Bogleheads.org

bberris

This was a new one to me. Posting in case someone else is confused by this I was a little surprised to see in my positions at TDameritrade that I had a larger than expected Tbill amount. I bought 6 month tbills, and 3 months later bought 3 month tbills. Surprisingly, they had the same CUSIP, and the...

bberris

I would pay cash if I could. You avoid the hassles , paperwork and fees (some to the lender and their associates, some to governments) of a loan. You are also getting a tax free return on the equity in your house. If you borrow most of the cost, you will have to pay tax on the income from the invest...

bberris

Look on the bright side, he could have wired $400k https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Experts-Virtually-All-CA-Real-Estate-Transactions-Targeted-By-Hackers-487165181.html Ten years of sacrifice and dreams of home ownership gone in a flash. That is quite a punch to the gut. We make all of our cli...

bberris

mouses wrote: ↑
Tue Aug 14, 2018 9:03 pm
What's a negative discount?

A kickback.

bberris

I like the ones that say "enforced by aircraft". I've always wondered how the aircraft plans to stop a speeding vehicle, rather than simply monitor it? I think maybe you have never driven on the outskirts of Alexandria, Louisiana? This was many years ago, but I was one of a line of 20 cars pulled o...

bberris

There won't be a penalty. This would fall under reasonable cause, and you filed a correct return with the information you had.

bberris

I'm amazed this thread continues to offer suggestions that MIGHT lose money when early on in the thread the slam dunk answer was given: Buy a CD with a fixed early withdrawal penalty, then withdraw it early. It's a known penalty and a guaranteed reduction to AGI, which is what the OP needs. The pai...

bberris

What you want are very volatile options, e. g. a single stock, like TSLA or FB. You want them to expire into next year. So you buy a put and a call on the same stock for say $300 each. Now you sell the loser of the pair this year (before expiry) and hold the winner for next year to sell in 2019.

bberris

There are two MN only closed end funds, both leveraged, both at good discounts to NAV when recently they have been at premiums or at par. In other words, while their NAVs have fallen a little, their market prices have fallen much more. NMS and VMM A good tool for closed end funds is www.cefconnect.com

bberris

I can't keep up with all the news about the fate of ACA, and unfortunately I thought I heard and read somewhere that the penalty was removed on 1/1/2018. I guess it must have been fake news. :shock: The penalty is still there for 2018. It would be subtracted from your refund. However, if you owe ta...

bberris

$3600/year for the leased vehicle doesn't seem expensive to me because even if you sell the financed vehicle for 25k as suggested that's still $2500/year to keep the financed vehicle. That neglects to account for average market returns and maintenance that you had to spend on that vehicle too thoug...

bberris

Note that the phrase, "I co-signed my brother in law's mortgage," is not really the right way to think about it. It's really, "My brother-in-law and I co-signed a 30-year mortgage." OP must have got the answer he/she was (not) looking for already. A chain is only as strong as the weakest link. For ...

bberris

Mostly see them in the woods, not the yard, unless you have lots of trees. When I'm camping, I use lots of DEET and it seems to repel ticks. I have seen many of them but I haven't been stuck this year. Then check yourself and have someone check your back. Learn the proper technique for removing a ti...

bberris

The SPIA you want to buy is one with an installment refund which means that the named beneficiary gets what is left in the account if you die prematurely. The idea is to use the smallest amount of funds to buy a SPIA to cover your expenses and put the rest of your assets in a growth portfolio that ...

bberris

Minnesota has about the highest taxes in the country for a person of moderate income. Here are the single tax brackets: Tax Bracket Tax Rate $0.00+ 5.35% $25,390.00+ 7.05% $83,400.00+ 7.85% $156,911.00+ 9.85% Personal exemption and standard deduction that were in effect prior to the new federal ta...

bberris

Do a 60 day rollover from an IRA; if they can pay it off in 60 to 90 days that gets them most of the way there.
You can even put the money back in the same IRA.

bberris

if stocks crash the 1 year treasury will rally too (assuming the crash is before maturity). If the stock market crashes and 30-year Treasury interest rates fall from 3% to 2% (this is purely hypothetical), 30-year Treasuries will rally about 22%. If the 1-year rate drops from 2.3% all the way to 0%...

bberris

smitcat wrote: ↑
Sat Jul 28, 2018 7:55 pm
A contract was signed with a company that does not exist anymore.
There is no contract.

I wonder why more companies don't use that strategy to repudiate their debts.

bberris

Edit: My post is about Chase Sapphire Preferred included insurance, not CSR. Someone noted that the terms of the insurance are different with each card. I was only reimbursed for the change fee for my tickets that were canceled. Each ticket was $530 with a $300 change fee each. I argued that we coul...

bberris

Pretty much everything is in French so she better have a plan for that. What would one do for 4-5 days in Montreal? Can think of plenty of better places, but to each his own My experience speaking French in Canada and France is that they roll their eyes and answer in English. More people speak Engl...

bberris

MP123 wrote: ↑
Tue Jul 24, 2018 7:16 pm
And don't forget the additional $1,000 catch up contribution if you or your eligible spouse are over 55.

Too bad that's not indexed for inflation too but take what you can get I guess.

That is 1000 for each, 2,000 if both are over 55.

bberris

You can build almost any combination of relative returns with options. In fact, that is probably what the brokerage is doing, except that it is adding in its own profit. So, do you want this pattern of returns? If not, there is no point in paying extra; just get your own desired stock exposure by m...

bberris

Besides agreeing with everyone else advising to sell and diversify now when there are no capital gains due to step-up basis, I'd like to observe that we get a fair number of people coming to the forum asking for advice on what to do when they have a concentrated position (usually with AAPL) with a ...

bberris

Level premium term (is it?) is a better deal as you get older. In the last few years it is a very good deal. If you decide you need or want more insurance, you can always add another policy without cancelling this one.

bberris

Another option: borrow. Some student loans have good terms. You have an asset to pay it off later. The main problem I see is that your only financial asset seems to be stock in a single company, which is a large, uncompensated risk. By uncompensated, I mean that there is not a higher probability of ...

bberris

I wonder if people would prefer if SS payments were taxed 100% like any other taxable income to begin with! If that were the case, there would be no tax hump or no tax torpedo. It is a case of looking if the glass is half full or half empty. ACA also introduces some very high marginal rates. Going ...

bberris

I just came across this article from the Journal of Financial Planning on Tax Torpedo: https://www.onefpa.org/journal/Pages/JUL18-Understanding-the-Tax-Torpedo-and-Its-Implications-for-Various-Retirees.aspx The authors of that article developed this software to optimize issues related to torpedo: h...

bberris

would an insurance company push this to collections in an effort to get any $$ back from the guy? garnish a wage or something? to at least recoup some of the loss. Seems unfair for the guy to walk away 'scott free' after totaling someones car. That makes no sense. Edited: I see now that insurance c...

bberris

I've seen some of these over-market deals in the past. They are always limited (largest was 10k) and they require you to make x number of debit card transactions per month, or something else to make them money on the side that they use to pay the extra interest. You can probably find the threads here.

bberris

There seems to be some confusion about what "non-profit" means. It does NOT mean that they sell products at cost. Non profits are allowed to retain earnings. This would be called a profit, except that the company is non-profit. They can also charge whatever the market will bear for product, and pay ...

bberris

Up or down in the near term would be an issue though, correct? Advise to not borrow from a 401k usually stems from the thought that the money in your 401k during the life of the loan will be profitable and you now lose out on all the compound interest over the years. But if my loan is a relatively ...

bberris

rgs92 wrote: ↑
Fri Jul 06, 2018 11:59 am
I would put half into an SPIA and the other half into a total stock market index fund. The SPIA is your safe foundation for life. The index fund is for growth.

Make sure you know the difference between a SPIA and the crap you (OP) are considering.

bberris

H and R Block is free, quality software offering importing features, suitable for investors and ACA reconciliation. Go through United Way:

https://www.myfreetaxes.com/

bberris

In April you told us you had $700k sitting in a bank account. No need to borrow money, then. I am not comfortable purchasing a home cash and much less in another country. Got too little ones at home a large amount of my liquidity to that amount of risk I don’t think is a smart decision. You seem to...

bberris

Doc, remember that nations like China with excess dollars have to do something with them. They can buy US Treasuries, invest here in the United ... Pretty much the Chinese trade surpluses with the US are invested in the United States one way or the other. Either by buying Treasuries or investing in...

bberris

I agree sell the car to a dealer to avoid the sales tax. You will get a lower price than a private sale, but much less risk and work. Some of the higher price from a private sale would be eaten up by sales tax that you would owe (on the residual buy out value, which you saved originally by leasing),...

bberris

So if I am the guy selling those "better choices", now I have those dollars that the prudent guy (who doesn't like US govt debt) gave me in payment. I guess I now have to look for even better choices.

bberris

My guess is honest mistake; mixed up orders. There was no invoice?

bberris

No, selling and rebuying the same fund does not eliminate or delay capital gains. But your capital gains should be minimal since the basis was set to the value on mom's death. If those capital gains would push you over the cliff, you would need to keep the funds where they are, if they won't transfe...

bberris

Use about 5 % citric acid. Without seeing it, I could not say for sure that it's etched. Much more likely are calcium and magnesium deposits from hard water. Even with a water softener, you will have hard water at times if it is present in the water source. It is particularly bad to use hot water du...

bberris

Of course you can find funds that beat the market... after they've done it. There are thousands of funds, some will beat the average, and some will not. But the extra expense of management fees for active funds drags their performance down on average. All of these active funds trade against each oth...

bberris

If you die tomorrow, are you ok with losing out on your lump annuity payment and not leaving it to somebody? Please correct me if I am wrong, but isn't that how these things work? You can get a 5 year minimum payout, but that is not free. These are commonly offered. If you want the maximum annuity,...

bberris

As long as you separate all ties with NJ before you start withdrawing, you're good; no state income tax. Sell all your property, register to vote and driver's license in FL, cars licensed in FL, receive your mail and change your account address. In short, do everything you normally do when you move,...

bberris

Florida covers a lot of ground. Be flexible about dates, use google flights to search alternate dates, maybe go to another city. You need to check Southwest separately; they don't share fare and flight information with search engines. Keep checking; prices change by the minute. If you have to fly on...

bberris

You can borrow the money, tax-free.

bberris

You could do worse, and a lot of people have. But really, why scrape the bottom of the barrel?

bberris

Trip cancellation insurance with Chase sapphire was only partly successful for me. I claimed the full price of my plane tickets (bargain $550 each for MSP to FCO). But they only paid the change fee ($300). Rebooking after we felt good enough to travel would have cost over 1000 each. We did not reboo...

bberris

Update: The following could be incorrect. Sorry but the age-55-rule is not available in all 401(k) plans. The IRS allows it, but many plans do not implement it. So it turns out that one cannot really get advice about this rule of 55 from an internet forum. One has to check with their own plan admin...

bberris

As far as I can gather, he screens for funds with recent outperformance (the power of the internet!). There is sort of a method to this madness. He seems to be following a momentum strategy that is wildly inefficient but somewhat effective. Much easier and cheaper to just buy MTUM. And MTUM is also ...

bberris

HomerJ wrote: ↑
Wed Jun 13, 2018 1:23 am
...

Again, to be clear, you have $1.5 million invested, and $1.5 million sitting in cash because you believe a crash is coming correct?

I wish you the best of luck.

Maybe the cash is there to offset the risk of the leveraged ETF. Genius!

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