At a pivotal point in one of my favorite all-time movies, It's a Wonderful Life, George Bailey prays on a bridge that he wants to live again.
I thought about the same thing tonight after opening a new account with T. Rowe Price.
Not that I have ever gone through anything as drastic as George does, witnessing what life would be like for folks including his mother, wife and friends had he never been born.
But I unexpectedly had to ponder my own demise this evening soon after doing something that I would have otherwise felt good about.
After dilly-dallying for over two years contemplating about investing in another fund with T. Rowe Price, the Dividend Growth fund, I pulled the trigger tonight and invested ten grand into it.
I share this private financial information with you for three reasons.
First, that should I write years from now about having made some dough with this fund by reinvesting dividends for years or even decades, you will know that it all started tonight. Conversely, should I lose money on this investment over the years, we can look back at my stupidity at investing another ten grand in something while the market is setting new highs almost weekly and soon before another massive Recession.
Neither you nor I know what the market will bring, but I do know that I generally like investing through T. Rowe Price and I generally like receiving and reinvesting dividends. I would not have invested what is a large amount of funds to me if I did not think that it would be a good long-term investment and something that I can add to over the years when I succeed in making much more than I do now.
Incidentally, the T. Rowe Price Dividend Growth Fund has been on the Kiplinger's 25 list for a few years now, so it's not just me who thinks this fund has excellent growth potential.
Second, my son has a few thousand bucks to his name and has sought out my advice on how to get started investing. I suppose that since I read, think and write about money-related matters and personal finance on an ongoing basis, one tangible thing that I could do to be helpful would be to assist my own son and daughter and, someday, my grandchildren, get on the right path in investing.
Forget about early retirement. I just want my Generation Z children to have some funds invested as they go from job to job or gig to gig or whatever it is that they are going to do.
One thing that I do know about them is that neither one of them will toil for a third of a century in local government jobs as I am on the path to do. However, the benefit of those many years of work is that I would be in line for a fairly solid pension if I can last another seven to ten years doing this.
Third, I want to share how the first communique that I received from T. Rowe Price tonight directly referenced my death.
True, I did name my better half as my primary beneficiary. I figure that I am going to invest in this fund for the long haul and dream of adding tens or hundreds of thousands to it over the coming years. Should I outlive my wife and retain the memory to recall this account and how to log on, I will obviously change the beneficiaries to my children.
But it is not something that I wanted to think about right away.
That all changed when I got the confirmation of my Transfer On Death account.
I thought about the same thing tonight after opening a new account with T. Rowe Price.
Not that I have ever gone through anything as drastic as George does, witnessing what life would be like for folks including his mother, wife and friends had he never been born.
But I unexpectedly had to ponder my own demise this evening soon after doing something that I would have otherwise felt good about.
After dilly-dallying for over two years contemplating about investing in another fund with T. Rowe Price, the Dividend Growth fund, I pulled the trigger tonight and invested ten grand into it.
I share this private financial information with you for three reasons.
First, that should I write years from now about having made some dough with this fund by reinvesting dividends for years or even decades, you will know that it all started tonight. Conversely, should I lose money on this investment over the years, we can look back at my stupidity at investing another ten grand in something while the market is setting new highs almost weekly and soon before another massive Recession.
Neither you nor I know what the market will bring, but I do know that I generally like investing through T. Rowe Price and I generally like receiving and reinvesting dividends. I would not have invested what is a large amount of funds to me if I did not think that it would be a good long-term investment and something that I can add to over the years when I succeed in making much more than I do now.
Incidentally, the T. Rowe Price Dividend Growth Fund has been on the Kiplinger's 25 list for a few years now, so it's not just me who thinks this fund has excellent growth potential.
Second, my son has a few thousand bucks to his name and has sought out my advice on how to get started investing. I suppose that since I read, think and write about money-related matters and personal finance on an ongoing basis, one tangible thing that I could do to be helpful would be to assist my own son and daughter and, someday, my grandchildren, get on the right path in investing.
Forget about early retirement. I just want my Generation Z children to have some funds invested as they go from job to job or gig to gig or whatever it is that they are going to do.
One thing that I do know about them is that neither one of them will toil for a third of a century in local government jobs as I am on the path to do. However, the benefit of those many years of work is that I would be in line for a fairly solid pension if I can last another seven to ten years doing this.
Third, I want to share how the first communique that I received from T. Rowe Price tonight directly referenced my death.
True, I did name my better half as my primary beneficiary. I figure that I am going to invest in this fund for the long haul and dream of adding tens or hundreds of thousands to it over the coming years. Should I outlive my wife and retain the memory to recall this account and how to log on, I will obviously change the beneficiaries to my children.
But it is not something that I wanted to think about right away.
That all changed when I got the confirmation of my Transfer On Death account.
It actually confused me at first.
The email line that came from TRP said "information on your new TransferOnDeath account."
I told my wife that I had to call their customer service on Monday since I opened a new Dividend Growth fund account and did not do anything about filling out any transfer on death info.
After logging on again and seeing that, Yes, indeed, I have another new account with TRP with an initial amount of ten grand pending, I realized that the account was set up right. They just chose the unfortunate manner of correspondence.
If I was in charge of these types of things, I would plug the name of the fund into the communication and under fund name, I would add some type of blurb about Transfer On Death. I simply would not make it the first thing. Not that I feel so young, but it makes me feel like someone planning an estate rather than investing for my future.
I actually do have plans to transfer another ten grand into this account early next year with funds that I currently have parked in a dog of an investment (GNMA fund), the funding source for this initial investment.
Even though T. Rowe Price obviously thinks of my new investment as a TransferOnDeath account, I think of it as wanting to live.
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