Bogleheads.org

whodidntante wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 5:13 pm

Pu239 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 8:01 pm What's a bingo board?

Banks that are located on high-traffic roads tend to have electronic signs that flash numbers and short messages. When I find a sweet enough deal, I shout "bingo!" and make a mental note to stop in. You can take it from there.

all I've ever seen is the temperature

The issue I have with muni bonds is they are often compared to treasuries (and perhaps brokered CDs) on the basis of tax-equivalent yield alone. But this is not really a valid comparison (IMO) because the munis are not as safe, and do not hold-up nearly as well in the face of market turmoil. So you need to decide if the slight effective tax advantage is worth it to you. I usually throw in extra basis points to try to adjust for this when comparing. Not scientific but unless there is a clear advantage, I typically go with Treasuries. edit: also, because my marginal tax rate can move around a bit, I normally don't even look seriously at munis unless the B/E tax rate gets above 27% for Federal; and starting this year I also have to roll NIIT ...

The SEC yield on Wellesley is a lot higher than Wellington.

DAFs are also a good place do dump remnants in a portfolio or other misfits that have unrealized gains. I had a legacy stock holding get acquired so I dumped it in the DAF before having the gain forced on me.

billfromct wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 2:38 pm Did you talk someone in the NJ SHIP (State Health Insurance <Assistance> Program) office? I guess they leave out the “A” in the acronym so it’s easier to recognize. I guess SHIAP wouldn’t be too easy to remember.

I believe every state provides this unbiased advice concerning Medicare programs, usually via a phone call.

bill

right; also, in many states, the insurance regulators have a lot of information on their web sites.

123 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 2:45 pm Perhaps the biggest advantage of DAFs is the ability to donate appreciated securities. You don't pay the capital gains tax on the securities you transfer to the DAF account and the full current value of the securities counts as the amount donated for tax purposes.

You can also donate appreciated securities directly to a charity. The value deducted depends on whether the gain was long term or short term and there is a maximum amount that can be deducted based on income. Running it through a DAF can be administratively much easier, particularly for smaller charities that aren't set up to handle non-cash asset donations.

CAsage wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 2:13 pm Using a DAF is really only worthwhile if you plan to donate a big chunk on an infrequent (i.e. more than yearly) basis and then dole out grants for a fraction of that annually.

That is a major benefit but there are other good reasons for using a DAF. One is to fund multiple charities with a single donation of securities. This is mainly for administrative ease to avoid having to donate slices of shares at a time. Two, and important to some, DAFs are a good vehicle for making anonymous donations.

anoop wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 1:57 pm

jebmke wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 1:55 pm

anoop wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 1:53 pm Thanks. A related question -- are the capital gains/losses from selling of treasuries subject to state income tax?

Depends on the state. In MD, gains are not taxed.

It's CA. Is there an easy way to check this?

CA probably has an instruction book for preparing a CA resident return.

anoop wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 1:53 pm Thanks. A related question -- are the capital gains/losses from selling of treasuries subject to state income tax?

Depends on the state. In MD, gains are not taxed.

sure; normally I like to apply losses to either ordinary income or gains that I need to take strategically (e.g. re-balance or withdrawal for spending).

Per SSA, a 60 year-old woman can expect to live about 25 years, and a 60 year-old man about 21 years (if I'm reading the tables correctly). You do realize that your hypothetical 60 year-old woman/man each have a 50% chance of surviving longer? That makes those values just about useless for any sort of retirement planning ... unless you want to plan for a 50% chance of failure. They are from the Social Security administration (citation link in my post), you can direct any complaints to them. 😀 I have no question about the accuracy of the numbers and thus have no bone to pick with the SSA. I was questioning if you understood what life expectancy means. IDpilot is correct. Social Security Actuarial Life table, used for 2022 does show life exp...

Thanks for the heads up. This is one of the pubs I use frequently.

Johm221122 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 10:54 am I'm in the hospitality business and
1. We're extremely busy
2. Can't find workers (have to bring them from out of country)
3. Very high room rates

The seasonal businesses here -- e.g. restaurants and other establishments that are only open for the extended summer season are bracing for another scramble this year. In years past they hired a lot of foreign students for the summer; not nearly as many now.

rockstar wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 10:42 am Earnings should be worse this year than last year. That doesn’t mean we’ll be in a recession. A lot of companies over hired during the pandemic. However, the cost to borrow is definitely a problem.

There are really two ways to contain inflation: raise unemployment and/or raise taxes.

I haven't seen the most recent data but at one point, I saw a graph that showed that the tech layoffs are a fraction of the hiring that took place since the pandemic.

Great food for thought. The goodly pile of Tips I bought in October, 2008 will finally mature in 2025 when I am 72. I've been thinking about re-upping on some longer dated ones. Maybe some 2053s that mature on my 100th birthday.

Have you tried telling them not to call you. I asked VG not to call me and they haven't called back since. I told them I'd be in touch if I needed anything.

It appears that TE interest isn't included in the NIIT calculation.

ScubaHogg wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 12:59 pm FWIW I did expedited processing back in august. Took less than 2 weeks

The expedited processing is well worth the money. When you consider how long a PP lasts, it is really peanuts. A few years ago I got one renewed in 2 days when I discovered that I could not get a certain visa without a PP that had an expiration date inside one year.

notoriousMG wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 5:37 am How long do you think Vanguard CD rates will take to update to the hike increase? Any experience from the past?

The rates quoted are determined by buyers and sellers who trade daily. They now reflect all the information available. What you see is what you get.

dukeblue219 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 5:34 pm

lillycat wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 4:21 pm

dukeblue219 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 2:33 pm

lillycat wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 1:38 pm A cup of coffee costs $6 at SB? No.

No it doesn't. A regular coffee is $2.65 at SB and $2.19 at Dunkin.

Yes, it does. I witness my DH order a giant cup at the SB drive thru all the time and it’s $6.
I have no idea what coffee costs at DD.

Then it's not coffee he is ordering, but some sort of latte, cappuccino, frappucino, or maybe a nitro cold brew that would be $10 at any sort of local cafe.

The margins on those are probably phenomenal. Many years ago I met with a group of investors doing roll-ups of Dunkin stores in Boston. They had ~ 25 stores. The margins on coffee were around 95%; they would give donuts away (free donut coupon) just to get people into the store to buy coffee.

Will do good wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 4:47 pm No. We over tip in America.

Only @ Lake Wobegon

But We Have Wall to Wall Floors in America

WapelloHawk wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 3:17 pm To tip or not tip on a $5 coffee at Starbucks does not seem like a BH-type topic.

You’d be surprised at how banal the topics can get

9-5 Suited wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 1:20 pm I always love when I meet up with someone from Europe and they just are in disbelief about how insane the pervasiveness of tipping culture is here. It’s like they walked into something that boggles their mind.

That's because the compensation system is different

(Crossposted with the above.) Most likely the IRS adjusted your tax return based on information they received associated with your SS number. It could be any number of things. Perhaps you failed to report all of your income. Perhaps you claimed a credit or deduction to which you weren't entitled. Perhaps you owe federal taxes for a prior year. Perhaps you entered in the amount of federal withholding wrong. Unlikely but possible that TT made a mistake if you have a very unusual tax situation. Perhaps something else. The most common type of error is a data entry error into TT. You could double check all of your dollar amount entries on every line of every form. You should receive a letter from the IRS addressed to you at the address you prov...

I don't know but I'd guess that the separation agreement is mostly boiler-plate language. I think you should feel free to suggest clarifying language to ensure that you get the matching amount. I have done this multiple times on "boiler-plate" offer letters and my ex-pat agreement. I was once able to suggest insertion of a no-loss clause on a relocation letter that included home purchase assistance - they guaranteed that I would not lose money on my house since we had just moved less than 18 months ago. Always ask.

edit: I've been on the other end of separation agreements and agreed to amendments in the name of fairness. In some cases I had to push back on HR because they tend to like to stick to policy.

Thanks... Looking in 2023 dollars using the same estimated 23% effective tax rate estimates the $224,550 in expenses requires $291,523 in income. I realize that this is simpler to not try to guess at inflation (your point). My concern is it may underestimate the income (and in turn the required assets to generate the income) four years from now. The same estimate with 3% inflation requires about $38,000/year more income which requires approximately another $1M in assets to fund it. See what I mean? I have found it easier and no less precise to simply do everything in real dollars and not attempt to forecast inflation rates. Like you, I do not assume that statutory tax rates will be changed until legislation is passed and signed. Yes, but t...

I used one of these to stop hammering from a sprinkler timer starting a watering cycle. One caution, there seems to be some variability from one to another. The first one I bought didn't work so I returned it for a replacement which did work.

I tip at a local coffee shop (local roaster). They have a self-service area with regular coffee for those of us who don't drink contaminated coffee drinks. The nominal price is less than a whole dollar amount so I normally round up and leave dollars in the slot provided.

You don't apply them. They are used to adjust your cost basis in remaining shares.

dfin wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 10:01 am Thank you, that's rather unfortunate.

I found it pretty easy to do the calculations using AnyPIA. In fact, I was able to use this to discover that the amount on my determination letter was incorrect. After filing an appeal, they quickly made the adjustment before my benefit commenced in February.

Portfolio Watch?

Something in their system triggers this. Even when I applied for SS I got the same thing; they didn't update my online number until after I had received my determination letter. The local SS office near me has been pretty accessible by phone so I had a workaround.

I have found it easier and no less precise to simply do everything in real dollars and not attempt to forecast inflation rates.

Like you, I do not assume that statutory tax rates will be changed until legislation is passed and signed.

kchico wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 7:27 pm

rob wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 7:16 pm I don't see any way this works to be honest....

So Bogleheads don't use the 4% SWR?

maybe for a 25 year horizon - say at age 60+

Even that is a close one for many.

My multinational used to keep everything we didn't need for working capital at a US money center bank. Above a certain amount there we moved to various instruments like commercial paper, treasury bills and some overnight deals with majors in country (DB, HSBC). We still had quite a bit in country - some countries required me to keep it in a local bank; South Africa for example woudn't let us move anything out of SAF unless we were paying an invoice to a non-SAF vendor, including inter-company. I always kept local deposits in local currency (edit: some exceptions -- some customer contracts were written in dollars and the customers delivered dollars) but often hedged them back to Euros or Dollars.

zlandar wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 7:20 pm I bought a pack of 4 licenses for version 7 years ago. It's money well-spent IMO.

Last sale on version 8 was $70 for a pack of 4 licenses or $35 for one license. I would wait for a sale.

right; they will make a good deal for free users to migrate them but it won't happen until they approach deprecation day.

Would not surprise me to see others like Malewarebytes do the same thing.

K72 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 5:52 pm If you are even just slightly techie, I've found the Linux dd command works well, for either a byte-byte clone or binary image. All you need to do is boot from a Linux live USB flash drive and run the command.

I think it can also be done with DISM in the Command Prompt; I used to have a GUI for DISM - not sure if I kept it.

Why would I make a QCD from a Roth? At best it is a wash. If you itemize, you would save money by treating the Roth as non-taxable income, and give money from your other taxable income (e.g., Social Security or pension). The reason for my post was to show that one can indeed make a QCD from a Roth according to the IRS regulations. Probably because it makes no sense there was doubt that the IRS would allow someone to do it. If a Roth is inherited by a non-spouse isn't there a clock on distributing out the assets? Whereas taxable assets would step up and not be subject to a distribution clock. As you've pointed out, there are situations where it makes sense to withdraw from a Roth. But in that case, why go through the filing and documentatio...

Agent 99 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 4:33 pm

prd1982 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 12:19 pm Why would I make a QCD from a Roth? At best it is a wash. If you itemize, you would save money by treating the Roth as non-taxable income, and give money from your other taxable income (e.g., Social Security or pension).

The reason for my post was to show that one can indeed make a QCD from a Roth according to the IRS regulations. Probably because it makes no sense there was doubt that the IRS would allow someone to do it.

If a Roth is inherited by a non-spouse isn't there a clock on distributing out the assets? Whereas taxable assets would step up and not be subject to a distribution clock.

MechDoc wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 3:47 pm (disregarded entity does not make much sense because I do not know what it is!)

It means that for tax purposes the IRS doesn't consider the entity to be real. all activity in the entity is straight passthrough to the individual. For example, if you have an LLC, even if it has an EIN if it is a passthrough it is reported on your personal 1040. There is no tax return for the entity. Fairly common with single member LLCs.

Mine shows up in Portfolio Watch. I have no idea if it is accurate but it looks right.

You can see it all in Portfolio Watch

I would start with some of the publications that are available on the IRS site. Books might be good after that but I would be careful to (a) make sure it is recent and (b) always verify what they say against IRS publications. The IRS doesn't give a whit about what the books say when they audit you.

I'd also caution to take info you get on the internet with a grain of salt. I have found that many sites are either wrong on the law or contain dated information. It can be very hard to sort out. A case in point, several years ago I had an opportunity to take a very large 1341 deduction (Claim of Right). There was a lot of misinformation on this online. I finally ended up reading the code section to validate what the law actually said.

I will likely shift to the paid version. I've been using Macrium for years.

MrJedi wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 7:23 am The ironic thing is that people generally want their taxable accounts to give off LESS dividends to protect from dividend tax drag every year.

that would be me

secondopinion wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 1:32 pm I stand corrected that emergencies cannot be major and all at once. But in this case, that is a complete exhaustion of funds. More or less, this is not something an emergency fund would have helped regardless. In fact, it helped probably that stock growth has occurred over all of those years.

There is always a risk of getting hit with a massive bill, but the question is whether it is riskier not to invest even if it does hit.

That's exactly why we ditched our EF in our early 40s

Mike Scott wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:19 am There should be no difference in access. Plan on a minimum of two-three business days for transfers to your linked bank account which is pretty standard timing for transfers between any linked accounts.

I've seen a lot of reports with much faster ACH. I know if I issue instructions in the morning, it will hit my USAA account the next business day. From what I've seen in anecdotal reports, it seems to depend on the destination bank. That said, I wouldn't cut it close if the timing was really an issue. I can't imagine a scenario where I would need cash in the bank within one day but who knows.

See part I bolded above. It seems you made a risk assessment and determined job loss was not a risk for you, or at least not a risk you felt the need to insure against. I'm glad this worked out for you, but just because it worked for you doesn't mean it will for someone else. More to the point, in my case, I'd never even heard of it. I claim no process and no success. I never heard anybody use the phrase "emergency fund" until Dave Ramsey, and if I had been thinking I was planning for an emergency, it would never have occurred to me that the emergency in question is a period of unemployment (duration of which obviously I have to predict). I suppose, and I have for a long time, that everybody has to choose his own emergency. I don...

MechDoc wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:51 am Ok, so arm lengths transactions issues favors the argument that this doesn't pass the sniff test. So let's say the asset remains on the company books, however the IRS feels that it has no value (100% appreciation). What is to stop someone from using the asset for personal use after one year?

There are many aspects of tax law that depend on voluntary compliance.

jplee3 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:26 am

Chuck wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 9:50 am I was going to +1 "on the back" but you can also install a hitch receiver on the front, if you want to mount a winch, have a good tow/recovery point, use a cargo thing on the front, etc. I've read that it can be easier to park a trailer if you hitch it to the front, but I've never thought about it or tried it.

I never thought of that either - sounds like a great option and makes perfect sense, especially trying to park a trailer or adjust/align it in a tight spot perhaps.

https://www.curtmfg.com/trailer-hitches ... %20control.