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YttriumNitrate wrote:

EmergDoc wrote:It would be fun to hear the rest of the story now.

Based on his posts, he ended up not buying the house and a few years later moved to Hong Kong.

Well, good, happy ending then....buying a house, in 2007 - LOL!

I was poking around my accounts and noticed that VG shows unrealized gain and loss, and cost basis only for stock funds but not bond funds. All my funds are in tax advantaged so I know I can't take losses and won't pay on gains, but why would they show those for stock funds and not bonds in any even...

I am and it was an unfortunate incident of my rollover of my 401 to my IRA. I slowly parted it from mmkt to funds but mostly to ST bond, GNMA, and just a little equities. I'm only about 20% equities now and feel pretty stupid.

none of the above....I went to mmkt in nov 07. I couldn't have handled 2008-2009. got back in 2010.

Used pianos can be bought or rented very reasonably. Tuning is inexpensive. If you go electric, demand weighted quick and natural action. Most important, find a teacher that makes it fun. Feed little souls comfort food. -- Tet I would add that the cheap keyboards usually have no weighting at all on...

I used to have an Actiontec combo router, which was obvious because it had a little antenna. Several of them quit and this latest one doesn't have an antenna. Are they built-in now? I got the router so long ago I can't remember anything about it.

I hope this isn't too OT - but I've been meaning to change the key to my Netgear router. I have not forgotten it and hooked up my new tablet to it just a couple weeks ago. But it's rather intuitive and I'd like to switch it to something more secure so I can view financial info without worrying. 'The...

Ah, my worst regret, because it wasn't my money but my dad sort of looked to me for help...he had I forget how many shares of Palm stock, quite a lot, and was pretty much incapacitated when the stock went crazy during the tech bubble. It would have grossed over 100k as I recall. He and my brother bo...

You can now make purchases at Vanguard using money from an external bank account, and still get the closing price for the day you made the purchase. In effect Vanguard floats you a loan for the time it takes to make the transfer, which seems very kind of them. What?? when did that happen? The only ...

I forgot my password and my security questions for TD. I have all my documents from TD, but they can't reset my password. I have some money in I-Bonds, I know the transaction dates, but no luck in getting a reset. Has anyone had any luck getting their password reset without their actual password or...

I don't have any answers, but have watched closely what has happened to others...my father, for one. He probably had a couple million by say 1990. After years of avid trading, had put most everything into Contra, which he gradually had to sell off to pay for his in-home nursing care. Any dementia he...

I assume this is yet more hype for the bull market? the media is falling all over itself trying to gin up a stampede...I heard some talking head say last week, he's never seen a bull so "disrespected."

When I went back to school at age 33 I was annoyed by the FAFSA paperwork so I just skipped it and went pay-go instead, working my way through. I would make the tuition payments in 3 installments each quarter, which helped my cash flow situation. That was in the 80s when tuition was low, but it seem...

Apparently there are suspicious $1.00 charges from "NNG*NING" floating around on people's accounts. Capital One fraud department called me today and I confirmed that this was a fraudulent charge, as I hadn't even used the card for about 3 months. They closed my account and will be shippin...

I used to think I couldn't wait to retire, and had a long list of things to do: biking, skiing, volunteer work, politics (but didn't care much about travel anymore)...then I sort of jumped the gun and did everything I had wanted to do while still working and got my fill of fun. It seems I need a wor...

I never know how to account for jointly held property, but just using 1/2, it's about 1/3 of my personal net worth.

And it was paid off 10 years ago.

You say, "it all happened quite fast", and then you say, "out of market awhile"?? When did this take place and just how long has it been in the MM fund? It's been a week since it cleared. It took a about a week from the time the rollover form was faxed in to receiving the check ...

I've had a 2006 Grand Caravan for 2.5 years now as I could not afford the Odyssey or Sienna. It's got the 6 cyl. It's really not that bad, and very comfortable. I love the radio and all the drink holders. :happy But I did have one problem when a wheel sensor failed. My previous car was a Subaru with...

I don't quite understand. What was the money invested in before you did the in-service rollover? It was 60/40 bonds/equities. But I waited until it hit a peak then transferred everthing to Mmkt there. I knew they were going to send me a paper check and it would be out of market awhile and I didn't ...

I finally did an in-service rollover of my 401k to Vanguard. It all happened quite fast once I made up my mind. Now about 60% of my retirement money is sitting in mmkt and I'm not terribly eager to jump into equities or bonds right now. I know this is the dreaded *timing the market* issue and nobody...

took 24 hrs to go to my bank.

Here is a related question. If he decides to wait until 70, it seems that this should guarantee that the rules [insofar as they affect him] will not change between now and when he turns 70. Is that a naive belief? yeah kinda because you're relying the sovereign, who can do whatever...I'm in the sam...

How much lower does your AGI have to be to claim the Homeowner's credit from your state? If you do not have a Roth IRA and have not maxed it out for 2012 ($5,000), then you could do the following to potentially get the $1,000 credit from MT taxes: Fund an existing Traditional IRA (if you have one a...

Well I'm just over the cutoff for the Homeowner's tax credit even using the correct AGI. All because I reduced my 401k contribution last year to build up my emergency fund after medical expenses. I guess that lousy 401k plan was good for something.

Lesson learned!

I live in Michigan, but I know my 401k contributions as well as my tIRA contributions are excluded from total "household resources" (the term MI uses) when figuring out my Homestead Property Tax Credit, similar to your "Elderly Homeowners Credit" in MT. and that's exactly what t...

After posting this I went to the statutes and they mean the federal AGI. (Then you add SS, tax refunds etc)

Sheesh, what terribly written instructions.

I'm having a weird problem with my state income tax return, involving our Elderly Homeowner Tax Credit. I don't expect anyone to be familiar with MT tax law but it's probably not that different in other states. In order to qualify we need to be under 45,000 in "gross" income. The worksheet...

I miss our old one-story house. We now have a raised ranch (daylight basement) and yeah, it's always much warmer upstairs, and cold downstairs. I find myself wanting to combine trips to save going up and down...painting would have been hard if my husband hadn't gotten a loan of some scaffolding. The...

Thanks everyone, lots of good advice.

Guess I'll keep saving for a new one..hubby will install it but I'll let him know about the valve upgrade.

At 10 years it's probably nearing the end of its life anyway. I've had them last that long, but not much longer. I had one that lasted less than 2 years, but fortunately it was still under warrenty. Whatever you do I recommend you flush it out at least twice a year. I learned that lesson the hard w...

We've had a Rheem gas water heater for 10 years. My husband installed it. I don't believe it has ever been drained though my husband tried to tell me he did it. He is really good with handyman stuff but I don't believe he did and just doesn't want to deal with it because he's never drained one befor...

It's a good table that makes Roth distribution rules easier to understand. From this information, you would conclude that your 5 year holding period is over 1/1/2014 and because you are also over 59.5, your Roth is fully qualified and tax free after that date. The 5 year holding period starts 1/1 o...

I guess I'm just not getting this. I started my first Roth in early 2010 when I realized I had contributed so much to my 401k that there was no tax advantage to my TIRA contributions. So I recharacterized my 2009 contributions to open my first Roth. I had everything in one fund but switched a lot, t...

In summary: With a low income and low tax rate abroad, it is much better to use 2555. Yes, very concise, and true except when the income is very, very low. Consider an income of $15,000. Subtract personal exemption, standard deduction, $5,000 to a tIRA, a little foreign tax credit thrown in and vio...

I too thought about the protected class initially. Rereading the post, it sounds like she works for a small company and admits to not having much to do. So an elimination of position is very common in these situations. Good luck to OP. It will be fine. At worse you will be on COBRA for a year. Yes,...

If you will not be working enough hours to qualify for healthcare then depending on your income level it might be better if they laid you off completely so that you can collect unemployment insurance. You may be able to collect unemployment past the age of 65 depending on your state laws and possib...

NM...looks like a reduction in hours is a qualifying event. Does anyone have any insight on which way I should go, part time or contractor - ? I guess the question is, since there is so little work to do, if he expects me to work as an IC or part-time employee on an as-needed basis, would it be bett...

I posted here in the past how little I have been doing at my job and that I was getting nervous etc. but was afraid to raise the issue and attract attention. It's been years of not doing much and the company is floundering....so today my (very nice) supervisor came around and said the CEO has been b...

Since I was going in-state at a public school, tuition was not that bad, I went pay-go, taking advantage of the controller's office installment plan, three payments a term. So my cash flow was a little more manageable that way.

Not every person uses Fidelity. And even those who do, often have IRA accounts at other places in the same time. Exactly. And I reduced my 401k contribution last year to build up my emergency fund after using it for surprise medical expense. Then I upped again it this year upon reaching my goal. Th...

Mostly self taught...My parents didn't teach me anything, even though my father was real good with money. I think he assumed I wasn't interested, and it wasn't a proper topic for a daughter anyway. Yeah he was that old. By the time I was interested, he was into some pretty complicated investments th...

When the time comes to take RMDs, how does it work, if say all your money is in different IRA funds at Vanguard? Are you expected to combine everything in a special fund (like Managed Payout) or would VG just take the payment from all the funds proportionately if you have left your allocation the wa...

BHCadet wrote:
If you're 70 1/2 or older, take RMD first.
Then taxable, then tax deferred, then ROTH.

I thought RMD was what one set up for tax deferred. What else would it before if not that?

Taxable and Roth don't have to be distributed any particular way do they?

Well, here I had thought that the benefit stopped increasing after 70 whatever your income was ? I still won't have 35 good years of decent income by then, only about 32.

I'd just as soon have some structure in my day, though there hasn't been much to do at my job in years.

I am kinda worried about it. Ten years ago I had all these plans for what I would do if I didn't have two jobs, got impatient and quite my night job as a musician. I went into "premature retirement mode"..did a lot of long distance biking, cross country skiing, competitive shooting, politi...

Great! Does Vanguard have a credit default swap index?

I pay $75 for CenturyLink phone and DSL, and $37 for basic cable, and $23 for cheapskate cell plan with no data or smartphone. I'd like to be able to check my email at work on my cell but there's just no way to do it without a major upgrade. I really wish there was a better way to do all this, but I...

I know it's tempting to let a broker handle everything, plus they shower you with attention at first so that's flattering...but really, you can learn a lot very quickly if you hang around here more and read a couple books. Especially since you will be retired soon. Don't give into the temptation to ...

Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America by Robert Whitaker.