CHEAP CALLS!
Brad Hurley: ‘BigZoo.com has better rates than AccuLinq: 2.9 cents to call anywhere in the US (except Alaska or Hawaii) if you have a local access number. I used it, when I lived in the States, for all my long-distance calls from home and on the road. The international rates are great: I could call friends in England for 2.4 cents/minute, which is actually cheaper than the domestic rate!’
David Hood: ‘Try onesuite.com for long distance. It’s 2.5 cents per minute.’
403(b) TRANSFERS
Dave asks: ‘In The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need, you mentioned that you could request your employer to pass 403b contributions through to the mutual fund family of your choice, instead of being limited to the annuity offerings from the employer. I called American Century to ask about this, and they never heard of this. They recommended that I get at least 25 fellow employees to agree and request that American Century Mutual funds be included in the employer 403b offerings. What should I do next?’
The estimable Less Antman replies, estimably: ‘American Century may not want to bother, but Fidelity, Vanguard, TIAA-CREF, and Schwab, to name a few, all accept and should understand what are known as ‘IRS revenue ruling 90-24 transfers’ of 403(b) money. If your employer permits trustee-to-trustee transfers of any kind, this should be doable. The problem is that it is in nobody’s interest to promote it, since the recipient organizations don’t get much money when it is one person at a time (I’m hardly surprised they’re asking you to get 25 employees together to request an addition). I’m guessing that TIAA-CREF is likely to be most helpful if you ask them.
‘If you’re enough of a battler to want to pursue this on your own, you might want to check out www.403bwise.com, which talks about this extensively. (I have no affiliation whatsoever with that site which, I believe, is an amateur site started by a couple of teachers.) There is even a forum on that site where some people who have successfully executed this transfer share their experiences.’
