Search found 38 matches

by learningstill
Mon Oct 30, 2023 8:48 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: California State College Application - Income Question
Replies: 3
Views: 691

California State College Application - Income Question

My child is applying to a few colleges in CA (we do not live there) and is filling out the “Cal State Apply” form. There is a section that states it is only to collect statistical information where last year’s AGI is required. We will not fill out FFSA and do not wish to fill out this information here either. Curious how others have handled this. When I looked online, I found multiple places that said it tells you to use $999,999 if you do not want to provide this info but we can’t find that on the application or the website.
by learningstill
Sun Mar 05, 2023 3:46 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Commit to 90 Day Resignation Notification?
Replies: 27
Views: 4315

Re: Commit to 90 Day Resignation Notification?

I just wanted to thank everybody for all of the feedback on this question. There are a lot of valuable and varying perspectives on this topic. It is good to know that this is not uncommon in the medical field. We agree that the reciprocity is a good thing although we're not in a position where that matters to us as much. It is interesting that there is no termination date. I wonder if when the tide would turn and they're not hungry for people if they could change policy and terminate the agreement. A question but not a big factor in the decision. The biggest question remains what they could do to enforce the 90 days since it is not stated in the agreement. We don't think that 90 days notice is unreasonable but we can also think of scenarios...
by learningstill
Wed Mar 01, 2023 8:40 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Commit to 90 Day Resignation Notification?
Replies: 27
Views: 4315

Commit to 90 Day Resignation Notification?

Hello, My spouse is a medical professional who has worked for the same organization for the last 10 years as a health care provider. The organization has started to require that new hires sign a form that commits them to give 90 days of notice when they leave the company. The form is reciprocal - they also commit to give 90 days notice or pay for 90 days if you are let go. It does not indicate any sort of penalty or recompense to the organization if you do leave earlier than 90 days and I am not sure how/if it could really be enforced. I'm curious if this is something that is (or is becoming) standard? I know that they are growing and turnover has been a challenge so I see why they would want to try to do this. However, 90 days is a long ti...
by learningstill
Wed Mar 01, 2023 8:29 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Washer and Dryer (Costco and Home Depot)
Replies: 24
Views: 4483

Re: Washer and Dryer (Costco and Home Depot)

I second those who said that the contractor who installs the washer/dryer can vary quite a bit. We purchased a W/D pair from Home Depot about 10 years ago and as part of the promotion it came with free installation. The installation was paid for by the manufacturer (GE) and done by a third party. About six months after the installation we were out of town and one of the water lines started to leak at the washing machine. No problem with the washing machine or the line - it just wasn't on tight and apparently had backed off enough to start leaking. It cost us ~$500 to replace a section of hardwood floor that was ruined. When I tried to follow up, each party just pointed at the others and I got nowhere except that installer said that they wou...
by learningstill
Sat Jan 21, 2023 3:28 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Why (when) one's marginal tax rate is important in practice?
Replies: 105
Views: 8585

Re: Why (when) one's marginal tax rate is important in practice?

I think that it's a good point that you can always use effective tax rates to evaluate the impacts of financial decisions. But in order to do that, you need to understand how those decisions will change the effective tax rate and that's usually more complicated than just using the marginal tax rate. So, marginal tax rate is a lot more useful in my mind for evaluating many financial choices and being able to quickly get a rough assessment of the tradeoffs. On the original topic of when the marginal tax rate is important in practice, I have a couple more specific examples where it was valuable for my family to consider the marginal tax rate: This is a specific example of the tax on the extra dollar. When our children were born, my wife stayed...
by learningstill
Fri Sep 30, 2022 12:12 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Options for Inheriting a 401K
Replies: 7
Views: 754

Re: Options for Inheriting a 401K

Thanks again Alan.
by learningstill
Tue Sep 27, 2022 9:17 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Options for Inheriting a 401K
Replies: 7
Views: 754

Re: Options for Inheriting a 401K

Thanks to all for the feedback!

I wanted to confirm that the deceased did not have a spouse.

Alan - the one thing that I wanted to note is that the 401K does not list the
estate as a beneficiary, it doesn't have any beneficiary. However, I think that
you are saying in the absence of a named beneficiary the default would be
the estate and the account would cash out to the estate. Just wanted to
confirm that.

Thanks
by learningstill
Mon Sep 26, 2022 9:38 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Options for Inheriting a 401K
Replies: 7
Views: 754

Options for Inheriting a 401K

Hi, I have a friend who is the executor for a friend of hers who passed away earlier this year unexpectedly. The deceased had a will that names 4 people that will divide her estate. She also had a 401K with Fidelity that did not name a beneficiary. I wanted to help her understand the options for distributing the 401K. In talking to Fidelity, they have said that they will pay the 401K out to the estate after taking 22% for taxes. Given that there is no beneficiary listed, is that the only option or can my friend provide a copy of the will to Fidelity and then they would divide the account 4 ways into inherited IRAs for the heirs of the estate? In the end, she will need to determine which option would be financially better but for now she is ...
by learningstill
Thu Feb 17, 2022 10:50 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Replace parts of 20 year old furnace or buy new?
Replies: 28
Views: 4166

Re: Replace parts of 20 year old furnace or buy new?

bob60014 wrote: Thu Feb 17, 2022 9:15 pm Get the number off the control board. Boards for most furnaces 20 years old can be had for $125-$200 as they are common. It's a easy swap out.
+1
by learningstill
Fri Jul 30, 2021 11:39 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Do you have a "man garage" away from your home?
Replies: 84
Views: 10394

Do you have a "man garage" away from your home?

Hello, My wife and I have a home that we are likely to keep for many years that meets all of our needs and most of our wants. One of the things that it doesn't provide is a large garage space that can be used for storing big toys (campers, boats, etc.) and support bigger projects like woodworking, working on cars, etc. I am interested in trying to purchase a space that could be used for this and am curious how others may be doing this today. I have a friend who is a pilot and has a hangar for his plane and added extra hangars for this purpose. I also have another friend who purchased an old machine shop with his family and uses that space in this same way. Neither seem like good options to me, though. The main things that I would want are a...
by learningstill
Fri Jul 30, 2021 11:10 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: DAF - At What $ Level Do Other Options Make Sense?
Replies: 13
Views: 2193

Re: DAF - At What $ Level Do Other Options Make Sense?

It has been quite a while since I posted the original question but I wanted to just respond and thank everybody for all of the great guidance that was provided. My main takeaways were: For the amounts of money that we are looking at, sticking with the DAF makes the most sense. It looks like we are quite a ways off from the point where an operating foundation would make financial sense. As we look at our contributions, we need to consider how the possibility of future QCDs may factor into how much we want to contribute to the DAF through retirement. I need to start looking harder at future IRMAA expectations and how that might factor in eventually with RMDs. If for some reason good fortune puts us in position to consider starting an operatin...
by learningstill
Wed Apr 07, 2021 12:10 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: DAF - At What $ Level Do Other Options Make Sense?
Replies: 13
Views: 2193

DAF - At What $ Level Do Other Options Make Sense?

My wife and I have been using a Fidelity DAF for the last 5+ years and we find it to be a great solution for many reasons. In terms of contributions, we take advantage of bunching them into a single year and also find it very easy to contribute stock with capital gains. We also find it to be simple for granting money once we have set up our charities initially and we take advantage of recurring donations. We are mid 50s and starting to think harder about retirement planning as we near the end of our working years (likely 5-10 years to go). One of the things that we are considering is building up the DAF as we approach retirement while we are at what will likely be our highest income and highest marginal tax rate. One question that has come ...
by learningstill
Wed May 13, 2020 12:31 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Partial Payment Retained for Canceled Travel
Replies: 10
Views: 963

Re: Partial Payment Retained for Canceled Travel

Thanks again to all who have responded on this issue. I just wanted to provide a quick update... The suggestion to do some research on the company was a good one and led to a lot more information. My impression was that it was a smaller organization because the HQ is here in my state and the program operates at a state level. However, when I started looking for their site to get more information about the company, I found that they operate nationally with what seems to be the identical program and there is already a lot of information about others impacted. Everything from a video of a story on a southern CA TV news station to a Washington Post article and lots of other articles as well. There is a petition to get a fair refund and the comp...
by learningstill
Mon May 11, 2020 11:10 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Partial Payment Retained for Canceled Travel
Replies: 10
Views: 963

Re: Partial Payment Retained for Canceled Travel

I'm thinking that I might as well cash the check to make sure I get that much back. The money retained was significant to me so I may still follow up with the travel agency directly, the group that organizes the trip and the music program at the high school to see if there's any possibility of recovering something.

Thanks
by learningstill
Mon May 11, 2020 7:59 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Partial Payment Retained for Canceled Travel
Replies: 10
Views: 963

Re: Partial Payment Retained for Canceled Travel

Did you pay the full amount to the travel agency or was any portion paid directly to third party suppliers (hotels, airlines, etc)? Did you pay by credit card? Did you purchase travel insurance for this overseas trip? If you paid some amounts to third parties (hotels, airlines), you'll need to pursue them for refunds of amounts paid directly to them. If you paid the full amount to the travel agency by credit card, you can file a dispute with your credit card issuer. If you purchased trip insurance, you can file a claim. If you paid by check, you may want to consult with an attorney. Unfortunately, it was paid directly to the travel agency by check and no insurance was paid. And as noted in the other response, looking closer at the contract...
by learningstill
Mon May 11, 2020 7:55 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Partial Payment Retained for Canceled Travel
Replies: 10
Views: 963

Re: Partial Payment Retained for Canceled Travel

However, I'm interested in the "...if a participant chose to cancel..." It does not appear that the *participants* were the ones to cancel in this situation. Does any travel document/agreement state something more restrictive about refunds if the trip itself is cancelled, not by the participants? Looking closer at the contract, they do actually state that they have the right to cancel the tour "for any reason" and that refunds will be made based on the cancellation schedule. So, this may be pretty cut and dry except these are extraordinary circumstances although that may not matter. Also, was the payment made to a travel agency/tour operator or to airlines/hotels directly? Payment was made directly to the travel agency ...
by learningstill
Mon May 11, 2020 4:16 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Partial Payment Retained for Canceled Travel
Replies: 10
Views: 963

Partial Payment Retained for Canceled Travel

Hello, My high school aged daughter was scheduled to go on a trip this summer with a group of students across the state to visit Europe and perform music as they traveled. It was a great opportunity and she was looking forward to it but unfortunately it was canceled. We received a note confirming that the trip was canceled in March due to concerns of emerging quarantine regulations at that time related to coronavirus and European travel. It also noted that a refund would be provided that was in accordance with the stated policy if a participant chose to cancel in that same time-frame. This policy has the travel agency retain almost 1/3 of the cost of the trip. They stated that this was due to fees that had been paid out to vendors on the tr...
by learningstill
Wed Apr 08, 2020 9:09 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Don't pay full price for SiriusXM radio
Replies: 649
Views: 112402

Re: Don't pay full price for SiriusXM radio

We have had Sirius XM radio in one of our cars for a few years now and did enjoy it. Some of the channels offered were interesting and it was great for trips through the mountains where standard AM/FM options are not accessible. I played the game every year, calling up to renegotiate our deal before it jumped to a much higher bill rate. I made the call again a couple weeks ago ago and received the deal for $5.00/month ($6.06 after taxes and fees), which we consider reasonable. However, it still had the automatic price jump at the end of the year that would require calling back to negotiate and they were not willing to get rid of that. As I was about to pay, I saw that I had been on the phone for almost half an hour to reach that point. The ...
by learningstill
Thu Aug 29, 2019 8:41 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Purchasing a truck - thoughts?
Replies: 105
Views: 9430

Re: Purchasing a truck - thoughts?

I've had a Tundra for the last 11 years that was purchased new and it has been great with no issues at all. Main reason for me to buy it was for camping (gear in bed and towing a camper) and to use it for runs to the dump and hardware store. It is the Crewmax version with great seating although there are times (few) when the longer bed would be nice. But I would not choose differently if I had it to do again. Because of all of the space (front and back) it has become the vehicle of choice for long distance trips with a family of 5 and even turns out to be preferred over our SUV when fewer are traveling. One downside is gas mileage - that's not a big concern for me because I have a very short commute. The other downside is parking and the ch...
by learningstill
Sun Jul 28, 2019 3:09 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: New house... need to buy fridge and washer & dryer
Replies: 44
Views: 4859

Re: New house... need to buy fridge and washer & dryer

We bought a washer/dryer a few years ago from Home Depot and since it was a holiday sale the delivery and installation were free. About 6 months later, there was a leak from the washing machine that was due to one of the hoses not getting properly tightened and gradually backing off. Not a lot of damage but when I tried to follow up HD pointed us to the manufacturer who pointed us to the independent installer and nobody would take ownership. The installer did offer to send out an expert to check the installation and make sure it was done right the second time and I declined. :happy Only time I didn't do the install myself and I regretted it - have not had any problems since. My experience is probably an outlier and having somebody else do t...
by learningstill
Tue Jun 18, 2019 11:50 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Rental Cars and Teenagers
Replies: 7
Views: 646

Re: Rental Cars and Teenagers

trevorshhh wrote: Tue Jun 18, 2019 8:03 am AAA will allow the under 25 fee to be waived for Hertz (and possibly other companies). The basic membership could possibly be cheaper than the rental fee for 1-2 days.
Thanks - this was a good pointer. From what I can tell online, it looks like this will work for 20-24 but not for teens. I will follow up with Hertz to make sure, though.

Tim
by learningstill
Tue Jun 18, 2019 7:54 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Rental Cars and Teenagers
Replies: 7
Views: 646

Re: Rental Cars and Teenagers

Thanks for the replies. I should have added some more detail. We're all on vacation together at a destination that is far from home and we flew there. So, personal cars are not an option. They are going on for a separate outing and wanted to drive so that they could see some scenery and make stops in a part of the country they have never visited before. So, flying would miss the goal. Would like him to drive but not with a super high fee.
by learningstill
Tue Jun 18, 2019 6:26 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Rental Cars and Teenagers
Replies: 7
Views: 646

Rental Cars and Teenagers

My wife and 18 year old son are planning to rent a car and make a trip that will be 12 hours each way. Ideally, it would be good if they could share the driving responsibilities but it seems that most rental car companies don't allow a teenager to drive or they charge a very high fee. My son is a good driver and has shared responsibility on multiple long distance trips in our vehicles and it would be safest if they could split time. Does anybody have suggestions on rental car companies that would be best for making this work?
by learningstill
Sun Apr 07, 2019 12:57 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Standard Deduction vs Itemizing - Experience this year
Replies: 52
Views: 7251

Re: Standard Deduction vs Itemizing - Experience this year

We have been aggressively paying down our mortgage in preparation for retirement. As a result our mortgage interest has been falling. For 2018 TurboTax selected the standard deduction. Just to check, I added a fictional $1000 charitable deduction to test the crossover point and our tax-owed valued did not change, so for us the choice wasn’t even very close. Now that our mortgage is paid off, I do not expect to be using itemized deductions in the future. You shouldn't need to run a TT test like that to understand tradeoff between itemized and standard deduction. If you enter all of your deductions, you should be able to see your total for itemized and compare that to the standard deduction (likely $24K since you said "we"). The di...
by learningstill
Thu Mar 07, 2019 2:08 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Company ESPP - share price drop after purchase
Replies: 32
Views: 2450

Re: Company ESPP - share price drop after purchase

Starfish wrote: Wed Mar 06, 2019 1:10 pm I always keep ESPP in pipeline for the period required for LTCG. Even then I use a limit order.
You may already know this but even if you wait the time period for LTCG, the amount of the discount that you received (10% in the OPs case) will still be taxed as W2 income when you sell. LTCG would only apply to any additional gains that the stock has beyond the FMV on the date of purchase assuming it goes up.
by learningstill
Thu Feb 21, 2019 11:00 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Job Offer - 24 Hours to Decide?
Replies: 100
Views: 9071

Re: Job Offer - 24 Hours to Decide?

Out of curiosity, did they extend the offer at the end of your interview or did they follow up later with it? If later, how long did it take?

I think it's reasonable for them to ask for an answer in 24 hours but I also think it's reasonable for you to request more time and I would expect them to give you a couple more days.
by learningstill
Tue Jan 29, 2019 7:22 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Auto Insurance and teenagers
Replies: 29
Views: 2926

Re: Auto Insurance and teenagers

We have an old car that is still safe but not worth very much any longer for the kids to drive. We only carry liability on it. The kids are assigned to this car (although not exclusively) by our insurance company. Although the rates went up as our kids started driving, it was not nearly as bad as I expected it to be. I'm at the point where I have thought about upgrading it but when I checked the increase in insurance rates was significant even after accounting for registration and maintenance on the old car. Not sure about your case but it might be worth investigating adding a low cost vehicle afford to do it.
by learningstill
Fri Jan 25, 2019 5:44 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Good camping blogs or forums?
Replies: 12
Views: 1409

Re: Good camping blogs or forums?

I like the forum on popupportal.com. It is geared toward people with popups but a lot of the discussions are good for car camping including parks to visit and favorite things to do while camping. Not going to find much about backpacking there, though.

LS
by learningstill
Sun Nov 25, 2018 10:47 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Good audio book for a family?
Replies: 33
Views: 2875

Re: Good audio book for a family?

I just wanted to thank everybody for all of the great suggestions. You've all provided a wide range of ideas that I will review with my kids and it looks like it will be a big challenge to narrow it down because there are so many good options. Thanks!
by learningstill
Mon Nov 19, 2018 12:58 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Good audio book for a family?
Replies: 33
Views: 2875

Good audio book for a family?

Hi,

I am planning a road trip with my son (19) and daughter (16) and was wondering if anybody had a recommendation for a good audio book that all might enjoy? Would be looking for fiction, probably something that is a good adventure or mystery to keep all interested and awake, especially the driver. :D I would probably want to keep the book length between 10-20 hours if possible and avoid anything that's already been made into a movie.

Thanks
by learningstill
Sat Nov 03, 2018 12:57 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Engineering school
Replies: 83
Views: 9722

Re: Engineering school

I am an electrical engineer who has worked for a number of chip companies in Colorado over the years. This area tends to draw a lot of engineers out of the midwest. Some of the brightest that I have had a chance to work with come from many of the different schools that have shown up in this thread including: University of Wisconsin Purdue University University of Illinois University of Cincinnati Case Western Reserve University Iowa State University Ohio State University University of Michigan University of Minnesota Penn State University (technically east) I'm sure there are many others but there is a natural tendency to return to recruit in the places where there has been success in the past. I think that the key is to make sure it is a s...
by learningstill
Fri Oct 12, 2018 6:34 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: your favorite ereader?
Replies: 28
Views: 2033

Re: your favorite ereader?

I also like the Kindle Paperwhite. Nice and light, holds its' charge for a long time and with the backlighting it works well when in the dark. It works especially well for me when traveling. I have not tried any others.
by learningstill
Wed May 30, 2018 1:47 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Making collegebound Kid Financially Savvy Questions..
Replies: 54
Views: 5250

Re: Making collegebound Kid Financially Savvy Questions..

I wanted to raise up one of the specific points again in this thread. What suggestions do others have today for teaching teens to track their spending (checking in this case) account? There was a mention of Mint and spreadsheets as options and I'm trying to figure out what others have done. When I was young, I had a paper route with a checking account and was taught to reconcile my account every month with a paper register. As an adult, I have used Quicken for reconciling my accounts and probably spend more time on this than it is practically worth. Today, tracking with a paper register doesn't seem like it makes sense although I still see some who do it that way. And Quicken is overkill for the expenses my kids have and for various reasons...
by learningstill
Sat Apr 14, 2018 9:37 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Deducting Prepaid Property Taxes
Replies: 13
Views: 2580

Re: Deducting Prepaid Property Taxes

I've been sitting on my finished taxes for the past week debating whether to deduct my prepaid property taxes or not. I'm in a situation similar to many where I requested and received an estimated payment amount from the county where I live and wrote a check that they accepted in December. The normal property tax notice came out about a month later and the assessment was identical to the payment that I had made. I'm curious how others who prepaid property taxes in 2017 have handled it as you have filed your income tax forms for the year. Did you deduct it or just leave it out? If you deducted it, do you consider it an audit risk or do you have information that makes you confident that this is valid and actually consistent with IRS regulatio...
by learningstill
Mon Mar 05, 2018 11:53 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Pickleball versus Tennis
Replies: 27
Views: 3739

Re: Pickleball versus Tennis

I agree with those that say find a way to design your sports court to be as versatile as possible. I haven't played PB but keep hearing about it and it seems that there are a lot of people who love it, as witnessed here. However, I think with kids aged 7-12 I would lean toward a tennis court if you thought they would be interested and would have a way to learn to play. Would be especially great if they have friends that could come over to play as well. I played tennis as a kid. Never got very good but had a lot of fun playing with my dad, siblings and friends through my teen years.
by learningstill
Tue Aug 08, 2017 8:28 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Making a Direct Offer to Purchase a Home
Replies: 28
Views: 3666

Re: Making a Direct Offer to Purchase a Home

Thanks again to all for the good feedback. I recognize that the gap between the price that they mentioned months ago and our assessment of the value of the home could be a big problem and sour the deal quickly. I thought that the number they mentioned sounded high to begin with and subsequent sales in the area seem to support my thinking. I don't want to use the real numbers so that is why I talk in terms of % but the high end of these numbers is $1M+ which is very high for this area and harder to find many comparables. I mentioned one before that sold for considerably lower than we would offer and there is another that is nicer and has been sitting on the market for 3 months at 85% of the mentioned price. Given what they are seeing with th...
by learningstill
Mon Aug 07, 2017 8:34 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Making a Direct Offer to Purchase a Home
Replies: 28
Views: 3666

Re: Making a Direct Offer to Purchase a Home

Thanks for everybody for all of the good feedback and ideas about how to approach this - that's a big help! There are a few points that I wanted to clarify: - We would definitely require a home inspection as part of this process. Our market is fairly hot but nothing like the bay area. Also, this is a home we like but not one we can't live without. We wouldn't want to take the risk of missing some obvious problems with the home by skipping a professional inspection. - The idea of selling and letting them lease back may be interesting but probably something we would let them raise in discussion. Our sense is that getting money early won't be a value to them - we understand that they already own another home that they would move to and we can ...
by learningstill
Thu Aug 03, 2017 8:32 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Making a Direct Offer to Purchase a Home
Replies: 28
Views: 3666

Making a Direct Offer to Purchase a Home

We found out a few months ago that a house in our area that we have always liked from the outside will be going on the market at some point this year. We did not know the owners but did make contact and they have graciously showed us the house multiple times. They are retired and will be downsizing and relocating with this move. They are flexible and aren't driven by a specific timeline. They have not put the house on the market as of today but have said that they expect to this fall. For us, this would be a significant upgrade in home (about 2-2.5X the value) that is within our financial means but not something that we need to do. Our current home meets all of our basic needs but the new home has some features that would be good including ...