Retirement Investment Account Classification: What Do You Think?

DannyB

@RobertoT recently posted about needing a way to classify a 457B retirement account here.

It appears that there are two active feature requests about this "issue." I'm wondering what other's might think about, not just the specific type of account designated "457B," but about how detailed the whole Retirement Invesment Accounts selections need to be.

I come down on the idea that a simple generic Retirement designation is adequate unless there is some functional purpose further breakdown would require.

Do you have an opinion? If you do, add your vote to the feature request below that reflects your opinion.

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/5801/add-a-separate-retirement-bucket-to-the-account-types-edited

…and…

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/538/add-457b-retirement-account-type-edited

Wedo778

I think I mainly agree with you, in that I'm probably not actually doing anything with further breakdowns. At least not today as I am not retired.

With that said, what would probably be most useful to me is a simple separation of "pre-tax money retirement accounts" and "post-tax money retirement accounts". For example traditional vs roth IRAs. Because how I will be able to use them in retirement differs, so at some point I am going to need to be very focused on how much is in each type. And then if there are any other tax categorizations those would make sense as well, I'm aware of any but there are plenty of types of accounts I dont have access to due to not working in this sector or that. Simplifi lets me select many of these account types, but then it just groups them together as Retirement. So I am using Roth in the names for post-tax money accounts that I will eventually be able to withdraw from tax free.

UrsulaA

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/41976#Comment_41976

I agree with this. It will be nice for me to have Retirement parent account type and then "pre-tax money retirement accounts" and "post-tax money retirement accounts" as described above.

DannyB

@Wedo778

Good point. I didn't think about that, but I guess I can say your distinction fits into my caveat about "some functional purpose."

I have worked with a financial advisor/manager for over a decade, and she handles all the intricacies of which accounts to draw from and when as we venture into our retirement years.

I use the account name field to identify the type of each retirement account along with the owner.

SRC54

@DannyB Yes, I think that probably means they stick with the names as they are. They could add a 457B although I think calling it a 401K is close enough. It no longer matters about my spouse's State Retirement since she retired it's gone and annuitized. But until then it was an asset. It was pre-taxed federal but post-tax state! And putting it as an investment account didn't work unless I was just going to do it manually and call it all cash. So does Simplifi need a Defined Benefit Plan? Only governments still have these. Most everyone else has dropped them.

But good food for thought.

DannyB

I just discovered that if you have a 529 Plan, selecting this option in the list of investment account types, this account will be added to the Investment section of your accounts under the subheading "Education."

This is one of those functional reasons to be able to select the type of investment account.