Bogleheads.org

I'd assume you'd align the claim with how the provider gave it to you... But that depends on how your plan works...

The ones I've used let you submit multiple claims on the same form - especially if from the same provider. You'd likely have 1 line for the before/after school care - with a "start" and "end" date - and an amount. And another line for "summer camp".

As for the claim being for more - that's expected. Most plans will simply adjust the claim to the max amount available, so it would be capped at $2750. But IMHO its far "cleaner" to just submit the entire amount (as that's what's on the form/receipt from the provider) and let the plan administrator deal with it.

The way I read that:

• You received 45 shares @ $136.62
• Sold 25 shares to cover taxes (not shown but assumed @ $136.62 - vest price)
• Sold remaining 20 shares @ $128.56 (total loss of $161 [rounded])

Seems like that tracks...

Accounts in kids names would have any taxes belong to the kids, which federally, so long as the taxable amount is less than the "kiddie tax" would be tax free. For the banking account, make sure to pay attention to the interest rate. Most "kids" accounts have horrible rates... Last I looked around (years ago), the best "kids" rate was at Capitol One. When they are old enough, you can look at a "teen" account at Fidelity. Can then use their money market funds for the "best" rates (IMHO) for teens, as well as invest funds. Between now and then, you don't have a ton of options... You can leave it money on a low yield "kids" account. You can buy I Bonds for the kids (it will be a "...

Some people worry that a 529 will decrease financial aide Now this typically is loans but without a lot more details I’d be hesitant to do this in secret The 529 belongs to the account owner. If the owner isn't the parent/guardian or student, the existence of the account will NOT impact financial aid. However, once the student (beneficiary) starts drawing from the 529, that is considered income. As such, that can impact financial aid. For that reason, some planners recommend not making 529 withdrawals until junior year, after the FAFSA for the senior year has already been submitted. :sharebeer OK, so that explains why I've seen it noted that a 529 not "owned" by the parents would be "better" from a financial aid perspec...

For #1, the numbers seem reasonable to me. Your house price is less than 2x of your expected annual income. And monthly costs seem FAR less than 1/3 of gross. My only caution is the Zillow estimate may not be accurate for utilities, insurance, and other housing costs. As an example, it's generally recommended to plan on 1% of house value per year as "maintenance" costs - invariably something needs to be repaired/replaced. Just go in with eyes wide open. For #2, as a consideration, you may want to think about how things would look on a single income. Between the potential for layoffs or other periods of unemployment, plus the uncertainty of how kids in 2-5+ years could change things, if you can find a home you like that you could c...

We meet the criteria, but don't do anything beyond BH approved investments. It's mostly a marketing scam to convince investors they're special. +1. +2. KlangFool +1 Although I guess "credit" to them for spinning an SEC requirement that restricts them from offering these types of investments to non-accredited investors as a "positive" thing for accredited investors. OP - years ago I found BH while I was trying to figure out if the Financial Advisor that was trying to get me to be their client was any good. What I learned here was "by the time you learn how to determine if someone is a good Financial Advisor, you've probably learned enough to not need a Financial Advisor." I'd argue that applies to these types o...

If anyone is interested, this was posted in another thread, but it appears that HMBradley's "partner" bank - NYCB - just bought part of Signature Bank.

erp wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 9:02 pm The FDIC got New York Community Bank to buy most of Signature Bank.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/york-com ... 59498.html

As another example of "it depends", when you "pull" money into a brokerage like Fidelity, they generally make those funds "available to trade" very quickly (if not immediately). Meaning you can place your "buy" order with those funds before they clear and land in your account. If you "pushed" those funds instead, you'll be waiting until everything clears (usually 2 business days) before you can place your "buy" order. The flip side of that is money pushed to Fidelity is immediately available to withdraw. Money pulled by Fidelity, while available to trade, is not available to withdraw until they're sure it won't bounce. An ACH pull is just like depositing a check; they don't know i...

To each his/her own. Whatever works for you. Couldn't agree more! And thanks for everything you've done, especially helping turn so many of us on to I Bonds! 4. I wonder why, when folks get paper I Bonds from their tax returns, many (most) seem to feel the need to immediately send them off to TD to be added to their electronic bonds. I think that holding on to those paper I Bonds offers a lot of security and flexibility for when money is needed immediately in an emergency and TD is down for maintenance or other reasons, or they are locked out for some silly reason, such as hitting the backspace key. In a word, simplicity . But I'll come back to that... For many of us $5k isn't adequate. In our case, we are buying $45k of I Bonds annually (...

Desired International allocation: 20% of stocks. [Although remain unsure and open to suggestions] One final thought... There is no "right or wrong" answer on international stocks... You'll find people who will advocate everything from: 0% 10% - 20% "market weight" (which I think is currently around 50%) "over weight" (aka > 50%) People like Jack Bogle argue that you don't "need" international. His example would be many of the US companies found in a "total stock market" fund are themselves fairly internationally diversified. For example, Apple (world's largest stock by market value) gets roughly 60% of its revenue from outside the US. Although he wasn't "against" owning internatio...

I haven t really noticed, but I wonder if the people on this thread who so easily dismiss the savings of 500-1000 dollars a month in state income taxes (or more) are also on the threads that talk about their savings with the use of their credit cards. 🤔 The difference is that there are almost no other factors involved with credit card rebates: you either get them or don't while the products and services you buy remain identical. There are no quality of life differences between credit cards. The cards more or less imply "all other factors being equal", while the choice of where to live doesn't. This post perhaps should have been titled "Should I move to a location with a lower cost of living", whether in the same or diff...

5. Anything catching your eye as an opportunity? Here's my thoughts: 1) "Fix" Roth Roth IRA (5.0%) Merrill Edge 1.4 VTI (.03% expense ratio) Betterment at 75/25% 3.6% (.4% PLUS underlying ETFs) Get out of Betterment - transfer those funds to your Merrill Roth, and invest 100% in VTI. Per the "3-fund" note above, investing doesn't need to be complex. And IMHO Betterment is doing nothing for you other than adding to your costs and complexity, and you don't even get a theoretical benefit of "tax loss harvesting" as this is a Roth (no harvesting possible). And if you follow https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Tax-efficient_fund_placement, your Roth should be 100% in equities (no bonds/cash) as you want to that tax-fre...

Questions: My goal is to simplify by holding a three fund portfolio --Total US Stock and Total International in my Taxable Accounts and Total Bond in Tax Advantaged Accounts. I'd also like to consolidate my accounts. 1. I'm unclear of the pro-rata rule and how that may affect my taxes. I did a backdoor Roth IRA this year and last year. What are the implications of transferring my former company 401ks to an IRA? Basically, if you have a "traditional" IRA - you more-or-less "lose" your ability to do backdoor Roth's. That pro-rata rule will make the taxes outweigh the benefits... As such, you are much better off if you can roll your "old" 401k(s) into your "current" 401k - assuming it has reasonable fun...

Welcome to the forum!!!

Great job on your first post!

For clarity, is this a former 401k?

savingforadream wrote: ↑Fri Mar 17, 2023 7:22 pm Former Company B (10.3%)
Vanguard Developed Market VTMGX 8.2% (.07% expense ratio)
Western Asset Core Bond Fund WATFX 2.1% (expense ratio.46%) (Need to get out of this one presumably)

And what are your annual expenses (ideally inclusive of taxes)? IMHO that's the most important piece of data, as your expenses drive what you need to save.

I guess mine is maybe a "modified hub"... From a "hub" perspective - I use a Fidelity CMA - with a nominal amount of $ (mostly to maintain a MM fund that pays higher than a core position). It is the only account with an outside link - either in or out. The idea being if I need to move money from institution A to institution B - it "flows" through the "hub". As an example, the "hub" account is the only linked account to my HMBradley account (which used to be my "savings" account, although most of that has been moved into Fidelity and into T-Bills - but not relevant for this example). [Most years] We'd accumulate "cash" into HMBradley account, such that by end of year we'd ...

The idea I like the least is "waiting" for the child's SSN. My concern is that it will take an indeterminate amount of time for them to get and share that with us. Some might take years (if ever). And I don't want the parents to get in the way of something we are trying to do for their children (which they'll probably care more about as the kids get older - but by then they'd have lost years of growth). If the parents do not want you to do this, you should not try to do it. If the parents agree to help you do this, they will probably have the baby's SSN within two weeks. For our grandchildren, the hospitals submitted all the necessary info to the SSA and the parents had the new SSN very quickly. Obviously, if the parents don't wa...

So, the idea of "setting aside" that money as needed ($3k at birth) shouldn't be hard to deal with, especially if it can grow tax-free (and require no extra overhead other than setup effort) is appealing to us. I actually really like this idea. You can set it up, and then it compounds without any tax consequences. I don't think you need to worry about the generation-skipping transfer tax as the annual and lifetime gift tax exemption can deal with that. Also the double beneficiary change would work. I believe the rules for changing account owners vary by state. Some allow it, and others require special circumstances such as death or divorce. You might pick a plan that would allow you to transfer ownership to your niece/nephew if n...

Jovby wrote: ↑Fri Mar 17, 2023 10:47 am

SnowBog wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 8:08 pm
Edited to add: I had forgotten that with SECURE 2.0's 529 changes, if the 529 is unused/unneeded - it could be used to fund contributions to a Roth IRA when the kids start working, up to $35k - which is likely what we'll remain under.

529 plans can also be transferred to ABLE accounts for those with disabilities, in the unfortunate situation that that applies.

Obviously, would prefer a happy healthy grand-niece/-nephew - but it's good to know that option exists if needed!

I don't claim to be an expert... Been many years since I've dealt with this - and never in a non-profit setting... But since no one else has replied yet, figured I'd share my two cents... Used to be the "recommendation" was to not share compensation details until they make you an offer . The thinking being you might inadvertently "request" less than they were willing to pay, and thus you end up getting less. By making them make you an "offer", you can "react" to it - and if you feel its low - you can try to negotiate accordingly. Having said that, it's rare - or at least it was for me - that it ever worked this way... They didn't want to waste time if our expectations weren't aligned. Taking your next...

So how do you determine how much money to spend since dollar might be needed for something in the future. Just because you don't agree with my approach doesn't mean it is flawed. If you feel it is more correct I can restate it in excess of my planned needs. I don't understand the question. Admittedly, I don't either... My initial read of the OP is "I have too much money"... But then this quote through me off... Beyond spending there is still investing. As the above post seems to imply "new money"... (can't imagine why one would stress about investing "old" money - as its already invested - unless I'm missing something...) If true, then presumably the "money is coming in quicker than going out"... Unc...

As a conservative estimate, I'd plan on a full week... I'd rather ensure the funds are there and avoid issues pulling things too close... But in reality, you are talking 2 days to settle (as you noted), and then assuming you are sending to bank via ACH probably another 2 days for that transfer to clear and settle in your checking account. Some banks/transfers have "cut off" times where they might process the transfer "overnight"/"next day" - hence potentially an extra day. Thus, "normally" 4 - 5 "business days." But, sometimes it might be less... Some banks have "same day" transfers... Some might be faster "pulling" the funds than "pushing" them (or vice versa)....

I've never understood moving to save income taxes by the exact people who make so much the taxes can't impact their lifestyle. Live wherever you like! You can afford it. For many people getting taxed at around 50 percent of income, How does that NOT impact their lifestyle? If I lived in a lower tax state, I could work less, retire sooner, and retire with less... That seems like an impact to me... In my job at least, it gets progressively harder to make more money, only to see less and less of that money land in my account, so much so that I'll start to work less when it's clear that the effort (post tax) doesn't justify the rewards. When the combined tax rate is > 50%, the government is making more money than I am even though I'm the one w...

Another wrinkle: my understanding is that working remotely in a state without income taxes doesn't necessarily get you out of paying state income tax. New York, for example, will tax you on your NY source income even if you are a non-resident, unless your employer has established a bona fide office at your telecommuting location. I work for an NY employer, and as long as I do that, I think I'm stuck paying NY income tax. https://www.tax.ny.gov/pit/file/nonresident-faqs.htm#nystax It varies by state... The same even applies to things like having a meeting/training/traveling in a state - even if that isn't a "billable" thing (aka no actual revenue generation). My employer started tracking travel a while ago, and they try to track a...

I've never understood moving to save income taxes by the exact people who make so much the taxes can't impact their lifestyle. Live wherever you like! You can afford it. For many people getting taxed at around 50 percent of income, How does that NOT impact their lifestyle? If I lived in a lower tax state, I could work less, retire sooner, and retire with less... That seems like an impact to me... In my job at least, it gets progressively harder to make more money, only to see less and less of that money land in my account, so much so that I'll start to work less when it's clear that the effort (post tax) doesn't justify the rewards. When the combined tax rate is > 50%, the government is making more money than I am even though I'm the one w...

I'm just wondering if I'm the only one who bought I Bonds last year but has sort of lost enthusiasm for them. It seems like it is going to result in a more complicated portfolio and the resulting more complicated management, especially as I get older and/or my wife has to take over the finances. :?: IMHO most people who bought last year - especially those "lured in" by the high interest rates back then - where probably chasing yield... And as rates go down, they'll see other - simpler - things with better yield, and thus decide to move on. So no, you aren't alone... I was buying I Bonds before their rates skyrocketed, as they (along with EE Bonds) fit nicely into our overall plans. Candidly, I don't care what the I Bonds rate is ...

I've never understood moving to save income taxes by the exact people who make so much the taxes can't impact their lifestyle. Live wherever you like! You can afford it. For many people getting taxed at around 50 percent of income, How does that NOT impact their lifestyle? If I lived in a lower tax state, I could work less, retire sooner, and retire with less... That seems like an impact to me... In my job at least, it gets progressively harder to make more money, only to see less and less of that money land in my account, so much so that I'll start to work less when it's clear that the effort (post tax) doesn't justify the rewards. When the combined tax rate is > 50%, the government is making more money than I am even though I'm the one w...

What you should probably do in your research is find out how the state funds things. I'm next door to New Hampshire, in Massachusetts. Now, Mass tends to have higher house prices but some New Hampshire towns can have property tax rates much higher. What other taxes will you pay? For similar services, in a state with no income tax, how are those services being paid for? Unless you look at all taxes and fees, you won't really know if you're saving money. Totally agree on Point #1. Over the past few years, retired neighbors have moved - one couple to NH and one couple to FLA. "Because there's no income tax!," they crowed. But they're both living on fairly modest retirement incomes and would probably not pay much tax in MA anyway! Th...

As another example of "it depends", when you "pull" money into a brokerage like Fidelity, they generally make those funds "available to trade" very quickly (if not immediately). Meaning you can place your "buy" order with those funds before they clear and land in your account. If you "pushed" those funds instead, you'll be waiting until everything clears (usually 2 business days) before you can place your "buy" order. And if you regularly make the same investments ($ and schedule), again brokerages like Fidelity let you setup an "automatic investment". You just set the amount, frequency, and source of funds, and it will "pull" the funds and invest them as you de...

My read is "new money"...

Rebalancing with "existing money" should have no such limit.

jalm1 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 10:46 pm

SnowBog wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 10:31 pm

jalm1 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 10:29 pm So i guess even being in the top (or nearly) marginal tax bracket, FZDXX is still the best option for holding cash?

Depends on if you have state taxes... If so, FDLXX might end up being better...

But FZEXX (best "tax-free" option) doesn't have a high enough rate, even in the top federal tax bracket. So, if you don't have state taxes, then FZDXX is likely the best option [rate wise].

No state tax. Was hoping to avoid federal tax, but even the TEY on FZEXX is significantly lower than FDLXX.

Yep - last I checked (around 3/9) - even at the 35% bracket, TEY on FZEXX was 3.6% vs. 4.46% on FZDXX... No comparison...

Celia, I am confuse now, I am not quite understanding your explanation at all. Sorry. It is beyond my old brain. May I ask again. This is the bonus for 2023. I put it in my checking already. I plan to open a Vanguard Roth account for 2023 and do the Roth contribution , put money in that account. Since this is the only income for 2023, I am planning to put $7500 in the Roth IRA and fill out the 8606. Is this the right process. I want to make sure I do the right thing. Worry about doing it wrong and get penalized from the IRS. - I am not doing any conversion with this $.Nothing to do with 2022 anymore. Already file the tax. I asked my tax man . He is not CPA. He did not give me the for sure answer. I decided to post the question to ask all t...

jalm1 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 10:29 pm So i guess even being in the top (or nearly) marginal tax bracket, FZDXX is still the best option for holding cash?

Depends on if you have state taxes... If so, FDLXX might end up being better...

But FZEXX (best "tax-free" option) doesn't have a high enough rate, even in the top federal tax bracket. So, if you don't have state taxes, then FZDXX is likely the best option [rate wise].

the kids aren't born yet? Not yet - but the first one is on the way! (Hopefully others are far away - as again the youngest niece/nephew is still in high school...) what i would do instead is make a decision in my own head to pay for college, which i will tell them at the right time if i am alive, and it would be a written in my will or trust in case i am not there. For clarity, we aren't intending to pay for all of college... Just "help"... Again, thinking of something like $3k at birth . In theory, that might pay 1-year of in-state tuition (obviously depends on changes to college costs over the next 20+ years). So, the idea of "setting aside" that money as needed ($3k at birth) shouldn't be hard to deal with, especial...

No apologies necessary - I'm looking for feedback! If you set up the account and put yourself as the beneficiary initially you can always change it later. As I understand it - this won't work - as the child of my niece/nephew is "outside" the IRS's definition of family. Or more specifically, the only way setting myself as beneficiary would work is if: We give-up any tax-advantages of 529 (as they are "outside" the tax-free transfer) We switch the beneficiary twice , potentially to niece/nephew and then again to their child... At least that's how I understand: https://www.savingforcollege.com/article/who-is-a-member-of-the-family-of-a-529-plan-beneficiary . As the "beneficiary", I can change to my niece/nephew b...

For clarity - definitely would not be done in secret... The parents (niece/nephew) would know, and they'd need to provide us an SSN eventually (ideally the child's - so they would be listed as beneficiaries). Currently the age range of niece/nephew's is between 16 - 30. Baring something unexpected, I'm expecting most of them to be "working class" with mostly "blue collar" jobs. The first one (and spouse) might be on a path to "middle class", one is college educated with reasonable career prospects ahead of them - the other didn't finish college but has worked their way up in their industry. The others - too early to tell, but they don't seem on a track for a highly educated/highly compensated role. Thus, expect...

Darth Xanadu wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 8:29 pm Wouldn't the simpler solution be increase the annual limit to $15k and eliminate this goofy tax refund nonsense?

We have "goofy" rules like this due to politicians... I feel "simpler" and "politics" don't belong in the same sentence...

If it weren't for that... I'd completely agree!

HueyLD wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 8:30 pm The granting of transaction rights stops after primary owner dies, just like a POA.

The secondary owner has to contact TD in order to transfer or redeem the bonds.

And how efficient is the government in "knowing" they've died, preventing the survivor from using their "transaction" rights, and thus forcing them to fill out the paperwork required?

Maybe I'm not giving them enough credit... But again, my working theory is you probably have months (if not years) before they'd "force" the survivor to take action.

Not everyone wants electronic savings bonds. There are still those who prefer paper I bonds because paper ones allow joint ownership, meaning that one joint owner can redeem the bonds without the consent of the other. This comes in handy when one passes away. Electronic savings bonds do not allow joint ownership. Rather, they have primary owner WITH secondary owner and the secondary owner is a de facto beneficiary with no rights to the account except when specifically granted by the primary owner. And upon the demise of the primary owner, the secondary owner has to go through required steps to claim the money, just like a beneficiary. I might be splitting hairs - but this isn't entirely true... Or more specifically, if the account owner gr...

Freefun wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 7:07 am I received a 5K I-bond refund (one paper bill) 25 days after filing taxes and about 17 days after I received remainder of my refund at my bank.

All in all, much faster than last year.

Like a previous poster said it's bewildering that they must send any paper at all just so you can mail it back to TD. It would be really funny if the person sending these out sits right next to the person receiving them.

Well - to their credit - its "improving"... Years past, they mailed something like:

• 4 - $1000
• 1 - $500
• 1 - $200
• 6 - $50

All in separate envelopes! I don't want to imagine the cost to print, stuff, and mail all 12 envelopes... At least they seem to finally be done to a single envelope.

Curious if anyone has setup something like this? How did it go? My initial thought is to setup the 529 with us as owners and our niece/nephew as beneficiary (and the Successor Participant should we die first) and then later change to their child (once they have SSN), or directly to their child (but have to wait until they have SSN). The advantage I see with this is there is "no dependencies" on niece/nephew (other than sharing SSN with us - theirs's or child's) and I believe this setup wouldn't count against them as much with financial aid as an account they "own" would. For at least 1 of my niece/nephew's, I know they'll never get around to setting up a 529 on their own (hopefully they'll mature before they have kids). ...

I'm now thinking instead to just use the CMA account to do all deposits and auto-pays, buy FDLXX in CMA, and auto-sell FDLXX within the CMA for any debits and auto-pays. I'll basically only use the brokerage as a regular brokerage and not have it touch any day-to-day transactions. This is what I do and it has worked well for me. Any dividends and interest from the brokerage account also gets moved over to the CMA for spending. +1 You'll still have the "buy" and "sell" of your MM as "investments" - but those basically cancel out. But that check that clears, the ATM withdrawal, the autopay (ACH) of your credit card - those all show up as "regular" transactions. The other relevant piece is Mint's "...

I have read a few subreddits on this Index Fund Bubble, including comments that are both pro bubble May be a bubble to not a bubble ..yet. I have also read many investment gurus pouncing on this opportunity to say yea it’s real and therefore look else where, I.e. we know, come to us. I still remain in the BH camp of broad market low cost index approach. Having said that, because I lack much background in index fund workings, I have one question Currently if you buy Total Stock Market Fund and suppose 5 out of the top 10 go bust, would the impact of this be equivalent to the total sum of percentages these companies were at when you bought the fund. So say eqch of those 5 were 5% weight in the fund, so the index would drop by 25%? These are ...

In short, we don't know - the future is unknowable... But, they way I think about it - usually when one company fails - 1 or more are created to replace them. Or more likely the larger companies and/or sectors will continue to change over time - as they always have. This video shows the changes in the largest companies by market cap over the past 40 or so years: https://youtu.be/Z93yWXb9Tb0 Which to some extent means that money flows from company A to company B... Which to my simple mind is like taking money from your right pocket to put in your left pocket. Another consideration might be money flowing out of equities all together - so called "flight to safety". Meaning money flowing from "total stock" to "total bo...

In short, we don't know - the future is unknowable... But, the way I think about it - usually when one company fails - 1 or more are created to replace them. Or more likely the larger companies and/or sectors will continue to change over time - as they always have. This video shows the changes in the largest companies by market cap over the past 40 or so years: https://youtu.be/Z93yWXb9Tb0 Which to some extent means that money flows from company A to company B... Which to my simple mind is like taking money from your right pocket to put in your left pocket. Another consideration might be money flowing out of equities all together - so called "flight to safety". Meaning money flowing from "total stock" to "total bond...

While deposit insurance seems effective under $250K, it will still be inconvenient, if I cannot access my money for a perhaps few months in case of bank failures. I don't claim to be a banking expert... But I'm not aware of major delays regarding FDIC insurance... In fact, looking at SVB and Signature bank, it seems like the potential impact when under the $250k limit is typically no longer than a weekend. If you hold more than the $250k limit, under "normal" conditions, it likely takes longer than the weekend to figure out what - if anything - can be recovered. They'll need time to figure out assets available, if they can find buyers, and how much they can raise that could be returned to depositors. But I'm interested in the res...

This may also be a scenario where working with a "travel agent", even if that's one of the credit cards travel rewards teams, might be beneficial.

Have you tried booking a "multi-city" flight?

Where allowed (I know directly through airlines at least), that should accomplish the goal I think.

cs412a wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 12:11 am OP, 1/4 of $500,000 is $125,000. Is this a life-changing amount of money for you?

And if the offer was 1/3 of the remaining $250k, that works out to be about $83k.

The difference of $40k seems like it would be eaten quickly by legal fees...

But then again, I knew someone who spent > 100x contesting a fee. IMHO it was a complete waste of time and money. Didn't matter to them...

I don't... Just relating Fidelity works the same.

I don't use Schwab...

But at Fidelity, it's the same - the initial auction purchase needs to be enrolled in the Auto roll program. To my knowledge, you can't add Autoroll after the fact...