Search found 36 matches

by woodenpelican
Tue Mar 14, 2023 8:56 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Citi Double Cash: Logistics
Replies: 14
Views: 1317

Re: Citi Double Cash: Logistics

Great, thanks for the speedy response! I figured it was the case but nice to have the reassurance :)
by woodenpelican
Tue Mar 14, 2023 7:36 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Citi Double Cash: Logistics
Replies: 14
Views: 1317

Citi Double Cash: Logistics

Hi folks,

I have recently opened a Citibank Double Cash CC and have read that you accrue points at 1% when you make a purchase and at 1% when you pay it off. However, I have been making purchases for a month now and my point balance is still 0. Because the card is new, I haven't yet received a statement.

My question: does the 1% accrue after the actual purchase is made? Or does it accrue only once you receive the statement on which the purchase appears? And if it is tied to the statement, does paying off the balance "early" cause me to miss out on points in any way? Thanks!
by woodenpelican
Sat Feb 19, 2022 12:20 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Reporting Basis After Home Sale
Replies: 1
Views: 216

Reporting Basis After Home Sale

Hello,
We (husband and wife) purchased a home in 2008 for $400,000. We made around ~100k of improvements during our tenure in the home. We sold it in 2021 for $850,000 (and received a 1099-S). My question: Given that gross proceeds - purchase price = $450,000, i.e. under the 500k limit for married filing jointly, is it worthwhile to determine and include the improvements number? I could spend spend some time looking through the paperwork and just include the portion that I have detailed records for, but I am not sure if it's worth my time. Any advice welcome!
by woodenpelican
Mon Jan 11, 2021 4:39 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Mechanism for Grandparent 529 contribution
Replies: 9
Views: 852

Re: Mechanism for Grandparent 529 contribution

Robdac wrote: Mon Jan 11, 2021 3:58 pm We have the Utah 529 using Vanguard funds for our kids. When a grandparent wants to make a gift contribution I send them the link and they do it all online. Works great. No security concerns.
Thank you - sorry to be pedantic, but what is "the link"? Is it Ugift?
by woodenpelican
Mon Jan 11, 2021 3:31 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Mechanism for Grandparent 529 contribution
Replies: 9
Views: 852

Mechanism for Grandparent 529 contribution

Hello, Just had our first child and funding for education has already been brought up by my parents. We feel very fortunate! However are confused about the best way for them to make their deposits. Situation: I have set up a 529 account at Vanguard with my daughter as the beneficiary. We are not concerned about financial aid/FASFA considerations. Neither us nor the grandparents live in a state that allows tax breaks for 529 contribution. It appears to me there are three ways we could do this: 1. Give grandparents the Ugift code and leave them to it. Anyone else done this? Is Ugift safe to use? 2. Have them write me a check and then I make a contribution to the 529. With this method I am concerned how we handle the gift tax reporting. If my ...
by woodenpelican
Sun Jun 02, 2019 1:20 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: How to stay under FDIC limits
Replies: 20
Views: 1770

Re: How to stay under FDIC limits

Just went back and double checked the account status and ran the tool. Since John is the beneficiary of the savings account (POD), it does indeed show that I have full coverage. Thank you all for the help!
by woodenpelican
Sun Jun 02, 2019 12:54 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: How to stay under FDIC limits
Replies: 20
Views: 1770

Re: How to stay under FDIC limits

Ah - after a brief glance at the tool I understand a lot more. I thought ownership category meant CD vs savings account, looks like it is actually single vs joint vs POD, etc. I need to do some additional research on what these accounts actually are and will report back. Thanks all!
by woodenpelican
Sun Jun 02, 2019 12:45 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: How to stay under FDIC limits
Replies: 20
Views: 1770

Re: How to stay under FDIC limits

Thanks - I will try out the tool. In the meantime, John is the listed beneficiary of Jane's Savings Account. The CDs have no beneficiary assigned. Should I be looking to add one?
by woodenpelican
Sun Jun 02, 2019 12:13 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: How to stay under FDIC limits
Replies: 20
Views: 1770

How to stay under FDIC limits

We, a married couple, have a 6-figure amount we would like to keep liquid for a ~1 year period. Looking to double check that I am interpreting the FDIC language properly, and that our setup will keep us under the insurance limit for a single bank. Using fake numbers for explanatory purposes. Jane's savings account - 250k Jane's CD - 200k Jane and John's joint CD - 300k Please let me know if the above will work. Thanks! For reference, here is the text from the FDIC webpage: ---------------------------------------------------- COVERAGE LIMITS The standard insurance amount is $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, for each account ownership category. The FDIC provides separate coverage for deposits held in different account ownership catego...
by woodenpelican
Sat Oct 06, 2018 6:22 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: How to break a CD ladder
Replies: 2
Views: 718

How to break a CD ladder

Hello, A few years ago I set up a 3-year CD ladder for which I have been renewing one CD annually. Currently I have: CD 1: Matures Nov 04, 2018 - 1.50% CD 2: Matures Nov 04, 2019 - 1.57% CD 3: Matures Nov 04, 2020 - 1.60% These are High Yield 3-Year CDs at Ally. Interest set to be paid: Annually (End of Year). Due to rising interest rates, I would like to start the ladder over, ideally going to 2x 2-year "raise your rate" CDs, so I can modify as rates continue to go up (if they do, which seems likely). I will wait until CD 1 matures in Nov, but for the other two CDs, does "interest paid annually" indicate that I should wait until January to break them? If I do that, does that mean I can keep this year's interest? Beyond ...
by woodenpelican
Sat Oct 21, 2017 9:12 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Avoiding Transfer Fee---Will this work?
Replies: 15
Views: 2189

Re: Avoiding Transfer Fee---Will this work?

I also use BofA as primary (direct deposit of paychecks) and Ally as a secondary for savings/CDs. I can confirm there is no fee when you request the money via Ally.
by woodenpelican
Sat Jul 08, 2017 3:41 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Doing dishes while camping
Replies: 38
Views: 4665

Re: Doing dishes while camping

We have two 11 QT stacking rubbermaid dish bins (Google "dish bin" and you will see a bunch). We heat water on our stove, and wash the dishes in the first bin with some soap and a sponge. Massive amounts of food/sauce is wiped out first with a paper towel and thrown away. The second bin is used to rinse with cold water, then dry. Once finished, you can pour the dirty water from the wash bin through a sieve, or onto a cheap handkerchief to catch the larger food waste, which goes in the garbage. The water itself we dump into the bushes in a "dispersed" sort of arc. If we are in an area without potable water, we boil stream/lake water for the first "wash" bin, then use filtered water for the "rinse" bin.
by woodenpelican
Mon May 22, 2017 10:39 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Can you still do backdoor Roth with SIMPLE-IRA plan?
Replies: 7
Views: 1595

Re: Can you still do backdoor Roth with SIMPLE-IRA plan?

You CAN do it, but likely should not, as the SIMPLE IRA is considered to be the same as a Traditional IRA and thus subject to the pro-rate rule.
by woodenpelican
Fri May 05, 2017 3:10 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Unmarried couple purchasing a home?
Replies: 72
Views: 7969

Re: Unmarried couple purchasing a home?

Just wanted to provide one more example of anecdotal evidence to combat the naysayers. My (now) husband and I bought our home a year before getting engaged. We had joint tenancy with survivorship. We each contributed half of the down payment and the mortgage/improvements were paid out of a joint account to which we each contributed equally (Note: we made roughly the same salary at this time and had comparable savings. I would consider another arrangement if there is a big disparity in income/net worth). The title read "John Smith and Jane Doe, unmarried persons" which I thought was hilarious. Five years later, after we were married, we decided to re-finance, and in that process had to quit claim the property to ourselves, since we...
by woodenpelican
Fri Mar 10, 2017 6:54 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: My Liability as a Trust Beneficiary
Replies: 7
Views: 1191

Re: My Liability as a Trust Beneficiary

Thanks to all who have responded. The house is a trust asset, but the arrangement that allows my uncle to live there is governed by life estate language in the distribution agreement.

My aunt (uncle's sister) is the trustee, but she is almost as financially un-savvy as my uncle and the relationship between them is tenuous. The agreement clearly states that it is my uncle who is responsible to pay all expenses, not the trustee, which sounds like it might be a poor setup according to Spirit Rider's comments. However, provided I have no personal liability (which it sounds like I don't), it doesn't really matter to me. All I am trying to do is make my assets are safe from any potential lawsuits associated with the home.
by woodenpelican
Fri Mar 10, 2017 3:53 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: My Liability as a Trust Beneficiary
Replies: 7
Views: 1191

My Liability as a Trust Beneficiary

Hello, My grandfather passed away a few years ago, and I am a beneficiary of his living trust. The majority of the assets have already been distributed, with the exception of the house. The trust states that my uncle is allowed to continue living there for as long as he wants, after which the house will be sold and proceeds distributed among the beneficiaries (there is no mortgage on the house). While living there, my uncle is responsible for all expenses, including property tax, insurance, and repairs/upkeep. I have no problem with any of this - the issue is that my Uncle, while a great guy, is not particularly financially savvy (hence why he lived with his dad for so many years), and has never before been responsible for a home. It is ver...
by woodenpelican
Sun Oct 30, 2016 11:02 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Does SIMPLE rollover make sense (backdoor ROTH)
Replies: 6
Views: 1099

Re: Does SIMPLE rollover make sense (backdoor ROTH)

I am not sure whether the fees are inclusive of the original ERs or not. I do know that four times a year, stocks are automatically sold to pay what amounts to approximately 0.68% of the total amount in fees annually. We have been told by the plan administrator at the company that these are primarily administrative fees. Because the 401k is "self-directed" meaning we picked the funds rather than have an account managed by the 401k provider, I believe our fees are slightly higher than others at the company. Understand that this is on an individual basis - I have no other IRAs and was able to do both the backdoor Roth and mega backdoor Roth this year. So there is already a lot of money going into Roth; just didn't want to leave anyt...
by woodenpelican
Sat Oct 29, 2016 9:06 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Does SIMPLE rollover make sense (backdoor ROTH)
Replies: 6
Views: 1099

Re: Does SIMPLE rollover make sense (backdoor ROTH)

The SIMPLE has about $65,000 in it, and it's been ~8 years since first contribution. The fees, as far as I can tell, are administrative/record keeping related. It's not a big company and I understand smaller companies usually have higher admin fees for 401k.
by woodenpelican
Sat Oct 29, 2016 3:04 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Does SIMPLE rollover make sense (backdoor ROTH)
Replies: 6
Views: 1099

Does SIMPLE rollover make sense (backdoor ROTH)

Hello, Married filing jointly, and this year we will have too high of a MAGI to contribute directly to Roth (a good problem to have). In order to enable the backdoor ROTH, we are contemplating rolling his remaining SIMPLE IRA into his 401k. The SIMPLE is all in low cost ETFs at Schwab. The 401k has semi decent fund selection, but yearly fees of approximately 0.68%. This seems high to me. Going forward I would estimate a pretty decent chance that our income will remain above the direct contribution limit, but difficult to say for sure (assuming retirement in 25 years). Does it still make sense to do the rollover? Any other potential issues we should be considering? Thanks! Funds available in his 401(k) (ticker) (fund name) (ER) (fund type) U...
by woodenpelican
Wed Dec 23, 2015 4:01 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Institutional Plus vs Admiral
Replies: 2
Views: 734

Re: Institutional Plus vs Admiral

Thanks!
by woodenpelican
Wed Dec 23, 2015 3:00 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Institutional Plus vs Admiral
Replies: 2
Views: 734

Institutional Plus vs Admiral

Hi Bogleheads!

I currently have a traditional IRA that for simplicity and for the likely upcoming need for a backdoor ROTH I want to roll into my new 401k. Before doing so I just wanted to check that there is no fundamental difference between Institutional Plus and Admiral versions of the same fund, besides ER, i.e. no reason not to perform the rollover ASAP. For example, VTIAX and VTPSX. Also, just wanted to check that to keep market weight, approximately 20% VEMPX and 80% VIIIX is equivalent to VTSAX.

Thanks!
by woodenpelican
Wed Dec 16, 2015 1:52 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Pay down mortgage or save for down payment?
Replies: 6
Views: 1044

Re: Pay down mortgage or save for down payment?

Thanks for all the great thoughts so far. Just wanted to clarify that we live in an extremely hot market (at least at present) and would likely not be able to win a bid with contingency. Also I would much rather prefer to buy prior to selling but of course things don't always work out that way :)
by woodenpelican
Wed Dec 16, 2015 1:06 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Pay down mortgage or save for down payment?
Replies: 6
Views: 1044

Pay down mortgage or save for down payment?

Hi Bogleheads, Due to a combination of inheritance and vesting RSUs I will find myself with an extra $100k or so over the next year and a half. Given that we are already maxing out two 401ks, Roth IRAs (likely through backdoor next year), and an HSA, I am thinking we will likely do some combination of taxable investing and something to do with housing. However, we are struggling with what that "something" should be. We are currently 5 years into a fixed 30-year mortgage at 4.25%. The balance is a little under 300k. The value of the house is around 500k. Our current mortgage payment (including taxes and insurance) is around 20% of net pay. However, we plan to buy a more expensive house within the next 3 to 4 years. Given these fact...
by woodenpelican
Fri Sep 11, 2015 10:42 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Help adding new 401K to existing Schwab/Vanguard Portfolio
Replies: 14
Views: 1247

Re: Help adding new 401K to existing Schwab/Vanguard Portfolio

Thanks so much, especially retiredjg and in_reality. We will take some time to decide how we want to proceed and then do a little house cleaning. Thank you also for the suggestion about rolling IRAs into the 401K - I didn't know that was a possibility.
by woodenpelican
Thu Sep 10, 2015 10:42 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Help adding new 401K to existing Schwab/Vanguard Portfolio
Replies: 14
Views: 1247

Re: Help adding new 401K to existing Schwab/Vanguard Portfolio

Lafder wrote:I try to follow a 3 fund portfolio, which makes investing much simpler since I can narrow in on just the 3 funds and their equivalents in employer offerings. See this helpful discussion. viewtopic.php?f=10&t=88005
lafder
Thanks for the reply. Just wondering if you have a recommendation for which available funds in the 401K would be equivalents for the 3-fund portfolio? VBILX seems to be the choice for bonds, and domestic is covered by either the Vanguard or Columbia funds (the ones referenced by retiredjg), but there doesn't seem to be a good international option.
by woodenpelican
Thu Sep 10, 2015 10:33 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Help adding new 401K to existing Schwab/Vanguard Portfolio
Replies: 14
Views: 1247

Re: Help adding new 401K to existing Schwab/Vanguard Portfolio

Thank you for all the replies. We have only gotten into investing in the last two years or so and this forum has been incredibly helpful. We are still struggling with the best way to allocate funds given the multitude of accounts, so we certainly welcome suggestions to that end. It is a little intimidating for me to have only one or two funds per account - wouldn't re-balancing become challenging as only certain accounts have active contributions? I agree with having too many funds below 5% and definitely want to consolidate/eliminate those for easier management. niceguy7376 - We are still able to directly contribute to the ROTH by keeping contributions to the SIMPLE and now 401K near the maximum. That might not always be the case but it wi...
by woodenpelican
Wed Sep 09, 2015 5:15 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Help adding new 401K to existing Schwab/Vanguard Portfolio
Replies: 14
Views: 1247

Re: Help adding new 401K to existing Schwab/Vanguard Portfolio

retiredjg - Thank you for your response. I have edited the post so that it shows the breakdown of all the accounts. The story of our multiple funds is that we started buying ETFs at Schwab before having a good understanding of both our overall investment plan and the principals of fund allocation across multiple accounts. We were originally following somewhat of a "mirroring" strategy across accounts. About a year ago I found this forum and Vanguard, and tried to implement the 3-fund portfolio in my accounts there. We understand there is a lot of clean up we could be doing to simplify and would welcome suggestions on how to proceed. We have taxable bonds in the taxable Schwab account simply because we bought them before we realize...
by woodenpelican
Wed Sep 09, 2015 2:14 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Help adding new 401K to existing Schwab/Vanguard Portfolio
Replies: 14
Views: 1247

Help adding new 401K to existing Schwab/Vanguard Portfolio

Hi all, Thanks for looking at my post. I thought we had a pretty good handle on our accounts but now we are adding a 401K into the mix (new job!) and are not sure which funds best fit into our current allocation. Previously, both my husband and myself have only had IRAs, so we are not accustomed to picking from a limited fund selection. Open to general portfolio advice, criticism, suggestions, etc., but what we are most interested in is getting some advice on which funds to choose and in what percentages given our current assets. Emergency funds: One year. Not included below. Debt: Mortgage 300K at 4.25%. No other debt. Tax Filing Status: Married Filing Jointly Tax Rate: 28% Federal, no state. State of Residence: WA Age: 32 Desired Asset al...
by woodenpelican
Tue Aug 04, 2015 4:10 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Hike the Pacific Crest Trail/JMT
Replies: 74
Views: 11510

Re: Hike the Pacific Crest Trail/JMT

Thanks so much for your timely post! Yes, I'm fortunate that I can be flexible with the start date. I'm thinking sometime around Sept 15th. Want to be careful not to get too far into October and run into an early snowfall. Question about starting from Tuolumne Meadows. Wouldn't that be further North than Yosemite Valley and therefore longer or am I turned around? Question about resupply boxes. The PCT website is encouraging folks to buy local vs resupply. Is that really an option? What did you really need in your resupply boxes? Finally, one thought I had in order to avoid the JMT congestion would be to hike north to Tahoe. Have you done any of those segments? Thanks again for your timely help! Starting from Yosemite Valley the JMT starts ...
by woodenpelican
Tue Aug 04, 2015 10:43 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Hike the Pacific Crest Trail/JMT
Replies: 74
Views: 11510

Re: Hike the Pacific Crest Trail/JMT

Hiked the JMT three years ago and it was an amazing trip! We went north to south which is the more popular route and thus more difficult to obtain the permit for. You can of course hike the other way but it is significantly more challenging from a fitness perspective. Suggest applying for a permit start in the middle of the week as opposed to a weekend. Also, it can be much easier to get a start from Tuolumne Meadows than from the Valley. This cuts off a little less than 20 miles but significantly increases your chances of success. We mailed resupply boxes to Reds Meadow and Vermillion Valley Resort. We also had a friend come and meet us at Rae Lakes for a last resupply, but you could probably do with just two pretty easily. Or if you reall...
by woodenpelican
Thu Jul 23, 2015 4:50 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Home improvement: french drain or dry well?
Replies: 15
Views: 9736

Re: Home improvement: french drain or dry well?

Look for boring/well logs near your house on your state's department of ecology website to see if there is any permeable soil beneath the clay. If the clay goes down more than 10 feet, a dry well will likely not be as effective as a french drain.
by woodenpelican
Tue Jun 16, 2015 3:43 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Tree Trimming Etiquette with Neighbors
Replies: 30
Views: 18884

Re: Tree Trimming Etiquette with Neighbors

Check your city ordinances/code. Where we live, we can cut anything that crosses the property line, provided it doesn't kill the tree. For trees that are growing on the actual property line, the tree technically "belongs" to both you and your neighbor. We have a good relationship with our neighbor to the north and every fall we cut back all of the trees/bushes that overhang our yard to our fence line. They have no problem with this. The relationship with the neighbor to the south is a little more strained. They have a very large tree which was dropping significant dead matter in our yard and into our gutters, and providing access for racoons and other animals to run along the branches and get onto our roof. We approached them abou...
by woodenpelican
Tue Jun 16, 2015 12:45 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Wedding Reception
Replies: 68
Views: 12338

Re: Wedding Receiption

We did the exact same thing with our wedding w.r.t. alcohol. Unlimited wine, beer, and soda, and one specialty cocktail, plus champagne for toasting. Unless you are hosting a massive group of party people I don't feel that a full open bar is worth the expense, as the alcohol provided leaves plenty of scope for people to get their drink on. Remember that you have to pay the full open bar rate per adult attendee, regardless of whether or not that person actually consumes any drinks.

DO NOT have a cash bar. I guarantee that people will judge you over this for years to come.
by woodenpelican
Fri Oct 31, 2014 4:07 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Why so long to transfer IRA to Vanguard?
Replies: 29
Views: 4979

Re: Why so long to transfer IRA to Vanguard?

I just transferred two rollover accounts to Vanguard, one from Fidelity and one from Wells Fargo. Both took about two weeks between the time the original funds were liquidated and I could purchase Vanguard products. Luckily for me, the two week period corresponded almost exactly with the market drop in the first two weeks of October. However, even if the market had risen you have to remember that this is for the long term, and that two weeks isn't going to make much of a difference, if any, 10 years (or more) from now.
by woodenpelican
Thu Sep 25, 2014 4:05 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: IRA Mutal Fund Acct vs IRA Brokerage Acct
Replies: 4
Views: 654

Re: IRA Mutal Fund Acct vs IRA Brokerage Acct

Thanks all, especially for the link. Great stuff.
by woodenpelican
Thu Sep 25, 2014 11:50 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: IRA Mutal Fund Acct vs IRA Brokerage Acct
Replies: 4
Views: 654

IRA Mutal Fund Acct vs IRA Brokerage Acct

Hello,
I recently opened a Traditional IRA at Vanguard. I am planning to hold only VTSAX and VTIAX in this account. However, under the name of the account on my personal page it has an "upgrade" option to switch to a Brokerage account. My question is, is there any benefit to me to make this a brokerage account? I am not planning to buy ETFs, CDs, etc. at this time. Is that the only reason to switch to a brokerage account for an IRA? I seem to be getting conflicting information when I call Vanguard, so any advice would be appreciated.