Search found 7170 matches

by JW-Retired
Wed Feb 03, 2021 8:59 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Taking Social Security early to pay for IRMAA?
Replies: 65
Views: 4482

Re: Taking Social Security early to pay for IRMAA?

Mitchell777 wrote: Sat Jan 30, 2021 6:17 pm I have also been considering taking SS early, not to pay for IRMAA, but in an attempt to possible reduce IRMAA.
For gosh sakes don't take your larger SS early. SS has a significantly lower tax burden because..... (1) at least 15% of it is never federal taxed no matter how large your income, and (2) nearly all the states don't state income tax SS at all no matter what your income.
JW
by JW-Retired
Fri Dec 18, 2020 10:52 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Put up with old 401k to contribute to backdoor Roth ?
Replies: 8
Views: 949

Re: Put up with old 401k to contribute to backdoor Roth ?

rafa05 wrote: Thu Dec 17, 2020 9:19 pm I am in dilemma of whether or not to rollover my wife's 401k account with ex-employer. She hasn't been employed for last 2.5 yrs (after maternity leave) and might not rejoin the workforce for another 1 or 2 years.
Urge you to be patient and wait for plenty of time for her to get another job. Another "1 or 2 years" is practically nothing. So is an extra charge of "0.11%".
JW
by JW-Retired
Sun Nov 22, 2020 11:17 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Anyone here mostly cash in portfolio?
Replies: 210
Views: 25582

Re: Anyone here mostly cash in portfolio?

Since the March lows I've made a mistake of selling almost all of my equities. With everything up now, I realized I made a big mistake. Anyone in a similar situation and what did you end up doing? Yes, some time in the Clinton presidency I sold a lot of equities because I thought they were due for crashing. Luckily it was not "all of my equities" because instead they went up and up. They only went way down some years later. I did learn that it was silly to think I could guess the market direction. Since then, I have only made changes in my portfolio if it gets well above my 60% equities target. If it goes lower than my target I just let it be. It worked great! In the last 20 something years I have only increased equities via new ...
by JW-Retired
Sun Nov 15, 2020 10:33 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Wait until 70 to take social security?
Replies: 161
Views: 19203

Re: Wait until 70 to take social security?

I’m 65, retired, approaching my full retirement at 66and 2 months. Take S.S. then and get $2760 a month or wait until 70 and get $3607 ?I live frugally, and don’t need the added money. When I run the numbers, investing the earlier amount at 6% leads to a head start the larger withdrawal doesn’t catch if similarly invested. ( Ran to age 90). Wife is 4 years younger, and would draw$1544 at 67 or $1914 at 70. What am I missing? You are missing about everything. :oops: First of all, S.S. is just more valuable money because it is tax less. If you don't have much other income S.S. isn't tax at all. Even if you have very high income 15% of your SS will never be Federally taxed. Maybe even more important, almost all the states don't tax any S.S. w...
by JW-Retired
Wed Oct 28, 2020 9:12 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Social security strategy question
Replies: 9
Views: 1426

Re: Social security strategy question

ensign wrote: Tue Oct 27, 2020 4:39 pm I’m 64 and retired. My wife, the high earner in the marriage, is retiring next year when we both turn 65.

We have about $1.5m in retirement assets, another $1m in taxable accounts and cash, and no debt.

I plan to take social security when she retires (which works out to about $30k a year) and recommend she wait till age 70 to max her ss.
Do not forget state taxes in this plan! Very few states tax a penny of your SS.

My own high taxing state gives SS a pass. That, plus at most only 85% of my SS being federally taxed, means my own SS gets totally taxed at only about half the federal+state rate that my pension is hit.
JW
by JW-Retired
Mon Oct 05, 2020 10:55 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Help with the Math [When to take Social Security vs. Investing]
Replies: 24
Views: 2896

Re: Help with the Math [When to take Social Security vs. Investing]

Kathleen Ryan wrote: Thu Oct 01, 2020 6:22 pm Is it better to wait until age 65 and let's say have $1,000 per month to invest then, but nothing per month to invest during those 36 months of waiting until the age of 65?
Kathleen,
You said you live in California (as I do). If you plan to stay there then the giant consideration of when to take Social Security is California income taxes. CA taxes most everything heavily except SS income. They don't tax SS for any tax bracket.

Very easy call for me to delay my SS until 70. Wife and I pay a fair amount of CA tax on all our other income, but not a penny of CA tax on our Social Security.
JW
by JW-Retired
Sat Sep 26, 2020 9:33 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: rollover mistake - cancel possible?
Replies: 17
Views: 1949

Re: rollover mistake - cancel possible?

What do all your new 401k fees amount to? ....and how long will you be at this new employer?
JW
by JW-Retired
Tue Jul 07, 2020 10:36 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Does it really matter when you claim Social Security
Replies: 109
Views: 10995

Re: Does it really matter when you claim Social Security

Yes, IMO it matters. In many cases the most enormous benefit of maximizing your Social Security, in lieu of your tax deferred savings, is lower State Tax. A moderately well off Boglehead in a high tax state like California, is likely to have their deferred savings RMD state taxed at 9.3% or more. On the other hand, CA and most all high tax states ignore your social security payments totally. I found me waiting SS to 70 really worked great for wife and I. My understanding is that it's too much complication for the calculators to cover all the 50 different states. Still believe my state tax effect is the big benefit in our case. I do just find it satisfying to see the tax returns showing California AGI is a good deal lower than Federal AGI. :...
by JW-Retired
Sun Jun 21, 2020 12:13 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Odd CA Tax Refund
Replies: 5
Views: 746

Re: Odd CA Tax Refund

MarkNYC wrote: Sat Jun 20, 2020 1:03 pm The first place to look would be the amount of payments. Carefully check the payment amounts on lines 71 -74 of your CA tax return (assuming resident return) vs. your tax records, including any overpayment applied from the prior year. .............
Thank you MarkNYC you got it! I had done a underpayment of tax (CA form 5805) and it came to exactly $85!

Evidently, since they moved the tax deadline 4+ months down the road from when I filed my taxes, they sent my underpayment amount back.
JW
by JW-Retired
Sat Jun 20, 2020 10:42 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Odd CA Tax Refund
Replies: 5
Views: 746

Odd CA Tax Refund

I submitted our CA tax return by mail in early March, along with a check covering the 4 figures my HRB software said we owed. HRB didn't indicate we owed any penalty.

Now 3 months later we got a $85 CA tax refund in the mail. The check just said "Tax Refund", no explanation what drove it? Re-running updated HRB software doesn't make any change in my tax owed so that's no help.

I'm not going to bother ftb.ca.gov with my curiosity but hoping someone here might have a thought? Did CA send everyone $85 for some COVID-19 reason?
JW
by JW-Retired
Sat Jun 06, 2020 10:00 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Anyone screwed up timing the market?
Replies: 94
Views: 10822

Re: Anyone screwed up timing the market?

TheoLeo wrote: Mon May 25, 2020 10:11 am I got out in march, saw the market drop further and then rise, rise, rise and now, if the market doesn´t come down again, I have missed the boat :oops:
Anyone else who learned not to time the market?
I learned it about 25 years ago. Somebody at work agreed with me that the market just couldn't keep rising like it was. :shock: It could! :oops:

One lesson was enough though. Never timed again. :D
JW
by JW-Retired
Mon May 25, 2020 11:25 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Thinking of selling some SP 500 to buy more Wells Fargo
Replies: 75
Views: 7219

Re: Thinking of selling some SP 500 to buy more Wells Fargo

This reminds me of when wife and I still had a few individual stocks. We bought some Washington Mutual stock ("WaMu", ticker WM) in 2006. I've forgotten whatever reasons I had for picking it, except I do recall one of my kids banked there and really liked it.

In September 2008 WaMu failed. (I had sold out in late August for 9% of our purchase price.) According to Wikipedia..... "Regarding total assets under management, WaMu's closure and receivership is the largest bank failure in American financial history."

WaMu was the last individual stock we ever bought so IMO this was a good thing for us! :D
JW
by JW-Retired
Mon May 11, 2020 11:34 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Coffee-grounds/beans/leftover - uses in garden besides compost
Replies: 10
Views: 1780

Re: Coffee-grounds/beans/leftover - uses in garden besides compost

We dump our coffee-grounds directly into a 2-quart soft plastic container with a lid at the end of the kitchen counter. When that is fairly full, I take it to various garden areas and strew the still wet grounds here and there with a big spoon. It only takes me something like 5 minutes to get rid of all the grounds and rinse out the container. There is no smell and after a few days the grounds are invisible.

It's the cleanest way to deal with coffee-grounds we have found. 8-)
JW
by JW-Retired
Thu May 07, 2020 10:22 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: No tax return after >10 weeks?
Replies: 67
Views: 6681

Re: No tax return after >10 weeks?

After all these years I'm still DIY filing H&R Block software paper returns by registered mail.

Our IRS return went out on March 11 and the state return on March 12. The registered mail postal cards came back on March 12 and 13. We owed money and the checks cleared on March 13 & 16. The HRB software update hasn't shown any change in owed tax since then.

Is there hope that means all is well?
JW
by JW-Retired
Sat Apr 25, 2020 12:08 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Take Social Security now, at 66, during Corona-virus?
Replies: 61
Views: 5641

Re: Take Social Security now, at 66, during Corona-virus?

I don't see that SS taxation, especially state taxation, has been mentioned.

Most states don't tax SS and none of the high tax states do. That makes delay of SS as much as you can a really easy call. Especially if you are in a hefty bracket in a high tax state like my dear old California.

It added up to avoiding a lot of tax for me. :D
JW
by JW-Retired
Wed Apr 22, 2020 8:04 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Tax loss harvesting
Replies: 6
Views: 639

Re: Tax loss harvesting

matthewmatt wrote: Wed Apr 22, 2020 2:11 am Tax loss harvesting (TLH) is defined as selling of securities at a loss to offset capital gains tax liability in similar security.
My question is very practical: what types capital gains are more often offset by TLH:
As tibbits said, best to avoid any capital gains so that more of any TLH can be offset against your ordinary taxable income. That would likely offset a higher tax rate. It takes a while since you can only offset $3000 of your income per year that way, but the excess does stay in a bank year over year. IMO, some folks are still working on their tax loss bank from 2008.
JW
by JW-Retired
Sun Apr 19, 2020 1:56 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: I'm out [of the market]
Replies: 109
Views: 13912

Re: I'm out [of the market]

Talyho wrote: Sun Apr 19, 2020 11:49 am Easily live on social security and pension, our portfolio is worth approx $1,35500.00. I'm 76 healthy and wife 70 and the same. I guess I'm just curious as to what others think of this action.
I think it depends. One would guess your wife is apt to outlive you by something like 8 years. What % of that pension would wife still get as a survivor?
JW
by JW-Retired
Mon Mar 30, 2020 10:42 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: RMDs May Not Be Required for 2020
Replies: 142
Views: 12161

Re: IRS Suspends RMD

Alan, In my case it's still in a 401k, but I'm way into my RMD years and need the money. It's been set up on an autopilot so the 401k administrator sends me the RMD amount in a couple of pieces on fixed dates of the year. If I do nothing will they still send me the RMD amounts.... or will I need to do something? thanks, JW I’m not Alan, but if you need the RMDs, you don’t need to do anything to keep them coming. If you don’t want them anymore this year, then you should contact the 401K administrator. That's it! I hoped to keep then coming without me needing to do anything. Thank you celia. JW JW, You may want to check with your 401k administrator to make certain they will do what you want. Just to make sure. I will check to make sure. JW
by JW-Retired
Sun Mar 29, 2020 4:47 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: RMDs May Not Be Required for 2020
Replies: 142
Views: 12161

Re: IRS Suspends RMD

celia wrote: Sun Mar 29, 2020 4:12 pm
JW-Retired wrote: Sun Mar 29, 2020 1:32 pm Alan,
In my case it's still in a 401k, but I'm way into my RMD years and need the money. It's been set up on an autopilot so the 401k administrator sends me the RMD amount in a couple of pieces on fixed dates of the year. If I do nothing will they still send me the RMD amounts.... or will I need to do something?
thanks,
JW
I’m not Alan, but if you need the RMDs, you don’t need to do anything to keep them coming. If you don’t want them anymore this year, then you should contact the 401K administrator.
That's it! I hoped to keep then coming without me needing to do anything.
Thank you celia.
JW
by JW-Retired
Sun Mar 29, 2020 1:32 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: RMDs May Not Be Required for 2020
Replies: 142
Views: 12161

Re: IRS Suspends RMD

Alan S. wrote: Fri Mar 27, 2020 4:09 pm
NavyIC3 wrote: Fri Mar 27, 2020 10:00 am IRS suspended the RMD from 401's and IRA's for 2020. Might be a good idea to do a Roth conversion for the amount of the RMD.
Yes, treat this like you are back in your pre RMD years.
Alan,
In my case it's still in a 401k, but I'm way into my RMD years and need the money. It's been set up on an autopilot so the 401k administrator sends me the RMD amount in a couple of pieces on fixed dates of the year. If I do nothing will they still send me the RMD amounts.... or will I need to do something?
thanks,
JW
by JW-Retired
Sat Mar 28, 2020 11:05 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: How often do you re-balance during these times?
Replies: 42
Views: 4932

Re: How often do you re-balance during these times?

JD2775 wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2020 9:45 am I am talking about times like these, not during "normal" market behavior...
Never re-balance in these times. Since a little before the turn of the century, I only re-balance when my equities get too high over my nominal 60%. Or with new money. Neither of those conditions are apt to happen soon.

That eliminates a lot of work and worry for me. :D
JW
by JW-Retired
Tue Feb 25, 2020 9:34 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Do you ever use cash?
Replies: 228
Views: 18545

Re: Do you ever use cash?

Sometimes. I'm certain I have never paid my barber with anything but cash. Also mostly use cash for fairly often take out fast food lunches.

But that's about it for my cash.
JW
by JW-Retired
Mon Feb 24, 2020 7:37 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Attn: Social Security Experts **question**
Replies: 33
Views: 3816

Re: Attn: Social Security Experts **question**

summerof42,
I think you ought to view the yearly increase of your SS payments as much much bigger from working & delaying SS than the measly $15. At your age, from now to age 70, a simple delay of SS from your age will amount to a 7 to 8% yearly boost over your FRA amount.

That's the increase to be thinking about. :beer
JW
by JW-Retired
Mon Feb 24, 2020 7:07 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Yet another Roth conversion question
Replies: 6
Views: 820

Re: Yet another Roth conversion question

omposton,
I think you might be missing just how great converting the tIRA will be. Once you do that you will be free to do "backdoor" Roth contributions yearly.
In the 35% bracket you make way too much to do direct Roth contributions now.

see https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Backdoor_Roth
JW
by JW-Retired
Fri Feb 21, 2020 9:02 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Social Security reduction and breakeven
Replies: 67
Views: 6678

Re: Social Security reduction and breakeven

Make sure you understand the tax effects. Given the 9% state income tax rate I pay for everything exception SS, plus the 15% of my SS not Federally taxed, delaying my SS payments to 70 was a really easy choice.
JW
by JW-Retired
Wed Feb 19, 2020 8:52 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: High income earner - backdoor roth and employer 401k
Replies: 6
Views: 668

Re: High income earner - backdoor roth and employer 401k

Your CPA could be unfamiliar with a backdoor Roth. It's also possible your CPA knows you have a existing IRA, or rollover IRA, or Simple IRA, or SEP IRA that you didn't know gets lumped together with your backdoor contribution, and would ruin your plan.

See the Nondeductible IRAs 8606 form.
JW
by JW-Retired
Wed Feb 19, 2020 8:24 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Would you ever hold enough Fixed Income to cover you until a certain age?
Replies: 55
Views: 4258

Re: Would you ever hold enough Fixed Income to cover you until a certain age?

TheTimeLord wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2020 9:35 pm Simple question, would you ever hold enough fixed income net of SS, pensions and annuities to cover your expenses for the remainder of your presumed life (i.e. to cover you until a certain age)?
Yes, in a way we have done that for a long time. We do not re-balance when there is a bear market so our fixed income nest egg is truly fixed on the down side. That + SS & the pension is enough.
JW
by JW-Retired
Thu Feb 13, 2020 8:22 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: I bought a house, what is my AA now?
Replies: 152
Views: 13150

Re: I bought a house, what is my AA now?

countmein wrote: Wed Feb 12, 2020 9:29 pm But it is a fact that your capital is allocated to your list of assets, in various amounts.

You can decide not to think about certain assets but if the purpose is risk/return management and these are risky, return-producing assets, it would be counterproductive to do so.
IMO, use of the real stock/bond AA is mostly a convention here so we all can know what you are talking about. As soon as you throw additional different assets into that simple 2 part mix it just gets too complicated for most of us to be of any help. Please keep it simple for us.
JW
by JW-Retired
Fri Feb 07, 2020 8:35 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: What is the highest expense ratio you willingly pay?
Replies: 177
Views: 19798

Re: What is the highest expense ratio you willingly pay?

I have mostly low expense Boglehead level funds...... except for Fidelity Contrafund Fund at about 0.8%. That's about 5 times more than any of my other funds. Regrettably, I bought it 30-something years ago so I'm tax trapped. :annoyed

On top of this Contra likes to trade a good deal so they frequently realize capital gains I am forced to pay tax on. :annoyed :annoyed
JW
by JW-Retired
Thu Jan 30, 2020 7:18 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Just answered telephone political poll. Now concerned.
Replies: 70
Views: 25133

Re: Just answered telephone political poll. Now concerned.

likegarden wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 4:01 pm We have no phone call problems, simply do not pick up any calls with phone numbers and names we do not know, including political polls.
Yep, we just let it ring if we don't know the caller, and block it if they are persistent. Mostly they don't leave a message. If they do start to leave one and are legit like our doctor or dentist and so forth, we pick up. Seems to work pretty well.
JW
by JW-Retired
Sun Jan 26, 2020 9:42 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Should I bother with tax exempt bond
Replies: 22
Views: 4363

Re: Should I bother with tax exempt bond

Why is it the slightest bother?
JW
by JW-Retired
Sun Jan 26, 2020 8:58 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What to do after we have our 6-12 month EF
Replies: 20
Views: 1782

Re: What to do after we have our 6-12 month EF

skives19 wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2020 5:08 am So my wife and I make $76,000 a year and contribute 15% to our 401k’s
Can you clarify? Do you each make $76k, so in total you would contribute 2x0.15x76 = 22.8k to your 401k's?
JW
by JW-Retired
Sat Jan 25, 2020 9:17 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: SS as a bond and Asset Allocation
Replies: 28
Views: 1728

Re: SS as a bond and Asset Allocation

Kingpin wrote: Fri Jan 24, 2020 8:51 pm If the asset allocation of the 2m is 50/50 stocks/bonds, based on the anticipated SS, should I really almost think of my portfolio as being 30/70 stocks/bonds and adjust or re-balance accordingly?
I wouldn't. How you "think of it" is apt to be weird and beyond our understanding of it. At the very least please always do include telling us the actual real stocks/bonds AA when asking for advice. Which you did.......... and if you like 50/50 it's OK with me! :beer
JW
by JW-Retired
Sun Jan 19, 2020 12:17 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: How taxes on 401k are calculated
Replies: 6
Views: 903

Re: How taxes on 401k are calculated

aristotelian wrote: Sun Jan 19, 2020 11:53 am 100% of withdrawals from pretax accounts are taxed. That includes contributions, dividends, and gains.
Yes. Maybe it's already clear, but if not: For pretax accounts like a 401k everything you take out is taxed like it was ordinary taxable income. Doesn't matter if you took it from bonds or equities or stable value or whatever in the 401k account.
JW
by JW-Retired
Sun Jan 19, 2020 9:41 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Roth 401k vs pre-tax 401k
Replies: 4
Views: 881

Re: Roth 401k vs pre-tax 401k

notplannedbuthappy,
I'm uncertain what you mean by "Pension (cash value): 55K" and "(cash value not conventional): 150K"? Do you confirm that these are these just two very small pensions?

Are you planning to delay his SS until age 70? That would be the obvious play since she will be likely drawing your SS amount for many years after you pass. Does your state tax SS? Most high tax states don't so that makes SS income a lot more tax friendly then all the rest of your income.
JW
by JW-Retired
Sat Jan 11, 2020 9:07 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Roth IRA Conversion tax free?
Replies: 16
Views: 2208

Re: Roth IRA Conversion tax free?

jimmieg wrote: Fri Jan 10, 2020 3:15 pm In retirement, no income besides Social Security, RMD and some taxable interest/dividends.
My wife's IRA goes 100% to QCD. For 2020, I will have about $11000 additional I can withdraw from my IRA beyond my RMD before reaching our $27000 standard deduction.
One needs to understand the way taxation of Social Security works. Basically, the more "other" income you have the more of your Social Security gets taxed. See https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Taxatio ... y_benefits

How much of each kind of income do you have? You could naively think you are in one tax bracket for IRA withdrawals and it's really 1.5 or 1.85 that much.
JW
by JW-Retired
Tue Jan 07, 2020 9:40 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Stock selling tax question
Replies: 3
Views: 374

Re: Stock selling tax question

Best that you don't realize any gains until a year that you have no losses left in the bank.

And don't invest in any mutual funds that like to stock pick and realize gains on their own. :oops:
JW
by JW-Retired
Tue Jan 07, 2020 8:54 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Please review my retirement plan, thank you!
Replies: 12
Views: 1794

Re: Please review my retirement plan, thank you!

onesteadyteddy wrote: Mon Jan 06, 2020 11:35 pm I have 4k in robinhood that I like to play around with.
I plan on slowly liquidating Long Term Gains and using ~4k in my Roth IRA to play in stocks tax free.
(Please let me know if there are any errors in this thinking)
Agree with tenkuky you don't need those items he marked in red.

Agree with peetsperk that stock picking is dangerous. Worst case you get lucky and pick some winners. Causing you to think you indeed have a talent for stock picking and decide to play at it in a large way. :oops:
JW
by JW-Retired
Sat Jan 04, 2020 9:20 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: When to Collect SS
Replies: 55
Views: 3885

Re: When to Collect SS

JoeRetire wrote: Sat Jan 04, 2020 6:51 am
Billionaire wrote: Sat Jan 04, 2020 6:45 amAnd nobody here will pay any attention to your post. They will continue to agonize over this. Most of the folks here can probably collect early, which will allow their invested money to continue growing.
Everyone here can collect early.

Most will rightly conclude that they are better off financially for the high-earner in the couple to wait until 70.
Yep, and most folks shouldn't need any agonizing over it. All they need to know is (1) SS is federal + state taxed much less than their tax deferred income (that's the reason for many here). And (2) SS income can't dry up from overspending (like happens to the nest egg of too many non-Bogleheads).
JW
by JW-Retired
Tue Dec 31, 2019 9:25 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: RMD how do you use them?
Replies: 42
Views: 4263

Re: RMD how do you use them?

mule wrote: Mon Dec 30, 2019 10:28 pm Just wondering how most of you treat your RMD moneys? Reinvest, live on distribution amount, charity/kids or what is your plans or process now?
An estimated tax portion of our RMD is sent directly to the tax collectors, and the rest gets thrown into our bank account. There it's mixed with our SS & pension income streams and becomes just $$. Beyond that point we can't tell what kind of money goes where.

We do have more income than we need so some money goes to reinvestment/kids/charity ...... but I see no way to break out our RMD use. :?
JW
by JW-Retired
Sun Dec 22, 2019 11:43 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Tax Law Changes for 2020
Replies: 355
Views: 33269

Re: Tax Law Changes for 2020

deleted
by JW-Retired
Wed Dec 18, 2019 10:04 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Whats the most gross expense ratio you would consider when buying a mutual fund?
Replies: 73
Views: 7892

Re: Whats the most gross expense ratio you would consider when buying a mutual fund?

Detroit, you keep talking about past returns on these funds as "interest", as though there is some sort of guarantee that these funds will continue to return this rate. There are no guarantees. Yeah, a surprising number of people in this thread seem to believe that a fund's good past performance is from stock picker skill, and that will just keep on going and going. Very doubtful! I do happen to have purchased a Fido fund in the 1980's that did significantly beat the market for a long while. Lucky, but a big downside is it's in a taxable account so I'm trapped in that fund by taxation. Worse yet is the fund keeps up it's heavy stock trading fun, realizing capital gains that I don't need or want. These gains burned up all my caref...
by JW-Retired
Sat Dec 14, 2019 8:49 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Probably stupid simple gains tax question & deduction
Replies: 11
Views: 1165

Re: Probably stupid simple gains tax question & deduction

Your capital losses are first applied against your capital gains (long against long and short against short, then long against short or short against long). If there are any left over, up to $3K is applied against income. If there are any left over, they are carried over to the next year. Did you appreciate this OP? Try not to waste capital losses against the measly 15% of capital gains. The best use of losses is to apply them against your ordinary income, which might be taxed at 22, 24%, 32%, (or more if/when rates change). If you realize a big loss like many of us did in 2008, but also carefully avoid realizing any gains, you can whittle away $3k/yr on that loss bank amount against your larger taxed rate income for years and years. JW
by JW-Retired
Thu Dec 12, 2019 12:08 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Taking Social Security at 62 and Investing It
Replies: 54
Views: 5207

Re: Taking Social Security at 62 and Investing It

I'll pile on. Seems to me that if you expect to have much of a retirement tax bill, you should maximize the low taxed income stream. What state do you live in? A high tax state more or less doubles the tax advantage of SS income.
JW
by JW-Retired
Sun Dec 08, 2019 7:50 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Roth question - my first post
Replies: 4
Views: 615

Re: Roth question - my first post

JazzLover wrote: Sun Dec 08, 2019 4:35 pm I have an IRA with $1,035,000 in 3 funds. FXNAX, 40%. FSKAX, 30%. FSGGX, 30%. All low cost broad index funds.
index funds of what? You made us look it up: FXNAX = bonds, FSKAX = total US stock mkt, FSGGX = large global blends.
60/40 is my happy spot so I like it.

I wouldn't put bonds in the Roth.
JW
by JW-Retired
Sat Dec 07, 2019 12:34 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Non spouse inherited IRA
Replies: 22
Views: 1572

Re: Non spouse inherited IRA

tom1944 wrote: Sat Dec 07, 2019 10:04 am I am absolutely certain that my income tax rate will be higher when I retire
My pension alone will be greater than my current taxable income and if I take social security that will be additional income
There is also other inheritance that will provide substantial investment income when the estate is distributed
For gosh sake delay the social security for as long as possible. It's surely much more federal and state tax friendly then any of your other income, so it is the most valuable. If using up the inherited IRA helps delay SS to 70 to max it, that's an excellent use for the IRA money.
JW
by JW-Retired
Fri Dec 06, 2019 7:55 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Tree roots growing into sewer lines
Replies: 62
Views: 20894

Re: Tree roots growing into sewer lines

I just got bad news from the city....roots growing into my sewer line in my front yard. The consequence was water backing up into my toilet when my washing machine drained and standing water in the washing machine. The toilets flush ok....sink drains are slow. Also...is $190/hr a reasonable price for a drain company to ream pipes from the inlet in my basement (including camera inspection)? Do the camera inspection to see where the problem is. We futilely funded a ream out the sewer pipe deal every couple of years for many many years. The sewer line was like 80 feet long of 50 year old terracotta pipe. Under a concrete walk for half of that. Finally, about 10 years ago a good camera inspection told us that there was just one bad joint in th...
by JW-Retired
Fri Dec 06, 2019 6:31 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: EDJ Advisory
Replies: 19
Views: 1660

Re: EDJ Advisory

Who is EDJ? Are you talking about Edward Jones? That seems to be what everyone is assuming but I never heard them called that before.
JW
never mind..... appears Edward Jones is indeed Edward D. Jones
by JW-Retired
Thu Dec 05, 2019 2:49 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: HR Block tax program activation code is 1 digit short.
Replies: 6
Views: 741

Re: HR Block tax program activation code is 1 digit short.

No, my code on the card (from Amazon) is 8 digits ........ plus a dash in the middle.
by JW-Retired
Thu Dec 05, 2019 10:55 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Tax loss harvesting - wash sale question
Replies: 3
Views: 338

Re: Tax loss harvesting - wash sale question

Most tax loss harvesters here don't wait to buy the same security back. They buy a pretty similar but not identical one back right away so they avoid needing to wait a month.

I always just do an exchange like swap between SP 500 and total stock mkt.
JW