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Embedding a ROTH IRA in my retirement account

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Joel Gordon

22 Jan, 2013 03:00 AM

Hello: I am a college professor and have my retirement with TIAA CREF. I have all of my transactions, since its inception, in MoneyDance and quarterly I update these accounts from my quarterly statements. However, in November 2012, I switched some of my contributions in my TIAA CREF PRE TAX retirement account to an AFTER TAX ROTH IRA. The Mutual Funds that I purchased in my ROTH are the same as my regular retirement account(s), but they're invested AFTER TAX I would like to keep these investments separate. I tried setting up a "New account", but it asks for a staring balance. That balance is now shared between my Pre Tax regular TIAA CREF account and my new AFTER TAX ROTH. That is, the money used to buy the Mutual funds in my new Roth account come from funds in my TIAA CREF account.

So, my question is how do I set up my ROTH retirement account within my regular TIAA CREF retirement account and keep this "portfolio" separate from my regular investments? Is that possible?

I hope my question is clear enough for you to offer me some help.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

JG

1. 1 Posted by -Kevin N. on 22 Jan, 2013 03:34 AM

   

   Hi Joel,

   Moneydance in it's current form, can not transfer securities from one account to another.

   I think that you would need to enter a 'SellXfr' txn in the Pre-Tax account wherein you sell the shares of the security and transfer the funds to your Roth account. Then 'Buy' the shares back with the transferred funds.

   Before taking any action you may want to wait for an official response from MD support or from other users who may have a more suitable suggestion.

   HTH -Kevin N.

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2. 2 Posted by Tom Freeman on 22 Jan, 2013 04:57 PM

   

   Joel

   Is the after tax Roth held in the same brokerage account with the same account number as the pre-tax Roth? If the broker recognizes them as separate accounts you should be able to set them up in Moneydance as separate accounts and map the download of each broker account into the correct investment account in Moneydance. This would mean that Moneydance recognizes them as separate accounts (and they really are, especially from a tax accounting view). Naming them TIAA CREF PRE TAX and TIAA CREF AFTER TAX, would keep them side by side. This should resolve the contribution issue.

   As for initial balance, the "sellxfer" and "buyxfer" are the best options if you have moved securities from one account to the other. I can not advise on what cost basis to use, you should consult your broker or tax accountant for this, as there may be tax consequnces.

   If your goal is to have all your retirement proceeds in one place the best way to do this is to create a portfolio report edited to include only you retirement investment accounts and memorize that report with the name retirement fund. This report should show up in the side bar with the rest of your reports.

   Tom

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3. 3 Posted by Joel Gordon on 23 Jan, 2013 03:05 PM

   

   Kevin and Tom:

   Thanks for the replies. They were very helpful. The "sellxfr" and "buyxfr" were key to helping me understand how to set up my new ROTH IRA in Moneydance as a separate stand alone account, right night to my traditional 403 K retirement account from TIAA CREF.

   Tom: I was intrigued by the 2nd sentence in your reply, about "map the download of each broker account into the correct investment account in Mondaydance." Could you clarify this a bit for me? You imply that this can be automated, when in fact I've been painstakingly hand entering these transactions from my TIAA CREF quarterly statements into Moneydance to keep track of my 403 K and 401 B accounts (ROTH).

   Thanks again for any help you can give me.

   Joel Gordon

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4. 4 Posted by Tom Freeman on 26 Jan, 2013 06:45 PM

   

   Joel

   During the online banking set up, after you are prompted for your password and pin#, you should get a prompt asking which account you want to use. I have a attached a screen shot to illustrate. If there are multiple accounts at the financial institution you can link the account at the broker with the account in Moneydance. You would have to do the online setup for each account. This would "map" your brokerage account with the correct Moneydance account.

   Tom

   • account.PNG 30.4 KB
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5. 5 Posted by Joel Gordon on 28 Jan, 2013 04:02 AM

   

   Tom:

   Once again many thanks for your great help. I'll see what I can do to use this information you've sent me.

   Appreciate your prompt reply.

   Joel Gordon

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6. Tom Freeman closed this discussion on 04 Feb, 2013 03:45 PM.