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I recently finished paying years of alimony. My ex does not work outside the home and generally claims the two kids on her tax return. Next year her declarable, taxable income is likely to be very low, perhaps $10k or so. The child support I pay is not declarable on her tax return. (And...

I joined this forum over 10 years ago and became interested in the concept of FIRE. But I haven't been active for a few years, because I felt like a posieur. I kept OMY'ing for year after year after year, because my j*b was actually enjoyable, had great colleagues and made a great income...

I've heard of something called CDARS which essentially allows someone to place more than the FDIC limit into multiple CDs through one account and have FDIC protection on all of it. I like the concept, but don't want to lock up funds in CDs. Is there any similar product for savings accounts?

Hi. Drawn by the interest rate, I decided I want to put funds in my kids' names into i-Bonds at TreasuryDirect.gov. I searched and realized I'm supposed to created Linked Accounts for them under my account. But after searching for an hour, I literally cannot find WHERE to do on on their site...

I had heard a lot of good things about PenFed on this forum over the years, so I decided to apply for a home equity line of credit (HELOC) through them. The process has taken months, has been a hassle, and it's common for whomever is communicating with me to disappear, and then have someone new...

Apparently, Bill Bengen, creator of the 4% safe withdrawal rule, now believes that it should be 5% based on low inflation expectations. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-inventor-of-the-4-rule-just-changed-it-11603380557?mod=home-page

I’ve heard a few financial advisors suggest that seniors whose estates would be subject to the estate tax create a life insurance trust where the payout to heirs would be tax free. That sounds well and good, but I’ve never seen any real numbers showing what the cost of premiums for seniors...

Hi, Admins, if this is in the wrong forum I apologize...please move to wherever it would belong. I applied for, and received, a PPP loan through Bank of America. I never received any paperwork in the mail....I applied online and poof, money showed up a couple days later in my business bank...

If one has a brokerage or bank account titled to a revocable trust, are you supposed to ALSO name beneficiaries on the account? Should the beneficiary be the trust itself?

This is a rant. Thank you for indulging: I've thought about the current crisis, and the immediate and near unanimous belief that because this virus is nobody's fault, that bail outs for everyone (which add to an incredible national debt, eventually debase our currency, and pretty much ensure...

There are some fabulous, cancellable flight options available currently. Does anyone know what happens to your money, and ability to get where you're going, if you buy tickets, and then the airline goes bankrupt prior to your flight?

I've had a Vanguard account for nearly 30 years and have kept significant sums at that institution. In recent years, I've had these wonderful experiences: 1. After clearly labeling the check and the letter that accompanied it with the proper account number, they deposited an IRA deposit into...

I emailed my Vanguard Flagship rep to ask when I'd see my 1099's for 2019. She casually responded that they'd be available mid to late February. Isn't there a law that they're due by Jan. 31st?

I've been convinced by John Bogle and Warren Buffett that over long periods of time, stock prices basically reflect corporate earnings growth + dividends, discounted by prevailing interest rates. The two screenshots attached are from the Federal Reserve of St. Louis. One shows aggregate...

A few days ago I informed my company that I intend to take a one year sabbatical and will, during that time, decide if I want to come back, cut back or simply end my career. The interesting thing is that my situation was great....I'd been working a high end sales job, from home, where annual...

I had a self-directed Roth IRA where I had rolled over the majority of funds to Vanguard a couple years ago. But there was still ~$20 left in the self-directed IRA. The self-directed company sent me a check, but I neglected to do anything with it during the 60 day roll over window, so I...

Help me square this circle. We've all heard it. Supposedly college grads earn $1 million or more during their career ABOVE what high school grads earn. The average college graduate has around $30,000 in student debt. And now it's being reported that a whopping 40% of grads with student...

For years I've been thinking about early retirement, while continuing to w*rk a very cushy, from-home, only-a-few-hours-a-week, high-paying j*b in sales. I have plenty of freedom and make a good living, so I've stuck with it for nearly a decade. In recent months, I've found myself daydreaming...

Can anyone help me figure out how to find the total S&P 500 earnings per year? Every search I do leads to the earnings per share. I want the TOTAL, not the PER SHARE earnings, because I want to figure out how share buybacks may be distorting our view of total corporate growth.

Every time I read an article about the national debt, it always implies that interest on the debt is the issue, but as long as interest rates remain low (which would be implied by low levels of inflation) then we're fine. But what about principal on the debt? Every time we add $1 trillion...

I understand that much of the increase in earnings per share in recent years has been due to share buy backs by companies. I get that...if there are fewer shares outstanding, then the earnings attributable to each share is higher and each share is worth more. What I don't really get is why the...

About five years ago I opened a Roth IRA at LendingClub, a peer to peer lending platform. I made lots of small loans to people ranging in term from 3 years to 5 years. At the end of 2018, the last of the loans were maturing. I decided to stop doing P2P lending and to xfer the Roth to...

I just looked back on an email (shown below) I sent to most of my friends on March 7th, 2009. The subject line was "Stick With the Plan if You're Under 45." Obviously I had no way of knowing that the bottom of the stock market route was a mere two days (one business day) later, but the gist of...

I have a buddy who is in his mid 40's. He's well educated in a field that pays very little. He told me that for most of his career he's earned around $20k/year, and only in the last 2-3 years did he get a big bump to around $72k/year. He's typically lives in CA...quite an expensive state...

Warren Buffett's (Berkshire Hathaway's) annual letter came out today. This passage about the effect of a 1% management fee strikes me as incredible. A big nod to St. Jack Bogle who invented index funds and brought down investment fees for all of us: "Let’s put numbers to that claim: If my...