Bogleheads.org

Years ago, I tried to leverage a higher paying job offer to get more pay with my existing employer. The existing employer was willing to come close to matching it, however, they refused to offer a contractual guarantee that I would not be laid off within a year or two. So out the door I went.

If you don't need or want coupon interest and can pay the annual taxes on the imputed interest (earned but not paid out until maturity) along the way, I'd suggest a zero coupon Treasury (STRIP) maturing in 3 years. You can currently get about 3.86% yield to maturity on a 3-year STRIP. In most states, there will be no state tax on the interest.

Or you could lock in a noncallable new issue brokered CD for 3 years at about a 4.25% yield.

For decades, the financial press has been telling readers that their investments MUST keep pace with or beat inflation. I have interpreted this crude, often unquestioned, and almost universal advice as trying to pressure or guilt investors into staying heavily invested in equities (a stance which benefits publications' mutual fund advertisers), even when an investor's portfolio could sustain significant below-inflation returns throughout their lifetime. If a portfolio is large enough, there is no monetary imperative to keep pace with or beat inflation; it becomes a psychological thing reflecting fear of losing purchasing power, even when what all that purchasing power would be ultimately used for cannot be specified. Huh? Having a portfoli...

For decades, the financial press has been telling readers that their investments MUST keep pace with or beat inflation. I have interpreted this crude, often unquestioned, and almost universal advice as trying to pressure or guilt investors into staying heavily invested in equities (a stance which benefits publications' mutual fund advertisers), even when an investor's portfolio could sustain significant below-inflation returns throughout their lifetime. If a portfolio is large enough, there is no monetary imperative to keep pace with or beat inflation; it becomes a psychological thing reflecting fear of losing purchasing power, even when what all that purchasing power would be ultimately used for cannot be specified. Huh? Having a portfoli...

For decades, the financial press has been telling readers that their investments MUST keep pace with or beat inflation. I have interpreted this crude, often unquestioned, and almost universal advice as trying to pressure or guilt investors into staying heavily invested in equities (a stance which benefits publications' mutual fund advertisers), even when an investor's portfolio could sustain significant below-inflation returns throughout their lifetime. If a portfolio is large enough, there is no monetary imperative to keep pace with or beat inflation; it becomes a psychological thing reflecting fear of losing purchasing power, even when what all that purchasing power would be ultimately used for cannot be specified.

Wouldn’t it be easier to purchase 10 new-issue 1 year T-bills? One year T-bills have no coupon, the bills are purchased at a discount an redeemed at face value. I also believe that the interest rate will be better than 4.6% based on the Fed increasing rates this week. This is a good idea. I just wanted to keep everything in Fidelity to keep it all straight, so I thought the secondary market there would make more sense. There is no need to purchase new-issue 1-year T bills. If you're interested, on Fidelity, just buy the T bills maturing 1-25-2024 (CUSIP 912796ZY8) on the secondary market for a current 4.592% yield to maturity. T bill interest is taxed in the year the bond matures, which would push off taxability of these bonds until 2024. ...

Wouldn’t it be easier to purchase 10 new-issue 1 year T-bills? One year T-bills have no coupon, the bills are purchased at a discount an redeemed at face value. I also believe that the interest rate will be better than 4.6% based on the Fed increasing rates this week. This is a good idea. I just wanted to keep everything in Fidelity to keep it all straight, so I thought the secondary market there would make more sense. There is no need to purchase new-issue 1-year T bills. If you're interested, on Fidelity, just buy the T bills maturing 1-25-2024 (CUSIP 912796ZY8) on the secondary market for a current 4.592% yield to maturity. T bill interest is taxed in the year the bond matures, which would push off taxability of these bonds until 2024.

That CUSIP matures on 02/29/2024, so that is almost 13 months from now, not 1 year. Furthermore, this is not a Treasury Bill -- which has no coupons -- but rather a Treasury Note with semi-annual coupons that will pay out on 2/28/2023 and 8/31/2023 and a par value of $1000 per bond that will paid back at maturity. With respect to the the coupon payment approaching at the end of the month, you would be paying $9.16 per bond in accrued interest to the seller if you buy these bonds today.

For less sophisticated investors, I think it's important to point out that TEY is often advertised for tax-advantaged fixed income products and muni's without any explicit reference to marginal tax rate. The built-in assumption is almost always that one is in the highest tax bracket, which produces the highest possible TEY. Many investors will not be in that bracket, and will not realize the advertised TEY without understanding why if they even notice. Also, it's worthwhile to acknowledge that in evaluating a potential investment, computing TEY can become more complex if one is already near the top of a tax bracket (other than the top one) and some of the additional income would be split across two (or more) brackets. This is where "wh...

I know this is a matter of preference and both offer a wealth of content. However, I am thinking about signing up for a digital subscription of either Bloomberg or WSJ to stay abreast of the latest industry news. Does anyone have experience with either of these platforms? And if so, any thoughts? Keep in mind that you can sign up for WSJ online but you can not cancel subscription online. You will have to call, stay on the phone for 30 minutes until you are connected to someone. The exception would be California, which mandates the availability of online cancellation. I had an easy time connecting with the WSJ phone rep, and he was polite. The WSJ+Barron's+MarketWatch digital bundle is very easy to cancel online. Cancelled it a few months a...

Because there aren't insurance company or drug plan limitations, I've been using GoodRx to purchase an entire year's worth of pills for less than the 90-day price quoted by drug plans or the Express Scripts mail order price. I ask my MD to write the prescription for 365 pills. But even if it is written as 90 days with 3 refills, I found that with GoodRx, I can request a fill for entire 90 x 4 pill order at one time and get a very substantial discount. Thanks for posting this! What a great timesaver. I was wondering if what you described would be allowed. Great to know it works. Super advice. So..I had something similar happen recently. I had a prescription for 30 days, 2 refills. One pharmacy did 90 pills no issue. Another said they may ha...

Using GoodRX is like using a coupon each time you get a RX using them. The problem with using these discount plans is that you won’t get credit by Medicare on how much money you and the drug plan spent on your drugs. . Therefore it will be difficult for you to move through the various phases (deductable not yet met, initial phase, donut hole/ coverage gap, catastrophic) thus keeping the meds you buy later in the year more expensive than they need to be. In other words, unless you only have one or two meds, you will likely pay the same amount or even more by the end of the year when you use the alternate discount plans. (I recently read that in a few years the maximum out-of-pocket costs for those on a Part D drug plan will be capped at $2,...

JamesSFO wrote: ↑Sat Jan 28, 2023 7:59 am

JayB wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 9:23 am I may be mistaken, but I've always been under the impression that GoodRx and other discount operations somehow make money off of the personal information they garner from your prescriptions, through targeted marketing efforts and possibly selling these data to others.

Pretty sure they are just making a cut on the spread between what they pay the PBM vs. what they charge you.

GoodRx just got fined $1.5M for sharing personal medication data with Google, Facebook, and others: https://gizmodo.com/ftc-fines-goodrx-pr ... 1850059096

Just filled one of my prescriptions yesterday via GoodRx - for first time since going on Medicare Prescription D a few years ago. As everyone says, it's quite easy. New prescriptions are definitely not necessary. GoodRx prices do vary by pharmacy, but in my case no transfer was needed. It worked out for the best, as I mostly prefer to keep all prescriptions at one place for convenience and safety. I went to my current pharmacy with my GoodRx coupon and requested a refill on an existing RX. They were very used to doing this - where somebody has a Medicare prescription plan, but wants a fill via GoodRx instead. They scanned the coupon and did the refill, leaving the balance of my prescriptions intact and processing through my normal plan. No...

I recently bought 29 t-bills on Fidelity with a maturity of 3/30. I need the money sooner than I anticipated, so I'm trying to sell. I'm getting the following error: The quantity specified in your order does not meet the dealer's minimum quantity requirement for this security. The minimum quantity for this security is 1,000. I've tried to lower the limit price, but that doesn't seem to work either. Does this mean that there is no way I can sell it? I was surprised because this and other threads made it seem like it was easy. Maybe I'm missing something? Thanks for your help. When I've bought small quantities on the secondary market (at Fidelity), I found that I had to set a limit price to the Quantity 1 asking price in the depth of book. (...

livesoft wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2023 10:57 am I think they simply buy high quality bonds and hold them to maturity. Furthermore, all of their clients eventually die, so as with many annuities there are mortality credits that go into their methods. I don't think I have to explain mortality credits, but I looked it up and found "a mortality credit is the money left over when an annuity owner passes away earlier than expected." So I guess that is a Ponzi scheme, right?!

Due to the recent pandemic, life expectancies dropped on the order of 2 years. That gives a potentially large boost to available mortality credits.

student wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:31 am

JayB wrote: ↑Mon Jan 30, 2023 4:33 pm Before investigating whether or not the end cap is leaking, it would be worthwhile to check out if the inlet to the downspout is even partially obstructed inside the gutter. If so, the perfect place for water to overflow during a heavy rainfall would be where you're seeing damage. Once upon a time, I duct-taped a camera -- with movie mode on -- to the end of a long pole and stuck it out the window to inspect what's going on inside the gutter. Maybe you can think of something like this to get an image of what's up there.

Thanks for the suggestion.

If it's hard to get a ladder up there to inspect the gutter, perhaps you know someone who has a drone with camera.

You can see frozen water on the brick under the gutter. What appears to be happening is the end cap on the gutter up against the brick is leaking. I would have someone get up there on a ladder and patch the end cap from inside the gutter. Depending on conditions you may be able to use a caulk, but if the inside of the gutter is wet, it won't stick well. In that case you could use something like wet patch roof cement. This is thick black stuff but if you are patching from inside the gutter, it won't be seen. The fascia board is just an appearance board that covers up the ends of the rafters to keep out weather and birds. What I would be more concerned about is up against the brick. It's possible that the brick veneer stops just below the gu...

Another good one is to use a pencil to flatten the the tube to get out every last bit of toothpaste. You'd be surprised how much toothpaste is left. I have found that there's a lot of opportunities to minimize wastefulness. Agree about minimizing wastefulness. A LOT can be done by not using more of a product than is really needed. For instance, a pea-sized amount of toothpaste on a toothbrush is all that's needed our household; that makes a tube last a very long time. And several years ago, there were articles about how most people can successfully use significantly less than the recommended amount of detergent in dishwashers and washing machines. Since reading those articles, we use perhaps 2/3 of the recommended detergent levels in these.

Of course I don't know what future C-CPI will be but I am trying to program an Excel spreadsheet to generate future tax brackets based upon any C-CPI value(s) that I enter. I have spent an hour trying to find a document that explains the process. There is obviously a step that rounds or truncates to a value that is a multiple of $50. Can someone point me to a document that describes the steps? I have an Excel spreadsheet with a column for each year going forward. Each year also has a tax bracket inflation multiplier, which I compute the compounded value of based on my assumed value of the C-CPI. Currently, I assume that general inflation will run at 4% going forward and that the C-CPI will be 50 basis points less than that (i.e., 3.5%). My...

Mayflower5405 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 10:27 am Hi all -
I've been creating a Tbill ladder to take advantage of the rising rate environment, generally investing tranches into 17 week T-bills. I'm not quite sure how to decide when to transition to longer duration treasuries and would be interested in how others are thinking about this.
Thanks!

Not quite a complete answer to your question, but I've recently been buying 52 week T bills that mature at the end of January 2024. This defers the taxability of interest into the next calendar year, plus I can avoid T-bills maturing during any debt ceiling theatrics which might take place in the second half of this year.

If you use models like Fidelity's Retirement Model or Personal Capital, there are built in inflation rates for future projections (i.e. to derive your "Retirement Number" or how much you will have at the end of "plan"). If you do your own modeling vs a spreadsheet or a program that allows you to customize for inflation, what do you use for the inflation rate on your expense categories? Do you differentiate between ordinary living expenses and medical or other categories? Fidelity's retirement model is rather limited. As of fairly recently, it assumed general inflation at around 2.6% and medical expenses starting around 4% and declining to the general inflation rate over a number of years. To get the model to a more real...

In my case the problem has cleared up----clicking on the shopping cart icon shows that I have Turbotax Premier $69 $0 . Download, or Online? Online I don't see a cart option, but I still see the full prices, not $0 Online. There is a cart at upper right on some but not all pages, if for example you 'go to where you left off' (or some such language) you'll see the cart. Yeah, still $69 Mine was showing $69 online until I went to Tax Tools and then to Print return. At that point I said that I wanted to view my Federal return and was brought to an invoicing screen that showed $0 charge. So I completed the $0 charge and got a receipt for it. Never printed the return or viewed the PDF yet. Then did the same for the state return. The returns sti...

Me too. Been buying, Brokered CD and Treasurys. Just started reading about Agency bonds. From these posts and what I've read. 1. All agency bonds are callable. ? 2. Pay slightly higher interest rates. 3 Are very secure. Are agency bonds always "new issue" ? I still get "confused" when buying CD/bonds on the secondary market. Not exactly sure what my return really is at Maturity. :oops: Still learning. 1. Not all Agency bonds are callable. For instance, Tennessee Valley Authority has lots of noncallable bonds for sale on the secondary market. So does Resolution Trust Company. 2. Agency bonds pay higher rates partly because they are less liquid (i.e., harder to sell at a good price) than Treasurys, so best held to maturit...

I may be mistaken, but I've always been under the impression that GoodRx and other discount operations somehow make money off of the personal information they garner from your prescriptions, through targeted marketing efforts and possibly selling these data to others.

Goldilocks wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 8:01 am Can we legitimately reduce federal income tax on earnings from individually owned US treasuries by buying a 52 Week Note or something similar and claiming the return as a long term capital gain on an asset held for one year instead of claiming the earnings as interest taxed at ordinary income rates?

You cannot do that, but you can buy a 52-week T Bill now that will mature in January 2024 and owe no taxes on the interest until the 2024 tax year. This can be a good way to defer interest income into the next tax year.

I'm so glad to hear that the LTC claim experience was a positive one for you. I am going through the claiming experience right now on behalf of my 101 year-old dad, who is in Medicare's Hospice program. What I did not know until now is that the 90-day elimination period is waived by his LTC carrier for claimants in Hospice. And since dad has been in Hospice for a number of months, the carrier is planning to make payments going back to when he entered Hospice. Plus, the carrier has been willing to expedite the approval process, compressing it to just 3 days after all documents are received in good order. This is really comforting and unexpected, especially with all of the horror stories one hears about the LTC claiming process.

I did the free TT Premiere online via Fidelity, and now it's telling me $39 for the state :oops: Really? Supposed to be $0 for the state. Just checked mine. Also $39 for the state. gee. Yeah I dunno why it is doing that, it was free the first time I logged in (via the fidelity link) - do I have to log in via fidelity.com each time rather than going to turbotax.com? It still says "presented by fidelity" when I go directly to TT I tried login from fidelity, still $69 and $39. I don't know why. Fortunately I have not put in a lot of info yet before I give it up. I happened to do many TLH in 2022 and had many trades. If 2023 is looking up, I may not have as many trades, and I may lose this offer next year. Now I doubt if it is worth ...

Zanmar wrote: ↑Tue Jan 24, 2023 10:43 am So if anyone can help or point me in the right direction...

Sometimes logins won't work with a particular site if third party cookies, popups and redirects, location, JavaScript, and/or motion sensors are disabled. Try permitting these for the problem website and see if this helps.

I had the free TT link three weeks ago and clicked on it. It is now gone, and TT says I only have a $20 discount. I encountered the same thing this morning, half way through what yesterday was a free return courtesy of Fidelity. I spent 45 minutes speaking with TT; they said that the problem was at Fidelity's end and that many other Fidelity customers were encountering the same thing. So I called Fidelity and the rep acknowledged that this is a known problem starting in the past day or so that should be fixed within a few days; if it is not, the rep reassured me that if I go ahead and pay ($69 for TT Deluxe Premier Federal + additional for State), Fidelity will reimburse me after I call back and have a payment receipt to furnish. I hope th...

buckeye7983 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 24, 2023 11:54 am Thanks, all you Boglehead poets!
You’ve got rhyming skills. I didn’t know it!
My Roth IRA
Was a cause for dismay
But your verses will now help me grow it!

Glad your Roth IRA
Is not in decay
You're sounding well versed
Without being rehearsed
Seize the day, seize the day, come what may!

I had the free TT link three weeks ago and clicked on it. It is now gone, and TT says I only have a $20 discount. I encountered the same thing this morning, half way through what yesterday was a free return courtesy of Fidelity. I spent 45 minutes speaking with TT; they said that the problem was at Fidelity's end and that many other Fidelity customers were encountering the same thing. So I called Fidelity and the rep acknowledged that this is a known problem starting in the past day or so that should be fixed within a few days; if it is not, the rep reassured me that if I go ahead and pay ($69 for TT Deluxe Premier Federal + additional for State), Fidelity will reimburse me after I call back and have a payment receipt to furnish. I hope th...

I plan to redeem zero-fixed-rate I Bonds from 2021 and 2022 about three months after they start earning zero interest, so I surrender zero interest. Math and calendar will design my exit strategy. Whether or not one cashes out at 0% should depend on what role I Bonds play in one's portfolio. Fixed rate of 0.0% vs. Fixed rate of 0.4% for a new bond. Cash out the old 2021 bond and buy a new one if you want the long-term inflation protection. If the current year's $10K limit on purchases isn't filled, that may make sense. However, I'd prefer not to have a 2023 tax liability for the cashed out bonds. Also, I'm thinking that if the next 6 month period composite rate starting in May would be 0%, Treasury just may increase the fixed rate beyond 0...

GRP wrote: ↑Mon Jan 23, 2023 11:18 pm I bet at least half of these were written by ChatGPT.

Chat G-P-T
Def not for thee
Original only
That's no baloney
Who needs AI just to be?

Neither spouse nor I are dejected
That to sell our I Bonds was neglected
We await the surprise
That will widen our eyes
When the true gain inside is detected

Bonds bought to hold
Until we get old
Not tempted to sell
That keeps us so well
Not sleazy, so easy, so bold.

I plan to redeem zero-fixed-rate I Bonds from 2021 and 2022 about three months after they start earning zero interest, so I surrender zero interest. Math and calendar will design my exit strategy. For the short term, it can be tempting to cash out I Bonds shortly after they start earning zero percent interest. But, for playing the long game -- where I Bonds are desired for a number of years due to their liquidity, principal protection, tax deferral, and state income tax exemption on interest -- I'm betting that the zero percent window will not persist for long. It's true that holding for six months at 0% would reduce the trailing 12-month return to about 3+ percent, but over the longer haul, I'm betting that I Bond returns will have at lea...

Before making any decisions about how to invest the funds, I would want to see a spreadsheet, with projected inflows (from dues etc.) and expenses by year for the next 20 years or so. Then, for important and relatively expensive goals, I would consider investing in zero-coupon Treasurys (STRIPS) that mature in the years that those expenses are projected to occur. With the rest, I'd keep the funds in Treasury bills/notes/bonds, perhaps in a rolling ladder. The objective would be capital preservation with some planned liquidity each year. It looks like the synagogue has no pressing needs that will be unmet with existing and projected resources, so there's no need to get into stock market risk. In a sense, the synagogue has already "won t...

Switched overhead kitchen bulbs inside a beautiful wooden-framed fixture from T12 fluorescents to T8 LED's; same total lumens and color temperature at less than 1/2 the wattage, with almost instant on, no humming, and an expected bulb lifetime of many years. This took a small bit of work to replace the tombstone connectors and remove the ballast. Also replaced a couple of over-the-counter fluorescents with LED fixtures + dimmer switches.

dred pirate wrote: ↑Thu Jan 19, 2023 6:26 pm Is there an online calculator that can check the actual yield I will end up getting if I hold to maturity?

Try Fidelity's Price/Yield Calculator.

I agree that EE's don't make much sense right now. You can buy a 20-year STRIP (zero coupon Treasury) that matures at $1000 for about $458 right now. To purchase $1000 of EE Bond maturity value in 20 years would take $500. So that $42 difference makes EE bonds unattractive unless one has a really good reason to defer taxation for 20 years.

Calhoon wrote: ↑Fri Jan 20, 2023 9:45 am But if the gov truly defaulted wouldn't any t-bills be at risk regardless of when they mature?

Temporarily not having the funds for payment of principal and/or interest at some time a few months from now is completely different than saying that no outstanding bills, notes, or bonds will pay out in the future. In a crunch, I'm betting on the former at worst. T bills do not pay out coupons, so nothing is due until maturity.

For funds not needed this calendar year, would it probably be safer to keep things in VMFXX or in T Bills that mature very early in 2024, when any debt ceiling showdown is hopefully resolved?

Tooth wrote: ↑Thu Jan 19, 2023 1:09 pm An actionable thing to do is have plenty of liquid emergency money to keep your own lights on.

^ This. Some folks insist that the whole topic is not actionable, but you wisely argue otherwise. My actionable response has been to sell off any T-Bills and escrowed-to-maturity muni's maturing after May through the end of the year. There are lots of other places to park funds, and I'm spreading the funds around several of these to try to maintain liquidity. I'd rather play it safe than insist that this time is no different than past threats of default.

I know this is a political topic and has to do with legislation that is pending, but hopefully we can keep it civil and narrowly focused to just T-Bills. Right now if congress does nothing and the debt ceiling is hit what happens with T-Bills? And what if the US defaults, which I guess would happen if the treasury ran completely out of options? Last time federal employees were put on furlough... but I don't remember anything about bond obligations being interrupted. Didn't the treasury do some damage control and prioritize essential workers, military, essential debt payments, but paused other things to try and mitigate the issue. OP is holding a sizable chunk of T-Bills. Maybe a bank CD is safer? This topic -- anything about the Debt Ceili...

I'm still using my HP 10bII+ Financial Calculator and love it! Changed the batteries once in the last decade or so.

We recently realized that we can grind whole flaxseeds (which are very cheap) with our mini coffee grinder; this takes about 15 seconds to make a batch. So we then returned a more expensive bag of pre-ground flaxseeds to Whole Foods.

A good quality programmable thermostat is a necessity. Among other things, it should have the ability for the homeowner to manually set the low and high balance points; having this available will require an external thermometer wired to the thermostat (recommended) or an internet capable device that can pull the exterior temperature reading from the internet. The low balance point is the outside temperature below which the outside unit will not engage; this is often set around 0° F or perhaps a bit below. The high balance point is the outside temperature above which the auxiliary resistance electric strips will not engage. Running the auxiliary resistance is much more expensive per BTU than getting BTUs from the external unit alone; The hig...

Carson wrote: ↑Mon Jan 16, 2023 7:32 am The taxes and fees are one thing I don't understand about the prepaid service.

For the $300 service, I was charged $339. I think it is state/local sales tax + a bit more. But I am pretty sure an equivalent postpaid/contracted mobile service of $25/month would attract more than that in taxes and fees when it is billed as an actual telecom service.

I wonder if there was an activation fee incorporated into your charge. Additionally, AT&T somehow recovers funds for E911 service; the amount and how it is charged might be state dependent.

In another thread someone mentioned the AT&T prepaid plan (https://www.att.com/prepaid/). Has anyone switched to this plan from an existing AT&T plan? Can you do it online? Any gotchas with it? It states - 16GB of data. $25/mo. for 12 months. When you pay $300 online for the entire year in advance.  So is your total just $300 for a year? Or $300 + $25/month ? We've had the $300 prepaid plans on 2 lines for years. The $300 is charged once per year and can be paid online w/o speaking with an AT&T rep. The gotcha as I understand it is that it requires a new phone number to be activated; if one has an existing phone number with AT&T, it supposedly can't be used, although I got around that limitation for each line, which had bee...