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heerekj1

I am also in my late 60's but I am not working. In the last few years I have been rolling over to a Roth the equivalent of what an RMD would be just so I can get used to the taxes and will not be shocked when the RMD is required. In my case, RMDs are also not required to cover needed expenses+ but a...

heerekj1

Thank you.

heerekj1

In previous years I have done partial rollovers from my tIRA to my Roth IRA. This year, because I got spooked by 2018Q4, I thought I needed to have more cash and so I took the money from my tIRA and put it in my taxable account. It would have made much more sense to move to cash but to put it in the...

heerekj1

My CPA already filed for 2018. I was thinking I should buy the 2018 version so I could compare the CPA version and to have most of the information filled out for 2019.

heerekj1

For 35 years of employment I did my own return in TurboTax. When I moved and retired I had a local CPA do my return for 5 years and I am considering doing it myself again. So what version do I need? Retiree Income: CSRS Pension(wife), SS(me), IRA withdrawal, Interest from bank account, capital gains...

heerekj1

Thanks to all. The total expenses include the taxes on the initial RMD. The expenses that I referred to as needing to be covered for 2, and 8 years were those total expenses less SS and pension. That said, even though I think I have my bases covered with stable funds, I will probably reduce my equit...

heerekj1

With CSRS pension and SS we cover 77% of our routine spending and over 100% of our needs. With RMD we will cover 136% of our routine spending. Routine spending does not include new cars or the limited help we have given our children. During the crisis, I did not move money or change allocations. Of ...

heerekj1

I am 68 and have been retired for 3 years. I have had virtually the same asset allocation for 10-15 years. VGSLX - Vanguard REIT Index, 6% VBTLX - Vanguard Total Bond Index, 24% VTIAX - Vanguard Total International Stock Index, 20% VTSAX - Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, 50% I invested in the REI...

heerekj1

I have not really planned for large expenses. I am keeping track of how much we spend including taxes and comparing that to a SWR. I maintain a running total of the amount of underspent money. This is money that we can "safely" spend. I don't have a separate account for this. If I need to take the m...

heerekj1

I switched from Chase to Ally about 4 years ago. I also had salary & pension direct deposit at Chase. Left because they were not paying anything in interest. The change went smoothly but I had enough money to cover any overdrafts I might of gotten during the transition. The only hiccup was that I us...

heerekj1

Based on recommendations here, I used transferwise last year to transfer 45K to Australia. It costs about $340. I was very satisfied with their customer support. You will need to provide additional forms of identification if you transfer more than 10K or have multiple transfers that add up to more t...

heerekj1

This is probably just my ignorance but what is the logic behind not contributing being able to an HSA while on Medicare? I thought there was interest in pushing people to high deductible plans which enables HSAs. Our particular situation is retired, FEHP, BCBS, Medicare part A only. BCBS does not fo...

heerekj1

The Kiplinger article states that you need to be 70.5 in order to make a QCD. I looked at the tax document and I do not see it explicitly stated. Is it implicit somewhere?

heerekj1

I assume you are saying your total income subject to US taxes is $14K. Your standard deduction will be $24K. Thus you can convert $10K and pay zero taxes or $19K additional and pay $1,905. Just look up what the taxes would be on your adjusted gross income using the federal tax table to determine how...

heerekj1

Two weeks seems a little long but it does take some time. I transferred from my employer sponsored 401K at Vanguard to a personal IRA at Vanguard when I retired and it took some time. Most of the time, I believe, was for Vanguard to get the paperwork from my employer. I don't believe I was in a cash...

heerekj1

I agree with the michaejc70 that you should not include the rental properties as assets in your VPW calculations. Also I don't treat VPW as a spending plan but a withdrawal plan. I keep track of, and accumulate, the difference of what I could spend based on VPW and other streams of income and what I...

heerekj1

Have you considered downsizing? We bought a house in a lower cost of living area by refinancing our house and then paid everything off when we sold and moved.

heerekj1

I did not trust what others were providing so I wrote my own simulator. It basically confirmed what others have done. That said, I don't understand how one could confirm that their individual performance would match the simulation. As you note they produce a wide range of results and you choose the ...

heerekj1

Thanks for the help. It was supposed to be a withdrawal and I did a conversion. The Roth has existed for over 10 years. I realize that I owed taxes in either case.

heerekj1

This week I made a mistaken IRA withdrawal. I meant to exchange approximately $40K from my Vanguard IRA to the Prime Money Market in my taxable brokerage account. I ended up depositing it in my Roth IRA instead. I am 67 and retired. Can I just move the money from the Roth to the taxable account? Is ...

heerekj1

Thanks for your replies. I think I am fine. Our pension+ss covers our essential spending as listed: insurance, utilities, food, cloths, transportation, medical. If we continue to stay in our lane and not think too much about the portfolio, we will be fine.

heerekj1

I have been reading the posts about how to manage investment allocation to cover expenses and I am confused as to how to separate and how to account for expenses. Situation: retired for about 2 years(current age 67.5). Wife has a CSRS pension and I plan on taking SS at 70. We have been spending mone...

heerekj1

yes i understood a max of 60k.

so i fill out this form every year i go above the exclusion or every year once i start?

thanks for the info

heerekj1

My sons are working on first home purchases and need help with the down payment. It is my understanding that we (my wife and I) can gift them 15K each year and not owe gift tax. They will probably need more than that for the down payment. I understand that I can gift more than that in any one year a...

heerekj1

I have at least half of your problem. I am a saver and my wife is not but she let me control retirement investments so we have an adequate money. I order to "make" me spend money on vacations and to have enough to cover expenses I set up separate savings accounts at Ally and put money from pension a...

heerekj1

I continue to think about reducing my risk and am sort of torn by it. I have been investing for about 40 years and have seen a lot of ups and downs and the market seems to come back within a couple years. I probably have 20-25 years of life expectancy based on my family tree so that is a lot of time...

heerekj1

I sort of treat the Life Strategy Income fund as a cash equivalent and I am trying to cover the expenses until 70 using the cash. Once I get to RMD time I will settle on some sort of cash "need" and then probably mimic my tax advantaged asset allocation in my taxable allocation. I think that the ind...

heerekj1

I am currently withdrawing 80K from tIRA and rolling over 50K to Roth. This keeps me in the 25% tax bracket.

heerekj1

To "sandtrap" Do you understand how the back testing was done? I wrote my own monte-carlo simulation using Case-Shiller data to confirm that my stated method works. It doesn't look like the back-testing method uses monte-carlo simulations so what method does it use? It looks like initial percentage ...

heerekj1

To "hand". What would be the method to "discount your assets"? As it is I was not planning on spending more than my accumulated overages at any one time. Sum of yearly((Pensions + SWR) - (Spending + Taxes)). If I do have grandchildren I would not fully fund the 529's at one time. Michigan allows a m...

heerekj1

I will have to think about that. I went from an inflation adjusted 4% method because I did not think it took enough advantage of market gains or accounted for market losses. The VPW appears to take more advantage of market gains then the method I fell into. Are there people out there with 10-15 year...

heerekj1

Thanks again for help in the past. Age 67. Married. I have been retired for 2 years. Residence in Michigan. I am feeling pretty smug about my financial situation. In the past when I have been smug I am usually missing something I should be doing so I would like others to check me out. Plan: I plan o...

heerekj1

As others have said, it depends on the school. I offered my children to pay the in state tuition + room + board for any public university in the state and to contribute the equivalent to any college they went to. I was advised to continue to fund my retirement instead of a college fund. At the time ...

heerekj1

I had a 403B plan with Vanguard through my employer. Upo retirement, I rolled it into an IRA. I contacted Vanguard and they created a new tIRA and Roth IRA (part of the 403b had Roth 403B funds). They contacted my employer then did the rollover. A month or so later I transferred the little bits I ha...

heerekj1

It depends on what the money is for. My level of comfort has changed over time. Now that I am not working(retired) I seem to have a desire to have more cash on hand than I ever did while working. But it is being used to get me to 70 for SS and for spur of the moment purchases. I bought the lot next ...

heerekj1

I don't know about your specific plan but I had what was called TIAA Traditional with TIAA-CREF which required me to purchase an annuity at retirement. They had an option which allowed me to convert that at 10% a year. After 10 years it was complete and I transferred the balance to a 403B with Vangu...

heerekj1

We essentially did what you propose for both children. We said that we would pay tuition/room and board for 4 years but no more than the best public university in the state. They would need to cover the cost above that. With a spreadsheet they were able to focus on whether going to a beach/party/pri...

heerekj1

Already retired. I am keeping what I call "cash" in Vanguard's Life Strategy Income (VASIX) in a taxable account. I make monthly scheduled transfers to my checking account to cover expenses. Currently the one year return is 3.15%. I believe the fund is 90% bonds.

heerekj1

I am 66.5 and have been retired for 1.5 years. We are in the fortunate position of having enough income to more than cover our expenses. The income includes pension and a SWR from my IRAs and later my SS. The expenses include lots of travel and optional purchases. We seem to have a lot in our retire...

heerekj1

My sons are successor trustee's to the trust. I am looking for what process do they follow upon our deaths. When they go to sell assets: house, cars, etc. Do they just go ahead an do it knowing they have the legal right to do that or do they need to do something to make it possible. My bank accounts...

heerekj1

I have set up a revocable trust in Michigan with my wife and I as trustees and my two sons as co-beneficiaries. I have moved my house and bank account into the trust and in the process of moving my brokerage account into the trust. My question is, when both of us have passed, what is the process for...

heerekj1

My wife is happy with BCBS. We travel a lot, both US and non-US. My wife has had multiple joint surgeries and BCBS has covered most of it. So I don't think finding a cheaper health insurance is an option. We are indeed in a higher income bracket (because of Roth rollovers) and will remain there once...

heerekj1

My experience: I became eligible for Medicare in December of 2015 and initially signed up for parts A and B. My was retired from the U.S. Senate and we had health insurance through FEHB. We used BCBS of Michigan. Because there was no COLA on Social Security that year, new enrollees to Medicare part ...

heerekj1

I have used Ally Bank for about 3 years and am satisfied. They don't have many ATMs but you are refunded for about 4 withdrawals per billing period which works for me. You are limited to the number of free transfers from your savings accounts to 6 (I think). Only ran into that when I was setting up ...

heerekj1

Not sure what you mean but we lived for a year on what we thought would be our retirement income to confirm that we could do it. I then worked part-time for 3 years. I retired last year, and covering expenses with wife's pension and $30K per year from IRA until I reach 70 and begin SS.

heerekj1

We have been married for 43 years and we tried multiple approaches over the years. I am the saver and she is the spender. I made sure we saved for retirement and she makes sure we spend to have the experiences. "Adventcha before Dementcha" What we do now has worked for about 5-10 years. We keep mult...

heerekj1

Thanks for the info. I should have stopped at a more mainstream supplier at the airport. In my defense. We flew into Sydney and needed to catch the connection to Hobart. There was a vodaphone booth at international arrivals but it had a long line and I needed to make the connection. Once I was out o...

heerekj1

This is not so much a complaint but an observation that it was much more difficult to do than I expected and I wonder what I did wrong. In the end I got cellular data service and it was quite useful and I am glad I did. Phone: iPhone 6s, provider: Consumer Cellular, phone is unlocked when used outsi...

heerekj1

We are retired and our children are grown but still single. While the children were small we spent very little on vacation. Family visits were most of it. For the last few years of working and into retirement we have budgeted about 24K per year. We have scheduled larger vacations, taking the two kid...

heerekj1

I worked for a private employer and my wife worked for the Federal government. Our health insurance was through my employer. About 8 years ago we switched to the federal program and there was no significant difference in cost. I only switched because my employer only indicated that they intended to ...

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