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When choosing a 5, 4 or 3 year MYGA, should one really be concerned whether they are rated A, A+ or A++? Is there a meaningful difference for these contract periods?

This year we will need to think about paying estimated quarterly taxes. I was wondering how to do it. Up until now, we have not known exactly what our taxable income will be. This year we may be able to make a good estimate. Almost 100% of our taxable income will be from SS and CD interest. The...

I get a small UK pension. The UK does not send me any tax information. I usually claim it as general Misc. income on our tax return. It gets taxed as regular income as opposed to SS income. I was wondering what other folks in the same situation do.

We are at the point that we need to withdraw money from our IRAs or we will never draw it down in the foreseeable future. Up till now (70y and 65y olds), we have not needed to touch them. We still do not but should take the money out at some point. We have no heirs other than charities to leave...

Not that I want to, just now, but if one needed some money and wanted to sell their brokered CDs, how does it work. Say a brokered CD one owns shows a gain on Schwab of say $5,000. Is that the premium that it will sell for?

For a while I had heard that my powerhouse Windows 10 Lenovo P71 Xeon, 64gb RAM 4tb SSD was not supported by Windows 11. I was going to sell it and get a new one. I backed it up, downloaded the upgrade to a USB, told the PC to ignore the processor check and hit "Setup.exe". 15 minutes later it...

If one takes say $250 or $500k from one's stash and purchases a SPIA, does one reduce one's NW by that amount? For accounting purposes that is. For this example, let us assume it is joint and for life of both spouses. If it is for a 20-year certain or other time period, it would in fact be gone...

I have not used it for a while. I uninstalled and re-installed it. Cleared Cache and all the other general things one does. When I start it, I get the message "Oops, the site you are trying to reach is temporarily down. Pls. try again later, if problem persists, contact us" Who are us? Is this...

I have upgraded all my laptops to well over 1tb. As a result, I have a few SSD drives sitting on the shelf. Should I keep them, donate them or put them on eBay or FB marketplace? Honestly, I do not think they are worth much. I think looking up what they are selling for on eBay and trying to...

I have been perusing MYGA investments lately that are currently paying 5.75 for 5 years and are not callable. They allow 10% per year withdrawals. They can be set up for monthly withdrawal of interest if required (Income Rider). For $500k (Joint) covered by the State Guarantee Fund (Insurance)...

This year I cut my cable and increased my Internet speed from 400mbps to 800mbps. I am not sure I can tell the difference. I upgraded my Modem and Router, and the OKLA speed test shows a consistent 945mbps. I do a lot of downloading of Movies and TV Series, DW does a lot of YouTube probably...

This post is for those of us who are ~70 years old and do not use or want to use the stock market for any of their future lifetime income and are searching or decent LOW RISK Guaranteed Lifetime Income for their foreseeable future. So PLEASE No Stock Recommendations or reasons to have stock on...

With the turmoil in the banking system, Perceived Schwab Woes, and other financial uncertainties, I was wondering where we (ER Members) kept the "Majority" of our stashes. This Poll is intended for those who keep The Majority their stashes in one or more Brokerages, the main ones being...

I was wondering if anyone had considered a CCRC (Independent Living) in a Country other than the USA. I am going to start researching and see if it is even an option. If anyone here has investigated this, I think it would be great to share with our community. I hope this is the correct forum...

OK, another SS Post (We seem to like them). I thought it may be informative to see what each of us gets in SS. That is individual not family or household. The Max payment for 2023 if claimed at 62 is $2572 and $4,555 if claimed at 70, according to the SS web site. If you wish to state your...

Not a Poll, but it could have been. This would be for your main home that you reside in for tax purposes not any rental or vacation properties you may own. I thought it would be interesting to compare by home build year, home size and state. I was calculating how much our home cost to run and...

OK. I know, yet another prognosticator poll. They are kinda fun though aren't they. I know the pundits are speculating +25BP, but what do you think will go down next week.

This is aimed at folks who live in what they consider "close to the beach" perhaps we should set a limit of 30 - 45 minutes. With all the folks moving to Florida and/or looking to move to Florida, I thought those of us who live here could offer a personal view for them. OK, yes, it will be...

For those who own drones, I thought it might be a nice idea to have a thread for their photos rather than regular camera and phone photos. Please let us know what drone you used and if you had anything special on it. I for one has been very surprised at the quality of drone pics considering the...

When we purchased our first home it was 7.5% and went up from there for a while. We managed just fine and FIREd in our 50s. It is only in recent years rates have been so low. It did not hurt us we budgeted accordingly. I actually remember renueing for a year at ~12%, although that did not last...

Wired or Wi-Fi. I allocate custom IP slots for each of my devices and lock up my router(s) to outside traffic. I was updating the list today and I counted that up to 25 could be connected at any one time. Of course they are not always on at the same time. Here are some examples: Our Cell...

This Poll is intended only for those who are taking SS and getting Pensions. All Numbers should be before taxes (Gross) from any and all SS, 401k (RMD), IRA (RMD) or pretty much any Pension Source, COLA's or otherwise. Do not include Investment income or other self controlled/managed income...

YES, another SS thread. This one is from one of my favorite YouTube posters "Holy Schmidt!". Nothing we do not already know here, but a nice explanation nevertheless. He does talk about "Break Even" points which some may find interesting. Everyone's mileage will vary (Ask Koolau), but it is a...

I made a deal with DW. When we took our SS, we that we would spend it (All but 3 months to cover additional Taxes). We are having trouble spending it. We use it as disposable income. Our other income covers all our expenses and then some. What do you do?

I like this chap's Videos - Yes, I know a lot of these are clickbait, but in general Schmidt along with Briggs are 2 of my favorite Tubers. I hope some folks here are interested in this one. These cities are not all bad, some are some are just expensive. The ones with high crime and poor...