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Remember when we were kids and it was so exciting when the mail came because we might get something good (even though we never did)?
And then as adults mail just became boring because it was bills we already knew about or ads?
Well today I got two pieces of mail that was actually bad.
One was a recall notice for bad packaging. On birth control pills. Just a minor error of the bubble pack being 180-degrees off so you end up taking the pills backwards and thus they aren't quite so good at preventing pregnancy, especially that first week.
Part of me was hoping I would have the bad packaging because I could handle it better than younger people, being much less good at getting pregnant at my age. But most of me is glad I lucked out and had the right packaging.
Lesson: No matter how boring and stupid your job is, it might still be vitally important. Also, the packaging should be something a little less symmetrical, like a trapezoid.
The other bad mail was a notice that my company retirement plan options are changing. They're reducing our choices to only the best options. Here's what happened to me (shown below is the percent of my portfolio I want, the name of my fund and its expense ratio, and the name of the replacement fund and its expense ratio):
30% - Spartan International Index Fund (expense ratio 0.1%) - same
25% - Spartan Total Market Index Fund (US, expense ratio 0.1%) - Spartan 500 Index (0.07%, yes, please reduce my diversification
25 - Spartan Extended Market Index Fund (extra mid/small cap, expense ratio 0.2%) - same
20% - Spartan Intermediate Treasury Bond Index (expense ratio 0.2%) - Fidelity Freedom K Fund 2030 (0.05%*, very different)
* This is a fund of funds which I'm pretty sure means you also pay an additional (hidden) expense ratio for the other funds.
I guess I could keep the 500 but reduce the percentage of that and up the (higher expense) extended market index. Then for the bond portion I could switch to the Vanguard Total Bond Market (0.11%). I'm not sure that would still be cheaper than the TIAA-Cref funds I switched from. More research is needed. Bleh.
And then as adults mail just became boring because it was bills we already knew about or ads?
Well today I got two pieces of mail that was actually bad.
One was a recall notice for bad packaging. On birth control pills. Just a minor error of the bubble pack being 180-degrees off so you end up taking the pills backwards and thus they aren't quite so good at preventing pregnancy, especially that first week.
Part of me was hoping I would have the bad packaging because I could handle it better than younger people, being much less good at getting pregnant at my age. But most of me is glad I lucked out and had the right packaging.
Lesson: No matter how boring and stupid your job is, it might still be vitally important. Also, the packaging should be something a little less symmetrical, like a trapezoid.
The other bad mail was a notice that my company retirement plan options are changing. They're reducing our choices to only the best options. Here's what happened to me (shown below is the percent of my portfolio I want, the name of my fund and its expense ratio, and the name of the replacement fund and its expense ratio):
30% - Spartan International Index Fund (expense ratio 0.1%) - same
25% - Spartan Total Market Index Fund (US, expense ratio 0.1%) - Spartan 500 Index (0.07%, yes, please reduce my diversification
25 - Spartan Extended Market Index Fund (extra mid/small cap, expense ratio 0.2%) - same
20% - Spartan Intermediate Treasury Bond Index (expense ratio 0.2%) - Fidelity Freedom K Fund 2030 (0.05%*, very different)
* This is a fund of funds which I'm pretty sure means you also pay an additional (hidden) expense ratio for the other funds.
I guess I could keep the 500 but reduce the percentage of that and up the (higher expense) extended market index. Then for the bond portion I could switch to the Vanguard Total Bond Market (0.11%). I'm not sure that would still be cheaper than the TIAA-Cref funds I switched from. More research is needed. Bleh.