Bogleheads.org

My wife (American, worked in Germany for 6 years) will soon turn 65 and will claim the German equivalent of Social Security (Deutsche Rentenversicherung, formerly BfA, "Berliner" Rente) and supplemental pension from VBL (for public employees). Has anyone applied for either of these pension...

If one is a "cash basis" taxpayer, is the Social Security payment for December, received in January, taxable in the new year? Or is there some special exception for Social Security, requiring it to be included in taxable income for the old year?

Thanks.

J

For those of us who used to be good at math but are rusty from not using those mental muscles... What's the Excel formula to calculate the YTM of one's EE bond(s), if S was the starting value, C is the current value, and M is the number of months (or Y the number of years) remaining until one has he...

Thanks!

J

For tax purposes, is the date of an ETF sale or purchase the transaction date or the settlement date?

Thanks.

J

My wife and I are US citizens living in Europe. Although our financial situation is fairly simple, our US tax return is very complicated, due to the complexities involved with the foreign earned income exclusion and the foreign tax credit. (Tax rates in the European country of residence are much hig...

Thanks to all who replied!

J

My Mom (87) is considering an adviser who charges a fee, calculated as a fixed % of assets under management.

My Mom asked me if this is deductible, and (having never been in that situation) I have no idea.

Is it?

Thanks!

J

Thanks to all who replied.

She probably wouldn't owe any taxes, after taking the foreign earned income exemption and the foreign tax credit for the appropriate portion of the small amount above the exemption.

J

My step-daughter, a US citizen who has worked for several years in a foreign country and paid (substantial) foreign taxes, but has not filed US tax returns, is thinking of filing 6 years' worth of FBAR (Foreign Bank Account) forms to take advantage of temporary leniency. These forms are filed with t...

My Mom (87) wants help from a professional with her investment decisions. Today we interviewed a 2-person team from a firm of financial advisers. Most of their answers were good...they look at the big picture "holistically", are paid by fee only (percent of assets under management), and le...

Several years ago my wife and I helped my mother-in-law (now 89, and still living in her house) get a reverse mortgage, since her financial resources had become extremely limited. She's also receiving benefits from Medicaid. Now she's received a letter asking her to come to a hearing regarding her e...

Several years ago my wife and I helped my mother-in-law (now 89, and still living in her house) get a reverse mortgage, since her financial resources had become extremely limited. She's also receiving benefits from Medicaid. Now she's received a letter asking her to come to a hearing regarding her e...

Wife (not working) will begin receiving retirement benefits this year. We've always filed jointly, but would like to estimate what our tax would be if we filed separately. If we file separately, how do we deal with interest, dividends, and cap gains? Does everything need to be split 50 50, or is it ...

In case one occasionally wants to exchange into a fund less than 60 days after exchanging out:
Has anyone recently tried to exchange funds by sending Vanguard a letter by snail mail?
Did it work?

Thanks.

J

(Bump) Any suggestions?

J

1 Website says: for fund for which I hadn't (since the advent of the new regulations) changed my account profile to Specific Share ID, transaction will be processed as FIFO, but I should call before end of following business day to specify shares. However, since these shares were purchased pre-2012,...

Due to my tax situation, the challenge of fund placement can't automatically be met with the normal Boglehead recommendations. I am a US citizen. I have worked in the Netherlands since 1999, and probably will continue to do so until my retirement around the end of 2020. (My wife retired early.) Duri...

Just went to exchange funds in a taxable account and discovered that the purchase dates for shares acquired pre-2012 will be listed as "various" on the Vanguard confirmation. For specific share ID, is it still necessary to send Vanguard a secure e-mail with the purchase info, so that they ...

The new Economist has an article on the CalPERS suit against San Bernardino: http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21567954-bankrupt-city-takes-public-pensions-behemoth-breaking-californian-taboo My Mom (89) has bought individual municipal bonds in the past and would like to do so again. (No c...

Thanks for all the replies. She learned on her present Dell, about 7 years ago. She still has her mental faculties, but she never had great computer instincts...just uses it via AOL (!) for email. We're about 4,000 miles away, so we're looking for a simple solution. Will try to keep her present syst...

My mother-in-law, 89, may need a new computer soon. I think she's using Windows XP, and I'm concerned that she might find it very difficult to adapt to a different "desktop". Since we switched to Macs at home, I haven't kept up on the PC world. At my place of employment, when we got Vista,...

After a conversion from Investor to Admiral shares in a taxable account, does the cost basis on the Vanguard statement simply reflect the Admiral share price at conversion, rather than the original (Investor) purchase price, correctly adjusted? If so, when one sells the shares using specific share I...

Larry,
belated thanks for your answer regarding appropriate maturities for muni bonds.

J

My wife will turn 65 next year. I will still be working for many years (in a foreign country) and she is covered on my group medical insurance. (We are both US citizens.) Does anyone have experience with delaying enrollment ("Special enrollment period for people covered under an employer group ...

Larry,
just to double-check: for taxable bonds, you recommend increasing maturity if the yield increases by 0.2% per additional year.

For municipal bonds, do you use the same rule of thumb? If not, how do you adjust it?

Thanks!

J

Thanks!

J

Thanks to a previous thread here, I understand how to calculate a cost basis for Investor Shares in a Vanguard mutual fund that are later converted to Admiral Shares. Just to double-check: for purposes of calculating capital gains or losses in a taxable account, is the purchase date the date of the ...

She's someone who always likes to consider all options very thoroughly before making a decision. She's not ruling out a fee-based planner, but is skeptical based on past experience. Since she's still buying and selling individual securities, she feels that she needs "advice on demand" rath...

Paul,
that's exactly right...she wants advice from an "expert."

J

I travel a lot on business, without my wife, so I'm trying to leave information and a few instructions for her in case I predecease her. (I handle all of the finances and investments.) We are American citizens living in a high-tax foreign country. If I died suddenly, she'd probably relocate to the U...

My Mom (87) was never involved with investment details until my father passed away 10 years ago. Since then she's done a very good job of managing the portfolio, although not according to Boglehead principles, and not simplifying the portfolio as I would have. She has very good math skills, but, alt...

We have a 70/30 stock/bond allocation. For the last few years the bond allocation has been split equally between VIPSX (TIPS) and VFISX (Short Term Treasury). We chose short term out of fear of an imminent spike in interest rates. Reading posts here has convinced me that a somewhat longer maturity f...

My Mom, almost 87, has managed a basically conservative portfolio with success since my father's death almost 10 years ago. She does (unfortunately) buy individual preferred stocks and individual corporate bonds, and (occasionally) an individual common stock. She firmly believes in this, and after m...

Thanks!

Received an E-mail about new prospectuses: Vanguard Inflation-Protected Securities Fund Investor Shares prospectus Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Admiral Shares prospectus Vanguard Small-Cap Value Index Fund prospectus Vanguard Large-Cap Index Fund Admiral Shares prospectus Vanguard Small-Ca...

I need to link a new checking account to my Treasury Direct account. If anyone has done this within the past 6 months, I'd appreciate any helpful tips or warnings. Thanks.

J

In case anyone else is having a similar problem ... turned out to be a Firefox/Adobe problem. Found solution on Firefox help:

Go to FF Tools menu, click on "Add-ons", select "Plug-ins", and for Adobe Acrobat NPAPI Plug-in, Version 10.1.3 click "Disable".

J

Doesn't having SOME stock index funds in tax-free or tax-deferred accounts make sense to aid in rebalancing? Especially in retirement, when there's no "new money" with which to rebalance. Otherwise a major imbalance would require the investor to sell stock funds from his or her taxable acc...

Not wishing to muddy the waters, but not sure if these questions merit a new thread... --Does Vanguard Brokerage Services (VBS) even offer margin accounts? What's the current interest rate? (Just curious...please don't drum me out of the Bogleheads for asking!) --For longterm renters: does having so...

Preview was able to read the other 3 tax documents (pdf) with no problem. Nonetheless, I downloaded Adobe Reader. Preferences seem to be set properly. But Vanguard still serves up a "servlet" rather than pdf file for the VBS tax statement. I've sent them a message asking what to do.

J

Yes, I've tried Firefox (on the Mac), but I can't get to a normal dialog box with "Save As" , and the print menu, under PDF,
only let's me save as a Postscript file (Save as pdf is grayed out).

Any other suggestions?

J

The Vanguard (mutual fund) forms (1099 B, 1099 DIV, and cost basis) are no problem. However, with the Vanguard Brokerage Services (VBS) Consolidated form: First I see "Your tax form is loading" on a yellow field near the top. If I click on either saving the file or opening it in preview, I...

Recently switched to Mac, and having some difficulty downloading and saving Vanguard tax forms (as pdf files) so that I can upload them to my accountant. Downloading (in Safari) seems to produce not a pdf file, but a "DisplayVbsTaxFormsServlet" that I can't save or duplicate (need password...

Oops...livesoft is right, it's included in box 1a.

Thanks.

J

The short-term cap gain was distributed by the fund...it's not the result of our selling shares. It's listed as a transaction on the Vanguard website, but it doesn't show up in Box 2a ("Total capital gain distr.") of Form 1099-DIV. Does this mean that it's taxable in 2012 instead of 2011? ...

On the Vanguard website, "My recent transactions" for a fund in our taxable account shows a short-term capital of gain of ca. $44 on Dec. 29, 2011. However, the 2011 Form 1099-DIV (hard copy received by snail mail; corresponds with tax form on the website) shows zero capital gain distribut...

I was hoping to avoid using a Windows emulator and just enjoy the relative simplicity of the Mac ...

J

Recently switched from a PC to a Mac. I was in the habit of keeping the Savings Bond Wizard on my PC updated (every 6 months) and printing out current values and interest YTD every month. Apparently there's no Mac version, so I need to start using the online calculator. Is there a simple way to expo...

No problem. Successful investing should be like watching paint dry. Making jokes about minimum post length at least gives us something to laugh at while we watch...

J.