Mechanics of rebalancing?

[iris lilies]

The company that holds my 401(k) equivalent does not allow me to re-balance by dollar amounts. I want to take $5000 out of an index fund and stick it into a CD equivalent. I called to verify that it is true, I have to use percentages in my rebalance scheme.


It seems like a very simple request, a reasonable expectation.


So, since I run into other things I don’t like periodically about this company, I want to know before I move money:Does your financial account allow you to re-balance using dollar amounts? If so what company is that? But I really want to know if Vanguard does it.

[Tybee]

My gosh, now I wonder who your company is? I have Schwab and Fidelity and you can certainly rebalance using dollar amounts. But those are self-directed IRA's.
In my 401k, I would just have them sell and move the cash into my IRA, or move the holding in as is.

So if this is something like a 403b plan, it's probably because of that, not because of the company managing it.

But it does sound like customer service is not good, if they can't explain it better and help you accomplish what you want to accomplish.

With my 401k at Fidelity, if I wanted to change my allocation of new money going in, yes, I would have to do it by percentage--so I would have to select from the offerings at mycompany's plan and then say, 100% to this fund, or 50% to these two. Or if I wanted to switch holdings, I would have to do it by percentage.

Why not go to a self-directed IRA at Vanguard, if that's what you want?

[Teacher Terry]

Ours is a deferred compensation from the state and we can choose a dollar amount.

[iris lilies]

My gosh, now I wonder who your company is? I have Schwab and Fidelity and you can certainly rebalance using dollar amounts. But those are self-directed IRA's.
In my 401k, I would just have them sell and move the cash into my IRA, or move the holding in as is.

So if this is something like a 403b plan, it's probably because of that, not because of the company managing it.

But it does sound like customer service is not good, if they can't explain it better and help you accomplish what you want to accomplish.

With my 401k at Fidelity, if I wanted to change my allocation of new money going in, yes, I would have to do it by percentage--so I would have to select from the offerings at mycompany's plan and then say, 100% to this fund, or 50% to these two. Or if I wanted to switch holdings, I would have to do it by percentage.

Why not go to a self-directed IRA at Vanguard, if that's what you want?

You are right I should probably just move the Vangard Stop fussing around about it. But I doubt that I will who knows. January is the month where I do financial work so I put it on my to do list for January and see if I still am annoyed by these things.

After posting my question, I called the company and said I want to move this dollar amount from here to there and they were able to do it, and I’ve done that before with a phone person. It’s just that it seems to me I should be able to do it myself online. Sometimes I have very rigid expectations though.

[frugal-one]

The company that holds my 401(k) equivalent does not allow me to re-balance by dollar amounts. I want to take $5000 out of an index fund and stick it into a CD equivalent. I called to verify that it is true, I have to use percentages in my rebalance scheme.


It seems like a very simple request, a reasonable expectation.


So, since I run into other things I don’t like periodically about this company, I want to know before I move money:Does your financial account allow you to re-balance using dollar amounts? If so what company is that? But I really want to know if Vanguard does it.




I rebalance with Vanguard online myself and can put in a dollar amount to get to the asset allocation I want. It is not difficult albeit a bit tedious (as I am sure it is anywhere). I second doing a self-directed IRA at Vanguard!!!

[Tybee]

It's definitely a pain to switch an account over. I'm glad you were able to do it the way you wanted to, with the dollar amounts!

[SteveinMN]

I called the company and said I want to move this dollar amount from here to there and they were able to do it, and I’ve done that before with a phone person. It’s just that it seems to me I should be able to do it myself online. Sometimes I have very rigid expectations though.
Not an unreasonable expectation at all. DW has one retirement account (I forget who runs that one -- or I try to forget) that pretty much requires clients to adjust future allocations to reallocate. Ridiculous. But I suppose it's like so many other "customer service" things: if they make it difficult enough to accomplish, most people will give up and the company will get the client behavior they seek. :(