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the rep told me that I could use a "certified" medical record extract for my ID. Which apparently means any document identifying a medical office (like letterhead or heading), having my name and my d.o.b, and being signed (by pen in ink - not a preprinted signature) by any office employee. It does have to contain a one-line statement preceding the signature: " I certify that the information contained in this document is accurate. " And the office person signing has to print their name as well. So I called my most-recently-visited Dr.'s office, which had never had such a request and probably thought I was crazy, and they're trying see what they can come up with. I'll try to remember to post back with the outcome in a cou...

the rep told me that I could use a "certified" medical record extract for my ID. Which apparently means any document identifying a medical office (like letterhead or heading), having my name and my d.o.b, and being signed (by pen in ink - not a preprinted signature) by any office employee. It does have to contain a one-line statement preceding the signature: " I certify that the information contained in this document is accurate. " And the office person signing has to print their name as well. So I called my most-recently-visited Dr.'s office, which had never had such a request and probably thought I was crazy, and they're trying see what they can come up with. I'll try to remember to post back with the outcome in a cou...

And I thought I was the naive one. This is my final update to the thread, after achieving the results I had sought. Thank you JoeRetire, I’ll be fine. Let me explain in a way that doesn’t hurt somebody’s feelings. Thank goodness they were *not* willing to do that. Yes RM, you misunderstood. One of the basics of security, which apparently some folks on this forum understand, is not to give information to the other party if it’s not absolutely necessary. This includes not responding to queries in a fashion that gives the other party confirmation of certain, even benign-appearing, information. pseudoiterative provided an excellent example of this in practice above where even the “experts” who built that third party website did not anticipate a...

Northern Flicker wrote: ↑Sun Jul 10, 2022 9:53 pm The fundamental issue being elucidated by the OP is not so much about data privacy but that we have a global authentication crisis wherein logins, password resets, and new account creation requests routinely are authenticated by asking for info known by more individuals than just the person being “authenticated”, often by many more.

Thank you.

I provided another phone number and another email, in an attempt to see if they were willing to change them to the ones I preferred - they were not a match - at that point I was told the verification cannot continue and I asked what other options we had for confirming I was the account holder, [emphasis added] One thing jumps out here... It seems that they were trying to verify you, but before you had completed that, you wanted them to *change* some of the information. Think about that for a moment. Thank goodness they were *not* willing to do that. The time to change personal information on a third party site should obviously be - and *only* be - after you have been verified. I don't know if that site would even allow you to change inform...

I was shocked by what happened next. The HealthEquity rep said there was another way and proceeded to ask me questions about the make and model of one of my previous cars, my previous residences: addresses and counties. (!) Credit bureau style, multiple-choice with at most (sometimes none) answer option correct. Don't be so shocked. This is a common online way of establishing identity these days. Well, I was. I wasn't creating a new stand-alone account, I was calling about an account that was already created as part of an employer-employee relationship. The employer had already run credit check as part of their own onboarding, so for all intents and purposes I was "vetted". Especially as I mentioned above I should have 1) been gi...

The dumbest login system I have seen was a website that (1) prompted the user to enter an address. Then it (2) showed a multiple choice prompt of about a dozen names. The user then has to (3) click on the name of the person that lived at the address. If you clicked on the correct name, you could log in. The login system leaks information to unauthenticated and unauthorised users - the name of the person living at that address. Not great. What was especially inept was that each name in the list of names at the multiple choice prompt was randomised. If you opened the login page in two browser windows at the same time, without sharing a session (e.g. open "new private window" in your browser), the list of names would be completely d...

Not sure what this rant is about. You refused to answer their routine questions to confirm your identity even though the questions were fairly benign (phone number and email address). And so they had to use a different verification method that uses public information to confirm your ID, but one or more questions were apparently answered incorrectly. It is easy to get those questions wrong because they ask about things that are from a long time ago (prior addresses, loans, etc.). Answering these types of questions is a very common process these days. First of all, I'm glad I did it because I now know how they operate. There are many other information details that they could ask that are related to the onboarding process (current employer, e...

They've been doing this for a very long time. The information is obtained from the credit bureaus. A very annoying problem is that sometimes they do not include the correct answers to any of the questions. It's fairly common for this to be true of one of the questions--I've assumed it was protection against the one-in-four chance of simply guessing the right answer. But I've occasionally encountered situations where they presented me with three questions and none of the answers to any of the questions was correct. In those situations, my ID simply wasn't confirmed and I had to, I don't remember, mail paperwork or something. I am a fatalist. There's not a great deal I can do about this as an individual. At the moment, the operative characte...

Now I'll be freezing my credit and opening my SSA account, both pronto. You should have at least frozen your credit years ago so this is a blessing in disguise since it is getting you to freeze them now. Perhaps I should have. I haven't frozen it when that option became available but at least I've been careful where I open my accounts and whom do I give my info to. I guess this marks the time when I have to move from defense into offense and do the above. Yes, do freeze your credit, and if you haven't done so already, do open your account with SSA. And IRS. Throw in Informed Delivery at USPS for good measure. Yes, thanks to all of the good folks on this forum I had learned about Informed Delivery and have enabled it on my address. After IR...

It appears to me that this statement made by investorpeter in justification of this practice is erroneous: And so they had to use a different verification method that uses public information to confirm your ID, but one or more questions were apparently answered incorrectly. The OP stated that he or she answered the questions correctly: To add to how illogical this is, I'm the account holder so the answers I gave them were "true & correct" - the rep proceeded to tell me that based on the answers I gave her the verification failed. (!) LOL So, the legit account owner cannot get in based on correct information. The incorrect part was that the answers that the company had on file were wrong. The ongoing problem is that the consum...

Jack FFR1846 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 09, 2022 2:57 pm You're not the only one to make up answers to "secret questions".

Who was your favorite teacher?
answer: 867-5309 (because the teacher's name was Jenny)

What is your favorite band?
answer: ou812 (because it's Van Halen)

So unless someone knows me really well along with my demented logic, they'll never get the answers.

Yup. I like your style.

Watty wrote: ↑Sat Jul 09, 2022 2:23 pm

adzio wrote: ↑Sat Jul 09, 2022 11:30 am Now I'll be freezing my credit and opening my SSA account, both pronto.

You should have at least frozen your credit years ago so this is a blessing in disguise since it is getting you to freeze them now.

Perhaps I should have. I haven't frozen it when that option became available but at least I've been careful where I open my accounts and whom do I give my info to. I guess this marks the time when I have to move from defense into offense and do the above.

Not sure, but does this go into the non-actionable rant bucket? If you folks on here tell me it's old news and nobody does anything about it, then yeah, it's nothing more than a rant I guess. These types of challenges have been around for a long time such as when opening a new account or interacting with Government agencies. There isn't a perfect solution to authentication and identity management yet. Every solution has to have a back door in case someone forgets a PIN or password, loses a token, or has a tracheostomy and voice recognition fails. Yes, but HealthEquity is not a government agency. Maybe the fact that they run HSA (inferior to Fidelity anyway) gives them the excuse to gather credit-like info. If I knew that HE wants my credit...

anon_investor wrote: ↑Sat Jul 09, 2022 11:35 am Google your name and be scared of the info that comes up...

I'm way past that level, thanks.

I had a very unpleasant, eye-opening experience earlier this week when trying to get oriented in my new HSA account with HealthEquity, and now I'm wondering if this happens with other third-party companies these days. My new employer has HSA through HealthEquity. I figured to preemptively give HE a call to learn my account number, so that I can promptly set up a transfer of funds from HealthEquity to Fidelity; based on the comments from the good folks on this forum I knew that Fido would be a better home for the employer contribution monies. The HE customer service rep was polite and asked the regular questions like my name, DOB, last 4 of SSN, etc. Then the time came to "verify the phone number and email address". Since I was alr...

Thank you all for your responses! OP, the companies you are dealing with already know pretty much all your business already. As a courtesy they have already leaked a lot of your info, so they have the jump on your data security already. Seems crazy, but that is where we are. Broken Man 1999 I agree 100% with you BrokenMan, that's how I've been looking at it as well. Since they have all of the data on me and through the online method I'm accessing their systems somewhat directly, unless the communication is intercepted the only way my data would leak would be them leaking it behind the scenes. Which I have very little control of; that's why I'm on the fence in terms of phoning it in or just doing the freezes online. Maybe I'll try phoning th...

I'm ready to freeze my credit with all relevant agencies. The wiki has a good compendium on the agencies involved, maybe with the exception of National Consumer Telecommunications and Utilities Exchange (NCTUE) which I have seen mentioned before https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Credit_ ... _companies

Based on your experiences, is it better to contact each agency by phone or it's ok to do credit freezes online directly with each reporting company? I tend to stay away from online transactions with sensitive info if I don't need to.

My experience with BofA is textbook of how not to treat a (small guy, non-corporate) customer. Had a credit card with them since the late 90's, always paid bills on time, fantastic credit rating. Sometime in late 2020 I receive a letter saying they don't have my birthdate on file (??) and to add it or else my account will be closed. After all these years, extremely unlikely that this information would not have been in the system. Much more likely an issue with an internal data migration or a BofA employee somewhere unwittingly pushed the wrong button that year. I didn't respond, waited to see what develops. They closed my credit card soon after their self-imposed deadline to "add birthdate" passed. I didn't even notice this for mo...

Thanks to all who have responded - I visited Redwood FCU in person this past week and opened secondary accounts - so far so good.

I've found the eyebonds.info website helpful in getting the current value of I-bonds, without having to log onto treasury direct or for paper bonds which have not been converted to the electronic form. The user interface of the site is consistent with the value accrual on the first of the month:

https://eyebonds.info/ibonds/home10000.html

I calculate the value of my I-bonds with the help of some spreadsheet formula yoga but also link to that site for a particular batch of I-Bonds, the link can be customized to point to any specific I-Bonds by adjusting the purchase date and value.

https://eyebonds.info/ibonds/10000/ib_2021_12.html ($10,000 I-Bonds bought in 2021, December).

FiveK wrote: ↑Sun Jun 12, 2022 6:10 pm Looks reasonable.

See Contributing to the wiki at the bottom of that page.

Done, thank you

You can't directly take money from your taxable brokerage or bank account and contribute that to a 401k. Understood, that is definitely known about pre-tax 401(k) but I was just making sure about after-tax because it was not clearly stated elsewhere. Other types of after-tax retirement accounts allow non-payroll contributions. Should that clarification ("regular contributions to pre-tax, after-tax and Roth 401(k) may only be made through direct monthly payroll deductions") be included in the wiki? I'm willing to make the edit if it's correct and I'm allowed to do so. Not sure offhand about the ability to use after-tax non-Roth before you reach the limit of your elective contributions, but even if it isn't a requirement and you wa...

...I'll go back to my spreadsheets and re-estimate what I'd hope to see in each type of account by what milestone; maybe something like $12k per year MBR on top of maxed out/matched 401(k) is a prudent strategy for the years when I have the MBR option available. After you retire you can roll the Roth 401k to a Roth IRA (unless your MBR plan allows immediate rollover to a Roth IRA while still working, which would be even more convenient) and all your contributions are withdrawable without tax or penalty. Assuming you plan to live for many years beyond age 59.5, it's likely that Roth will still beat taxable even if you retire very early, but as you note not everyone should hew exactly to generic advice so it's worth checking.... The new plan...

So, it appears that the plan supports MBR, and technically I could do $30k worth of MBR each year, but we've calculated that I'm better off with contributing to tax-deferred at this point. Any suggestions as to how much on this scale from $6k to $30k it would be reasonable for me to contribute to Roth each year given all of these tools available to me now and a lower anticipated tax bracket in retirement? The marginal tax rate issue applies to traditional vs. Roth. With MBR, it's the choice of Roth vs. taxable. In that case, assuming your investment values increase and you don't need to withdraw Roth gains before age 59.5, Roth (i.e., MBR) never loses to taxable. If we add the assumption that one has and is subject to annual tax on qualifi...

<snip> Is my below strategy sound? Max out 401(k) contribution (up to $20.5k) the first year, to maximize employee match and to lower tax + AGI, and hopefully arrive below the $129k MAGI limit for 2022. Then contribute maximum $6k for my age bracket into Roth IRA, and plan on doing a rollover of the 401(k) contributions sometime in December (after calculating DIV and INT income for the entire year) of just enough to still arrive below the MAGI limit for the year . That way I've maxed out the Roth IRA contribution for the year. I'm assuming that the chosen portion of the 401(k) contributions for rollover will be taxed fully so it's like adding a part of the 401(k) contributions back to taxable income for the year, as long as the income + DI...

FiveK wrote: ↑Mon May 02, 2022 7:03 pm

Navillus1968 wrote: ↑Mon May 02, 2022 6:21 pm Not to be pedantic, but you're not talking about a "rollover" when you move Trad 401k money into a Roth IRA, that transaction is a "conversion." It may seems silly, but using the correct name is key to keeping straight what's a non-taxable event (rollover) vs what's a taxable event (conversion).

I agree with your sentiment. Now if only the IRS would conform: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/rollover_chart.pdf.

That's fair. I used the term "rollover" because that's what I remembered TT had put in capital letters next to line 5b on my 1040. Good rule of thumb to follow to decode it as a taxable event; I'll remember to refer to it as a conversion.

No refund check for me either to this day. I got my hopes up a few days ago when Informed Delivery reported what looked like it was going to be a check, just to find out it was an unexpected refund of my 2021 state underpayment penalty, totaling less than $10.

To date I've received a 2020 federal refund by electronic transfer and paper I-Bonds in mail for 2021, so I'm definitely "seen" and "processed" in the Fed system. Same questions here, how do we "nudge" them to send the refund or at least get an estimate for the refund amount (plus taxable interest TBD).

While your work history and potential future may not be typical, the Prioritizing investments wiki article is often applicable. That suggests emphasizing tax-advantaged investing because, well, it has tax advantages. :) If you can and do retire at 55 or so with a significant taxable balance, that could put you in excellent shape to do significant Roth conversions at relatively low marginal rates while you use your taxable funds for living expenses. As with many optimization problems (e.g., the quadrilateral enclosing the largest area for a given perimeter is a square), paying a low tax rate over many years usually works better than not paying much (or any) tax for a few years, then having to pay higher rates due to RMDs, Taxation of Social...

Cool, thank you very much! 6.7% real may be defensible for stocks, but if you have a bond component in your asset allocation and put those bonds in your traditional accounts the likely return is lower. Agreed. My AA is relatively aggressive, thus the relatively high assumption of 6.7% real and I've been loading up on I-Bonds to grow at least a portion of the bond allocation that way. Is my assumption kosher that if I save aggressively now and build up a taxable portion of my portfolio for FI for at around 55 yo with 2.45% WR, that I can reasonably plan on deferring withdrawals from 401(k), SSA and Roth for much later, around 65+? Any potential future gotchas with that plan of emphasizing taxable? Considering traditional withdrawals for Roth...

I'm learning new stuff, cool! Thanks for your continued support FiveK . One could infer from that that you have been unemployed, getting a graduate degree, etc., for at least the past several years. Yes, recently I have been on a sabattical and am targeting increased salary when returning to the workforce (same career). This has happened successfully a few of times in my work history. Perhaps not a very "typical" future retiree, that's why I'm cautious about visualizing my exact path to retirement from here. One could infer from that that you have been fully employed for at least the past several years. Might need more information about your actual situation.... "Once again, you have judged correctly." My SSA would show ...

Thank you FiveK for the response. The kneejerk response to that situation is "use Roth, because that's likely the lowest marginal tax rate you'll see for many years." But maybe the 1/2 year income is low enough that various credits could make traditional better...? That's been my reaction, too. FWIW, I don't usually qualify for (or claim) any significant tax credits. RMDs on $1 million will be low in comparison to the income at which the backdoor Roth process is needed. In that situation, using traditional now (when receiving a full year's income) is likely better. I'm planning for larger DIV+INT income from taxable and considerable SS mixed-in later in life. 1. Maybe underthinking it. See Traditional versus Roth - Bogleheads for ...

I'm looking for advice on how to strategize 401(k) and Roth IRA contributions when starting a job mid-year, when the taxable income is less than in a full calendar year. A cursory search on bogleheads.org did not return answers to my questions, so I'm posting here. With the paychecks basically constituting ±50% of the salary the first year, the MAGI may be low enough to be eligible for a direct Roth IRA contribution, with a full salary plus potential bonus etc. incoming in year 2. I'm thinking it would be wise to plan ahead to get the additional $6k into Roth in the first year, as I may not have an opportunity to do direct IRA contributions for years to come with a higher taxable income. My goal is to contribute/roll over to Roth sooner tha...

The only place that "Gross Income" appears in my return is Schedule C, Part I, line 7, and the number exceeds my 2021 Roth IRA contribution of $3000, so I should not have excess contribution for that year. Schedule C "gross income" is not the same as your AGI (adjusted gross income). Your taxable income on schedule C is your net profit (or loss) on line 31: that is the number carried over to your 1040 to calculate your personal taxes. When a profit, that is the amount to "Enter on schedule 1(Form 1040), line 3." That is your Schedule C earned income. If a loss, it generates no earned income whatsoever. Thanks for pointing that out. Schedule C line 29 (tentative profit) is above $3000, but it's reduced by "...

Thank you sycamore and sailaway for replying. I have additional questions/concerns. You mention the $125k limit, so presumably you're filing Single or Head of Household? That's correct. Try filling out that worksheet by hand - are there any additions you made on lines 3-9? When you write worksheet, do you mean 5329? It's empty, except for lines 23-25 (excess contributions and tax - all calculated by TT). Does TT generate and fill out the worksheet? You'd have to search for it in "forms" mode. Maybe it thinks something goes on lines 3-9? Yes, TT is the party generating and filling out the worksheet. I'd like to understand where the definition/calculation comes from. It sounds like you are being limited by your earned income. I thin...

I have been doing my own taxes every year since 1997, first using paper forms and in the recent two decades using tax software. Last year I have made a point of contributing to my Roth IRA so I made sure that I have earned income by the end of the year and contributed half of the yearly limit (less than 50 yo) in Q4, after calculating a safe margin between what I contribute and what I estimated my gross income would be by the end of 2021. This year Turbotax 2021 calculates and silently reports (in form 5329 part IV) an excess contribution even thou Schedule C line 7 (Gross Income) has a number at least $500 more than the contribution. Looks like TT may be using net income for this 5329 calculation. I'm within the mAGI $125k and the $6k limi...

Thank you everyone for the updates. An easy way to tell is create an account at irs.gov. Then view your 2020 account transcript. If the IRS looked at your return, there would be a code 290 for zero. The date might help identify it. (There are 290 codes generated for stimulus too). So checking the date is key. If a tax decrease was warranted, a code 291 will be there and a code 846 for refund. Thanks Asyouwish for the tip - I'd rather not deal with ID.me entirely for this purpose so I guess I'll just keep on waiting. Kinda frustrating that it would take them 2 years to process what should have been a very simple return. A bit more frustrating may be that the refund money could have been used to invest in the spirit of this forum or to buy I-...

I'm in the same boat, had filed 2020 taxes early before the ARP Act was enacted, and to this day I haven't received any refund/notice on the difference in tax after the exclusion. Has anyone had luck calling IRS and getting any sort of update from a human being? The IRS website and fact sheet on this were updated as late as last week, but with nothing seemingly new: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/2020-unemployment-compensation-exclusion-faqs-topic-d-amended-return-form-1040-x On top of it I changed banks this year so if IRS in fact do what they had spelled out they'd do, my refund may be even more delayed as it bounces and they (hopefully) follow up by reissuing a check. Perhaps this routing change is an excuse alone for calling them and prod...

I ended up opening accounts with Star One (https://www.depositaccounts.com/banks/star-one-cu.html) as my primary FCU. I was going to recommend Star One. I moved out of the area, but still keep Star One as my primary FCU because the interest is much better than the local ones up here (even if 0.5% is disappointing, it's better than 0.5% on the first $500, 0.02% on the rest). I'm not a fan of the online banking of the local one I ended up opening an account with either, but I'd probably get used to it. I had my mortgage at Star One, and had a good experience with that as well, I really liked the simple fee to get the mortgage rate adjusted to current rates, which I did several times in 2010-2012. Thank you for the reply, toast0. Glad to hear...

Here in Santa Rosa too- no personal knowledge of NBCU but they are super tiny… $87 million in assets at 12/31/20 per their 990. That’s just too small for me. There is risk of not enough scale for operating a risk management department, board oversight, customer service, etc purposes. If your issue previously was operational/customer service previously, being at a super dinky CU inherently (not guaranteed) increases the risk of operational difficulties. Also if you Google them, I thought they were geared more towards banking for cannabis and agriculture. Though they are paying a dividend so they must be operating efficiently on the other hand. I’ve been at Redwood Credit Union since 2010 ($6.2 billion in assets at 12/31/20) and have been ha...

Why do you want to join this CU? I'm in the process of evacuating my funds from, and closing, my accounts at another credit union, which used to be named after a major semiconductor company. This past January they mailed my custom financial statements I had requested (not the regular mailings) with account numbers etc. in a completely unsealed envelope, and later their VP of Business Operations admitted in a phone call that she was well aware of multiple instances of problems with their mailing machine in the past but at the same time showed absolutely no interest in rectifying the ongoing process issues there. I had been a member for 20+ years and had other difficulties with them in the past, so that was the last straw. I've used Stanford...

I'm curious about other folks' experiences with this FCU. Found it through the depositaccounts.com website, mentioned by another Boglehead: https://www.depositaccounts.com/banks/n ... union.html

Few reviews on the depositaccounts.com website, one stating that "Even though membership is limited to a few counties, anyone can join by making a contribution to Sonoma Land Trust.". Some below average ratings on Google.

Thanks for seeing my point and agreeing. Just kinda raising the cost of customer service for the rest of us. I will not read too much into this line. The call is to get to the bottom of it, point their attention to it and hopefully improve the situation. Perhaps as a result of such call Schwab could decide to introduce fractional share treatment for more ETFs, including UPRO, which would be a “win” for every Charles Schwab customer, don’t you think? For added context, this is the second time this difference in how these two brokerage houses process this ETF came up; a couple of weeks ago the Dec dividends were reinvested the next business day at Fido but took a few business days (into Jan) at Schwab - you’ll see that in your transaction log...

Schwab was accurate immediately. Including the fractional shares at Schwab? Full shares of UPRO were doubled correctly, but not the fractional shares. In contrast, Fidelity's math was 100% correct. I'll be calling Schwab in the next few days to get an answer for this, but wondering if any other owner of UPRO on this forum was impacted in the same way. I received CASH IN LIEU for the fractional shares. Check your transaction history. Yup, but my point is that the same split resulted in the fractional shares amount being properly and automatically reinvested back in UPRO in both Roth and taxable accounts at Fidelity. Given that Schwab only allows clients to make purchases for most ETFs in full shares (but reinvests regular dividends into fra...

typical.investor wrote: ↑Fri Jan 14, 2022 5:17 pm Schwab was accurate immediately.

Including the fractional shares at Schwab? Full shares of UPRO were doubled correctly, but not the fractional shares. In contrast, Fidelity's math was 100% correct.
I'll be calling Schwab in the next few days to get an answer for this, but wondering if any other owner of UPRO on this forum was impacted in the same way.

Is there any disadvantage to rebalancing frequently (in a non-taxable account, e.g. Roth IRA)? I want to try 40/60 portfolio with TMF and either TQQQ or SOXL (or possibly 30% TQQQ and 30% SOXL) and I will be funding that account biweekly. Would there be any issues if I rebalance every time I add funds, i.e. biweekly? I did some backtesting from 1986-2019 with the UPROSIM and TMFSIM daily series, looking at every possible starting day with a fixed duration. My backtesting suggests that there's a mathematical advantage to rebalancing every day or two when TMF has a negative correlation to the equity, because you ratchet the daily counter-movements thousands of times to boost returns. The benefit drops off rapidly with increasing duration bet...

Jack FFR1846 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 23, 2021 9:09 am HR is an arm of the corporation and tends strongly to side with the higher ups. They are NOT there to help you.

This. Sounds like you OP already have a sense of where this may be heading. Derogatory comments in the past when that person was a peer, not a manager, did not prevent him from being promoted to a people manager role - this may help illuminate the company culture/HR. Discriminatory comments don't show up in isolation, there is usually a pattern.

Looking for another job, either externally or internally before performance review history is impacted may be in order.

Did the recent UPRO/TMF volatility cause anyone to trigger a rebalance? What balance bands do you operate, if any? In retrospect, December 3rd might have been a nice rebalance opportunity. /FIRE55 I rebalanced on the 2nd and 7th lol. Oops. I noticed that too earlier in December but I did not rebalance at the time, however I did create an additional spreadsheet for myself to keep track of the setup after the "hypothetical" reallocation just to see how it fares. For the past few days the hypothetical has been displaying a decent additional gain but the AA already reached 60%:40%, which is higher on UPRO than the updated HFEA strategy calls for. If one rebalanced two weeks ago, presumably because one does not follow the quarterly re...

Did the recent UPRO/TMF volatility cause anyone to trigger a rebalance? What balance bands do you operate, if any? In retrospect, December 3rd might have been a nice rebalance opportunity. /FIRE55 I rebalanced on the 2nd and 7th lol. Oops. I noticed that too earlier in December but I did not rebalance at the time, however I did create an additional spreadsheet for myself to keep track of the setup after the "hypothetical" reallocation just to see how it fares. For the past few days the hypothetical has been displaying a decent additional gain but the AA already reached 60%:40%, which is higher on UPRO than the updated HFEA strategy calls for. If one rebalanced two weeks ago, presumably because one does not follow the quarterly re...

I was in the same situation as OP 6 weeks ago. I ended up putting all of the money earmarked for VTSAX into the market within a few days, granted it was split between a few brokerage firms (Schwab, Vanguard) for redundancy/diversification. The usual suggestion if you're investing long-term is don't try to time it, get in the market as soon as you have the cash. In my case the market was in a dip and went up soon after the purchases, so luckily it was an advantageous timing for me (up to this point at least :) ). I also broke down the total into a few large chunks just to get some hang of and "practice" with the purchase process and see how the user interfaces differ between various brokerage firms. That by itself lead to uncoverin...