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Thank you all so much! I feel better now...

In 2012 I contributed 12,000 (2011 and 2012 contributions) of the after tax dollars to my contributory IRA, and straight after that converted total amount to Roth. Yesterday I received 1099R where I have: box 1. Gross distribution $12,000 box 2a. Taxable amount $12,000 box 2b. Taxable amound not det...

Well, I did some reading, may be not enough...) I want to invest in muni fund in a taxable account to pay avoid paying taxes on dividends. And I wanted international fund in taxable account to utilize foreign creadi if possible. Is something wrong with that strategy?

Thank you! The only reason that I didn't want to include the total market stock fund is that I already have it in 401K. So I was trying to implement the allocation based on the portfolio as a whole... Thank you for the tip on TFI. It looks good. Do you have any suggestions for the international and ...

Hello, I am trying to prepare for the next year tax increases. I've sold all the stocks in my Schwab brockerage account. Will increase stock exposure in my tax-deffered accounts to keep the ballance. Now I have $150000 to invest. I am looking at getting tax free bond fund for 3/4 of the money and in...

Yes, I understand that I didn't provide sufficient information about other investments. Will need more time to get everything in the required format. I'll try to do it as soon as possible and get back on the forum. But so it is true - if I don't sell my stocks this year - I'll have higher capital ga...

We have 2 taxable accounts. One that has about 35 actual stocks for about $150,000. The accound used to be managed but some company, but we cancelled them few months ago. Another account has tax-free mutual fund for about $100,000. The questions are: 1. Whether to keep account with stocks, ot to sel...

Thank you so much! I did like the link on other forum, but this was posted first. When I realized that nobody is responding here - I asked in the other place... Looks like we can do the conversion. I was surprised that I shouldn't have the money grow though. Oh well...

And also because Inherited IRAs tend to have earlier distributions than traditional IRAs, it's better to use potentially lower growth funds because Inherited IRAs are "sooner taxable" than other tax advantaged accounts That I didn't quite get. What does it mean - sooner taxable? I was thi...

Thank you all. We'll transfer the money to Vanguard. There is another question that I asked on different board, but didn't get the answer. My husband is going to do a 'backdoor' conversion to Roth from a conventional IRA that we opened just to do a conversion. Could anybody tell me if the inherited ...

My husband has a $16,000 inherited IRA with Edward Jones. We have to take minimum distributions from the IRA. I think that we need to move the money from Edward Jones to Vanguard. Should we? And if so - what is the best investment option? Is it possible to cover the distribution and still have some ...

My husband is going to do a 'backdoor' conversion to Roth from a conventional IRA that we opened just to do a conversion. He also has an inherited IRA. It is in his Mom's name with his C/O. Could anybody tell me if that IRA will cause us to incur any additional taxes during the conversion? Thank you...

I write to dissuade you, in strong terms, from purchasing a vacation "condo," especially in a one-season town like Colorado. I've been to Vail, Steamboat, and Telluride many times. CO is dead unless it's ski season, so out of the starting gate you've got limited opportunities to rent. Mac...

I was looking into Condo's and time shares (resell) in Colorado ski towns but when doing the math I could not make it work even with us being in a high (AMT) tax bracket. It was still cheaper to just rent via vrbo or go into a hotel for the couple skip trips we take per year. And no hassle around r...

"What ever you decide don't do it to "help with taxes". It doesn't compute. You are spending $3 to save 1$. "
I know that you are right, but still feel like I have to
Do something to fight 'marridge' penalty...

You have excellent points, of course. But we have some other investments in stock and bond funds in our
401k and IRAs. May be that condo could be diversification that we need
In real estate? Being remote landlord is awful, but we could use some local help...

My husband and I are considering purchasing a vacation condo in Colorado. I know that it is a gamble, and most of you guys wouldn’t recommend ite. But if we were to purchase one anyway – there are still questions. We have a mortgage on the hourse with $150000 left and 4.3% interest. The vacation con...

Sorry, was distracted from pondering investing... I don't know how much I will need in 5-7 years. I am hoping to quit work in about 5 years, start using the money untill I can retire. So, I am not sure what do I need. I guess - to preserve the principal and hopefully make some money?.

I like that! I was thinking to buy 50% bond fund and 50% stock index fund like SWTSX. Wouldn't it be better?

I have Schwab account with about $130,000 in various stocks managed by some advisor firm. They change 0.9 per year for their services. My return with them is averaging about 5% a year. But I am tired of having to enter all the transactions at the tax time, and I don't like to pay for services. On th...

The numbers are totally convicing. 1035 it is! What are my steps now? Call Vanguard and open the annuity in both mine and my husband's names and ask them to do the transfer? Or there are more steps that I am not aware of?

Surrendering the policies, eating your loss and using the proceeds to invest in tax efficient Vanguard Index funds might be your best option. What are tax efficient Vanguard Index funds? We decided that we don't need insurance (term or otherwise), and were kind of convinced that for tax considerati...

Looks like some people made even worse investment in VUL then us... Terrible! So, what annuity and what funds should we select for the exchange? May be there is a useful post on this site that I read to get some education?

OK, we've decided that we don't need life insurance, and we want to get rid of those policies. We only wanted a tex-sheltered investment... But now we have to open some annuity and do a 1035 exchange. Do I need to start another post and ask what annuity and what funds to select? Or one of you expert...

I fully agree that I need to get rid of those policies. I never wanted the permanent insurance, just wanted tax-sheltered investment. But I feel so bad about losing so much money! On my policy I paid $41,000 so far, the cash value is $25,000 and I can receive only $20,000. Same with 1035 exchange. S...

Than you for all your comments. I understand, that I made a bad decision and I am stuck with the insurances for some time. The surrender charges are outrageous and the losses are too high. :!: I found out that all my money is invested in two funds Transamerica Hanlon Balanced VP and Transamerica Han...

I am not an agent, I promise! I am just a girl that made wrong investment decision for me and my husband. And trying to fix it...
Thank you for your reply. We'll request the in force illustrations, and I'll have them ready.

I am hoping that one of you experts will help me. I feel my husband and I made a big mistake: the agent talked us into buying 2 life insurances. We bought them mostly because we already contributed max to our 401K and IRAs and wanted tax-sheltered money growth. Mine is 5 years old variable universal...

Hi, I am new to the forum so please forgive me if I ask something silly :) I am hoping that one of you experts will help me. I feel my husband and I made a big mistake: the agent talked us into buying 2 life insurances. Mine is 5 years old variable universal life with WRL, and his is 4 years old equ...