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I posted this on FB and thought some of you might enjoy it. As a bonus, I added a link to the YouTube video slide show that started it. It is a video slideshow of the deep sky objects I have imaged this year. As people are fond of saying on Facebook - Worth A Read. AI bots are getting more...

I need to find a good fee only financial advisor, preferably in the Chicago area. I have a recently retired, close relative who has gotten into a bit of a financial train wreck. Several family crises led them to cash out large chunks of tax differed savings over two years. Only then did they...

Mea culpa, mea culpa... I went to a lot of trouble getting into cash in anticipation of a major short term drop dues to a debt ceiling impasse. I thought the divisions and intransigent nature of many would lead to an impasse worse than 2011 this time so I executed a rare market timing strategy...

I found this old thread and wasn't sure if it made sense to resurrect it or start a new one. New one it is. In the earlier thread I asked about others who were interested in astrophotography. I had a home built 6" Dobsonian telescope my daughter and I built and took some moon and planet...

The Office thread caused me to look at my One Drive and now I have questions. I posted in the MS community forum but no one has responded. I recently reinstalled Windows after I made a dumb mistake and corrupted some files. My One Drive came back intact and all my files quickly downloaded to...

People here seem able to solve all kinds of things others fail at so why not try this. I am trying to figure out why my wife and I can't share our iPhone calendars. We both use Google calendar as our primary calendar for a variety of reasons. With the Google Calendar on the PC and in the...

Is it possible to talk about this without partisan rants and sniping? It is a real issue for all of us and worth discussing how or if we should prepare. I usually don’t keep much cash on hand but I am moving a bit more than a year’s expenses to money markets now because I worry that we could go...

I talked to a Vanguard rep the other day and got a confusing answer about a limitation they impose on IRA distributions. DW has large IRAs at Schwab and Vanguard. RMDS will be starting in a couple of years. This year she will probably liquidate some IRA funds for yearly expenses since we...

There seems to be a wealth of expertise here so I figure why not look for advice on a Powerpoint deck. I haven't used Powerpoint for almost two decades and I was never proficient. But I have a copy that came with the MS365 subscription I got to get 1T of space and automatically back up my...

DW is a retired partner at a law firm. Her retired pay has been a PITA for years but finally got simple last year when she was switched from K1 income to 1099R retirement pay. This year her firm merged and the new firm is handling tax and payroll. They believe the proper way to report the...

The thread on sleeve gators reminded me how much combined knowledge is available on this forum. I have an obscure memory I have not been able to track down with Google searches. Every few years it pesters me and I search anew but no luck. My memory is of poetic quote of a "traditional saying"...

Krebs on Security has an interesting article on security issues at Experian. Identity thieves are simply opening new accounts in your name with SSNs and credit info from the dark web. Experian opens the new account with new password and email. They notify you at the old email that "you" have...

This is a good John Oliver piece on Internet data brokers. The final minutes where he gathers data from Congress critters is hillarious. [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqn3gR1WTcA"/URL]

My 12 yo grandson invests all of his money (presents and earnings) in equities in a Schwab Custodial Account I set up. He is up to $2k. I made him put half in a total market index fund to serve as a benchmark against his stock picks. He has recently acknowledged that index funds are the more...

Hello engineers and financial math gurus. I am having a hard time wrapping my head around a Roth conversion optimization analysis and need help. This is a long, confused post, so don't bother with it unless you enjoy sorting out these kinds of issues. In the past I ignored Roth conversions...

Does anyone know if it is important that gifts to children and grandkids be documented to insure that IRS can’t claim they exceeded the exclusion? For example can I transfer $96,000 to my daughter and just tell her that it is from DW and me for her, her husband, and her daughter? Do I need to...

This article points out that IRS will soon require account holders to use an outfit called ID.me to verify identity. The service requires multiple documents and a video selfie. I don't currently have an IRS account but can imagine wanting one. Also, it looks like other organization are...

The CCRC discussion prompted me to update my document for DW and the kids to follow if I die or become incapacitated and it raises some questions it might be worth kicking around here. Here is the scenario. Either DW dies leaving me the beneficiary for her accounts or vice versus. DW worries...

My tracking spreadsheet can't resolve the current price of SWAGX (Schwab's bond fund). I use "=GoogleFinance(B48,"closeYest")" with B8 being the ticker symbol. It works for all my other funds. I am guessing this will just resolve in a few days. Any other thoughts?

I have Internet through a Verizon FIOS G1100 gateway router to which I have added a DECO TP-Link S4 mesh network for wifi. I am confused about how this setup works as well as security implications. Verizon is not helpful and most of their technicians seem to know less about this stuff than I...

I have installed a three unit Deco TP-Link mesh network to fix streaming issues for a far flung TV two floors above my router. That problem is resolved. . The signal is excellent everywhere except the kitchen which has an addition with metal studs. Parts of the kitchen and the adjoining deck get...

I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease 5 months ago so I notice things like that. :) For me, it is early days, so I am still very active and hope to remain so for some time. Others, who are effected earlier or more acutely, struggle mightily with the disease and all of its strange...

When I first ERd about 16 years ago I briefly got into sketching and drawing on natural media. I later discovered digital drawing using Painter software and a Wacom art pad and stylus. It was fun but working at the PC was constraining so I soon dropped it. I recently bought an iPad mini as my...

I have screen scraped TSP prices for my Google Spread Sheet for quite some time. About a year ago or so they changed their tables and I could no longer figure out how to import the xml data. Cathy63 helped me out and I got it working again. A couple of weeks ago they added new lifecycle funds...

DW and I recently updated our estate plan and set up a joint revocable trust for our house and taxable accounts. When we moved our joint brokerage account into the trust, Vanguard offered to apply for an IRS Employer Identification Number (EIN) for the trust. IRS sent a confirmation, noting that...