Thread: Moving your money to a 401(k) plan elsewhere.

I'm still very serious about switching to a zecco ira if TSP unlimited trading is rolled back. But wanted to post this page about "hidden costs" at zecco. Bank of America brokerage also offers free trading by the way. There's no free lunch so I'm not surprised about hidden costs.

My biggest worry is that if we have a recession and zecco gets bought out by etrade or scwab or some big broker, then the rules will probably regress and then I WILL be concerned. "No guts no glory" as they say. I still hope the TSP limits are NOT rolled back.

Here's the link about hidden costs at Zecco (which seems like many could be avoided if you wanted to be frugal.)

http://tinyurl.com/2uqghq

or spelled out with a carriage return in case the tinyurl expires:

http://mrwavetheory.blogspot.com/2006/10/
zecco-not-entirely-free-lots-of-hidden.html

Here's another link with some useful info about pros and cons. It looks to be a bit old since the latest is that the IRA zecco account has a $50 annual admin charge.

http://tinyurl.com/2og4w7

and with a carriage return in case of tinyurl expiration:

http://www.seekingalpha.com/article/
27373-is-zecco-com-any-match-for-wells-fargo-and-bank-of-america

To good to be true. Dang it, I'll have to stick to Scott.

Any inclination to seek out a non-USA broker to hold assets in foreign currency? I'm not sure what currency to bet on long term but ours may become much less a safe haven in favor of something else.

I asked this question in another thread, perhaps this is the more appropriate one to get an answer from.

Does anyone know if there is any alternative to preserving one’s capital as we can with the G Fund if one were to transfer their TSP accounts to accounts such as Charles Schwab or Fidelity or Ameri-Trade or any of the others mentioned above?

Originally Posted by Miss Piggy

I asked this question in another thread, perhaps this is the more appropriate one to get an answer from.

Does anyone know if there is any alternative to preserving one’s capital as we can with the G Fund if one were to transfer their TSP accounts to accounts such as Charles Schwab or Fidelity or Ameri-Trade or any of the others mentioned above?

Since I'm investigating the options, I did some brief research last week and easily came up with some substitutes which means there are probably better ones if I spend more time looking but this is what I have so far. I'm not one of the most experienced at this so would appreciate if you would investigate further or if you find someone else who has, please report back.

S fund - AMEX:VXF
C fund - SPY:AMEX
I fund - NYSE:EFA
F fund - NYSEArca:AGG
G fund - AMEX:SHY

Next, I need to find out if these are available for trading by all or most brokers of IRA's. I'm especially interested in Zecco, Bank of America and Wells Fargo because of their "free trading" options.

Originally Posted by Miss Piggy

I asked this question in another thread, perhaps this is the more appropriate one to get an answer from.

Does anyone know if there is any alternative to preserving one’s capital as we can with the G Fund if one were to transfer their TSP accounts to accounts such as Charles Schwab or Fidelity or Ameri-Trade or any of the others mentioned above?

Your money actually goes in to a money market 'type' account from which you will trade from. That money market account usually has a pretty decent rate. I'm not sure if it is garaunteed, that's why I put 'type' in parens.

Originally Posted by ayla

Since I'm investigating the options, I did some brief research last week and easily came up with some substitutes which means there are probably better ones if I spend more time looking but this is what I have so far. I'm not one of the most experienced at this so would appreciate if you would investigate further or if you find someone else who has, please report back.

S fund - AMEX:VXF
C fund - SPY:AMEX
I fund - NYSE:EFA
F fund - NYSEArca:AGG
G fund - AMEX:SHY

Next, I need to find out if these are available for trading by all or most brokers of IRA's. I'm especially interested in Zecco, Bank of America and Wells Fargo because of their "free trading" options.

(SHY) is a 1-3 yr bond fund. G fund is essentially a money market fund.

I like FUTURES option better. I just noticed that SHY (a.k.a. my proposed substitute for the G fund) is down today.

In our Schwab account, our cash always gets interest. I just read up on it - they call it the "Schwab Cash Feature) as Futures has described if we are not using it for trades. Can't remember the rate but it doesn't "go down".

Now to see if this works with other brokers as well.

Hey Tom --

With the recent ETAC/TSP meeting plans to continue with IFT limits, maybe you could earn some advertising dollars by inviting some of the investment brokers/funds/whatever to advertise here to appeal to those of us who might be looking for better IRA options than what TSP is turning out to be.

It may not happen overnight but given the nature of capitalism and the inherent competition associated with it, seems like if I owned a brokerage, I would be setting up some kind of a plan that might be like a TSP "clone" to appeal to those of us who have the option to move our money.

Originally Posted by ayla

Hey Tom --

With the recent ETAC/TSP meeting plans to continue with IFT limits, maybe you could earn some advertising dollars by inviting some of the investment brokers/funds/whatever to advertise here to appeal to those of us who might be looking for better IRA options than what TSP is turning out to be.

It may not happen overnight but given the nature of capitalism and the inherent competition associated with it, seems like if I owned a brokerage, I would be setting up some kind of a plan that might be like a TSP "clone" to appeal to those of us who have the option to move our money.

Great idea; plus "pros and cons" of moving from or staying in TSP would be extremely helpful for us soon-to-be retirees.

Ed

Hope this info isn't too depressing for those of you who don't have an option to move your money away from TSP. But wanted to share this info about Zecco. This particular review is very insightful, I think. The offer of free trades definitely appears to be legit - 40 per month and from what I can find out (not at this link) this includes ETF's. (And they do have an IRA option) with apparent interest paid on cash balances.

The down side is that to this reviewer, their operation seems to be "unpolished" with inconveniences such as no phone access (or minimal anyway) making it difficult to resolve any problems if such problems arise.

His conclusion is that if you are doing simple buys and sells, he thinks its a good deal but he himself got burnt because of some delays so his enthusiasm is somewhat limited.

I'm definitely still interested but will wait until the TSP board drops the final bomb before I do something like this. I'm still hoping that maybe the limits as proposed won't happen.

http://tinyurl.com/yuzxq2

or full url with carriage return in case the tiny url above expires:

http://www.seekingalpha.com/article/
23199-test-driving-zecco-com-free-trading-but-at-a-price