Bogleheads.org

Okay, thanks all. You've given me the confidence to go ahead and open the other account. It was rather painless.

FDIC coverage is not the concern here. I know as long as the account is in good order it will be covered - happened to me a few times with some online CD's through Vanguard.

I have a saving account at an online bank. I'm finding myself uncomfortable with the size of the deposits there and reluctant to add significantly more funds even though it is well below the FDIC limit for a joint account. I guess it's the worry that something could get screwed up (computer bug, hum...

Another happy Simplisafe customer, for about 1-2 years now. You have the option with them of using monitoring or not.

> I believe you need to direct your ire to the correct party which is NOT Ally Bank. I respectfully disagree. The regulations you quoted listed possible ways a bank could verify identity. It does not require checking credit bureau files. Indeed, based on information in this thread I contacted Barcla...

BorisTheSpider: That's interesting - I didn't have to unfreeze my files when I opened the CD account there. When I brought that up to the supervisor, she said that they are more careful with online banking accounts.

The supervisor never got back to me as promised, so I called tonight to speak with her again. She told me that she found out the online savings account cannot be opened without the credit file check. Of course, when I called each time they asked me for my soc. sec. #, my date of birth, my login user...

> It's a known problem with Ally: see here and here. Nobody knows why, they seem to give a different story every time. Thanks. I did do a quick search before posting but didn't see these. > I did have a little problem setting up CD's with Ally.It had to do with the way I wrote my address and the way...

I currently have a CD account at Ally and wanted to open an online savings account. The rep took me through the process but said it couldn't be completed and they would review and get back to me. Turns out they want to pull a credit check and my credit files are frozen. I'm not applying for credit -...

> If the yields become substantially equal, this implies that the risk premium for corporate bonds over Treasury bonds has increased even further, as it did during the 2008 crash; would you have really wanted to go all-corporate at that time?

Thanks for that perspective. I'll re-think things.

I am the OP for this thread. I should have specified that the different nature of the two funds is not of any consequence to me - I actually own both - and for the purposes of this question I am focusing just on the durations - 5.3 and 2.3 years - and the yields - 1.56% and 1.01%. VBTLX is in a Roth...

In comparing VBTLX (Total Bond) and VFSTX (Short-Term Investment Grade), I was surprised to see that the yields are 1.56% and 1.01% at this time. The average durations are 5.3 and 2.3 years. I believe I've seen here some consensus against long-term bond funds since the extra yield was not justified ...

My son is still in school but will be 26 this Fall and thus too old for our insurance policy, so we are starting to look for options. We just want a basic catastrophic type coverage, if that's the right terminology. In other words, we won't mind covering an occasional doctor visit but want insurance...

[Thread merged into this one. See my post below. --admin LadyGeek] http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/05/06/warren-buffett-federal-reserve-stocks-bonds-heinz/2138403/ From the article: "Buffett said on CNBC financial news network Monday that bonds are a "terrible" inve...

> If one cube is $100 million and there appear to two cubes to a stack ($200 million), then the first five stacks in the first row should equal one billion dollars. (A billion is one thousand millions, right?) Just the first five stacks doesn't look to be one thousandth of the whole floor load. A tr...

I share your concern and there have been several posts about having "too much" in one financial institution.

My only hope is that if something like that actually occurred, the financial institution would be able to trace what happened and make it good.

Can someone explain why in the 21st century there is still an issue with fractional shares? Can't computers handle 85.234 shares as easily as 85 shares?

From the tax tables, I believed I knew the marginal tax bracket I was in. But after going through the preparation of my 2012 taxes using Turbo Tax, I decided to directly calculate my marginal tax rate by adding $100 to my W-2 Box 1 amount and seeing what happened. To my surprise, my refund was reduc...

> ...what about the deduction hit at tax time? An 18K interest deduction would go down and significantly impact (increases) your taxes. It's not beneficial to pay more interest just to get a higher deduction. If you pay, say, $x more interest in one scenario vs. another, you get the approximately $x...

> Since dividends from out-of-state interest are taxable, you need to exclude the income for in-state dividends for the national muni bond funds. Turbotax requires you to create a separate 1099-DIV for each of the out-of-state and in-state portions of the total. If you don't find the information on ...

Thank you grabiner. You seem to have a grasp of the situation but after reading your reply several times I still have some confusion, especially over the implication of whether or not PA tax is withheld, so please bear with me a bit further. Here's the crux of the situation I think - for TurboTax to...

I thought in the past that Inuit had a forum on their web site. Now it seems to be that you post a question and hope someone answers. A lot of questions that I checked have gone unanswered, so I thought I'd try here. I live in PA and work in DE. My employer gives me a W-2 with two entries for Box 16...

Here is more IRS' guidelines: Q12. Who is an eligible student for the American opportunity tax credit? A. For the American opportunity tax credit, an eligible student is a student who: (1) is enrolled in a program leading toward a degree, certificate or other recognized post-secondary educational c...

As others have stated, as long as the bank is FDIC insured you don't have to worry about losing anything, only some possible delay or inconvenience in retrieving your funds if the worst happens. I've had several CD's through Vanguard's brokerage with banks that failed. The funds showed up in my swee...

One of our children is in the last year of a five-year program (due to co-ops in earlier years) and is considered by the school to be a senior. The AO credit was only used three times previously for this child. In Pub 970 (Tax Benefits for Education) the IRS says in one place says "Available ON...

SwampDonkey: We have a similar situation now with a big tree that fell down. The quotes we are getting are significantly higher than the $1k you mention. To compare, can you estimate the size of the tree that fell on your property? Also, did the $1k include the stump grinding?

Thanks.

I've been in a couple of accidents the past few years - both were the other guy's fault. I contacted my insurance company right away, just to get it on the record. It was a bit confusing as to which way to go but I decided to file the claim with my company and let them duke it out with the other com...

I believe you only have to actually file the form 8606 once - for the tax year that the non-deductible contribution was made. That was the case with my wife one year. I've made a note of it on my tax cheat sheet that I add to and move into each successive year's tax folder. Maybe "cheat" i...

> An American opportunity or lifetime learning credit (education credit) can be claimed in the same year the beneficiary takes a tax-free distribution from a QTP, as long as the same expenses are not used for both benefits. This means that after the beneficiary reduces qualified education expenses b...

Two things - Also check the insurance coverage from your car's policy. Usually the rental car insurance is not necessary. Go with the agent to inspect the car when you pick it up, noting all problems including what you may think are minor scratches etc., both inside and outside the car. When you ret...

Thanks for the responses. Just curious - for those that indicate there is nothing to worry about, do you not keep records of your accounts? And to return to my original query, would such records (printouts or computer files of account balances) have any legal standing in the event of a dispute? Than...

Being somewhat paranoid by having had to deal with my share of mistakes on the part of large companies, I have wondered how one could prove the existence of an account in this day of electronic record keeping. What I mean is, suppose through some computer bug, programming error or cosmic ray event y...

I've been using a console humidifier for several years. It has two water containers, almost 3 gallons each, and an evaporative wick. I turned it on at the end of December when my humidifier gauge was showing off scale. The humidifier brings it up to 35%, based on the settings I use. I don't want it ...

Become a vegan.

Yes, she meets those criteria. Thanks.

Thats correct - only one person is entitled to claim Educations Credits and its usually the person who claims the student as a dependent. Also remember no one can claim a credit for any expenses paid from 529 funds, scholarships, etc. You can still file amended returns (back to Tax Year 2009) to co...

It seems to me that if you and your child each have $10,000 and there is a $10,000 bill to pay, you can choose to pay it with your money or her money. Similarly, if the bill is initially $20,000 but later is reduced to $10,000, you can choose to pay the net $10,000 bill with your money or her money...

>Generally, qualified education expenses paid on behalf of the student by someone other than the student (such as a relative) are treated as paid by the student. However, qualified edu- cation expenses paid (or treated as paid) by a student who is claimed as a dependent on your tax return are treate...

I took a look at Pub 970 and it does not seem to answer my particular question about how to apportion the refund between two people that paid tuition.

This year (Fall 2012), I paid a portion of my (dependent) daughter's tuition expense and the remainder was paid from a 529 account in her name. The school sends one bill in the fall for the entire year's tuition. Her housing is separately paid off campus using funds from a non-529 account in her nam...

Just wanted to thank you for this very interesting post. I had always thought in terms of f/stop, not the absolute physical size of the lens aperture. Do you have a reference? Sounds like something from Merklinger. And, to be technical, don't you mean the size of the entrance pupil, not the physica...

Personally, the RX1 seems too limiting to me by having only a fixed 35mm lens and therefore to me seems priced a bit high. On the other hand, it sounds like it is almost perfect for the type of photos you usually take and meets your needs well. Consider this - this is your hobby, the camera seems ap...

nedsaid: I would not be doing a conversion, but a rollover (of before tax 401K money to my regular IRA and after tax 401K money to my Roth IRA). Not a taxable event if done correctly.

livesoft: I don't have the exact numbers, but the stable value fund represents a very large % of my entire portfolio, hence the concern. Also, my company (a component in the Dow Jones 30) runs the stable value fund - the same managers that run the company's pension fund. Padlin: The 401K has a bond ...

I am of the age that I can withdraw from my 401K without any penalty. The contents of the 401K are largely devoted to the fixed income part of my portfolio, in the form of a stable value fund. I have been thinking of rolling over a portion of the 401K to my Vanguard Roth and regular IRA accounts as ...

I've gone back and forth with this in the past. You can hear arguments on both sides. My conclusion was that while Macs were relatively immune from these issues in the past, they may not be now or they may not be in the near future. After a bit of research, I decided to install the free Sophos Anti-...

I'm also considering this but am usually dissuaded by the reviews I read on places like Amazon.

$200 is a little more than 2x what I pay a local company that does siding, windows etc. I have a two story house on a sloping lawn so the back is probably more like a three story house - pretty high up.

Several years ago, when PA deregulated I went with an alternate supplier. After not too long, I got a letter from them informing me that they were exiting the market. So I tried another...same result. I think after my third one I gave up and just went back to PECO. I find the offers confusing as rat...

Okay, thanks all. We were discussing this at work today and our assumptions were confirmed.