Bogleheads.org

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I lived in Lisbon for 2 years and drove and it isn't really too bad for the most part. The one thing you have to watch out for is following your GPS into old walled cities. GPS might say "turn right" when the "street" to the right is only like 4' wide. But, the highways are easy ...

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In addition, even if cryptocurrency is deemed 'property' if it's held in a "foreign account" the account itself may require reporting even if disclosing whats held in the account is not. Well, you really shouldn't leave it on the exchange so once you withdraw it to your wallet then I don'...

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The IRS guidance was that cryptocurrencies were considered property and not currency. By that logic, buying over $10,000 on a foreign exchange should be no difference than buying $10,000 of anything else overseas and the FBAR shouldn't apply.

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Thanks everyone. I'll just go along and only make payments if I end up making more capital gains.

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So, long story short I did some cryptocurrency trading last year and the capital gains took me from a $250 refund to ~$2500 payment to the IRS including underpayment penalty. In my return, TurboTax also generated vouchers for me to make quarterly estimated this year and said if I don't I could have ...

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I had bad luck with Coinbase. I've been using Abra and it is easy and works well as long as you can live within it's USD deposit/withdrawl limits: $500/daily, $1,000/weekly, and $2,000/monthly.

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I bought some BTC, ETH, LTC, ANS, and ZEC a few weeks ago. So far down about 8.5%

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Every single dissent I gave seen in this thread to saving receipts and deferring reimbursement in this thread are based on logical fallacies, this one is yet another non sequitur; "I don't submit my claims to my insurance, therefore no one should use this strategy. You not taking the minimal s...

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You keep stating things like "often, EOBs don't exist," yet you've failed to share some meaningful examples (while multiple others have shared their ease in obtaining EOBs for most/all expenses). Sure, you're not going to get an EOB when you buy a bottle of saline solution or allowable ov...

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One wrinkle was that I knew in the back of my head (from research at work for possibly using them as test equipment) was that these devices don't have Ethernet connectors. I don't have wireless at home. I was able to use my vast computer skills to at least get thing up and configured, and some apps...

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I'm one who has said it before. But, it's not like it is a goal or actually did the math beyond estimating as it was just in conversation with someone else so I'm not really sure if it's before or after taxes and I'm not sure what the actual percentage is. But, some of my compensation isn't taxable....

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My real name is a number, which is pretty uncommon, so I typically don't bother with a fake one on forums (since people will just assume it is fake anyway). But, it was already taken so I tried shifting it to a different base number system.

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Has anyone tried a retractable fountain pen? Here is an example: http://www.levenger.com/namiki-pilot-vanishing-point-fountain-pen-core-1761.aspx I have the Pilot 2015 LE "Twilight" Vanishing Point and also a Decimo (which is basically a Vanishing Point with a slimmer body). It's great fo...

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A friend of mine started telling me he was into them a year or more ago. I thought it was stupid how much he spent on them, but I did find them somewhat interesting. I finally broke down in March and got a few very cheap ones and then more and more. I kind of can't believe how much I have spent, but...

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I started on HDHP with HSA about 5yrs ago when my daughter was 4. We don't really use tons of medical care and I figured as long as I had the $3k for the deductible on hand it would be ok. I've maxed out my contributions to it each year. First year it worked great as we had almost no expenses. Secon...

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Carl53 wrote:Earned income is necessary.

Thanks! "Earned" was the key word I had missed I guess.

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I have a Traditional IRA and was thinking about the possibility of doing Roth conversions at some point in the future to take advantage of a year (or years) with little or no income. Then it occurred to me that since a conversion is taxed as income then does that qualify you to make an IRA contribut...

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Pro-tip: At any restaurant in Lisbon/Portugal, turn away the appetizer dish they bring you. They pretend like it's free, but they actually charge for it. It's a trick to get tourists into paying extra, and almost every place does it. That's not a trick against tourists. That's just the way that it'...

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Sintra is a nice little trip outside of Lisbon.

On Sao Miguel, I thought Furnas was pretty cool as there are lots of hot springs and stuff.

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I definitely wouldn't cancel out of fear (disclaimer: I'm an American living in Europe). August is probably the worst time to go though (due to crowds and temperature).

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If you have a card reader on your computer you can install this software and check the order of verification methods: http://pannetrat.com/Cardpeek/ Edit: Somebody has already been doing this and building a database and if it is one of these then you should be good: http://www.spotterswiki.com/emv/c...

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Don't think that it's a purely public school thing. I was quite surprised the first year my kid went to an expensive private school that they still did fundraisers and had school supply lists that we had to provide. But, it has continued on every year at three different schools now so it's apparentl...

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I had a credit on a card I didn't use frequently and after several months they sent me a check without me asking just to straighten out their books I guess. So, they definitely can.

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livesoft wrote:^Thanks!

No problem. I do recommend having back up options just in case though (I also have a USAA Chip & PIN card and a Chip & PIN debit card issued by my European bank).

Also, anything other than regional trains I would book online in advance to try and get better prices.

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We plan to be in Italy soon and I was researching buying train tickets and they mentioned using ticket machines on the platforms but to be sure you have a chip and pin card. I just spent a week in Italy and had no problem with my Chase Marriott Chip + Signature card at the machines. I had other opt...

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We plan to be in Italy soon and I was researching buying train tickets and they mentioned using ticket machines on the platforms but to be sure you have a chip and pin card. I just spent a week in Italy and had no problem with my Chase Marriott Chip + Signature card at the machines. I had other opt...

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I spent the last two years in Lisbon and really loved it. Porto is pretty nice too. In Spain I visited Seville and Barcelona and would like to go back to both of those for more time.

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I went to TaxAct.com to start my return and the regular page loaded, but when I click the sign in button that page doesn't load. I tried turning on my VPN and it works fine so it seems like they are blocking overseas users, but I thought I'd post here to see if anyone else can verify. (HSA Bank appe...

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You got out cheap. I thought for sure I had found the perfect manufactured spend to get that credit card bonus.

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I've found two days in a city to be the sweet spot for me. It's enough time to see the main things I want and if I have anymore I start getting lazy and thinking "I can always do that tomorrow" and end up wasting time at the hotel. IMO the rail passes are almost never worth the money. Some...

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I've been living overseas for almost 5 years and am on my 3rd country and never had a problem with Vanguard. Of course, I opened my account when I was still in the US and I've only ever used my US address with them so they don't really know I'm overseas except by IP address.

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Dropbox rarely
Google Drive for basically one active spreadsheet (and Google Photos for all my photos)
Amazon Glacier for another off-site backup of all my photos

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I estimate around 5% this year.

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billfromct wrote: Don't know if Xoom services Isreal.

I use Xoom to send money to family in The Philippines but I just looked at their site and don't see Israel listed.

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As a related matter (apologies in advance if inappropriate), can anyone offer advice in getting a federal job for someone in I.T.? I was let go from my private sector job (programming/systems analysis) in the Unix/C/C++/Oracle area after 25 years with a BS and MS in math and engineering and compute...

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1. I like skypicker.com for flights now. You can use it to do a radius search for the departure airport with MCO as the destination and find the cheapest to fly back from and use that to determine your route. 2. Personally, I would much rather do trains than drive. Last April my family did 4 countri...

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I'm sure someone will correct me or explain better, but my understanding is that when a dividend/interest is paid out to the holders it comes out of the fund lowering the price per share and basically making it a wash. With the automatic reinvestment you end up own more shares of the fund but each s...

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Thanks to someone posting a high res photo of the TSA master keys and the existence of 3D printers the TSA approved locks are even more worthless now. https://github.com/Xyl2k/TSA-Travel-Sentry-master-keys

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If that's the case, I have a tsp account and a brokerage account, it has been suggested to me to hold all my fixed income in the G fund rather than the Total bond fund. If there is no guaranteed correlation, I minds well use the G fund to my advantage! I hate to see bonds go down, because they neve...

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I decided I'd take advantage of the dip on Tuesday and moved about 5% of my TSP from G to C & S. So, if the market continues to drop you can probably blame me.

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I'm going on the assumption you are talking about Kindle Fire tablets and not the e-readers. Firstly, I wouldn't pay extra for the ad free version. The ads are only on the lock screen and sometimes there are really good exclusive deals. I got an $80 coffee maker for like $20 once. After you get it, ...

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I don't know about "peel" off but I a few of our do have parts of the edge that are sort squared off where something has happened. I just assumed they had chipped, but I guess it is possible that they peeled.

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I made my final IRA contribution for the year yesterday and bought some VGSLX. Brought my allocation from 6% to 7%. I want 10% eventually but right now I prefer slowly rebalancing through directing new money instead of selling one thing and buying another and doing it all at once.

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I have one of high school classmates and one from my work. I can keep up with the people in them without necessarily being friends with all of those people.

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The vast majority of Chipped cards in the US are Chip and Signature. If you get a PIN it is only used for cash advances at ATMs. If you get overseas to a kiosk or place that actually requires an offline Chip & PIN it probably won't work even with that PIN that you set.

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111, thanks I will check into the fee, but what do you invest in for your HSA? I only use the commission free ETFs. Mostly VT though at times I had some in VNQ and a few other things. Just be aware that if you don't hold that ETF for 30 days then they'll slap you with a fee for both the buy and the...

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I used the TD Ameritrade. I found that the fees were waived (or possibly paid by my employer) as long as I'm active in the HDHP. I temporarily switched to a normal plan and they started charging me the fees and when I switched back they stopped. I'm over the minimum now, so it doesn't really matter.

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I have a Sony RX100 II and love it. We also have a DSLR, but it is so heavy to lug around that we rarely carry it. As the old saying goes: "The best camera is the one that you'll use."

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LOL @ a group 7 years in the making. :D I'm originally from Cleveland, so I've spent a lot of time in Chattanooga, but now I'm living overseas. I'm visiting my parents over the next month and am sure I'll make several trips to Chattanooga to eat at Ankar's if nothing else (one of the places I miss t...

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BTW, if you're a Prime user, be sure to take advantage of the Amazon Store Card. 5% back on most Amazon purchases (at least that's the deal that was offered to me, per my shopping habits). Absurd interest rate, but I if you pay credit card interest, you probably don't post here. I have the Amazon c...

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