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Namashkar wrote: ↑Sat Jan 14, 2023 3:26 pm I made an estimated tax payment on Dec 29, 2022 and it is still not processed. When I sign on to my account and view payment activities, it shows that it is being processed. It has been about 15 days. Is this normal? I tried to see if I can contact IRS, but there is no phone number that I can use to call IRS. Anybody experienced this issue?

Regards,

I made a 1040-es payment on Jan 2 using ACI, and the payment currently shows up on as pending in my IRS account within a week.

It is common practice to purchase air fare that is free to cancel using your CSR, let the travel credit post, then cancel the air fare. You will end up with a $300 credit balance in your CSR. Southwest airlines is commonly cited as being easy to use for this purpose. Makes sure to check the terms of the airline to ensure the fare is refundable to the original method payment versus a credit with the airline.

If I had to pick one park, I would pick Islands of Adventure. It has Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure and Velocicoaster, two of the best rides on Orlando in my opinion. Unfortunately you won't be able to use fast pass on these two rides, so there goes 2+ hours of your day in line. In general IoA has less of the 3D motion simulator rides compared to Universal Studios, which I prefer since I get motion sickness.

You will get a a statement credit applied directly by Chase a few days after the purchase to your credit card.

I consider myself a casual churner, and will chase any bank bonus that I can get approved for. I am usually limited to national banks, and whatever regional banks are offering bonuses. Over the last three years, I have averaged $4k per year, gross. The link below is a great resource.

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/best-ban ... t-bonuses/

Spouse and I are working with an attorney to draft a will and trust. The attorney stated that we did not need to fund the trust, and re-title assets while we are alive. We would simply name our trust document as the beneficiary of our accounts, and the trust would get funded upon our passing by the executor of our will. Would this be an advisable way if setting up a trust? What other questions should we be asking or thinking about? Pro's and con's of this approach?

Thanks.

It is junk mail as far as I can tell. Usually looks like some "mortgage/deed/property tax scam" type of letter. This is the main reason for my concern.

Thanks

At least once per week I will get mail addressed to someone else at my address. It is always the same person, but I do not know them, and they have never lived at my address. My wife and I are the only owner's to ever live here if that matters. We always write return to sender and put it back in our mailbox.

This is a minor nuisance, but I want to ensure there is nothing more nefarious going on with this issue, such as fraud. I have had USPS Informed Delivery for several years to track my mail, but there doesn't seem to be a way to make a complaint about this issue.

I am seeking the wisdom from this forum to understand if there is anything else I should be doing to protect myself from any potential issues.

Thanks in advance,
Dee

I would first lock my credit card with Amex to prevent future charges, and also ask Amex if there are any options for refusing payment for substandard contractor work.

I echo the sentiment that Beaches is a family resort. I took my family in August, wife, 6yo and 2yo, and it was great, but I recommend an adults only resort for a romantic anniversary.

<t>I am looking for legal insight or explanation of what my father in law is currently experiencing. As the title of my post states, he shares a mortgage with six other people for some land in Georgia. One of them passed away six years ago. The deceased did not have a will. Their surviving spouse is also on the mortgage, but wants out. The deceased and spouse live(d) in Colorado. The rest of the group in Georgia wants to pay the remainder of the loan off in full. The bank in Georgia found out about the death after a routine review of the loan.<br/> <br/> Question 1) The bank states that they will not allow payment of the normal monthly installment due to the deceased still being on the mortgage, and lack of clarity on who inherits the decea...

Does it make sense to sell shares in a taxable account for a gain and buy back into the same fund to increase the cost basis? I recently heard this on a podcast. The speaker is in the 0% cap gains tax bracket. Assuming you can avoid income tax in this transaction, is there any dowside to stepping up your basis? Thanks.

I own a 2003 4Runner with 240k miles. I am the original owner. This car has been super reliable and I plan on taking it to 300k miles, at least. I stay on the recommended maintenance intervals. I get 18 mpg on mostly highway driving. I have never taken it offroad. If you want a spacious and reliable ride, and don't mind the gas mileage, I would highly recommend a 4 Runner. The body of the car will rust out before the engine dies.

Got a confirmation letter, and credit reportfrom Innovis on October 5. Submitted my request on Sept 22 for both Innovis and ChexSystem. I received my credit report from ChexSystem, which lists my freeze with them, but I have not received a PIN from them yet.

Is the Innovis PIN the same as the freeze confirmation number? I did not see anything specifically called a PIN in my confirmation letter.

It's also interesting that my Chex report is very minimal with regards to it's contents relative to the accounts I have had. Makes me wonder if banks really use this.

Thanks.

This happened to me in my GE fridge. The solution that worked for me was to unplug the fridge for 30 seconds, plug it back in, and voila water was back in service. If you haven't tried this very simple step, I would recommend it before paying a service tech.

A friend recently received a letter from a law firm/debt collector stating that land that he has a mortgage on will be going into foreclosure due to not making payments. My friend states that he did not make the payments for the last 5 months because he did not receive a bill from the bank. The letter stated that he could pay the entire debt in full, and all will be forgiven. Should he do this, try to work out some new terms without paying in full, or even respond?

Does it seem fishy that he was contacted by a collector instead of the bank? Does this mean the bank has sold his debt to the collector? Does the bank have any responsibility for not sending the bill?

Looking for advice on responses.

Thank you,

I have a question for the OP and anyone else: how has your skill/knowledge and perhaps contribution to the bottom line of the organization corresponded to pay? I'm mainly asking for people who are still in the same role (engineer vs. moving to management for example.) My theory would be that from year 1 to 2, there'd be a pretty high increase in personal productivity. From year four or five or beyond, maybe none. Maybe negative. I feel that my development may be starting to slow down, although I hope it won't be the case, compared to the first 8 years of my career. The key is to look for new opportunities outside your current comfort zone. This is the main reason I have changed companies. I have always been in technical roles, progressing ...

Thank you so much for posting this information. My daughter is a ChemE on the Gulf Coast. These numbers are very similar to her base salary. She is year 3. Several questions if you don't mind. 1. Do your numbers include any bonus or performance pay or just base salary? My numbers only include base salary. No bonus amount included . 2. When you got raises did you take what they gave you or did you negotiate for more? My husband and I are physicians so are not in the engineering world. My daughter thinks negotiating is not appropriate. My dad who has a corporate background agrees. I don't understand why she shouldn't, especially due to the following... I took what was offered for internal raises. However, I did go in with a specific number w...

Hello, I have a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Chemical engineering from a well respected engineering University in the US. I have been working in the Chemical industry for 11 years. I have also changed jobs two times, the last one involving a relocation. I was talking with a colleague about how salaries are kept very secret among peers, management, and HR except for maybe a salary range. I wanted to share my salary progression through out my career to make this information available to this forum to give a point of reference for anyone interested. 401k matching has been very similar among all my employers, ~10% total employer contribution. This is in the Gulf coast region. Year 1 : 66k Year 2: 68 k Year 3: 72k Year 4: 78k ( internal pro...

Hello, My employer recently removed funds from my 401k account without any advanced notice to me. The money they removed was from an enhanced contribution for the year, separate from their regular matching. They cited that this was due to me not working for an entire year in 2016 as I joined them in February. The problem is that the amount they took out exceeds any prorated amount for that month that I was not an employee with them. I have asked HR and Payroll to explain the math to me, as I cannot figure out how they determined the amount that was removed. The amount was about 5 months worth of their enhanced contribution. I emailed them on Thursday, and they have yet to get back to me. What can I do? Was my employer within their rights to...

Hello, My employer is offering legal assistance as part of annual enrollment, which includes estate planning through Hyatt Legal Plans for 12.95/mo. I am considering signing up for this for next year to put together a will, or trust, or something else??? to take care of my wife and 2 kids. I have a few questions: 1) Is $155.40 for a year a reasonable cost for this service? 2) What are pro's/con's of a will, living will, living revocable trust, living irrevocable trust, power of attorney? Do I need all of them? 3) Do I need estate planning if I have beneficiaries designated in all my investment and savings accounts? 4) Can my wife and I just write up our own will to state who will take care of our kids and inherit our property? Do we need a ...

Hello,

I was recently relocated for work with about $35,000 in benefits that were grossed up for taxes. The $35k was what I actually received, and the taxes witheld by my employer were about $22k. This comes out to be a "tax rate" of 38.5%. My usual tax bracket is 25% (married filing jointly). I will be borderline on the 28% bracket with this $57k in relocation benefits counting towards my income.

My question is: if my typical tax rate holds up for my 2016 taxes, and my employer took out 38.5% in taxes from my relo benefits, would I get a refund for the amount of the grossed up taxes that is in excess of whatever my tax rate is?

Thanks,

Dee

I purchased a new home 1 month ago. It is a brand new, builder grade home in a subdivision where there is only one builder. We had a home inspection performed, without any comments on our roof. One month after closing, our insurance agent informs us that the roof is unacceptable due to several lifted shingles. I was of course alarmed to hear this, with the possibility that my home policy could be cancelled and impact my future chances of getting home insurance. I have submitted a request to the builder to fix this issue as my home is still under warranty. As far as I know, the shingles were always in this condition, since we haven't had any storms come through since moving in. I am disappointed that the home inspector did not comment on thi...

I have an account with HSA bank leftover from an old employer. I no longer have an HDHP, so can't contribute to it anymore. There is currently $1,700 in an investment account. It is an S&P 500 index fund with an ER of 0.95%. I also get assessed $4.95 per month in fees since I am no longer active in the plan.

Should I cash out the account, pay taxes on it, then put it in my taxable accounts; or leave it in and let the fees eat up the earnings until I have nothing left?

Am I missing anything else from this analysis?

Thanks,

Dee

I have chosen a HDHP w/HRA offered by my employer. I have an existing HSA account with HSABank from my previous employer.
Questions:

Can I continue to fund the HSA account on my own if my employer provides me with $1,500/year for my HRA?
Does my $1,500 HRA employer contribution count towards my HSA contribution limit?
How do I claim the tax deduction for my contributions to the HSA account?
Anything I should be aware about by making post tax contributions?

Thanks,

So my last post has led me into this one...I have an old 401k with the following AA:

56% vanguard prime cap admiral (vpmax) (0.34%)
22% vanguard intl growth admiral (vwilx) (0.34%)
12% vanguard extended market index, institutional plus (vempx) (0.06%)
10% Pimco total return, institutional class (PTTRX) ((0.46%)

Question is should I consolidate all of these into Vanguard target 2045 Trust Plus (0.06%)?

It seems that my current 4 fund portfolio would have outperformed the 2045 fund even when I take into account the increased ER, but I would like to simplify my life and not have to rebalance myself...

Thanks again for the help.

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I will plan to look at the AA across my entire portfolio and pick accordingly.

Hello, I recently started a new job and have a new set of 401k options to choose from. I have been accustomed to Vanguard funds in previous 401k's, so these options are a little more expensive than I am used to. I am 35, and want an aggressive AA. Looking on suggestions on where to start. Thanks, Target Date J P Morgan SmartRetirement Income Instl JSIIX 0.64 J P Morgan SmartRetirement 2015 Instl JSFIX 0.65 J P Morgan SmartRetirement 2020 Instl JTTIX 0.69 J P Morgan SmartRetirement 2030 Instl JSMIX 0.74 J P Morgan SmartRetirement 2040 Instl SMTIX 0.78 J P Morgan SmartRetirement 2050 Instl JTSIX 0.80 International Funds American Funds EuroPacific Gr R6 RERGX 0.49 Oppenheimer Global Fund A OPPAX 1.14 Small Cap Funds Invesco Small Cap Equity R5...

HouseBlend, or anyone else out there, can you help me understand why you recommend turning off automatic investment of gains and dividends? Will this lead to less realized gains in the end whenever I do sell my shares off?

thanks again,

I just recently discovered the idea of tax efficiency for my taxable investment accounts. I am planning on shifting my after tax contributions in two funds, Vanguard health care and T Rowe Price global technology, to Roth IRA contributions. My question is what is the best thing to do with the balance in the two taxable accounts that I will no longer contribute to? Sell them off immediately into index funds and pay cap gains tax, let them sit and continue to appreciate (hopefully), or some other option that I am not thinking of?

The balance in each account is about 15k, and the realized gain would be about 3k each.

Thanks

Hello, I am 33, have emergency savings for 1 year, and currently max out my 401k and Roth IRA, both invested in target date 2045 funds. I plan to have my house paid off in 5 years. I invest my extra income in the following taxable mutual funds: Vanguard Wellesley (VWINX), Vanguard Health Care (VGHCX), T Rowe Price Global Technology (PRGTX). I understand that these 3 funds may not be the most tax efficient, but isn’t paying taxes on higher returns preferable to low returns? My allocation in the taxable accounts is 50% Wellesley, 25% health care, 25% global tech. My objective was to have a somewhat conservative allocation just in case I need the money, thus the 50% Wellesley, but still having a chance for a home run with the other 2 sector fu...