Bogleheads.org

AstroJohn

Moneydance if you are willing to pay the small cost. It's solid, stable, and non-subscription. GnuCash will also do everything you want for free. I gave up on Quicken years ago.

AstroJohn

My wife and I have dealt with end of life issues for two relatives. One had a trust the other did not. For the most part everything was easy for both. The only bothersome problem we had was taking over some of the finances for the non-trust relative. Powers of attorney and banks and investment firms...

AstroJohn

Gave up on quicken and went to moneydance years ago. In my view much better than quicken. Transaction reminders are fantastic and I think may be able to generate automatic entries that would help with cash flow. Tech support is superb. I'm also used gnucash for years, but it is not for the faint of ...

AstroJohn

Retired from the Civil Service at the end of 2011, but then immediately went to work half time at a local university. When covid-19 came along, shifted to working from home. Now have no interest in setting foot on campus again. College students think they are invincible. Fully pulled the plug on 24 ...

AstroJohn

I've been a Premium Services client for many years. Now on my 4th advisor. The second one saw that I was in indexer and pretty much left me alone, except when I had a question. Then she was very helpful. When she retired, she told me that Fidelity would assign me to a new advisor, but that if I wish...

AstroJohn

An interesting series of posts. Out of curiosity, I've taken all the posted percentages, binned them by the stated age of the poster into decadal bins and plotted the resulting averages. On average, we Bogleheads seem to be consistently following a 120-Age equity distribution. https://i.postimg.cc/9...

AstroJohn

Ages: Both of us are 70 and fully retired.

50% stocks, 7% of which is international, 48% bonds, 2% cash. More or less following Otar's advice that at 50/50 you can't go too far wrong. Pensions and Social Security meet all our expenses.

AstroJohn

I've been using LibreOffice at home for years. All my financial spreadsheets use it with no problems. But, sadly, MS Office rules the business world. All my attempts to use the product for work related activity have always run into minor to major formatting issues. It is simply not an effective use ...

AstroJohn

Big fan of sync.com here as well. Has worked flawlessly across two laptops and two desktops. I'm under 6 GB, so cost is zero.

AstroJohn

Reached a comfortable state about eight years ago and partially retired. Will be fully retired two weeks from now. No changes in lifestyle. To me that was the whole idea. We will just continue to live the way we always have--some travel, when it is safe again, regular dinning out, when it is safe ag...

AstroJohn

I became hooked on astronomy in junior high school and made it a career while still keeping one foot on the amateur side in that I have two telescopes of my own and a lovely weekend cabin in the woods with dark skies in the Shenandoah Valley. When people ask me for advice, I always point them to Tur...

AstroJohn

We will be the same at your age. Just curious how do you self insure? Wouldn’t you want higher coverage to LTC to protect your assets? My understanding is that Medicare does not cover LTC and Medicaid will require your assets are liquidated prior to coverage. In our view, the assets are there to sp...

AstroJohn

My wife and I signed up when the Federal program was first offered and thus have been through multiple premium increases. At 70 we are now comfortably in the two comma club and could probably drop the LTC insurance. Instead, when the last big premium increase came along, we kept the premium close to...

AstroJohn

It looks like the spending bill that is through the House and is pretty certain to pass the Senate and be signed by the president will increase the age for RMDs from 70.5 to 72. This has been floating around for quite some time, but appears about to come true.

AstroJohn

All the responses to my initial post have been fascinating. Clearly, this is a serious issue that we all need to be more aware of. It can be challenging to discuss this sort of thing with a spouse, and even more so with children and their spouses. Often my wife just says she expect to die first, so ...

AstroJohn

Our two checking account are “tenants by the entirety” so we are covered there. The scary part of the story for me is that with a joint account, the ill spouse can just walk into the bank and take everything. This seems to me to argue for at least some significant amount of money in separate accoun...

AstroJohn

Our two checking account are “tenants by the entirety” so we are covered there. The scary part of the story for me is that with a joint account, the ill spouse can just walk into the bank and take everything. This seems to me to argue for at least some significant amount of money in separate accoun...

AstroJohn

At Thanksgiving along with one of our children and her husband, we hosted his widowed mother. Her husband died recently of Alzheimer's disease and she had quiet a story to tell about some of the financial issues she faced near the end. Her experience gave us a lot to think about in terms of how we s...

AstroJohn

My wife and I go to Nationals spring training every year, usually about the second or third week in March. By that time the regular players are getting substantial playing time. Tickets are likely to be expensive this year, but we will be going. One thing my wife discovered a few years ago is that y...

AstroJohn

I have always read that a significant advantage of a trust is the possibility of a successor trustee taking over in the event of disability. In my experience that has been easy compared to things like durable powers of attorney. Is that not the case?

AstroJohn

BTW, I want to mention that while I pay most bills, but my spouse is responsible for paying some bills. The idea is that she knows how to do financial things if I die. And I know how to do financial things if she dies. I think the ability of either spouse to take care of things when the other spous...

AstroJohn

For our weekend home, I started with a game camera that I could review whenever we were at the home. Inexpensive, but died after a few years. Now we have an Arlo, which is fantastic. It is battery powered, so can be placed anywhere near the house. I get an email notification and a ten second video c...

AstroJohn

I update ours twice a year and will probably cut that back to once a year. But then at 69 and with plenty of assets for the rest of my life, there is not much to worry about. Scanning all the answers, I think it would be great if someone could put together a scatter plot of how often Bogleheads chec...

AstroJohn

Finally, I have always been somewhat annoyed/worried by TSPs statements that if someone manages to get access to your account and figure out a way to drain it, you are on your own. My guess is that Fidelity would make me whole. Whoa. Those are pretty big assumptions on which to base a decision. I w...

AstroJohn

Finally, I have always been somewhat annoyed/worried by TSPs statements that if someone manages to get access to your account and figure out a way to drain it, you are on your own. My guess is that Fidelity would make me whole. Fidelity does have a Customer Protection Guarantee, but you have to not...

AstroJohn

Finally, I have always been somewhat annoyed/worried by TSPs statements that if someone manages to get access to your account and figure out a way to drain it, you are on your own. My guess is that Fidelity would make me whole. Whoa. Those are pretty big assumptions on which to base a decision. I w...

AstroJohn

I am just turning 69 and ahead of RMDs have transferred my TSP (all G fund) into my IRA. While I know changes are coming that provide more withdrawal options, I decided that having everything in one place would be easier for DW if I go first. Also, you have to consider the next generation and their ...

AstroJohn

We have never had a separate emergency fund. And now that we are into retirement there is really no need. But a portion of the fixed income side of our investments is in a money market account. My asset allocation spreadsheet lists the value of that account minus $20,000. The message there to DW and...

AstroJohn

I have been doing a Form 1116 for several years now using H&R Block Basic. At first I was intimidated by the IRS instructions. Then I followed a suggestion posted by someone here. The instructions have to cover a very wide range of income sources, and that makes them look intimidating. The solut...

AstroJohn

Occasionally, I get a little too involved in overthinking how my money should be invested. And then Taylor comes along and reminds me that this really isn't rocket science. Thanks Taylor.

AstroJohn

Cleaning up and simplifying has been a lifelong struggle between me and my wonderful spouse. She likes "things." While I have read and taken much of Thoreau to heart, my favorite quote is in the other direction.

"Clutter and mess show us that life is being lived."
--Anne Lamott

AstroJohn

Good, simple, make sense tips. I'm wondering about reasons to simplify and consolidate. I've just crossed the threshold of being able to claim early social security, so maybe am thinking more about the future. Of course, having a simpler portfolio in less locations would make things easier for my w...

AstroJohn

Both my iMac and my wife's PC are shut off at night. I feel that the less time they are on the internet the less time there is for bad actors to get into them.

AstroJohn

I recently bought a 4TB Western Digital drive for a ridiculously small price. But that is just my first line of defense. I also have three 16 GB thumb drives that important files get backed up to in a monthly rotation. Finally, the same files are backed up to sync.com regularly. I can't say enough g...

AstroJohn

Gnucash has a pretty steep learning curve, but does a good job once you master it.

Moneydance is the best alternative to Quicken I have found. Works great on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Reasonable cost and upgrade cycle, and so far no talk of an annual subscription approach.

AstroJohn

Every year I buy and download H&R Block Basic. Every year, including this year, it includes Schedule D (as well as the dreaded Form 1116). I just fired up the copy I bought and it indicates the final version Schedule D will not be available until 1/16/2019. It has always baffled me that the fol...

AstroJohn

Every year I buy and download H&R Block Basic. Every year, including this year, it includes Schedule D (as well as the dreaded Form 1116). I just fired up the copy I bought and it indicates the final version Schedule D will not be available until 1/16/2019. It has always baffled me that the fol...

AstroJohn

Every year I buy and download H&R Block Basic. Every year, including this year, it includes Schedule D (as well as the dreaded Form 1116). I just fired up the copy I bought and it indicates the final version Schedule D will not be available until 1/16/2019. It has always baffled me that the folk...

AstroJohn

The questions you were asked were generated by whatever credit bureau the USPS uses. If your credit was frozen like mine is, you would not be able to get past that stage. Instead you would have to print some docs and go to the post office. The same applies to setting up a SSA account online. My cre...

AstroJohn

I just signed up for this last week. No credit check was required. After myUSPS account was created, signing up for informed deliver was a separate process. To verify my ID I had the option of answering questions on-line which were just like the questions asked to verify ID for my on-line SSA accou...

AstroJohn

Not sure this makes any sense. Part of the signup procedure involves a credit check. Mine Is frozen and I had to appear in person at the post office to prove identity and complete the process. Unless the imposter already has access to your credit info, this seems pretty far fetched.

AstroJohn

A few years ago, we stayed at the Westin Maui just down the beach. Walked by the Ka'anapali Beach Hotel every morning on my daily walk. It looked fine, but perhaps a little more spartan than the Westin and the others.

AstroJohn

The tax code changes have been something of a wash for me. Federal tax will go down. State tax here in Virginia will go up because we must now also take the VA standard deduction. I am not planning on either reducing or increasing charitable donations. We don't give for tax reasons. One small plus h...

AstroJohn

Our Capital One savings accounts are in the name of our living trust. I would think that makes this less of problem as the successor trustee can manage/distribute funds as needed. Moving the accounts from joint to trust was easy. "Moving the accounts from joint to trust was easy" - maybe ...

AstroJohn

Our Capital One savings accounts are in the name of our living trust. I would think that makes this less of problem as the successor trustee can manage/distribute funds as needed. Moving the accounts from joint to trust was easy.

AstroJohn

The person who mows at my weekend home bills for each mowing. I always put something extra in the check I send him. People doing that sort of work are often working multiple part time gigs and need every dollar they can get. And he responds by occasionally doing a little extra for me, like helping t...

AstroJohn

Very happy with dinkytown.net estimators as well. Have used them for several years for doing estimated taxes.

AstroJohn

No one will die and national security won’t be threatened if Quicken disappears.

Sadly, we might see some posts on this site that would make us think otherwise.

AstroJohn

Used Quicken for many years, but grew tired of the ever increasing chart-junk on each page and moved to Moneydance. Runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. No subscription model. Reasonable cost. Usually every other update is free or reduced price for current users. Small enough company that support reques...

AstroJohn

Tell you what. We will survey the net worth of 10000 1989 mazda owners and the net worth of 10000 2018 911 owners. How much money would you bet on the 1989 Mazda owners having a higher average net worth? :) People that look rich tend to be rich. There are exceptions at both ends. But those are the ...

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