Bogleheads.org

slalom

I realize this is a vague request but there is always a lot of discussion in the media and punditry about how the super wealthy can hire teams of lawyers to accumulate more money via avoiding taxes and shielding assets etc. but I never see any in-depth discussions about what it is exactly they’re do...

slalom

Not to be flip about the question posed in the subject line - the doubt about that might be that most Bay Area teachers make much less. A quick google says the average is about $70k.

slalom

Also, we transferred some shares from the company custodian to our discount brokerage and sold them from there. Should I just take whatever cost basis numbers I receive from them and proceed with them or do I need to check for any gotchas? If so, what kind of gotchas should I look for? Would apprec...

slalom

I buy-and-hold until ESPP shares are eligible for a qualified disposition. I recently sold a couple years' worth (first time with new company) and searched for information on 2019 tax consequences. I found this link the most useful of the ones I explored: https://financialgeekery.com/2012/05/15/the...

slalom

Admiral wrote: ↑
Tue Feb 26, 2019 12:33 pm
Current dollars, $120-150k in 8-10 years

Per month, high estimates:

Travel and misc: $5000

$5000/mo for travel and misc?

slalom

I saw a study a few days ago that estimated 10-11 million households will actually see a tax rate increase in 2018 versus 2017 because of the new tax structure. So it's not necessarily all due to withholding issues. This is mostly caused by the SALT $10k deduction limit, and so affects high earners...

slalom

I receive corrected 1099-Bs and such well after filing most years, but never update or amend my return. Two questions i guess.. 1. How often are corrections ‘worth’ bothering with? Theyve seemed minimal to me but maybe if you have huge transactions it can be significant.. 2. Should I feel guilty? Is...

slalom

While it’s true that some teachers are doing quite well, it really depends on the specifics. My mother taught public school in Connecticut for 17 years after being a SAHM until I was 7. She had a masters degree and credits beyond that, so was in a decent level on the pay scale. Then she had to move ...

slalom

If she got a call that fast, she's probably not technically terminated yet, which means she doesn't need to get re-hired?

That would kind of change things, IMO.

slalom

As a single, childless CA homeowner with a ~$750k-ish house, the SALT cap hugely affected me. I lost over $25,000 in deductions and have ended up owing over $6,000 in federal income tax (after usually getting a refund every year). I never re-did my W4 worksheet, assuming that things might come out ...

slalom

As a single, childless CA homeowner with a ~$750k-ish house, the SALT cap hugely affected me. I lost over $25,000 in deductions and have ended up owing over $6,000 in federal income tax (after usually getting a refund every year). I never re-did my W4 worksheet, assuming that things might come out r...

slalom

Rainier wrote: ↑
Sun Feb 03, 2019 1:26 pm
The CD version, which btw, was $10 less than downloading on Amazon.

Right, yes I use the online version which has more restricted tiers.

slalom

Rainier wrote: ↑
Sat Feb 02, 2019 6:25 am
Why did you pay for TurboTax Premier?

Deluxe doesn’t import investment account transactions. If you mean why I didn’t use some other service, I like TT. I also get a discount on it from TDA.

slalom

Bummer, thanks for the confirmation!

slalom

My account info does not work in TurboTax's import. I read the fine print after searching 'turbotax import' on the Fidelity site, and it says: "* Not all Fidelity account information can be imported directly into TurboTax. For example, information on institutional retirement plan accounts serviced b...

slalom

Here's what my company gives within the FAQ...from my understanding is calculated as below. We get a notice email that the max number shares that can be bought for a period is Y, which is the $25k divided by market price on period open. The IRS limits your ESPP purchases to a maximum market value o...

slalom

I have googled and read numerous articles that specifically try to answer this question in them but the details/wording never quite makes sense to me. Is the $25,000 limit on ESPP purchases a limit on: a) how much you can contribute to the plan b) how much you can buy based on the purchase price (in...

slalom

(These are all EoY and include home equity) 2001 - ~$0 - broke, just graduated college - no loans but wanted to be in the arts 2002 - ~$0 - making enough to get by, zero savings after rent etc 2003 - “ 2004 - “ 2005 - ~$? - got a job in tech, but it was a small company run by a miserly CEO. No reco...

slalom

I just read Mark Frost's Secret History of Twin Peaks. It was pretty chilling in parts and kind of fun reading, I have some complaints though. - The early stuff about Lewis & Clark, the fake documents were incredibly hard to read. - There's too many footnotes and they're in some sort of bright pink/...

slalom

The chances of your phone’s SMS messages being hacked or someone getting a SIM card that steals your phone number are so incredibly small you may as well not consider it just like you don’t plan your life around getting struck by lightning. Your identity being stolen on the other hand is increasingl...

slalom

BTW...an earlier poster who said dog walking....I just had lunch with my old business partner. He told me he knows a guy making $50K/year as a full time dog walker. #wth I know one as well, makes even more from boarding them. He could even afford to hire some additonal people. Tons of upper middle ...

slalom

SALT cap is more meaningful, but let’s do some quick math. For a family earning $300k (state income tax of $20k) and property tax of $20k the change means $30k in newly non-deductible income, which translates into only additional $10k of tax, not a game changer. I’m not even taking into account the...

slalom

I looked in the forum rules and maybe I missed it but I was curious if there was a rule against posting a link to an excel spreadsheet?

I wanted to post in personal finance and get some of the wizards here to double check my math on some things related to financial planning.

slalom

Thanks for all the info and advice so far! One thing to reiterate is that my home was built in 2012 to quite strong EQ codes and is a slab foundation. So I don’t think retrofitting or bolting is applicable/needed. My tentative plan was that I was leaning toward insurance, once it’s paid off (2026). ...

slalom

I thought i looked but apparently i failed. Sorry, this can get deleted if a mod can do so.

slalom

My home in the Bay Area is over 60% of the value of all my assets and it will be paid off in a handful of years. What are your feelings on whether getting insurance from the earthquake authority is a good idea? The house was built in 2012 - so built to modern codes - and is a medium size (1800 sq ft...

slalom

In case it helps anyone else - on Fidelity's platform, there IS an option to 'select specific lots', after which you can choose specific tax lots to apply to your order. I don't see anything like this on TD Ameritrade, at least by default, but Fidelity does have it which is my immediate concern. Tha...

slalom

jwkde wrote: ↑
Thu Jul 05, 2018 7:04 am
Fidelity Net Benefits - is that a retirement (401k) account? if so cost basis does not matter

The 401k is on that site too but no I am talking about the ESPP which is just deposited in a normal brokerage account.

Sounds like I need to look up Specific ID/Cost basis options.

slalom

I've done some looking around on the 2 trade platforms relevant for me (TDAmeritrade/ThinkOrSwim, and Fidelity NetBenefits) and can't really figure this out. If you have shares of the same stock, bought at different times (thus with a different cost basis) - how do you sell an 'old' share vs a 'new'...

slalom

Thank you all for all the great responses and ideas. I don't want to respond individually to them all and have the thread get chaotic, however I did want to address a couple things: Regarding a tax refund - Yes as I've gotten more bogleheady I have considered changing withholding to avoid a refund, ...

slalom

I'm at the point where my dividend yields are substantial (and growing) every year. Every platform I can, I re-invest dividends - including taxable accounts. The taxes required from them are starting to lower my tax refund every year to the point that soon I'll be owing at EoY.. I'm imagining into t...

slalom

I use the exact same spreadsheet. I always adjust the principal amount each time I make a payment. Do you use the snowflake method? I have never seemed to really understand how to use that. Any insights? I just found it easier to adjust the principal amount. Here's the one I meant - sorry if this i...

slalom

I use the exact same spreadsheet. I always adjust the principal amount each time I make a payment. Do you use the snowflake method? I have never seemed to really understand how to use that. Any insights? I just found it easier to adjust the principal amount. Actually, I apologize, I just realized t...

slalom

I’m now on my ‘pay it off’ path, age 38. Got a 30 year fixed in 2012 for $400k @ 3.75%. At $325k now.. I’ve increased my extra monthly mortgage payment every year and plan to do it into the future. I also pay a large bonus % at EoY. There is a great extra payments spreadsheet on Vertex42 that has ev...

slalom

You make some really good points! I’m still trying to decide.

I’m glad it’s possible to separate out the shares. I had never really thought about needing to do that before.

slalom

My company has an ESPP (15% discount with lookback, 6 month periods, 10% of salary max). My setup had been to be putting in the maximum of 10% then selling for the minimum ~18% gain immediately when I can. I know that's the recommended plan by basically everyone, but since I'm planning on staying he...

slalom

I recently moved my emergency fund savings account to one ($30,000). I'm such a poor boglehead that I had it in the non-money market savings version they offer, getting 0.6% or something, and never really checked up on it. If you'd really checked up on it you might have noticed that the (regular) s...

slalom

chevca wrote: ↑
Tue Feb 20, 2018 8:00 am
Nope, over $150k income/AGI there's no deductions allowed.

Say what? My AGI is over that and I just had about $35k in deductions including $11k mortgage interest.

Are you talking about rental property mortgages specifically or something? Not sure about those.

slalom

I recently moved my emergency fund savings account to one ($30,000). I'm such a poor boglehead that I had it in the non-money market savings version they offer, getting 0.6% or something, and never really checked up on it. Of course, the exact same account in the early 2000s was an ING savings accou...

slalom

$72k/year pension on top of all the rest is just rubbing it in!

Congrats on the house-to-be

slalom

We are still nearly 20% above the 52-week low.

slalom

You haven’t even said how much the lease costs (down + monthly), so it’s hard to say much. I question the need for such a high end vehicle that you will almost never drive. If you live in the city and don’t normally drive, having a fancy car you start feeling like you have to drive because you’re pa...

slalom

Mint is a flawless service in my opinion, except for the ‘Investments’ section which is garbage and useless. Most of the supposed shortcomings mentioned here and elsewhere are just people not knowing fully how to use it or not realizing it’s changed since a decade ago or whatever. The fact that it’s...

slalom

sounds like you have a more significant issue here- If I am reading correct it sounds like even before enrollment in ESPP your monthly income is just barely enough to cover fixed expenses (i.e. very little margin for savings). If so you might also want to think about what you can trim spending? I c...

slalom

One thing these 14-16 year break even calculations never seem to consider is that not only does it take that long to get back the income you lost by not taking SS, it doesn’t include the 14-16 years you could’ve compounded investment gains of various types. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of invest...

slalom

You could also think about storage units and cheap co-working office space to declutter and work elsewhere. It’s certainly cheaper and less of a commitment than a huge mortgage. If the condo is actually very very small, then it might be true that you will need more space. You could get a 3 BR townho...

slalom

You did the numbers yourself, yes you can technically afford it. However you're already in a really good position. You own a home in the peninsula at a low carrying cost, which is a position many people would literally kill to be in. You already have a second bedroom and the kids can bunk. A lot of ...

slalom

Hi all - I've read a bunch of threads about ESPP (mostly 'should I or shouldn't I?' threads) with all different sorts of situations. I'm fairly sure about my plan regarding participating my company's ESPP, which starts this April. I can invest up to 10% of my base salary, and it has a 15% discount a...

slalom

Juice3 wrote: ↑
Tue Jan 30, 2018 5:40 am
I *knew* it was bad when ...

MegaCorp CFO sent an email to all employees asking them reduce use of printers

Similar thing here - when the free vending machines were no longer free

slalom

Absolutely amazing posts in this thread! Hard to believe this is free

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