Bogleheads.org

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Even if you can't deduct the loss each year from your rental properties, you can still carry that loss forward for future years. Since the majority of your loss is probably due to depreciation, you will need that carry forward loss when you sell and have to re-capture the depreciation. Even if you d...

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Seems like it would be a good idea, but can you actually do that? I thought that "cash out" re-finances weren't as easy to get these days.

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I don't see that you have any insurable need.

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A family member of mine previously worked for GEICO. Every insurance company is different, but I know that GEICO heavily weighs education and profession when quoting rates. It is all based on statistics that the actuaries for each insurance company come up with, but GEICO believes that people with m...

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Here is how I would calculate cash flow and profitability: Cash Flow Rents received - Mortgage Interest - Mortgage principal - Condo fees - Taxes - Insurance - Repairs ---------------------- = Cash Flow NOTE: depreciation is not include and mortgage principal is Profitability Rents receives - Mortga...

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The econ blog Marginal Revolution had an interesting post on this issue last week: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/01/does-cable-tv-ripoff-people-who-dont-like-sports.html The basic point is that, say sports fans value ESPN at $10 per month while non-sports fans value Bravo at ...

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I would just report the information yourself and not import it from Quicken. It used to be that calculating ESPP basis, bargin element, grant data, and such was a real pain in the butt. For the last few years, however, the forms I have gotten from my employer and the brokerage have all of the releva...

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Yep this is correct. If you have any carry over loss from the rental property from previous years, this is something that you can deduct from the gain on the sales price.

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Even if meat prices were to rise, how much does it matter? How much money do you really spend on meat each week / month?

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That's all true relative cars, but you're 2-3 times more likely to die in a car than a minivan per mile driven. Frankly, where I live I don't feel safe in a car when everyone around me has huge trucks and SUVs. I think that this statistic says more about the types of people who buy / drive minivans...

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With two kids, I don't think a mini-van is a necessity. My problems with mini-vans are: 1) They are HUGE. Mini-vans won't even fit in many garages, they are too long. Parking is also a hassle with a mini-van 2) They are expensive. A new mini-van is going to be 30-40K. 3) They don't drive or handle a...

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In my experience, I have a rental property and bought a new home recently, the bank wanted to see tax returns including schedule E which shows the rental income or loss. I also had to provide a copy of the mortgage documents, property tax documents, HoA fee documents, and insurance documents for the...

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I thought that Carmax only bought cars that are relatively new. I wouldn't sell my used car through them, I'd just sell it on craigslist.

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If you don't want to bring your carseat on the plane, the CARES harness is a good option for securing your child in the seat. It basically turns a regular airplane seat into a 5 point harness type seat belt like car seats have.

http://kidsflysafe.com/

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I don't know about NC, but I live in VA which also has a personal property tax on vehicles. A certain part of the value of the car, maybe $5,000, is exempt from property tax as long as the vehicle is for personal use, not business use. There might be something similar in NC.

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In the end buyer's agent works for the seller - that's who pays him

I wouldn't say that this is true. Sure the seller is paying the buyer's agent's commission, but they are working for you as the buyer. Your agent has a fiduciary duty to you, not the seller.

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You can get life insurance for yourself now, but you will probably also want to insure your wife. I found that it was very expensive to purchase life insurance for my wife while she was pregnant. For her, we had to wait until after the babies were born.

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I have twins. My boys are almost 2 and they are a lot of work, but great fun as well. A few random thoughts: 1) Once the kids are born you won't have time to do much of anything for at least a few years. So if you are going to buy a house, buy one that doesn't need a lot of work or require a lot of ...

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Honestly if you have the cash to pay for a new car, I doubt that a simple credit check would be enough to affect your credit score so that you couldn't get a loan. I wouldn't worry about it.

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I'm curious what numbers you put into the rent vs buy calculator to get a payback of 2 years, because I don't believe it. Did you go into the advanced settings and add in a condo fee, the default setting is $0 per month. If I use the numbers: Rent: $2,000 per month Cost: $300,000 Down payment: $0 In...

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The civic will probably be fine with only one kid. The best spot for the carseat would be in the middle position in the back seat. When the car seats are rear-facing, which is now recommended until 2 years of age and in most states is the law until 1 year of age, they take up a lot more room than wh...

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I wouldn't risk it, especially if you don't have a non-stop flight.

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I test drove two separate Jetta TDIs and they both had awful turbo lag off the line - like bad enough that it could have been dangerous in the wrong situation (and harmlessly annoying the rest of the time). I never heard this before about a diesel engine. Diesels makes a ton of torque at low rpms, ...

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FNK wrote:Ummmm... Europe - The Final Countdown, whatever albums The House of the Rising Sun by Animals and Hotel California by Eagles were on, Nirvana - In Utero, Greenday -Dookie, Soundgarden - Superunknown, Chumbawamba - Tubthumper, and of course Led Zeppelin IV because Stairway. A few more corr...

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I wouldn't buy this type of item online, even more so since you admit that you know nothing about diamonds. I think your best bet is to go to the place in your city that sells loose stones--every city seems to have a few of these places. They will bring out all sorts of diamonds for you to look at i...

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Check your with local library. With mine you can check out book e-books and read them on your nook. You do all of this online, you don't even need to visit the library in person.

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Honestly I'd just keep the ARM if I were you. You should look up the details of how it will adjust, and what the maximum increase per year is. Most likely it is something like 1 year LIBOR + 2.5%. If that is the case, you are looking a new interest rate of less than 3% in 2013.

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I wouldn't buy a new car for a teenager. I definitely wouldn't buy them a luxury brand (volvo is a premium brand btw). If 4 wheel drive is a must, stick with a small SUV like a Rav-4, CRV, or such. They drive a lot like cars and are very safe. You could also look at subaru's as they all have 4 wheel...

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I would recommend Russ Roberts' Econtalk podcasts. Roberts himself is a libertarian, but his guests represent a fairly wide political and economic spectrum. For example, I found the discussions of Adam Smith very illuminating, especially the contrast between The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An In...

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I wouldn't get anything other than a warranty sponsored by BMW so that I know it will be backed up and will be good at any BMW dealership. You can shop extended warranties through any insurance company that you want. I know that GEICO offers them on most cars. It doesn't hurt to shop around. They w...

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Not in patent law specifically, but from what I've seen lots of attorneys go in house to work for their clients.

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To me, this original question is pretty meaningless. Why only look at the car purchase price vs income for a single year, when you would expect to own the car for a number of years?

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Ethanol is contains less energy than gas. Adding ethanol to your gasoline will only decrease your mpg. This is an undisputed fact. Ethanol is also harder on your engine than gasoline. I believe that it is more corrosive. That is why you can only mix low percentages of ethanol (15% in most cars) with...

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Ours run around $1200 per kid per month . Flip side, is quality day care even for a 6 month old is very obvious in a child based on my experience. As a 26 yo childless male I literally just choked on my coffee. As a father of two, I found myself thinking "wow where are they finding quality day...

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Another consideration is that capital gain taxes are set to increase next year.

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Again I ask: can someone with a preexisting condition actually buy REAL insurance for a paltry $220/month?
SIGN ME UP!!!!!!

Hell, can a healthy person with no pre-existing conditions even buy this insurance? $220 a month is a steal

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I don't really think there is anything that you can do. The only deductions that survive AMT are the mortgage interest deduction and charity deductions. It seems like you have already reduced your income as much as you can by contributing the max to your 401K, your HSA, and by capital loss harvestin...

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Honestly, the financial district just doesn't have as much to do tourist wise as the rest of NY. You can probably see everything that you want to see there just by walking around in a single afternoon.

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I just don't see the appeal of living in SF when you work in Silicon Valley. You say that Apple has a shuttle, but if you ever lose your job at Apple or leave them, it is very unlikely that your next company would have a shuttle from SF to your job, and you would lose your RSU as well. If you want t...

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I don't understand why you would be liable if your tenant's dog bit someone.

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If you do the math (paying cash and getting $1,000 off, or taking the 0% and investing the purchase price) I bet that both options are pretty even as far as total return. In that case, I would much rather hold the $30,000 cash for "emergency / cash flow" purposes and take the 0% loan.

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I believe that your inlaws would actually need to be making the mortgage payments in order to deduct any mortgage interest from their taxes. That said, I think that this is a very bad idea for them. They are basically taking on full responsibility for your house if you can't make the payments. Do th...

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Since they bought the condo 13 years ago, there are probably significant capital gains involved. If the condo was in your parents names, they would be able to exclude up to $500,000 of capital gains from taxes, but since it is in your name (and you don't live there) YOU will have to pay taxes on the...

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I'm a huge fan of diesel. The fuel economy is better than gas, new diesel engines are very clean, the engines have tons of torque, and I just like the way a diesel car drives. That said, the downsides are that diesel is more expensive than gas, and that diesel cars usually cost more than gas cars. A...

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Lumpr: I still stand by my opinion that school ranking is important for law school in a way that it isn't for engineering or many other fields (which is what the MIT vs Madison thread linked in the original post was about).

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A few thoughts: 1) Salaries for lawyers are highly bi-modal. If you work at a big law firm, you can make $160,000 per year after you graduate in you will move up a $10K-$20K per year if you can hack it (meaning if you can bill enough hours without going crazy). If you don't work at a large firm, you...

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I agree with the other poster that all of these details should be spelled out in the original closing documents / loan agreement. In my experience, when you request PMI to be cancelled outside of the normal terms set forth in your loan, you will have to jump through a number of hoops and then pay fo...

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Regarding the Volkswagen TDI, I own one so I am a bit biased, but I wouldn't worry about the reliability issues too much. The 2009 and 2010 models had some issues with the fuel system, but those issues have been fixed from 2010 and onwards. If you look at the reliability ratings in consumer reports ...

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Regarding Adam Smith. Even though he has contributed tremendously to the discipline of economics, not all of his ideas stand up today--the fact that so many do is what is amazing to me. Especially because he was writing before the industrial revolution. In particular, the stuff on labor and such has...

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I think that you can afford either house, the question for me is, what do you get for the extra $300-$500 a month in mortgage payment. If paying that much more gets you into a better school district, or is the difference between a townhouse and a single family house, it would make more sense to me t...

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