Posted: 10/15/2025 4:12:34 PM EDT
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So today I got a letter in the mail. Evidently I opened this simple IRA in 2007, put in $170, and completely forgot about it. I think it was from a job I left shortly after but don't recall. Now it's worth about $885. I know this is peanuts to the high rollers here, but to me, that's a nice chunk of change. I've moved all my other investments to S&P500 ETF's in a Fidelity Account and left them to sit. It looks like a lot of this portfolio was invested in foreign markets, with AB VPS Intl Value Port returning some 35%, if I understand things correctly. The fees on this are higher (up to 1%+ on some of them), and I hate the fees. There's a $30 annual fee, too. I remember hearing as a young person that foreign markets typically went up when US markets went down. Initially I was just going to roll this into my Roth and buy some VOO. I remember hearing as a young person that foreign markets typically went up when US markets went down. Should I keep this and continue to invest in foreign markets? Roll into my S&P-based Roth/IRA? Cash it out and buy a Lamborghini [model kit]? I literally don't remember anything about this, so it's basically a toss up on how I invest it. Does the hive spread money between US and Foreign investment? Attached File |
Joined:
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| VOO is, quite literally, hard to beat. You can see for yourself whether foreign markets have outperformed US ones. Compare VT (entire world) to VTI (all US) on a tool like Portfolioslab or in your brokerage’s app/website. Also Google up ex-US ETFs and compare those. Compare to VOO, also. |
| Looks like you have about a 9% growth on the money. Not terrible….but not great considering the market has done MUCH better in recent years. |
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Joined:
Jun 2022
Posts:
4633
EE: 100% (11)
USA
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Originally Posted By ColtRifle: Looks like you have about a 9% growth on the money. Not terrible….but not great considering the market has done MUCH better in recent years. That’s almost exactly what VT has done in the same time period, for ease of comparison to other ETFs. In annualized returns, that is. |
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Originally Posted By jos51700: I remember hearing as a young person that foreign markets typically went up when US markets went down. "Up" and "down" are relative - both may change in the same direction but one will change faster and one will change slower. Don't invest in anything randomly or without a plan. Your list of funds looks like just a random list of everything offered by the plan, there's no method to the madness. Originally Posted By ColtRifle: Looks like you have about a 9% growth on the money. Not terrible….but not great considering the market has done MUCH better in recent years. The fees and underperforming funds ate your growth. |
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always nice when you find some money your left in an old coat that you forgot about. even better when that money your forgot about increased a ton ran across a paper bitcoin wallet the other day when cleaning out a desk drawer that I had created around 2014 with .10 btc on it (worth about 20 bucks at the time) just messing around trying to learn the ins and outs of crypto and completely forgot about it worth about 11 grand now |
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I had a company accidentally pay me out on a profit sharing account. I left before I was fully vested and they basically owed me 10% of the amount. Later they screwed the general manager over. She took her laptop with her and this was right before there was much backup of digital files. So when they restructured the company, they had to pay everyone out as they didn't have start/end dates. So instead of getting $80, I got $800. I'd like to say I invested the money, but I bought some guns with the extra cash. I really wish I did invest the money, although I did score a LE trade in Benelli M1 for $300 with the cash. So maybe my money did appreciate a little. |
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My late father used some broker back in the day that apparently wouldn’t charge fees if you bought more of a stock you already held. My dad manipulated this perk by leaving 1 share if he ever liquidated a position incase he wanted back in. I’m now sitting on an account with a few shares of random companies that have been reinvesting dividends for 30+ years. Spent a few hours one day looking into what it would take to cash out the account but stopped because the time involved was exceeding the value. Maybe I’ll revisit it in another 30 years. |