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Quick question. I am helping a couple with a financial roadmap and am working on options for them to increase their 401Ks. Employer matching is already met. Emergency funds is squared away. Their income puts them square in the 15% marginal bracket and I don't see that changing going...

Couple is in the 22% marginal tax rate based off retirement income, SS, and normal dividends. They are looking at cashing out of a couple of rentals that will produce a long term capital gain of ~$400K to ~$900K depending on what they sell. 1031 is not considered so the gain will be realized...

I am trying to pull together some good reads for my recent college grad son. He has been adulting since May, in a career development ladder program, and is learning to live within his means. His first appraisal was excellent and it seems he is standing out at work. Today we sat down and did...

With the second son graduating from college in a couple of weeks and starting a full time federal job we are now focusing on setting up where to put his excess funds. No debt, emergency fund is fully funded and TSP is set up. HSA will be used beginning in 2024. So the extra cash is the...

I am working on preparing some guidance for each of my two sons. Both are or are soon to be recent college grads with stable jobs. Each has 6 months emergency fund saved, no debt, and contribute to a Roth 401K up to the matching contributions from their employers. Their budgeting skills are...

Folks, General question how do people use TIPS in a portfolio? What are they for? JDARNELL

I have a few questions about loan constants. I have read investopedia for the definition. Why would someone care about it? How would someone use it?

OK Its time for this years update thru the end of the fiscal year 2017. I already have the trips book and paid for via points for the remainder of the year and don't plan on adding anymore. This is the 2nd year I have been keeping track of how much I spend on travel using travel rewards...

FYI Ent has a 13 months CD @1.75% thru May. You can check their website for membership eligibility.

For the last year I have been keeping track of how much I spend on travel using travel rewards programs and credit card points. While I have worked at this I am by no means 100% efficient in maximizing every point or promotion $. Here were my travel parameters for the year - All Domestic...

I will admit that I rarely watch what is going on in the economy anymore. However the last month or so I have been thinking about what I am seeing and what I want to spend $$ on. I just returned from a week cruise and had a great time splurging for a larger cabin, pacing myself on food and...

So do any of you take extra SWR each year and if so do you just set it aside? I remember a decade ago Galeno talked about a smoothing strategy with using a living fund. Even though I was FI in 2011 after retiring from the military I am working a bridge career for now. I actually will be...

Lately I have been thinking of what being FI means. Different things to different people obviously however I wonder how it has changed my behavior. Well right off the bat I find my willingness to put up with noise and crap has decreased immensely. I also find that my willingness to conform...

I was asked me to post about my experiences with church bonds. Often times churches will start a capital campaign to build a new facility and instead of using banks or asking the congregation to give more they will issue bonds. There are companies that specialize in bond issues for...

Did anyone notice that PENFED raised their fixed and variable HELOC rates? Wonder what they know? JDARNELL

Today is the start of our zero based budgeting approach. Over the years I have spent a lot of time tracking everything in Quicken. About 18 months ago I made a simpler spread sheet and started using it. The main reason is that data entry and tracking waste so much time. So we are now going...

Just wanted to see if anyone has a home sauna. If so how do you like it? JDARNELL

OK I am finally getting around to my to do list after hanging out for a couple of weeks. I called Comcast today and our promotion runs out 3 Aug. We are going to drop our home line and just go with the cells. We never use the home phone anyway so I think this will work well. The one thing we...

What a beautiful day! I am setting hear watching the fog rise on the golf course behind our house thinking of all the things that I “need” to do. But in time. They just don’t seem that important. New screen name and a new phase. Its time to change from Tomcat98 to JDARNELL. I thought it just...

Does anybody know what the index Pen Fed is using to base their 5/5 ARM off of at the reset? I checked their website and all I could find was it refers to "an index". Margin appears to be 2% added on to whatever is this index. Tomcat98

Went to the mailbox today to get yesterdays mail and I had a letter from our local county tax accessor. We got our assement about a month ago and from the year prior there was a 7% reduction due to falling property values. Well duh this was no suprise to me that the price had fallen on homes...

The time has come. Yesterday I put my marker on the table with Corporate Air Force. Retirement request date is 1 Nov 2011. This will give me 3 yrs time in grade as an 0-5 and just over 21 yrs in service. With terminal leave, permissive etc my last day in the office should be around the last week...

Just wanted to see if anyone uses Mint.com for their budgeting and spending tracking. Would be curious to hear the good and bad. Tomcat98

Good morning, Beginning to think a little more about having a large sum in tax deffered accounts. Curious to get your thoughts about when putting money into these accounts are not a good idea. Looks like we will be in our early 40s when we hang it up here in the next little bit. Assuming I...

I have been thinking about one way the future might look as it pretains to inflation. Lets assume that a nation has massive debt, their economy has slowed signficantly and they are passing massive fiscal packages and lowering interest rates to near zero in an effort to jump start their...