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I'm starting to look at medical coverage for international travel as well. This option is a bit confusing to me. If you have to be delivered to a hospital in the U.S., I would think it would greatly limit the scenarios where coverage would apply. If you need to go to the hospital, that typically...

Thank you everyone for your input. This response in particular highlighted something I had not thought about. I'm not on ACA today but will be in two years, and in 3 will be approaching the 2 year IRMAA period. At that point, doing a pre-tax IRA contribution instead of a post-tax Roth...

I don’t disagree that Texas might have not done anything anyway given its low regulation orientation.

I think you are confused. You keep pointing out what I’ve already said. The exact point I’ve already made is that the Texas plan does not have PPO’s because the state of Texas hasn’t done anything to ensure they are available. Other states have. The hope by federal officials was that...

see my points above.

The difference has to do with the involvement by the state. Some states have their own marketplaces. Texas has chosen to not have one, nor ensure PPO's are available. Here is an AI summary of a few of the differences between state and federal marketplaces, and the AI is mostly accurate: AI...

While I am in retirement, we still have some elgible income from businesses and my wife's W-2 job. I don't see any downside to maxing out our Roth contributions of $8,000 each every year we are still elgible. Is there something I'm missing? We really don't want to contribute any more to pre-tax...

I was not intending in any way whatsoever to make a partisan comment on the situation. I was simply pointing out the facts from what has factually happened with the Biden administration action, and the stated Trump policy of eliminating the ACA. Regarding state/local control of ACA PPO plans...

I learned something today from talking with a health insurance broker. Apparently ton of ppo plans have been removed from the marketplace because of a new ruling by the Biden administration. They are forcing these PPO plans to the ACA marketplace. Now that would potentially solve the problem...

Our family is receiving on-going treatment at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for some health issues. We live in Texas. We currently rely on a corporate PPO plan so coverage isn’t an issue. However we will transition off next year and still have 5 years to age 65/Medicare. The Texas ACA only has...

Bumping this thread. I've continued to be a bit unhappy with all of the options for tracking asset allocation of my portfolio. Here are all of the things I've tried, and how they've worked: 1. My own spreadsheets - this is still what I use today and is by far the best solution I've found. I...

I’m struggling to decide whether to do Roth conversions. The main issue is that both my wife and I have had cancer and we aren’t very optimistic about making it past around 80. Plus, without a financial advisor I’m concerned about whether I’ll do it right and the administrative process for it...

While I do my own financial planning and management, I want to find a fee-only financial planner to a) help me with analyzing the Roth conversion strategy, b) just look over my plan to see what they think, c) be available in the future if I pass before my wife or I tire of planning myself, and...

On IRMAA, is it a constant rolling two year lookback period for Medicare premiums, or is it set at 65 and stays level for some period of time before they look again at income. I would assume it's a constant rolling two year lookback?

Great input from everyone. Yesterday, to verify the tax impact I went to a few online calculators to ensure that taking more LTCG didn't push Roth conversions into a higher tax bracket. I think the answer is almost yes, with the following exceptions: 1. Alternative Minimum Tax - there were...

Thank you so much. I had Googled it, but google is so bad these days, I couldn't find an answer. When I plugged in the way you answered my quesiton, I did find another site that confirmed your answer. Really appreciate that. So....high capital gains should not keep me from doing a Roth...

Found this thread and had a basic question. I'm unclear whether selling stock with long-term capital gains would push me into a higher tax bracket for Roth conversions. For example, let's say my taxable income is $150k this year, and I want to do Roth conversions up to the top of the 22% tax...

Do you lose transaction history information if you switch from VG to Schwab?

I ended up moving some of my ladder into total bond funds and into some 6 and 8 year term inflation etfs. I left the part of the bond ladder that goes to six years. This is a nice compromise. It’s a bit easier to manage than a ten year ladder, and I moved the average maturity of the portfolio...

I have very strong opinions on this topic as a result of having been in and out of various insurance plans over the last 15 years. Unless you have minimal health care needs and your state has strong ACA plans with great doctor networks, I would strongly recommend you keep paying your current...

I spent almost two years looking at every product on the market available for individuals, and was dissatisfied with all of them. Many didn't allow for custom investments to be added. Some didn't recognize unusual securities like preferred stocks or baby bonds. Some didn't provide the data I...

I guess what confuses me is I look at a lot of these BBB bonds and they are from companies like Oracle, Allstate, etc. Are people saying they aren't comfortable with corporate bonds and want to stick to just mostly government? In general, I'm struggling on my bond strategy. I didn't like the...

I have a question for those of you that use the Fidelity Full View feature, that allows you to see all of your assets, even if they are held outside Fidelity. It's a good tool (from emoney advisor, who Fidelity bought). However, when I plug in my BBB bonds, it shows them as high yield rather...

Good points on the heirs likely paying at higher tax rates due to the additive nature of the RMDs on top of their salaries. Also, the comment about hedging against future uncertainty also rings true for me. One of the reasons I have larger after-tax holdings than pretax is that I’ve never...

So, I've spent the last two days digging around and man is this topic complicated. Between Obamacare, IRMAA, one spouse living much longer, living long vs not, government action on taxes, government action on social security, the challenges of record keeping if you do conversions, uncertainty...