Search found 533 matches

by joppy
Tue Nov 21, 2023 10:13 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Would you renew? (Term Policy)
Replies: 23
Views: 2906

Re: Would you renew? (Term Policy)

How much income are you protecting with the insurance?
Do you own a house in addition to the $5M?
What will be the desired spending pattern of the remaining spouse, if one spouse dies early?

Based on the limited information you provided, you probably don't need life insurance.
by joppy
Fri Jul 28, 2023 10:26 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Rick Ferri: Asset Location Doesn't Matter
Replies: 50
Views: 8820

Re: Rick Ferri: Asset Location Doesn't Matter

... The main issue with asset location often isn’t the strategy, it’s allocating by account type could cause behavioral tasing issues for people who become fixated on only bear market performance of stocks in the taxable account and fail to look across all their accounts to see the big picture. Those people should forgo asset location and have balanced portfolios in all accounts. This issue isn't *just* behavioral. There are also liquidity issues at play. Liquidity issues dominate when the portfolio is small compared potential expenditure shocks. Consider a $200k portfolio plus a 3 month emergency fund in cash. Allocation is 50% stock and 50% bonds. Location is 50% taxable and 50% tax sheltered. Option A = $100k stock in taxable, $100k bon...
by joppy
Sat May 06, 2023 10:41 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Insurance windfall for retirees, but no longer have a house
Replies: 11
Views: 2101

Re: Insurance windfall for retirees, but no longer have a house

If you do buy, I would recommend not taking out a mortgage. With mortgage rates around 7%, paying off a mortgage or not taking one out gives you a risk-free 7% return. And unless you donate a lot to charity, most of the mortgage interest will be non-deductible. At what interest rate and risk tolerance would you recommend taking a mortgage and investing the money? Taking a mortgage and investing the cash preserves the optionality of paying it down in the future and preserves the mortgage interest deduction. It also allows for a future refinance at a lower interest rate. If you buy with cash now, and interest rates go down, you don't have the option to take out an equivalent mortgage in the future to invest the money. (Equivalent in terms of...
by joppy
Fri Mar 24, 2023 1:27 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: External SSD Drive
Replies: 25
Views: 2223

Re: External SSD Drive

I'm mulling over a new computer and possibly a new external SSD to go with it, and in my quick first-cut searches I found I was getting confused by SanDisk having acquired G-Technology, a provider of external rotating drives. So you can now have the SanDisk brand name on a rotating drive. Google, Amazon, etc. not at all clever about identifying SSD versus rotating drives correctly, and my searches for "SSD drives" often included rotating drives. (My motivation for the external drive is that Time Machine and BackBlaze don't offer a path to quick recovery if the internal drive on a computer goes bad. So I like to make periodic bootable clones of my internal drive to sufficiently fast external drive.) Somewhat off topic but bootable...
by joppy
Fri Jan 27, 2023 9:12 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Not using insurance after fender bender
Replies: 16
Views: 1408

Re: Not using insurance after fender bender

There are state laws on when you are required to report an accident regardless of whether you handle it privately. Here's a list: https://www.enjuris.com/car-accident/ac ... uirements/

You should be able to find the official information for your state on your state motor vehicle department web site.
by joppy
Mon Jan 16, 2023 12:17 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: how to get an honest(unbiased) second opinion from medical doctors
Replies: 93
Views: 10415

Re: how to get an honest(unbiased) second opinion from medical doctors

My employer and/or insurance company contracts with 2nd.MD (https://www.2nd.md/) for Virtual Second Opinions. When you initiate a second opinion request, an intake person calls you and takes your history and gets you to upload all of your test results, images etc. Then you are scheduled for an online-visit with a doctor to get your second opinion. In my case, the 2nd.MD doctor was from a different region. So he had no financial conflicts of interest or relationships to protect with respect to his recommendations. My experience with this service was very positive. I would use them again.
by joppy
Tue Aug 02, 2022 5:58 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Death of Investment Spouse options
Replies: 48
Views: 5169

Re: Death of Investment Spouse options

I highly recommend that you set up the investment person and the tax person yourself, while you are still alive. Vet the advisors and build the relationship yourself, and connect your spouse with the advisors. That way, if you pass first, she will not have to figure out how to manage the transitions and not make any big mistakes in the process. Also, if you fade further while you are still alive, you will not make any big mistakes either. Yes, that means you pay the advisor and tax person for a few extra years. You would be paying for insurance to minimize unforced errors, rather than maximizing after-fee returns.
by joppy
Sat Mar 02, 2019 10:48 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Would you take this business loan?
Replies: 5
Views: 721

Re: Would you take this business loan?

The $50k difference in the loan amount and cash collateral is confusing the issue. Consider just a $400k loan with $400k cash collateral. The point of getting a loan when you have cash is the liquidity the loan provides. You pay the bank interest to provide liquidity, so you don't have to tie up your cash in an illiquid investment. By asking you to give cash, the bank is taking away your liquidity. So what benefit is the bank giving you for the interest you will pay? You can negotiate with your bank (or other banks) to provide *illiquid* collateral for a smaller loan or line of credit. For example, you may be able to get a $200k loan with the building as collateral or with your remaining home equity as collateral. Then use $250k of your $40...
by joppy
Thu Dec 06, 2018 12:34 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: HSA - How long is a doctor's note valid?
Replies: 9
Views: 1886

Re: HSA - How long is a doctor's note valid?

One way to handle multiple items for HSA is to print up a page of "regular OTC" items that you need and ask the doctor to sign the "HSA doctors OTC approval" page during your annual check-up. That way every year, you have a new "prescription" signed by the doctor for OTC meds, and it saves the doctor time as well.

- Joppy
by joppy
Sun Jul 29, 2018 12:26 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Bonus at Job - Weird Situation
Replies: 34
Views: 7019

Re: Bonus at Job - Weird Situation

The mentor is probably right. Is the mentor assigning you high-visibility and/or high-learning projects? You may be getting these "plum" projects to train you for a bigger role in the future. Take these seriously. These tasks are likely more important to your personal growth than putting in extra effort at your "main" job. I'm going to provide an analogy. Consider that you run a call-center, and you are one of the employees that answer the phone. Consider that you are paid an hourly wage with overtime. Now, you can work overtime and get extra cash. Now suppose your manager says, instead of working overtime, I can let you cover managing a small staff of 2, but you will be paid your regular rate. If you do this successfull...
by joppy
Mon Sep 25, 2017 9:52 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Buying 14 Plane Tickets - Sac to Cabo San Lucas
Replies: 14
Views: 2593

Re: Buying 14 Plane Tickets - Sac to Cabo San Lucas

I recommend talking with a travel agent.

Sometimes if you buy one or more tickets on a specific date, the airline thinks that route is "popular" and raises the rate on that route. This happens almost immediately after buying the first ticket. So the second person buying the ticket has to pay a higher price. If you buy multiple batches of tickets, then the second "batch" of tickets is more expensive.

Cheers,
Joppy
by joppy
Sun Sep 03, 2017 5:05 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Any way to "translate" a fixed pension/annuity to an inflation adjusted one?
Replies: 28
Views: 8943

Re: Any way to "translate" a fixed pension/annuity to an inflation adjusted one?

Oh, and even my method only accounts for *expected* inflation. To build on longinvest's comments, the risk of *unexpected* inflation is not accounted for by any of these techniques, and can only be accounted for by buying a true inflation adjusted annuity.

Cheers,
Joppy
by joppy
Sun Sep 03, 2017 5:01 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Any way to "translate" a fixed pension/annuity to an inflation adjusted one?
Replies: 28
Views: 8943

Re: Any way to "translate" a fixed pension/annuity to an inflation adjusted one?

A few additional considerations: Longevity Insurance: A fixed pension/annuity also provides *longevity* insurance. That is, money from annuitants that die earlier is transferred to annuitants that die later, since the income stream terminates at the death of the annuitant. You have to save an additional amount to compensate for the inflation adjusted longevity insurance component, since you are only receiving the fixed longevity insurance component of the payouts. This makes your payments higher. Tax treatment: The growth inside an annuity is tax deferred. The growth in TIPS is taxable, assuming a taxable account. You would need to save an additional amount in TIPS to compensate for the tax drag, in order to get after-tax spendable dollars ...
by joppy
Mon Jul 03, 2017 2:17 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Guarantee of rent payment
Replies: 22
Views: 2939

Re: Guarantee of rent payment

Alternately, the whole term's rent can be placed in an escrow account, from which rent can be paid.

This method is similar (but more onerous) to the option described by mpsz.

- Joppy
by joppy
Fri Jan 20, 2017 11:23 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Deleted
Replies: 10
Views: 1786

Re: evacuate HSA?

The problem with pulling out "small" receipts is that you still have to maintain the small receipts paperwork for those early years, to prove that you didn't pull out "large" receipts in those early years.

An alternative option is to completely ignore the small receipts and just maintain paperwork for large receipts. This is inefficient money-wise but efficient time-wise.

- Joppy
by joppy
Sat May 07, 2016 10:42 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Anyone have one of those standing desks?
Replies: 45
Views: 8542

Re: Anyone have one of those standing desks?

Instead of a "powered adjustable desk" consider just a tall desk and a tall office chair. You can stand when you want to stand, and then sit in the tall chair when you don't want to stand. That is the setup I use at my office. May be cheaper and less hassle than adjusting your desk up and down.

Cheers,
Joppy
by joppy
Sat Aug 02, 2014 12:16 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: My IPS in computer pseudocode [Investment Policy Statement]
Replies: 24
Views: 3996

Re: My IPS in computer pseudocode

So at age 85 you are 100% bonds, and at age 90 you buy bonds on margin?

- Joppy
by joppy
Sat Jun 14, 2014 7:55 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Another ESPP thread, with some specifics - Risk Analysis
Replies: 21
Views: 3373

Re: Another ESPP thread, with some specifics - Risk Analysis

Because the ESPP is considered an "option", you have to wait for 2 years from the grant date and 1 year from the exercise date to qualify for long term capital gains. So you would have to hold stock for 18 months after receiving it to qualify for long term capital gains. Additionally, even after 18 months, the 15% discount is *still* considered income and not capital gains. Also which FMV of the stock is used - the FMV at the start or end of the period? Some companies give you a 15% discount on the "lower" FMV from the start and end dates of the period. This is especially valuable, if the stock has gone up in the 6 months. Discounted ESPP can be quite a valuable income source, if you are willing to take some risk. Cheers...
by joppy
Fri Apr 18, 2014 9:20 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: ESPP Shares - What to do?
Replies: 19
Views: 3967

Re: ESPP Shares - What to do?

Assuming you are allowed to buy up to 10% of your salary at 15% discount, every 6 months. So, if you hold until the end of the 18 month holding period, you will have received 4 lots of ESPP shares having invested about 20% of your salary. If you have a solid 6-month to 1-year emergency fund, and have other investments, then it is okay to hold. If 20% of your salary is a large number compared to the rest of your liquid assets, then you should probably sell immediately. Over time, you may do well to have a target or maximum percentage to your company in your asset allocation. For many people here on the Bogleheads that percentage is zero. Capping your allocation to 10% of your net worth is prudent, unless you are in a special situation (e.g. ...
by joppy
Mon Feb 17, 2014 7:16 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Cancellation fee from health provider - feeling ripped off
Replies: 30
Views: 3070

Re: Cancellation fee from health provider - feeling ripped o

Two possibilities:

1. The "billing office" is trying to pull a fast one. Talk to the "health-care provider" at your next appointment, and tell them why you are unhappy and ask that the billing issue be fixed.

2. The health-care provider also bills your insurance, and when you are a no-show, they don't get your portion, and they also don't get the insurance portion. In this case, the provider should get the equivalent of the "insurance portion" of your appointment for holding you a slot. That amount may correspond to the cancellation fee.

If there is no insurance involved, then I would be unhappy with the situation as well.

Cheers,
Joppy
by joppy
Mon Nov 25, 2013 8:05 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Capital One Quicksilver: 1.5% reward, thoughts?
Replies: 98
Views: 277535

Re: Capital One Quicksilver: 1.5% reward, thoughts?

lhl12 wrote:Note that the Fidelity VISA, which gives 1.5% on the first $15,000 of charges and then 2.0% thereafter, is economically equivalent to a VISA card that gives unlimited 2.0% cash back beginning with the first dollar spent, but with a $75 annual fee.
No, it isn't economically equivalent. Lots of people spend less than $15k per year on their credit card, and would be worse off paying a $75 fee for a 2.0% card.

The Fidelity VISA is equivalent to a hypothetical VISA card that gives an unlimited 2.0% cash back, but with a fee that is 0.5% of your annual spending with a $75 fee cap.

- Joppy
by joppy
Sat Nov 16, 2013 10:25 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Software Donation Question
Replies: 12
Views: 1001

Re: Software Donation Question

If Apple hires engineers to build an iPhone, then they can deduct the salaries of the engineers. If later they decide to donate 100 iPhones to charity, they can also deduct the "value" of the iPhones they are donating. So the fact that the engineering expense was deducted, doesn't take away the ability to donate the "product". The question -- and this is what sscritic pointed out --- is the value of what is being donated. You cannot deduct "future income" in the future, but you can deduct the "net present value" of the future income, or the value at which someone would buy the rights to the software from you, if you can estimate it accurately and can justify that value. - Joppy PS: I am not an account...
by joppy
Sun Aug 11, 2013 9:34 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Rebalancing dilemma – pay the tax or let it ride?
Replies: 16
Views: 1834

Re: Rebalancing dilemma – pay the tax or let it ride?

Two thoughts:

1. Minimize regret.

2. What does your Investment Policy Statement (IPS) say you should do?

Joppy
by joppy
Sat Aug 03, 2013 11:30 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Any reason to track specific lots in a Roth?
Replies: 1
Views: 536

Re: Any reason to track specific lots in a Roth?

If you have the same security in a Roth IRA and a taxable account, then you create a wash sale if you sell at a loss in your taxable and buy the same security within +/- 30 days in your Roth IRA. You need to know *when* you bought which securities in your Roth IRA, in order to ensure you don't create a wash sale, or alternately, to adjust your taxes appropriately, in case you do create a wash sale.

I would be interested in learning other reasons as well.

Cheers,
Joppy
by joppy
Sat Jun 22, 2013 4:13 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Broker giving me the runaround on commissions.
Replies: 25
Views: 4037

Re: Broker giving me the runaround on commissions.

You operate and optimize under the constraints you are given. Figure out what it would cost in commissions to get to a simple three, four or five fund portfolio of ETFs in approximately the right allocations for your dad. If you have muni's etc, treat them as part of the bond allocation. Get out of the high expense ratio mutual funds. This is likely to be a few hundred to a few thousand dollars at ML, depending on the size of the portfolio. If you have multiple small positions, you may want to consider putting some of the assets in the ML "asset management" plan (ML Unlimited Advantage?), which allows you unlimited trades for 1% of assets *in the plan*. You may also be able to move assets in and out of this plan. Once you have mov...
by joppy
Sat Jun 22, 2013 1:57 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Medical Insurance while on FMLA
Replies: 3
Views: 613

Re: Medical Insurance while on FMLA

Tell payroll to deduct your 8 weeks of future medical insurance payments from your current paycheck(s). They can do that pretax.

- Joppy
by joppy
Sun May 26, 2013 10:26 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Stopping payment on a lost check
Replies: 13
Views: 14979

Re: Stopping payment on a lost check

Stop the payment, but shouldn't the friend who lost the check pay the $35 fee?

- Joppy
by joppy
Fri May 17, 2013 11:22 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Get 5% back on credit card purchases.
Replies: 20
Views: 4154

Re: Get 5% back on credit card purchases.

tc101 wrote:Here is a round about way to get 5% back on credit card purchases. It might be more trouble than it is worth

http://creditcardforum.com/rewards/1116 ... ipoff.html
The article mentions that the Chase Ink cards are "business" cards. One of the differences between business cards and personal cards is that you have a lot less protection for business credit cards than personal credit cards:

http://www.calpirg.org/news/cap/busines ... protection

- Joppy
by joppy
Fri May 17, 2013 11:16 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Investment Firm/Brokerage Firm Question
Replies: 3
Views: 647

Re: Investment Firm/Brokerage Firm Question

There's a big difference in starting the differnece types of firms If you start a brokerage firm, you sell products and earn commissions. ... To start an advisory firm, you don't earn commissions selling prodcuts. ... Additional note, if you start an advisory firm, clients don't "give" you money. Technically, they put their money directly in a brokerage firm such as Fidelity/Schwab/TD Ameritrade etc, and give you "limited power of attorney" over that account to trade on their behalf. An advisory firm is not allowed to give/take money/checks other than their commissions from your account. They can get in big trouble for "taking" money from you directly. (I read this in a book years ago, rules may have changed, ...
by joppy
Mon Apr 22, 2013 1:10 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Window Blinds - Bali, Levolor, Hunter Douglas
Replies: 36
Views: 106223

Re: Window Blinds - Bali, Levolor, Hunter Douglas

Thank you so much, all of you for your comments. Special thanks to redlbj01 --- I really appreciate getting this "insider" view. I had a few follow up questions: 1. How deep a window is necessary for Roman Blinds? 2. For roller blinds made from white linen, the documentation claims "light filtering" and "moderate privacy". What does "moderate privacy" mean? Are these appropriate for bedrooms? 3. What about light filtering cellular shades? Are these appropriate for a bedroom? 4. What are the best window coverings for maximum light and maximum privacy simultaneously? I know these two desires are mutually contradictory. 5. I am probably going to be buying from a big box retailer and was planning on using...
by joppy
Sun Apr 14, 2013 9:09 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Window Blinds - Bali, Levolor, Hunter Douglas
Replies: 36
Views: 106223

Window Blinds - Bali, Levolor, Hunter Douglas

New to this home ownership shindig, and have to figure out what kind of blinds to get. In terms of brands, I want something that will not have a cheap, rickety mechanism that gets stuck and causes annoyance. Otherwise want relatively plain vanilla blinds that are inexpensive and reliable. Home Depot has Bali and Levolor and some other blind stores promote Hunter Douglas, which appears to be the "premium" brand. The pricing spans almost a factor of 20 from the cheapest ($30/window) to the most expensive I looked at ($600/window). It goes higher than that, but that ($600/window) was already too rich for my taste. Question: What price-point and brand should I be looking at for a good tradeoff between quality and price? Thanks, Joppy
by joppy
Fri Apr 05, 2013 9:05 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Help with Form 8606
Replies: 4
Views: 1134

Re: Help with Form 8606

I am pretty sure I reported the Roth conversion correctly. I am going to use a prior basis of 0.

Thanks everyone.

- Joppy
by joppy
Tue Apr 02, 2013 11:12 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Help with Form 8606
Replies: 4
Views: 1134

Help with Form 8606

Before Roth IRAs existed, I contributed to traditional IRAs. When Roth IRAs were created, I converted all my traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs (late 90s). This year I made a traditional IRA contribution and am filling out Form 8606. What should I enter as my "total basis" in traditional IRAs? Should this value be 0, since I no longer have any traditional IRAs except this new one I am just creating?

Or do I need to somehow dig up old tax returns from the late 90s to find the last Form 8606, in which I did my Roth conversions?

Thanks,
Joppy
by joppy
Sun Feb 17, 2013 10:25 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: How to title Bank (& other) accounts with living trust?
Replies: 2
Views: 615

Re: How to title Bank (& other) accounts with living trust?

I am not a lawyer, caveat emptor. In general, the lawyer who drafted the trust should know best about the trust he drafted. Your attorney friend *may* know better, but only if he has read your trust documents, not if he is just giving friendly advice about trusts in general (like I am :-)), without knowing the specifics of your trust. Your parents had a living trust, but after your father passed away, it is possible that part of the trust became an irrevocable trust, or conditions got put on the trust that your mother cannot change. It is likely no longer a "living" trust. This may affect how your mom should handle money that is currently outside the trust. Often IRAs, especially Roth IRAs, should be passed outside of the trust, t...
by joppy
Tue Feb 12, 2013 10:20 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Short Term Corporate Bond Risk: CSJ vs. VCSH
Replies: 6
Views: 2703

Re: Short Term Corporate Bond Risk: CSJ vs. VCSH

Take a look at the number of holdings of VCSH and CSJ.

CSJ has 783 holdings and VCSH has 1350 holdings. Just another characteristic to add to the mix.

Cheers,
Joppy
by joppy
Thu Nov 22, 2012 1:08 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Donate to Charity With ESPP?
Replies: 16
Views: 3048

Re: Donate to Charity With ESPP?

Hmm. I could have sworn that when I joined the company they told me that if I held onto the stock for a particular time period, it is taxed as capital gains and not ordinary income. If that's the case (it is taxed as income), then I should just sell immediately and put the money into a diversified fund. See Kaye Thomas's excellent book Consider Your Options for details (and confirmation of what I have written below.) If I remember correctly: If you get ESPP every 6 months -- then if you hold for over 2 years from the beginning of that period, then you pay ordinary income tax on the 15% discount with respect to the *beginning date*. Now if it happens that the stock goes up before you get it, then you may get *more* than a 15% discount. The ...
by joppy
Sun Nov 11, 2012 8:52 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Is asking about individual stocks frowned upon?
Replies: 37
Views: 3854

Re: Is asking about individual stocks frowned upon?

Another reason to hold individual stocks might be if your employer gives you compensation in the form of stock. For example, Restricted Stock Units (RSU), Incentive Stock Options (ISO), Non-qualified Stock Options (NSO), employee stock purchase plans (ESPP), and direct stock grants. There are a variety of tax implications as well as "time-value of options" issues that should to be considered when deciding when to sell the stock received in this manner. There are also diversification reasons to dispose of employer stock as soon as possible, possibly even earlier than you would dispose of another stock to which your salary was not tied. Anyway, employer stock is a special case, and I would venture that many people on this board who ...
by joppy
Thu Oct 25, 2012 10:23 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: American Express Arbitration
Replies: 8
Views: 2223

Re: American Express Arbitration

jsl11 wrote:I have a similar opt out provision on my Costco amex card. However, the description of the opt out includes the following: "Rejecting the Arbitration provision will not affect your ability to use your card or any other benefit, product, or service you may have with your account."
If you take them at their word, they will not close your account. However, I would check the wording provided with your account to make sure it is the same as the Costco amex wording.
Jeff
Interesting ... Did you opt out?

I haven't decided yet, nor have I checked the wording yet.

Thanks,
Joppy
by joppy
Mon Oct 22, 2012 11:02 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: American Express Arbitration
Replies: 8
Views: 2223

Re: American Express Arbitration

FinanceGeek wrote:Many businesses put mandatory arbitration clauses in their customer service agreements. In most cases they are non-negotiable.

Its certainly possible that Amex will close your account if you opt-out.
Hmm, but this isn't a "mandatory" arbitration. In fact, it has an "opt-out" clause. Obviously if it were mandatory, then the only way to "opt-out" is to close the account. But would they close an account after giving you the option of a "voluntary" opt-out?

Joppy
by joppy
Mon Oct 22, 2012 11:00 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Collection from phone services from years ago
Replies: 2
Views: 711

Re: Collection from phone services from years ago

It sounds like you think you don't owe them any money but you are not sure. If *their* records are bad, you may have paid but they might ask you for money again anyway. Obviously, if in good faith you do believe you owe money, then you should pay it. If you do decide to pay it, make sure you get a written agreement clearing your credit record etc. etc., and guaranteeing that this is the full and final payment, *before* you agree to pay anything. Otherwise, you don't need to give them the benefit of the doubt, just because you don't have records that go back that far. They need to prove that you owe them money. The formal way to request this is to initiate a "debt validation". http://credit.about.com/od/debtcollection/tp/debt-valid...
by joppy
Sun Oct 21, 2012 11:57 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: American Express Arbitration
Replies: 8
Views: 2223

American Express Arbitration

I just looked at my Amex Blue Cash Card statement and it comes with a new arbitration policy and an arbitration opt-out. I can reject the "mandatory arbitration" until February 15, 2013.

Is there a benefit to opting out of mandatory arbitration?

Or is there essentially no benefit? It is possible that the main benefit of litigation over arbitration might be better behavior through the threat of class action lawsuits, and since most people aren't going to bother opting out, my opting out will have no benefit.

Is there any drawback to opting out of mandatory arbitration? For example, do they put a "black mark" on your record as an "undesirable" customer?

- Joppy
by joppy
Thu Oct 04, 2012 1:42 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: CRSP and MSCI: comparing US indexes
Replies: 21
Views: 6307

Re: CRSP and MSCI: comparing US indexes

The table appears to have an error in it.

The image says that CRSP mid-cap stocks cover from 71% to 85% of the capitalization. It also says that first 70% of capitalization corresponds to companies 1 to 284, and the first 85% of capitalization corresponds to companies 1 to 646. These two pieces of information imply that the CRSP midcaps - covering capitalization 71% to 85% correspond to companies 285 to 646. However, the table says that CRSP midcaps cover companies 647 through 1014. I think this is an error.

It is quite possible that I am misinterpreting something -- if so, I would appreciate being corrected :-)

Cheers,
Joppy
by joppy
Wed Oct 03, 2012 1:09 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Should I forget about tax adjusting my AA?
Replies: 8
Views: 1000

Re: Should I forget about tax adjusting my AA?

See my comment in a previous thread.

- Joppy
by joppy
Sat Sep 15, 2012 7:24 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Graphing Calculators
Replies: 38
Views: 5085

Re: Graphing Calculators

If your HS student is serious about graphing, I would suggesting downloading Octave on the computer for them and teaching him/her how to use it to generate plots.

For example, the following commands plot x^2 from -10 to 10 in steps of 2.
x = -10:2:10;
y = x.*x;
plot(x,y);

Yes, a calculator is probably necessary, and do check if it is needed for standardized tests, but understanding how to generate graphs in Octave will likely give the student a good understanding of what they are graphing.

Cheers,
Joppy

PS: Octave is the free open-source clone of Matlab. It is not as polished as Matlab. Or you can spring for the $100(?) student license of Matlab.
by joppy
Sat Sep 08, 2012 9:22 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: wedding photos and hi-res digital images
Replies: 53
Views: 5487

Re: wedding photos and hi-res digital images

Should I just settle for 1800 x 1200, which seems like it may just be good enough for up to 8x10 prints? Or is there a better strategy here? Boglehead advice would be helpful here... From a money perspective, most of the people ordering photos are going to do so within the first year. Why not ask that you get the digital highest resolution images on your first anniversary. That way the photographer gets the revenue from all the prints, but your images are not held hostage in perpetuity. There is another possibility -- the photographer may not want to give you the "RAW" images, because he only provides you images after he has touched them up. If you print the "raw" untouched up images and then say they were taken by &quo...
by joppy
Sat Sep 08, 2012 9:13 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Bogle mortgage guidelines
Replies: 9
Views: 2867

Re: Bogle mortgage guidelines

What's your question? What are you trying to decide? Are you trying to buy or sell a house? Based on your question you are saving $47K per year, and have $163K per year of free cash flow that you are not saving, and a net worth of ~$550K. The standard Boglehead recommendation would be to bank as much of that $163K/year as possible, and spend as little as possible, until your net worth is at least 25x (using a 4% withdrawal rate) your annual expenditures. Decide how much it impacts that target to spend more or less on a house/apartment. Figure out how safe this high income is going to be over time. If it is really safe, you can afford to hit your target later in life. If your income is not as safe, you want to hit your target as early as pos...
by joppy
Fri Sep 07, 2012 8:27 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Quirk in trading violation rules in cash account
Replies: 14
Views: 1898

Re: Quirk in trading violation rules in cash account

That is a liquidation violation and it occurred at day 1. You paid for the new shares with the proceeds from the sale, but because the sale was a day after, funds would not be available in time to pay for the purchase. What you did on any 2 was irrelevant from a regulatory perspective. You either should have sold the ETF first or made payment for the purchase before doing the sale. No. He sold a different ETF (ETF2) on day 1, that was not intended for use to purchase ETF1 on day 0. He has T+3 days to deliver cash into his account to settle the purchase of ETF1 on day 0. He delivered the entire cash to purchase ETF1 on day T+2. As far as I can tell, this is a legitimate transaction, even in a non-margin account. The sale of ETF2 should have...
by joppy
Fri Sep 07, 2012 8:20 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: 529 plan question
Replies: 4
Views: 1144

Re: 529 plan question

I am not sure what source you are looking for. 1. There is no State penalty for non-qualified 529 withdrawals. There is a "recapture" provision in some States, but that is a totally different thing. 2. You pay income taxes to your State, not some other State (except if you've earned wages in the other State). Vanguard is in PA, but I pay my taxes on taxable investments to AL, not to PA. There is no state penalty for non-qualified 529 withdrawals *except* in California! California charges a 2.5% penalty for non-qualified withdrawals. (I don't know if it can charge a penalty to out-of-state residents who put money in the California 529 plan. Perhaps people are better off in other plans.) http://www.savingforcollege.com/top-tip/guru...
by joppy
Thu Sep 06, 2012 11:49 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: 529 plan question
Replies: 4
Views: 1144

Re: 529 plan question

hsv_climber wrote:No, the "other" state won't charge you anything in any situation.
Thanks! Do you have a reference for that? I searched online but couldn't come up with the proper search terms.

Cheers,
Joppy
by joppy
Thu Sep 06, 2012 1:40 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: 529 plan question
Replies: 4
Views: 1144

529 plan question

What are the state tax implications of a "non-qualified" withdrawal from a 529 plan?

Specifically, I know
(a) there is a federal penalty for non-qualified withdrawals in addition to the tax on earnings
(b) your state may add its own penalty for non-qualified withdrawals

I want to know -- if you have a "out-of-state" 529 plan, will that *other* state also charge you taxes and/or penalties for a non-qualified withdrawal?

Will the *other* state charge you state taxes on a "taxable but qualified" withdrawal? (e.g. if you get a scholarship, you can withdraw money from the 529 -- it is taxed but not penalized).

Thanks,
Joppy