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www.gainbridge.life Would be my first purchase there too. The standard commission on a MYGA sale seems to be 1.5%, so cutting that agent cost out via direct online sales should lead to a higher rate.

Gainbridge is the sales channel - online only. The annuities are issued by Guggenheim think they’re A- on AM Best. For a short or intermediate term MYGA not that concerned about credit quality as long as it’s reasonable. For a lifetime SPIA or DIA, credit quality is much more important.

I signed up for a 4.3% 6 year Oceanview MYGA with Blueprint, but just found a 4.4% % 3 year Gainbridge. Think that’s a better deal and I just won’t fund the Oceanview. Convenient that they have a 60 day funding window.

Which MYGA is this?

A cashier check can be stopped. Just ask the bank to stop payment on it and they will provided it hasn’t been cashed. That’s how they provide protection for lost checks and can reissue them. Wires are pretty much instant but can be recalled or rejected in certain circumstances. Much safer than...

When at the bank, open an account in your name and just have the funds transferred. Otherwise the check payment can potentially be stopped. Cryptocurrency transaction would also provide finality, if buyer and seller can use that.

Yep. Facial recognition is how it works. Kind of a bit scary. Not sure how many Americans have Global Entry, so the database might not be that big. Also, airline manifests include passport information, so they could drastically limit the size of the search if that info was used.

I’ve used both Immediate Annuities and Blueprint. Blueprint is more online and Immediate is more phone and email. No issues with either.

Think putting $10k down on a lease is not a good idea. Always try to minimize the drive-off payments on a lease. If you can find a Toyota dealer willing to sell a RAV4 at sticker - MSRP, that’s actually a good deal right now. Agree that in the current crazy market, new cars are actually a better...

I invested a small amount. You can negotiate their $25k minimum. Highly illiquid and no income or dividends. You have to invest in one painting at the initial offering price before you can purchase on the secondary market, where some shares are sold at a discount (and some at a premium) from...

Think fraud is an extremely strong word to use here. The loan could very well have been completely legitimate or the FA may have well thought it complied with the complex PPP rules. You didn’t have to suffer a loss, your business only needed to have reduced revenue. Virtually every small...

The AWI is out for 2020. Fortunately those of us born in 1960 did not actually get screwed. The AWI increased 2.83% Surprised how much the estimates changed over the course of the year. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/COLA/AWI.html

My 2018 Audi A5 cabriolet also with 12k miles is near lease end. Market on the car is $10k or so over the buyout price. Audi leasing makes it difficult to sell it to a dealer, as they markup the buyout. So, I have to buy it from Audi and then sell it in order to unlock the equity in the lease...

Get the HELOC in place before DW retires. It’s surprisingly tough to get a home loan as a retiree before age 62, at which point you can qualify for reverse mortgage programs. I’ve left my HELOC in place and also opened a brokerage portfolio LOC as sources of emergency or bridge liquidity. Car...

I received the $2k bonus earlier this week. I moved some shares of VTI into JP Morgan and just leave them there to maintain the $250k minimum balance. After some initial hiccups, I’ve started using the free wire service a lot and also the free safe deposit box. I don’t keep a ton of cash there...

I’m sorry this happened. Shingles is no fun, but Covid is far worse potentially. The long term effects of Covid are also not well understood and appear to be far more reaching than vaccine side effects. I think you did the right thing by getting the Covid vaccine. It would have been a mistake...

All depends if you want demand money or are willing to lockup a time deposit. With MYGAs under 3%, I'm using Toyota, as I don't like the lockup.

Toyota Income Driver Notes currently pay 1.5% on demand money. NOT FDIC insured, but a pretty good credit.

While CPI might be a logical substitute, the no downward adjustment seems to be much more likely. Of course, CPI is still used to adjust the annual payment amounts. The other systemic fix would be to use an average of say the highest 3 years AWI. I’ve been told that the actual AWI won’t be...

Agreed that this should garner bipartisan support. People born in 1960 belong to both parties. I’ll try to speak with the Republican committee staff, as well as the Democratic side.

I agree. I was surprised that it was that low. CBO estimated 3.8% in the Fall. I’ve heard estimates up to 9.5% Regardless, it represents a permanent reduction in decades of benefits received in return for 35 years of work simply due to a 1 year recession. In this case, due to the Covid pandemic...

So a little update here. This bill died in Committee. It was introduced by John Larson (CT-1). My understanding is that he wants to re-introduce it this session and I'm trying to connect with committee staff on it. The latest estimate from the CBO is that the effect may not be that bad. Only...

MYGAs to replace CDs With CD rates so low, I’ve switched to investing maturing CDs into insurance company issued MYGAs, which are very similar. You can find 3% for 5 year MYGAs. Granted they are not FDIC insured. One advantage is that taxes on earnings are deferred until the money is withdrawn.

Chase Private Client $2000 / $250k Chase renewed their $2,000 bonus for $250k in assets, investments and bank deposit, through 4/14/21. Seems easy to park an index fund etf in a JP Morgan account to make up the bulk of the required assets. Apparently the bonus was $3,000 for a few months in...

Not really blowing that dough, just painful. The question is what are you blowing the post tax dollars on?