Bogleheads.org

Folks, Thanks so much for your input. I read through all of your responses, but have printed this thread out so I can analyze more in depth the different types of options you provided. Before I posted, I was leaning towards trying to get something done with PenFed 5/5Arm. Now, it seems this might be...

Would it be advisable for my mother in law to refinance her small mortgage? If so, is there a particular institution that I should check out with her? Any guidance or advice would be appreciated. Heres the background on my mother - in - law's current mortgage and her overall finances: Property Locat...

Here it goes. My 25 year old sister earns all of her income under the table. My dad claims her as a dependent on his tax return. Her income likely only amounts to around 15-20k per year. Still, she could invest a large portion of this income, because her parents pay most of her expenses (I know this...

Hello,

I am in need of some information/guidance.

What types of work do 1099 earning accountants do? Tax prep/returns is the one that immediately jumps out. What other work is there for an accountant that desires to be self employed?

Thank you for your time and input.

With all due respect, it sounds like you had little to zero interest in obtaining this advisor/salesman's services. Why go - for giggles? Did the advisor/salesmen know you were there just for giggles? Whether you like the way he goes about doing business or not- this man essentially sells his financ...

Of course- the 1040 instructions :oops: One other minor concern. It seems some on here have experienced issues (in the form of lost paperwork) when sending in a paper return(?) Nevertheless, I think I'll still go ahead and send the paper return and be careful to give them everything that they reques...

I completed my tax return by hand this year for the first time. I printed out the fillable forms on the IRS website and filled them in by pen. I looked through the pub 17 and found where to send the paper returns, but did not find in the pub 17 as to what attachments, receipts, etc, needed to accomp...

Thank you, Bruce.

One more thing. My job expenses (boxes 21-27 on schedule A) do not exceed 2% of our AGI. Do I need to bother filling out the form 2106 (employee business expenses)? I notice my accountant included the form last year (which is the reason I pose the question) .

Levett -Thanks-After doing further reseach, I will simply leave box A blank. Same goes for job expenses. On a side note--I dont know why my accountant even bothers filling in box 22 (his accountant fees), as they amount to a zero deduction for me. Huey- Good Catch. I went ahead and did some research...

I am doing taxes by hand this year and have a question regarding the schedule A, itemized deductions. Specifically, I am looking at box 1 medical and dental expenses. It appears that tallying up my numerous tiny medical and dental receipts will be a fruitless task. These expenses make up far less th...

This is helpful. Thank you for the link and the reference to the i1040. I will use them. I am going to see if I can order the pub 17 from IRS. Its kind of nice just to have the guidance right in front of you. Ill probably come back and ask additional questions when I get to the Adjustable Income sec...

I am doing my own taxes this year manually to get a better feel as to what exactly is driving my income tax bill. If the material in this post is too granular and the post is removed, I will understand. For the income part of Form 1040 1. Is box 7 on the 1040 (wages, salaries, etc) computed by simpl...

If you like accounting then you may like being an accountant. It's often repetitive work and can be both dull and stressful but it is stable work with some status. That may sound negative but some love accounting and some don't. It's like engineering or computer science in that respect. Pay is gene...

I graduated from college back in 2005 when I was 22, worked as an external auditor at one of the big 4 firms, made it to Manager after 5 years, and got out after 6 years total. I now work in the finance department of a public company so I may be able to provide you with some decent insight. I'll an...

I received my accounting degree when I was around early 30s so should not be a problem. But you need to consider which part of "accounting" you like and getting the CPA license. In accounting you can do tax, non profit, gov't, bookkeeping, and investment accounting. Depending which field ...

Over the last two years or so, I have been strongly considering changing careers. I have done a fair amount of research on different potential careers and believe that public accounting might be a good fit for my personality and skill set. Specifically, I was interested in the idea of eventually ope...

OP, I applaud you for the act of planning at such a young age. Rather than comment on the individual components, I would suggest that nobody has any idea what expenses you will have 40 years from now. Tax rates could be lower or higher. Social security could be the same of lower. Inflation could be...

Rex and sscritic- Inflation was a concern of mine, but in my situation, I dont believe that it will throw off my target number too much. I wasn't thinking of inflation after you retire, but before (and that is what I wrote). If inflation is 5% per year over the next 20 years, $2 million in 2032 dol...

This is a good ballpark estimate. You do have to correct for inflation. If you retire with a 50% stock allocation and slowly decrease it, your portfolio will probably outpace inflation early on, but may drop below inflation later on. Also, living costs tend to decrease slightly as you get older. a ...

Remember, if you retire at 50, you'll have to pay for 15 years of private individual medical insurance, unless you're lucky enough to retire under an employer who will pay it for you for that long. (Assuming no changes from the current situation with Medicare, of course...) Great point and I did co...

Rex and sscritic- Inflation was a concern of mine, but in my situation, I dont believe that it will throw off my target number too much. Two factors that I believe will make up for inflation are that: 1) I believe that an average proabability exists for my wife and I to receive social security and 2...

I am trying to create a simple ball park nest egg number that I believe my wife (28 years old) and I (29) will need to retire on. Is the way I came up with this ball park number far too simplistic? Have I made any egregious errors? Formula A: Yearly Estimated Retirement Living Expenses X Estimated Y...

Thanks TJ. I was thinking since were about 20 days out or so from closing, it would not be a big deal to make a principal payment prior to closing. Thanks John. I will go ahead and ask my lender if it would be easier to bring a check in at closing or if he'd prefer that I just go ahead and make that...

Sounds like a good question for your new lender or loan officer. I guess that I am being a bit passive agressive. I guess what I am asking is that I want to know if I would be giving the lender a huge headache by applying one more big payment towards principal or would it be just a small headache a...

Is it okay to pay additional principal towards your home during a refi? I mean does it screw up the folks working on your refi at all? My refi just went to underwriting and we have an estimated closing date of 12/19/12. I have met all other investing goals for this year and am working on aggressivel...

I was also not a fan of FFF, but I have come around to thinking that they are not bad at all. Sure, their expense ratios are higher than Vanguard Target Retirement funds and they do have quite a hodge-podge of funds in them. However, they seem to perform as well as Vanguard TR funds for the same st...

retiredjg, thanks for the clarification regarding the tax bracket. I had been thinking that tax bracket was based off of AGI, not taxable income. 1/365th of the expense ratio is taken from the whole fund every day. So if the expense ratio is 1%, they take 1/365th of 1% out each day. Whatever is left...

Since it appears contributions to tIRA would not be deductible, Roth IRAs should also be considered. I agree with Jan's fund recommendations. However, I don't think you should consider Roth IRA contributions until you've made enough 401k contributions to get under the AMT and the 41% marginal rate ...

You should find out by looking up the expense ratios in the paperwork or a website provided to you by your plan administrator. The retail expenses you are finding on the internet may not apply to your plan, so looking things up there is not very helpful. Thanks retiredjg. I went ahead and added the...

Right Livesoft. I went on to the Fidelity website and found that the expense ratios in Freedomfunds that Id be interested in are around .5 and .6%. So, I would be able to save a little in expense fees in my 401 by doing what you suggested, because on average my overall expenses are slightly higher t...

Thanks Bob's not my name for providing Alan S. as a contact. I went ahead and PM'ed him. I will report back here with any information regarding the deductibility of my wife's IRA.

Since you do not have a taxable account, I would recommend that you just use Fidelity Freedom fund in your 401(k) and a similar vanguard target retirement fund in your IRAs, Roth IRAs. It really is that simple for folks just starting out. If you end up with a taxable account, then I would suggest t...

⋅ Your state tax is probably 8%. The exact number depends on your county. The majority of MD posters we get here don't know their state tax rate. It goes as high as 9% under a retroactive tax increase passed this year. -----------------Thanks for the clarification. I didnt realize the tem...

Value Thinker, ibonds- I will do some additional research on them and find out about these restrictions that you mentioned. Expenses are billed a % against the whole fund? I did not know that. So, if I have say $1,000 in the Total stock market fund, I would only pay the .05%, which would equal 50 ce...

I am very excited to have been introduced to this website. I have been reading the forum for the last couple of weeks and am impressed (which is an understatement) by the level of logic, knowledge and wisdom on here. I am going to learn as much as I can here and read as much as possible on the subje...