---""Personally, I dont think it is smart financial planning to have your entire life savings in your retirement account." Why not?"" I'd like to clarify the above response. The only exception that I can think of is an emergency account.--- Assuming you are funding your retirement account appropriately to provide adequate retirement income, why would you put additional savings into retirement accounts? Once there, you can't use them easily and without penalty until you are retirement age. No, tax savings from tax-deferred accounts are not inconsequential, but neither is the freedom that comes with having money available to use how when for what you want. I am putting money into a combination of 401k and Roth retirement accounts at a rate which will conservatively provide me with adequate retirement income. This is less than the max--(although well over employer-match). Every thing else goes into ordinary ol' non-tax-deferred investment accounts. It's not really "emergency" money--- i also have 6-month living expense emergency funds in my bank account. But I am in my 30s. Why would I put any money above and beyond what I will need for retirement somewhere that I can't easily reach it for the next 15-20 years? Maybe I'll want to go to grad school and want to use it for tuition. Maybe I'll get married and want to put my husband through school. Or my husband's kids. Maybe I'll want to buy a bigger more expensive house and want to use it for down payment. Or a second vacation and/or investment home. I might want to take a year off work and travel. I might want to take a year off work and be a mommy to a new baby. I might not *want* to take a year off work but be forced to when I'm fired from my current job and it takes me a year to find a new one. I might want start-up money for my own business. I might have a sudden desire for one of those convertible Mercedes two-seaters (is it the SL i think).... I might I might I might. Freedom (and security) is "why not?" (which are the same reasons btw that I'm saving it in the first place rather than simply spending everything above and beyond what I've decided I need to save for retirement)

I will give your question a shot and I am sure others will also add their advice. On question 1 - I suspect that the fees charged to manage the 403B are less that those charged for the 401k Here is info from the IRS website on 403B plans "IRC 403(b) Plans Certain employers are allowed to have Internal Revenue Service (IRC) 403(b) Tax-Sheltered Annuity plans. You are allowed to have a 403(b) plan if you are: A public school, college or university, A church, A public hospital, or A charitable entity tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Code. Basically, 403(b) plans are similar to 401(k) plans maintained by for-profit entities. Just as with a 401(k) plan, a 403(b) plan lets employees defer some of their salary. In this case, their deferred money goes to a 403(b) plan sponsored by the employer. This deferred money generally does not get taxed by the federal government or by most state governments until distributed. This is just as it is with 401(k) plans." I assume that your husband's employer meets the requirements for establishing a 403B plan. On question 2 - You can roll the money into a traditional IRA without having any tax consequences. You need to set it up as a direct rollover - that is the company that holds the 401K transfers the money directly to the bank/investment company that will have your husband's IRA. You cannot roll the money into a Roth IRA. The money that is contributed to a ROTH IRA has already had the income taxes paid on it. The money in the 401k has not had any taxes paid on it. If the money goes into a traditional IRA, you need to establish a separate IRA for that money. If your husband ever goes to work with a company that has a 401K plan that allows rollovers into the plan and your husband chooses to roll this portion of his IRA into that new employer's plan, it must not be mingled with other retirement funds. Good luck.

"Gifted" in our school district (Capistrano Unified) is identified by placing at a 95th percentile or above on the Otis-Lennon test (an IQ-like test). Prior to that, in order to qualify to be nominated to take that test, he had to score at a 90th percentile or above on both reading and math on the CORE test (a standardized test the district gives to all students in addition to the SAT9). At the end of 5th grade, all of the students are given the Math Challenge Test (the placement test for 6th grade). Typically, about 80% are placed in 6th grade math, 20% are placed in pre-algebra (including ALL of the GATE students, such as my son), and 1% are placed in 7th grade algebra. The pre-algebra class is the 7th grade curriculum but the classes are all 6th graders so he will always be with his peers. I also want to say that he had 6th grade math LAST year and got an A on his report card in every trimester. He scored a B in two chapters and spaced on the test. He still mastered those chapters, technically. THIS CHILD does not belong in 6th grade math AGAIN next year. The tutor is there to make sure he knows those chapters up and down and inside and out. Bottom line, if it's beyond him, he won't pass. He has one of "those" minds. Last year, when they were working on three and four digit long division, he came to me with a completed homework assignment. Just answers, nothing written out. I said "hon, you can't use a calculator - please go write out all of the problems." He swore up and down that he did NOT use a calculator and challenged me to test him. So I flipped the paper over and wrote out a few new problems. He stared at each one for about two minutes, then gave me the answer. *I* then had to check them on a caculator, and he had each one correct. You know, everyone told me when he was in preschool that I should hold him back for kindergarten because he was born in the fall (cutoff in CA is Dec. 2, he was born Oct. 22) and he was a boy. I heard countless stories of their kids and their friends kids and the milkman's kids who were either held back and they were glad, or the child repeated kindergarten, or started on time as a 4 year old ("early" in their minds, on time actually) and they regretted it. But I knew my child. I also knew kindergarten - I was teaching it, after all. I knew that kindergarten is designed for the 5 year old, not for 6 year olds, and I also knew that I could not tell a difference between the kids that had started at 4 (and turned 5 by December) and the ones that had spring birthdays. Where I did see a difference was with the 6 year olds, who did exceptionally well in my class, but for good reason - because they were too old for the curriculum. They weren't being challenged. Thank goodness I knew my child and I knew kindergarten because I might have been tempted to listen to them. He was ready and wanted to go more than anything, and academically he was ready as well. He did start kindergarten at 4 1/2, did amazingly well, and has been ever since. I am glad I chose to challenge him rather than wait and put him with younger kids so I'd have a "guarantee" that he'd succeed. That's what I'd feel that having him repeat 6th grade math would be. It would be pointless at this point. Sure, they may be times when something might need to be repeated if he truly struggled. This isn't one of those times. And if it is, him not passing that test will make that known. Here is a link that might be useful: GATE/AAA program in Capistrano Unified

Very interesting, chisue. I didn't know this was happening. I did a Google search and found articles, many in the industry magazine American Banker, saying that branch closings have been a trend of the recent many years because of acquisitions/mergers (which give the possibility to close redundant locations) and a significant decrease in foot traffic as customers increasingly switch to remote/online banking. In my case, I pay no attention to bank branches because I've been a very satisfied user of banks with no branches at all for a long time, certainly over 15 years. Notably USAA, a terrific bank. It has relationships with the system that puts ATMs in drug stores and grocery stores and permits use of any bank's ATM. And reimburses up to $15 a month in ATM fees when such are charged. Between that, bank and website initiated payments and checks, and depositing the few checks I get in the mail using my smartphone, I'm set. I know my kids never go into bank branches either, there's really no need. So I think these use patterns are the major reason. Same is true with savings accounts, I have a few also with branchless banks (notably American Express Savings Bank, which historically has paid higher interest rates than brick and mortar banks). It's simple to transfer money between banks online, even easier than doing so in person.