asset location means where you keep your investments.
So you might have money invested in a taxable brokerage account, a 401(k) plan at work and an individual retirement account (IRA). All three have different tax profiles and all three may offer a different range of investments or charge different fees. When rebalancing, it’s important to consider the entirety of your portfolio across all investment accounts to decide where to keep which assets.
For example, your 401(k) may include target-date funds. These funds base their asset allocation on your target retirement date, then rebalance themselves automatically as you get nearer to that date. If the majority of your 401(k) is invested in a target-date fund then you may not need to do much to rebalance. But you’d still want to look at the fund’s underlying holdings and compare them to the funds you hold in your IRA or brokerage account. This way, you can avoid becoming accidentally overweighted.
Also, consider whether it makes sense to let an algorithm rebalance for you if you’re investing with a robo-advisor. Some, though not all, robo-advisory platforms include automatic rebalancing as an account feature. The pro is that you don’t have to do any heavy lifting to rebalance. The con, of course, is that rebalancing decisions are guided by an algorithm rather than a human perspective. So that’s one reason you may still want to talk to a financial advisor about the right way to rebalance.
The Bottom Line
There’s no single answer for how often to rebalance a portfolio. At a minimum, it can be helpful to review your portfolio and rebalance as needed at least once a year. The important thing when deciding how often to rebalance is to choose a frequency that fits your overall investing style.
Tips for Investing
If you’re considering a robo-advisor for automatic rebalancing, remember to weigh the costs as well as the other features that may be included. Robo-advisors typically charge an annual management fee which may or may not be tiered based on your account balance. So you might pay a management fee of 0.25% or 0.30%, which is lower than the 1% typically charged by human advisors. But think about what you’re getting in return, aside from automatic rebalancing. Is tax-loss harvesting included? Do you have the opportunity to speak to a human advisor if needed? Asking those kinds of questions can help you decide if a robo-advisor is right for you.
Consider talking to a financial advisor about the ins and outs of portfolio rebalancing and why it’s important. Finding a qualified financial advisor doesn’t have to be hard. SmartAsset’s free tool matches you with up to three financial advisors in your area, and you can interview your advisor matches at no cost to decide which one is right for you. If you’re ready to find an advisor who can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.
Rebecca Lake, CEPF®
Rebecca Lake is a retirement, investing and estate planning expert who has been writing about personal finance for a decade. Her expertise in the finance niche also extends to home buying, credit cards, banking and small business. She’s worked directly with several major financial and insurance brands, including Citibank, Discover and AIG and her writing has appeared online at U.S. News and World Report, CreditCards.com and Investopedia. Rebecca is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and she also attended Charleston Southern University as a graduate student. Originally from central Virginia, she now lives on the North Carolina coast along with her two children.
Over the past couple of years I’ve looked at, and reviewed, quite a few online brokers. There are a lot of pretty good ones out there, but even among all the good ones I’ve reviewed, TD Ameritrade stands out from the pack. They’ve been honored by multiple financial publications like Smart Money, Kiplinger and Barron’s for their great web and mobile tools, usability, commitment to customer education and just being a great place for investors of all types – especially long term investors.
Today I thought I’d do a TD Ameritrade review, exploring their history, the industry awards they’ve received, as well as looking at the important stuff like fees, tools and mobile trading options. So let’s get started.
TD Ameritrade Background
TD Ameritrade has been around for quite a while, tracing it’s roots back to a company launched in the 1960s called Rahel, Knack and Co. From Wikipedia:
The company started as an investment banking business named Rahel, Knack and Co. in the 1960s in Omaha, Nebraska. It was purchased in 1975 by J. Joseph Ricketts, Robert Perelman, and David G. Kellogg, renamed First Omaha Securities, and became one of the first firms to offer negotiated commissions.
Ricketts acquired the company completely from the other two founders in 1981. The company became AmeriTrade Clearing in 1983. In March 1997, Ameritrade became a publicly held company. In 2005 Ameritrade acquired TD Waterhouse and was renamed TD Ameritrade.
Today TD Ameritrade has over 6 million U.S. customers, and more if you include international customers. As of 2008 they were 746th-largest US firm.
TD Ameritrade is member of SIPC, which means your investments are protected by SIPC insurance up to $500,000 and $100,000 of it can be in cash. This means that you are protected against the company going into insolvency. You are not protected against market losses.
Awards
TD Ameritrade has received a lot of praise as one of the top online brokers in the industry. Among the awards they’ve received in the past couple of years:
Kiplinger named them #1 Best online broker for 2011 and called them “a great value proposition for long-term investors“.
Barron’s ranked TD Ameritrade #1 Best site for novices in their 2012 annual review of online stock and option brokers.
Barron’s ranked TD Ameritrade #2 Best site for long term investing in their 2012 annual review of online stock and option brokers.
Barron’s ranked TD Ameritrade #3 Best site for options traders in their 2012 annual review of online stock and option brokers.
Smart Money recognized them as the #1 discount brokerage firm, tied with one other company in SmartMoney’s 2011 review of online brokers
Stockbrokers.com ranked TD Ameritrade #1 overall broker in their 2012 broker review.
As you can see the last couple of years TD Ameritrade has consistently been rated as one of the top platforms for investing, especially for long term investors like I am.
TD Ameritrade Fees, Commissions And Minimums
When you’re opening an online brokerage account one of the first things you should probably look at is what your fees, commissions and minimums on your account will be. With TD Ameritrade you’ll get no account minimums, no maintenance fees and really no other unexpected fees.
Stock Trades
TD Ameritrade has $9.99 stock trades, which are definitely are in line with industry average. For what you’re getting with them for tools and research it is definitely a decent price.
Options Trades
For option trades, they also charge $9.99 per trade, plus 75 cents per contract.
Fees And Minimums For An Account
TD Ameritrade doesn’t have account maintenance fees, monthly minimums, inactivity fees. Broker assisted stock trades are $49.99. To see a full schedule of their fees, head on over to their site.
There is also no minimum account funding level to open a cash account and a $2,000 minimum to open an options or margin account.
TD Ameritrade Tools
TD Ameritrade has some great tools you can access via their platform. For example, the Trade Architect tool-set includes things like custom charts, probability and earnings analysis, stocks watch lists, integrated community to give you help and more.
TD Ameritrade’s Thinkorswim Trading Platform has also been voted the number one trading platform by Barron’s. So you know their trading tools are top notch. Their award winning mobile trading apps are available for Blackberry, iPhone, Ipad, Android, or Windows phone. Trading on the go should never be a problem.
TD also has a ton of research available if you want to investigate stocks before you buy. They offer investing and trading reports from Jaywalk Consensus, Research Team, Market Edge, S&P Columns, and S&P Research. Premium reports are also available for an additional charge if you want to get even more in depth. For the average person, however, they have a ton of knowledge available at their fingertips.
TD Ameritrade Account Types
TD Ameritrade has a ton of investment account options for individuals, families and more. If you want to open a retirement or investing account, they’ve probably got you covered:
Standard Accounts: Individual, Joint Tenants, Tenant in Common, Community Property, Tenants by the Entireties, Guardianship or Conservatorship.
Retirement Accounts: Traditional and Roth IRAs, Rollover IRA, SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRA
Education Savings Accounts: 529, Coverdell ESA, UGMA/UTMA.
Specialty Investing Accounts: Trust, Limited Partnership, Partnership, Investment Club, LLC, Sole Proprietorship, Corporate, Non-Incorporated Organization, Pension or Profit Plan for Small Business.
Open Your Own TD Ameritrade Account Today
Conclusion
When considering an online discount brokerage TD Ameritrade is definitely one of the most awarded and most recommended options out there. They’ve got low fees, reasonable commissions and their online trading tools and research are second to none. Their Ipad app is also one of the best available.
Add to that the fact that they’ve been awarded extensively in the last year, with at least 4 publications giving them a #1 rating as best online brokerage or best for long term investors, and you’ve got one of my top brokerage options to consider. Definitely put them on your short list.
Have you used TD Ameritrade? What has your experience been like? Are you happy with them? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.
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