All Forum Posts by: David C.

I have personal accounts at PNC Bank. But they mistakenly think it's not a personal signature.

They are confused and my money is trapped.

I'm furious.

I may have to open an account somewhere.

Maybe I'll find a friend with a good banker and make them my plan administrator?

I'm attempting to move my i401k from one financial institution to another.

I'll be adopting the 'prototype plan' for the receiving institution. To comply with their demands, I must move the existing funds in this plan from the old insititution.

The 'old institution' requires a Medallion Signature guarantee on the 'Plan Administrator' signature on the 'asset transfer form(s)'.

I am the Plan Administrator for the plan.

I'm having trouble getting my 'medallion' - I do most of my banking at a credit union, my balances are too high for their medallion. They suggested I go to a regular bank.

I have an account at PNC bank, but they are wrapped around the axle on the fact that I am: 1. participant 2. plan administrator and 3. officer of the sponsoring employer.

Because I have no business accounts with them, they think they cannot do the medallion - its only for customers. However, I'm not signing as an 'officer of the corporate employer' - I'm signing as 'plan administrator' which is me the individual, who is an account holder.

Any ideas of where else I can go for a medallion?

Does anyone have experience with this?

@Michael B.

thanks for that idea, I have the kick plate removed, and we are running the dishwasher right after dinner, rather than scheduling it for around 2 am, and so far its working through this latest polar vortex.

The kick plate had a lot of foam on it, I guess its mainly for sound insulation, but I suppose it was keeping the heat out from under the dishwasher, and the cold air from the outside wall was enough to stop the pump from operating?

Thanks!

@Gerald K. I'm guessing you have the book handy. Can you give me some quotes about his opinions on 401k plans? or the stock market?

How about some quotes about what he expenses to his corporations and why that's so great?

I'm sure you'll find a quote or two about 'education is important' but there is also quite a lot about it being a waste of time and money.

@Bryan L. didn't you learn from RK that the advice to 'go to school, get a good job and save for retirement' was a bad idea? you almost say that exactly above. Can you find me the quotes to support that?

@Bryan L. thinks its a great book for slamming retirement savings and college, but @Gerald K. insists that I find the page number to prove its in there.

I'm confused? @Gerald K. what do you think he says about these issues?

I'm most concerned for the average Joe who will use this book as an excuse to save nothing for retirement(401k is a scam), cheat on their taxes(he says everything is a business expense!), and quit school(advanced degrees are for losers).

I'm not afraid the experienced people here will fall for his nonsense, but they recommend it as a 'starting book' and its dangerous for the uneducated.

@Marcus Johnson

I agree that going away to an expensive college is a bad and expensive way to 'find yourself'.

However, its often very hard for people to 'go back' to school, so I'd push anyone I know who's unsure of what they want from college to at least go part-time to a local community college, taking basic courses that transfer well.

You keep yourself in the 'student' mindset. You are surrounded by students and teachers. You get to 'find yourself' and 'work' at the same time.

If you are a really terrible student and school it hell for you, only then would I say to bag out of college, but I would hope that you learned some skills(like your handyman example) that will get you better than 'part-time unskilled labor). Hopefully your high school did not 'college track everyone' blindly. That's a sad situation for students who just 'don't fit in school' who would be best served learning carpentry, or electrical wiring, or welding.

@Bryan L. I'm not here to beat the stock market.

I'm here to read horror stories of landlording to keep myself from becoming one because it sounds so cool.

I'm here to learn important rules like the 2% rule, the 50% rule.

I'm here to live vicariously through and learn from J Scott and Will Barnard.

I'm here to make contacts with Ali Boone and Chris Clothier.

I'm here to watch threads that slam the gurus and warn people away from them.

I'm here to learn something new each time Joel Owens posts.

I'm here to watch Steven Hamilton put the smack down on bad tax advice.

I'm here to see how long before Duncan Taylor gets banned or his head explodes.

As for only having the money when you are old, once you have slammed in the money for 10 years, you will be in a pretty good place, and the stress will melt away. Bosses really lose their teeth once you have your f.u. money. And you don't have to wait 40 years for 11 million to have your f.u. money. If you have your engineering degree and some work experience, and a few hundred grand in your 401k, you'll be stress free by 40.

I feel like it seems like I'm advocating against RE investing, that's not how I feel. I feel that RK's tax-cheating, education disdain, stock market misrepresenting, book, is a bad bad book. That's all. I think real estate is awesome, and if people have the drive like you @Bryan L. - people can do great things with RE.

If you enjoyed engineering and didn't have sucky bosses, and you put that same energy and passion into that and saved the absolute max in your 401k, you'd have gone very far and not had to worry about money for long.

@Bryan L. if you got laid off 3 times, you also found jobs 3 times, right? people without that engineering degree are not so lucky. You followed good advice when you got the degree.

As for the 401k only getting you to only 'above average' I beg to differ, all you have to do is be a bulldog. Max out the contributions, every year, up market and down market. Forget matching, reduce your taxes today, and get the money away from your grubby hands so you can't buy doodads. In 20 years, you'll be WAY ABOVE AVERAGE because most people think small and chase shiny baubles. For many people they think that 'maxxing out' means - "contribute enough to get the full employer match" - no, the max is the MAX.

I will admit, I'm self-employed for mainly the reason you cite, that companies don't invest in their employees or seem to value them, and I'm also self employed because of the amazing amounts you can pile into a solo-401k. Mainly I'm self employed because the consultants get the cool new projects while the employees are stuck keeping the old junk running. Also, the consultants make almost 3 times as much money in my line of work.

@Account Closed

I'm sorry for calling you out directly, it was rude, there was a point I wanted to make, that the 'good advice' culled from the book is often very generic - there are many books by authors who do not advocate cheating on taxes, who do not disdain education and hard work, etc... Those books could also have taught that lesson, but the one that keeps getting recommended number one is this horrible book.

I am proud of my son, and I appreciate that I was very lucky that my Dad taught me to be frugal and work hard, and save the difference. When I read RDPD, I feel like he would laugh at my Dad and his hard work - and I'm proud of my Dad - he came to this country with nothing, and worked a crappy job in a supermarket for his whole career and saved what he could. RK would call him a loser and a joke. He came from nothing and got his kids into a very good school district, and now his widow(my mom) has social security, his pension, a paid off house, and significant savings to draw on. He did great things and never made over 45,000/year. Hard working people who find a way to save the difference are great examples for our children.

I did not come from money or anything fancy, both of my parents were immigrants with high school education - they arrived here under 20 and with the clothes on their back. They knew what poor was, and they knew that being educated and in the US put you into the top spot in our world no matter what your net worth is.

As for hard money, the only side of that I'll ever be on is the lending side. I don't need to worry about who I offend - I have my f.u. money.

As some of my other ramblings say: the reality is the book gets a lot of people moving. Some of those people are successful. I'd bet many more are not, and are hurt greatly by this book.

@Ali Boone be careful using wealth as a litmus test for the people who you listen to. Bernie Madoff would have passed that test. And many great thinkers of our time would not.

Ever watch American Greed? lots of those folks look pretty successful and have lots of money, maybe even lots of houses, until they don't.

I have lived almost exactly the life that RK says does not work: I went to college, got a degree, got a good job, and invested the extra in stocks and mutual funds. By being good at my job, I was able to quit and go working for myself, but this never involved any leverage(no OPM), or any tax fraud, I'm still 'trading hours for dollars' which I think he frowns upon. It has worked out splendidly and I'm no stock market genius.

During the housing collapse, I saw 400,000 disappear across my different accounts. It all came back, plus more, more, more, more.

I'm going to teach my kids to do the same: get a good education and solid skills, be willing to work hard and treat people right. Appreciate that many people live on way less than you earn, you can live a decent life and still save a LOT, and that savings adds up, and provides freedom from worry.

I think you are awesome @Ali Boone - you have a great strategy going and I have only the utmost respect for you. I really wish you did not advocate for RK. Its hard to me to reconcile hot much I loathe him and how many of the respected posters here give him credit.

I don't see stock investing and RE investing as two things that must battle for supremacy. They are different. RE has some risk that a diversified stock portfolio does not have, but it also has much greater opportunities for leverage, it provides the opportunity to earn the PM fees by self-managing, it has the tax advantages. I think there's a place for both.

Many people do poorly in stocks, because they buy high and sell low. Many people were ruined by their RE investments when the housing collapse happened. This does not make one better than the other.