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PlayingLife

Get the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Second choice would be the American Express Platinum. No other card even comes close to these two. If the primary goal is to earn lots of miles through spend, the Amex Plat is only useful if a lot of the spend is airfare (earns 5x MR points). Otherwise it doesn’t hav...

PlayingLife

The Chase Sapphire Reserve is a really great card for people who travel a lot - as you've already seen, you'll get 3x the points on dining and travel (and travel can also include train tickets, taxis, ubers, etc). You'll also get $300 in travel credit (again, with the same broad definition of "trav...

PlayingLife

I'm looking for a credit card that will pay off mostly in terms of free flights - no specific destinations or airlines, likely a mix between US and Europe most often. Historically I've used the Chase Marriott card but these days we tend to use AirBnB a lot so complimentary hotel lodging isn't as imp...

PlayingLife

Only benefit I found was that you did not have to think about what to make for dinner, which can be nice. More expensive than if I purchased ingredients and cooked my own decent meal. No lunch portions. Tons of waste in the packaging. Still had to go to grocery store for other things and the time sa...

PlayingLife

Hi BH's, I posted about a recent SuitSupply purchase in NYC, when I ended up purchasing an off the rack suit. They did not have the trousers in my correct size, and so I had the whole thing mailed to my home in NJ. Surprisingly it arrived in just two days! Anyway, the trouser waste will have to be b...

PlayingLife

Update on final outcome: *I decided not to consider an overlap of employment *HR told me the company not once has paid bonus if employees left in advance and they have upheld this rule for top performers who left just a week early *With the 1 week I had between jobs, I used it to explain my case to ...

PlayingLife

Summary *Current employer sent an email during last year's fourth quarter stating annual bonus payouts "would be moved from March to end of April to align with the rest of the globe's payout timeline". Historically bonus has always been paid in Quarter 1 (March). * In January current employer sent ...

PlayingLife

Been in similar situation...understand that everything is negotiable especially when you have something of value to offer. HR is for guidance, the manager is in charge and can make things happen. In this case, your lever is the key accounts hand-off and I think that is why your management is suppor...

PlayingLife

(sorry for the repeat of the above, was typing while it got posted. Leaving it here in case it helps anyway.) Since it sounds like your management supports you getting the bonus, try this. If you have even 1 day of vacation time left, apply to use that vacation day on the day after bonuses are due,...

PlayingLife

Summary *Current employer sent an email during last year's fourth quarter stating annual bonus payouts "would be moved from March to end of April to align with the rest of the globe's payout timeline". Historically bonus has always been paid in Quarter 1 (March). *In January current employer sent o...

PlayingLife

Few thoughts 1. Drop the 'employment agreement' language , that generates a lot of red flags (with HR, with management, etc). Position is either defined as part of the management team subject to employment agreement as negotiated by the board of directors, reviewed by appropriate board committees, ...

PlayingLife

BH's, We all know the countless articles out there around denying a counter offer. What I found interesting is that the comments section of these articles contain a lot of conflicting opinions. Main arguments are as follows: a) You only buy time for the current employer to find a replacement before ...

PlayingLife

You might consider Suitsupply. I bought a suit at their SF location and was super happy with the experience. Their Battery Park NYC store has 5 stars on Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/suitsupply-new-york-4 I purchased a new suit here today, thank you very much for the recommendation (and thanks to ...

PlayingLife

New wardrobe needed. I spent two years trying to find the perfect dress shirt for me and am totally sold now on Charles Tyrwhitt, thanks in part to the BH's. Love their perfect blazer too, which is the only other non-shirt item I've purchased from CT. Now I need 1 suit, at least 3 pairs of dress pan...

PlayingLife

Got many annuities of this type (GWLB) 2008-2012. See Vanguard for a good description of the type of annuity your mom has. Note that current Vanguard/AXA do not have all the features that AIG had. It will be close enough. Start Here: https://investor.vanguard.com/annuity/ Go to Guarantee Income tab...

PlayingLife

Related Reading: https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=154885 Many BH's helped me begin to understand my father's two annuities a couple of years ago. They are both Voya GoldenSelect Premium Plus annuities from 2004, one being part of an IRA. I will first post my current questions and the...

PlayingLife

That's amazing. In Northern NJ HOA fees range from about $220 to $500. For almost all places I looked at, this excludes everything you list. They include garbage pick up, grounds maintenance, snow removal, and amenities. The $500/month places push their swimming pools, gyms, tennis courts, etc, etc.

PlayingLife

I'm in need of a single floor townhome / condo for my parents in Northern NJ, however, it seems single floor properties are very rare in this part of the state. They would prefer to live more west but are open to North central. Their budget is $300K but $260 or less would be ideal. HOA fees should a...

PlayingLife

Another 34 year old here who literally just hit this same topic. Your 3.5% rate vs my 4.125% rate would likely push me to consider skipping mortgage contributions all together. When it comes time this year to pull the trigger on paying principal or starting some after-tax investing, we are consideri...

PlayingLife

As a long time Dave Ramsey follower, I was pretty set in my ways that my wife and I would plan to pay down the mortgage instead of invest the after-tax dollars in index funds. Now I think I'm actually about to turn a new leaf. *Our historical tax deductions are pretty much limited to property tax (...

PlayingLife

Are you 100% invested in small value emerging markets equities? If not, you might want to revise your 6% after-tax return. Hard to see how you arrive at 10%+ returns when the best minds in the business are optimistically calculating 4-5% real. Show us the way you think you'll earn 6% after-tax. I t...

PlayingLife

Since you'll be working from Chicago for the next ~9 months, I would expect it to say Chicago. This is mainly an HR process as they probably don't have site location/etc since you said they haven't selected it yet Nothing on paper = nothing. The fact that he is expecting to be working in the NE whe...

PlayingLife

As a long time Dave Ramsey follower, I was pretty set in my ways that my wife and I would plan to pay down the mortgage instead of invest the after-tax dollars in index funds. Now I think I'm actually about to turn a new leaf. *Our historical tax deductions are pretty much limited to property tax ($...

PlayingLife

Or at least say "initially Chicago, then TBD in Z state". Thanks for this suggestion. I am going to suggest this method as it specifically covers the correct details and desired outcome. As a second alternative, I am also considering "Location: Remote" which is fairly standard to the position and i...

PlayingLife

Just received an offer for a position with a new company. The company is currently based in Chicago, but will be opening a new office within driving distance of my home in the NE. I have enough information to regard this as fact, however, timing is not exact. Q4 is the estimate and the exact site is...

PlayingLife

H&R Block's system is coming up with an AMT of $1054. My wife and I are filing jointly - we've never seen AMT before, and our income increased about $30K to $226K this year. We claim deductions for mortgage interest ($14,556) and property tax ($14,000). We have child where we claim tax reimbursement...

PlayingLife

Trying to finish up filing my taxes via H&R Block online. In the income/W2 portion of the online software, I did fill in the "$3864" total which is "10. Dependent Care Benefits" on my W2. Later on in the H&R Block process, I come to the "Credits" section. The first part of this section is entitled ...

PlayingLife

My wife and I file jointly in New Jersey and spent about $14K in 2017 on daycare for our child for the first time. I have access to a Dependent Care benefit program via my employer...due to my income, I was able to contribute a maximum of $3864 pre-tax in 2017 as opposed to the general $5000 maximum...

PlayingLife

Bookmarked, quality BH post right here thank you. Two years ago we had our first child, I remember an incredible YouTube video in which a "soon to be" parent did hours and hours of research to figure out the cost in advance. He interviewed the hospital, OBGYN's office, all related parties. He low ba...

PlayingLife

Thanks for the comments here, much appreciated! Unfortunately/fortunately we are passed the income limit to contribute to a roth or trad ira...doesn't feel like we are beyond the limit though since we live in a HCOL area : ) The 401k's are maxed and we contribute $5K annually to the after-tax 529. W...

PlayingLife

Max your retirement accounts. At 160k no reason you can’t do this, especially now that you’re loans are paid off. Great job with that. Depends on the interest rate, but at 9k left I’d probably just pay the car off Take a long hard look at your expenses, knowing your wife is still in school and your...

PlayingLife

A lot of these responses are what I pretty much expected, I do agree this long is fairly strange. One of the key people is new and states they did not realize all the micro details HR had to get involved with and manage before the official offer could be extended. We confirmed salary and I received ...

PlayingLife

Curious because I have a verbal commitment for an offer since beginning of December with a highly reputable company, and from people I have a lot of respect for. They've regularly stayed on top of me citing major delays in HR, providing lots of detail on the situation each time. It's just taking so ...

PlayingLife

Relatively new parents here who want to ensure we are not forgetting anything when we enter our taxes. Pretty straightforward return - no after tax investing or investment properties, and we do not own any businesses. Really it's just a joint return with two W2's, and itemizing deductions with the f...

PlayingLife

Emergency funds are a great idea for people living on the edge. More than a third or a half of Americans would have to go into debt to cover a $500 or $1,000 unexpected expense, depending on which survey you look at. For people with sufficient financial assets it is just necessary to be able to acc...

PlayingLife

Small figures but I invested about 36k into a Vanguard IRA in 2011 and watched it immediately drop to about 30k (not index funds at the time). I felt like such an idiot because I really didn't have other retirement savings at the time. Account is worth 75K now and I haven't added another dime to it....

PlayingLife

She has this portfolio, because she like her Wells Fargo guy. She is a trusting soul. It would help if you put the expense ratio's in and find out if there is an Account Under Management charge and also what the tax costs were of the churning of the account. If you would spell out for her how much ...

PlayingLife

The Woodbutcher wrote: ↑
Thu Jun 29, 2017 7:24 pm
I just finished A Speck in the Sea about a Montauk fisherman an who fell overboard in the Atlantic and......great read

Added to Amazon wish list - thank you!

PlayingLife

time4life - would like to add a couple of off-topic points here... First, great job in getting your financial life together at a young age - it looks like you are really on track, so nice job and thanks for your service. I'm mid 30's now and got serious about retirement accounts around age 26/27. I ...

PlayingLife

My parents only have a basic understanding of managing financials, but they know enough to avoid debt. They've never been in debt minus the mortgage which has been paid off, and so this is a critical life lesson they passed on to me. I read a couple of basic books on 401ks and retirements which taug...

PlayingLife

You can "reset" your career to sales and likely make the same salary right out of the gate if you do your research, with much higher earning potential after just a couple of years. Perhaps you can find a field of niche technology sales where your current expertise is useful.....SAS is a booming indu...

PlayingLife

I am sorry you are going through this with your mother and sibling...sorry about your mom. In this hypothetical story, I will refer to the key person as "you / your / etc". In the spirit of being open minded, one must consider there is your side of the story, and your sibling's side of the story. In...

PlayingLife

I've probably spent just as many hours as you have combing these threads on this topic. My favorite sites for weighing options, listed by other members, are as follows: https://www.edelmanfinancial.com/education-center/articles/1/11-great-reasons-to-carry-a-big-long-mortgage http://www.mdmag.com/phy...

PlayingLife

Hi BH's, Apologies in advance as I had no idea where to post such a question...could you please recommend forums that specialize in management/leadership discussions? I'm interested in all sorts of related topics, including hiring, financial comprehension, team development, acquisition consideration...

PlayingLife

Some of this is philosophical differences not objective financial planning. I think your primary goal should be to use your parents assets to make sure they are OK first and foremost. I would be most worried about your mother’s ability to fund her life 1) after your father goes to an institution an...

PlayingLife

$8500 is more than double the numbers I have heard of around here. But it seems like you are asking the lawyer to do things that would be unusual as part of the elder care planning process. I am concerned that the lawyer seems to want you to think he is doing amazing complex stuff as opposed to exp...

PlayingLife

PlayingLife

Hi BH's, **Scroll down in this thread and you will see a detailed overview of my parents' circumstances... https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=224118 Looking back on the post above, you'll see there have been questions as to how my parents handle a "spend down" plan, and how they ca...

PlayingLife

If one lives in NJ and works in Manhattan, would I still qualify for the NY 529 tax deduction since I still pay NY state taxes? A lot of interesting responses above! While BH's are typically aligned with things such as "max 401k", 529's are different in that personal situations and state credits ar...

PlayingLife

Our state offers a tax incentive up to 5k, so we contribute that amount each year. We only plan to pay half as we expect our children to have some responsibility for paying for their college education. If we don't have enough in the 529's our kids go to college we will cash flow the rest. Ah should...

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