Search found 25 matches

by stilllearning
Tue Dec 28, 2021 10:28 pm
Forum: US Chapters
Topic: Retiredjg at 36,000 posts!
Replies: 92
Views: 10170

Re: Retiredjg at 36,000 posts!

TO RETIRED JG... CONGRATULATIONS AND THANK YOU! You took time and care to respond to me when I was economically naiive and floundering, wanting to become competent enough to be adequately courageous, and to move forward. (Turns out the largest mistake i have made —still, has been to be too timid to invest as fully as I might have. Not the worst mistake. I have been off of this board for many years, and impulsively signed on tonight to see torrents of well deserved passionatly appreciative mails from so many others. I am glad to have arrived to witness the flood of appreciation for you, and to add my voice to it. Your words of counsel were always generative. I am still working. Not retired. Learning something of how you have managed your ret...
by stilllearning
Mon Jul 13, 2020 10:37 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: 100% cash in this unprecidented time?
Replies: 57
Views: 7891

Re: 100% cash in this unprecidented time?

Does anyone here worry about keeping money market investments at Vanguard where they are not insured?

If not, I would like to understand why.

Thanks!
by stilllearning
Wed Jul 29, 2015 8:56 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: hoping for thoughts, advice; unmarried couple in 70's
Replies: 21
Views: 3492

Re: hoping for thoughts, advice; unmarried couple in 70's

Dear retiredjg, Thank you so much for taking the time and energy to respond to my portfolio concerns. I do feel very ready to act; your words about relaxation following decisions and actions are on-the-spot for where we are now. You asked if the SEP still exists. It must. It cannot be rolled over to a 401K, at least at Vanguard; that is what I was told when I inquired a while back. I think the idea that you and others have suggested about not re-investing dividends is a good one, with the very proviso you mention: We would have to commit to a regular time to re-balance and make purchases or sales and act on these decisions. Something to reflect on and discuss with each other. You ask about Schwab: "What does it cost to buy or sell a mu...
by stilllearning
Tue Jul 28, 2015 5:20 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: hoping for thoughts, advice; unmarried couple in 70's
Replies: 21
Views: 3492

Re: hoping for thoughts, advice; unmarried couple in 70's

trying again...

MLPs are the devils work. Unless perhaps one is an accountant. The whole brain-breaking explanation is here:
http://www.naptp.org/PTP101/Print/Basic ... ciples.pdf
I won't even try, though I do get the general idea and the conclusion.
Keep'em if they are d oing well until you die, then the inheritor geats whatever is there as basis and can sell them right away and only that way can both of you have intact brains. The above link is the clearest explanation I could find.

I say, don't try unless you are looking for a big challenge.

Still learning
by stilllearning
Tue Jul 28, 2015 3:07 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: hoping for thoughts, advice; unmarried couple in 70's
Replies: 21
Views: 3492

Re: hoping for thoughts, advice; unmarried couple in 70's

Thanks Retired JG for your work and for thoughtful and straightforward approach. This is my response at first pass and without our disccuing your suggestions and thinking together about them. I include a response to Lafder here as well, who suggested posting amounts of taxable gain. The largest taxable gains are in Berkshire, AMRMX, and Vanguard Wellesley and Wellington. These are the holdings you suggested might be kept. Whew! The only other investment with a large taxable gain is the one with ( I am told) draconian tax consequences of consequences of selling— that is the MLP MMP, Magellan which has a gain of about 20,000 and the "dividends" or "return of capital " over the years it has been held. I also believe that th...
by stilllearning
Sun Jul 26, 2015 7:25 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: tax changes /upkeep & capitalization on rental property
Replies: 6
Views: 1054

Re: tax changes /upkeep & capitalization on rental property

Ah, you ask a good question. I have kept these records in a way that is likely to require a great deal of work in the future. I have all of my tax returns since before purchasing the house. I have (!!) every contract, bill, receipt and copy of cancelled check. In order. I have records of what has been depreciated and where that depreciation stands, though that is ot always so clearly identifiable on the tax returns. I am going to go through all of these and make a spread sheet of each of the capital improvements, their dates and expenses,and include photos in the file. Then I will ask the accountant I have worked with for most of these years to use that as a guide to the tax years to check where depreciation would have begun, and see exactl...
by stilllearning
Sun Jul 26, 2015 7:13 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: hoping for thoughts, advice; unmarried couple in 70's
Replies: 21
Views: 3492

Re: hoping for thoughts, advice; unmarried couple in 70's

Thanks Lafder, you have covered a lot. And you are thoughtful and kind in your comments Just a start—there are three holdings in taxable that selling, alone, would send my partner's taxes into a higher bracket and worse, (I think) could send medicare costs up for a long time. Well we need to see how much room she has for increase in income to avoid that. One of these "sells" would send her two brackets higher. This will be something we shall pay close attention to. But you are right about most of the other holdings if handled slowly. Much of the low hanging fruit, holdings we could sell with little or no tax consequence, have been taken — which partly explains the large cash holdings. We are puzzling about how to allocate to index...
by stilllearning
Sun Jul 26, 2015 3:30 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: hoping for thoughts, advice; unmarried couple in 70's
Replies: 21
Views: 3492

Re: hoping for thoughts, advice; unmarried couple in 70's

Thank you littlebird for your posting and good questions. We are in the process of trying to simplify and rationalize. We had a number of Vanguard holdings we wanted to add to and others we believe we will want to initiate. We like to do dollar cost averaging for purchases; at Schwab any Vanguard purchase had a 75 dollar fee added to any purchase of Vanguard funds; that added up quite quickly. So, we transferred those holdings and some cash to make more purchases to Vanguard where we could purchase or switch to Admiral shares and we could make exchanges or purchases without those fees. Since we don't yet have a good plan in place we held off on the rest. I prefer Schwab reporting (in most cases) to Vanguards, and want to have a plan for pro...
by stilllearning
Fri Jul 10, 2015 1:57 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: tax changes /upkeep & capitalization on rental property
Replies: 6
Views: 1054

Re: tax changes /upkeep & capitalization on rental property

THanks, Lindrobe, for your clarifying and succinct response. You are right about 2014; this is only useful now for someone working on taxes with a 2014 extension. I am wondering how one goes about sorting out under what circumstances it makes sense to keep some things that could be changed from capital expense to upkeep and when it does not. Would decreasing capital allocations result in higher capital gains taxes on the sale of the house after the march of time, inflation and huge costs of having bought a 100+ year old two-family house that was almost eligible to becondemned, and working over 3 decades to a) make it safe, habitable, reasonable comfortable,and to undo the damage of misguided amateur repair attempts? Much of what has been ca...
by stilllearning
Wed Jul 08, 2015 9:39 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: tax changes /upkeep & capitalization on rental property
Replies: 6
Views: 1054

Re: tax changes /upkeep & capitalization on rental property

Happy to help. I I'll post the beginning of it here; this will give you enough information to access it. WK_ Federal Tax Regulations 1263a-3 Amounts paid to improve tangible property Federal Tax Regulations, Regulation, §1.263(a)-3., Internal Revenue Service, Amounts paid to improve tangible property Reg. §1.263(a)-3, below, as amended by T.D. 9636, generally applies to tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2014; see Reg. §1.263(a)-3(r), below, for details and exceptions. (a) Overview.— This section provides rules for applying section 263(a) to amounts paid to improve tangible property. Paragraph (b) of this section provides definitions. Paragraph (c) of this section provides rules for coordinating this section with other provisions of...
by stilllearning
Wed Jul 08, 2015 7:12 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: tax changes /upkeep & capitalization on rental property
Replies: 6
Views: 1054

tax changes /upkeep & capitalization on rental property

Hi,

Does anyone hear understand the new ways of allocating upkeep and capital improvements?
What reasons might one have (now that the options are different) to change the ways these were allocated in the past?
Does this have to be decided in tax year 2015?

Mystified and curious.

stilllearning
by stilllearning
Wed Jul 08, 2015 7:00 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: hoping for thoughts, advice; unmarried couple in 70's
Replies: 21
Views: 3492

hoping for thoughts, advice; unmarried couple in 70's

Unmarried Couple, in 70s needs help with our allocations and investments. We each file as single. We are posting our portfolios as both separate, and combined. We have thought of them as them as a unit for the many decades we have shared our lives; Retired JG suggested that percentages listed in the first numerical column add up to 100% for each of our separate portfolios. The 100% in the second numerical column aggregates our combined portfolios. One challenge we experience in looking at them separately is that the holdings for one of us are almost entirely in taxable accounts and those for the other only in tax delayed or already taxed accounts. If we have to decide on one way to present, we will take Retired JG's advice. EMERGENCY. Adequ...
by stilllearning
Sun May 31, 2015 8:18 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Fee only planner to help simplify a complex portfolio?
Replies: 9
Views: 1345

Re: Fee only planner to help simply a complex portfolio?

Thanks yet again. Great suggestions, all!

I will review the data, and get it into shape for posting.

Gratefully,

Stilllearning
by stilllearning
Fri May 29, 2015 3:35 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Fee only planner to help simplify a complex portfolio?
Replies: 9
Views: 1345

Re: Fee only planner to help simplify a complex portfolio?

Thanks of this heads up to try to sort out what I need from a CPA to help inform the process of shifting from complex to simple…

And for the specific suggestions.

Indirectly you also remind me to stop re-investing dividnds and capital gains in the taxable accounts!

It helps so much to have a group of sharp people addressing these things with me! Thanks for the added information and collaboration.
by stilllearning
Fri May 29, 2015 1:24 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Fee only planner to help simplify a complex portfolio?
Replies: 9
Views: 1345

Re: Fee only planner to help simply a complex portfolio?

Thanks so much for the suggestion, I have been reading many things he has written,
and appreciate his ways of thinking.

stilllearning
by stilllearning
Fri May 29, 2015 12:54 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Fee only planner to help simplify a complex portfolio?
Replies: 9
Views: 1345

Fee only planner to help simplify a complex portfolio?

With the encouragement of several people on this forum, I have prepared a more detailed description of our stuation and the questions we have. When I try to post it, even though I have tried with pastoing a word document and a copied PDF, all of the columns get condensed and impossible to read. Does anyone know how I can get the text I have written posted while keeping the format? I am on a mac and I use Word. I could possible send a PDF attachment if there is a way to do that that will not result in something painful to read. I have already tried on line editing and the site is too j umpy. PLease help me respond to your generous invitation! Stilllearning We have investments in taxable accounts with whopping capital gains. We know that at a...
by stilllearning
Sun Sep 14, 2014 11:31 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Donating Jewelry for Tax Deduction
Replies: 1
Views: 506

Re: Donating Jewelry for Tax Deduction

Since I care lots about a particular non-profit I wanted to get the most for them with my unwanted jewelry as well as the best tax deduction for me. I took the whole lot of it (some very good pieces) to a consignment shop and told the shop owner to make all of the checks to the organization, t hat I was placing these gifts to the organization for the organization. all true. this way you skip the appraisal expense and you are likely to create greater income (if it is a reliable shop where they know about such things and they have been in business for a good long time). Another good way to do this if there is enough value in it, is to send it to a reliable a auctioneer, again as a gift to the specific non-profit, so any auction earnings do no...
by stilllearning
Wed Feb 15, 2012 2:10 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: The Three-Fund Portfolio
Replies: 3898
Views: 2435094

Re: The Three Fund Portfolio

Hello and thank you for your dramatically clear throughts on the three-fund portfolio.
In the final paragraph you say: "in taxable accounts high-income investors may substitute a tax exempt bond fund for Total Bond Market" and also " Larger portfolios may benefit from adding TIPS, REIT< or a small-cap value fund in tax deferred accounts."

What do you mean by "hi-income" in this statement please? And what do you mean by "larger portfolios"? I am trying to figure out if these suggestions apply to me.

Thanks!

Stilllearning, still here
by stilllearning
Tue Oct 20, 2009 6:31 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Portfolio dilemmas; seeking reflections & suggestions
Replies: 19
Views: 3103

HI,

Thanks for the stats and for the great link!
by stilllearning
Tue Oct 20, 2009 5:12 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Portfolio dilemmas; seeking reflections & suggestions
Replies: 19
Views: 3103

Whoa! Great starting place; I won't be able to thoughtfully respond to this for a week or more; we'll have to examine all these things carefully and discuss them."

This is a good time to sell for many reasons; I want to think things out pretty clearly and work out estate planning before we dive into any big moves, but this is a wonderful contribution to this research, thinking, and planning focus.

Thanks for the time and energy you pout in; this is exactly the kind of focused response that can help us mentally experiment with this way of doing things.

As to your other questions, nothing is fixed, all things are possible when we are confident that we have a good plan for us.

Bye for now,

stilllearning (AKA Ann)
by stilllearning
Tue Oct 20, 2009 2:56 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Portfolio dilemmas; seeking reflections & suggestions
Replies: 19
Views: 3103

Re: Portfolio dilemmas; seeking reflections & suggestion

Dear "Tarnation" I appreciate your very focused post. You say: In transitioning, easy ones are taxable investments with losses. What gains for the large BRK.A in taxable? This one would make me nervous. Me too; we are thinking about reducing our position in BRK and in JPM, also pretty big. "funds good for core holdings" Yes we have not come to an AA that helps us see yet what these could be. Right now I am thinking of Vanguard Wellesley and Wellington ans providing a start on that, but I know they are not usually used as "core". Thanks for the great link to the chart about "what to put where". I have printed it and plan to consult it in all decision making. I think we'll have no trouble getting very c...
by stilllearning
Tue Oct 20, 2009 2:33 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Portfolio dilemmas; seeking reflections & suggestions
Replies: 19
Views: 3103

reflecting

Dear retiredjg, Thanks for the welcome. And thanks especially for your invitation to think about the aggressiveness of my AA given our ages and stage of life. I am exploring this with myself and with some deeper research into bonds and bond funds. I have been more comfortable staying with the somewhat-known, and I can make more informed and rational decisions by getting to know the less-well-known. We do plan to use this portfolio for some current income. First there is what I have to take out. Then, I suspect that my willingness & ability to do the physical work of handling a big house and rental unit may not be as long lived as I'd like in this snowy climate. Being frugal, the good news is that we've saved a lot, the companion news is...
by stilllearning
Tue Oct 20, 2009 2:11 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Portfolio dilemmas; seeking reflections & suggestions
Replies: 19
Views: 3103

Permanent Portfolio suggestion

Dear Macclary , Thanks for your post and exposure to yet one more way of thinking about these things. I looked up the Permanent Portfolio, and think, at a first pass that I want to stay with learning about the indexing approaches I have been trying to learn about. It was interesting to see such a different approach and the thinking behind it, but right now I want to not confuse myself by adding more data to this over-packed brain. I am still reeling from the undigested 17 portfolios on the Morningstar article. Love seeing it, have to go back, but want to keep myself from major overload, so am trying one thing at a time, mentally at least.

Bye for now,

Ann
by stilllearning
Mon Oct 19, 2009 3:33 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Portfolio dilemmas; seeking reflections & suggestions
Replies: 19
Views: 3103

Dear Paul, Thank you for your welcome, and your perspicacious, bold, and kind response. You are quite right. My work to prepare that post was amazingly informative; nothing another person could have prepared would have had the same effect on what I could see and understand. Even if it looked exactly the same. To respond to your comments: You say "The biggest one [conflict]is your belief that investing is supposed to be complicated." I think it has seemed more complicated than it should because I've trying to learn and make important decisions in conversation with books, not with people who take the time, as you have, to challenge assumptions and suggest alternate perspectives. The Bogle-related books made more sense to me than any...
by stilllearning
Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:51 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Portfolio dilemmas; seeking reflections & suggestions
Replies: 19
Views: 3103

Portfolio dilemmas; seeking reflections & suggestions

Dear List-Companions, I introduce myself here with a. embarrassment about our irrational, scattershot and dangerously ill-allocated portfolio and b. a need for help managing allocation and location that takes into account the special planning issues a retirement-age unmarried couple must address c. concerns about about how to move from nascent theoretical knowledge to planful action. (e.g. I can see (via the portfolio tool) that we need less stock exposure, more bond, fewer financials, more something else, fewer large cap, more small, too many different investments, and so on. I know we don't come close to having a "negative correlation". But the nuances and subtleties of what to sell, what to buy, how to select and when to act, a...