By Douglas French
While working folks are dodging layoffs, to make ends meet they are taking emergency withdrawals from their 401ks.
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21 sats \ 7 replies \ @grayruby 25 Mar 2024
Is there a tax penalty for withdrawing funds from your 401k in the US? In Canada you have to count it as ordinary income.
There a first time homebuyers program where you can withdraw from your retirement account to put a downpayment on a home but you need to put it back over the next ten years or it is taxed as ordinary income.
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50 sats \ 6 replies \ @Undisciplined OP 25 Mar 2024
I'm not sure of the details exactly, but you can basically borrow money from your 401k as long as you repay it. I think there are also similar first time homebuyer programs.
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21 sats \ 5 replies \ @grayruby 25 Mar 2024
Can you have self-directed accounts or you have to be in mutual/index funds? One thing I do like about the Canadian system is now you can have self-directed RRSPs (registered retirement savings plans) I was able to transfer my rrsp I acquired when I worked a corporate job many moons ago from a crappy high fee mutual fund offering into my own person rrsp account. You can't do it for pension plans, I also have a pension plan from my corporate days and I am stuck in the high fee Sunlife products, so they can afford to put their logo on the Raptors jerseys, for that one.
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50 sats \ 4 replies \ @Undisciplined OP 25 Mar 2024
I haven't looked deeply into it, but my understanding is that there are ways to invest in almost anything through your retirement funds here. That includes physically held commodities and I imagine self-custodied bitcoin.
I still need to go through the hassle of converting my accounts from my previous employer into my own accounts. Part of my reluctance in doing it is being a little overwhelmed by the options, but I need to make it a priority.
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21 sats \ 3 replies \ @grayruby 25 Mar 2024
I have a very straight forward self directed retirement account. Just a couple index efts, a couple dividend paying stocks, bitcoin etf, gold etf, and a couple energy mlps.
I used to care a lot more about stock picking but liquidity is the only thing that seems to matter anymore so why spend all my time trying to outsmart the market by finding undervalued companies.
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50 sats \ 2 replies \ @Undisciplined OP 25 Mar 2024
I'm stuck with mutual funds for now. I've just been using a rebalancing strategy while holding funds of different types of assets from different places. I don't have to give it much thought and it sort of automatically buys low-ish and sells high-ish throughout the business cycle.
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21 sats \ 1 reply \ @grayruby 25 Mar 2024
Fees suck though.
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50 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined OP 25 Mar 2024
Yeah. I need to do it, but I keep procrastinating because I know it's going to be a huge pain in the ass.
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