Account structure for IRA mutual funds

[Sean Fulmer]

On Sun, 2006-11-05 at 13:56 -0600, Robert Ramsdell wrote:
> On Sun, 2006-11-05 at 10:50 -0700, Sean Fulmer wrote:
> 
> > 
> > My IRA overall has a positive balance due to the value of the funds.
> > 
> > I think my point of confusion is in the IRA Asset account itself. It
> > always has a balance of zero, because anything that goes into it is then
> > distributed out to the various mutual funds. Is a $0 account actually an
> > asset?
> 
> This is normal for a parent account.  In this case the IRA is just a
> pass-through.  As a matter of fact, I try never to carry a balance in
> parent accounts, I figure that everything should be classified by
> allocating to children.  Think of the parent as a folder with files in
> it.
> 
> For example, I have a 401(k) account with children representing the
> securities/funds I own.  Each paycheck my contribution is added to that
> account, but then I transfer the money out to the children, so the
> parent is always zeroed out.

Excellent - I think I'm in good shape then. Just needed some
validation :)

Sean