Bogleheads.org

I have been flying 1-2 times/year to the same destination in Europe for 10 years. My experience is that for the last year or two, the percentage changes do not drop significantly 2 months before, as they sometimes did. Prices trend upwards towards flight date as you have seen, with maybe 10% variati...

I have had them tell me to refuse a shipment and reorder for a lower price. Tell me how that makes any sense in any ones world. Filters out everyone except people who really want it or have a huge price difference. They're a huge company with volatile prices. It would be an easy task to offer a ser...

I was very sad when he died, realizing that all the Douglas Adams books that would ever exist had already been written. We'll ignore the collected essays released posthumously. I dimly recall it had his interview about atheism which is one of the most common-sense statements on the subject I've ever...

Call around to some plumbers to see if they have something useable second hand they'd slap in cheap. I once rented a house that we all knew would be torn down soon and the land developed. The heating boiler (oil / hot water) had a leak. For 6 months we mopped the floor while the landlord insisted it...

For example, in Germany, the "Bayern-Ticket" is good for unlimited use for one day not only on all regional trains in Bavaria, but also on local transport (streetcars, buses, subway) in most cities. 26 euros covers two adults and up to five children who are traveling with them. Trivia, bu...

After a guidebook about living in a foreign country I resided in explained that coin-purse wallets were recommended because young nubile store clerks were not impressed by men rooting around in their pants in front of them, I started using one with a coin purse. It proved to be so much more practica...

I'd think that if you had a very old system, it would be prudent to simply check before buying any software. It took a few seconds to search for "system requirements for turbotax" and display the Intuit page that was the first Google result returned. XP/SP3, by the way.

I had the HP event also. I did the monitoring, checked it out of curiosity a few times (I would never buy that on my own, so it was sort of interesting) and moved on. I don't even recall them asking me to renew on my own, although they may have. Just don't give them a credit card number :D. I'm sure...

I carry my cell phone in the spacious pockets of my pleated pants.

The problem with Quicken versions more than a few years old is that...(snip)... Really old versions even have different database structures so simple things like imports may not even work. I use 2004 and assume that eventually it will not run on a current OS, and I will need to buy a new version. I...

I'd guess this is pretty unactionable information I would say the opposite. Most extraordinary marginal rate situations have mitigation solutions that would change your life not at all except to make you richer. If paying your last tuition bill on January 1 instead of December 31 saves you $2,000 i...

It would certainly be a fluke if it mattered, but note that that's your theoretical marginal rate for your next $100. If you want to know your actual marginal tax rate, subtract $100. I'd guess this is pretty unactionable information-- as others are saying, you're seeing bumps and dips as various ta...

My experience is about 2 months. Does this include international flights? Victoria Pretty much between two specific US-Europe cities. The price sometimes dips more 1-2 months before, but if we miss that or it doesn't happen we're probably going to pay more than 2 months. It's just my circumstances....

I'll trade you a pair of ducks for a flock of Canada Geese.

My experience is about 2 months. But since we don't take the same airline or flights, the only experience that really matters is this-- I never check the prices again after I buy the ticket. That way madness lies.

Incidentally, the paper is not actually cancelled -- it is just being rebranded "International New York Times." The content has been drawn from the domestic NYT for many years now. True on both counts, it was sort of a sloppy OP more reminiscing of decades long gone. I only skim the airli...

End of an era, expatriots or international travellers. I was surprised at how closely I agreed with him. My iPad just isn't the same.
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/sheddin ... d_tribune/

It's helpful if you've told your family to be careful of annuities, living trusts, timeshares and bridges. While annuities, living trusts, timeshares and bridges are sometimes appropriate, more often if you go to the free dinner seminar and you buy one, you'll end up paying for the free dinners for...

Same issue, probably more extreme than most. I do the lists and instructions, which can be as useful to me as my spouse. I'm also slowly simplifying our investments and affairs generally, and my intent is that in the later stages, when my capabilities decline, we'll shift a lot to annuities. I do no...

A note to owning houses-- SS won't give you enough to 1) pay property taxes or 2) repair houses.

I've known and know several elderly who had no savings (none to start or used up what little they had), without family to support or assist them, at least effectively. They lived only on SS, possibly small pensions, and social programs- fuel support, rental assistance, social services such as transp...

This morning got a notice that my hotmail account is coverting to some new format, which, judging from some fluff in the message, has a tile-like look. Got me thinking... My iPad is a nice, limited, internet appliance. It turns out it can't do a bunch of things I need and want. But most curious is t...

This doesn't make a lot of sense to me, and I've rented literally dozens of times in my life. It is unimaginable that a professional management company would rent (particularly to a college student) without a lease-specified security deposit, particularly if metered utilities are paid to the landlor...

TurboTax says 3%, but as with your numbers, I don't see where it gets that from. My calculation of fed tax/AGI is 3.5%. Including all state and property taxes, but excluding SS and Medicare since I consider those more insurance payments, and excluding state sales tax since I have no clue how much I ...

One strategy, recommended only with caution, is to use e-rewards. Internet-search for it. It presents you with surveys for which you receive credits that can be cashed for coupons, FF miles and the like. I started doing it when Delta moved a threshold I needed slightly out of reach, soon after I can...

... the Schumer amendment is trying to prevent reentry into the US by any former citizens who renounce. That appears to be former citizens who are determined to have renounced with "tax avoidance intent". A quick search seems to indicate this was in reaction to some high-profile events la...

The wild life of our bodies : predators, parasites, and partners that shape who we are today / Rob Dunn. If Nassim Taleb is really as clever as he claims in Antifragile, he'd get himself some intestinal worms. Slave Patrols-- Law and Violence in Virginia and the Carolinas, Sally E. Hadden. A surpris...

I do everyday things more leisurely. Most notably, I used to be a somewhat aggressive driver, now I go to great lengths to avoid or ignore them. I seem to have more awareness of my environment, and possibly more generous, but at the same time I tend to suffer fools less willingly. I've become less r...

I review my current spending, lifestyle, likely future lifestyle, assume I'll live longer than I've seen be desirable (95), run calculators like Firecalc, test conservative withdrawal rate estimates (3%), then when I've got a pretty consistent figure, add 50%. I used the same 50% factor when estimat...

But is the wildlife quiet due to the need for introspection and contemplation? Or it's simply driven by an instinct to survive? Victoria 10 years ago I'd have said instinct to survive, such as watching for predators, guarding territory. But I've become a squirrel watcher in my retirement, and have ...

I did pretty much exactly that last year, for a few hundred dollars. It turned out to be considerably more lucrative than browsing the internet or watching old TV, which is probably how I would have spent those hours.

Not much point in publishing books on a subject that is constantly changing. A big hazard of the uninsured is that they may pay much higher prices as individuals than insurance companies are billed. If you are willing to spend some time on it, politely inquire at your various health care providers a...

Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival, Bernd Heinrich. How animals survive cold temperatures and sparse food. Seems appropriate.

One minor thing that struck me when free from an external routine is that I spend a lot of time watching the wildlife in my semi-feral yard-- it's hard to get stuff done outside, because I'm always distracted by birds, or squirrels, or dragonflies, or whatever. I've discovered that other animals spe...

For the record and in view of a 2-year-old thread revival, VGHAX is now $50,000 minimum.

Last year the online version was ineffective with the new Form 8938. If you don't know what this is, you don't care (or you're in trouble...). I always figured buying media would be good if I ever had to go back and rework my taxes. So last year I did need to amend the last 3 years, and it turned ou...

I now presume your cable service is underground, and the Comcast technician can't find the service lateral (new word! Thank you, Mr. Google!) to your house. I have no contribution to make for that other than to look for labelling on your neighbor's green box, but suggest that when someone else more ...

Follow the wires to distribution boxes inside/outside, and to the street. They're there, or not. Perhaps the builder pre-wired cable outlets that remained unused, and perhaps the previous owner had satellite TV. Speaking from personal experience with DSL, Realtors (r) will unflinchingly mislead you ...

My house inspector (recommended by the Realtor(r)) was a fraud, pure and simple, expert at glossing over important stuff and drawing attention to trivial items to appear useful. I would never use a Realtor(r) to assist me in buying property again, unless they were some sort of legally-solid buyer's ...

At least the second thread on the blank field vs. zeros TT bug. I'm betting 10 by April 15 unless they fix it.

I was always more impressed by the size of the needle. The dentist that I criticized as incompetent in a previous post had one curious good point-- he used a device to inject anesthetic slowly-- like for 30-60 seconds. Sounds horrific, but it was always utterly painless. He claimed that rapid fluid...

I had a dentist for 20 years I was very happy with, who sold his practice for personal reasons. Unimpressed with the new owner, we moved to another office, me figuring dentistry had pretty much become a commodity (like modern MD GPs, but that's another story...). 2-3 years later, almost every 6-mont...

I think I confused my response with the poorly-placed comment about uninformative fund names. My TT bug claim was about box 10 only; I can make my TT Deluxe (download) insist any fund is tax exempt and demand a state code during the final error check, or not, by putting 0.00 into box 10 or leaving i...

You can fix the TT problem in the Vanguard downloaded data by deleting any 0.00 in box 10, the exempt-interest dividends amount, and leaving that box blank. I'd recommend just not downloading Vanguard's 1099-DIV; mine labelled all the several funds as just "VANGUARD". I'd guess this is a T...

I think you've gotten all the intelligent, thoughtful, informative replies, so my turn. My electric bill spikes twice a year-- dead of winter, when the hot-air furnace fan runs, and dead of summer, when the 15.6 cu. ft. refrigerator runs. No AC, new england region. I've long considered two ideas-- c...

I'm trying to visualize my tax complexities in a decade. Am I correct in assuming that when taking normal IRA distributions in retirement, 1) Roth IRAs require no prior records. 2) Regardless of how it got into a traditional IRA account (rollover, deductable, non-deductable contribution), if you've ...

Heh. I've lived in my wife's hometown in Germany, am crudely conversant in the language and even have a local accent, and am not even remotely "accepted" as anything but a laughable foreigner. Of course, even though her mother's family has lived there for generations, her father migrated f...

...we are going to be in the top tax bracket in the US (what is it now? 50%??). You don't know the top tax rate in the US after the last month's events? Not a good sign.... Seriously, I'd find a good financial and legal advisor specializing in multinational situations, since you'll apparently have ...

Would've been nice if my professor mentioned that our university library had online databases and not just paper copies!! Heck I didn't know! :oops: If you're middle-aged taking classes in the midst of 20-year-olds, you're probably the only person in the class who even knew there were paper copies ...

archbish99 wrote:...which keeps the remainder of my miles from vanishing like smoke.

But not a cigar aficionado's smoke, presumably.