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A lot of HD readers are DIY investors who value ease and simplicity. That means we are managing our own online accounts with no advisor middleman, for better or worse.
Reading this recent forum post about protecting your retirement accounts from scammers, with all its great comments, prompts me to share this experience.
Before dinnertime the other evening I logged onto my Vanguard account and at the top of the familiar red VG dashboard I was greeted in display-size type,
“Welcome back, $0.00.”
(I have a screenshot but can’t post it here.)
After I stuffed my eyeballs back into my head, I was able to focus on a small-text box in a different area on the page that said “Data unavailable. Our system is temporarily unable to display some of your account information. We apologize for any inconvenience. … Please refresh in a few minutes or choose another page.”
My eyes kept going back to that scary $0 at the top of the page. Honestly, for a moment it seemed like my worst nightmare (bag lady) had come true. But then I logged off and logged back on and the real numbers showed up this time.
I have no wise lesson to impart from the above. But I wondered if others have experienced an “interesting” moment while managing their own accounts that they would care to share?
How frightening that $0 screen must have seemed, Laura.
I’ve had some cautionary and unexpected episodes. All seem sad in the computer age.
The most memorable was having my first two years of 403(b)) funds deposted into the account of a professor at a distant university. I kept asking my HR office why I hadn’t received any statements; they kept saying this was normal, part of a vesting period. After receiving a letter at my address from the financial firm addressed to the professor, I caught on. Unscrambling the accounts took over a month, multiple phone calls, and paper communications.
Somewhat similarly, a different financial firm once credited my account with an erroneous $40,000 deposit from another account holder. A phone call to the firm resolved this within a day.
I also recall trying to redeem a CD at a local branch bank. The cashier computed the payout based on semi-annual compounding. I disputed the calculation; the CD compounded monthly, as it clearly stated (albeit in fine print). The branch manager doubted this and needed to consult with the main branch. Two days later, I received the correct payout.
Lastly, like you but in the opposite direction, I’ve seen the total value of an account inflated by a million dollars on the initial login screen. That was resolved by an unknown webmaster over a weekend.
I have $32.8 million reasons on why I might have one of the more fun tales about managing personal retirement accounts. That was the posted value of one of my financial accounts at a well-known financial broker on August 31, 2020. I still have the screen shot to prove I was at this brief point-in-time worth gazillions even though the account’s true value needed the decimal moved nearly two places to the left.
This was the day of the Apple share split. I had a couple hundred shares of Apple, and somehow the broker’s computer got the split accounting wrong by thousands of percent.
I did have one of those contemplative moments of thought – “should I withdraw the whole account and maybe no one won’t notice?” Naaahh. Two days later, I was back to my Humble Dollar writing self trying to figure out how to save a few bucks on taxes.
“Two days later, I was back to my Humble Dollar writing self”, and your Humble Dollar account balance!
David – Indeed. Humble Dollar would not be the place for anyone with that much money in just one of their financial accounts. I also would not be worrying about or writing about exceeding an IRMMA bracket for Roth conversions. 😉