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archbish99

Despite some ongoing discussion of anti-structuring laws, I think you're safe. Of course, should you employ the same person in two different shows in the same year, you still trigger it.

archbish99

You and your wife can each gift each of them $14k/year without paying gift tax or using your lifetime exemption. One option would be a revocable trust which makes the annual exclusion gift each year for the remainder of your life/lives. Or cut into your lifetime exclusion, if you won't need it all, ...

archbish99

We've done the buffer approach, and it works fine. That's actually how we got up to putting the maximum into the ESPP, by creating a buffer for the amount we couldn't afford yet. Main drawback is when the stock price drops just after you get it -- hold out in an attempt to sell it at the purchase FM...

archbish99

No, because in your pair of examples, money changes hands. In the OP's case, the money is already his either way. If gains are LT, probably doesn't matter, but slightly better to sell before the dividend in case some of it weren't qualified. (Unlikely, I suspect.) If gains are ST, wait and get the d...

archbish99

The argument of fee-based versus commission-based really comes down to whether the amount of effort varies based on the size of the portfolio (or house, or whatever). There's not substantially more work or knowledge involved in managing a $15M portfolio versus a $1.5M portfolio versus a $150k portfo...

archbish99

I've become a fan of Kanban for my personal work backlog. While I'm sure there are good apps for it, I've wound up just using stickies on one wall of the office, and that has worked really well for me.

archbish99

I'm also puzzled by some of the disdain I'm hearing from some who are encouraging me to move out. I don't quite understand why the negative perception is there, hence why I originally called it a stigma. As long as they encourage me to stay, I'm not mooching off my parents. They won't take my rent ...

archbish99

Yep. Pick up an HDMI-DVI cable (cablesforless.com is a good option) and you're at two. USB is relevant because most video cards can only drive two monitors, even if they have three outputs; getting a DisplayLink adapter lets you add additional monitors via USB. They're not just cables, though, and d...

archbish99

You note that your parents' culture expects you to live with them until you're married, but in the culture in which you now live, "still" living with your parents is an obstacle to relationships that could lead to marriage. Does your parents' culture also include arranged marriage by chanc...

archbish99

Why is parent assistance for children's private K-12 counted but not their assistance for children's college or graduate school? I interpreted that one differently than it appears you might have. The question as posed assumes a parental "responsibility" to provide education through grade ...

archbish99

Yes, Vanguard lets you set up direct deposit once the account is set up. They'll give you a routing and account number, and you can have your employer drop some amount in each paycheck. Alternately, you can set it up for them to debit your checking account a fixed amount periodically.

archbish99

The RC4 algorithm is pretty flawed, and has been known to be flawed for well over a decade. But using an RC4 cipher was the solution to a specific SSL attack about half a decade ago, which gave it "staying power" in the SSL realm. Essentially, RC4 is flawed, but that particular attack aga...

archbish99

If not typical, at least common. Our plan allows for the case where an ob-gyn bills a single price for all pre-natal care and the delivery. (Pre-natal care is preventative, so they assume one-third is the pre-natal and pay it before applying the rest to the deductible.) Our ob did this, and had an e...

archbish99

Yes, particularly in the situation you describe. My brother's first wife protested any time he suggested they couldn't afford to spend as much as she wanted while she just put everything on credit cards. They sought counseling, but couldn't resolve it. As the situation progressed, he took some steps...

archbish99

I'm interested in hearing about this as well -- CCRCs in general, not just this one. My parents (in SC) just visited one and were quoted an entrance fee of $200-250k, with monthly fees around $3200 for the first person and $1500 for the second. The facility would waive part of the entrance fee becau...

archbish99

There is (usually/always?) no obligation to use a lender who has pre-approved you (after all, there is no guarantee you'll find a home you want to purchase), but there will be some modest costs involved for each lender with whom you apply. So by all means, once you have made an offer, do shop aroun...

archbish99

tj wrote:My computer apparently is not eligible for the upgrade.

Why not? XP? Thinks it's pirated? Does it actually say you're not eligible, or have you just not gotten a pop-up?

archbish99

If you only expect to be in the home 10 years, price out 5/5 and 7/1 ARM options alongside the fixed rate. But if you're going to be there at least 10 years, the fixed rate is likely better. Plot the interest paid in Excel and see where the ARM costs you more in the worst case. When evaluating an AR...

archbish99

^^^ No, Microsoft decided to skip a number. I guess that "9" was too close to "8" and they wanted to make sure that everyone understood that this is a new design. :) Another rumor is that the development community wanted MS to skip Windows 9 because some application checked for ...

archbish99

My desktop is already running the preview. My wife's Surface Pro 3 will get the upgrade when it's officially released. My Media Center PC will stay on Windows 7 for the foreseeable future, until I see what solutions people find. There are lots of open-source and third-party media center programs tha...

archbish99

Yes, both claims are suspicious. If it's a UTMA account you already are the owner. The cost basis is yours -- you also are responsible to have been paying taxes on the dividends since the account was opened. In fact, it sounds like they're treating you as the beneficiary of your grandmother's accoun...

archbish99

QFC (local Kroger variety) mostly. Occasionally Safeway to grab 1-2 things if it happens to be on the way. Target has great prices for some things -- my wife tries to save purchases of cleaning products and baby formula until we're there, and dry goods like spices and cereals are often worth waiting...

archbish99

Depends on the income level of your employees, too. If they're in a high tax bracket, the ability to "pay" them in untaxed healthcare is a great giveaway. There are a lot of people at my employer who moss the days of our no-premium, no-deductible, no-copay insurance. The employer just cove...

archbish99

We have friends who didn't want her to take his name for feminist reasons, but still wanted the unity of having the same name. They both changed to one new name, and everyone's happy.

archbish99

My name is pretty standard (by which I mean American). The person across my office wall has a pretty standard Indian name. I noticed when he was transferred from the India office to the US one, he took the opportunity to flip his first and last names as presented in the company address book, so that...

archbish99

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I appreciated the feedback and it was enough for me to spend a number of hours over the last couple of weeks with the free YNAB trial. For those interested here are my thoughts: I can definitely see the value of their approach. If you want to tightly manage cash-fl...

archbish99

He needs to know when he's going to have kids of his own, because if his wife were a carrier, they'd have a 25% chance of a child with the condition. This isn't a predisposition gene, it's an actual condition gene. So not ever knowing isn't on the table, unless he becomes a monk or otherwise stays c...

archbish99

Our son was born recently, and in the process of having him, we learned that my wife is a carrier for a genetic disorder (and I am not). Therefore, there's a 50% chance that our son is also a carrier, though obviously just being a carrier has no immediate medical impact on him. We'd like to be able ...

archbish99

...then deducted $4000 times four which I know I have to pay directly if I want to qualify for the American Opportunity Credit tax credit. You may find https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=156267 to be useful -- as I read it, you can take the distribution, but choose to pay taxes on the...

archbish99

I got in the rewards game a couple of years ago and it has netted my thousands of dollars and multiple free flights and hotel stays. You need to be good at keeping track of things, but it's not to bad as long as you go at a pace that you are comfortable with. I wouldn't advise most people to do thi...

archbish99

So if I wait till 64 or 65 to collect SS I would get more of a benefit right? Yes. Your benefit is reduced if you claim before Full Retirement Age, and increased if you claim after. By waiting until 64-65 (still not FRA), you'll have less of a reduction than at 62. 62 is the minimum, 70 is the maxi...

archbish99

My wife also gets monthly birth control at $25 a pop (on health care sharing ministry, this would cost me $19 a month since it would be paid out of pocket but still from my old HSA so true cost = $25 x 75%). What would the health care ministry think of your wife taking birth control ? Don't you hav...

archbish99

Here is another take, if you were to get cancer since the ACA plans cannot exclude pre existing conditions so why not just just sign up for an ACA plan with no cap at that time? That's why they have an open-enrollment period, rather than being able to jump in at any time. If you get cancer with eno...

archbish99

The savings also come from the per-incident cap. Would a single bout with cancer be one incident? $1M+ medical expenses are rare (at age 30, especially), but that's part of what insurance is for. You're comparing catastrophic-only coverage on the exchange to coverage that only pays for small catastr...

archbish99

Quicken knows how much you spent this month in a given category, and knows how much you intend to spend in a given category. It doesn't (or didn't when I used it) deal easily with stuff that isn't monthly, or carry-over amounts from month to month. I jury-rigged a way to do it, but it was error-pron...

archbish99

Basically go Total US and International for Stock and Total US bond (with maybe a little international) for my Roth and 401k. For taxable same stock but use tax exempt intermediate for the bonds. Surprised no one else has commented, but regardless, you should probably handle your allocation across ...

archbish99

Minor bug, but the login page says:

In order to login you must be registered.

"Login" is a noun. "Log in" is a verb.

archbish99

Peterjens wrote:
Peterjens wrote:How do I mark all posts read?
Bump.

Have you tried the "Mark forums read" / "Mark topics read" link in the upper right?

archbish99

Vanguard's handling of PoAs is rather obtuse, IIRC -- they honor them only by mail, and with a separate copy of the PoA for each request. I do wonder, though, whether the PoA could be used to execute the agent form on behalf of the disabled party...? Worse is Treasury Direct -- as a federal institut...

archbish99

TIPS would guarantee you against losses to inflation, though obviously you'll pay an insurance premium in the form of negative yield on the short term ones. TIPS in combination with as many I-Bonds as you're allowed to purchase might be worthwhile, though. Looks like a 15-year TIPS ladder at that in...

archbish99

$2800 / $100/month => 28 months. If he will be in the home for 28 months and won't be able to pre-pay principal and remove PMI before 28 months, prepaying sounds worthwhile. I probably wouldn't take the higher interest rate, as that can never be removed until you move or refinance. I've made that mi...

archbish99

On a $4M trust, Vanguard's fee as asset manager would be $14,500/year, or 0.365%, in addition to the ER of the funds. The fee as trustee would be another $2,500/year. I'm sure you can find other professional trustees in other price ranges. With a lawyer, your trust might be paying hourly rather than...

archbish99

It is not like this is a choice. You must do the following: - compute standard deduction, - compute itemized deduction, - whichever is better, you take that. Um, actually, it is precisely a choice. You may itemize even if below the standard deduction (and may be required to do so in some circumstan...

archbish99

Washington, and itemize. Charitable giving, mortgage interest, property tax, and sales tax take us well past the standard deduction.

archbish99

Also, does the decision on dividend reinvestment make a difference? If you are going to track cost basis, automatic reinvestment will leave you with a whole bunch of tiny transactions that need to be dealt with. It's a lot more convenient to not reinvest distributions automatically. Direct them to ...

archbish99

I have two metrics:

If it's making the news that the markets are crashing, look to see if it's worth it.
Never close the tax year with a down position -- no matter how small, sell anything that's a loss in the last week of December.

archbish99

Roth and Traditional are the same, assuming your tax rate is the same now and in retirement . Many people opine that "taxes will only go up," which is likely true, as far as it goes. But what matters isn't "taxes," it's your marginal rate . That is, do you think a retiree on Soci...

archbish99

My recommendation is to back up all your information, then re-install windows. If you don't know how, ask someone you know or pay a professional. Note that this is built into the OS now.... Go to PC Settings, Update & Recovery, Recovery and select "Refresh my PC." Your files, most set...

archbish99

What you convert and how much you spend are separate discussions. First, decide how much you're going to spend out of your accounts -- and spending more to balance delaying your pension and SS is a good move. Spending more while you're young is also a well-known approach. That's nothing to do with R...

archbish99

Two related questions I'm hoping someone can help with: My three-month-old son will be a participant in a research study in a few weeks. In addition to reimbursing my wife's expenses to get there, we'll be paid a modest amount for his/our time. Would this be earned income for him that would enable u...

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