Bogleheads.org

bberris

For cheapskates, before you buy premium economy, check seat selection to see how many empty seats there are in the back. You can stretch out and sleep in those center seats, 3 or 4 wide, on a typical off-season flight.

bberris

If you don’t want heirs fighting over your will, can you add a condition that any one who challenges it, forfeits their bequest? Some states allow it. If the will is determined invalid, all of the provisions, included terrorem, are invalid. So, you have to bequeath something of significant value to...

bberris

The stability is only offered, and only offerable, if the investment is continually available to participants. The scheme works because participants are more or less trapped into the option while they are employed. So withdrawals can be met with new deposits, or a small amount of borrowing by the f...

bberris

But in all these dividend threads, isn't it agreed that the share price of the stock goes down by the amount of the dividend leaving a net zero gain? I guess I'm still confused. Right. So if no dividend was paid, what would have been the dividend would appear as a price/value increase. The point is...

bberris

An index fund does not have to rebalance because one component is revalued against another by the market. The components are cap-weighted, so changes in value are changes in total capitalization. The fund would only need to trade if the index itself is changed.

bberris

The part that is disturbing to me: I had heard of stable value funds loosing money when the employer or an insurance company providing the insurance wrapper had gone out of business. I hadn't heard about a case of stable value funds loosing money (and having the loss passed on to the investors in t...

bberris

The $400 is probably the Broker Admin fee. This a fee that goes to the Brokerage to cover admin support plus just general office expenses . (Ours is $499). I will waive the fee for the client, and pay it myself, for larger sales. Like staples, paper clips and coffee creamer? Sounds like the doc fee...

bberris

How safe are they? If China starts to sell as well as Saudi Arabia what will US do to insure treasuries are stable and safe? Treasury securities are safe in the sense that you will always get paid at maturity. Ignore anyone who says things like "normal underwriting ...". This just does not apply to...

bberris

Try washing and putting it through the drier on high. Directions should be on the coat.

bberris

No matter how you refine mortality statistics, they are of little use in predicting when you will die. The average, or median is just that. The range of mortalities is broad and disperse around the median or mean. To me, it is more important to have a plan that will allow you to live the life you wa...

bberris

Some states (MN and LA) only tax part year residents on the investment income earned while resident, and earned income while working in the state. But the overall tax rate is determined by total taxable income in all states. You can look at the part-year/non-resident tax forms to see how this works.

bberris

No one volunteering "Prenup?"

bberris

I have enjoyed going on Sierra Club outings. They have backpack, basecamp, hotel .. But I could find no trip to Banff right now.

bberris

Update corrupted my video drivers, and no way to reinstall them or roll back. Restore point would not work. I had to restore from a system backup.

bberris

quantAndHold wrote: ↑
Fri Oct 05, 2018 7:50 am
It’s gambling. If any of us actually knew that we could reliably gain/lose $5k between now and the end of the year, don’t you think we would all do it?

The gamble has a 4:1 payoff. He wants to generate a loss in taxable to gain the ACA subsidy.

bberris

Thanks to all for taking the trouble to reply to my question. I’m 48 and intend to settle in the USA permanently. Converting in excess of £1 million into USD at a 30 year low exchange rate just feels like bad business to me,when I do have the option to hold it sterling denominated UK equities and t...

bberris

All you have to do to join the suit is ... nothing. In a few years after a settlement is reached, you will file a claim, probably online, stating your loss. This should only take a few minutes. You are in the class automatically if you qualify (sounds like you will). In a few years, you might get a ...

bberris

No. Nope. No.
You are giving the buyer a free option to buy with no expiration. They could take forever to sell their house (how do you know it is priced right?).
Counter without the contingency.

bberris

OECD data from 2017 https://data.oecd.org/conversion/purchasing-power-parities-ppp.htm shows PPP of 0.750 for the Euro using-countries. That means an exchange rate of 1.333 dollars per euro gives you equal purchasing power in the US and Euro zone. The current exchange rate is 1.17. In order to buy t...

bberris

euro loans have also much lower rates. euro bank accounts offer lower rates as well What I cannot understand is why USD value respect euro doesn't decrease at the difference of the rate. It would seem you can arbitrage the whole thing (get a loan in euros, invest in USD, pay back in Euros) As I thi...

bberris

It seems like an unnecessarily complicated way to increase your risk. ... Risk is not increased. The 401k loan does not generate leverage, because it is not really a loan; it's a withdrawal. On the other hand, you are not really increasing your 401k balance. When you take out the loan and make cont...

bberris

... I've had some experience with wash sales. I will probably buy some of the losses back after allowing enough time to pass ... ? If you close out the position with the wash sale (sell what you bought that created the wash) during the year, you will keep that tax loss. That erases the wash. Buying...

bberris

It looks like you are comparing nominal (after inflation) stock returns with absolute (before inflation) returns from bonds. Assuming an efficient market, bonds would not offer expected returns higher than stocks.

bberris

I had an inquiry from Credco when I applied for a mortgage from one company. Then my mortgage company wanted an explanation of who this Credco was and why did they check my credit.

bberris

michaeljc70 wrote: ↑
Mon Sep 03, 2018 10:47 am
I don't want to hijack the thread, but does TDA reimburse international ATM fees? I know they do domestically.

I think so, but there should not be any in Europe. If they don't do it automatically, call them and they will probably credit you.

bberris

ATM at the airport in Europe to get your initial money and then other ATMs in europe Yes and no. Some airport ATMs (Travelex) dispense a variety of currencies and have awful fees/exchange rates. On the other hand, a bank ATM located in the airport should be fine. In my experience, European ATMs own...

bberris

TwstdSista wrote: ↑
Tue Aug 28, 2018 6:40 pm
Often misused:

Adverse - Averse
Advice - Advise
Roth - ROTH

ROTH: Retirement On The Halfshell.

bberris

I think a 5+ year old statement suffices to prove five-year opening of the account. You don't have to wait 5 years from each contribution, the wait begins from the first contribution tax year (which might have been the following year) from any roth account.

bberris

SS benefits are currently scheduled to decrease by approximately 25% in the mid 2030's. The laws or economy could change so this is far from certain. ... "Scheduled" is too strong a word for what will happen. The SS website only says that Congress will have to make some changes before then to keep ...

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.

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