Bogleheads.org

Dang dang dang..... Checked my bank account this morning and the IRS deposited the full amount of my refund into our checking account so I guess that means no I-bonds for me despite the IRS website telling me the bonds are on the way. I guess in the overall scheme of things $5k worth of I-bonds is a...

Chicago60, here is the info as per the "Where's my refund?" page: You requested that part or all of your refund be used for a US Savings Bond(s) purchase. It may take up to three weeks from the date your refund was sent for your Savings Bonds to arrive in the mail. The Bureau of the Public...

Just wanted to followup on this... I received notification that the review has been completed and have a date for the scheduled ACH into my account for the full amount of the refund due, less $5k which will be used to purchase savings bonds. FWIW, I haven't lost a moment's sleep over this other than...

I spoke with the person who prepared my return today and she said these reviews usually go fairly quickly in her experience. She assured me my return was straightforward and that the information on my return was provable. I'm not worried-worried like someone who did something wrong would worry - but...

Meant to add that the letter I received is coded "4464c" - googling that turns up pages of people receiving the same letter.

As someone said above there appears to be something on my return that the computer 'decided' a human being needed to look at.

I'll report back on how it goes. It's a bit of a pain because we are going to use a portion of the refund for a few home improvement projects and my wife is already charging up stuff at Home Depot. :( I spent some time with Google last night and found several incidents of the exact same letter being...

Well.... I don't know what they could find - like I said, I didn't make up anything and AFAIK 100% of the information I gave them was accurate.

For what it's worth for the past 4 years I've overpaid my 4th quarter estimate to get a refund this size (give or take a few thousand).

For sure. I definitely didn't make anything up or fudge any of the numbers. I didn't even do a backdoor Roth this year.

I also know that I'm responsible for what's on the return even though I didn't prepare it.

Is there a difference between an audit and a review?

The letter goes on to say that I don't need to do anything this time and that it could take up to 60 days to complete the review.

I received a friendly letter from the IRS today. It says, in part: "We have received your income tax return and are in the process of conducting a thorough review of your return information. This review is part of an ongoing program the IRS conducts to ensure the accuracy of return information....

About a year and a half ago I was posting here about helping my mother move from a Waddell & Reed "advisor" to Vanguard and after much discussion she purchased 50% Target Retirement Income and 50% Wellesley with her IRA rolled over from her 401K when she retired. Works pretty well - re...

Barclays is currently offering 1.00% APY for online savings...

https://www.banking.barclaysus.com/online-savings.html

GE Demand Notes paying 1.10% for >$50k - check writing and ACH access GE Term Notes - 1.15% - 1 year term Duke Premier Notes - 1.51% >$50k - check writing and ACH access During the Credit Crunch GE was forced to seek expensive money from Warren Buffett. If the notes are issued by GE Financial then ...

GE Demand Notes paying 1.10% for >$50k - check writing and ACH access

GE Term Notes - 1.15% - 1 year term

Duke Premier Notes - 1.51% >$50k - check writing and ACH access

livesoft wrote:Forget about pet food. Go to grocery stores and eat the free samples given out at lunch time. You don't have to wait until you retire to do this. You can do this now. My son ate about 3 lbs of free king crab legs one time at the grocery store.

We go to Sam's for lunch quite often...

Honestly, it makes my head hurt to even think about this stuff. I 51 years old, save like a madman, have no debt, invest everything I can, have an asset allocation I like that is mostly indexed and all Vanguard and my portfolio is "only" $1.4 million. I see these reports of "the avera...

Thanks dbr.... the first thing I noticed is the difference between a 40/60 portfolio (what I have ) vs. a 75/25 portfolio....

The only thing is a 75/25 portfolio would take years off my life due to anxiety and not being able to sleep in which case the money wouldn't have to last as long!

Thanks - I figured the answer wasn't black and white. I just wasn't sure if the question wasn't "How long will this money last before we spend it all?" or "How can I get x amount of money from this pot without running out before I die?' There is a bit of difference between the two...

I have what is probably considered a dumb question... When discussing withdrawal rates what is the endpoint assumption? For ex: I need my $2,000,000 to last 40 years and generate ~$60k per year for me to live on. I assume a 3% annual withdrawal rate, with the 3% number recalculated every January bas...

Hmm... my daughter goes to a state university here in TN and has a HOPE scholarship which I suppose is a merit based scholarship as she has to maintain GPA high enough to qualify from semester to semester. They will not award the scholarship without a current FASFA. In fact, it's on my to-do list fo...

Thanks - sounds good and I appreciate the quick feedback. I'll continue the I-bond / refund tradition another year.

I overpaid the 4Q estimated payment in December for an S-corp my wife and I own 100% so I didn't lose a ton of money in interest.... Time frame is we don't need the money now or in the foreseeable future (so let's say 15+ years) - our portfolio goes up and down more than $5k on a day when the market...

Love your story!

I am about 25 years ahead of you with the same story and hit Flagship status with Vanguard about 2 years ago.

Keep plugging away.

Hi everyone - I need to pop in for a second and ask a quick question if I may. What's the prevailing wisdom on purchasing paper I-bonds with an income tax refund this year. I purposely overpaid my federal taxes in order to get about $7500 back with the intention of purchasing $5k of I-bonds (I have ...

Thanks for clarifying. The only other Vanguard Tax-Free Muni/Income fund that is closest to NTFIX was the VWLTX and I am planning to use this Muni (if i can call VWLTX that) as an income fund in my taxable based on the earlier conversations in this thread and the others where the ER ratio differenc...

Noticed that today. Anything over $6,000 will be 1% back. I think I'll stick with this as my primary card. Those folks going too far over $6,000 were likely those charging gift cards. I'm a family of four in the NYC area. In 2011, we spent 11k on groceries. :shock: What are you guys eating for dinn...

What is meant by "stand-alone" as in stand-alone supermarkets and stand-alone gas stations? Is my Ralphs grocery (Southern California supermarket) that has a non-affiliated bank satellite kiosk in the store a stand-alone supermarket? Is my ARCO station that has a mini-market inside a stan...

I learned today I cannot pull money from my Vanguard account to my Fidelity account (or account with any financial institution for that matter). It setup ok on the Fidelity side using the routing number available from the Vanguard website but this morning I had a message from Fidelity saying my tran...

I'll stop with the personal stories but I vividly remember standing in a Hardees with $2 to my name trying to decide if I wanted 2 hamburgers or a half pint of vodka.

You guys just don't know....

It is. however, a notch above living paycheck to paycheck.

What does the endless quest for the best reward card do to your credit report? I'm assuming you can't amass endless amounts I of unsecured credit. I've already got over $100,000 of unsecured credit available.

I'm starting to wonder if it is worth it to keep chasing these rewards cards to get whatever the current "best" card de jour happens to be. When the PenFed card modified its rewards I got an AMEX Blue Preferred to supplement. Now they're dinging the best part (for us - we have 3 kids which...

I think how the money gets into the account explains the delay.

With my new Schwab CMA if I "pull" money into the account it takes up to 6 business days to become available. If I "push" money into the account from another account it is available the next day.

Oh.. and the best thing ever is to owe no one on the planet money in the form of a loan.

What an interesting topic. Without going into a long bio of my life I will say that I grew up poor, developed a taste for alcohol, and spent some time without an address. In 1985 I turned my life around and my first "real" job was driving a truck for a building supply center. In 1992 I sta...

I'm going to take a ride up and talk to them in person about a few questions I have. My ACH deposits are taking several days to clear. This will be problematic if my paycheck which will also be ACH'ed into the account takes 6 days to become available. Also, I paid my AMEX bill using Billpay and it s...

Very cool. That's within a few dollars of the amount of my umbrella policy. By switching Vanguard is paying my umbrella insurance policy.....sort of. :) Btw, these funds were moved from a simple IRA where admiral shares are not available into a traditional IRA where they are. It would be neat if van...

Dumb math question... I moved $320k from Investor class shares to Admiral class shares today. The investor class ER was 0.22% and the admiral class share is 0.11%.

May I assume I will be saving $352 per year by making the change or is there more to it than that?

Thanks!

I'm comfortable doing things online - I opened the account last night and transfered money from Ally to Fidelity and I mailed in the check writing form this morning. Basically I was just wondering if in the event of something that would make talking to a 'live person' a Fidelity branch would be help...

I'm playing off a separate thread I started about the Fidelity Cash Management account and wanted to followup with any input on the usefulness of Fidelity's local offices. If I were to have a problem with the cash management account is it staffed with someone who could help or are they physical loca...

Thanks everyone. I opened an account last night. Looks like it might take 2 weeks for all the features to be available and to receive checks and get the ATM card setup. Tangential question - there is a Fidelity consumer office about 20 minutes away. I'm guessing it's as much a "Fidelity Store&q...

I should add that I live in a very small town and have a regular checking account with a truly local bank -there are only five or six branches total. They do have very primitive online banking so I can beam larger sums of money to them for the times when I need access to real cash. It's also handy f...

I'm looking for feedback on the Fidelity Cash Management account as a replacement for a traditional checking account. Since I moved a few years ago I haven't add access to a local branch anyway and they (First Federal) have just completed a web site redesign that drives me nuts so I'm looking to swi...

retiredjg wrote:

tbradnc wrote:Retiredjg, that is so incredibly helpful I feel like giving you my address so you can send me a bill.

Glad it was helpful. I'll just take the 10 acres....

Send me a PM if you're ever headed up this way and want to look around. I'm a pretty decent tour guide.

Very easy to explain... 1. Lived 400 miles from the property when purchased it and planned to build a house on it. 2. Moved 25 miles from property 6 years later to be nearby when house was built on property. 3. Fell in love with the town we moved to and decided not to move that far out into the coun...

Retiredjg, that is so incredibly helpful I feel like giving you my address so you can send me a bill. :) You are correct - I started out at 60/40 and psychologically it was just too much - though intellectually I know it is relatively conservative for my situation. So, I went too far to the other si...

I was thinking a minimum of 20% down.

Thursday I put a piece of mountain property on the market. It is an absolutely gorgeous 12 acre tract 45 minutes north of Asheville, NC (close to Hot Springs, NC). Asking prices is $145k. This is a fair price and I would not negotiate very far from this number. Property perks, 1/4 mile driveway is p...

The $22,480 worth of GE stock would be 1.8% I guess the $11,500 in i-bonds would be roughly half that. I bought the stock with "play money" that I had set aside for my 'inner trader'. I have always only considered my Vanguard funds as my portfolio which is I didn't include the stock or i-b...

Thank you Brad and Grabiner for your replies.

I guess I will scratch Dupree off my list then. I was a bit superstitious about buying a fund from a family other than Vanguard anyway... Back to the drawing board...