#the 403b one kills me | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nettheworldonfire · 2 years

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Prognosis Pressure Popping Point

Every few months, after my scans, I have a telehealth appointment with my highly respected Penn oncologist -- Dr. Ursina Teitelbaum. She is a warm, knowledgeable, and down-to-Earth doctor. I love her. However, I like brashness. I like clearly defined diagnoses and treatment plans. I like explicitly calculated timelines and direct answers to my wildly disorganized stream-of-mind questions. In the medical world, no one EVER wants to give you this. Why is that? Well, science (something many people have recently been taking as theory, rather than researched conclusions) is constantly criticized for it’s ever changing rules. Those in the medical profession are never given the benefit of the doubt -- always ask for a second opinion, right? Medicine, by nature, is one of the most complex guess-and-check industries in the universe. So how can you blame doctors for giving vague responses, rough estimates, and a lot of “let’s cross that bridge when we get to it” mentality.

Does that make me any less of a psychopath demanding to hear the kind-hearted Dr. T. identify a date of departure like she’s a fortune-teller? No, no it doesn’t.

On my 39th birthday, after discussing a lot of “what does this mean, what does that mean” with the good doc, I bluntly asked her about my prognosis for the gazillionth time, to which she obliged.

My tumors are growing, ever so slightly, as a good NET does. The medicine is likely slowing that growth down tremendously. It’s working right now. At the rate it’s working, it would appear to keep working, enough that nothing else needs to be done, for 2-3 more years. This means, I don’t need to do anything other than scan, inject, inject, inject, repeat for quite some time. When the lanreotide injections stop working, some form of targeted liver treatment will occur (like embolization). On average, that works for 2-3 years and in rare occasions, it works a second time (so 4-6 years maybe). Then there are more “last ditch effort” treatments such as PRRT and a new trial that is in the works (and so far so good) right now. All of this information, I have been told, and told again -- but it still was so vague and didn’t really answer my question...

How long do you think I have?

Of course, I peppered in the assurance that I wouldn’t hold her to anything and wouldn’t be upset if she was wrong, but that I simply wanted someone with more knowledge than me, to give their best guess so that I could prepare for a life that will end early and the life of a family who will have to continue without me.

Dr. T. said, in five years, she thinks I’ll be “comfy” but she’s a lot less sure about ten years from now.

I wanted to hear this. Well, no. I wanted to hear that I was on a pilot episode of a Punk’d reboot and this was all some kind of sick, decade long joke. But if something is going to kill me, sooner than I should be killed, then I’d like to know when. Or at least I thought I did.

Maybe it was because it was on my birthday and turning 39 feels like the end of something. Maybe it was looking at my kids and thinking, I might not see them hit their teens. Maybe it was dealing with multiple trauma-related issues that arise in the students I teach daily. Maybe it was just the gravity of my situation, finally sinking in, after keeping it ever-so-slightly distant in my mind for the longest time. But it hit me hard.

I’m not ready. Not ready for death. Not ready for sickness. Not ready to plan for either. I’m so tired and drained by daily life, that I don’t have the energy to think about the what-ifs, even though they are more like the when this happens...

It’s hard to think about a timeline when it’s as long as this is. If someone said you had 6 weeks or even 6 months, you could say, well fuck. I’m quitting my job, traveling, spending every moment experiencing life with those I love. But 6 years, or 10, is like..well, I still need to put money in a 403B, just in case, and I need to plan for the hubs and kids during the A.D. years, too. You can’t go buck wild on life for 8 consecutive years while having kids, a full-time job, and general adult responsibilities. So, I go on with the daily rituals. I have stress and anxiety, I battle with weight and aging, I argue with people who have different beliefs, I worry about things I cannot control - and then I reflect on whether any of this even matters or if I’m just wasting my time.

I live for the weekends and down time, revel in the end of a marking period or semester, and feel a sense of relief as I get the kids to sleep -- and then I think about how stupid I am for letting time slip away so carelessly.

In the past two weeks, I’ve tried to think more about the positives, the things that I accomplish, the wins.

I asked for a definite prognosis and the remainder of my life was given a numeric value. Now, it’s my job to increase the actual value of the life I live.

Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined. - Toni Morrison

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kennethherrerablog · 5 years

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Blooom Review: Affordable Online 401k Management For The 99%

I was 23 years old and getting ready to start my career as a firefighter.

It was a twelve week long academy where we would spend 50 hours per week fighting fire, pulling heavy hoses, climbing ladders, learning how to safely rescue a trapped victim, and how to not get killed inside our dangerous profession.

In addition to everything I just mentioned, we also spent one hour at the very end of a long academy going over our retirement plan.

One whole hour.

Table of Contents

Did this Happen to You too?

Why Would They Want to Confuse Us?

What Can You Do About It?

Do it Yourself

Self Directed Option

Blooom: Professionally managed for $10/month

How Blooom Does It

So, How Does Blooom Work?

What Does This Look Like?

The Story Behind Blooom

When Blooom is NOT a Good Fit

Questions I had for their founder

Do I have any control over my 401(k)?

Just 401(k) plans?

How long does it take for Blooom to do a free analysis?

How long does it take Blooom to fix my 401(k)?

Does Blooom notify me when they make a change to my investments?

Is it all done by computers or by people?

Is there someone I can actually talk to at Blooom about my 401(k)?

Are the any other fees?

Do I have to move my 401(k) anywhere?

Is Blooom a fiduciary?

Next steps for you

Did this Happen to You too?

You started your career and spent five minutes going over your 401(k) plan with your HR department during employee orientation?

This is all too common and today I speak with so many people who are saying things like:

“I have a 401(k)…I think.”

“I should be contributing to my retirement, but I don’t.”

“I think my employer is saving for me.” (Sadly, many are not.)

“I looked inside the pamphlet they sent me and it was really confusing.”

“I’ll just save for my retirement later.”

“I don’t know how my retirement is doing because I’ve never looked at it.”

The problem isn’t you, the problem is the system is completely broken and you are left to figure it out all by yourself.

This may be a little bit conspiracy-ish, but in his book Unshakeable, Tony Robbins interviews the world’s top 50 investors, and what he discovers is shocking to say the least.

In a nutshell, our 401(k) plans are designed to be as confusing as possible.

Why Would They Want to Confuse Us?

Well, as Tony Robbins describes in his book, the less you know the more they make (for themselves).

Think about it – the mutual fund companies inside your 401(k) are required to send you a prospectus each quarter, but have you ever opened one of these up and peeked inside?

Do yourself a favor and try reading through the next one that comes come in the mail. I have friends who are licensed financial advisors with decades of experience who will tell you they don’t even have a clue what is going on in there.

Not to mention, it’s also 50-pages long and written in a very hard-to-read light gray ink with a size 6 font!

I don’t think these things were ever really meant to be read.

What Can You Do About It?

There are some great choices you can take to have a better chance at a rewarding retirement, and each one of them comes with it’s pros and cons based on your level of experience.

Do it Yourself

According to the CNBC, there are on average 25 investment options for you to choose from inside your 401(k). These can be made up of mutual funds, stocks, bonds, company stock, money market accounts, target date funds, and more.

In addition to these options, you still need to identify the pros and cons for each of your investment choices in terms of fees, performance, and any underlying rules that are unique to a fund.

If you don’t have an investment background and you don’t want to dive in and learn, I would not recommend you use the DIY method when saving for your retirement and your future.

Pro: You have complete control inside your 401(k).

Con: Unless you have an investment background, this can often be overwhelming for the majority of plan participants.

Self Directed Option

The majority of 401(k) plans offer a self-directed account (SDA) into a brokerage account. This allows plan participants to still save pre-tax dollars inside their 401(k), but opens up their investment options to a whole universe of funds versus the limited funds inside the employer-sponsored 401(k).

Pro: You are no longer limited to the pre-determined investment choices inside your 401(k) and your financial advisor can now help manage your 401(k) plan via a Schwab brokerage account for example.

Cons: Since you now have access to a universe of investment options, it can become extremely overwhelming to choose where to invest. In addition, if you choose to have a your 401(k) managed by a certified financial advisor, you will be paying an added management fee which can eat into nest egg over time.

Blooom: Professionally managed for $10/month

Blooom (yes, with three o’s), takes the best of both worlds – professionally managing the available funds inside your 401(k) for a flat fee of $10/month.

How Blooom Does It

Blooom attaches to your 401(k) plan and uses a proprietary algorithm to analyze and optimize your investment portfolio.

So, How Does Blooom Work?

Free Review of your current allocations: They have a free feature which is as simple as it gets. Once you create a free Blooom account and connect your employer sponsored plan via their software, they do a full analysis of your 401(k) plan.

To make it as user-friendly as possible, they use a flower symbol to show you the health of your current 401(k) performance and even gives you recommendations to improve it. If you chose to be a do-it-yourselfer, you can take their advice and optimize your 401(k) at no extra cost to you.

Checking Your Current Expenses: As mentioned above, your 401(k) plan offers limited investment options and many of them have hidden high fees. Blooom takes a look at all of your plan’s investment choices and breaks each one of them down into one of 14 categories.

Blooom then uses their proprietary software to analyze your proposed retirement date versus your expense ratios (fees) for each fund, and creates the optimal low-cost portfolio inside your current 401(k).

What to Expect:

First Blooom will analyze your current 401(k) asset allocations and will show you what how good or or bad your 401k is doing

Blooom shows you what is the best option for you using their proprietary software.

They have a simple slider for you to drag to help determine your risk tolerance.

There is also a tool to show you what you need to do to retire earlier

Also, Blooom allows you to add in other 401(k) accounts and you can compare both managed and non-managed funds inside the dashboard.

Access to Financial advisors: You will have access to one of their financial advisors, but only via email and/or online chat. Blooom’s founder told me their financial advisors are available to answer any questions – even those outside of investing into your 401(k) (paying off debt, planning a budget, and preparing for life events).

The Cost: Similar to Netflix – $10/month and it’s month-to-month.

This may be my favorite piece of the pie because today’s fees inside your 401(k) are completely out of control.

According to the Motley Fool, “a typical worker — earning the median income and paying the average 401(k) fees over their lifetime — will be assessed a total of $138,336 in fees. And the cost is much more severe for high-income workers, who, assuming a starting salary of $75,000 at age 25, are projected to pay an estimated $340,147 over their lifetimes, thanks to the fee structure of the average 401(k) plan.”

Blooom not only charges a $10/month flat fee, but they also don’t take that $10 from your 401(k) account. Instead, they charge your credit/debit card on file and you can start/stop at anytime.

What Does This Look Like?

I am going to use the 1% average fee you would pay your financial advisor via a Self Directed Account to a brokerage account as the example.

Account Balance: $100,000

Annual cost with SDA: $1,000 per year

Annual cost with Blooom: $120 per year (0.12% vs 1%)

Account Balance: $50,000

Annual cost with SDA: $500 per year

Annual cost with Blooom: $120 per year (0.24% vs 1%)

Account Balance: $25,000

Annual Cost with SDA: $250 per year

Annual cost with Blooom: $120 per year (0.48% versus 1%)

Account Balance: $10,000

Annual Cost with SDA: $100 per year

Annual cost with Blooom: $120 per year (1.2% versus 1%)

Account Balance: $2,000

Annual Cost with SDA: $20 per year

Annual cost with Blooom: $120 per year (6% versus 1%)

The Story Behind Blooom

When Blooom is NOT a Good Fit

As you can see from the fee breakdown, Blooom uses a flat monthly fee which which does not make sense for 401(k) accounts with a lower account balance.

For example, if you had a balance of $10,000, you would be paying more to use Blooom since the $10/month represents a higher percentage (1.2%) versus the traditional 1% model in terms of fees.

If you find yourself in this category, I would recommend utilizing Blooom’s free services to analyze your current portfolio until your balance has grown to a point where the monthly cost is an actual savings versus an added expense.

Get a FREE Checkup On Your 401(k)

and a free month to start

Questions I had for their founder

I had Chris Costello on Episode 71 of the Money Peach Podcast to learn as much as I could about Blooom and ask some questions about their service.

Do I have any control over my 401(k)?

Yes, you maintain full control of your account at all times.

Just 401(k) plans?

No. Blooom can work with 401k, 403b, 401a and 457 accounts.

How long does it take for Blooom to do a free analysis?

Approximately 5 minutes.

How long does it take Blooom to fix my 401(k)?

Within 10 – 30 days your account will be adjusted.

Does Blooom notify me when they make a change to my investments?

Yes, they will send you an email anytime a transaction is made.

Is it all done by computers or by people?

Blooom mainly uses an algorithm (computer) to determine how your investments are managed, but they also have registered advisors continuously testing and reconfirming the algorithms.

Is there someone I can actually talk to at Blooom about my 401(k)?

Yes, you can log into your account and connect via live chat, through email, or by calling 1-888-550-9956

Are the any other fees?

Blooom only identifies the investment fees in the account, there are most likely other administrative fees included that blooom will not identify. Plus, blooom is limited to the investment options in the employer sponsored retirement plan and will seek out the most cost-effective options from what is available and what is most appropriate for the client’s time to retirement.

Do I have to move my 401(k) anywhere?

No. As long as you have online access to your 401(k), Blooom simply connects to it just as you would logging in from your computer.

Is Blooom a fiduciary?

Yes. This term means they are required by law to act in your best interest, no matter what. Currently only 10% of financial advisors are fiduciaries.

Optimize Your 401(k)

Investing in your employer sponsored plan is an absolute must because of the pre-tax advantageous, the tax-free growth, and the company match if your employer has one.

Once you have your 401(k) operating as efficiently as possible, it’s time to start thinking about your next step – starting your ROTH IRA.

Next steps for you

Investing in your employer sponsored plan is an absolute must because of the pre-tax advantageous, the tax-free growth, and the company match if your employer has one.

Once you have your 401(k) operating as efficiently as possible, it’s time to start thinking about your next step – starting your ROTH IRA.

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Blooom Review: Affordable Online 401k Management For The 99% published first on https://justinbetreviews.tumblr.com/

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darcyfarber · 5 years