Fees Matter: Vanguard, PERA, TIAA and MetLife Comparison

Inspired by some of the work Ben Johnson has been doing, I decided to revisit two posts I’ve previously done on the retirement plans (401k/403b/457) available through Littleton Public Schools and Douglas County Public Schools. (Note that the expense ratios are slightly lower now than when I wrote those posts.)

It’s probably worth reading at least one of those posts for context, but I basically compared the fees you would pay for investing in PERA’s 401k/457 plan with those you would pay in the other vendor offered (TIAA for LPS, MetLife for DCSD). In this post I thought I’d take that a step further by showing the compounded effects of those fees over time, as well as throw in a comparison to an IRA at Vanguard.

Important note: IRA’s have much lower contribution limits than 401k/403b/457 ($6,000 vs. $19,500 if you are under the age of 50), so you can invest much more each year into your workplace plans. And there are also income limitations on whether you can contribute to an IRA, whereas there are no income limitations on 401k/403b/457 plans. And don’t forget the behavioral aspect – some folks need to have the money taken directly from their paycheck otherwise they won’t ever end up investing it.

So I created this spreadsheet to illustrate the impact of fees over time. Like all spreadsheets of this nature, it is based on many assumptions and those assumptions may be incorrect. Feel free to make a copy of the spreadsheet and change any of the assumptions you wish. For example, for the return on different asset classes, I put in the long-term compounded average return, but many folks think those will be lower in the future, so feel free to adjust. You also can adjust your asset mix between the different asset classes (I kept it fairly simple by limiting to US Large Cap Stocks, US Small/Mid Cap Stocks, International Stocks, US Bonds, and a Target Date fund choice.) Make sure the asset allocation mix adds up to 100%!

You can also change the initial amount you have invested (currently $0 in my examples) and the amount you are adding to your investment each year (currently $6,000 in my examples). You should not change the fees charged by Vanguard, PERA, TIAA or MetLife (unless you are reading this enough in the future that those have changed as well), nor the columns that keep track of your running totals with each vendor. Note that the fees for each are based on the lowest-cost fund offered within each asset class with each vendor.

You can change any of the numbers that are in cells with a purple outline, leave the rest alone.

So, let’s look at some selected results. First, what if you had an aggressive, all-equity allocation of 40% Large Cap, 30% Small/Mid Cap and 30% International? This is what it look like after 10 years:

As you can see, investing at Vanguard is going to get you the best overall return, and investing with PERA is going to be a better choice than either TIAA (LPS) or MetLife (DCSD).

How about after 30 years?

Wow. You’d have over $110,000 more in Vanguard than with MetLife, and over $90,000 more if you choose PERA over MetLife. And if you take it out to 50 years (think starting when you are 22 and not withdrawing until age 72 when you have to start taking Required Minimum Distributions):

Almost $1.5 million more in Vanguard than in MetLife, $1.2 million more with PERA than MetLife. (Note that these numbers get even further apart with contributions that are greater than $6,000 per year, although the percentage differences will be the same.)

Okay, well what if you just chose a Target Date fund (which is the default option in your 401k/403b/457 plans, and a good, simple choice for lots of folks) and put 100% of your money into that? Here’s after 10 years:

Note that here PERA is actually ahead of Vanguard due to the lower expense ratios on their Target Date funds, but both Vanguard and PERA are still doing much better than TIAA or MetLife.

30 years?

50 years?

Play around with the assumptions in the spreadsheet, including the asset mix that most closely reflects your desired asset allocation. But no matter what mix you choose, Vanguard and PERA will come out the best (usually Vanguard as the best, with PERA only if you go with just a Target Date fund). TIAA will come in a distant third, and MetLife a very distant last place. (And keep in mind that the negotiated fees with TIAA and MetLife are actually pretty good compared to many folks’ 403b choices around the country.)

And yet many employees in LPS and DCSD choose TIAA and MetLife. Why? Perhaps because a sales rep contacted them and was kind, concerned, and “helpful”. Perhaps because they think they can choose investments and “beat the market”. Or perhaps they just chose without much knowledge.

So, now that you know a bit more, what changes might you make with your investments? In general, if your adjusted gross income is not too high (varies depending on Traditional vs. Roth, and increases slightly each year), opening up an IRA at Vanguard is going to be your best choice to fund first (this is assuming you are disciplined enough to invest the money when it doesn’t come directly out of your paycheck).

If you max that out (remember, IRA’s have much lower contribution limits each year), then fund your PERA 401k or 457 next. In LPS, I would choose the 457 over the 401k, as it’s a bit easier to access the money before age 59.5 (unfortunately, DCSD has not chosen to offer the PERA 457), but otherwise the 401k and 457 are essentially the same.

If you are able to max out your personal IRA and your 401k or 457, then you can invest in the one you haven’t yet, as the 401k and 457 are different “buckets” and they each have their own, separate contribution limit (note that the 401k and 403b draw from the same contribution “bucket”). This means that in 2021 if you are under the age of 50 (if your income isn’t so high that you can’t contribute to an IRA), you can contribute up to $6,000 to an IRA, $19,500 to a 457, and another $19,500 to a 401k, for a total of $45,000. If you are 50 or older, you get “catch up” contributions, which gives you an extra $1,000 for your IRA and $6,500 for both the 401k and 457, for a total of $59,000. (And, depending your plan, there may be special catch up contribution provisions in your last 3 years of work that can let you contribute even more.) Keep in mind that for all of these you have the option of doing a Traditional (pre-tax) contribution or a Roth (post-tax) contribution, which is a complicated and entirely different conversation.

As always, feel free to reach out with questions (or comment below).