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I noticed a few years ago that the charges were more than they should be for ezpass. I called and found out the battery was bad so I had been paying the higher non-ezpass price for quite awhile. I was surprised no one let me know and no refund, had to buy new transponder

Sunrise is spectacular at top of Cadillac Mt at Acadia national park in Maine but if summer you have to get up pretty early. Sunset is also beautiful there looking out to Blue Hill

I called vanguard today about box 16 because my 10099 R had box 16 with RMD amount but my husbands did not and after a long hold they said it’s because my account is a brokerage account and my husbands is not. Hopefully that’s correct

I have also noticed many people working from home for other companies but this was obviously many employees talking to clients in a large room. I had tried sending a secure message on vanguard app but didn’t hear back so called after waiting for 3 or 4 days. Customer service has really gone down hill at vanguard

Good point when I call back I will ask if they are on speakerphone. I would be surprised if that is allowed at vanguard when talking to clients. thanks

Wow, I just called retirement section at vanguard about my RMD and couldn’t believe the noise. At times, I felt like there were several people talking to me at the same time. There must have been a lot of staff in one big room all talking on phones. I have never had that experience before with vanguard and told the man I was speaking to several times that the noise was terrible and he said would talk louder. I finally said I would call back another time to finish what I was trying to do. Has anyone else had this experience at vanguard?

Thanks i may do that!

Thanks, good point. I had decided on 50/50 awhile ago but the stocks had gone way last few years so it was closer to 60/40 and I had not moved funds but I guess I could now withdraw from bond fund to get to 50/50, just wish I had rebalanced in January

I have to take first RMD this year and unfortunately waited until now. With my husband’s RMD we will need to take out total of $50,000. Our IRAs are about 52% total bond fund and 48% total stock fund. Any suggestions which fund should withdraw from? Originally planned to withdraw from stock fund but with market the way it is now not sure what to do, thanks for any suggestions

Thanks so much for all the information it’s very confusing but I am starting to understand and will read the links. Am I understanding correctly that if I sell shares that I reinvested (if I can figure out what I paid for those shares) I can figure out cost basis for those shares? It’s starting to make sense. I don’t think at this point that I could find history on the account my parents had in order to figure out donor’s basis but I will look at reinvested shares. Thanks again as always!

Exxon I reinvested all. On Chevron (which is worth much more than Exxon), The first couple years I reinvested and then I started taking the dividends out

I received oil stock from my parents in 2004 (before they died). The value of the stock has grown to about $100k. I have no records from my parents on when they purchased to determine cost basis. However, I have kept my own records and have paid taxes on the dividends (about $20,000 in dividends). If I sell a portion of the stock, e.g. $30k. Will I pay capital gains on the entire amount or do the taxes I paid on the dividends somehow get subtracted? I have never sold stock, only mutual funds, so not sure how this works or where to go for help. I moved the stock to Vanguard around 2008 but I tried calling them and wait was going to be 45 minutes. We will be in 24% tax bracket I believe as both of us will have RMDs this year. Thanks for any s...

Wow, thanks so much!!

Thanks for the reply about using iPad for taxes. I didn’t think I could use TurboTax on iPad (can’t remember if it was someone at TurboTax who told me that) but if I can I would prefer to do that. I bought the laptop at Best Buy that was recommended but got so frustrated with it, I brought it back today. My iPad Pro is getting old, I assume the newer ones still don’t accept a flash drive but I guess I could email the pdfs from prior years

We bought a flexsteel leather recline couch and loveseat about 4 years ago, it’s dark brown and so far holding up well. We paid about $5,000 for the set. We had a fabric flexsteel couch for many years and it held up so well we decided to stick with flexsteel, hope it lasts as long

Being Mortal and One doctor both very good

Thanks, good to hear

Thanks my old laptop has windows10 and I have saved all the taxes in pdf so sounds like maybe I am ok if I understand you correctly

Thanks, that’s very helpful information!

I don’t know much about this but I have used windows in the past so would I be able to save the old taxes that were done on windows on a mac? And I assume that what you are describing would be pretty expensive? Thanks

I have used TurboTax CD for many years

I use my iPad Pro for everything except taxes. I have an old laptop that I use to do taxes once a year. I do keep the antivirus software updated but I am concerned that at some point the laptop will stop working, it’s very slow. I want to purchase an inexpensive one to move my and my son’s old taxes to and use for future taxes. I went to Best Buy and the clerk showed me an HP on sale for $189. It has intel celeron and 4 GB memory and 64 GB eMMC and she said it would be sufficient for what I want to do. When I went back to buy it, another clerk told me basically it was junk and I wouldn’t be able to move my old taxes to it as windows would use up almost all the memory. Any suggestions? I haven’t used a laptop for anything other than taxes si...

Thanks so much, so sounds like if he didn’t get Schedule D he is all set. I did search on TurboTax but missed your link, I will read it, thanks again

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Can you tell me if this is taxable for 2021? TurboTax asked if purchased any but I don’t see where you report anything else about it, thanks

Any one else have a problem with downloading tax forms? They keep changing date can download

Thanks for all the suggestions. I did buy ibonds last year and may again. Anyone suggest an online bank that pays more than Synchrony and is good to deal with?

My husband and I both take RMDs this year. I was thinking of putting the money (about $50,000) in our savings account at Synchrony but just checked and it’s only earning .50%. Any better ideas? We don’t really need the money for expenses but already have quite a bit in the stock index funds so didn’t want to go there. Our tIRAs have a lot in total bond fund and Roths all stock funds. Thanks

Thanks so much for the replies!

We have been doing Roth conversions for several years. This year I will be taking first RMD and my husband has been taking his for a couple years. I assumed that once I had to take RMD that we could no longer do Roth conversions, is that correct? All of our investments are at Vanguard and we have enough income. We are in the 22% tax bracket and wondering if anyone has a suggestion where to put the RMDs (about 50k for both of us) to minimize taxes. Thanks for any advice!

I had searched on Medicare website and couldn’t find but just noticed that the Medicare and You booklet they sent has the rates in the back for my state. I hadn’t finished reading it

I have been searching for 2022 Part D rates to no avail. Does anyone know where to look or when they will be available? My husband takes no prescriptions and had the cheapest plan but the premium is going to double so trying to see if a cheaper plan for 2022. I found the supplement rates on the State bureau of insurance site. He has plan F and switched last year to USAA for cheaper rate but they don’t change their rates until later in the year so hard to know at this point if they are still the cheapest. Thanks

I switched from local CVS to Valisure (only pharmacy that chemically tests every batch of drugs before sending out) when several BP meds were recalled due to possible carcinogen. I don’t take anything that needs to be refrigerated but I have been very happy with them. I receive within 2 days at no charge and I actually am paying less than I was at CVS. They also have great customer service, much better than local CVS

I have chevron and Exxon stock my mother gifted to me about 15 years ago. I would like to sell but I can’t determine the cost basis as my mother is now deceased and I have no paperwork as she had the stock for a very long time. I figured I would leave to my sons when I die and then they can sell with a new cost basis but wondering if I should sell now and take a tax hit?

Thanks

Thanks for the replies, I thought so but hoped a way around it

I realize that a portion of unemployment benefits for 2020 are not taxable; however, my daughter received benefits for 2020 in January 2021 as the employer had fought her application and she won on appeal. The benefits went back to August 2020. I assume she will have to pay taxes since she didn’t get the money until 2021. Does any one have any idea about this? Thanks

Thanks for the replies. We both also have Roth IRAs which are all stock so if count both we are about 50/50 allocation. We don’t need the money to live. I was thinking of just moving the money to Synchrony bank to add to our emergency fund, which is well funded but I wonder if it would be a good time to take some money out of stock. We don’t have LTC insurance so have thought of our IRAs as serving as our LTC insurance if ever need it, considering that, would it be better to leave bond fund for that? Thanks

I have had a dyson 7 for awhile, the pet one and love it. It has an option for high suction so work on carpet well. It is important to rinse the filter off every other time you vacuum so I bought a second filter. With 3 floors in our house, it makes vacuuming so much easier. Also, I got a roomba for my son but his one year old is petrified of it so they don’t use it

I have to take RMD for first time this year and have about 700,000 in tIRA with about 60% bonds and 40% total stock market and International stock. I am wondering which fund I should take the RMD from, it’s about 29,000. My wife will have to start RMD next year and has similar amount. Thanks for any advice

We live in Maine and replaced over 25 windows with Paradigm windows made in Portland Maine about 10 years ago. They have a lifetime warranty and were installed in a building on top of Mt Washington, where there is extreme weather conditions. We have been extremely happy with them

This is why I regretted moving to the brokerage account, I had to callVanguard and they figured out the approximate number of shares, which doesn’t come out to the specific dollar amount I wanted. My husband is still on the old platform and we converted a specific dollar amount with no problem on his account

Thank you I did see that and wondered if it might be yahoo suit but I just don’t recall filing anything

My checking account has a credit of $46 and it says Heffler payout. Any idea what this is for? I don’t remember requesting anything, thanks

I have had LL Bean snowshoes for years and love them!

Insight timer and calm are good

Thanks so much!

Thanks for the suggestions!

My son and daughter-in-law are 33 and expecting first child. They are wanting to get life insurance and both are in good health. I told them to get term insurance but wondering where they should look for that. They live a few hours away from me. Thanks for any suggestions

The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates is very good. She is inspiring

Thank you so much for all the responses! We have 3 sons, two are married and 2 grandsons with another on the way so we figured we will leave whatever is left to them. We did start doing Roth conversions several years ago and now 29% is in Roth. I wish we had started conversions earlier as Next year we will both have RMDs. We don’t have long term care insurance so I figure the traditional IRAs will be available for that if needed. Hopefully the Roth’s will go to sons. Thanks again, good to hear different views