Recent content by MildlyEccentric

I'm in a similar situation. I believe RMDs are mandated, but the IRS appears to have waived withdrawals until the 2024 tax year. I decided I didn't want to end up with large withdrawals towards the 10 year mark (which would be when I was taking RMDs from my rollover IRAs) so I withdrew at least...

Does anyone know if you can qualify for the discount if the spouse of the Prime member was in the military, but not the Prime member themselves.

If you don't want to file gift tax returns, your father could loan your sister the 80K and then gift her 15K per year for as many years as it took to repay the loan. The loan would have to be appropriately documented and your sister would have to pay the IRS minimum interest rate on the loan as...

The ACA was perhaps the most important factor in my retirement decision. In retirement, I could afford heath insurance premiums, but I couldn't pass medical underwriting, so obtaining any insurance was problematic. COBRA helped, but left a gap between the time COBRA ran out and Medicare began...

I recall the days prior to the ACA having to fill out health insurance applications which went on for page after page asking about every detail of your medical history. After filling out an application for my teenage son, we got a call from the insurance company to get additional information...

DW filed for social security online without visiting the local office. It was quick, easy and payments started and have continued without problem. Her application was fairly straight forward (filing on her record at her full retirement age). A more difficult test will be when I file a...

Congratulations on taking the plunge at such an early age! I can see you had a good data for your expenses when you retired, but how did you budget/plan for your income and inflation? From your comments, you had some (all?) of your investments in the stock market. What were your guidelines...

I sympathize with your concerns. Before I retired four years ago, health insurance was my main driver. The ACA gave me the confidence to pull the trigger. Just this month I was able to go off my ACA plan and switch to Medicare, so my worries about health insurance are greatly reduced. BTW, I...

I got my original number from an article. Some others have replied with similar numbers, but the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics does have detailed information on the topic. Here's a link to their data for 2016.

There are probably about 100 people a day that are involuntarily bumped off of a flight in the U.S. The differences in this case were they first let him have a seat and board the plane, second he refused to get off the plane when asked and finally his refusal ended so dramatically and was...

I just wanted to make a clarification to the above regarding subsidies. ACA non-silver plans are eligible for the ACA Premium Tax Credit. The amount of the credit is based on the cost of the silver plan and your income. The credit helps offset the cost of your monthly premium. Some people...

+1 for CloneZilla. It's free as in beer, but it can be a little intimidating if you're not Linux literate.

I've been very satisfied with my Craigslist experiences. I've furnished a house, bought cars, sold a car, and sold a vintage TV that I couldn't give away on freecycle. I bought a nice electric piano for a one-time event and sold it for more than my purchase price after the event. It is work...

In the fantasy category, I highly recommend The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.

The Prius is kind of boring and for me, that's OK. I have a 2006 with about 170,000 miles. I've only had it back to the dealer one time. I think I'm still on my original brakes. There have been a few minor and one major maintenance issues, but on the whole, it's been very reliable. Without...