Search found 1965 matches

by fourwheelcycle
Thu Mar 21, 2024 3:30 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: In-laws 529 for grandkids, bite my lip or say something?
Replies: 58
Views: 5893

Re: In-laws 529 for grandkids, bite my lip or say something?

You have brought up two issues - why are the 529's owned by your in-laws, rather than by you, and why the high ERs and other fees. When you mentioned a financial advisor was in the loop, I immediately became suspicious about the 529 program he or she recommended to your in-laws. At minimum, you should gently suggest to your in-laws that they might want to look at the Nevada-Vanguard 529 program, and others with similar expense profiles - you would be amazed! My understanding is your in-laws could move their 529 accounts to another 529 program with zero or minimal limitations or transfer expense. I would call Vanguard, or a similar expense profile program, and ask the for help doing a "pull" - I would not go to the financial adviso...
by fourwheelcycle
Thu Mar 21, 2024 2:55 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Calling All Academics - What's Next
Replies: 35
Views: 3859

Re: Calling All Academics - What's Next

... I keep reading threads on this forum about 30 year-old software engineers in "big tech" working 35 hours/week for $500k+. That seems like a work-life balance that would be on par with academia. I wonder if it's not, or if such positions actually aren't attainable for the average assistant or associate professor (despite the fact that they teach the aforementioned software engineers). Edited to add: Trying to get published seems to be one of the harder things that I've personally experienced, and rather stressful when it's the primary metric for continued advancement. Publishing for tenure and further promotion is hard - tenure-track academia is not an easy life. However, getting and keeping $500K jobs in computer science is a...
by fourwheelcycle
Tue Mar 19, 2024 6:12 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: VG Authorized Agents – How do they access and control accounts?
Replies: 12
Views: 1173

Re: VG Authorized Agents – How do they access and control accounts?

Hmm... I was told by an AUM wealth manager that Vanguard would not allow them to manage accounts at Vanguard with full transaction authority for their clients. The AUM manager told me they could provide advice, with me doing the transactions, or I could move my portfolio to Schwab, which they said would allow them to do transactions in my account.

This is only what one AUM manager told me. I was not considering their AUM service. I was talking to them about a possible fee-only advice role for my wife if I die first. I did manage my father’s Vanguard account with full transaction authority for the last six years of his life, so I am familiar with that setup.
by fourwheelcycle
Sun Mar 17, 2024 5:22 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: The best game-changing financial advice you ever received (or "discovered")
Replies: 219
Views: 25582

Re: The best game-changing financial advice you ever received (or "discovered")

Be raised by parents who came of age during the 1930's and taught you to be naturally frugal by their daily lifestyle, not by any specific advice. Have your frugal parents save for your college without even telling you they were doing it. Go to grad school, meet a similarly-raised girlfriend/spouse, and live on your graduate student stipends, including Goodwill sofas with old stereo speaker boxes for end tables. Get good jobs, but keep spending based on your grad-student lifestyle - no budget, just spend what you seem to need and save the rest. Build a house and have two kids during your thirties, keep saving, with no budget, through your forties. Realize in your early fifties you have greatly over-saved, but now it is too late to change yo...
by fourwheelcycle
Wed Mar 13, 2024 3:24 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: When is the right time to set up a trust?
Replies: 31
Views: 3332

Re: When is the right time to set up a trust?

We started with wills when our two children were about 7 and 10. Each will named our surviving spouse as sole heir, with any funds available on their death to go to a testamentary trust with my father, an accountant, as executor of our wills, guardian of our children upon the second spouse's death, and sole trustee of the trust. His instructions were to fund the thrust and invest as he saw fit, spend whatever was needed to raise our children through college, and give any remainder to them equally at age 26. When our children were approaching college age, we re-did the wills with my wife's sister as executor of the wills, sole guardian of our children until they were legal adults, a local bank trust division as co-trustee for investment and ...
by fourwheelcycle
Tue Mar 12, 2024 1:39 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Letter to heir - what would you include?
Replies: 90
Views: 7798

Re: Letter to heir - what would you include?

We will also be leaving significant assets to our two children, through a joint revocable trust. They will split what is left after 25% goes to Vanguard Charitable, intended to endow our current QCDs to local charities. Our non-donor, third trustee son, also DPOA and executor for our pour over wills, already has the full trust and my finances spreadsheet, including a sheet that lays out our fully-funded grandchildren's Vanguard 529 accounts. Our other son just knows the number will be significant. They have their own Vanguard accounts. I have already advised them to aim for simple portfolios, comprised mostly of Vanguard 500 Index, TSM Index, and Intermediate Term Bond Index funds. I believe they have implemented this portfolio and I expect...
by fourwheelcycle
Wed Mar 06, 2024 4:25 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Leaving IRA to DAF (donor advised fund) on death, a sanity check
Replies: 45
Views: 3697

Re: Leaving IRA to DAF (donor advised fund) on death, a sanity check

Overhead definitely used to be a defining criteria for charities. Things have shifted a lot since the early 2000s in terms of the role of overhead in nonprofit operations. One landmark was when the head of Charity Navigator, the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, and Guidestar came out with "The Overhead Myth". I think that was 2013. https://d3f9k0n15ckvhe.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/OverheadMyth-Letter.pdf Charity Navigator (the largest evaluator of charities in the country) used to have a big chunk of their eval based on finances including overhead, but now they have dropped overhead entirely, instead highlighting four beacons. It's a good way to evaluate a charity, whether that is for giving while you're alive or after yo...
by fourwheelcycle
Wed Mar 06, 2024 11:09 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: When have you stopped saving for retirement?
Replies: 40
Views: 4005

Re: When have you stopped saving for retirement?

260chrisb wrote: Wed Mar 06, 2024 8:18 am ...... the day I retired. Saving for short term goals is fine and while I appreciate your focus I never stopped once I started nor would I ever recommend that anyone do unless it's a dire situation. Especially if you lose out on any company matching funds. I'd sooner reduce my contributions.
+1. My wife and also stopped saving for retirement the day we retired, but we saved at a significant rate until then, resulting in a very comfortable retirement.
by fourwheelcycle
Wed Mar 06, 2024 11:03 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Leaving IRA to DAF (donor advised fund) on death, a sanity check
Replies: 45
Views: 3697

Re: Leaving IRA to DAF (donor advised fund) on death, a sanity check

...... it's good that you recognize that some overhead is necessary (some donors don't even get that!). I was president of our local United Way board during the early 1990's. They were very careful with their operating expenses and tried to limit them to 17% of the total dollars they received from annual campaigns and then gave to local charities. In the early 2000's, they apparently had trouble keeping their "overhead" below 20%, so they merged with a much larger United Way 90 miles away. The larger United Way grew larger, but even fatter, with 23% of donations going to overhead the last time I checked. I have now stopped giving to United Way. I now give my donations to the local charities I know best and whose missions I value ...
by fourwheelcycle
Sat Mar 02, 2024 6:12 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Invest cash when interest goes down
Replies: 52
Views: 5392

Re: Invest cash when interest goes down

We keep a target amount of money market funds to meet our projected needs for the current year and the first part of the next year. We do not vary this amount when interest rates fluctuate.
by fourwheelcycle
Fri Mar 01, 2024 2:35 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: 1099-DIV income taxed at 85%?
Replies: 11
Views: 2044

Re: 1099-DIV income taxed at 85%?

One hint I can say is: "Please read your Form 1040!" That is, don't talk about TurboTax. When I filled out our taxes this year on software I shall not name, I owed significantly more taxes than I had projected. I didn't think to blame the software. I assumed I had made an entry mistake someplace. I opened my 1040 form and looked it over. On schedule D there were two identical entries for capital gains. I sold some mutual fund shares this year, and I had calculated my likely LTCG tax. Looking more closely at Schedule D and my actual software entries, I realized when I got to the software's line for 1099-DIV capital gains distributions, I had seen the word "capital gains" and entered my mutual fund LTCG amount. Then in th...
by fourwheelcycle
Fri Mar 01, 2024 5:15 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What is your favorite retirement calculator and how can one get it?
Replies: 49
Views: 12295

Re: What is your favorite retirement calculator and how can one get it?

backpacker61 wrote: Fri May 05, 2023 5:53 pm For a very simple quick check, I like the Vanguard Nest Egg Calculator

https://retirementplans.vanguard.com/VG ... ggCalc.jsf
I really like this one. It teaches you how your portfolio allocation affects how long your savings might last, and it forces you to become comfortable with the risk you are prepared to take in retirement, i.e., 80% versus 99.9% chance your savings will last from when you retire until when you think your retirement might "end".

Importantly, it underscores the point that you, not the calculator, are responsible for understanding and projecting your retirement expenses, net of your other confident income like pension and SS.
by fourwheelcycle
Thu Feb 29, 2024 9:11 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: A confident Boglehead in his 60s pondering managing a portfolio in their 80s and beyond?
Replies: 42
Views: 5626

Re: A confident Boglehead in his 60s pondering managing a portfolio in their 80s and beyond?

Portfolio management is a very small part of financial management. We have a simple 3 fund portfolio total stock/muni/total bond, and at this point, it does not even need re balancing, no need to sell anything, no need to transfer anything - it is all automatic and most bills are automatically paid. It is the gathering of information at tax time, dealing with insurance (house, car, health, umbrella), dealing with SS, RMD's, inherited IRA's, IRMAA/Medicare, changes in estate taxation/rules, house maintenance, etc, etc that is 99% of the work and hassle. When I reached my 60s, I realized my wife and I were entering an important decade when we would have to make important decisions about whether and how to simplify our portfolio, when we shou...
by fourwheelcycle
Thu Feb 29, 2024 2:00 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Leaving IRA to DAF (donor advised fund) on death, a sanity check
Replies: 45
Views: 3697

Re: Leaving IRA to DAF (donor advised fund) on death, a sanity check

[quote=rkhusky post_id=7741001 time=1709222497 user_id=29254

Seems to be common knowledge:
viewtopic.php?t=363153
viewtopic.php?p=2805605#p2805605
[/quote]

Your links do not address the question. They are about people who want to donate IRA funds directly to a DAF, while they are still alive, avoiding the need to pay taxes on their IRA withdrawals. QCDs are the only way to accomplish this goal, and QCDs cannot be directed to a DAF.

The OP is considering leaving their IRA to a DAF when they die, presumably by designating a DAF as the beneficiary of their IRA. That is legal, but OP's estate will get the charitable deduction, not OP.
by fourwheelcycle
Thu Feb 29, 2024 10:23 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Leaving IRA to DAF (donor advised fund) on death, a sanity check
Replies: 45
Views: 3697

Re: Leaving IRA to DAF (donor advised fund) on death, a sanity check

rkhusky wrote: Thu Feb 29, 2024 8:35 am I don’t think IRA’s can go directly to a DAF. QCD’s are the usual mechanisms for donating directly out of an IRA.
I am leaving my IRA to Vanguard Charitable when I die. It is all set up with Vanguard (I have designated Vanguard Charitable as the primary beneficiary) and Vanguard Charitable (as funding for an Endowed Grant Plan). The Endowed Grant Plan will start when I die. It will basically endow and continue my current IRA QCD donations for long as funds remain in my Vanguard Charitable account - with 5% of the account balance distributed each year. I have set up the percent of the total annual distribution that will go to each charity, each year.
by fourwheelcycle
Wed Feb 28, 2024 6:39 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: A confident Boglehead in his 60s pondering managing a portfolio in their 80s and beyond?
Replies: 42
Views: 5626

Re: A confident Boglehead in his 60s pondering managing a portfolio in their 80s and beyond?

Unless you get dementia, or die early, with all finance and portfolio management responsibilities falling to your spouse, I don't think you need to pay anyone to advise or manage your portfolio. In my early 60s, now 76, I resolved to simplify our portfolio. I moved everything into VTSAX (total US stock market) and VBILX (taxable intermediate bonds). Just pick your comfortable ratio of equity to bonds and leave everything alone, with all dividends directed to your money market settlement fund. My wife already manages our monthly bills from our checking account. She is very good (better than me) at keeping track of when each credit card or other bill is due, and paying our bills with bill pay. My pension and our SS income, net of withholding,...
by fourwheelcycle
Sun Feb 25, 2024 11:38 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Why Emergency Fund?
Replies: 80
Views: 8632

Re: Why Emergency Fund?

My wife and I are in our mid-70s. We have raised two children and put them through college. We have bought them their first cars and helped with their first mortgages. Through all this, we have never had a true "emergency" that required immediate liquidity. However, we have always maintained a target cash and money market fund balance in our checking and brokerage accounts. When we started out, it was about 15% of our portfolio; now it is about 2%. Given our retirement expenses and savings, 2% represents about two times our minimum annual living expenses, including taxes. If OP faces a true emergency, it is very likely it will not be related to a large drop in the stock market. More likely, it will be related to an unexpected job ...
by fourwheelcycle
Fri Feb 23, 2024 2:25 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Meeting with "fiduciary" CFP results
Replies: 57
Views: 4964

Re: Meeting with "fiduciary" CFP results

If the CFP was suggesting tax-free municipal bonds in your taxable account, due to your tax bracket, that is probably OK. However, the CFP was out of bounds to suggest their company could help you find and buy muni bonds. My company also offered a free service like this. I used it once to get second perspective on our finances. However, like yours, this CFP was from a local company. I knew the person from other encounters, and I knew the company name. I also new the CFP was providing their service on a fee basis to my company, for a service my company was providing to me for free. The CFP was not supposed to mention their company or offer any services to me from their company during our session, and they did not do this. I assume if I had i...
by fourwheelcycle
Wed Feb 21, 2024 5:51 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Beneficiaries for Joint Accounts on Vanguard
Replies: 11
Views: 611

Re: Beneficiaries for Joint Accounts on Vanguard

We encountered this problem also. We ultimately understood it would only be an issue if we both died in the same plane crash, since if one spouse died first the other spouse would own the entire account and could then name beneficiaries. Still, there is always a chance we could die at the same time. However, for other separate reasons, we ultimately decided we wanted to set up a joint revocable trust. We did that, with one of our adult children as successor trustee and executor of our pour over wills, and then we set up a joint trust account, with no designated beneficiaries. When the second of us dies, our successor trustee will take over the account, get a new Tax ID, and distribute our estate as provided by our now-irrevocable trust. I h...
by fourwheelcycle
Wed Feb 21, 2024 1:17 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: PSA - "Test Drive" your POAs at Vanguard
Replies: 3
Views: 747

Re: PSA - "Test Drive" your POAs at Vanguard

Your PSA is very helpful. I agree everyone should check periodically to be sure the account privileges or customized beneficiary provisions they think they have in place, at Vanguard or elsewhere, are actually correct and in place. Your post reminded me of a surprising privilege constraint I have encountered with Vanguard. Each January my wife and I give money gifts our adult children. We do this by transferring settlement account funds from our joint trust account to the settlement account of each child's non-retirement Vanguard brokerage account. Earlier, when they first started working and set up their own Vanguard accounts, I asked each child to give me View Only privileges for their accounts, partly to help them set up personal Roth ac...
by fourwheelcycle
Tue Feb 20, 2024 12:05 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: General retirement questions...need advice
Replies: 72
Views: 12380

Re: General retirement questions...need advice

*We have an appointment with an attorney next week to discuss “Trusts”. Did you ask for the appointment or did your attorney suggest it? There are two frequent suggestions on this forum: One, unless you live in a state like CA, with complex or expensive probate procedures, probate is generally no more expensive than setting up one (joint) or two (individual) revocable trusts, and two, if your estate is going to give significant funds to your children, you may want to set up revocable trusts that put all or most of your children's inheritance in credit shelter trusts that protect the money from creditors and possible divorce proceedings. My wife and I set up a joint revocable trust, for our house and for our joint trust accounts at Vanguard...
by fourwheelcycle
Tue Feb 20, 2024 5:47 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Estimating Cash Flow Needs for Retirement
Replies: 25
Views: 3854

Re: Estimating Cash Flow Needs for Retirement

For sure, once you are retired, your annual expenses cannot exceed your annual income, including withdrawals from your savings. If you have estimated your annual expenses properly, and you are sure your expected income sources plus a 2.5-4% annual draw on your savings will at least cover these expenses, you should be OK, no matter what retirement tool or self-made spreadsheet you use. When I retired, I changed all of our Vanguard dividend income to "distribute". It goes to our Vanguard Federal money market settlement fund. I asked my wife, who pays our monthly bills, what cash level she wanted to keep in our BoA checking account. Our BoA checking account is already linked to our Vanguard settlement account. Whenever our checking a...
by fourwheelcycle
Mon Feb 19, 2024 6:28 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Snowblowers - Electric Start Option
Replies: 16
Views: 1247

Re: Snowblowers - Electric Start Option

I anguished over paying extra for electric start when I bought my 28” Honda snowblower. I anticipated I would rarely use it, and I was right. Then I thought about how my Honda lawnmower can take many pulls, with many guesses about the best choke position, the first time I start it in the spring after a winter in the garage. I ended up paying for electric start on the snowblower. What I have found is, if I go out and start the snowblower by hand on warm days in September, October, and early November, it will start easily by hand the first time I need it in late November or December. Did I say “if”??? It seems two years out of three I forget or neglect to do this, so I end up pulling four or five times on a cold, snowy morning in December, th...
by fourwheelcycle
Sun Feb 18, 2024 6:35 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Determining the size for a LTC Buffer?
Replies: 28
Views: 3095

Re: Determining the size for a LTC Buffer?

Past comments on this forum have noted questions like this reflect a “first world problem”, since most people in the second world, including many couples in the US, cannot afford the luxury of setting aside $750k or more for possible future LTC expenses. Having noted this, there are certainly many BH high earners and/or high savers who can afford to plan for possible future LTC expenses. I agree three years per person is a very reasonable, high side, guess regarding LTC at some point, but true skilled nursing care would probably be needed for only a few months. Most likely, the bulk of LTC care would be at assisted living, memory care, or part time to full time in-home attendant care. Assisted living could be half the cost of skilled nursin...
by fourwheelcycle
Thu Feb 15, 2024 3:08 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Taxes on estate disbursements
Replies: 9
Views: 672

Re: Taxes on estate disbursements

Also, IRS says any gains or losses since step-up should be taxed as long term gains or losses, even though it may seem like only a short term period since the basis was stepped up.
by fourwheelcycle
Thu Feb 15, 2024 2:13 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: College 529 and inheritance
Replies: 13
Views: 1279

Re: College 529 and inheritance

Struggling with this and wondering what others have done. Have discussed with spouse, but not kids. We are both 68 yo. 2 kids, age 38 and 40. One has 2 kids of her own and we are funding their college 529 plans pretty heavily. Son is not married, no kids and doubtful to every have any. Q: Do you think this is fair? Should we gift a similar amount to unmarried son? We have two sons, one with three children and one with two children. We are funding 529s for all five grandchildren equally. We thought about this issue also, but decided each grandchild is a person of their own, equally deserving of support from us as the others. We decided it is an issue of fairness to each grandchild, not to their parents. The parents are fully aware of our fu...
by fourwheelcycle
Sat Feb 10, 2024 8:08 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Best banking/brokerage options for 8-figure portfolio
Replies: 18
Views: 2472

Re: Best banking/brokerage options for 8-figure portfolio

I don’t think managing a portfolio in the teens needs to be any more complicated than any other portfolio. Most of our savings are at Vanguard - 85% VTSAX and VFIAX, 12% VBILX, 3% cash in Vanguard Settlement funds and in Merrill Preferred Cash Deposit account. Our banking is separate. Checking and cash rewards credit cards at BoA, with enough Preferred Cash Deposit at Merrill to keep us at the cash rewards Platinum Honors level. No complicated finance strategies and no special financial advisor services. Set it and forget it.
by fourwheelcycle
Fri Feb 09, 2024 4:24 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Who In Their Right Mind Files Gift Tax Returns? And Why?
Replies: 114
Views: 16549

Re: Who In Their Right Mind Files Gift Tax Returns? And Why?

If you are confident your total estate, including the net excess value above the IRS' annual exemption for annual gifts not reported over your lifetime, will never grow to within 10% (or so?) of any future Federal lifetime estate tax exemption, you could probably safely defer filing 709s for the years you gift more than the IRS' annual exemption. However, if you are not confident of this, there is a chance your executor, who will have to submit Form 706 after you die if your estate, including unreported excess annual gift amounts, is within 10% (or so) of the then applicable lifetime exemption, will have to commit fraud. The form asks for a full reporting of all past excess gift amounts. It asks for a report of all past 709 forms, and I bel...
by fourwheelcycle
Wed Jan 10, 2024 11:44 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Calculating our "number" with early retirement and pension
Replies: 11
Views: 1883

Re: Calculating our "number" with early retirement and pension

If you are already good with spreadsheets, you can do what I did when prepared to retire early, at 60. I had a column on the left with every year from age 60 to 100, then two columns for our ages, then columns for our projected annual expenses before federal and estate taxes, my expected income by year, including seven years of part time consulting for me, for my pre-retirement employer, my reduced, fixed, early pension, my IRA total, my projected RMDs and QCDs, my wife's projected income until her projected retirement age, her IRA total, her projected RMDs and QCDs, each of our SS amounts, net of Medicare premiums and IRMAA, our total income, and our total federal and state taxes. Then I had two final columns for our net potential loss or ...
by fourwheelcycle
Sun Jan 07, 2024 6:50 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: How did you find your dream job?
Replies: 79
Views: 25754

Re: How did you find your dream job?

Exurbanite wrote: Fri Jan 05, 2024 5:02 pm
Is is possible to love what you do everyday and be well-paid for it?
Yes. I was manager of a particular function at a large medical center. My wife finished her graduate study and was offered a dream job near a large medical center in another state. I was committed to following her, but at that time the new medical center did not even staff the function I was managing, so I took a good, but lesser job at an affiliated organization. Two and a half years later, the new medical center established a major strategic expansion plan that led them to create a VP position for the function I had managed previously. I got the job. My wife and I stayed in her job and my new job for the rest of our careers - very well paid and loving our work.
by fourwheelcycle
Thu Jan 04, 2024 6:33 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: CCRC return of % of entrance fee tax treatment
Replies: 11
Views: 1361

Re: CCRC return of % of entrance fee tax treatment

My wife and I are signed-up for a local CCRC that offers no return of the entrance fee after the first 52 months - so zero if you live another 12 or 15 years. If you are looking at a CCRC that offers a 75% return when you "leave", they are basically charging you the amount of a zero return enhance fee now, and also "renting" the balance ($200K ???) from you until you die. This gives them more working capital than a lower, zero return, entrance fee. There is an implied annual interest rate, based on your actuarial lifetime at entrance, until you "leave". You could call this rent, or you could call it an annuity interest rate. Either way, it can be calculated if you know what their zero percent return entrance fe...
by fourwheelcycle
Wed Dec 06, 2023 7:40 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Whose is Self Insuring for Long Term Care (LTC)? I'd Like To Hear Your Plan
Replies: 202
Views: 21581

Re: Whose is Self Insuring for Long Term Care (LTC)? I'd Like To Hear Your Plan

At 75, we haven't moved yet, but our plan is to move to a Type A contract CCRC. After a huge entrance fee, we will pay $80K or more per year for our apartment, dinner meal, and future access to assisted living, memory care, and long term nursing facilities if we need them. Under our life care contract, if one or both of us needs to move into one of the other other care facilities, we will still pay the same $80K or more per year fee for our combined room and board, which would change to three meals per day in the other health care facilities - escalated by the same annual 3-4%(?) fee increases that apply to all residents.
by fourwheelcycle
Wed Nov 22, 2023 12:06 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What's Your Exit Strategy (for tax-deferred retirement accounts)
Replies: 163
Views: 22514

Re: What's Your Exit Strategy (for tax-deferred retirement accounts)

Jovby wrote: Wed Nov 22, 2023 7:51 am A portion of the CCRC entrance fee is considered per-paid medical expenses. It may be tax deductible depending on your overall tax situation. If so, it can come out of your IRa tax free.
Yes, I am aware of that. We are planning to consider it in our financial planning if we enter a CCRC with a large entrance fee. If we take advantage of this tax strategy, it would allow us to spend-down part of my wife's IRA, which is headed to our children, without the need to pay other taxes to convert that amount to her Roth IRA.
by fourwheelcycle
Sun Nov 19, 2023 1:09 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What's Your Exit Strategy (for tax-deferred retirement accounts)
Replies: 163
Views: 22514

Re: What's Your Exit Strategy (for tax-deferred retirement accounts)

All of my IRA will go to charity, some now as annual QCDs, and the rest when I die, to Vanguard Charitable, to continue funding my QCD charities after I am gone. A good portion of my wife's IRA RMDs are going to charity now as QCDs. The balance of her IRA, and a smaller 457(b), will go to our two adult children. I have explained the benefit of having them inherit Roth IRAs rather than her traditional IRA. We have already converted a chunk of her IRA to a Roth IRA as a standby fund for our likely future CCRC entrance fee. Depending on our annual finances, we will look for further opportunities to convert portions of her remaining IRA to her Roth IRA to avoid high tax rates for our children after we die.
by fourwheelcycle
Fri Nov 17, 2023 9:34 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: QCD acknowledgment letter
Replies: 50
Views: 4678

Re: QCD acknowledgment letter

Here is the IRS requirement for a written acknowledgement. https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organizations/charitable-contributions-written-acknowledgments name of the organization; amount of cash contribution; description (but not value) of non-cash contribution; statement that no goods or services were provided by the organization, if that is the case; description and good faith estimate of the value of goods or services, if any, that organization provided in return for the contribution; and statement that goods or services, if any, that the organization provided in return for the contribution consisted entirely of intangible religious benefits, if that was the case. Is there something more required for a QCD beyond a ...
by fourwheelcycle
Mon Nov 13, 2023 6:53 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Amica Dividend Policy - Too Good To Be True?
Replies: 32
Views: 5688

Re: Amica Dividend Policy - Too Good To Be True?

I guess I am Amica's favorite type of customer. My father used AMICA, and in the early 1970's when I got my first car I started using them too. My wife and I continued with them when we bought our home and when we added umbrella coverage. We have always had great service from them when we needed it, which has been infrequently. We have always had their dividend policies - I did not even know they offered non-dividend policies!
by fourwheelcycle
Thu Nov 09, 2023 9:43 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Problem with Fidelity, or am I expecting too much?
Replies: 45
Views: 6022

Re: Problem with Fidelity, or am I expecting too much?

I have posted previously that my retired wife has an employer-based non-governmental 457(b) account that has to stay with Fidelity, her employer's contracted custodian. The process for requesting her IRS-required RMD, apparently agreed upon by her employer and Fidelity, is extremely complicated. It cannot be done online or over the phone. She has to fill out Fidelity's established request form, then submit it to her employer for their signature and forwarding to Fidelity. Until last year, the form had a place to fill-in her requested federal withholding percentage. Starting this year, there is no provision for her to fill-in her requested withholding percentage and no provision for her to call Fidelity and submit her request over the phone....
by fourwheelcycle
Thu Nov 09, 2023 6:21 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Vanguard Pushing Me To Take RMD *Now*
Replies: 34
Views: 5301

Re: Vanguard Pushing Me To Take RMD *Now*

My wife and I have all our IRAs at Vanguard. We do our QCDs during the year, usually finishing by September. I buy the "new" TurboTax desktop Deluxe version around the end of November and estimate our taxes for the year. In early December we take our final RMDs, withholding an amount to aim for a small refund when we file our taxes, usually in early March. Vanguard has never bugged me about taking our final RMDs in December.
by fourwheelcycle
Mon Nov 06, 2023 3:55 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Corporate trustee for special needs trust
Replies: 40
Views: 2750

Re: Corporate trustee for special needs trust

If your special needs beneficiary is in an institution which cares for them, and they are not out in the community, a corporate trustee may work for you. The trustee's main role would be to pay the institution's bills. We have friends whose beneficiary has a mental health issue that enables them to live on their own, but unable to hold a job, impossible to live with roommates or in a group home, and assures frequent run-ins with neighbors, merchants, health care providers, and the police. Their special needs trust is set up with their local trusted attorney as trustee. The trust contracts with a not-for-profit community-based support group that assigns a case worker to work with the beneficiary. The special needs trustee sets up additional ...
by fourwheelcycle
Mon Nov 06, 2023 9:50 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Buying a 120k car... yes, I need your help
Replies: 275
Views: 34086

Re: Buying a 120k car... yes, I need your help

No one needs a mink coat except a mink! You don't need a Porsche either. If you have to have one, and if you have good dealer support nearby, choose you favorite Cayman or Boxster. Or, for a more practical alternative, buy any xDrive coupe or convertible on this link, or a Z4 M40i - https://www.bmwusa.com/vehicles/bmw-m/m ... e-m-models

Some more free advice - sell the target date retirement funds in your retirement savings and buy your own preferred mix of VTSAX and VBILX. Your overall ER will go down and you can choose your own equity/bond ratio over time.
by fourwheelcycle
Sat Nov 04, 2023 7:58 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Small to Medium sized cities for FIRE
Replies: 103
Views: 10229

Re: Small to Medium sized cities for FIRE

Portsmouth, NH
by fourwheelcycle
Sat Nov 04, 2023 7:42 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Philosophical conflict at work
Replies: 22
Views: 2490

Re: Philosophical conflict at work

I don't think BHs say nobody knows nothing. They know, generally, which way the wind is blowing. They just say they don't know enough, and think most active fund managers don't know enough, to regularly beat a balanced index fund portfolio. There are widely understood indicators regarding the direction of international finance markets. If this is your job, you are aware of them and, yes, you could help interpret them for your company. But like the wind, the direction indicators are pointing can change as market conditions evolve. I live with an international finance professional. One fall in the 1990s, we were planning a trip to Europe for the following fall. She was confident indicators pointed to a rise in the Euro against the dollar, so ...
by fourwheelcycle
Fri Nov 03, 2023 4:15 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Flexible Time Off - What happens when you cross the invisible line?
Replies: 101
Views: 104629

Re: Flexible Time Off - What happens when you cross the invisible line?

quantAndHold wrote: Fri Nov 03, 2023 2:20 pm Work isn’t all about an individual producing deliverables. Very few people just work in an isolation chamber creating work product. A valuable employee is going to be working with others to make sure everyone on the team, or even on multiple teams, is doing their best work...
Absolutely. As I noted in a previous post, my boss said "... as long as you do the job we expect from you, we are not worried about how you manage your time". However, my job was not just to produce deliverables. My job also included contributing to department meetings, participating in team projects with colleagues, and working effectively in the field with clients.
by fourwheelcycle
Thu Nov 02, 2023 5:48 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: How much of your finance do you disclose to your family trustee
Replies: 16
Views: 1977

Re: How much of your finance do you disclose to your family trustee

Zero shared info before I die, and zero compensation before or after I die.
by fourwheelcycle
Wed Nov 01, 2023 9:01 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Flexible Time Off - What happens when you cross the invisible line?
Replies: 101
Views: 104629

Re: Flexible Time Off - What happens when you cross the invisible line?

There is no substitute for a good communication relationship with the person who does your annual performance reviews. Hopefully, you see that person regularly and can easily ask for guidance on an issue like this. Eleven weeks of FTO is very impressive. At my last employer (thirty years), we received six weeks of combined PTO after twenty five years. My final retirement date, and pay, included a month of untaken PTO. Early in my career, I worked for a large organization where my boss said "Don't worry about your personal time. You don't need to request it and we don't even record it. As long as you do the job we expect from you, we are not worried about how you manage your time." I worked there for three years with no issues. Tha...
by fourwheelcycle
Tue Oct 31, 2023 3:30 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Question for Married Bogleheads - % to allocate to joint accounts
Replies: 174
Views: 13484

Re: Question for Married Bogleheads - % to allocate to joint accounts

My wife and I are old, and old school. Now married 48 years, every dollar of income has gone into a joint checking account since day one. Over the years, the "excess" from our joint checking account has gone, first, into a joint taxable brokerage account, then into individual revocable trust brokerage accounts (before IRS portability), which have now been combined into a joint revocable trust brokerage account. We never divorced, but we agreed we would split everything 50/50 if we ever did. Your plan seems very reasonable for "young people". Our adult children and their spouses have joint checking accounts but keep their personal savings separate, and generally share household expenses in proportion to their incomes. One...
by fourwheelcycle
Fri Oct 27, 2023 3:21 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: How Is A Living Trust Enforced After Death?
Replies: 32
Views: 4384

Re: How Is A Living Trust Enforced?

Your wise choice of a trustworthy successor trustee is the only defense against incompetent or fraudulent behavior. When our children were very young, my wife and I had wills that included a testamentary trust for our children if we both died, with my accountant father as guardian and trustee. When our children were in their late teens, we switched to revocable living trusts with my wife's sister as guardian and a local bank trust department as successor trustee if we both died. Now that our children are in their late thirties, with families of their own, we have a joint revocable trust with our most financially responsible child as DPOA and successor trustee.
by fourwheelcycle
Sat Oct 21, 2023 9:42 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Father leaving home and investments to me
Replies: 16
Views: 2181

Re: Father leaving home and investments to me

Your father should have a will. You could be named as the executor. This could also be a good time to have him execute a DPOA naming you for finances and health care. It could also be a good time, if he is cooperative, to review his finances and investments. Is his financial advisor serving him well? Is it a name company like Schwab, Fidelity, or Vanguard, or a reputable local advisor, like a Dimensional Funds affiliated advisor? Is he being charged a reasonable rate? Are the investments all low cost stock or bond index funds or ETFs? I have heard some sad stories about non-brand-name financial advisors who charge high rates, invest clients' money in high cost managed funds, and won't let go of account holdings easily when a client dies. Ho...
by fourwheelcycle
Fri Oct 20, 2023 4:03 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: [2023 TurboTax Desktop now requires account login to activate]
Replies: 126
Views: 67728

Re: [2023 TurboTax Desktop now requires account login to activate]

I have completed my own taxes, and my father's, with TurboTax Desktop for seven years, with next spring being the eighth and last time for my father, since he died at 101 in April. I have always had to buy a separate state tax form for him, but I have always used only one TT download/license. I have installed TT on two Mac computers in my home. I have never had a problem from TT. Also never a problem from the IRS. I use my address and my bank account for my taxes and my address and my father's bank account, previously joint with me but now titled to me, for his taxes. My father has been in assisted living or memory care the whole time. Medicare, SS, and the IRS all use my address for his mail. I'll see how things go for 2023. If I can't sta...
by fourwheelcycle
Fri Oct 13, 2023 7:59 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Simplification vs. Optimization in your financial life... most valuable areas / where do you draw the line?
Replies: 70
Views: 9210

Re: Simplification vs. Optimization in your financial life... most valuable areas / where do you draw the line?

Now retired, I think simplicity is optimization. We have integrated all our savings, taxable and retirement, at Vanguard, except one 457b that has to stay at Fidelity. Almost all our savings are in VTSAX and VBILX. We have one bank, BoA. All our credit cards, including cash rewards, are at BoA. We are able to transfer funds easily between our Vanguard settlement account and BoA. We do have a chunk of cash rewards-qualifying, FDIC-insured, preferred deposit funds at Merrill Edge.