Bogleheads.org

Sure. Increased PITI is 25K less raise of 15K is 10K increase in expense.
Saving 62K is still close to 30%
Sounds like a reasonable move.

Google Translate app is your friend. Some restaurants even have English menus available. Eight days is a short time to see so many places. I'd consider a couple cities and take the Shinkansen bullet train between them.

https://www.eatandtravelwithus.com/cate ... apan/tokyo

I’ve always been impressed with free tours by foot.
They work for tips only and I’ve done them in multiple cities.

https://freetoursbyfoot.com/

Passports aren’t required for most cruises. I think they are being approved pretty quickly if you want to go that route.

https://help.cbp.gov/s/article/Article- ... uage=en_US

joetro29 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 25, 2023 10:29 pm Have both custom house and light house on my list. Seems $17 each. Is one better than the other?

How “worth it” is Fort Zach?

We enjoyed Fort Zach. How long will you be there?

mega317 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 1:16 pm OP, I'd send them a message. They respond pretty fast.

+1
Typically less than 24 hrs

Where in Manhattan? Just stayed at Hotel Belleclaire on the Upper West Side and enjoyed it very much. Check travelzoo.com and hotwire.com (4-star) for deals.

Checked SS this morning and notice my 2022 earnings have posted.

I found out which local attorney participated in my employers plan and called him up to discuss my needs prior to signing up.

jbogler wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2023 12:36 pm I need to pay an outside service to look at the contract and provide advise.

Clark Howard often recommends this paid evaluation.

https://evaluatelifeinsurance.org/

Santi wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2023 2:06 am -will mutual funds crash?
-will they just be closed and sold?

I prefer personally the ease of using mutual funds but I am worried what will happen to them?

My investments are all 100% in mutual funds.

No, they are both valued based on the stocks they own.
They could be closed or merged with another mutual fund but that's not really anything to worry about..

HueyLD wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 11:28 am

GuyInFL wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 11:22 am Yep. Don’t forget to claim AOTC.

?????

No double dipping!

Agree, but you definitely don't want to skip the AOTC even if it means your child pays tax on scholarships.

sunsetting101 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 27, 2023 1:26 am How do I prove/demonstrate my house cost basis when I fill out the tax forms after I sell a home? I am preparing in advance for that day.

So I have refinanced my first loan and my home loan was repackaged and sold to another loan company. I have not kept good records of my first loan with my first loan company. Can I just go to Zillow and print out the home purchase price and reference that as my cost basis? Is there something "more official" that I'm supposed to do?

Thanks in advance.

I'd use the online county records as well. Of course you only need to show you made less than 250K if you are single or 500K for MFJ to be tax free.

Yep. Don’t forget to claim AOTC.

As stated earlier, it was a matter of semantics that caused this confusion. The word "retire" means something entirely different to the SSA, which they interpret as the beginning of your benefits. Never use that word when speaking to an agent of Social Security, because they don't care when you stopped working. The calculator at anypia allows you to input zeros in future years where you will have no earned income prior to claiming your benefit, which will give you a more accurate estimate, but still only a estimate of what you can expect to receive at certain dates. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/anypia/anypia.html The reason it won't be dead on accurate is due to several factors, the most meaningful of which is that they have no idea ...

Once I was close to hitting my 'number' I eased off a bit and started traveling more. Still saving quite a bit!

This is from the frequently asked questions What are the risks of investing with Matson Money? All investing involves risks and costs. Your advisor can provide you with more information about the risks and costs associated with specific programs. No investing strategy, including asset allocation and diversification strategies, can ensure peace of mind, guarantee profit, or protect against loss. Do you know how much you’re being charged to have the manage the money? My guess is the costs are quite high considering they only have 30,000 customers. Hi, Their fees are: - Assets Under Management Annual Rate - First $500,000 2.00% - Next $500,000 1.00% - Next $3 million 0.75% - Over $4 million 0.50% I'm affected by the 1st - 2%, the 2nd - 1% and...

ee_guy wrote: ↑Sun Jan 15, 2023 10:41 pm HP 12C are well design and well built. There was an ad that showed it continue to function after being run over by a car.

One big advantage of the HP 12C is the programmability. I have it programmed to covert race time to time/mile. 36:10 for a 10K is entered as 36.1 and out comes 5:59 per mile.

Nice pace!

https://www.treasurydirect.gov/savings- ... e-i-bonds/
Yes, you can defer your federal taxes. I assume its the same for state taxes but don't know. If your tax bracket now is higher than it will be when you cash them in, its probably best to defer.

EdNorton wrote: ↑Sat Jan 14, 2023 7:02 am Never flown on Frontier but had a flight booked for a 4 day golf outing. Luggage was twice the ticket price. At 6pm the night before my 7am flight, Frontier canceled the flight, no reason given. The next available flight was 3 days later. Ended up driving 12 hours to get to my destination. I refuse to give them any future business.

I had a flight cancelled at the last minute and they covered a $400 Delta flight plus gave me a round trip ticket anywhere they flew. That compensation easily exceeded the cost of the flight.

tev9876 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 12, 2023 12:29 pm I wish I had thought to grab my EZ pass on a trip to Pensacola last month. Two $1 tolls to access Pensacola Beach ended up costing me $13.90 since rental car agencies charge a daily fee for the entire rental if you use a toll-by-plate or their transponder a single time on the trip. Even though I don't live in a state with toll roads, I bought it years ago on a business trip to Chicago because I got tired of stopping and digging for change constantly.

I paid about $15 for two $0.25 tolls near Boston on a single day rental. Quite the racket.

rick51 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 12, 2023 10:17 am I do use Turbo Tax and I typically file electronically, so I’m hoping this issue doesn’t require me to file a paper return.
I am over 59.5 years and and Vanguard was supposed to cut a check made out to the thrift savings plan for the benefit of me. It should’ve been pretty clear that it was a direct rollover and on top of that I specifically discussed the coding on the 1099 because I read something on this board years ago, regarding a similar problem.

Did the funds show up in your TSP traditional 401k ok? That would be move evidence the 1099 was miscoded.

What % did they pay for 2022? Interested in comparing this to VTSAX. 1.57% dividend for FZROX. No cap gains this year (0.2% in 2021). According to https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-funds/profile/vtsax#distributions VTSAX paid $1.54/share over four quarterly distributions. That's 1.65% using the 30 Dec closing price of $93.10. I'm not sure if the yield works exactly that way, as some of those dividends were paid out earlier in the year when the NAV was higher... But according to https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-portfolio?s=y&timePeriod=2&startYear=2022&firstMonth=1&endYear=2022&lastMonth=12&calendarAligned=true&includeYTD=false&initialAmount=10000&annualOperation=0&a...

deltaneutral83 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 9:23 am how does one know if there local charity is has the ability to accept DAF's, I assume local churches may not ?

As long as it is a 501c. It should be no problem. I've added a couple charities to Schwab's database and it took about a week.

rkhusky wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 10:25 am

GuyInFL wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 6:31 am What % did they pay for 2022? Interested in comparing this to VTSAX.

1.57% dividend for FZROX. No cap gains this year (0.2% in 2021).

According to
https://investor.vanguard.com/investmen ... tributions
VTSAX paid $1.54/share over four quarterly distributions.
That's 1.65% using the 30 Dec closing price of $93.10.

What % did they pay for 2022? Interested in comparing this to VTSAX.

agh wrote: ↑Mon Jan 02, 2023 1:47 pm My 401K balance is around $950.000, I don’t expect to be in the 37% bracket though. I always owe federal and state taxes since I really don’t have any deductions.

With that balance, Roth sounds like a good plan to me.

What's. Your traditional 401k balance? if you anticipate being in the 37% bracket, this could be a good move for now. Its nice to have a combination of pre and post tax dollars.

[Thread merged into here --moderator Kendall]

Received my IRS PIN for 2022 today. I've been receiving these automatically for the last few years. Just posting as a reminder for folks to request one if they don't use this. It prevents someone from filing a false return on my behalf.

Inviquest wrote: ↑Tue Dec 20, 2022 12:12 am

Hyperchicken wrote: ↑Mon Dec 19, 2022 11:05 pm Does you 401(k) plan have true-up match? This should be described in your plan's documents.

Thank you, this is worth asking. Do they give the true-up match automatically, or does one need to request usually?

Our company does true-up match in February automatically. Years ago, before true-up, I maxed out in October and lost two months of match. After I inquired, they added a warning on the company 401k web site.

vineviz wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 7:33 am You're currently putting 80+% of your savings into pre-tax accounts, which is probably a little heavy given your early retirement goal. Additional savings in a taxable account, or even moving some of your 401k contributions to taxable, will strike some people as tax-inefficient but it would seem to me to better align with your goals.

I think overweighting traditional 401k savings is a good idea if you plan to retire at 55. You can withdraw via Rule of 55 or 72t and have 15 years before Social Security kicks in. At 55 A family of two can withdraw close to 115K and still be in the 12% tax bracket, currently slated to revert to 15%.

Nice to see Fidelity won't be charging aggregator s to use the system.

Autopay

Save a copy of the cost basis before transferring it. As I understand it the basis info should transfer but...

Finance Buff has an article on this.

https://thefinancebuff.com/when-to-sell-i-bonds.html

Article states...

Nearly half of respondents retired early because of reasons outside their control, including poor health, losing their jobs and needing to take care of family members. Only 7% of survey respondents said they left the workforce because they had managed to save up enough money for retirement.

Good point about folks choosing (or not) when to retire.

Article states...

Most Americans said they would prefer to rely on guaranteed sources of income, like Social Security, to fund their retirement—not returns from volatile markets. But only 55% of retirees are able to do so, the firm found.

This would have been a great opener to discuss SPIAs or delaying Social Security to 70.

jebmke wrote: ↑Wed Nov 09, 2022 6:10 am It is a great way to ditch mistakes with unrealized gains.

Those great mistakes to have!

Random Poster wrote: ↑Mon Nov 07, 2022 9:22 pm

sailaway wrote: ↑Mon Nov 07, 2022 9:13 pm Have you considered moving large chunks of your taxable account into a DAF? This would provide a tax deduction this year and eliminate the income from those funds going forward.

I’ll have to look into that.

How would you determine how much money to put into the DAF, without jeopardizing your own future?

You could start with 10x your annual donations. Don’t forget to bunch any other itemized deductions to maximize that for the year.

Freetaxusa is now available for 2022 tax planning.
https://www.freetaxusa.com/

Nuestroro wrote: ↑Wed Nov 02, 2022 5:57 am

samsoes wrote: ↑Wed Nov 02, 2022 5:37 am

Nuestroro wrote: ↑Wed Nov 02, 2022 5:25 am Consumer Reports has homeowners insurance satisfaction ratings based on 6000 reader responses. Amica scored 94/100 and Allstate 82/100. No rating for AAA.

https://www.consumerreports.org/product ... 702/view2/

Paywall.

Yup. Subscribe if you want to see the full ratings. Or go through your local library.

Our library provides free electronic access to Consumer Reports.

Michelle wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 4:22 pm I like to use Glenn Reeves Excel spreadsheet. Free but he accepts donations.

https://sites.google.com/view/incometaxspreadsheet/home

Excel1040.com

He hasn't updated yet for 2022.

Actually, he has a planning version for 2022. Check the second link on his page.

And let's not forget the invaluable and free resource, an excel based tax calculator. I have very close estimates of all our Roth conversions, taxes paid, interest estimated, wages and capital gains approximated. But then I'm a tad OCD. The IRS publishes all their tax brackets well in advance, so you can get pretty darn close. Final scrub and last estimated taxes to be paid December! https://sites.google.com/view/incometaxspreadsheet/home Yes, I like Glen's spreadsheet. It's not been updated for 2022 yet. thanks Could it just be a front page issue? 2022 download is clearly on this page (if you go to downloads). I agree it's preliminary. https://sites.google.com/view/incometaxspreadsheet/home/download Thanks! I didn't see the second link fo...

Jazztonight wrote: ↑Wed Oct 26, 2022 11:30 am Going back to college at 55 for another degree really put me on the right track on so many levels. I wish others would consider doing it!

Apparently seniors can take college classes for free in many states.
https://www.thepennyhoarder.com/save-mo ... -citizens/

CAsage wrote: ↑Sun Oct 23, 2022 5:57 pm And let's not forget the invaluable and free resource, an excel based tax calculator. I have very close estimates of all our Roth conversions, taxes paid, interest estimated, wages and capital gains approximated. But then I'm a tad OCD. The IRS publishes all their tax brackets well in advance, so you can get pretty darn close. Final scrub and last estimated taxes to be paid December!

https://sites.google.com/view/incometaxspreadsheet/home

Yes, I like Glen's spreadsheet. It's not been updated for 2022 yet.
thanks

Yes, interest begins accruing when you purchase the gift, and of course continues when it is delivered.

Thanks for all the answers and ideas. I'm planning to move away from H&R Block this year.

When do they typically support filing for 2022? I'd like to do some planning. No info on their web site and I didn't see anything in the boglehead forums.

This has been working for me a couple years.
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=38294

The social safety nets in Europe are also a HUGE difference. Where you have a state-funded retirement scheme where contributions are baked into the tax you pay, it's basically set-it and forget-it and there is not as much of a need to educate people on saving for retirement. Contrast that with the US where social security generally isn't enough to live off of, so we're forced to save on our own in these complicated, voluntary retirement accounts. If our kids aren't taught about how that stuff works, they aren't going to be able to comfortably retire. This article is dated, but makes an interesting comparison between US and European retirement systems. https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewbiggs/2019/03/15/u-s-retirement-system-rocks-europe/?s...