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shawcroft

I have a Federal and Washington DC income tax “Safe Harbor” question. The person in question earns virtually all of her income from wages but has a bunch of 30 year Series E bonds ( ~$37,000) which will mature in July. They were gifted to her mostly by her late grandparents during 1987. (you can gue...

shawcroft

Nigel Hamilton has written two books which "sort of" serve as FDR's memoirs of his leadership during the Second World War: The Mantle of Command: FDR at war 1941-1942 Commander in Chief. FDR 1943 Both were great "reads" Hamilton is reported to be working on a third volume to acco...

shawcroft

Dogsplaypoker: No one has mentioned state gift tax considerations. I believe there are only two states which have gift taxes- Minnesota and Connecticut. If you are not a resident of either of these, then your only consideration is Federal gift tax. (If anyone knows if there are more states than the ...

shawcroft

Jim3: If you are asking for assistance on the Boglehead Forum, you clearly suspect you may be about to do something unwise......Run - do not walk- away from Merrill Lynch or any Bank investment group....... .......and please recall the timeless advice of John Bridges (1587) "a foole and his mon...

shawcroft

There are a number of ways to fix the colors of the faded or discolored slides and they are usually pretty fixable. In extreme cases you can convert them to black and white and still get an acceptable image. There are lots of software options but I use Photoshop Elements since I already have that a...

shawcroft

Greetings to all: I've been on a project to clean out "stuff" which we have accumulated in our home. Amazing what debris you collect when you have lived in the same house for over 30 years! But, to my delight, I recently found trays of Kodachrome slides I have taken of family events and tr...

shawcroft

I had to close the HELOC when I refinanced the mortgage. The only downside was a delay in the refinancing until I got the documents confirming the HELOC was closed.
Shaw croft

shawcroft

The CCRC's I've looked at do not include LTC in the buy-in/rental. For that you'll need LTC insurance or pay out of pocket. Should you or your spouse need LTC see if the LTC facility is on site and that you and/or your spouse are GUARANTEED a bed at that facility. Excellent observation. I have a co...

shawcroft

Interesting concept. I know two families in Florida which have installed these and they like them- their experience with battery life is in the 4-5 month range.I'm up in the Northeast and the best places to install them is inconvenient but do-able. I wouldn't want to have to change batteries frequen...

shawcroft

Interesting concept. I know two families in Florida which have installed these and they like them- their experience with battery life is in the 4-5 month range.I'm up in the Northeast and the best places to install them is inconvenient but do-able. I wouldn't want to have to change batteries frequen...

shawcroft

Excellent discussion. I've learned much to improve our computer security......and to do very regular backups
Shawcroft

shawcroft

Excellent discussion and timely. I have been informed some states require a bank to "seal" the safety deposit box upon learning of the customers death. The box is only opened with supervision. Our estate attorney said language should be in the will to direct things in such a box to designa...

shawcroft

The best way to digitize tapes? I've always done it by connecting the VCR to my PC via a TV Tuner card installed in one of the PCI slots. The TV tuner card allows composite cables to be hooked up to the computer as an input. Then I simply had to use the software that came with the Hauppage TV Tuner...

shawcroft

To my colleagues: I found this 3 year old thread on cleaning a VCR tape player and it was very helpful. I've begun "digitizing" VHS tapes of family events events from 1994-2006. They're in the VHS-C format and I have about 110 of them.,..great project for the winter months in the Connectic...

shawcroft

Several people have mentioned steel wool. I recommend copper wool. It lasts longer. In my experience in a damp location steel wool rusts to a worthless powder in less than a year and you have to do it again. Copper wool turns green but remains intact. Copper wool should be available at your local h...

shawcroft

We're on our 3rd Subaru- a 2014 Outback. Love the car- really versatile and handles well. I looked at a Toyota Venza, Nissan Rogue and an Audi All Road (the Audi was a ~$48,000 car) . The Subaru has about 95 % of the stuff the Audi offered at about 60% of the price.
Shaw croft

shawcroft

To me, the best financial move I have ever made was buying an engagement ring for my wife. People who know me know that I am plodding and slow to act- but not after I met her. From our first meeting to marriage in less than 16 months- " faster than a speeding bullet" for me! Best overall f...

shawcroft

Old Meph: I joined this Forum about 7 years ago, at a time when I was moving most of our financial stuff to Vanguard and had many questions, among them life insurance. I had purchased a number of life policies over the years- all with the best of intentions- but never really knew what I was buying. ...

shawcroft

Before you start, it's important to get a sense of a realistic endpoint. I know from watch the tapes there was lots of dead space, pictures of the floor, and long performances by my kids that even they would not want to watch, certainly not more than once. I realized I would have to shorten the end...

shawcroft

When I mess with DVD's I generally have gotten good results with Verbatim. For DVD-RW they quote 1000 read write cycles. Another good DVD manufacturer for me has been JVC Taiyo Yuden. For a project that I was archiving personal information for hopefully a lifetime I would stick with the best qualit...

shawcroft

VHS tapes are inserted into a regular VHS player and the played output is fed into a Hauppauge Colossus 2 capture card on my desktop which produces a high bit-rate .mpg file. Then I can edit the file with VideoReDo as I wish and ultimately copy those files to a couple (or more) hard drives which ar...

shawcroft

First, a Happy New Year to all! A fun question: one of my New Year's resolutions involves a project transferring home videos from the old VHS-C format to DVD. The process is fairly simple, although you cannot easily edit what you copy when you do it this way. (you need a computer to do that- more on...

shawcroft

In past years, I have used airline miles to subscribe to the Economist. Looking at United MileagePlus and American Advantage offerings this morning, I don't see The Economist as a subscription option. (maybe I missed something). Is there another "Boglehead Way" to subscribe to the Economis...

shawcroft

Had a similar experience with the ATM at a credit union in CT which was formerly a member of the shared services group with NFCU. Until recently, it was fee-free but now advises (once the NFCU CUCARD is inserted) that there is a $3.00 fee for each transaction. Based upon that experience I went onlin...

shawcroft

Radiowave:
Indeed, no apology necessary to me as well. Some thing I would not have thought about.
Thanks!
Shawcroft

shawcroft

jwillis77373 wrote:We're comparing 1/10 ths of a basis point.. and complaining?

Only the Angels on the head of a pin could party with that much in their pocket.

Willis:
Indeed.....Excellent observation!
Shawcroft..

shawcroft

Bostondan: I've posted estate planning questions in the past and have gotten responses with great insights. bsteiner's thoughts were alway very helpful. Alas, we live in Connecticut and it currently has a 2M exemption (it was increased to 3.5M for a few years but the current governor reduced it to 2...

shawcroft

rec7 wrote: I am still using my VCR a couple times per week. Anybody else? Yes, we use ours about twice a week. I've copied family VHS tapes ( the original big ones) taken from 1983-1995 onto DVD. Most went 2 hours so I was able to start the 2 hour VHS tape and the DVD copier (set for 2 hours) and ...

shawcroft

I came across this discussion which is about 5 years old. We are planning an overseas trip for late fall. Do my Boglehead colleagues have more recent experiences / views on banks and their fees regarding use of international ATM's? Do Capital One and USAA still provide the best deal? Thanks, Shawcroft

shawcroft

Duckie: He would get the full match at 3%. The MetLIfe representative is supposed to have a meeting at their office some time this week to explain things and answer questions. Nothing happened today. He has gotten interested in the costs (fees) which may be floating around this variable annuity. Sha...

shawcroft

One of our sons lives out-of-state and works for a non-profit organization. Last week, he received a notice that they will be changing their 403b provider to MetLife. He hasn’t gotten any detailed information but was sent a 5-page summary. He scanned the pages and sent them to me for my thoughts. (t...

shawcroft

Rick:
Thanks for alerting the Bogleheads to this momentous occasion. Have a grand birthday, Mel!
Shawcroft

shawcroft

Having been encouraged by someone here to try them, we do find we are hooked......." Masters of War" with Andrew Wilson of the Naval Academy. Which was again a stimulating insight into matters (strategic thinkers in history) about which we knew little....... the quality so far has been hi...

shawcroft

[OT link removed by admin LadyGeek] hburrus: nice list of very practical information. The OP got into the rental business "by default", not part of a grand scheme. I hope his monthly rent covers all the fixed and variable costs, with something left over for occasional capital repairs and/...

shawcroft

Taylor Larimore wrote:Philadelphia is a long trip for me at age 92. Nevertheless, meeting Jack and old and new friends will be a highlight of my remaining days.

Taylor:
I know I speak for all Bogleheads when I say it is our hope that you have- and enjoy- a large number of "remaining days".
Shawcroft

shawcroft

Anyone know of a cheap or at least fair priced place to get an MRI (for knee) done in Connecticut? Snowjob: "Advanced Radiology" has several locations in Southwestern CT- in the Stamford-Bridgeport area. I have no experience with them but their website says they will quote you a price. Mi...

shawcroft

ModifiedDuration wrote:Sort of like a StubHub, but I would act as market maker.

Good idea?

Well, I suspect we are all economic beasts of prey......

That said, I recognize this is (hopefully) said with tongue in cheek.......otherwise, the much-feared" Wrath of Lindauer" will descend upon you..

Shawcroft

shawcroft

The clock ticks..
My "check is in the mail" as of Saturday ...I hope the postal service is reasonably efficient (I surmise that is the wish of many who are hoping to attend)
Shawcroft

shawcroft

Kathleen: Your e-mail and Mel's badgering touches me greatly. I will request Registration Forms from Gail Cox immediately. I believe our family would also like to attend what has always been a high-point of our lives. Thank you for the "push." Best wishes. Taylor Great news that Taylor wi...

shawcroft

Good job, you will be happy. I was. And no need to say goodbye. Vanguard does it all for you. I now have enough experience to say that that is not entirely true, and it's not true for Fidelity either. They both follow "protocol", which basically means they won't fight for your money if th...

shawcroft

Interesting thread....reminded me of a recent conversation I was at a holiday party in December. One of the attendees (who resides in Connecticut) mentioned that he and his wife own a vacation home on Cape Cod which they placed in a Florida LLC ( I asked him Florida twice and he said yes). He said i...

shawcroft

Dan:
Aspects of estate planning have been discussed several times on the Forum. You are getting some very thoughtful suggestions.
Shawcroft

shawcroft

http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-wi-fi-router/ http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-cable-modem/ Depends on what wifi devices you have (or expect to have) and your internet speed - you might ask Comcast what they prefer for a cable modem. Quark: Thanks for the references. My dealing with Comc...

shawcroft

To my colleagues:
Boy, is this a timely post! We have a family member who is currently renting but is thinking about buying a condo in the Washington DC area within the next 6 months, He is just starting out on the "learning curve".
Shawcroft

shawcroft

Flobes:
Thanks for the alert. Good catch!
Shawcroft

shawcroft

OutInThirteen wrote:I could print out Form TSP-77, fill it out, take it to a branch of my local bank to sign and have it notarized,

Are you referring to a medallion signature guarantee here? I don't think you need a bank to have your signature notarized.
Shawcroft

shawcroft

The deal could get derailed. or.....the two trains might never get coupled (sorry, couldn't resist) If this deal falls through, Warren Buffet might become interested. He said he bought BNSF because he never had a train set as a child. Perhaps he would want to assemble a transcontinental one... Shaw...

shawcroft

The Total Wine store near us is huge and carries an excellent- and large- selection of wines. Connecticut (where I reside) has minimum prices set on wine and liquor so they cannot go as low as other Total Wine stores in some nearby states. As one member from Massachusetts has noted, the best prices ...

shawcroft

Subaru Outback.

close enough to an SUV to make it a very good choice.

Shawcroft

shawcroft

edge wrote:I would suggest actively looking for how the ants are entering your home. Other critters can probably get in the same way and potentially damage it.

Excellent observation. although not as small as an ant, I have seen mice get into surprisingly small openings near the foundation.
Shawcroft

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