Recent content by pb4uski

As others mentioned, that may be in the ball park because she would only get 50% of his PIA, not his benefit and only if she waited until her FRA before starting benefits.

He is just temporarily parking dry powder in t-bills awaiting finding a good deal.

The spread between the start and top of the 22% tax bracket for a married couple is $106,750 for 2024, so it depends on how deep into the 22% tax bracket you are with no Roth conversions. What tax brackets are your heirs in? Do you plan on doing substantial charitable contributions? Both...

marko, I'll visit you at whatever jail you end up in. :)

We demolished our lakefront seasonal "camp" in Oct 2011 and rebuilt a year-round home and moved in May 2012. It wasn't until after all was said and done that it dawned on me that perhaps I should have let our mortgage lender know that we had demolished part of their collateral. :facepalm...

There are really only two factors... your age and your tax-deferred balance as of 12/31 of the previous year. Your tax-deferred balance will be a function of investment returns, any withdrawals and Roth conversions, all of which are reasonably estimabl e. Unless you are planning on donating...

The big opportunity for Roth converisions is betwen when you stop working and when pensions if any, SS and RMDs start. Typically, dutring those years you are in a lo tax bracket. The biggest bang for the buck is where you can arbitrage between 12% and 22%. If your situation is to pay 22% now...

And I'm guessing that the reality is probably much worse than what the OP thinks.

Yeah, it's not like thread drift never happens around here. Someone is being a grump.

I would set up a bond ladder for 100% of planned withdrawals for the first 3-5 years and 50% of planned withdrawals for next 12-10 years. Then you can use income from the rest of the portfolio to fill in the other 50% of the ladder over time. So at 3.5% WR that would be a bond allocation of...

One thing to be aware of is that for most corporate bonds that show as callable the first call date is only about 6 months or less prior to maturity so the call risk is negligible. I think that they do this to give them flexibility in refinancing. IOW, if I find an attractive 5 year corporate...

Well if it ends up all being at 15% then that might not be so bad.

If I understand you correctly, the $45.09 for EXC and $45.00 for spin-off CEG align with the $45.09 per share that you noted as the closing price on the date of death so I don't see what the problem is in going with the $45.09/$45.00 cost basis reported by shareholder services. If you take the...

Dumb question on the rate sheet.... if the downside protection is 0% why does it say in the low left corner... MAY LOSE VALUE? :2funny:

Now that I think of it I might be looking for a good excuse to fly over to Sarasota for a long weekend at the beach in February 2025, We are currently at our Sarasota condo, packing things for a Thursday morning departure for our new home in Texas. We went to our last Florida Studio Theater...