Bogleheads.org

Well, here's the thing - I never got the itch. It was the calendar that did for me. For the majority of my career I was doing something that I loved, at least at a strategic level if not always at the day-to-day level. And the vast majority of my friends were at work (not an ideal situation, but it ...

I'm also struggling with the convert or not convert question because I have a large LTCG. If I convert the LTCG will cross the NIIT threshold. If I don't convert, it won't. So, essentially, the conversion is going to cost an extra 3.8%. Bumping the 12% rate to 15.8% isn't so bad. But bumping the 22%...

The tradeoff is one of actually enjoying these cities versus visiting as many tourist attractions as possible in them. These are often at odds with each other, just the same as any great American city (NYC, San Francisco, etc). Struggling with a huge crowd to see the Mona Lisa or visiting Harrods ca...

+1 for Moneydance. I started using it late last year after seeing good reviews here in the forum. I previously used several homegrown spreadsheets of varying complexity. I've never tried Quicken or MS Money (which, at the time, people didn't seem to be too happy with due to cost or support issues) o...

First, check the weather. If it's raining, stay in the airport. I would keep it very simple. Heathrow Express to Paddington. Then just walk: - Perhaps to Portobello Market and the Notting Hill area. Lots of fun. or: - Down to Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. Then down into Knightsbridge and visit H...

Re: ....I would appreciate some suggestions for some offbeat things to see or do. Have dinner at Nos Ancêtres les Gaulois at 39 Rue Saint-Louis en l'Île (https://www.nosancetreslesgaulois.com/en) I've been a couple of times, although not for several years, and, yes, it's clearly a tourist & after-bu...

For great views of the city (50 floors up) have lunch at the Top of the Hub in the Prudential Center. Amazingly, lunch there doesn't have to be wickedly expensive. For a cheap thrill take the ferry from the Aquarium to Charlestown. Takes under 15 minutes and gives a fun view of the city, especially ...

I think it's a matter of getting to talk to the right person. Like your wife, I too was missing an entire year of earnings on my SS record, and I had the W2 & Tax return. After initially going to my SS office and handing everything over, several months passed by and nothing happened. I had to go bac...

I did this, for the same reasons as you, on perfectly good terms. Simply identify a personal life deadline and tell him you'll be meeting it shortly. In my case I told my FA, several months before I retired, that after I retired I would have the time to manage my portfolio and planned to do so. So w...

Well, (having not read the entire thread) here are two simple ideas that have served me well: 1/ On the flight out put the airline's blanket all over you prior to the meals, so it acts as a huge napkin. Then, when you've inevitably spilt wine/food all over yourself before you've even got to your des...

There is a driving school near me that offers a 2 hour lesson for $180. They provide the car. Reviews suggest that at the end of the 2 hours, people feel comfortable enough that they could drive stick now, albeit not perfectly. Would this be a reasonable plan of action? Don't overthink this. Drivin...

For those of you who have retired within the past year or so, how is it? Have there been any major surprises or adjustments you've had to make. Anything you need help with? Retired last year at 67. How is it? It's very pleasant. I am calmer in myself, kinder to other people, and more interested in ...

Unless you need Outlook, why not choose Home & Student rather than Home & Business?

Microsoft Office Home and Student for Mac (download) is currently $115 on Amazon. Provides Excel, Word, Powerpoint and OneNote. Full license with no monthly subscription.

You'd need an options based strategy. Basically buying Put options (bets on the index going down). You can do this yourself but it will get expensive over a long period of time. The closer options are to In The Money (ie exercisable for value) and the longer they are to expire, the more money they ...

FWIW, back in 2015 Morningstar was recommending FSTVX for taxable accounts:

http://www.morningstar.com/articles/714 ... -fide.html

I can now answer my own question. I purchased "Office 2016 for Mac" from Amazon for $130. In addition to Excel it provides Word, Powerpoint and Onenote. The original reviews for Excel for Mac back in 2016 were dismal, but I figured that a couple of years of updates would have redeemed it. So it prov...

A quick question - before I waste a hundred or so bucks can anybody confirm that Excel 2016 for Mac will handle RPM fully (Macros etc)? My Mac is running High Sierra (10.13.3). https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/d/excel-2016-for-mac/cfq7ttc0k5f2 I've been using RPM with LibreOffice (5.4.4.2) for ...

Previous recommendations in this forum have included Moneydance, so I started using it. Seems to do everything, including Direct Connect and stock price updating. Works very well for me (no bugs/crashes/etc). Data is stored locally (not in somebody's cloud). Free trial followed by a low cost purchase.

The HR department of the company I worked for (prior to retirement) used LinkedIn extensively to find candidates for open job positions. In fact, aside from looking at the resumes of people who applied for jobs directly through the company's website, it wasn't clear that the recruiters bothered to d...

Re: Went through this personally. The Monday after I left my job, DW and I marched down to the SS office and filed the paperwork. You need the termination letter from your employer. Keep the termination letter, because they’ll keep trying to add the IRMAA every year until you file taxes with the low...

As an unscientific comment I have observed no evidence that family longevity history is in any way meaningful in assessing one's own potential lifespan. I've been to too many funerals where a parent has survived long enough to bury a child. (Surely life's cruelest blow.) And on the other hand my par...

Ditto.

It'll be my first ever meeting. Very much looking forward to it. The social too!

I recently went through the same process (deciding which Medicare Advantage to purchase) and came to the conclusion that dental was mostly a waste of time. The insurance provisions are minimal, it's mostly a pre-payment system. For example, in my area a cleaning is about $150 and the MA programs see...

Another update. My last day at megacorp was 1st September. Whoo-hoo. Now six weeks in and just treating life like a series of back-to-back weekends. I've decided to chill until the New Year to unwind and take stock (figurative, not literal). Then sort out something constructive to do. It's amazing h...

As a previous reply mentioned, there isn't much of a reverse commute to be had. But, as also mentioned, living in central Boston and driving north out to Woburn is definitely manageable. This would put you living in the city of Boston (the Back Bay or Beacon Hill, perhaps), or Cambridge, or Charlest...

So I am now 67 and retire at the end of this month. I think I have the necessary financial security and my job has become boring. I don't have the "retire to something not from something" figured out, so I'm terrified of the coming months. But unless I work until I drop dead that hurdle must be face...

I have watched this thread with great interest, although I would prefer one on "Regret *late* retirement/downsizing." I think I've dealt with the early retirement problem by keeping working until my 67th birthday earlier this month. But, that said, the prospect of boredom in retirement is still a si...

I too am trying to fix this problem. I have one year (1991) where the SSA reports zero earnings, and another (1992) that reports partial earnings. I'm not sure why this happened but blithely assumed that there was no rush to fix it. I also made the mistake of not realizing that the earnings were adj...

Apologies for topic drift but earlier, Watty mentioned: > The Vanguard 2015 target date fund has an asset allocation of 50% stocks and a 50% bonds so ...... The Fidelity 2015 target date fund is the same and I'm curious about it. Presumably the typical investor in these funds is now 67 or thereabout...

First post. Not likely to be the last! Got to start somewhere. I also plan to retire this year, when I get to 67. Basically terrified. Been in the IT industry since college. Enough already. Was once wisely advised to not retire from something, but to retire to something. But the "from" takes so many...