Bogleheads.org

I have seen varying suggestions as to who the owner of the 529 Plan should be. I wanted to ask the Bogleheads who owned the 529 plan and what was the rationale behind it. I am hoping everyone can shed some light as to how the account owner would effect financial aid, income tax, estate tax, gift tax...

SobeCane - can you just use your credit cards more each month? Are there things you are spending money on that you don't put on your credit cards that you could easily move? For example, I always used to feel squicky about putting my grocery spending on my cc, and used to always use my debit card, ...

winglessangel31 wrote:The grade chart is statistics, your score is likely based on a formula not related to the causation-correlation impression you are getting. Giving us your CK score and its 12-month movement will be more helpful.

It goes up and down like a roller coaster between 740 - 760

Why does the OP care about his/her credit score? Are you planning to take out a big loan soon? Once you're wealthy enough, a "credit score" no longer matters... OP Here - I am planning on getting a mortgage within the next few years and am not wealthy. If you had a high credit limit and n...

Since Credit Karma is not a real score, does anyone know how the 3 credit reporting bureaus factor utilization that is less than 1%?

I use Credit Karma to get a general estimate of what my credit score is. I noticed that for credit card utilization, i received a C grade because I have less than 1% utilized. I have about $100,000 in limit between 5 cards and usually always have less than $1,000 charged at all times. Does it make s...

Markfaix and Seattle CPA,

Why do you both recommend the route of having the business treated as a partnership with an S Corp holding the shares of each partner? Why not just have the business treated as a S Corporation owned by the partners and skip the extra layer?

Sesq- Thanks for your response. Even though a year from now it will be a 13 month old closed line, it will still impact my average age open. I have a few cards that I opened around 2008 and this latest one was my 3rd card. I thought by cancelling it, my average age would be 5 years but that 1 month ...

I recently closed a credit card account after receiving the initial sign up bonus. I was wondering if a closed account will be in the calculation for average age of credit line? If it is included, when will it be taken out of the calculation because obviously having a card open only 1 month will bri...

FYI - read this blog post yesterday on why it is better to make a charitable donation from appreciated stock, and not from RMD. http://www.kitces.com/blog/archives/474-MailBag-Is-A-Qualified-Charitable-Distribution-QCD-From-An-IRA-Better-Than-Donating-Appreciated-Securities.html Is his logic correct?

This isn't working yet for 2012, but should give you what you need. https://personal.vanguard.com/us/insights/taxcenter/tax-information-vanguardfunds Link is now up for 2012. 100% Foreign Again. https://advisors.vanguard.com/VGApp/iip/site/advisor/investments/taxcenter/prioryeartaxdata/article?file...

For accuracy I think it needs to be computed. Not all $1200 of dividends are from foreign sources. I don't know how to find the fraction for that fund, but Vanguard tries to publish the fraction for its funds in an obscure place. The fraction for ETFs is easily found on the website of the ETF creat...

Sorry for the post, I should have done the math and realized what the difference was attributed to. BTW, is there any way to find out the Foreign Taxes Paid throughout the year or is it only available on the 1099-DIV? No, not that I've found. It's one of the many factors that can make it impossible...

The only fund that I have in taxable is Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US. Just did the math and the difference is the Foreign Taxes Paid. I guess that the "Taxes & Income Summary" just uses the net number after taxes. Sorry for the post, I should have done the math and realized what the d...

Just accessed my 1099-DIV via the Vanguard website today and noticed for the second year in a row that the amount of taxable dividends is larger than the amount reported under the My Accounts -> "Taxes & Income" summary for the year. Has anyone else noticed a difference?

So unless the place charges you at the pump you won't get the 5 percent rebate with the PCR card? There are plenty of gas stations that take my card and swipe it in their little booth The only way to tell is to call up PenFed and see if they are giving you 5% back on your purchase. Visa Rewards is ...

Alan S. - When I made this post I was secretly hoping you would see it and provide guidance. To answer your question: I do have a pre-existing Traditional IRA before i made this year's $5,000 contribution. But I just want the current $5,000 current year contribution to be re characterized to a Roth ...

Situation: I contributed $5,000 to my traditional IRA at Vanguard earlier this year. As the year is winding down, my income will be lower than previously anticipated so I do not need the $5,000 deduction any more to stay in the 15% bracket. Therefore, I would like to switch my contribution this year...

Thanks again Houseblend.

I am getting close to the point where I may have to file the Form to get the credit (over $300 in FTC). I began reading the instructions for the Form 1116 and was overwhelmed! I guess I will have TurboTax fill it out and I will give it a good look over for obvious mistakes.

House Blend, Thanks for the link to your analysis. I noticed on Vanguard's website that Total International is ranked a 5 for Risk Potential and Total Stock Market is ranked a 4. Does this favor Total International in taxable because the greater volatility will provide more Tax Loss Harvesting poten...

Should we rethink this being a tax efficient fund? At the current yield, it's still tax-efficient. Assume a taxable yield of 3%, with 7% withheld as foreign tax, and 75% of the dividend qualified. In a 25% tax bracket, you pay 0.34% on the 2.25% qualified dividends, and 0.19% on the 0.75% non-quali...

6,000 Wages 1,500 Qualified Dividends 5,000 Conversion from Traditional to Roth 41,897 Capital Gains 54,397 AGI The lifetime learning credit starts to phase out at $52,000 so I cut back a little on the capital gains but we also want enough income to utilize the non refundable credit (5,950) Standard...

OK - It seems like I have passed another year of financial physicals from the Boglehead doctors.

Thanks everyone for your input and see you next year!

Hopefully after many years, I will be able to look back on the annual posts and see a pattern of "staying the course!"

Can I ask how you have 85k in a Roth by age 26? Rollover from 401k -> Roth recharacterization? I'm also 26 and have about 17k in mine, but have only contributed for three years. Before I found this forum, I was contributing to a Roth 401(k) instead of Traditional 401(k). This post by The Finance Bu...

Here is the link to the Forbes Article on "Mega-Roth's"

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2012/0409/ ... dodge.html

Just so you know, next year's max contribution amount allowed is $5,500. You have earned your $25 co-pay. interesting tax loss harvesting partnering. I am considering setting up the same. stay the course. I use Total International and FTSE All World Ex-US as "TLH Partners". I would prefer...

You could do this in 1 of 2 ways - make two consecutive year contributions to your Roth of $5K (2012) and $5.5K (2013) or sell down in taxable, but then you would incur a tax hit of roughly $1,500. If it were me, I would just keep on contributing to the Roth. P.S. The nurse will take your $25 co-pa...

I first found Boglehead's 2 years ago and have learned a bunch from the members of the forum (shout-out to Taylor, Livesoft, & sscritic) as well as the blogs of Mike Piper, Allan Roth, and The Finance Buff. I am asking for a checkup on my 2 year anniversary of becoming a Boglehead. I like to get...

Same thing happened to me. Glad I found this post. Almost had a heart-attack! I wonder how our accounts got un-checked? If you pay attention, threads like these always start on Sunday. Sunday is the day the ghosts haunt the computers at Vanguard and wreak havoc with their systems and cause great co...

There is a page to select which funds you want listed. Do you have your Roth selected? Same thing happened to me as the OP. I went into "Balances & Holdings", then "Customize this page", and found my Roth IRA was unchecked. I re-checked it, and then it showed up again on the...

Not sure the answer to #1, but it looks like you would be better off switching to the PPO for the next year and checking the HSA option every year during open enrollment to see if it improves.

As for #2 and #3, you can keep your HSA while not enrolled in an HDHP and you can change trustees as well.

Can anyone shed some light on Jack's statement from above: "I was hoping I could talk them into charging me a $100,000 maintenance fee on my taxable account and then awarding me a $99,000 bonus in my Roth account." Can a smart bank start paying out really high interest rates in a Roth IRA ...

Seems like the real benefit of this is transferring an IRA so you get an extra $1,000 added without incurring any taxes. I was hoping I could talk them into charging me a $100,000 maintenance fee on my taxable account and then awarding me a $99,000 bonus in my Roth account. Is there any rule preven...

Just read the TFB's article.

Is there any good reason to do this in a taxable account? Seems like the real benefit of this is transferring an IRA so you get an extra $1,000 added without incurring any taxes. If you transferred a taxable account, you would receive a 1099 for the $1,000.

Puzzled by the international change too and what it means. My main concern would be maintaining the ability to tax loss harvest between VEU/VXUS as those are the core of my taxable accounts. I think this tax loss harvesting would still be allowed given the change. Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US ETF ...

Dave76 wrote:Buy at your own risk. Try to avoid Dade County cars (Florida).

What's the story behind this?

What I meant by an agent was an insurance agent that would only be used to purchase the best policy at the best price. Once I purchased the policy, I would be contacting the insurance company by myself and would have no further interaction with the agent. I thought this would be beneficial because t...

For most everything we do (including investing), eliminating the middle man saves money. However, I have been reading articles that say insurance agents can get better priced auto policies than we can by going to the companies ourselves via the phone or the internet. I just received my latest 6 mont...

Giving your portfolio allocations a range to fluctuate in (such as 5%), or a period of time to fluctuate over (such as one year) can help you avoid unnecessary transaction costs . Taylor, Considering I am investing in a Mutual Fund directly through Vanguard, what transaction costs are applicable?

However, a lender may consider other factors than your score. If you have $80,000 in unused credit limits, a lender might see this as an opportunity to run up $80,000 in debt; how does that relate to your income? My credit limit is > than my current income. I guess that could scare some mortgage le...

Be careful not to overdo it. Too high an unused limit also counts against you. For instance potential new creditors don't like to see very large credit lines that could be converted into active debt while they are closing a new mortgage for you. This is the first time I am hearing this and would lo...

Can anyone help me understand this fee for the John Hancock Total Stock Market Index Fund. I don't think there is any additional information that wasn't presented before the fee disclosures rules were put in place. Expense Ratio (as of 3-31-12)**** Fund Expense Ratio 0.57 AMC 0.00 Sales & Servi...

Can anyone help me understand this fee for the John Hancock Total Stock Market Index Fund. I don't think there is any additional information that wasn't presented before the fee disclosures rules were put in place. Expense Ratio (as of 3-31-12)**** Fund Expense Ratio 0.57 AMC 0.00 Sales & Servic...

Honobob wrote:

SobeCane wrote:
Any suggestions?

Yes, share with us the numbers you used for annual change in house and rent values and where you got them from.

I used the default numbers provided by their calculator. I don't think my guess will be any more accurate than theirs.

Seems that since we can't compare apples to oranges I should wait to buy the Single Family Home until we can no longer fit in a 1 bedroom apartment because this calculator is telling me it would never beat a 1 bedroom apartment when it comes to costs.

I saw a post about a 22 year old trying to decide between buy v. rent as they began their first job. A resounding majority of the Bogleheads advice was to rent and they recommended analyzing the Rent v. Buy Calculator offered by the NY Times here: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/buy-rent...

From Pub 969:

"A qualified HSA distribution may be made from your traditional IRA or ROTH IRA to your HSA"

Why would anyone fund their HSA from a ROTH IRA? I can't think of anytime that would make sense.

tj wrote:

How does one do that?

Buy an Amazon.com gift card.

I can use my Amazon.com gift card and am able to send myself a check for the gift card balance through Amazon payments? Did I understand this correctly?

livesoft wrote:But once again, you can still do something after the sale that would disallow the loss. What is that something?

Purchasing Total International within the next 30 day period.

The loss from the shares bought on 05/16 and 05/23 would be added to the basis of those shares. Since they are also getting sold, the loss would then be allowed? I am not sure how to reflect that on Schedule D / 8949. Or maybe Vanguard is required to show that since those purchases were covered shar...