Search results

I had been doing my son's taxes for years, and this year we decided he should do them on his own. I offered to look it over before he filed. He took me up on it, and I noticed he had not accounted for government interest in some Vanguard mutual funds to reduce his state income. I walked him...

New article (last month) at Kitces' blog, authored by Ben Henry-Moreland on dealing with a large HSA balance. https://www.kitces.com/blog/hsa-tax-benefits-withdrawal-qualified-medical-expenses-irs-records The article covers the usual choices with HSAs, whether to use the account to pay for...

Hoping for some help from someone handy here. I've got a radiant heat system with a leak in or around the expansion tank. I shut off the water main and the steady trickle from the bottom of the tank stops after a few minutes. I know the tank needs replacing, and there's a maintenance company...

I'm driving up from Virginia to Maine, staying in Bar Harbor Oct 14-16. I am locked in for the 15th and 16th for sure, so any suggestions to change that will be ignored. Any recommendations for a lazy drive up there and/or back to catch fall foliage? Too late for the mountains maybe, but good...

Early on, I'd say the Jurassic Park commercial might be the best so far. The BMW commercial wasn't too bad...was that Arnold as Zeus? The worst news is that it looks like the E Trade baby is returning. I hated every one of those commercials. Maybe the new ones won't be so annoying. This one...

As I do in my years, in January I made a Roth conversion estimated to safely fall short of an income target. This year the target wasn't the ACA cliff (since there isn't one in 2021 and 2022), but rather the start of QDivs being taxed, so I was more aggressive in January. In late December...

My parents have only enough money to last about 4 years. Neither is likely to outlive that money, though it is possible. What would you say their AA should be? Children are not concerned about getting any inheritance and would help with shortfall if they do live longer than 4 years. Dad is...

I've been signed up for Informed Delivery for a few years, I think. I'd get a daily email showing all or at least most of what I'd be getting in the mail that day, or the next day at the latest. My mail box is in a kiosk two miles away from me, though pretty much on the way when I'm driving...

I filed my taxes on Feb 13 and they were accepted later that day. Today my refund hit my bank account. Do I win? Aside from bragging, I thought it might be helpful for others to know how quickly you might get it. All bets are off it you are being mailed a check. Pretty happy because it was...

I seem to be having more vivid and memorable dreams recently. A couple this week have had to do with work. First one, there was some technical issue that nobody could figure out, and it was up to me to come up with a solution. As I was waking up and coming out of the dream, I had a moment of...

Internet service where I've lived on the mountain for almost 20 years has gone from dial up, then unreliable 2Mbps DSL in 2008, 4Mbps cable in 2011 that over the years increased to 10, 25, and finally 100Mbps last year. Cable is a little flaky though, and on busy weekends and holidays...

Without getting into all of the details, my parents may need fairly considerable financial support in a few years. I've been thinking about how to manage the tax hit, especially since it may come while I'm still trying for an ACA subsidy, and certainly trying to do more Roth conversions. They...

My son is considering his first home purchase, and I'd like to help him if he does. He has enough saved up for a 5-10% down payment, and he probably could qualify for a mortgage for a pretty cheap home in his area, but neither of us want him to get a dump or live in a bad area. I'd rather he...

Having trouble printing this month? Have you installed a recent Windows 10 update? Microsoft broke a lot of printers with one of them. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/windows-10-printing-breaks-due-to-microsoft-june-2020-updates/ helped me find the issue and how to fix it. I...

I'm looking for the best options (no buy commission and low expense fees) for a small TD Ameritrade account (not mine, about $5000) for a total or S&P 500 index fund or ETF. $1000 or so is deposited each year and I don't want a commission charge each time. I'm kind of getting bogged down...

I have a spreadsheet from the start of 2019 to track income and deductions for purposes of estimated taxes, keeping MAGI under 400% FPL, and determining amount of Roth conversions. Everything that I estimated is in. Everything I did for 2018 is accounted for in my 2019 taxes. Standard...

Was there a recent change made? I've gotten logged out 3 times after a hour or so of inactivity. Saw it last night for the first time after being offline for a couple hours. Then this morning after being offline overnight, and just now again after being away for only about an hour. I did not...

I'm curious how many vehicles (owned or lease) you have per driver you have in your household. Feel free to explain. I'm most curious about "extra" car usagae. Are you a collector, have a "fun" car to drive, an old pickup for utility, snow car, or what? Include anything you drive on a public...

Since retirement, I've been doing some form of an age based AA, with fewer equities as I've been getting older. X has varied as I've reassessed my risk tolerance, but it's currently 120-age, and has always been > 100. I'm strongly considering changing that to a range of years worth of...

Recently I did a $5000 transfer from my Wells Fargo savings account to PenFed, initiated from PenFed. On 11/1 I saw the money show up in PenFed, right about when expected. I like to check both ends on a transfer, so I logged into my WF account and the money was still there. Odd, but maybe...

My son just called and told me he got let go from his job. I don't really know the details and it's nothing that would keep him from getting another job. My main question is, aside from looking for a new job (which he had been doing anyway, but now will be more motivated) or possibly go back...

Some questions, and perspective, on the foreign tax credit. Please help with your suggestions. I pay $1500 per year in foreign taxes on dividends on a passive investment (VG Total Intl) in my taxable account. In the past I've been able to use the foreign tax credit (FTC) most years, but in...

In my taxable brokerage account, I see holdings for Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund (Cash) Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund Admiral Shares (Cash) Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund Admiral Shares along with single holdings for 2...

We've talked about Christmas songs in the past, but I couldn't find anything about movies. My favorite, by far, is "It's a Wonderful Life". It's a good story, and Jimmy Stewart is always fun to watch. He pulls off both corny and serious, and is very likeable. Some of us in my family have...

There seem to be a lot of car experts on the forum, so I'm looking for opinions. I'm not currently in the market for a new car, but I'm always trying to keep a short list of what I'd get if I suddenly needed to replace my current driver. It seems that more and more cars are turbocharged, to...