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My main reason for not paying this bill is this: Why, if there is an OB service on call, does an FP attempt to provide care, when specifically asked not to? Because a patient cannot sit in a hospital for a few hours under nobody's care. You either need to leave the hospital or be cared for by the p...

My biggest recommendation is to keep all of these decisions as separate as possible and make them one at a time. First is do you want to be a landlord. I personally have no desire and generally think it's risky and hard to do as an individual as a side job. I'd leave it to the professionals or you n...

It's hard to predict the future. And personally, I don't think it's worth spending much time trying to predict future returns to determine how much to save. One reason I think this is that if there are more difficult economic times ahead, they'll be difficult for everybody. Stocks won't return as mu...

One key thing to look into is the FHA guidelines for reserve fund requirements. If I recall correctly, it states 10% of dues must be allocated towards reserves. Resale and refinancing can be hurt if the guidelines aren't met.

This is something I've thought about before, mainly in terms of if it makes sense to defer big purchases to buy more stocks when the market has had a rough couple years. I don't really consider this market timing in the traditional sense so much as reassessing your saving needs. If the markets haven...

Adam: The intermediate-term bond fund you mention is 50% treasuries with a duration of 6.5 years. I don't know this for sure, but I'm going to guess that the CA intermediate-term muni fund will be less risky and will outperform your VBILX over the next few years in tax-adjusted returns. Let's put i...

This seems related to my point that if I use up $10,000 of carryover capital loss to offset $10,000 of gains now, that the finacial benefit to me is greater than using that same amount of loss to offset $10k of gains say ten years later. The $10k isn't worth as much due to inflation. No? This idea ...

Thank you all for your thoughts. I had already decided that I want to take some money out of the market (not a large % of my portfolio). I am not trying to use my carryover losses for the heck of it, and I do have the option of selling some funds in a Roth IRA instead. I was trying to determine if ...

"Just know that the Muni bond fund will perform worse than a regular bond fund held in a Roth." Adam, Is that true? I agree that it's possible . . . But the average annual return for 3 years ending 3/31/13 for Total Bond Fund was 5.49% whereas the CA Intermediate-Term Fund was 6.28%. As r...

I am selling stocks to get back to my target AA. I'm a little stock heavy. I may put the money into Muni bond fund or cash. I don't think that influences whether to avoid using my carryover capital losses, does it? Just know that the Muni bond fund will perform worse than a regular bond fund held i...

In my mind, budgeting has two goals: 1) Make sure I'm saving enough (living below my means) - I do this by having an annual savings goal and fortunately I've been able to meet or exceed it every year. As long as I do this, I don't sweat budgeting much. 2) Make sure I'm spending my money on things I ...

What are you planning to rebalance into in your taxable account when you sell stocks? It's not clear what type of rebalancing you're trying to do. If you're selling stocks to buy bonds in taxable, that's likely to be tax inefficient over time.

jidina That is simply the triumph of the optimists story, more risk is EXPECTED to have higher returns, better outcomes or people would not invest. That doesn't change the fact that it's more risky. Now that is a different story if you ask if I choose stocks or bonds what are my odds of achieving a...

So I e-mailed TIAA-CREF and was told that I can't segregate pre-tax vs. Roth monies into different funds. It's not a huge deal but I had no idea it would work like this with these accounts combined together. I may have to rethink how I want to organize my accounts.

This past year with my new job I now have a 403b account with TIAA-CREF. I have made both before tax and after tax (Roth) contributions to this account. When I log on, it shows the total account value all together and there is only a little note that tells me how much of my money is in a Roth. My qu...

It took me a while to figure out what people were talking about here but think I understand now. Let me try to help. A lot of us conceptualize cost basis as something that is calculated when we sell shares. However, the new rules appear to be written more like a brokerage keeps a running tally of ea...

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Read the frequent trading policy again. It's in your prospectus and in the wiki. If, for some reason, you wish to buy back into a fund after selling it, you do not need to wait 60 days . http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Frequent_trading_policy Thanks for the info. I knew about this but had forgotten ...

You don't actually have to sit out when you harvest your gains or losses; if you sell $5000 worth of stock for tax reasons, you can sell $5000 worth of bonds in your 401(k) and buy $5000 worth of stock to keep the same stock allocation. True, that's a good point. The only issue I see there is then ...

I can wait until I meet the earned income requirement, but then I have to either sit out of the market longer with this money or realize short-term capital gains at that time. I'm realizing I should have started exchanging my taxable accounts earlier in the year in 2012. The earliest I can sell a fu...

I know in the grand scheme of things this won't make a big difference. But I still have to make a decision on what to do. I have been tax-gain harvesting in 2012 and have about $5000 left that I have earmarked for my 2013 Roth IRA contribution. It seems that to realize the gain in 2012, I need to se...

I don't currently own a home, but when I did I was also an other. I considered my mortgage in my portfolio and considered it a negative bond. More specifically, I considered the amount I was ahead of the 30-year amortization schedule of my mortgage my "bond" allocation. Each month, I'd che...

I know we can't talk about tax legislation but what's everybody's guess on WHEN 2013 tax policy will be set. I'd really like to be making some year end decisions and am holding off until I know more.

I didn't view my decision as taking out $50k in order to fund my retirement, but on some level that's exactly what I'm doing. But even looking at it like that, I think I would take out an under 2% loan (2.75% rate that's tax deductible) in order to fund a tax-advantaged retirement account. That wou...

I general, I think borrowing money now when rates are so low is better than not funding my retirement. Bond fund yields are equally low. From your posts, I can't tell if these decisions are to make sure you're adequately set up for an emergency or if you think needing this money in the next 15 year...

I general, I think borrowing money now when rates are so low is better than not funding my retirement. Bond fund yields are equally low. From your posts, I can't tell if these decisions are to make sure you're adequately set up for an emergency or if you think needing this money in the next 15 year...

Cash flow concerns. I'll be able to tap into my retirement funds after 15 years or so. You also never know future sources of income (ie., I'm not planning to inherit money but I may at some point). Of course, I could withdraw some of that retirement money now with ROTH IRA principal. The break even...

I think you're on the right track. It's really hard to offer much advice on the budget since it depends so much on the setup and layout of the residences. It's up to you to decide if the amenities provided are worth the cost to you. It sounds to me like the big question left to figure out is have th...

A couple things I'd recommend: Make sure you understand how the HOA runs on a day to day basis. Is there an outside management company? I'd be very hesitant if the association in trying to self manage. People think it can save money but in my opinion it is a very risky proposition. At the same time,...

As somebody who's been pretty close to 100% equities since 2004 (now working my way towards 80% as I'm now in my 30s), I don't see this as a strategy for me. Maybe for some young people it's good advice, but it definitely has it's challenges. Trying to convince somebody younger that even if the numb...

I have no idea. It's not something I'm losing sleep over. If you have investments in inflation indexed assets you should be worried. That means you will be LOSING money even if actual inflation breaks even with expected inflation these instruments. That means the only way you would break even or ma...

You may have already found it, but the Iowa State extension service is an excellent resource in trying to determine the value and fair rent rates. Here's a link to get started: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/ My two cents is it's probably not a bad time to sell. I wish I could get my parents ...

Just a heads up for people who might be interested. The ESPN 30 for 30 documentary tonight is about star athletes that squander their money and go broke.

1. Set up the W-4 in a bit of a conservative way (avoid the 90% threshold, but no free loan for Uncle Sam, so keep a tax gap to pay in April) 2. Save $$ every month (some of it intended for next-April tax gap; some of it being real savings - beyond 401k/etc) 3. In my regular investment portfolio, I...

What is the alternative that you have in mind? If you aren't saving for a downpayment, will you be saving toward something else, or saving with no particular goal in mind, or not saving at all? The alternative is to save more money in my tax advantaged retirement accounts. I have a separate emergen...

I just recently moved for a job and sold my condo that I bought in 2004. I had paid off 45% of the original principal but the property had declined in value by 35%. So I'm now left with about 1/2 of my original downpayment. I plan to rent for the next couple years but am debating about whether to sa...

This reminds me of a person I knew who was always afraid a lightbulb in a high ceiling was going to burn out and be difficult to change. He never turned on the light and stopped anybody else when they tried to use it. Not sure what benefit an unused bulb has over a burned out one. It's important to ...

Just one last piece of advice, try to remain as rational as possible. There was a lot of shock and anger for me and the other owners at first. If this is fraud, you're likely not going to come out of this financially whole. Even if the legal system works perfectly for you, the other person likely ha...

This brings back bad memories. I had a similar experience where my condo association began to suspect fraud when a prior treasurer said he would step down but then kept dragging out handing over the account and statements. Here's the steps we took: 1) A lawyer drafted a letter requesting current fin...

Don't forget about share buybacks as well as mergers and buyouts. A company doesn't have to pay out dividends to return value to long term investors. You've picked out some companies that likely missed their window to return the most value to investors, but I think it's impossible to know what the f...

Please remember your education credits when you file. It's a big credit and will drop you taxes next to nothing. Here's the form: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8863.pdf http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i8863.pdf If you are publicly funded school, your school is mandated to provide you training in p...

As long as you understand that paying off your mortgage is NOT the same as adding to your bond allocation. It doesn't work like a bond allocation would work in an investment portfolio. Your mortgage is just a loan with your home as collateral; the loan is not a negative bond. I'm not quite sure wha...

I just wanted to say what I do. My plan has evolved a little over time but I've settled into the following solution. I think most investing advice of AA based on age in bonds roughly assumes a 30 year mortgage with a person planning to fully own a home before reaching retirement. When I bought my pl...

Unless you were buying a house or getting cash for a clunker in 2009 did you feel you were much better off ? You can make up your mind from your subjective experience which is more accurate. Shadowstats certainly rejects hedonic substitution as it should do. Inflation indexes are social science and...

Just sell a portion now. Enough so that you can make the max contribution. You can always sell the rest at any time. Right, but the thing I'd like to avoid is eating up my capital losses. I'd consider holding off on this plan so I could have another year of reducing ordinary income by $3000 if I kn...

Thanks for the comments everybody. Looks like people generally agree with paying the capital gains to move my money into tax-advantaged retirement accounts. Anybody have a different opinion. Also, any predictions when I could officially know what capital gains rate will be in 2013.

House Blend wrote:Looks like you've found a way to free up $17K ( = $22K - $5K) of that taxable money at a tax cost of ~$600. I would go for it.

It's actually quite a bit more taxable money than that, the $17K is just the unrealized gains.

I think you meant your option 1 Roth to be 5k. If the plan is to get all of this money in 403b and Roth in the next few years then option 2 seems best. If tax rates don't change, then you would only need to sell a partial amount each year for similar treatment so you may want to wait till the end o...

Hi all, I’m trying to decide whether to harvest capital gains this year and take advantage of the 0% capital gains rate. If I do this, I'll contribute some of my retirement savings to a Traditional 403b account instead of a Roth to keep myself in the 15% tax bracket and have 0% federal capital gains...

Thanks for the analysis. I have a very similar situation where most of my parents retirement savings is farmland in Iowa. My father has done quite well for himself. I wish he would diversify a little more but there's no convincing him now. He does have a little in an IRA but he says the farmland has...