Recent content by scrabbler1

The only time I can see one's marginal rate would not be totally appropriate is if the withdrawals or contributions straddle 2 tax brackets. In that instance, the marginal rate on the first dollar would not be equal to the marginal rate on the last dollar. Effective tax rate still wouldn't be...

New York State enacted a law a few months ago which prohibits add-on fees for using a credit card (and maybe debit card, I'm not sure). Stores are allowed to have a discount for using cash (which is the case at one local diner I eat at, and use cash), or charge the same for cash and credit. My...

Skyking, it shows all threads I have made posts in, not just those most recent threads which have had posts made after mine. Without that feature, this will have to do. Thanks.

I didn't read through this lengthy thread, but I was looking for the way to view only a list of threads I have recently posted in which have posts made after I last viewed the thread. The old forum had a quick link to do this.

Back in 2009-2010, I had 2 banks send me those use-it-or-lose-it letters for credit cards I had not used in several years. This was in the wake of the financial crisis when banks were cutting back on credit, so it didn't surprise me. I still had my main CC although it got relegated to back-up...

Were you able to use Net Unrealized Appreciation (NUA) when you sold the shares? There are certain rules about how to utilize this rule to reduce the tax bite. This is what I did when I left my former employer back in 2008. About 97% of the proceeds of my sale was NUA so it got taxed at the...

I'm still driving my 07 Corolla I paid $18k for new. I might hit the 50k mileage mark next year, too!

I can't speak for Jim, but in my case I am living pretty much the same way I have lived before I retired, when my portfolio was smaller, and when I was working full-time, when my portfolio was much smaller. I didn't just instantly start BTD as my portfolio rose. As I have written here many...

Now that I'm on the NY Essential Plan, my annual expenses will drop to about $20k. I still paid monthly HI premiums for Jan-March, and I have dental bills (my current dentist is not in-network, and I don't plan to change dentists) and minimal copays. My monthly surplus of bond-fund-dividend...

When I was putting together my ER spreadsheets in 2005-2008, in preparation for eventually leaving my job and retiring in late 2008 at age 45, one unbreakable condition to do this was to build into my budget a small but sufficient surplus or cushion, so that if I decided to go on a small...

My home state of New York is one of the few states which allow drivers of all ages to take the accident prevention (defensive driver) course and get a 10% discount on most of our insurance premium. I remember back in 1986 in the months before I would take the course for the first time (I just...

When I bought my current car new back in 2007, I went through the exercise of figuring out if I should use sales taxes versus state income taxes when I itemized that year. I ended up continuing to use state income taxes.

Fun thread to read. About 5 years after I ERed, a friend who still worked for my old company mentioned in one of our conversations that someone in management wanted my friend to ask me if I was interested in doing some work for them again. It would be purely WFH, he said. My immediate answer...

When I commuted into Manhattan and Jersey City, NJ, in my working days from the mid-1980s through 2008, I was asked for money many times. Some of those times, it was part of larger solicitation inside a train car. But there several one-on-one solicitations, especially when my company had its...

Back in my working days, on the few occasions I went into Manhattan (from LI) on a weekend I usually took the LIRR, as I had a monthly ticket so the only extra cost was the subway, if I ended up not near Penn Station. But if I were coming home in the evening , especially late at night, I would...