Bogleheads.org

Under what conditions does one need to file?

1. Any capital gains (even if negative so losses)
2. Any positive capital gains
3. Any capital gains over the deduction amount

Considering the market portfolio can't consider any individual investor's situation (except as part of the aggregate), can there be cases where holding the market portfolio is riskier for some investors? If so, would some modest alteration (like tilting) be preferable? How should investors approach this?

whodidntante wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 9:55 pm

8301 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 8:39 pm

whodidntante wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 8:22 pm I have never regretted a contribution to a tax advantaged account. I've regretted missed contributions.

I cannot think of any disadvantage of directing my money into 401k unless I am below age 59 1/2 and need it now. I am even willing to pay a fee to do it.

It’s pretty easy to access the money early if desired, without penalty. I would write up how, but some FIRE blogger probably wrote a treatise on the subject.

Yep, this writeup lays out the options pretty well.

abracadabra11 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 8:43 pm We did our renewal online. Passport arrived 6 weeks after submission.

Interesting. What did you need to do to renew it online?

Last time I renewed this wasn't an option I don't think.

Possibly dumb question from the peanut gallery, do you still need life insurance (either term or whole life)?

Asking since it sounds like you & your spouse have already saved a lot, have just tapped out 20yr policies, and kids are in (or nearly in) college (which is fully funded by 529s), is that right?

What expenses still need to be covered by a life insurance policy that couldn't be covered by your combined portfolio?

It's usually worked for me if I place the trade after midnight. Am a bit of a night owl so this works for me.

Though others have reported making the trade in the morning works. So another option.

Agree it seems like an unnecessary hurdle. Expect it is just some feature they haven't coded into ME (or even a bug) as opposed to an intentional blocker. Might be worth calling up ME and raising the issue (they may not even be aware it is causing users problems).

My thanks to everyone for your responses to my post. I think I'll probably go with the 14 Pro (and skip the Max)... I think that's a good choice. I got my wife a 12 Pro versus the 12 Pro Max a couple years ago. The move to Pro was worth it, IMO. I think the Max would be too large for comfortable handling. Did the same thing when getting my iPhone 13 Pro a while back. The Pro already has a good feature set. The Pro Max doesn't add that much more to it and found it was more comfortable holding the Pro than the Pro Max (a bit lighter & smaller). Honestly the difference between the iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 are pretty minimal. So it may be worth buying the earlier version to save a bit (unless having the latest thing is important, which I'd ...

Hi all, First want to thank this wonderful community for the guidance over the years. Have deepened my knowledge of investing & personal finance since finding this community in 2020. Thanks for continuing to share this wealth of knowledge. :beer Basic Info: Emergency Funds: Consolidated into portfolio (cash/fixed income could be tapped) Debt: None. School loads paid off. Renter. Tax Filing Status: Single Tax Rate: 37% Federal, 0% State State of Residence: Washington Age: Mid 30s Asset Allocation: 90% stocks / 10% bonds International Allocation: Global Cap Weighted (roughly 60% US/40% International) Portfolio: For past info, please see this thread: https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5546627 Low seven-figures 401k at Fidelit...

There are a lot of terrible annuities. Unfortunately they get sold by expert salesman to unsuspecting customers. That said, once you have one, it is tricky to extricate oneself. There are a few options: Eat the tax cost (possibly over several years) Use a Section 1035 to change annuity (note any surrender fees) Annuity taxes treat all earnings above basis as ordinary income. There's also the 10% penalty before 59.5. In many ways this is similar to a non-deductible IRA or the after-tax portion of a 401(k) . Another possible benefit of an annuity is credit protection. This can vary depending on state law. To the extent one invests in an account like this, it is best to place tax inefficient assets in this account. So bonds to the extent one h...

Yes, you’re correct that you can exchange from an annuity into a stand alone LTC policy. But that’s not what OP was asking about. He was asking about the Lincoln MoneyGuard product, which is a life insurance product with a LTC rider. To my knowledge, one can’t exchange from an annuity into a life insurance policy. Gotcha ok. Thanks for the correction! :sharebeer So if OP decided they wanted some qualified LTC plan (not this plan, which is not a qualified LTC plan), they could use their MYGA to purchase it if they chose to and exclude that from taxable income. Did I understand that correctly? Asking also as I was reading up on MYGA's recently and happened upon both this post and the AALTCI result in the same search. Had thought annuities co...

I mentioned being interested in LTC policies to a financial 'advisor' and received a pitch/term sheet for Lincoln Moneyguard's LTC/Life policy. FWIW, I have a MyGA coming due in a few months and would like to roll it over into another insurance/annuity product for deferral purposes. Many good points made previously about how bad a combo life insurance / LTC product is for your financial health. I won’t repeat those. From a practical point of view, you can’t 1035 exchange from an annuity to a life insurance product. You can go from life to annuity, but not annuity to life. Am definitely not an insurance expert (like you), not a lawyer, nor any other financial expert. However came across this from AALTCI : Under the new rules of Internal Rev...

Stinky wrote: ↑Thu Jan 12, 2023 7:27 pm Geraldo Rivera drew an audience of 30 million when he opened up Al Capone’s “vault” on live TV. And there was nothing in the “vault”.

I’ll bet that Geraldo could draw a larger audience if he opened up Fremdon Ferndock’s sofa on live TV. At least we know there’s an Apple Watch in there somewhere.

There was a thread a couple years ago where someone found a floor safe in their home they had recently purchased. Wonder what ever happened there

Maybe some more ideas to try

https://support.apple.com/guide/watch/f ... 11/watchos

Also some AppleCare plans include theft or loss provisions. Know this is the case for the iPhone. Less sure about Apple Watch

Svensk Anga wrote: ↑Wed Jan 11, 2023 9:00 am You might also educate yourself on the safe harbor rules as you could wind up owing substantial taxes when you file, but owe no penalty. In particular for your case, if your combination of withholding and 3 quarterly payments through 2022 were more than 100 or 110% (% varies with income) of your 2021 tax liability, you are in the safe harbor. One of the other safe harbor provisions may apply to you.

Also a good point. Meeting safe harbor is one of the reasons I started doing estimated payments. Need to double check whether I made safe harbor based on 2021 tax liability without a Q4 payment. Think maybe not, but believe 2022 tax liability may already be covered. Anyways will recheck.

MrJedi wrote: ↑Wed Jan 11, 2023 6:50 am The problem happens if you are underpaid for a quarter, not overpaid.

This is a good point. Since this was my first time doing this, I didn't realize that payments needed to be in by 8 p.m. Eastern time to count for the same day. So the Q1 payment (while made on the right day) was credited a day later (since it was after that time). Guessing there will be a small penalty due to that.

Thanks all! Very helpful

So sounds like if enough is withheld so far, I should be good and if not there may be a (small) penalty (if I skip this payment).

Had done a back of the envelope calculation that made it look like I would get a refund, but will try to fill out a return this weekend with the YTD numbers I have just to get a better idea (even though this may still be incomplete).

Hi All, 2022 was my first year making estimated quarterly tax payments. Thought these would be needed based on my income projections at the start of the year and didn't think withholding would cover it. However it is starting to look like a combination of 3 quarters of estimated tax payments and withholding will likely be enough (still need to sit-down and do the math and am still waiting on some forms). Am aware that one can file by the end of January to avoid needing to do a Q4 payment, but am pretty sure I won't have everything I need to file by then (1099s likely won't be available until February). So don't think that is an option for me. Given all this am wondering if I can just skip doing the Q4 payment. Or is there something to be aw...

sandan wrote: ↑Wed Jan 04, 2023 1:32 pm Its an inexact science but just look at trend on the 5 year TIPs yield chart. The non-zero yield was fairly predictable for many people.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DFII5

Indeed. In fact this is what David does in the post. Seems like a pretty reliable signal. Not perfect, but still worth paying attention to.

Was mulling over this same question recently. Namely how to approach I Bonds in 2023. Saw a few other threads along the same lines. Thought others also wondering about this would appreciate David's recent analysis. Here's a link to the article . Below are a few excerpts from the conclusions that stood out to me. Though would recommend reading the whole post if it is of interest (it is not long). If your only interest in I Bonds is a quick one-year investment, you might want to look [elsewhere]. For a long-term I Bond investor, I think it makes sense to wait until April 12 to make a purchase decision. And even then the decision might be to divide your purchases, half in April and half in May, if a higher fixed rate looks at all possible. Key...

I ask people to take this standard advice and consider their own personal situations. My thought is if you make your retirement accounts too Bond heavy, you will doom your retirement accounts to low returns. A lot depends upon how much you have in taxable accounts to tax deferred retirement accounts. If the bulk of your savings are in tax deferred retirement accounts, my advice would be to invest those accounts for maximum return. If you have both large taxable and large tax deferred accounts, the standard thinking of making taxable accounts Stock heavy and tax deferred accounts more Bond heavy makes a lot more sense. This has also been my worry with this bond advice often provided here. In fact when we see folks show up and ask whether th...

Vanguard has some rather detailed fine print (bottom of the page) that might help. Perhaps whatever broker you are considering has something similar?

If you are concerned about liquidity, maybe build a ladder? That way at least some of it is becoming available periodically. Some brokerages (like Fidelity and Schwab) have tools to aid in building a ladder.

There are many ways to construct an IPS.

Think some folks like % as it is a bit easier to reason about how it performs and there's lots of work done based on this approach. However if that doesn't work for you, then you are free to pick something else.

What you are proposing sounds like a bucket approach IIUC. Would suggest reading up on that approach a bit more to help evaluate whether that works better for you and fine tune the implementation to your needs.

MisterNoName wrote: ↑Mon Dec 05, 2022 12:24 pm Thanks everyone. I'm going to get I-Bonds, another $5,500 to reach $10,000. Then I'll get Treasury bills with the rest.

I'll look out for that on 12/27. Never bought t-bills before.

FWIW one can get another $5k of I Bonds by making an estimated payment in excess of one's tax bill and requesting $5k in I Bonds as part of the refund. These will be paper I Bonds that come in the mail, which can either be kept on hand and cashed at a brick-and-mortar bank or can be converted and added to one's TreasuryDirect account

It sounds like you didn't like that job, they treated you badly, and there's no amount of money they could give you to make it worth it. Plus it sounds like you have a job that you enjoy and works well for you. So the answer to their request is no.

Think it is worth reflect on why you are considering this. Feeling flattered? Being guilted into by former employer? Having doubts about the current position? Something else? Should add no need to tell us (of course), but there is a reason you are thinking about it and that seems worth understanding.

Thank you for your service! First off props to you for spending time learning about finance, finding this forum, and learning as much as you can. That's already a big step that will make everything else doable. Sounds like you've already gotten some good advice. From a mathematical standpoint, yes getting the car loan somehow resolved is pressing. Though you've also mentioned your housing situation isn't great. It's kind of hard to focus on anything else if your housing situation is a mess (trust me I know). Particularly when entering winter. Know you've mentioned buying a house, but it is worth considering renting. This doesn't rule out buying in the future, but it may allow for an incremental life improvement and provide some needed breat...

I don't have kids. So take what I say with a grain (or several) of salt.

That said, I listened to this podcast episode recently with the author of How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing, which had an interesting take.

The main point was focus on designing your space around you. Also don't worry about what others think about these decisions. She has a lot of concrete tips.

This article gives a nice summary.

Hope it helps and even if not hope you find something that works for you. Please let us know what you figure out.

marcopolo wrote: ↑Tue Nov 15, 2022 8:53 pm your shortfall equation should be a division, not a subtraction. That yields a 4.53% break even rate.

Thanks! Corrected above (with an edit).

Normally I've just deposited small bits of change alongside more significant dollar deposits. It has worked well and avoided changing accumulating (also saving additional thought about how to handle it ).

On a few rare occasions have had more change (like from cleaning out my car, home, etc.), these I've managed to deposit (using the bank's change tray). If that's not an option, one could buy some kind of change sorter.

Here's what I'm seeing (feel free to correct any math/conceptual errors): Stay the course (3% for 7 years): 1.03^7 Break now with 6mo penalty + losing this year's interest (3% for 5.5 years; 5.5 = 7 - 0.5 - 1): 1.03^5.5 Shortfall (needs to be made up in 1yr to break even): 1.03^7 - 1.03^5.5 Rate of return needed to break even (shortfall / breaking now; 7 - 5.5 = 1.5): 1.03^1.5 - 1 ≈ 4.53% IOW one would need to make 4.53% at least to break even (by switching). That is ignoring the hassle involved in breaking the CD, finding an alternative, and executing on it. So would think one would want to make more (ideally 5%). Am not seeing anything attractive like this with a guaranteed rate of return (maybe a 1 year Treasury would do a bit better?), ...

Doesn't sound like you are missing anything.

Should add Roubini is always pushing this kind of stuff. He's gotten a reputation on Wall Street of being extremely bearish all the time, which has earned him the moniker Dr. Doom. So take it with a grain of salt.

McQ wrote: ↑Fri Oct 07, 2022 1:40 pm Intermediate Treasuries

This is where Bogleheads go if they find BND holds too much risk for comfort, whether duration risk or credit risk. VCIT is down 11.46% in 2022. That’s head and shoulders below the worst previous 12-month return of minus 5.55% ending in October 1994. So much for “safe.”

And 96 years maybe does qualify for “ever.”

Small suggestion. Think VCIT here was meant to be VGIT. The former is intermediate corporates whereas the latter is intermediate treasuries. The decline seems right for VGIT and it is referenced elsewhere as VGIT. So it seems like a small typo, but wanted to raise it nevertheless for clarity.

Thanks for the detailed writeup!

[Thread merged into here --admin LadyGeek] Hi all, Have read several of the threads about using Fidelity CMA with a money market fund, but am still a little confused about something and hoping others with more experience with this can advise. I'd like to hold a bit more cash in the CMA and earn interest on this amount, but would also like the ability to withdraw cash and have it autosell from a money market fund (even if there is no cash in the FDIC position). Also would like a non-gated money market fund (as I would like good liquidity even if it means a haircut on interest earned). I've seen cash manager, but AIUI that involves mixing in a brokerage, which I don't want to do (though please correct me if I'm missing something). Also I don...

Have you seen Santorini Dave's site ( https://santorinidave.com )? It's a wealth of information about traveling to Greece (not just Santorini). He's also got a good forum for asking questions as well as reading other questions that have come up over the years.

marbat wrote: ↑Fri Aug 12, 2022 3:55 pm

tomsense76 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 12, 2022 2:23 pm

anon_investor wrote: ↑Fri Aug 12, 2022 1:50 pm

mkc wrote: ↑Fri Aug 12, 2022 1:37 pm Very timely as I am helping someone research this for a family member's Merrill Edge account

I use TOIXX for Merrill Edge.

Can it be configured to be the sweep? Or does one just need to manually buy/sell?

All MMF options at Merrill are buy/sell only - bit of an annoyance that they don't do sweeps, but I guess they (and Schwab) have to make money somewhere (off of people who just leave cash balances sitting around)!

It use to be the case one could just call into Merrill and change the money market fund used for the sweep. Though I think they got rid of them all (for example (pdf)).

billaster wrote: ↑Tue Aug 16, 2022 4:19 pm The great majority of shares are held in non-taxable accounts, something like 70%, so dividends would be preferred. Unfortunately the most influential shareholders, CEOs and executives, a minority, have taxable accounts and prefer buybacks. It will be interesting to see whose interests will be served, but I can guess.

By non-taxable accounts do you mean retirement accounts? If so, they are exempt (source):

The 1% share repurchase excise tax generally does not apply to:
...
* Repurchases of stock, which are contributed to employee-sponsored retirement plans, employee stock ownership plans, or similar plans;

Probably not much. According to this source , which leans on a previous NBER paper (pdf) : ...1 percent tax rate on share repurchases could induce a roughly 1.5 percent increase in corporate dividend payouts. It's worth remembering that the reason a company does a buyback or pays a dividend is mostly driven by the fact they can't find a more way to invest the money in the company. Following that logic, they won't care whether the government gets a 1% cut of that money they are giving back to investors or not. Ofc investors could feel differently (and they could band together to change company policy). Though when it is a tax of 1% vs. a tax of 15% (or more) via a dividend, it is quite likely an investor would still prefer the buyback.

anon_investor wrote: ↑Fri Aug 12, 2022 1:50 pm

mkc wrote: ↑Fri Aug 12, 2022 1:37 pm Very timely as I am helping someone research this for a family member's Merrill Edge account

I use TOIXX for Merrill Edge.

Can it be configured to be the sweep? Or does one just need to manually buy/sell?

It seems that Vanguard is slow to invest cash into the settlement fund. I just opened a Vanguard account and wired cash to Vanguard which showed as arrived in the Vanguard web portal under "total pending debits and credits" just before 3pm EST on a Weds. It still took until Friday morning around 3am EST to show as having transferred from "total pending debits and credits" to the settlement fund. I wonder if it get an extra day's of interest, it would make sense to manually buy VMFXX the day the cash arrives? Think they would count it as "in" Thursday. AIUI the delay is due to ACH itself taking time. They need to keep things as pending in the event one tries to transfer money in excess of what they have availab...

FWIW I live in the city.

Yes it is safe. Or as safe as any other major city.

There certainly has been an uptick in homelessness as in any major west coast city over the past decade. The pandemic doesn't seem to have helped.

However when having a guest in town a couple months back, we didn't really notice this when going to any of the more touristy areas. So I think it may depend on where you go to some extent.

In case you haven't noticed, companies have all sorts of ways of making a tiny discount or rebate look big. In the case of credit cards, offering the cash back in selected categories is a way of doing that. Look at how they "fooled" you. You gave the thread the title "3% cash back CC offer." But it isn't 3% back, it's only 3% back on dining, gas, and grocery purchases. Correction, "qualifying" dining, gas, and grocery purchases. If you actually get this card and keep track, what percentage of the money you spend using this card is really going to be given back to you? I would be astonished if it is anything close to 3%. In order to get 3%, you would need to familiarize yourself with what dining, gas, and groce...

The limit on MBR contributions is not simply subtracting individual contribution limit from the maximum. The employer match also is subtracted. As a result one has (401k overall contribution limit) - (individual contribution limit) - (employer match) as the MBR limit. The 50yr or older catch-up is added to both the individual and overall contribution limits; so, the catch-up doesn't affect the MBR limit at all. Would read up on this page and other IRS pages for limits. These are updated annually. To other questions, how much can you afford to put in the plan? If it is possible, would max it out. If not, would do whatever you can. This page may help identify where to put money first. Generally a Roth is considered better than taxable so woul...

Agree with other that it is better to just spend a bit longer in Paris and actually enjoy it instead of trying to sleep in the airport. You will thank yourself later :D Would second the metro in Paris is pretty straightforward and inexpensive. So would just grab a train into town and explore from there. Honestly it's pretty easy to just go see the sights in Paris yourself. That said, if you wanted an inexpensive tour, might try Sandemans Tours . Did that for Brussels, which was great since I didn't have a clear idea of what to look for and it worked out great. They have one for Paris . Another resource along these lines is Travel Man , a British TV show focused on short 2 day trips to various places mainly in Europe (think the gist was to e...

anon_investor wrote: ↑Wed Jul 27, 2022 9:08 pm

nalor511 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 27, 2022 9:04 pm

cvsvm2007 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 27, 2022 9:03 pm Folks,

I see 3.02% as SEC yield for VSBSX (Short Term Treasury). Looks better than VMFXX.

CVS

Will lose price value when rates go up, money market will not

^^^THIS!

Right it is not a bank account or money market fund. There is interest rate risk.

If the cash is not needed for a while (like a couple years), then maybe it could be reasonable as the short-term paper losses may be made up for in the future by reinvesting the coupon payments (that is assuming these are reinvested).

Would recommend reading this thread ( viewtopic.php?t=360575 ) for more details.

Another option that might be worth considering (after liquidating the munis, which already seems to be consensus here), is barbelling bonds. Namely one could hold cash or short-term bonds in taxable and hold long-term bonds in pre-tax (401k, 403b, Traditional IRA, etc.). This way most of the income from the bonds is tax-sheltered and still provide one cash in taxable for expenses, Roth conversions, moving, etc. while maintaining an intermediate term duration overall. Note that investments in pre-tax partially belong to the government (will be paid out in taxes as that account is depleted). So one may need to hold more in the long-term bonds to offset this (or accept an after-tax duration that may be shorter).

02nz wrote: ↑Wed Jul 27, 2022 4:46 pm

Stinky wrote: ↑Wed Jul 27, 2022 8:51 am There’s a really nice podcast series about teacher 43b plans - Learned by Being Burned.

The guys that put that together also have another podcast I recommend, Teach and Retire Rich. They have an excellent website as well: https://403bwise.org/

Also they were on Morningstar a few months back

https://www.morningstar.com/podcasts/the-long-view/155

It's pretty horrifying how bad some of these 403b plans for K-12 are and how misaligned incentives are with setting them up. Should add this does not seem to be just a small school district problem.

Probably the biggest lesson from that podcast anyone should take is if someone shows up in your classroom selling you something...run!

Would suggest reading this wiki page. There are ways to tap into that money indirectly without needing to move any money out of the 401k.

That said, would double check with your 401k provider to make sure you can't just take withdrawals. Sounds kind of weird that they wouldn't allow that. Maybe there is just a terminology mismatch?

The original research on using the yield curve as a predictor was by Campbell Harvey in 1986. The specific metric Harvey used was the 5 year vs 3 month treasury yields. And for it to be considered an inversion the 3 month yield must be higher than the 5 year yield for 3 months. This has had the unfortunate result of finance media announcing when any part of the yield curve inverts, even momentarily. I don't care that the 10 year is higher than the 30 year yield. That just tells me that people expect inflation to get back under control at some point. The spread between 10 year and 3 month yields is still 1.7% and wider than it was at the beginning of the year. There's a long way to go before the yield curve meaningfully inverts. Actually it...

Thanks jebmke!

Have been wondering if I need to go beyond accountant and instead talk to a tax lawyer. Need clarity on what the law requires of me and what things I should be doing to avoid issues.

In particular have questions about how a specific state handles taxation of equity compensation and am not finding much clarity looking at the tax forms or researching on my own. Really just need to hire an expert, but making sure I'm picking the right one and vetting them appropriately is the tricky part. Any advice you may have on this front would be really helpful

Am trying to find a tax accountant with knowledge about specific state tax laws. What are the best resources to find such an accountant and vet them?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Due to some changes occurring at work regarding equity compensation learned that I might have trailing tax liability. As this is a brand new concept to me and am struggling to wrap my head around it, am trying to find more resources about trailing tax liability and how different states handle it. Also am trying to get a better handle on which kinds of compensation is affected and how exactly it is affected for the state I'm interested in. Have found one thread here on it, a decent blogpost, and a relevant tax court ruling. However the pieces I'm still missing are specifics on how to handle particular kinds of compensation (RSU, ESPP, maybe anniversary bonus if relevant) and what income tax forms to look for and how to report this informatio...