Bogleheads.org

Afty

In my opinion schools are worth stretching for, but game rooms and oversize garages are not. Can you find any options in the good school area with an older/smaller/cheaper home? +1. Personally I wouldn't enjoy an excessively large house with a large yard, pool, etc. that I would have to maintain (o...

Afty

unclescrooge wrote: ↑
Tue Sep 12, 2017 7:56 pm
Does anyone know if the warranties are extended for phones bought with Costco credit cards?

Yes, Citi extends the warranty for an additional 2 years.

Afty

I did this early in my career and did feel it negatively impacted my career. Not so much in the networking sense, but I felt it hurt the team dynamic because I didn't eat with them, and it made me dislike my job more as I didn't make friends at work. The company I work for now provides free food, an...

Afty

Yubico security keys work on Linux and Mac as well as Windows. I use them on all 3 platforms for my work. See https://www.yubico.com/products/yubikey ... bikey-neo/

Afty

Furthermore, when you do open the door, it is relatively hard to tell, by inspecting the control panel, whether the dishes are dirty (i.e. hasn't been run) or clean. It's kind of silly, but I bought a dishwasher magnet to solve this problem. You set it to "clean" to mark that the dishes are clean. ...

Afty

House with a pool. Since I stink at maintaining it and turned the water green we hire out for $170/month ($2040/yr) plus incidentals ranging from $50-$200/yr. In the last 5 years we had to re-line the pool and replaced the motor costing about $10k plus the extra electricity I figure in these 5 year...

Afty

I would start by splurging on small luxuries rather than expensive items like a new laptop. For example, you could go out for your morning coffee instead of making it at home. You could buy more expensive foods to cook/eat everyday -- fish, fresh fruits and vegetables, steak, whatever you like. You ...

Afty

Phone accessories at a phone store are generally a ripoff. You will find much better deals on Amazon, and usually higher quality as well.

Afty

Life expectancy is the clear choice. You get to defer taxes for longer. Also if you don't need the funds, you want to take no more than the RMD, again to preserve tax free growth.

Afty

I'm surprised by all the responses here... Your wife already drives a safe vehicle. I don't think a baby on board will render the vehicle any less safe, so I don't see the need for buying a new car, much less a new SUV. I always thought the Baby / SUV requirement was a marketing gimmick that a lot ...

Afty

Am I missing something? No you are absolutely correct. Your home is part of your portfolio as a non-diversified real estate holding paying a return to you of the rent equivalent minus upkeep expenses & taxes, ... Your mortgage is a short bond position and is also part of your portfolio. +1. Note th...

Afty

I'm not sure how typical my experience is, but I had RCN in Somerville and they were horrendous. Really slow speeds (1/10 of the speed I was paying for) and ever increasing prices with no improvements to show for it. We had Comcast in Malden and they were great, no problems except for higher cost th...

Afty

I don't think this is that weird a request. We have friends who have done something similar though they didn't call the person who cooked meals for them a "personal chef." They hired someone to help out in the evenings, do dishes, cook dinner, do laundry, etc. Personally I would first look into hot ...

Afty

Typically the price at grant is irrelevant. You pay income tax when the grant vests on the value of the shares on the vesting date, and that also sets your cost basis. So in your example, you would pay income tax on $6000 at the start of year 1, then capital gains on $2000 when you sell the shares i...

Afty

My company has a cost saving initiative for travel (hotel, airfare, meals). There is a hotel rate cap by city, so I'm limited by that. Usually Courtyard or Fairfield Inns work fine, and also earn me some Marriott points. They're usually fine. We also have a cap per city, and you get to bank 1/2 the...

Afty

A realtor's primary goal is to make sure a deal closes successfully. Small differences in commission don't matter much compared to the possibility of not getting a commission at all. This is probably in your best interest as well -- you presumably need a place to live and need it to happen on some t...

Afty

3 years is a long time to drive around with bad shocks. I would bite the bullet and replace them.

Afty

$750/mo sounds like a mistake. Who pays $9000/yr for car insurance??

Afty

My dad retired when I was a teenager, but he was older than the OP (60s). It certainly didn't affect the way I saw him as a father and a role model. I didn't really think much about it, to be honest.

Afty

This is a great thread. So much of it hits home for me. Especially the parts about the unexpectedly difficult parts of being working parents such as dealing with kids getting sick, not having family nearby making it difficult, using all of your vacation time, etc. IMO as a single parent those are go...

Afty

If you don't expect your marginal rates to decrease ever (and ignoring inheritance issues...) then converting to Roth makes sense. Can you elaborate on this? Does it makes sense to convert if you expect to be in the same tax bracket upon retirement? For the tax-free growth going forward it could ma...

Afty

FiveK wrote:If you don't expect your marginal rates to decrease ever (and ignoring inheritance issues...) then converting to Roth makes sense.

Can you elaborate on this? Does it makes sense to convert if you expect to be in the same tax bracket upon retirement?

Afty

Child care swamps all other costs.

I have to say that those daycare numbers ($3k/mo) look crazy, even for HCOL. The daycare our kids went to is currently $2k/mo for an infant and we live in one of the highest cost areas in the country.

Afty

The reason these coupons exist is really interesting. Insurance companies are trying to push consumers to buy generic drugs whenever possible, by setting a high copay for non-generics. Drug companies want you to buy the non-generic because of the higher costs, which your insurance will largely reimb...

Afty

I will learn more about rolling over the 403B into an IRA. I sincerely appreciate that advice but just don't know what it fully means at this point, sorry :| This just means that you transfer the money from the 403B into a traditional IRA, so you are not tied to that 403b plan after you leave the j...

Afty

I would take the money and run. Housing prices are quite high right now, and you can take advantage of nearly the entire $500k capital gains exclusion.

Afty

I inherited a few gold coins and ended up selling them. I don't think they are a very good investment, and I didn't want to worry about storing and potentially losing them.

You can sell them via Apmex.com or a local store that buys gold. Make sure they give you close to the spot price.

Afty

There are some interesting points in this discussion. There's the idea of being able to afford anything, but not being able to afford everything. Maybe you could afford that Bugatti, but could you afford the Bugatti, a vacation home, and a private jet? There's also an idea of value for the money. I ...

Afty

For an example of where I'm at right now, I'm taking a trip to attend a good friend's wedding later this year. My flight (paid for with points) will get in a little after midnight local time. I have the option of spending $25 on a shared airport shuttle that might take 1-1.5 hours to actually get f...

Afty

I enjoy cooking and do it most nights. I take pride in making tasty and healthy meals for my family. I HATE cleaning and lawn care, so we hire people to do that for us. I admit I used to feel a bit ridiculous having someone clean for us, but it has made our lives immensely better.

Afty

I use the Vanguard PAS, and the guy I work with is great. He gives basically the exact advice this forum will give you. He sends Vanguard reports justifying his advice at decision points (e.g. lump sum vs. DCA), and he never recommends anything fishy or self serving. I know Bogleheads don't recommen...

Afty

I work for one of the "open and transparent" tech giants, and I do sell my stock immediately upon vesting. I've come out behind doing this (i.e. our stock has outperformed the market during the time I've worked there), but I don't want to take the risk of something going terribly wrong and losing bo...

Afty

It seems really suspicious for a thermostat to require a $50/mo fee. I can't find any mention of this fee on the internet.

I wonder if they are tying it to a security system, and the fee is for the security system?

Afty

Lump sum wins 2/3 of the time. Why would you choose the option (DCA) that loses 2/3 of the time?

Afty

Back in the day I convinced my parents to buy a then top of the line 486 PC, ostensibly so that I could do homework. The real reason was so I could play Doom on it. But I also learned how to program, how to assemble hardware, and how to troubleshoot computers. My interest in playing games also led d...

Afty

Since it will all be needed for spending within 2 or 3 years, I would put the money into CDs. Since your son is still in school, presumably he is in low tax bracket. If so, most or all of the gains would not be taxed. Since the market has done well in recent years, I would sell the funds sooner rat...

Afty

p.s. I don't remember my or any parent doing as much as we do with our kids and we turned out just fine. I've been debating it may be more beneficial leaving the kids alone more and just letting them imagine may be better then ANY structure activity. Too much structure I don't think allows for imag...

Afty

Could go to the library. A lot of them will have storytime or other programs for young kids.

Another thing we've done is indoor playgrounds. Sometimes you can find one in you local rec center, or you could go to a fast food place with one.

Afty

One thing I noticed: you're not contributing to your Roth IRAs because of the income limit. Consider using the backdoor Roth technique to get around this. https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Backdoor_Roth_IRA They have two tIRAs, with current balances of approximately $32k and $88k respectively. Doing ...

Afty

One thing I noticed: you're not contributing to your Roth IRAs because of the income limit. Consider using the backdoor Roth technique to get around this. https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Backdoor_Roth_IRA

Afty

We have it, but it's required by our lender so we didn't actively make the decision to carry it. Our insurance company, Amica, underwrites it themselves, and it's separate from the state fund. So it's less likely to have a shortfall in case of a large earthquake.

Afty

So do meals taste better versus a crockpot for example, a pot roast? The slow cooker I can just throw everything in there, set and forget, is it the same with this? Yes. There's a long explanation of why on Serious Eats: http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/10/why-pressure-cookers-are-better-than-slow-c...

Afty

I wouldn't do it. I'm also dubious that you can give an interest free loan to a family member without one of you having tax consequences. I think if you want to do this properly, you'd have to handle "imputed interest" presumably as a gift to the family member. See https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-t...

Afty

One problem in your situation is that the EE bonds you buy now should be redeemed in 20 years to maximize return. At that time you'll likely be in your peak earning years and highest tax brackets. If you hold them for another 10 years to full maturity, the effective interest rate plummets. Can you ...

Afty

We have one and use it about once a week. It's great for stews, beans, chili, etc. -- anything that would normally simmer in liquid and take several hours. I've been really happy with ours.

Afty

2 things: 1) If your girlfriend is finishing med school, won't she be entering a residency program next? If so, she won't be making anywhere near $100k -- more like $50-60k. She could moonlight for some extra income. 2) If she is entering residency, she shouldn't have to start repaying her loans. Sh...

Afty

This thread sparked a thought: do "total return" charts take into account taxes on the dividends? It seems that it might be best to hold dividend stocks in tax advantaged accounts to avoid tax on dividends.

Afty

Do you expect to need credit in the near future? I.e. If you're planning to take a mortgage or finance a car soon, then you probably don't want to close those accounts. Otherwise I would close them. Your credit score will recover in not too long.

Afty

I'm on your side (or your wife's side) and wouldn't be totally comfortable with my kids riding around in a 17 year old Camry. I also agree with the other posters that if you're going to buy an SUV now with the plan to have another kid, consider a larger one. Having 3 rows becomes very convenient onc...

Afty

adksherm wrote:If it really is zero interest you should borrow but sometimes cash gives you a discount that makes the loan cost more than zero.

Yes, be careful of this. Often these 0% loan deals have an alternative that gives a discount or rebate if you pay cash.

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