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HaHa... putting words in my mouth there. He also said he sees no real tax savings with a conversion. I merely illustrated how that is true when future tax rates are the same, and agreed with him. Its a wash... no need to get snarky.

But you have to pay the tax now, and don't get any growth on that, which makes it a wash... Convert 10,000 and pay tax with other funds: At 12% marginal rate this costs $1,200 and you have future growth of some %, say 8%, so after conversion and withdraw from the Roth you have spent $1,200 in...

OP it seems to me you're wanting to spend some money on a Florida home, and I would certainly consider it ok to draw down retirement funds before RMDs in order to make such a purchase. Since you're over 59.5 you can do this any way you want... and avoiding the next tax bracket is certainly...

OP is squarely in the 12% bracket and over 59.5. Did I miss something that puts the OP in a different tax bracket in the future... over ~30k more taxable income? What's the long term plan for the dollars being rolled into a Roth that makes it advantageous to convert? I think this is correct.

I got the cheapest cable modem in the local Best Buy store over five years ago. It still works fine. There is a periodic reset required... but I'm overall very satisfied for the price (about a year of Comcast rental modem). I did splurge on an AirPort Extreme, about 15 years ago, and it is...

Just buy from amazon.... then they'll do the checkout, and deliver it! ;-)

The detailed planning process is not so that you can execute the plan perfectly/precisely/ or even accurately. It is so that you have thought about what can happen before it actually happens, and can make a prudent decision, because you're not encountering the situation for the first time. You...

I just picked the survivor benefit out to highlight because, depending on the plan, it's one of those decisions that isn't easily undone, and your two careers are offset a bit. In the end it's about what the two of you want to do. Some people decline the survivor benefit and elect to spend the...

Welcome to SIRE (secure income retired early)! I'd suggest you have the conversation about the survivor benefit on the pension. FWIW DW and I are each beneficiaries on the other's pension. But we might be closer in age than your situation.

Here is a calculator that outputs the correlation matrix for a list of ticker symbols. https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/asset-correlations I'm not sure how one would optimize... Although this would surely be useful to reduce the number of holdings to the few with the lowest correlation...

+1

I think you need to compare your marginal tax rate now (with SS coming as you have now) with what your marginal rate would be if you delay SS to age 70). Without doing this math, it's a pure guessing game, and you'll get every answer in the universe...

I think the big consideration is if the draw is from a taxable brokerage or an IRA that is taxed as regular income. It's probably prudent to consider capital gains taxes, but that doesn't matter on the IRA. It seems that there might be fewer transactions if you rebalance at the same time.

+1 to the idea of Enough.

So just wait until 2030 and the withdrawal rate will be up to 6.5%:dance:

My initial response was that you can't give them something and control what they do with it. Then it isn't really a gift. DW suggested what pb4uski said (matching contributions), and that's probably as good as you can get without the hassle of a trust. Are the kids making enough to be able...

If you're for preservation, then just get a separate container to hold the styrofoam, and use a pelican (or cheaper knock off brand) case for the rest of the items.

This is why we have HDPE(milk jug plastic) outdoor furniture. Not as cold here, but it stays outside uncovered all year and looks good as new after the seasonal pressure washing. I think stacking the chairs inside with the glass leaning against a wall might take less space, and leave the...

I remember being sent to kindergarten with GORP for my snack (good old raisins and peanuts). It was, and remains just a bit too bland for me. Nowadays the salted nut mixes are just a bit too salty, and the unsalted ones are just too bland, and I don't like almonds. There are some good trail...

I've never had a landline phone number of my own. Enlisted early 90's and lived in the barracks without my own phone until cell phones were affordable.

+1 on the TIPS ladder. You have a substantial nest egg. This makes TIPS appropriate because it can generate enough to cover essential expenses. As opposed to some of us with much smaller portfolios that need market growth to be more than inflation in the long term. On the other hand, buying...

I'm just waiting for the 15% 30-year bond to come back. Then I'll go for it.

Ahh yes, that time of year when I end up signing up for a better streaming service... or maybe I'll get motivated to make the auto-mute box that automatically mutes commercials. Why hasn't someone done that already?

The stand alone calculator won't go away, unless or until all math class tests are done on the computer. If you have taken a calculus class, you know that is very unlikely...

I think it depends a lot on how much you have, and how much you spend. With enough "seed corn" it's easy to get enough dividend income. With less, you have to harvest some capital gains. It also depends on how much capital gain you have accumulated over the years. It also depends on your...