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Using the IRS on-line "Fillable Forms" I completed and submitted my federal return. I got the e-mail saying it was "accepted." Glad to have that over with! Then I started my state return. That's when I found that my state withholding didn't match my own records. Oops. One place sent me two...

Like much of the US, we've just come through some bad weather. Some of us have had long power outages, others have had travel disruptions, and in some cases lives have been at risk or even lost. But as we wind up the year and think about those less fortunate, my thoughts keep coming back to the...

Shameless rip-off of the "Is the Real Estate Bubble Bursting" thread... We've heard all the reasons. Chip shortage. Supply chain issues. Pent-up demand. General inflation. The net result is, it's been hard to buy a new or used vehicle for a while. My vehicles are getting long in the tooth, and...

We went to a restaurant the other day. One we used to really like. We've been going out with friends and relatives, or grabbing a quick bite somewhere out of convenience, but I think this was our first proper "dining out" since the pandemic shutdowns. I hated it. With all the staffing...

I don't want to pollute the other thread IRS Refund delays - Efile. Because of a bug in the IRS's on-line system, I was unable to e-File this year. Long story short, mine is a simple return so I just printed it out and filed via snail mail on February 11th. On February 18, the USPS tracking...

On the off chance that there are a few others left on here with an AGI of less than $73K, I figured I'd ask this before I give up and mail in a paper return: I got all the way through the FreeFile process, only to have the return rejected with one of those cryptic lists of error messages that...

I read this click-bait article in MW, which referenced a click-bait article on CNN. I know. I shouldn't let click bait suck me in. But it got me thinking. To summarize, CNN's fluff piece was about inflation. They interviewed a couple who complained about a huge (if unsubstantiated) increase in...

This one's new to me. A relative passed away recently. As soon as the obituary was published (probably on the funeral home web site, possibly in the newspapers as well) the first site which came up when searching the decease's name was a scam site. I won't help them by posting a link, but the...

I'm wondering if my strategy for cash will get me in trouble. When I RE'd five years ago, I wasn't all that confident that it would work. I waited until I had about one year's worth of expenses in the bank, not counting my 401k, or my regular checking account for routine expenses. Fast forward...

We have a "what did you order from Amazon" thread. How about AliExpress? I've been tempted to try them out for a while. I finally found a product I don't need in a hurry, and the price was about half what I'd pay on Amazon. I figured for $11 I'd give it a shot. My order went through fine, and...

Long-time cord cutter here. We do OK with the video subscription services like Hulu, etc. for fiction programming. I can read the news in a web browser, where I can sample different political viewpoints to arrive at reality. Comedy can be found on YouTube or others. What I miss are in-depth...

If this isn't a serious enough topic for this forum, please feel free to delete or move it as appropriate. I've been in supermarkets and big-box stores a few times from the start of panic buying, most recently last night. I'm starting to see some interesting patterns develop. I think these are...

I'm looking to sell my house, but don't know when I'll be buying another. Could be a month, could be 18 months. I want liquidity so I can move fast when I find something I like. Should I just look for a regular savings account with the best interest rate? Are there other options that don't...

Just got my hair cut. I thought I was clever, waiting for a weekday after 9 AM. I guess it was the first day the shop was open after the holiday week, so there was a line. I guess I timed that wrong! Plus... I was the youngest guy in the place. Some were truly ancient. Not sure if that's a...

Scenario: A female friend is on SS Disability, age 60-ish. She's found a business she thinks she can do, and would like to give it a try. Of course, if it succeeds, she'll lose the SS disability. That would be a good thing, she'd rather do this than collect the paltry disability amount. On the...

Citizen's bank sent me an ad: "For a limited time, receive a $150 Amazon.com Gift Card upon closing on a new personal loan." According to the ad, all I need to do is close on a $10,000 loan to get the card. The ad specifically says "No fees ever." It goes on to say "$0 origination fee, $0...

I was reading a couple of articles today bashing Amazon, and I started to see the issue in a different light. Here is a link to one of the articles. Basically, the article (and others it linked to) was just a laundry list of complaints from a relatively small number of malcontent employees...

I tend to be highly skeptical about any annuity advice, but this one does some interesting mathamatical gymnastics: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-one-investment-move-can-give-you-lifetime-yearly-income-in-retirement-2019-04-29 The above quote is near the end of the article, if you...

Much as I hope they're right, and a treatment or even vaccine will be available soon, I've heard this type of thing before. Anyone remember cold fusion? At any rate, here's the article: Gum disease causing bacteria could spur Alzheimer's | Science | AAAS The theory is very plausible, and...

Much is said on this forum about methodically building a nest egg and a careful plan to attain FI. There are other approaches to RE. For example, maybe you've just decided to not give a $*&@ about w*rk any more. I guess I'm somewhere in between. Still, this TED talk resonated with me...

OK, maybe some of you whiz-kid investor types can explain this: Oil just did something it hasn’t done in more than 30 years (hint: it isn’t good) If I understand correctly, the article suggests that lower oil prices are bad. Now, for me personally, for everyone I know, and for every business...

One benefit of retirement is not having to rush through my morning routine. My body seems to insist I keep about the same sleep schedule I had while w*rking, but once awake I can do things at my own pace. Making breakfast last week, I noticed a very odd pattern on the door going down to the...

That's the title of this article: https://www.fastcompany.com/90227917/toys-r-us-private-equity-and-stagnant-salaries It also pretty well sums up the changes I've seen in my career. To summarize, all the money is going to the investor class, while the workers are getting nothing. I don't...

My second anniversary arrived very much like my first official day of retirement. Back then I was starting out on a 3-month trip on my own boat. This time, I was doing a delivery of someone else's boat. Deliveries are a gig or "side hustle" I'm experimenting with. It occurred to me that this...

I just read another article about Nigerian scams. We've all heard about lots of different scams. We've all gotten the phone calls and e-mails. We hear stories about friends, relatives and strangers who took the bait, in spite of the obvious (to us) red flags. It's easy to say the victims are...