Search found 15037 matches

by JoMoney
Thu Mar 23, 2023 8:08 am
Forum: Non-US Investing
Topic: How does the withholding dividend tax affect the cost of ETFs?
Replies: 2
Views: 163

Re: How does the withholding dividend tax affect the cost of ETFs?

The benchmark index the fund tracks is an after (estimated) withholding taxes index. Usually the after-withholding tax indexes estimate higher than what funds actually wind up paying. You would need to compare the fund to it's gross-return index (before tax withholding) to get a more accurate view of the all-in difference including taxes. Morningstar doesn't make it as easy to bring up different index returns anymore, but by example here's a $10k growth chart for the (US) iShares MSCI ACWI (All-Country World Index) ETF compared to the benchmark MSCI ACWI GR (Gross Return) index and the MSCI ACWI NR (Net Return - after withholding) https://i.postimg.cc/fWXt920X/ACWI.png https://i.postimg.cc/RVLWPWdZ/GR.png https://i.postimg.cc/MpZvgz3b/NR.png
by JoMoney
Wed Mar 22, 2023 11:50 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: What is the benefit to the government for issuing inflation-protected securities
Replies: 74
Views: 5534

Re: What is the benefit to the government for issuing inflation-protected securities

Canada recently stopped issuing inflation-linked bonds. If the US were to stop, it might be seen as a sign that we don't expect to get it under control. So, what might happen to a TIPS fund (LTPZ, for example) if the US were to stop issuing TIPS? Liquidation of the fund? I don't know the mechanics of it (alex_686 probably does), but you'd probably get the fund's NAV winding down to $0, paying out the matured bonds as dividends. I would expect more likely the fund would change it's objective to follow some other securities, or they'd merge it into a different fund that the operators thought likely to retain and gain new investors. Funds close all the time when assets start to fall below a level that's worthwhile to keep operating at. Invest...
by JoMoney
Wed Mar 22, 2023 9:52 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: S&P Index Vs [Total Stock Market]
Replies: 26
Views: 2384

Re: S&P Index Vs [Total Stock Market]

I know the the Total Stock market is a wider assortment of companies - but can there a case be made for the SP having more stable, reliable companies? What things do you consider when evaluating both these indexes? Comparing TSM & S&P 500 is probably the most trifling of all Bogleheads reoccurring threads. They are by far closer to being the same thing than most any other "assets" Bogleheads look at. It's part of the S&P 500's objective to be a proxy for the broad U.S. market and it is managed for its sector weightings and other aspects to do that. All that said, I preferred the S&P 500 index funds for a variety of reasons I've mentioned in past posts. If you're going to try and track a broad U.S. market index, yo...
by JoMoney
Wed Mar 22, 2023 9:33 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Safety Of Money Market Fund In A Mutual Fund Family
Replies: 14
Views: 1030

Re: Safety Of Money Market Fund In A Mutual Fund Family

technovelist wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 9:26 pm... The only thing that might be a tiny bit safer would be owning Treasurys rather than that fund, but the difference is miniscule.
And even then, it depends on what risk you're looking at when determining "safer", if you owned Tbills directly they will fluctuate in market value, it is possible to buy a Tbill one day and if you sell it on the next day you might lose money... probably not much, but it could lose something. That doesn't happen with a money market fund. Most money market funds will let you withdraw cash in a money market that same day, some brokerages will even give you an ATM/debit card to access it. Tbills held in a brokerage might require a settlement period after selling before you could get to the proceeds.
by JoMoney
Wed Mar 22, 2023 9:18 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Safety Of Money Market Fund In A Mutual Fund Family
Replies: 14
Views: 1030

Re: Safety Of Money Market Fund In A Mutual Fund Family

... I know that they are not covered by FDIC and that there is some coverage of mutual funds but it is strictly covering errors or thefts in the mechanics of holding a mutual fund and does not cover fund investment losses... At the risk of adding confusion, I think there might be something that needs to be sorted out here, there isn't coverage on a "mutual fund" there is SIPC coverage on a brokerage account. But those are separate things, it's possible to own a mutual fund directly not holding it in a brokerage account, that used to be the standard way mutual funds at Vanguard were held (before they pushed people into their brokerage.) If you own your mutual fund directly (or other securities), titled in your name, there's no nee...
by JoMoney
Wed Mar 22, 2023 8:36 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: VMRXX vs VMFXX why?
Replies: 12
Views: 885

Re: VMRXX vs VMFXX why?

VMRXX is a legacy "Prime" money market fund that was converted to a government fund because Vanguard decided to get out of the consumer "Prime" money market business (they still have institutional 'prime' MM funds.) It might be the oldest of Vanguard's money market funds, and so keeping it around with it's history (despite the funds objective changing) probably has some value to them.
I believe the same is true of Fidelity's FDRXX fund.
by JoMoney
Wed Mar 22, 2023 8:28 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Last Week Tonight on timeshares
Replies: 52
Views: 5068

Re: Last Week Tonight on timeshares

I'm always surprised when I hear about people buying a timeshare. It baffles me. Clearly there's a large market of people buying them, but in my mind it's something (that should be) widely known as a rip-off that's to be avoided. I see more advertisements for firms trying to help people get out of the mistake that is a timeshare than I ever do about timeshares themselves. Even weirder (to me) is people that own them and believe they represent valuable equity (rather than expensive liability you can't shake off) they'll leave to a family member... but it is a thing :confused
by JoMoney
Wed Mar 22, 2023 8:06 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Vanguard wierdness
Replies: 8
Views: 1456

Re: Vanguard wierdness

Transaction records can be important, so that would be the opposite of instilling confidence in a broker.
If it was just a confirmation message wrong, and the actual transaction history on the account looks correct, that's a little better. But not the kind of sloppiness I want to hear coming from a "systemically important" financial institution (that's fought off being regulated as one.)
by JoMoney
Wed Mar 22, 2023 7:51 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: How not to get scammed when doing wheel alignment for $89 ?
Replies: 20
Views: 1850

Re: How not to get scammed when doing wheel alignment for $89 ?

hunoraut wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 2:51 am Alignments usually cost a bit more, so they probably have to make up for that teaser price
If it's for a front-end alignment only, that's probably within the range of normal, and somewhere up to double that for all four wheels.
by JoMoney
Wed Mar 22, 2023 12:02 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Is a Total International Equity Index Fund Riskier than a Developed Markets Equity Index Fund?
Replies: 27
Views: 1965

Re: Is a Total International Equity Index Fund Riskier than a Developed Markets Equity Index Fund?

For Vanguard's 'Developed Markets' index fund, they changed which index the fund tracks in 2015. The new index increased exposure to small-cap stocks, which made that fund riskier to it's past self...
by JoMoney
Tue Mar 21, 2023 9:41 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Where do companies stash their cash?
Replies: 10
Views: 1301

Re: Where do companies stash their cash?

The companies that are my Vanguard mutual funds, seem to use an institutional money market fund, in particular the "Vanguard Market Liquidity Fund"
https://institutional.vanguard.com/inve ... /fund/1142
by JoMoney
Tue Mar 21, 2023 9:18 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Better to push or pull bank transfers?
Replies: 32
Views: 3500

Re: Better to push or pull bank transfers?

... So it took 2 days for money to be moved, available for withdrawal on the 3rd day. ... I'm having trouble understanding how you're counting days. ... And Fidelity says the money will be available for withdrawal on 3/22 which is two days, not three days.... I'm having trouble understanding what you're misunderstanding. You said the transfer was initiated 3/20 and available for withdrawal 3/22. That's the second day to me but you said that's the 3rd day. The way I count days is if I start something today and it completes today, that's "same-day"; if it completes tomorrow, that's "next-day"; if it completes the day after tomorrow, that's "2nd day" (which is what UPS and FedEx mean for their "2nd Day Air&q...
by JoMoney
Tue Mar 21, 2023 8:37 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Better to push or pull bank transfers?
Replies: 32
Views: 3500

Re: Better to push or pull bank transfers?

lstone19 wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:33 am
JoMoney wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 8:12 am ...
So it took 2 days for money to be moved, available for withdrawal on the 3rd day.
... I'm having trouble understanding how you're counting days.
... And Fidelity says the money will be available for withdrawal on 3/22 which is two days, not three days....
I'm having trouble understanding what you're misunderstanding.
by JoMoney
Tue Mar 21, 2023 8:31 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Three kinds of bonds for three reasons
Replies: 12
Views: 1664

Re: Three kinds of bonds for three reasons

If you invest money for 20+ years and neither add nor withdraw from it, you're most likely better off in equities. So why own bonds? If, during a downturn when your balance plunges, you become anxious, then you should use short term Treasuries. This is Bill Bernstein's point. If you want a liability matching portfolio, you should use a TIPS ladder. This is also Bill Bernstein's point. If you'll be withdrawing during retirement and want to minimize the chance of running out of money, as in the Trinity study, the most appropriate is total bond market (in tax sheltered) or some tax efficient approximation in taxable, like intermediate Treasuries plus TIPS plus municipal. There are certainly a long tail of other uses for bonds, but do people t...
by JoMoney
Tue Mar 21, 2023 8:12 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Better to push or pull bank transfers?
Replies: 32
Views: 3500

Re: Better to push or pull bank transfers?

... An ACH pull is just like depositing a check; they don't know if it's good or not until it's not returned. And since they don't know it's not going to be returned, Fidelity is very conservative in how long they wait. I'm not sure how long being "very conservative" is, but it may be specific to the individual, the bank pulling from, or the amount being deposited. I've heard people on here complain that it takes a week before the money becomes available to withdraw, but that's not been the case for me. I've had both ACH 'pulls' and checks (deposited via mobile deposit) available for withdrawal in 2 days. I'm expecting to pull a couple thousand dollars from a Wells Fargo account this week, if I remember I'll update on the actual ...
by JoMoney
Tue Mar 21, 2023 8:02 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Fidelity as a one stop shop
Replies: 4062
Views: 570573

Re: Fidelity as a one stop shop

I'm headed towards using Fidelity as my one-stop shop... but a couple of things make me hesitant. 1. I recently made my backdoor Roth contribution by transferring the money in from Ally. It took a full week to process completely. I initiated the transfer on a Saturday, and it was finally available to push to my IRA on the following Saturday. I've seen comments about Fidelity being faster than this for transfers, but this seems slow. Obviously, less of an issue if we move our primary account there, but still something that's not ideal if I need to move money around. 2. What's the best setup for a savings account? I have the CMA account, and the brokerage account. For savings, should I create another CMA and just put it in one of the standar...
by JoMoney
Tue Mar 21, 2023 12:06 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: experience with JP Morgan Self-Directed Investing?
Replies: 69
Views: 7521

Re: experience with JP Morgan Self-Directed Investing?

When I was looking into a JP Morgan account (for a transfer bonus) what I read implied they don't offer easy online Roth conversions for securities. They only offer transfers of cash between accounts, and they only offer online brokerage transfers between like accounts (Roth to Roth, Traditional IRA to Traditional IRA, or taxable brokerage to taxable brokerage.) One can do a Roth conversion, but it requires a paper form, and a liquidation of the securities to cash. :annoyed That coupled with JP Morgan not offering additional 'above SIPC' coverage through a third-party insurer (as many other large brokerages do), and not have any stated 'Customer Protection Guarantee' that I could find, gave me a better feeling about just sticking with Fidel...
by JoMoney
Mon Mar 20, 2023 11:52 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Current events
Replies: 20
Views: 1925

Re: Current events

WillRetire wrote: Mon Mar 20, 2023 7:55 pm...
If we are to believe in the simple indexing approach using only 2-4 funds instead of a dozen or so funds, a single fund's exposure to a major default is high impact to an individual investor.
The number of funds one holds doesn't say anything about how much exposure, or how diversified their portfolio is. Some funds have quite a bit of overlap with each other, some funds are heavily concentrated, some individual funds are very widely diversified.
by JoMoney
Mon Mar 20, 2023 11:47 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Administrative and recording fees at Fidelity
Replies: 8
Views: 763

Re: Administrative and recording fees at Fidelity

... It is wise to rollover to an IRA, if that is even possible since I left those jobs quite a while back but left the 401K accounts as-is. Appreciate any advise. I guess I need to talk to Fidelity. There are pros and cons to rolling a 401k over to an IRA. 401ks can have fees that an IRA wouldn't, but sometimes there are special institutional funds in a 401k that aren't available outside of it, and a 401k may offer better judgement protections if that's a concern. Personally, I rolled over my old employer 401k to an IRA. One of the justifications I told myself was that it was likely to be forced into a rollover sooner or later if something happens to the company anyway. Shortly after I did, my old employer had a merger with a different com...
by JoMoney
Mon Mar 20, 2023 11:11 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Administrative and recording fees at Fidelity
Replies: 8
Views: 763

Re: Administrative and recording fees at Fidelity

... It is wise to rollover to an IRA, if that is even possible since I left those jobs quite a while back but left the 401K accounts as-is. Appreciate any advise. I guess I need to talk to Fidelity. There are pros and cons to rolling a 401k over to an IRA. 401ks can have fees that an IRA wouldn't, but sometimes there are special institutional funds in a 401k that aren't available outside of it, and a 401k may offer better judgement protections if that's a concern. Personally, I rolled over my old employer 401k to an IRA. One of the justifications I told myself was that it was likely to be forced into a rollover sooner or later if something happens to the company anyway. Shortly after I did, my old employer had a merger with a different com...
by JoMoney
Mon Mar 20, 2023 10:11 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: What is actually in VMFXX
Replies: 3
Views: 700

Re: What is actually in VMFXX

what is actually in Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund. Vanguard website has the following: Repurchase Agreements 57.20% U.S. Govt. Obligations 39.80% U.S. Treasury Bills 3.00% Not sure what the top two are, my understanding is they are government backed and as safe as Treasury Bills. A repurchase agreement, is effectively a very short term loan to some other financial firm where the fund holds a treasury as collateral. Imagine some financial firm that owns a treasury but needs cash for a few days, but then intends to buy the treasury back. So they sell a repurchase agreement where the fund buys the treasury for say $100 and the seller agrees it will buy it back a few days later for $101 , the extra $1 is effectively the interest rate bein...
by JoMoney
Mon Mar 20, 2023 7:57 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Fidelity as a one stop shop
Replies: 4062
Views: 570573

Re: Fidelity as a one stop shop

... I actually think two things: 1) if you have over 250k total assets, the regular brokerage gets free ATM withdrawals too. It works for me 2) I actually think you no longer need 250k. I asked about this for my partner, who I think did not have 250k at the time, and they said there would be no fees I think it’s worth calling to confirm this for your case FWIW, I have "Private Client" status (but no assigned rep) when I called and asked I was told that "Yes" I would qualify for ATM reimbursements on the regular brokerage account... so I opened one, and after using it, did not get the fees reimbursed. When I called to find out why not, after a bit of a run-around and them having to check with others (because they thought...
by JoMoney
Mon Mar 20, 2023 7:18 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Fidelity as a one stop shop
Replies: 4062
Views: 570573

Re: Fidelity as a one stop shop

The convention here at BH - if you have time to look through the entire thread, is to have both a CMA and separate brokerage account. CMA for cash management and brokerage for taxable long term funds like total stock. From a cash flow standpoint, the CMA or multiple CMA (below) accounts take care of the day to day income/expenses. I use a separate second CMA as an ATM cash only account and keep only a couple hundred at most in there and NOT linked to the other CMA or brokerage account. That isolates my debit card I use only for ATM withdrawal, from my main CMA that is attached to bill pay, and the brokerage. Others on this thread advocate for ability to link CMA/brokerage accounts . . . I'm in the keep; them separate in case one gets hacke...
by JoMoney
Mon Mar 20, 2023 6:38 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Fidelity as a one stop shop
Replies: 4062
Views: 570573

Re: Fidelity as a one stop shop

I initiated a chat with Fidelity help and was told "Yeah, we just got your money today and it'll clear on the 23rd. We're not a traditional bank, so it just takes us longer." Definitely not happy with that answer, and it has me questioning my decision. I think it's been mentioned somewhere in this thread, and I can personally confirm that this is correct: If you want the money to be immediately available at Fidelity, push it into Fidelity from Ally. If you want the money to be immediately available at Ally, push it into Ally from Fidelity. --vtMaps It depends on what you want it "immediately available" for. If you want it to be immediately available for trading at Fidelity, you need to initiate it by "pulling"...
by JoMoney
Mon Mar 20, 2023 8:47 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Fidelity as a one stop shop
Replies: 4062
Views: 570573

Re: Fidelity as a one stop shop

I'm headed towards using Fidelity as my one-stop shop... but a couple of things make me hesitant. 1. I recently made my backdoor Roth contribution by transferring the money in from Ally. It took a full week to process completely. I initiated the transfer on a Saturday, and it was finally available to push to my IRA on the following Saturday. I've seen comments about Fidelity being faster than this for transfers, but this seems slow. Obviously, less of an issue if we move our primary account there, but still something that's not ideal if I need to move money around. 2. What's the best setup for a savings account? I have the CMA account, and the brokerage account. For savings, should I create another CMA and just put it in one of the standar...
by JoMoney
Mon Mar 20, 2023 8:36 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Is my 3% mortgage worth less to the bank now?
Replies: 17
Views: 1734

Re: Is my 3% mortgage worth less to the bank now?

Very few banks actually "portfolio" or hold on to individual "conforming" home mortgages, conforming being it meets the criteria under the federal home loan agencies, and almost certainly any fixed-rate mortgage is going to be one that does. The bank may have collected all sorts of fees to originate the loan, and may continue to service the loan, collecting payments etc... but they packaged it up and sold that loan off a long time ago. They may buy it back under in a securitized form under a government agency backed wrapper, but it's very very very unlikely they're directly holding your mortgage in their portfolio as such.... and if they did have the loan in their portfolio, if they were holding it valued as being held t...
by JoMoney
Mon Mar 20, 2023 8:19 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Say your broker lost all your records…
Replies: 22
Views: 2514

Re: Say your broker lost all your records…

The more records you've kept the better, statements, tax forms, transaction records from a trade. All of these things help to form a paper trail, and somewhere along the line it should be apparent where the brokerages transaction records diverge from yours. Maybe the brokerage has a record of a transaction, is missing a transaction, or a misstated transaction, that you show differently in your records, which maybe is the result of an "unauthorized transaction" fraud claim rather than an error. Either way, if your broker isn't cooperative and disputes your claims you'll probably need a lawyer that specializes in such things.
by JoMoney
Mon Mar 20, 2023 12:42 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What would you tell your elderly parent to do with more than the FDIC limit in a bank?
Replies: 33
Views: 3398

Re: What would you tell your elderly parent to do with more than the FDIC limit in a bank?

busdriver11 wrote: Mon Mar 20, 2023 12:12 am... At least brokerage accounts have 500K in failure protection from the SIPC.
In most situations of a brokerage failure, it's not something needed, client assets held at a brokerage are segregated from the brokerage assets and not available to meet other debts of the brokerage. There are risks where assets can turn up missing at a brokerage (which SIPC coverage is for), but it's a very different situation than what happens at a bank, where the customer deposits are the debts the bank can't make good on causing it to fail.
by JoMoney
Sun Mar 19, 2023 11:58 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What would you tell your elderly parent to do with more than the FDIC limit in a bank?
Replies: 33
Views: 3398

Re: What would you tell your elderly parent to do with more than the FDIC limit in a bank?

FDIC sweep at Fidelity or IBKR? Don't know anything about IBKR, but seems like it would be easy enough to move to Fidelity. FDIC sweep doesn't pay so well, though, 2.32% isn't near as good as the 4.52% money market fund at the other brokerage firm. Wondering if that's worth the loss as far as diversifying. If you open a regular Fidelity brokerage account, you can have a higher yielding government money market fund as the default sweep "core" fund. You can also enable check-writing, billpay, ATM/Debit card on the regular brokerage account ... but you don't get the ATM fee rebates the CMA offers. If you don't plan to use the any of the ATM/Debit card, BillPay, or Check-writing features then opening a Vanguard brokerage account will...
by JoMoney
Sun Mar 19, 2023 11:37 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What would you tell your elderly parent to do with more than the FDIC limit in a bank?
Replies: 33
Views: 3398

Re: What would you tell your elderly parent to do with more than the FDIC limit in a bank?

FDIC sweep at Fidelity or IBKR? Don't know anything about IBKR, but seems like it would be easy enough to move to Fidelity. FDIC sweep doesn't pay so well, though, 2.32% isn't near as good as the 4.52% money market fund at the other brokerage firm. Wondering if that's worth the loss as far as diversifying. If you open a regular Fidelity brokerage account, you can have a higher yielding government money market fund as the default sweep "core" fund. You can also enable check-writing, billpay, ATM/Debit card on the regular brokerage account ... but you don't get the ATM fee rebates the CMA offers. If you don't plan to use the any of the ATM/Debit card, BillPay, or Check-writing features then opening a Vanguard brokerage account will...
by JoMoney
Sun Mar 19, 2023 11:25 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Brokrage Accts with CheckWriting
Replies: 16
Views: 1196

Re: Brokrage Accts with CheckWriting

... What timing. I have both CMA and brokerage accounts at Fidelity and was wondering what the differences are! As I try and simplify our finances I'm thinking I'll just go with the brokerage account. I take out cash maybe 3-4 times a year and I'm sure I'll make up that $12 ATM fee with the higher money market interest. Thanks! If when you withdraw cash you go through an ATM that's "in network" there won't even be a fee. Fidelity doesn't advertise it, but the ATM card is through PNC Bank and you can withdraw cash without a fee through their network of partnered ATMs https://apps.pnc.com/locator/search If you close the CMA account you will lose the "Cash Management" view from your Fidelity account screen. You can still s...
by JoMoney
Sun Mar 19, 2023 10:26 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Short term: Where to park money, for some profit?
Replies: 24
Views: 2601

Re: Short term: Where to park money, for some profit?

You're going to have a hard time investing more than $10,000 in Series I Savings Bonds, that's the limit per year per person/social security#. There are some work around's to cram a bit more in, like over-paying your taxes will allow you to get up to $5,000 in savings bonds as your federal income tax refund (too late for that this year, and next year will outside your 15 month window.) You also might be able to setup a trust that can also buy $10,000 but that's a bit of hassle just to try and buy a little extra in Savings Bonds. Also, understand that outside of some rare declared emergency situation you can't sell the I Bonds for the first 12 months. Personally, I've just been using a money market account yielding a bit over 4%. I like kno...
by JoMoney
Sun Mar 19, 2023 9:47 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Short term: Where to park money, for some profit?
Replies: 24
Views: 2601

Re: Short term: Where to park money, for some profit?

You're going to have a hard time investing more than $10,000 in Series I Savings Bonds, that's the limit per year per person/social security#. There are some work around's to cram a bit more in, like over-paying your taxes will allow you to get up to $5,000 in savings bonds as your federal income tax refund (too late for that this year, and next year will outside your 15 month window.) You also might be able to setup a trust that can also buy $10,000 but that's a bit of hassle just to try and buy a little extra in Savings Bonds. Also, understand that outside of some rare declared emergency situation you can't sell the I Bonds for the first 12 months. Personally, I've just been using a money market account yielding a bit over 4%. I like know...
by JoMoney
Sun Mar 19, 2023 9:21 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Some people in my life liked me better when I had l nothing
Replies: 29
Views: 3329

Re: Some people in my life liked me better when I had l nothing

twh wrote: Sun Mar 19, 2023 9:17 pm OP has nothing to change nor hide nor apologize for.
Nor provided any examples of behavior, or anything said, that might precipitate the perception that their purchase of stuff is causing some people to like them less.
by JoMoney
Sun Mar 19, 2023 8:54 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Better to push or pull bank transfers?
Replies: 32
Views: 3500

Re: Better to push or pull bank transfers?

... An ACH pull is just like depositing a check; they don't know if it's good or not until it's not returned. And since they don't know it's not going to be returned, Fidelity is very conservative in how long they wait. I'm not sure how long being "very conservative" is, but it may be specific to the individual, the bank pulling from, or the amount being deposited. I've heard people on here complain that it takes a week before the money becomes available to withdraw, but that's not been the case for me. I've had both ACH 'pulls' and checks (deposited via mobile deposit) available for withdrawal in 2 days. I'm expecting to pull a couple thousand dollars from a Wells Fargo account this week, if I remember I'll update on the actual ...
by JoMoney
Sun Mar 19, 2023 8:10 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Some people in my life liked me better when I had l nothing
Replies: 29
Views: 3329

Re: Some people in my life liked me better when I had l nothing

If they didn't tell you they were offended, maybe it's a misperception that they are "discontent with your happy situation."
Maybe they are discontent, but have other things going on in their life causing it, unrelated to what you're buying.
by JoMoney
Sun Mar 19, 2023 7:58 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Car Rental Insurance responsibility
Replies: 8
Views: 910

Re: Car Rental Insurance responsibility

You would need to check with whoever the insurer is. Are you asking about responsibility for damage to the rental car, or to other people/property? Be sure to clarify/understand the difference between liability insurance (for damage to other people/property), and collision damage insurance which only covers the rental car itself (and maybe the usage of it) to the rental company. For rental cars, they're usually sold as separate policies, or it's presumed that your own liability insurance will cover that, and maybe a 'Collision Damage Waiver' (CDW) provided by a credit card or other will cover the rental car's repair/replacement. I am mostly concerned about the liability for a serious accident. It would depend on a lot of specifics to the s...
by JoMoney
Sun Mar 19, 2023 7:41 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Better to push or pull bank transfers?
Replies: 32
Views: 3500

Re: Better to push or pull bank transfers?

As others said, "it depends", in addition to the scenarios mentioned above,
Another factor, is I've had some weird issues with some big banks (like Wells Fargo and Chase) where my attempts to 'push' money from them into another account were held for 'further review' causing unnecessary delay, never had that when 'pulling' the money from account on the other end.
I've heard Bank of America charges a $3 fee to do an outbound 'push' ACH transfer :annoyed
by JoMoney
Sun Mar 19, 2023 6:59 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Car Rental Insurance responsibility
Replies: 8
Views: 910

Re: Car Rental Insurance responsibility

You would need to check with whoever the insurer is. Are you asking about responsibility for damage to the rental car, or to other people/property?
Be sure to clarify/understand the difference between liability insurance (for damage to other people/property), and collision damage insurance which only covers the rental car itself (and maybe the usage of it) to the rental company. For rental cars, they're usually sold as separate policies, or it's presumed that your own liability insurance will cover that, and maybe a 'Collision Damage Waiver' (CDW) provided by a credit card or other will cover the rental car's repair/replacement.
by JoMoney
Sun Mar 19, 2023 6:27 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: New Bing [Microsoft search engine]
Replies: 22
Views: 2540

Re: New Bing

FedGuy wrote: Sun Mar 19, 2023 12:27 pm
heartwood wrote: Fri Mar 17, 2023 4:24 pmedit: I'm using a chromebook witht teh Chrome browser.
Are you suggesting that a computer made my Google, running a browser made by Google, would make it difficult to use a search engine other than Google?
The default search on my Chromebook is DuckDuckGo.
In the address bar I type:

Code: Select all

chrome://settings/
(or click on the 3 dots in the corner in choose 'settings')
Click on the "Search Engine" option, and there are several options (including Bing) available, or I can add one...
by JoMoney
Sun Mar 19, 2023 6:11 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: At the risk of provoking ire, could this be the 1% case? [Life insurance]
Replies: 32
Views: 2502

Re: At the risk of provoking ire, could this be the 1% case?

My vague understanding on the few cases where "Whole Life" could make sense, involved cases where the individual had very large income or estate where there might be some tax avoidance schemes that can make it worth the horrendous cost, and/or in some states under some certain cases where an individual may have some extreme liability claims it may be a way to "judgement proof" some assets.... and all of that is only after maxing out other retirement accounts ...
Does any of that sound like something that applies to you?
by JoMoney
Sun Mar 19, 2023 5:38 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: The Final, Definitive Thread on Bank Bonuses
Replies: 6
Views: 617

Re: The Final, Definitive Thread on Bank and Credit Card Bonuses

FWIW, I think "Bank Account Bonuses" and "Credit Card Bonuses" deserve their own categories/threads. They tend to have different requirements, different taxes, and different reasons someone might be looking for one but not the other.
by JoMoney
Sun Mar 19, 2023 5:17 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: John Maynard Keynes quote
Replies: 9
Views: 1320

Re: John Maynard Keynes quote

Keynes making the case for passive index investing before it was a thing. Taken from a recent NY Times opinion piece. Picking stocks, he wrote, was akin to a game “in which the competitors have to pick out the six prettiest faces from 100 photographs, the prize being awarded to the competitor whose choice most nearly corresponds to the average preferences of the competitors as a whole: so that each competitor has to pick, not those faces that he himself finds prettiest, but those that he thinks likeliest to catch the fancy of the other competitors, all of whom are looking at the problem from the same point of view.” Indexing was known to be superior long before it existed. The MIT fund from the 1920s sought to match the Dow Jones index as ...
by JoMoney
Sun Mar 19, 2023 4:54 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: [Bank failure discussion mega-thread]
Replies: 2121
Views: 140033

Re: [Bank failure discussion mega-thread]

... Seems European banking regulators are not happy with the US: "European regulators criticise US ‘incompetence’ over Silicon Valley Bank collapse" (FT headline) ... That's the more interesting article ;) https://www.ft.com/content/5e4a8dde-c053-4510-8cd9-8aecb9082a6e ...One senior eurozone official described their shock at the “total and utter incompetence” of US authorities, particularly after a decade and a half of “long and boring meetings” with Americans advocating an end to bailouts. Europe’s supervisors are particularly irate at the US decision to break with its own standard of guaranteeing only the first $250,000 of deposits by invoking a “systemic risk exception” — despite claiming the California-based lender was too sm...
by JoMoney
Sun Mar 19, 2023 4:02 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Brokrage Accts with CheckWriting
Replies: 16
Views: 1196

Re: Brokrage Accts with CheckWriting

The Fidelity CMA account is a brokerage account. It does not require you to have a separate brokerage account, but it does come with an ATM card by default.
If you don't want the debit card, you can open a regular Fidelity brokerage account and enable check-writing on that account (you don't have to get a debit card on that account, it's optional).

You don't have to have 2 accounts, depending on what your needs are, either the CMA brokerage account or the regular Fidelity brokerage can have check-writing.
by JoMoney
Sun Mar 19, 2023 3:52 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Physical Input button not working right on TV (FIXED)
Replies: 4
Views: 426

Re: Physical Input button not working right on TV (remotes toast too)

From the manual ( https://files.bbystatic.com/GDhMlnByZuKXY01DmAKmAA%3D%3D/NS-28D310NA15_13-0979_WEB_V1_ENG_Final_lr.pdf ) it does say, Your TV automatically detects and displays which video jacks have devices connected to them when the devices are turned on. You can turn this feature off to always display all inputs. For more information, see “Turn Input Sensor on or off” on page 70. So the fact that you pushing "Input" shows HDMI as available sounds like it see's something connected. When you press the (CH UP) or (CH DOWN) does the menu show the selector going up or down? Does the (CH UP/DOWN) button work on other screens? i.e. since it's stuck on TV mode, does the channel try to change when you press it? Curiously, I see two di...
by JoMoney
Sun Mar 19, 2023 3:29 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Brokrage Accts with CheckWriting
Replies: 16
Views: 1196

Re: Brokrage Accts with CheckWriting

I much prefer to have separation of my everyday spending money from my investments. Although we are careful, identity theft, fraud, forgery, and other forms of theft are always a possibility as well as errors. By having a "firewall" between my spending money and my investment money, I feel that most of my assets are insulated from a lot of those possibilities. The amount of money I have in the bank is limited to about one month's spending needs. If I need more than that, it is readily available. Just to be clear, only cash (FDIC bank sweep, or money market funds) are available to write checks (or make other debits) against in a Fidelity brokerage account. Nobody is going to be able to drain your stocks, bonds, CDs, or other secur...
by JoMoney
Sun Mar 19, 2023 2:34 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Brokrage Accts with CheckWriting
Replies: 16
Views: 1196

Re: Brokrage Accts with CheckWriting

Fidelity's brokerage accounts offer check writing, BillPay, ATM/Debit card, and ability to access cash through ACH direct deposit/direct debit from the routing and account number. They used to offer the ability to cut you a cashiers check as well (which was kind of handy), but for some reason they halted that during the COVID panic and no word if/when they'll return to offering it (but the verbiage they've used when I asked implied it was a temporary situation.)
by JoMoney
Sun Mar 19, 2023 2:26 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Front Loading 401K
Replies: 5
Views: 583

Re: Front Loading 401K

As you point out, there's some risk you'll no longer be employed at the end of the year and miss the "true-up" for the matching you missed.
If you start with a new employer, they won't know about your prior contributions, and if you have a 401k with them you'll run the risk of over-contributing for the year.
If you max out the 401k after the first couple months, what is it you're going to do with the extra money later in the year? Do you have a taxable brokerage account? If you're worried about missing out on some investment(s) buy them in your taxable account. I would just divide the 401k contributions up evenly throughout the year.
by JoMoney
Sun Mar 19, 2023 1:33 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: [Bank failure discussion mega-thread]
Replies: 2121
Views: 140033

Re: The rest of the banks aren't far behind SVB

simplesimon wrote: Sun Mar 19, 2023 11:37 am What do you think is a reasonable % of uninsured deposits at a bank? And what do you think the average is?
No, idea... but for a business with more than 100 employees a single payroll period could easily be above FDIC limits.