So.

I have several “investment products” in addition to my 401K.  I have a traditional IRA rolled over from my Federal pension program.  I have a Roth IRA.  And I have a tax-deferred annuity.  In a stroke of unintended genius, I closed my brokerage account last February to buy our last car.  I would have lost over 50% of that account in the market crash.  At least now I have a car to show for it.

But I digress.

I called my financial advisor because I wanted to start diverting some of the money that I currently put in my 401K into my Roth account.   We discussed that this was a pretty good idea for all kinds of financial-ese reasons having to do with taxable vs. nontaxable accounts and maxing out your pre-tax benefits, blah, blah, blah.  But we were all in agreement that this was A Good Thing, and I filled out the reams of prerequisite paperwork and everything was in place.  

Or so.

I thought.

Until December when I realized that the money was going, not into the Roth, but into my traditional IRA.

 Okay.  Honest mistake.  I called her up – “No big deal.  I can deduct that one payment anyway. Just get it fixed.  Yes,  the Roth account.  Please change the payment over to that one.  Yes.  Next month?  Okay.”

Soooo.

Imagine my surprise, when I look into my checking account and it looks a bit low.  And I check back through my records, and, lo and behold, instead of changing the payment over, she DOUBLED the amount being taken out.  

IN JANUARY.

POST CHRISTMAS JANUARY.

HIGH HEATING BILL JANUARY.

And now I don’t know where the hell it is going.

Is the doubled amount going into the IRA?

Is half going in the Roth and half in the IRA?

What.  The.  F.

Now.   People.  I am just a lil’ ole middle class kinda person.  With just three investment accounts that she manages.  THREE.

You have a one-in-three chance of getting it right, and she failed TWICE.

And just now, the financial collapse of the free world makes total sense.