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UPS - B-plan question...

Old 05-21-2008, 06:40 PM
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Question UPS - B-plan question...

I called Fidelity today and am opening a brokerage account linked to my B-plan. Once it’s opened - will I be able to invest directly in a stock A or will I have to invest it in a mutual fund that’s part of the plan now, sell it and then reinvest it into the stock of my choice? Clear as mud?

Right now I have selected several mutual funds focused on Asia where 30% goes to one fund, 40 % goes to another one, etc. Basically my question is – once the brokerage account is opened – will I be able to select let’s say 30% of the company’s contribution to go straight to buy me Google stock, 20% to buy Gazprom stock, etc…?
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Old 05-21-2008, 07:22 PM
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Originally Posted by ⌐ AV8OR WANNABE View Post
I called Fidelity today and am opening a brokerage account linked to my B-plan. Once it’s opened - will I be able to invest directly in a stock A or will I have to invest it in a mutual fund that’s part of the plan now, sell it and then reinvest it into the stock of my choice? Clear as mud?

Right now I have selected several mutual funds focused on Asia where 30% goes to one fund, 40 % goes to another one, etc. Basically my question is – once the brokerage account is opened – will I be able to select let’s say 30% of the company’s contribution to go straight to buy me Google stock, 20% to buy Gazprom stock, etc…?
Now before you dive into this swimming hole head first, email our pension committee chair for the average rate of returns chart. You might be surprised to see the core funds outperform those who dabble in the market with a brokerage account.

I'm sure there are many examples of pilots that do well with brokerage accounts, but you're really going to invest time, etc. Good luck either way!

PS Thank goodness the typical pilot is only a great driver, carpenter, and invesment guru; most of us shouldn't perform our own dental work though...

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Old 05-21-2008, 07:27 PM
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Originally Posted by fr8rcaptain View Post
Now before you dive into this swimming hole head first, email our pension committee chair for the average rate of returns chart. You might be surprised to see the core funds outperform those who dabble in the market with a brokerage account.

I'm sure there are many examples of pilots that do well with brokerage accounts, but you're really going to invest time, etc. Good luck either way!

PS Thank goodness the typical pilot is only a great driver, carpenter, and invesment guru; most of us shouldn't perform our own dental work though...

True, I only wanted to "play" with a small chunk of that money, not a sizeable portion. I've bought a very few individual stocks in my past, Red Hat, Google, and Gazprom - I've been lucky with those three but I know the odds are against me. So I'll never go crazy with individual stock investments...
Thanks for the advice and for the well wishes though…
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Old 05-22-2008, 05:52 AM
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you can't automaticlly make purchases of selected stocks each time the company makes a contribution, and with brokerage fees you probably wouldn't want to. What you can do is put a given percentage into "brokerage link" which will then build a pool from which you can manually buy stocks. If I read the first part of your question first, yes, you'll have to sell something and move the money into the brokerage link before you can buy something else. No margin allowed.
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Old 05-22-2008, 05:59 AM
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Originally Posted by 767pilot View Post
you can't automaticlly make purchases of selected stocks each time the company makes a contribution, and with brokerage fees you probably wouldn't want to. What you can do is put a given percentage into "brokerage link" which will then build a pool from which you can manually buy stocks. If I read the first part of your question first, yes, you'll have to sell something and move the money into the brokerage link before you can buy something else. No margin allowed.
I see, thank you very much. I wasn't thinking about margin trading but rather I thought that maybe I could transfer some money from my checking account into the brokerage account first in order to start trading? Now that I think about it, it probably doesn't make sense, the money would have to come from the B-plan itself - thus I must sell something first.
Once it's all done, I'll try to build up a small pool that I can invest in individual stocks...

As far as brokerage fees, the Fidelity person I spoke to told me that in our plan (ups) we do not get charged anything for the brokerage account (yearly fees, maintenance fees, etc) - as far as trading it would be 10.95/trade up to 1,000 shares. Do you know of other brokerage fees?
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Old 05-22-2008, 06:03 AM
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I guess if you were in a hurry, you could make a cash after tax contribution to the 401k, but some investments outside of your retirement funds can be a good idea too. As they say, s*&t happens
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Old 05-22-2008, 08:59 AM
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Originally Posted by ⌐ AV8OR WANNABE View Post
As far as brokerage fees, the Fidelity person I spoke to told me that in our plan (ups) we do not get charged anything for the brokerage account (yearly fees, maintenance fees, etc) - as far as trading it would be 10.95/trade up to 1,000 shares. Do you know of other brokerage fees?
It is certainly true that Fidelity charges us no fees as a line item.

My research into this has shown that the expense ratios of the core accounts are raised. If you find an ETF or even a mutual fund you like that's comparable to the core account fund, it's likely you'll find a significantly higher expense ratio within the core accounts.

Will this offset the trading fees you'll pay within the brokerage link? At a certain account value, yes. For me, that value was at around $20k account balance.

Last edited by SonnyD; 05-22-2008 at 09:01 AM. Reason: grammar
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Old 05-22-2008, 03:13 PM
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Originally Posted by SonnyD View Post
It is certainly true that Fidelity charges us no fees as a line item.

My research into this has shown that the expense ratios of the core accounts are raised. If you find an ETF or even a mutual fund you like that's comparable to the core account fund, it's likely you'll find a significantly higher expense ratio within the core accounts.

Will this offset the trading fees you'll pay within the brokerage link? At a certain account value, yes. For me, that value was at around $20k account balance.
Just to clarify things, I'm not planning on becoming a day-trader. I simply want to invest in some individual stocks that I think have a good long term potential. I'm sure in a few years I'll be posting here saying "what was I thinking?"
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