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Gretchen

In mid 2019, we gifted 30-ish son and DIL the down payment on their three-bedroom townhome. The condition was that they had to qualify on their own for a payment they felt they could handle. (Thanks to this forum for discouraging us from co-signing!) We had a special reason for doing this. Husband w...

Gretchen

I totally agree that extra coverage is a must. Husband had a three-year battle with colon cancer, which he ultimately lost. This involved surgery, two rounds of chemo, two exploratory surgeries to see if specialized treatments could work, two five-day hospitalizations for complications, and five wee...

Gretchen

Stock in a closely-held company. Neither of us was very sophisticated about finance. By the time I learned I shouldn't have left so much of our net worth in a single company, it had sold as a twenty-bagger. Bought a house in SoCal before the big run-up. Bought Apple at 12 in my IRA. Put the max into...

Gretchen

We would like to spend a week or so at the beach this fall staying in a hotel or rented house (no RV). But we are concerned about how to be virus safe. There is information online about this situation. However I would like to hear from folks who have vacationed safely and what they did to be safe. ...

Gretchen

I can see a retiree having some angst over this, everyone else...meh We're retired, ages 69 (me) and 72 (DH). Rather than having a specific AA in mind, I have five rules. 1) If the market is subjectively high, take all IRA distributions from stock. 2) Make all charitable donations as Qualified Char...

Gretchen

... This specific example is intended to illustrate the general (theoretical) question about revisiting Roth conversion strategies to take advantage of a large market drop. Most of us don't plan such drops, but we realize that they do happen and assume that a recovery will follow during the next ye...

Gretchen

We are trying to decumulate in retirement, but the market is currently outrunning our spending.

Gretchen

I'm very happy that we got a HELOC right before I retired in late 2014. DH had retired several years prior. Our cash flow requirements are averaging around 4% of our portfolio, but our needs are lumpy. When we're right below a tax bracket bump, it's often cheaper to take a one-year fixed on the HELO...

Gretchen

Low-tech: I got a cast-iron skillet a year ago and I love it. Our old nonstick skillets are now just for unusually complex meals that need more than one. This doesn't happen often. We've always had manual thermostats, one each upstairs and down, mostly off. We have a very well-insulated house in SoC...

Gretchen

HoosierJim wrote: ↑Fri Jan 31, 2020 11:03 am Just as some people on this site, we drive our cars until they don't move anymore so the asset value depends on how much gas is in the tank.

We had a car that was so old that it had a negative value, even with a full tank. My goal is to get there with the current vehicles as well.

Gretchen

My wife too, although she bought it herself. I would feel the same way as you if she were watching cat videos, but she's reading the same books she used to read on paper. Now she can get any book she wants much quicker than paper books from the library, change the font and look up the definition of...

Gretchen

First, the obvious ones. 1. Marry someone who makes you happy. If you have any taste for dramatic, conflict-filled romance, get it out of the way early. Then marry someone who makes you happy. 2. Do work you enjoy and are good at. You are going to spend a lot of time doing it. 3. If you want childre...

Gretchen

dodecahedron wrote: ↑Sat Dec 28, 2019 10:28 am
Gretchen wrote: ↑Sat Dec 28, 2019 10:16 am Did the QCD age go up to 72 along with the RMD age?
No. Or, as the Kitces blog puts it, "An emphatic no." QCD age remains 70 1/2.

Thanks for this. I'd been hunting around and couldn't find the answer.

Gretchen

We have been using DH's IRA to make Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCD) for the full RMD amount since he turned 70 1/2. We have several organizations we want to support. I intended to switch to using my own IRA for QCDs when I turn 70 1/2 in a couple of years. This doesn't matter for our financ...

Gretchen

We've had great luck with https://www.cartalk.com/mechanics-files. We found them when a wheel bearing died on an out-of-town trip. Per Cartalk, there was a top-rated shop a few miles from our hotel. The owner told us that Friday was his usual day off, leaving his adult sons in charge and a bit under...

Gretchen

Thanks to everyone who provided input. Here's an update. -- They found a place where they have qualified for the mortgage on their current income without a co-signer. It's a townhome under construction, expecting to be complete in early summer. They've had a mid-construction walkthrough and it's on ...

Gretchen

DH and I had a good talk with son and DIL yesterday. We figured out what amount they might qualify for on their own, assuming a bank would approve 3x, and that was actually more than they are comfortable paying. So they have no desire to add our income to qualify them for an even more unreasonable m...

Gretchen

Thanks, everyone, for the helpful replies. Re family tradition: my grandfather co-signed for my dad's mortgage, and then he and my aunt moved in upstairs. My dad "lent" me money toward the down payment and then told me not to bother repaying him. Re why we helped them so far: we co-signed ...

Gretchen

We are likely to help our son (31) and DIL (28) buy their first house by co-signing so our income helps them qualify. I would be interested to hear what experience others have had. Better still, if there's a related thread I didn't find, I'd appreciate a pointer. Details: -- We can afford to help, a...

Gretchen

When we were working, we each maxed out our 401(K) and then threw a few extra dollars at the mortgage every month. We have an old ARM with four years to go, taken out before they figured out how to make them abusive. Instead of shortening the duration as with a fixed-rate mortgage, extra payments ca...

Gretchen

The first time we tried to rent through AirBnB, one of the prospective hosts contacted us to say she was sorry, but as a parent with a child at home she just couldn't take a chance on new guests without a track record. She was very gracious and we completely understood and agreed. We found a couple ...

Gretchen

We were better off than many. We were about 60; DH was retired; and I was working at the peak of my earning power. I had held stock in my previous company, which sold in 2006 near the peak of the market, and put the proceeds in Vanguard. Money markets were paying decently at that time, and I didn't ...

Gretchen

We're still in the duffel stage. I have two small ones that work as carryons, and two larger ones that can be checked. DH has an LL Bean carryon that he likes for T-shirts, socks, and underwear. We may be looking at soft-sided luggage with wheels once age catches up with us, but we aren't quite ther...

Gretchen

DH turned 70 1/2 this year, and I submitted the paperwork to his Fidelity IRA for the year's major charitable distributions just a few days later. Everything went off without a hitch. The only wrinkle would have been if we'd wanted to put more than $10K on a single form (we didn't). At that point, F...

Gretchen

I had an hour-long commute for over 20 years. If I could change one thing about how I've lived my life, I'd change jobs and get rid of the commute.

Also, don't think of housing costs alone. Calculate housing plus transportation when you add another car and commuting expenses.

Gretchen

[/quote] Personally, I'd like to be involved at a close level. Otherwise, I'd rather just pay the taxes. Not to knock charities, but there are quite some foul shenanigans that go on in the 501 world. Unless I can guarantee some level of transparency and oversight, it's not for me. Outsourcing charit...

Gretchen

Check your state's taxation strategy so you get all the shocks out of the way at once. Our state (CA) does not tax SS, so those dollars are worth more to us than RMDs.

Gretchen

If you expect to want to make any charitable donations ever, check with your tax adviser on putting some of the new cash into a Charitable Gift Fund at Fidelity or Vanguard right up front. We chose Fidelity because of the lower startup cost, but you are in the league where Vanguard is an attractive ...

Gretchen

1. Two wage earners if it works for your family situation. It did for us, but it doesn't for many. 2. Fund your tax-deferred savings vehicles as early as possible. Then move toward maxing them out. 3. Buy a reasonable home. It's forced savings. 4. Have aging parents live with you if it works for you...

Gretchen

We have Medicare and Anthem MedBlue, thank goodness. DH was diagnosed with colon cancer last year, and the combination of surgery plus chemotherapy totaled about $300K. Our share was less than $5K. His checkups so far have been fine, so he's back to spending money on camera equipment. He was actuall...

Gretchen

I got really enchanted with the concept of the Class B motorhome after reading Live Your Road Trip Dream several years ago. I highly recommend the book for the huge amount of practical detail the authors include, including a detailed budget vs. actual for their year on the road. Enchantment met real...

Gretchen

Thank you for this! I'm taking spousal while deferring my own. Because I'm already receiving a benefit against my husband's earnings, ssa.gov doesn't let me see my own benefit options. Your tool let me evaluate whether to take my own yet or let it continue to grow. Since I was the higher earner, opt...

Gretchen

DH is 70 and I'm 67. I take care of money and investments, including tax planning. I found it helpful to look at our expected tax brackets at several points: retired pre-SS (living only on investments), retired with DH's SS plus my spousal SS, retired with DH's SS plus my spousal SS and DH's RMD, an...

Gretchen

Vanguard Prime Money Market (VMMXX) is currently yielding 2.15%. Federal (VMFXX) and Treasury (VUSXX) Money Markets are yielding 2.03%. Vanguard's tax-free municipal money market funds are inching up toward 1.5%. Any of these would be a good home for your emergency fund. You'll make a little somethi...

Gretchen

The other day, I get a message from a VP asking if I would be interested in helping them out on a project. I am comfortably retired and don't need the extra money, so anything I earn would be "fun money". This must be going around! Three days ago, I got a call from my previous employer, a...

Gretchen

We just passed our 2001 Jeep TJ on to our son with 260,000 miles on the clock. The new one is more of a toy. We have a Fiat 500 we use for everyday driving. DH started down the Jeep trail with a 1974 CJ-6, which we eventually sold for peanuts to an aficionado after it stopped working. After being J...

Gretchen

See if your electric provider has a time-of-day plan that could benefit you. We switched from flat rate per KW to time of day. In summer, electricity costs twice as much per KW from 2-8PM as it does at night (11PM-8AM), with a lesser saving from 8-11PM and 8AM-2PM. I run the dishwasher and the cloth...

Gretchen

I've always paid cash for cars but was (incorrectly) thinking I might start tapping into my retirement savings (I'm 63 and retired) so I might save some money on taxes by taking the 0% loan and spreading the withdrawals over several years. We've taken a car loan for the same reason, to avoid tax br...

Gretchen

I'm so sorry for your loss. I found this forum a dozen years ago when my stock in my previous (privately-held) company suddenly sold for double the most I ever expected. Thanks to this forum, I invested with Vanguard, and we are now retired in comfort. Thank you for sharing your situation. You have ...

Gretchen

I pretty much maxed out contributions to retirement accounts as soon as I had access, over the course of two rather long-term jobs. The account I started in my early 30's is worth almost 4x the account I started at age 50 after a job change, despite increasing contributions as my salary rose. DH sta...

Gretchen

Owning and operating inherited rental properties with family members. Came into the situation with family issues, effort in management was one-sided, and the situation ended up in a court-ordered partition by sale during a time period between the financial crisis and recovery that was sub optimal. ...

Gretchen

Upon retirement, I rolled over my Schwab 401(K) to Vanguard. I called Vanguard and set up an empty Rollover IRA to receive the funds. Schwab had to liquidate my funds and physically send me a check (despite agreeing to do an electronic transfer). I sent the check to Vanguard by registered or certifi...

Gretchen

We both retired on timing not of our choosing, but fortunately we were ready anyway. DH was in the youth-oriented film business, and got eased out around age 60. He did some consulting the first year, and never worked for pay since. Now at age 70, he is now so busy with his photography that he wakes...

Gretchen

If you have only a week, I'd vote for Hawaii. Take into account not only travel time, but also jet lag. Costa Rica is also doable. It's lovely and safe. We went nonstop LAX-San Jose, Costa Rica a few years ago. Off topic, we happened to introduce our son to a young American teacher on that trip, and...

Gretchen

We took Social Security last year when DH was a few months past 69 and I turned 66. He took his own, and I took spousal. I was the higher lifetime earner, so I'm waiting till 70. We both have parents and grandparents who lived past 90, so we need the higher benefit as longevity insurance. Strictly s...

Gretchen

Yes, absolutely, do get a Medicare supplement. We have Anthem MedBlue Select HMO at a cost of $0 per month. I think they accomplish that by being the front end authorizer to Medicare. Anthem is pretty aggressive about reminding us about preventive care, which probably keeps short-term Medicare dolla...

Gretchen

I'm an outlier, apparently. We've had good service from Wells Fargo since they bought our previous bank some time in the 80's or early 90's. There are no service charges on anything. In addition to checking and two credit cards, we have a HELOC that we got with 0 fees, 0 points, and 0 closing costs ...

Gretchen

DH is retired with TIAA/CREF. If you are seeing your contributions vs account current value, yes, current value should be a lot more. DH has about 6x his original contributions. If you are showing as not completely vested after all these years, there may be an administrative mistake that you should ...

Gretchen

We always pay the statement balance by the due date, except on a 0% interest card. On the 0% interest card, I pay double the minimum payment just because, and then pay it off completely in the couple of months before the 0% expires. We're currently on our third 0% card, and we use the added flexibil...

Gretchen

We paid for undergraduate, the same as my parents did for me. He's our only child and we were in our peak earning years, so it wasn't as hard as I'd originally expected. DS briefly flirted with the idea of graduate school in music, but he got sick of school and went on the road performing right afte...

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