Search found 709 matches

by cockersx3
Sun Mar 24, 2024 11:23 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Great news! No more [fixed real estate] agent commission
Replies: 238
Views: 22618

Re: Great news! No more [fixed real estate] agent commission

billaster wrote: Sat Mar 23, 2024 7:49 pm The DOJ is showing a new appetite for tackling antitrust cases and I expect them to see how this settlement shakes out before reviving their own case.
Good point - forgot about that! Fingers crossed :-)
by cockersx3
Sun Mar 24, 2024 11:20 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Great news! No more [fixed real estate] agent commission
Replies: 238
Views: 22618

Re: Great news! No more [fixed real estate] agent commission

Per the NAR press release on this ( linked here ): In addition to the financial payment, NAR has agreed to put in place a new MLS rule prohibiting offers of broker compensation on the MLS. This would mean that offers of broker compensation could not be communicated via the MLS, but they could continue to be an option consumers can pursue off-MLS through negotiation and consultation with real estate professionals. Further, NAR has agreed to enact a new rule that would require MLS participants working with buyers to enter into written agreements with their buyers. The more I learn about this, the more I'm starting to think that a lot of the proposed benefits of this settlement are just wishful thinking. The way I read this, it just says that...
by cockersx3
Sat Mar 23, 2024 11:08 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Great news! No more [fixed real estate] agent commission
Replies: 238
Views: 22618

Re: Great news! No more [fixed real estate] agent commission

Per the NAR press release on this ( linked here ): In addition to the financial payment, NAR has agreed to put in place a new MLS rule prohibiting offers of broker compensation on the MLS. This would mean that offers of broker compensation could not be communicated via the MLS, but they could continue to be an option consumers can pursue off-MLS through negotiation and consultation with real estate professionals. Further, NAR has agreed to enact a new rule that would require MLS participants working with buyers to enter into written agreements with their buyers. The more I learn about this, the more I'm starting to think that a lot of the proposed benefits of this settlement are just wishful thinking. The way I read this, it just says that...
by cockersx3
Fri Mar 22, 2024 6:01 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Great news! No more [fixed real estate] agent commission
Replies: 238
Views: 22618

Re: Great news! No more [fixed real estate] agent commission

Per the NAR press release on this ( linked here ): In addition to the financial payment, NAR has agreed to put in place a new MLS rule prohibiting offers of broker compensation on the MLS. This would mean that offers of broker compensation could not be communicated via the MLS, but they could continue to be an option consumers can pursue off-MLS through negotiation and consultation with real estate professionals. Further, NAR has agreed to enact a new rule that would require MLS participants working with buyers to enter into written agreements with their buyers. The more I learn about this, the more I'm starting to think that a lot of the proposed benefits of this settlement are just wishful thinking. The way I read this, it just says that ...
by cockersx3
Sun Mar 17, 2024 8:07 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Asset allocation for "bridge funds" to be used from age 50-59.5?
Replies: 16
Views: 2100

Re: Asset allocation for "bridge funds" to be used from age 50-59.5?

Perhaps I missed it, but - how are you handling healthcare expenses during this period? The ideas being proposed will have a significant impact on ACA premium tax credits (and perhaps cost-sharing reductions if you are eligible for those), so if you haven't considered that yet you should dig into that topic. For example - taking all of the $100K/yr in 457 withdrawals will result in very high healthcare premiums if using the health exchanges, while taking it all from your brokerage account will result in much lower premiums. Generally, the ACA acts as an additional marginal tax on your income that in many cases will bias users towards lower MAGI withdrawal strategies, such as brokerage withdrawals vs use of qualified plans like 457's, Roth c...
by cockersx3
Sun Mar 17, 2024 11:55 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Great news! No more [fixed real estate] agent commission
Replies: 238
Views: 22618

Re: Great news! No more [fixed real estate] agent commission

Okay, with all the posts about making real estate like eBay, just contact an attorney, done deal, As a decades long realtor I’ll chime in. Over the last 4 years, back of the envelope calculations , with buyers- average homes shown per buyer prior to purchase- about 20 with as many as 50 or more. Average offers made per buyer prior to purchase- conservatively 5, with as many as 20. Typical scenario with buyer at a given home: “We really like this home and would like to purchase” Me- “here are my concerns” - infrastructure is suspect- roof nearing end of life ( I’m trained in home inspection) hvac nearing end of life, windows very inefficient, cheap, basement is suspect with evidence of moisture, etc etc etc - “you should be aware that there...
by cockersx3
Sat Mar 16, 2024 5:42 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Great news! No more [fixed real estate] agent commission
Replies: 238
Views: 22618

Re: Great news! No more agent commission

Or, since most buyers are stretched when they buy their (first) home, they'll just build it into the offer: I agree to pay your xx price if you agree to pay my (buyer's) agent. No different than making an offer for a home and ask for the portable appliances to be included: I'll meet your asking price, but I also want the free standing refrigerator and washer & dryer which are listed as optional. Well, they are welcome to try. In the housing market in my area, they would get laughed at by most sellers. But maybe this will work in the future when the housing market eventually cools down. But yeah, I agree with you. This would just be another thing that the buyer would have to negotiate. At least this would make buyers more conscious of t...
by cockersx3
Sat Mar 16, 2024 11:11 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Great news! No more [fixed real estate] agent commission
Replies: 238
Views: 22618

Re: Great news! No more agent commission

The seller has never paid for the buyer's agent. That was all a scam perpetuated by NAR. The buyer has always paid the full commission for both sides. Just because the closing sheet shows the commission coming out of the seller's cut, doesn't mean that's where the money originated. That's simply shifting around numbers. I get what you're saying from a logic standpoint - ultimately all the money is coming from the buyer. But people don't always behave logically. You could say the exact same thing about employer-provided health insurance, since ultimately the employee is paying for that insurance by forgoing a larger salary and paying for it themselves. But that's not how it works in reality, since we see posts all the time in this forum fro...
by cockersx3
Fri Mar 15, 2024 6:19 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Signing Listing Agreement Sunday. Any actionable steps with NAR lawsuit?
Replies: 16
Views: 1974

Re: Signing Listing Agreement Sunday. Any actionable steps with NAR lawsuit?

All the articles Ive read on this topic indicate that any changes won't happen until at least July. Which seems like very convenient timing by the NAR, since I would think that most people list their house in the spring to allow new owners to move in before the start of the school year...
by cockersx3
Fri Mar 15, 2024 11:09 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Great news! No more [fixed real estate] agent commission
Replies: 238
Views: 22618

Re: Great news! No more agent commission

sailaway wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2024 10:24 am If the seller cannot set compensation for the buyer's agent, sounds like you will only save if you insist on dual agency, which requires more work on your part.
Or, if sellers just refuse to include buyer's agent fees in their sales costs, purchasers can just handle the purchase side of things on their own. I can see new buyers perhaps paying for an agent to represent them, but home buyers that have been through the process before may not see the value.

I've bought and sold about 5 houses in my life due to job relocations, etc, and my experience was that the buyer's agents were generally not worth the money they "earned." If I had to pay the money directly, I certainly would not involve a buyer's agent.
by cockersx3
Thu Feb 29, 2024 10:34 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Neighbor Got Burglarized, How To Prevent
Replies: 74
Views: 8524

Re: Neighbor Got Burglarized, How To Prevent

We have Ring cameras on our garage door and also facing our slider in the backyard. They are very easy to install and work well.

We also purchased and installed a secondary lock on our slider (link here). It was inexpensive when we bought it 4 years ago, and very easy to install. Works well and it just looks a lot better than the piece of wood that everyone else talks about.

Also would second the advice about not sharing your absence from home on social media.
by cockersx3
Tue Feb 27, 2024 5:45 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Which (of the bigger) brokerages offer .ofx or .qfx exports?
Replies: 11
Views: 1197

Re: Which (of the bigger) brokerages offer .ofx or .qfx exports?

I'm also running the sunset edition of MS Money, and can download Fidelity credit card transactions directly into the app. Note that the downloaded file has a "QFX" (ie Quicken) file extension, but when you change the file extension to OFX it downloads into MS Money just fine.

EDIT - Just checked, and it looks like the only download option for my Fidelity brokerage account is a CSV file. So nope, can't get activity from there into MS Money without converting the file somehow.
by cockersx3
Tue Feb 27, 2024 10:28 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Best & Worst "Mid-Life Crisis" expenditures
Replies: 129
Views: 24663

Re: Best & Worst "Mid-Life Crisis" expenditures

Has anyone mentioned a Tesla yet? Because I just bought a MYLR :D Not sure if that's a good or bad mid-life crisis car, but it will be fun anyway!

Going to sell my current Honda to my oldest (junior in college) at a significant discount. She wants to buy a car this summer, and my wife and I would rather have her driving something safer and more reliable than what she'd be able to afford in her price range, especially with her going to school far away so we can't really help her if things go south. So I'm really just buying the Tesla to so she can take my car....at least that's how I'm justifying it LOL....
by cockersx3
Tue Feb 27, 2024 10:22 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Tech forward bank recommendations: instant transfers and decent bill pay
Replies: 38
Views: 2812

Re: Tech forward bank recommendations: instant transfers and decent bill pay

If you have investments at Fidelity, a Fidelity CMA account may fit the bill. Transfers to/from other Fidelity accounts are instantaneous, and transfers to non-Fidelity accounts take a few hours at most. Website seems pretty modern and is well-integrated with the rest of the site. I like being able to see all of my account info in one place. It's also my way of making things a little easier on my wife (who doesn't really care much about dealing with finances) in case something ever happens to me. They offer a BillPay option, but I have actually never used it since all bills get paid either via ACH or via credit card (also at Fidelity). You can get checks as well, which I basically only use to pay bills at our kid's public school. Also no Ze...
by cockersx3
Thu Feb 22, 2024 11:17 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Financial account setup options - which one?
Replies: 5
Views: 575

Re: Financial account setup options - which one?

Option D - Fidelity for everything: Payroll -> Fidelity CMA account. From Fidelity CMA account ->Transfer to other Fidelity accounts for investments From Fidelity CMA account -> Transfer to another Fidelity CMA account for bill payment (if that's something you really want.) This helps with simplicity, as it just keeps everything visible from your Fidelity login. I personally do a variant of this to improve security. Note that I am retired and my wife is only working part time, so we are living off investments and have no need to make new investments. Option D1 - Fidelity for everything: Payroll (& dividends from other Fidelity brokerage accounts, and cash back rewards from Fidelity credit card) -> Fidelity CMA account. Currently mainta...
by cockersx3
Wed Feb 21, 2024 6:38 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Turn around time on passports
Replies: 19
Views: 1929

Re: Turn around time on passports

Just renewed my kid's passport, which requires an in-person appointment. Total of 9 business days from appointment to getting the new passport in my mailbox today. We expedited it.
by cockersx3
Wed Feb 21, 2024 6:22 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Tax question - Overpayment of Social Security and Medicare taxes
Replies: 6
Views: 492

Re: Tax question - Overpayment of Social Security and Medicare taxes

Yes, it's normal to overpay Social Security taxes (i.e. pay over the maximum amount of Social Security tax per year) if you work at two jobs, and you claim it on Form 1040, Schedule 3, line 11. Medicare tax doesn't have a maximum amount, so you won't overpay it. In fact, you might underpay Additional Medicare Tax if you worked at multiple jobs, since employers only start withholding at $200k for an individual job (though the tax only starts at $250k income, so there is some wiggle room). In any case, Additional Medicare Tax is reconciled on Form 8959. There might be similar things in state tax too. For example, California SDI tax in years up to 2023 also had a maximum, and you could also overpay it if you had multiple jobs, and you could c...
by cockersx3
Thu Feb 15, 2024 9:21 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: ACA APTC when "Tax Family" different from "Coverage Family"?
Replies: 19
Views: 1437

Re: ACA APTC when "Tax Family" different from "Coverage Family"?

When you look at the accepted documents list, one is also and explanation letter. I should think you'd have no trouble explaining why your yearly estimate is more accurate than using income YTD and projecting that forward. Again, MD may be different but I'd expect similar. YMMV. From what I can tell, some states make this difficult. Here's a link to a post for someone who had issues with minimum income in Washington state I think. (This is the same author that created a helpful "marginal tax rate" chart for ACA PTC's that has often been cited elsewhere in this forum.) I know it's a different state, but still a good data point to understand how weird the rules can be. The author doesn't seem to mind being on Medicaid, but my perso...
by cockersx3
Thu Feb 15, 2024 9:16 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: ACA APTC when "Tax Family" different from "Coverage Family"?
Replies: 19
Views: 1437

Re: ACA APTC when "Tax Family" different from "Coverage Family"?

I generated monthly income (on top of any dividends and interest) to reach ~$2k/month of income starting with January. I applied for coverage as of March 1. By early April the state exchange had approved my advance PTC so I stopped generating monthly income in April. Good to know, thanks. That's what I think I will end up doing as well - plan to start generating just-above-Medicaid income for my family starting about a month or so before I apply, and will continue until July or August when I've been approved. I can decide at that point whether to restart immediately prior to the start of the 2025 open enrollment window at the end of this year. I should know at that point what the local exchange will be looking for. My target Roth conversio...
by cockersx3
Wed Feb 14, 2024 3:29 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Parking a US mobile number while traveling
Replies: 19
Views: 1985

Re: Parking a US mobile number while traveling

Thanks for the post, I am leaning to sticking with Google Voice, better go with what you know (and has worked flawlessly for me over the years, including extended China trips) than venture to the (to me) untested. For what it's worth - this is what I would do as well. I've also used GV for years, and it's great to be able to send and receive calls home when travelling internationally. It also makes it easier to switch phone service providers later on, since you don't even have to port the number to the new provider - you can just keep using GV as your main number. Only issue would be to make sure that your banks will allow your GV number to be used for SMS-based 2FA, which some banks tend to choke on. We use Fidelity which handles GV just ...
by cockersx3
Wed Feb 14, 2024 3:26 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: ACA APTC when "Tax Family" different from "Coverage Family"?
Replies: 19
Views: 1437

Re: ACA APTC when "Tax Family" different from "Coverage Family"?

My state exchange asked for a lot of financial support for my MAGI (which was lower than MAGI per last filed Form 1040) before approving advance PTCs. Until approved, I did generate enough income each month to be above 1/12 of 138% of federal poverty limit in my Medicaid-expansion state. Just in case I was asked to prove monthly income too. I was not asked to do so. If you don’t receive advance ACA premium tax credits (PTC) , it will get reconciled on Form 1040’s Form 8962 and you will receive the premium tax credit as a Form 1040 tax credit. But if you were eligible for (but did not receive) CSRs, you do not receive a retroactive credit for CSRs that would have paid towards co-pays and other OOP. In my case I wanted the advance PTC of $24...
by cockersx3
Wed Feb 14, 2024 11:27 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: ACA APTC when "Tax Family" different from "Coverage Family"?
Replies: 19
Views: 1437

Re: ACA APTC when "Tax Family" different from "Coverage Family"?

May not be an issue, but I'd double check what the school plan covers, like time out of school (summer), and out of state (if child is going to school in another state). I'd be aware if one graduates in Spring, when the school plan terminates, for awareness to bring on ACA, perhaps. Also, you may find ACA is cheaper than some schools when you compare what the school plan covers versus the ACA plan, with the additional subsidy. So run it both ways, put it in a spreadsheet to compare, and optimize to your comfort level. Thanks. WE haven't checked out the ACA plans in each of the kids' states yet, but agree with you that it may be worth it as the cost will be very low. Just not sure if I want to deal with healthcare marketplaces from multiple...
by cockersx3
Wed Feb 14, 2024 11:19 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: ACA APTC when "Tax Family" different from "Coverage Family"?
Replies: 19
Views: 1437

Re: ACA APTC when "Tax Family" different from "Coverage Family"?

Yes. That is how the tax credit calculations work. Same thing happens when one spouse goes on Medicare while the other is still using ACA. The FPL, and thus expected contribution is calculated from the tax family size. The SLCSP costs are calculated from the coverage family. The tax credit is the difference between the two. OK, thanks. For some reason it seemed weird to me to use 2 people for one part of the calculation and 4 people for another part of the calculation, so I just wanted to make sure that I read that correctly. Have you checked to see if it might make sense to keep the kids on your policy? it would essentially be free at the level of MAGI you are planning to maintain. Yep, we've thought about that. From what I can tell based...
by cockersx3
Wed Feb 14, 2024 10:07 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Parking a US mobile number while traveling
Replies: 19
Views: 1985

Re: Parking a US mobile number while traveling

Thanks for the post, I am leaning to sticking with Google Voice, better go with what you know (and has worked flawlessly for me over the years, including extended China trips) than venture to the (to me) untested. For what it's worth - this is what I would do as well. I've also used GV for years, and it's great to be able to send and receive calls home when travelling internationally. It also makes it easier to switch phone service providers later on, since you don't even have to port the number to the new provider - you can just keep using GV as your main number. Only issue would be to make sure that your banks will allow your GV number to be used for SMS-based 2FA, which some banks tend to choke on. We use Fidelity which handles GV just ...
by cockersx3
Wed Feb 14, 2024 8:46 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: ACA APTC when "Tax Family" different from "Coverage Family"?
Replies: 19
Views: 1437

Re: ACA APTC when "Tax Family" different from "Coverage Family"?

[*]I assume that the "second lowest cost silver plan" (SLCSP) used to compute my subsidy would be based on a plan for two people, not four people since only two of us will be signing up on the exchange - correct? I believe that is correct. My quotes were very different when I only signed up one member of the household, so I believe it reflects how many people are actually signing up vs. just in the household. They do ask. [*]Edited to add - any pointers to help ensure that we don't get put on Medicaid? On an annual basis we will be well above the medicaid cutoff for our state, but on a monthly basis (ie just quarterly dividends plus an annual Roth conversion, with some occasional capital gains as needed) we'll sometimes be below ...
by cockersx3
Wed Feb 14, 2024 8:40 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: ACA APTC when "Tax Family" different from "Coverage Family"?
Replies: 19
Views: 1437

Re: ACA APTC when "Tax Family" different from "Coverage Family"?

My family will lose employer-provided health insurance on July 1st, so I've started looking more closely at the mechanics of the ACA (with premium tax credits) in our case - and I have questions... My situation doesn't seem like something that would be unique, so I'm hoping that someone here has been through this before and can offer guidance. Using the terminology in IRS form 8962 and its associated instructions - my "tax family" this year will consist of 4 people - my spouse and I, along with our two college-age kids. Both kids will be dependents on our return. My wife and I plan to go on the ACA using a health plan through our state's exchange. Since my kids will be going to college out-of-state, we are planning to sign our ki...
by cockersx3
Wed Feb 14, 2024 8:33 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: ACA APTC when "Tax Family" different from "Coverage Family"?
Replies: 19
Views: 1437

Re: ACA APTC when "Tax Family" different from "Coverage Family"?

My family will lose employer-provided health insurance on July 1st, so I've started looking more closely at the mechanics of the ACA (with premium tax credits) in our case - and I have questions... My situation doesn't seem like something that would be unique, so I'm hoping that someone here has been through this before and can offer guidance. Using the terminology in IRS form 8962 and its associated instructions - my "tax family" this year will consist of 4 people - my spouse and I, along with our two college-age kids. Both kids will be dependents on our return. My wife and I plan to go on the ACA using a health plan through our state's exchange. Since my kids will be going to college out-of-state, we are planning to sign our ki...
by cockersx3
Tue Feb 13, 2024 4:40 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: ACA APTC when "Tax Family" different from "Coverage Family"?
Replies: 19
Views: 1437

ACA APTC when "Tax Family" different from "Coverage Family"?

My family will lose employer-provided health insurance on July 1st, so I've started looking more closely at the mechanics of the ACA (with premium tax credits) in our case - and I have questions... My situation doesn't seem like something that would be unique, so I'm hoping that someone here has been through this before and can offer guidance. Using the terminology in IRS form 8962 and its associated instructions - my "tax family" this year will consist of 4 people - my spouse and I, along with our two college-age kids. Both kids will be dependents on our return. My wife and I plan to go on the ACA using a health plan through our state's exchange. Since my kids will be going to college out-of-state, we are planning to sign our kid...
by cockersx3
Thu Feb 01, 2024 8:43 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa [feedback, out of state and received merit]
Replies: 45
Views: 5257

Re: University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa

Like others have said - it's an absolutely beautiful campus, and the place is teeming with school spirit. My oldest toured UA on a whim - we were in the area for something else, so figured we could stop by and check it out - and fell in love with the place. If she hadn't gotten into her #1 choice she would have been going there. Like another poster said - it's hard to see other schools the same way once you've toured UA. If you're serious about checking it out, I HIGHLY recommend reaching out to your regional UA recruiter ( using this link ) to set up a tour rather than trying to set it up yourself. They will create an all-day itinerary for you that will include not only a campus tour, but also tours of individual schools / areas, lunches w...
by cockersx3
Fri Jan 26, 2024 2:45 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Online Roth Conversion at Major Brokerages?
Replies: 15
Views: 985

Re: Online Roth Conversion at Major Brokerages?

HomeStretch wrote: Fri Jan 26, 2024 12:39 pm In a Fidelity online account, use the “transfer screen” to move holdings in-kind from a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. The transfer (Roth conversion) is almost immediate.
Same here. The whole process too less than 60 seconds when I did my first Roth conversion last year. Was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was :sharebeer
by cockersx3
Sun Jan 14, 2024 6:45 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: FAFSA Revisions Due to Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021
Replies: 74
Views: 11664

Re: FAFSA Revisions Due to Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021

Our family did the FAFSA for both college-age kids last week. Zero issues, and it probably took around 20 mins for each of them all-in. Very quick and easy. That said, our situation is pretty generic (ie both parents married to each other, still living together, etc). We also don't expect any need-based aid this year, so I didn't worry much about trying to game it at all. (We may be eligible for the max Pell due to <175% FPL income next year, though.) I do like the separate login for parents, so that you don't need to share personal financial info with the kids. That said, I was kind of annoyed to learn that I had to complete the same personal financial info twice (one for each kid), even though the info was identical for both. But other th...
by cockersx3
Fri Jan 05, 2024 2:57 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Just Did my First Roth Conversion
Replies: 17
Views: 2177

Re: Just Did my First Roth Conversion

Well in my case it was super easy. All of my assets are at Fidelity (I moved everything there last year). Fidelity has a Roth conversion page, and it looks almost exactly like their usual account transfer page. I indicated which account I wanted to transfer from (my Rollover IRA), and which account I wanted to transfer to (my Roth IRA - and typing this just reminded me to turn Transfer Lockdown back on so thank you! :D ). I indicated the amount, which I had to do in shares (I was selling ETFs), and the transfer was instantaneous. Or at least the changes in balances were. I may end up getting the end of day prices. In your case, you may want to call Fidelity and ask whether you start with them or with TIAA-CREF to initiate the conversion. I...
by cockersx3
Thu Jan 04, 2024 6:39 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Robotics focused colleges (tier 2 + co op preferred)
Replies: 65
Views: 7941

Re: Robotics focused colleges (tier 2 + co op preferred)

I wouldn't worry about chemistry being hard. I was excellent at chemistry, math, mass balances, and mental models. Electrical circuit analysis fried my brain. There is something about the way each of us our wired, some things are easy and some are not. As both my kids were applying to colleges and getting input from current students, once thing that seems to be common across many engineering schools is the difficulty of their basic chemistry classes. This seems to be a "weed out" course in many schools. Not what I remember from when I was in engineering school long ago, but apparently now it's a thing. If the OP can swing it, I highly recommend trying to take their chem 101 class at a local community college (ie through a dual en...
by cockersx3
Thu Jan 04, 2024 6:35 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Robotics focused colleges (tier 2 + co op preferred)
Replies: 65
Views: 7941

Re: Robotics focused colleges (tier 2 + co op preferred)

My only concern with WPI (and RPI) or any tech school, is that many kids change their major. Many leave engineering. If so, a tech school can leave you with fewer options and require transfer for many alternative majors. That said, if you know your kid is dedicated to STEM, I don't think you can beat schools like WPI (and RPI where my son attended). My son was got interviews at Google, Amazon, Facebook etc, when he graduated RPI. I think WPI grads are also heavily recruited due to all the practical hands on experience opportunities they have while students. Hands on experience during college is critical for early career opportunities, and that is a major emphasis at WPI & Northeastern in MA, so much so that RPI started to copy the prog...
by cockersx3
Sun Dec 17, 2023 12:23 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: DD just graduated with honors - Need banking/investing advice.
Replies: 33
Views: 4242

Re: DD just graduated with honors - Need banking/investing advice.

My daughter just graduated with honors at Georgia Tech and is about to start a new job with solid starting pay ($80k+) and excellent benefits. I wanted to structure her online banking so that she can have her money be direct deposited into a mutual fund at that institution and have a checking account along with a credit card with autopay. I'm thinking Fidelity may be the best solution but I'm open to other ideas and insights. She will have a little over $40k in savings. About $23k in i-Bonds, $14k in her bank account (earning 3%) and $8k in her IRA which has shares in Berkshire. I will recommend that she moves the Berkshire to a Vanguard 2060 retirement fund. Also her remaining money along with her savings this year will likely go to a hou...
by cockersx3
Sat Dec 16, 2023 7:43 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Looking for Student credit card, compatible with Google Voice?
Replies: 8
Views: 1422

Re: Looking for Student credit card, compatible with Google Voice?

exarkun wrote: Sat Dec 16, 2023 7:38 am These work for me with GV.

Amex, BoA, Citi, Discover, USAA

Chase and Wells Fargo do NOT
Thanks - this is helpful! Of the ones on this list, it looks like BoA offers student credit cards - one of which has no foreign transaction fees. I'll pass that along to her. :sharebeer
by cockersx3
Fri Dec 15, 2023 8:08 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: [Retirement Advice] Liars figure and figures lie. Here are my lies.
Replies: 15
Views: 3089

Re: [Retirement Advice] Liars figure and figures lie. Here are my lies.

What is your expected marginal tax rate when those RMD's hit? If you do Roth conversions up to the top of the federal 12% tax bracket while on the ACA, it acts as an additional 10-18% additional marginal tax rate. ( Here's a link to a good article that helped me understand this a little better.) I'm in a similar boat as you (ie similar asset levels, early retiring on ACA) and my math suggested that I hold off on Roth conversions until I'm on Medicare (ie between ages 65 and 75). From what I've been able to read so far, this is a pretty common conclusion for many early retirees. Not sure how low you can get your income, but if you can get your ACA MAGI down to just under 200% FPL you become eligible for CSR's - so basically a special version...
by cockersx3
Fri Dec 15, 2023 4:47 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Looking for Student credit card, compatible with Google Voice?
Replies: 8
Views: 1422

Looking for Student credit card, compatible with Google Voice?

Hi all! I'm looking to help my third-year college student locate a credit card of her own. She has W-2 income for the past two summers, and also has an internship lined up for next summer, so with her income she should be able to get a credit card of her own. She also uses a Google Voice number as her primary phone number, which I know that some credit card companies tend to struggle with for account authentication. While it's of course possible to use her phone's "actual" SIM-provided number for this, her preference would be to get a credit card that will just work with her GV number since she's got a "semester abroad" coming up during which time the SIM-provided number won't work. Does anyone know of any student credit...
by cockersx3
Tue Dec 12, 2023 2:43 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Christmas present = forced retirement
Replies: 128
Views: 20516

Re: Christmas present = forced retirement

If my income is zero and I max out my wife's 401k, I can show a taxable income of just 25K for example. I played around with the cost estimator at healthcare.gov for various ranges from 25k to 70k taxable income and the site shows I can get a premium credit of $1716 per month for our family. This is much more than the cost of even the most expensive Gold plan that is displayed with zero deductible. So my health insurance cost is zero?? Is this even possible? It's absolutely possible - lots of people in the FIRE community have $0 per month healthcare premiums by managing their income. As another poster shared, the key number you need to look at is your "modified adjusted gross income" (MAGI) which is basically your taxable income ...
by cockersx3
Sun Dec 10, 2023 3:56 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Gap year from work - optimizing taxes
Replies: 5
Views: 777

Re: Gap year from work - optimizing taxes

Maybe I just missed it, but....how are you funding health insurance? If you're using the ACA, this could add another 10-18% on top of the 20% marginal rate (ie federal + state) you'd be paying on those Roth conversions. (Source here.) My sense is that most people in that situation (ie low income but high assets, and on ACA) tend to bias towards keeping taxable income at a relatively low level (typically around 175-200% of the federal poverty limit) to help maximize ACA subsidies.
by cockersx3
Fri Dec 08, 2023 7:33 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Parents of recent college applicants: How did it play out?
Replies: 115
Views: 20557

Re: Parents of recent college applicants: How did it play out?

I don't know if it's "a thing" in these days of moderate inflation, but in 2016-2017 when #1 son was looking, several schools he looked at (and indeed the one he ended up attending) were proudly proclaiming that they would not raise tuition during a student's 4-year tenure. They held true to that, which was nice (even if inflation was nonexistent in those years) Cheers As a data point....I've got a junior in engineering college right now, and so far annual tuition increases have been very modest at around 2.5% or so a year. I was actually worried about this due to all the price inflation in other things, but it just hasn't been a concern so far. My understanding is that the aggregate level of college age kids is trending lower, y...
by cockersx3
Tue Dec 05, 2023 7:17 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: DD (HS senior) filing 1040?
Replies: 11
Views: 909

Re: DD (HS senior) filing 1040?

context: In 2023, DD (18 yo, unmarried, living with parents in FL) had 2 paid summer internships (around $2k). Fed tax was withheld. Also has interest income from MMF, i-bonds (but in $100s). Is my understanding correct? 1. DD will file her own individual 1040 for Yr 2023. Her tax liability will be $0 and get full tax refund. 2. Parents can claim her as dependent for Yr 2023. (I read https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040gi.pdf but not 100% sure) 3. DD has till 4/15/2024 to open Roth IRA and contribute up to the pre-tax income from these 2 jobs. Anything that we should be aware of? Believe you are correct on all :happy Parents can claim schooler as dependent. Doubt her $2K+ income can support herself for the year, or 50% of it :) +1 on this...
by cockersx3
Tue Dec 05, 2023 10:32 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Advice for a budding electrical engineer
Replies: 134
Views: 17236

Re: Advice for a budding electrical engineer

Wouldn't it make sense for a ChemE student to use software and Excel to solve physical chemistry practice problems relevant to work as a ChemE rather than have to take abstract calculus classes adding to an already daunting ChemE course load? Not necessarily. As I shared earlier, as I look back on my college experience, I see many of the courses more as simply practice in learning new concepts and immediately applying them. We do this as lot as engineers. I also shared that I typically don't use any significant calc in my day-to-day work life. That said, I did use it a lot in college in my more advanced ChemE courses. There are so many engineering concepts that require knowledge of advanced math to understand, so for those courses the pred...
by cockersx3
Fri Dec 01, 2023 7:01 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Advice for a budding electrical engineer
Replies: 134
Views: 17236

Re: Advice for a budding electrical engineer

I've wondered whether engineers use the calculus they studied in college in their work after college? Since we have an audience of practicing engineers I'd like to ask if you manually used integrals and differential equations as opposed to using software that does that for the engineer? I suspect software has evolved to the point where manually creating and solving equations isn't necessary anymore. The data is input into a software program and the calculus work is done in the background by the computer. Am I wrong? This question would be for engineers who've worked recently, not the slide rule generation:) I have not had to use calculus equations at work in the 30 years that I've been a chemical engineer. I occasionally have to do manual ...
by cockersx3
Tue Nov 28, 2023 8:04 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Please poke holes in our early retirement plan
Replies: 45
Views: 7427

Re: Please poke holes in our early retirement plan

marcopolo wrote: Tue Nov 28, 2023 7:55 pm We retired almost 6 yrs ago after just turning 51. Never really thought about early retirement back then. Just focused on my career and raising out family. You are way ahead of the game, don't forget to enjoy the journey with your family.

Best of luck to you.
I retired early at around 50, and agree 100000% with this. What you want at age 30 or so is likely to be completely unrecognizable to what you want at age 50. Good on you for planning ahead, but it's probably better to think in terms of creating options and flexibility for your future self than to plan on early retirement that far away. Definitely would recommend not underestimating how much things can change in the next decade plus...
by cockersx3
Tue Nov 28, 2023 7:57 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Advice for a budding electrical engineer
Replies: 134
Views: 17236

Re: Advice for a budding electrical engineer

Just wanted to comment quickly on the voc-tech discussion. Not sure if anyone mentioned it yet, but for kids on a college prep track one downside of these schools is that there is often no time available in their schedule for more advanced courses or interesting non-academic classes. At least in our school system, the kids need to spend at least half of each day in their assigned program, which just doesn't leave much time for anything else. And often, even if they did have time to double up in math for a year (which is typically needed in order to be ready for calc in high school) the voc tech schools may not even offer it on site. This was an issue when my oldest (currently a college junior majoring in engineering) looked at potentially d...
by cockersx3
Mon Nov 27, 2023 1:16 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Roth conversion now or in 3 weeks?
Replies: 32
Views: 4981

Re: Roth conversion now or in 3 weeks?

Roth conversion can take quite a bit of time. Each step might end up taking a few days due to the holidays. Doing it to close to the end of the year run the risk of not making it in time. I think it depends on where your Roth and tax-deferred accounts are stored. I just did my first Roth conversion of my life about a week ago, and it took literally a few seconds to transfer shares between accounts. Both the Roth and tax-deferred accounts used for this transfer were at Fidelity. Not sure that I would intentionally wait until the last second of the year to do this, but I was still quite surprised at how fast this was - I had expected it to take a lot longer for some reason. The only weird thing now is that the activity logs for both accounts...
by cockersx3
Fri Nov 17, 2023 11:06 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Shopping for a new family credit card
Replies: 33
Views: 4197

Re: Shopping for a new family credit card

We are doing the exact same thing that the OP is proposing - both of my teenagers are authorized users on my Fidelity 2% cash back card. Works great, no significant issues. Definitely like the simplicity of having all of our major financial accounts at Fidelity. We have it set up so that our cashback gets automatically swept to our Fidelity CMA account every month. We also automatically pay the balance of the account automatically every month from our CMA account. There are a few weird things to watch out for. For example, the Fidelity card has a nice "lock" feature that allows me to lock/unlock the card whenever needed. However, the one time I tried that, I was unable to "unlock" the card online - had to call and get it...
by cockersx3
Sat Nov 11, 2023 8:05 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Help me figure out whether (or not) to do Roth Conversion(s) for 2023
Replies: 21
Views: 3247

Re: Help me figure out whether (or not) to do Roth Conversion(s) for 2023

You may not want to do any Roth conversions as every extra dollar of income from a Roth conversion (or elsewhere) incurs additional federal income tax, additional state income tax, and loss of some ACA subsidy. Based on the figures in your post, and assuming no Roth conversions, it appears you will be paying almost no federal income tax for 2023. $31,500 income less $3000 capital loss less $27,700 standard deduction = $800 taxable income Fed income tax @ 10% = $80 Let’s say you do $20,000 in Roth conversions, bumping your taxable income to $20,800. Fed income tax @ 10% = $2080 For ACA purposes, your MAGI would go from $28,500 to $48,500 with the Roth conversion. Using the Virginia Insurance Marketplace (for 2024), your current ages, and an...
by cockersx3
Mon Nov 06, 2023 6:39 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: How much did spending increase in early retirement?
Replies: 24
Views: 2916

Re: How much did spending increase in early retirement?

I early retired just before my 50th birthday, in order to spend more time with my youngest in her final year at home before she heads off to college. After seeing this thread, out of curiosity I actually just looked at our change in spending during the 12 month period before & after I retired. (We track spending in MS Money so very easy to get the data.) Overall our spending went up by around 10% in this first year post retirement. Nearly all of this was the result of higher travel/vacation costs - two trips to Florida for cruises, travel/lodging costs to a place near our parents for a few weeks, and prepayment for several major trips we have for 2024.) All other costs are comparable between the two 12 month periods. My wife is still el...