Search found 485 matches

by otinkyad
Wed Sep 13, 2023 11:00 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Does “decluttering” save money?
Replies: 90
Views: 12653

Re: Does “decluttering” save money?

We have decluttered every time we have moved, but not because we planned to. […] So my suggestion to you: Move across the country or overseas. When I was a young teenager, my mother and I moved house by ourselves for some reason, so we got pretty tired, and the dumpster was closer to the house than the moving truck. It was very effective. For tough sentimental items, I imagine that I’m moving overseas for 5 years, not keeping my house or renting storage, and only able to ask a single friend, sibling, or child, with overly full closets of their own, to store my belongings. I don’t always get rid of things that would be merely hard to explain (like the Christmas dinosaur lawn ornament), but often this approach allows me to let go of things I...
by otinkyad
Mon Sep 11, 2023 12:48 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Daughter and her employees have no 401K plan.
Replies: 40
Views: 2900

Re: Daughter and her employees have no 401K plan.

nasrullah wrote: Mon Sep 11, 2023 11:38 am 401Ks are a PITA (expensive, and lots of paperwork) for a small business to offer. Safe harbor rules limit the contribution and matching to 3% of salary.
Neither of these is particularly true. Paperwork is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose. There are various options, such as Employee Fiduciary, that cost a few thousand dollars a year for plan assets up to a few million dollars. There is no 3% limit, per se. 401(k) is a framework for creating plans, which may have a 3% limit but need not. The details of employee compensation and participation, and plan provider flexibility, are all part of the mix. Hiring a separate third party administrator (TPA) can provide more flexibility, and still need not cost that much.
by otinkyad
Fri Sep 08, 2023 6:19 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: VBIAX. Why not?
Replies: 70
Views: 11555

Re: VBIAX. Why not?

A two or three fund portfolio is not that much more complicated to manage. I think it is vastly more complicated. It raises issues with rebalancing, tax-efficient location, tax-loss harvesting, withdrawal strategies, behavioral mistakes, and likely more, to which this forum is dedicated. I think that nearly everyone, probably including myself, would benefit from using one fund. It also makes life easier for heirs. My IPS suggests that if I die first that my spouse should move the IRAs to Vanguard Target Retirement 2035 (VTTHX) and invest my life insurance proceeds in the Vanguard Tax-Managed Balanced fund (VTMFX). As longinvest’s thread beats to death, such a strategy is guaranteed to be neither optimal nor pessimal, and is hard to make ma...
by otinkyad
Mon Sep 04, 2023 4:44 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Stockholm itinerary review
Replies: 16
Views: 1555

Re: Stockholm itinerary review

joetro29 wrote: Sun Sep 03, 2023 11:20 am Had thought about a sightseeing pass but don't think it will be much money if any saved.

Will take public transport a bit and walk a lot.
I don’t know anything about Stockholm, but we usually get the “city”/sightseeing passes for experiential rather than monetary reasons. We don’t need to justify the entrance fees at various museums and other sites, and are much more likely to pop in to places we pass, or get to just before closing, or to see something we missed and then learned about later. We may not pay less than we would have, but we see more, with less stress about what’s worth seeing.

In some places, like Copenhagen, the cards included public transit as well.
by otinkyad
Fri Sep 01, 2023 1:59 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: HSA Bank zombie $2.50 monthly fee
Replies: 24
Views: 2914

Re: HSA Bank zombie $2.50 monthly fee

Strange that VOO wouldn’t transfer, but maybe if you were trying to transfer through HSA Bank only it makes sense. When I transferred from HSA Bank and TD Ameritrade last year, I did two separate transfers from the Fidelity side as described in the giant HSA transfer thread here, starting with TDA, so that HSA Bank wouldn’t liquidate my TDA investments. My VT and VGIT transferred in kind, with no closure fee. I lost access to TDA immediately as someone else mentioned. HSA Bank charged $25 for the second transfer. I didn’t call to see if Fidelity would pay that. I got the $150 for $50 bonus at the same time, which was good enough for me.
by otinkyad
Tue Aug 29, 2023 4:29 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Bank account for a 15 year old
Replies: 20
Views: 2338

Re: Bank account for a 15 year old

We have Capital One 360 accounts and got our teen a MONEY account there. They were supposed to transition it at 18 but neither he nor they have bothered, though he also has other checking and savings accounts there now.

The only key features for me were a debit card, ease of transfers, and visibility (though our preferred style was to let him spend his money in whatever legal and moral fashion he liked). If one of your banks offers that, I wouldn’t look elsewhere.

As far as interest rates, unless they have $10,000 or more, I don’t think the results will exciting to anyone and wouldn’t consider that important at all.
by otinkyad
Mon Aug 28, 2023 11:14 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: [Travel interests in retirement] retirement spending
Replies: 39
Views: 3307

Re: [Travel interests in retirement] retirement spending

“To travel is to live.” —Hans Christian Andersen I travel for history and culture, and by the latter I mainly mean seeing and being a part of how other people live. I’ve visited Roman ruins from the Cotswolds to southern Italy (and would like to see many more). I’ve stood on the battlefield of Waterloo, where Napoleon was defeated. I’ve been stargazing in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia (where the stars are strange, as Tolkien wrote), and gone to a concert at the Sydney Opera House. I’ve also just tried to figure out which detergent was for clothes and which for dishes, and not known what I was eating, and had to learn how to take a shower differently. For me, travel is about how connected we are to other people, everywhere, past,...
by otinkyad
Fri Aug 18, 2023 5:20 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Moving to California - What to do with HSA?
Replies: 62
Views: 6488

Re: Moving to California - What to do with HSA?

At TD Ameritrade, the annual interest, dividends, and capital gains were reported on the December statements. I moved to Fidelity last year, and the interest and dividends were there. I didn’t sell anything at Fidelity and I don’t remember if capital gains were reported.
by otinkyad
Wed Aug 16, 2023 2:08 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: SoftwareGeek's Guide to Computer Security
Replies: 608
Views: 71926

Re: SoftwareGeek's Guide to Computer Security

One thing that has been disappointing to me is Yubikey to the extent that my banks and brokerages either do not provide for Yubikey, or allow simple phone 2fa as a back up in all events. […] 1. In a sim swap, meaning a nefarious actor at the provider where even a sim lock PIN is overridden, would the authenticator information carry over in the swap, or is it unique to the OS on the device? 2. What other threat vectors are there with using an authenticator app as 2fa? I am not tech savvy, but one I realize as I type is phishing (reading the authenticator code over the phone to someone.). But are there others? I’m obliged to say that using a security key still protects you from phishing every time you use it, whereas using SMS or authenticat...
by otinkyad
Mon Aug 14, 2023 5:32 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Best USB-C hubs for Chromebook
Replies: 9
Views: 863

Re: Best USB-C hubs for Chromebook

I’ve liked Anker, too, but it’s unfortunately a space where problems are rife. All of our current hubs are Anker. Analysis paralysis is real, because any of them could be bad. The major brands all have a handful of very similar hubs, and it’s hard to figure out the differences. I haven’t looked in a year or so, but USB-C hubs with multiple USB-C ports didn’t previously exist due to issues with the underlying chipsets. We’ve had problems with power pass through hubs not supplying enough power to a MacBook Pro, but that shouldn’t be a problem with a Chromebook.
by otinkyad
Fri Aug 11, 2023 9:32 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: My elderly parents porfolio - now I have to manage it, help
Replies: 58
Views: 8078

Re: My elderly parents porfolio - now I have to manage it, help

I can’t tell if this is $1 million in investable assets or $1.6 million, plus the house. The Massachusetts estate tax kicks in at $1 million but that’s the entire value, not the excess. It’s about 4 or 5% with these assets, so worth pondering. They won’t be in the 12% brackets for long if you start selling things. As others have said, be methodical and balances gains with losses when possible. I don’t know what the current asset allocation is. It certainly isn’t zero stocks. Also, anything can lose value, to inflation if nothing else. I don’t know what the percentages on the funds are; they seem to not be % of assets or ERs. We have left a parent in CDs because that’s what their spouse invested in for 50+ years. At some point, rocking the b...
by otinkyad
Thu Aug 10, 2023 4:34 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Do we need a trust?
Replies: 158
Views: 13847

Re: Do we need a trust?

OP back here with last and very important question. I have seen mixed answers on this. If one of us is left and needing care in a nursing home for a prolonged period, can our son sell our home with POA to pay for the care? When I talked to the attorney he pretty much said good luck with that. Yeah, the attorney is probably right with that. CA title companies require a specific POA vs a general one and when I tried to sell a rental home my DH (living but out of the area) and I owned the title company would only accept a POA that was less than a year old. You can talk to a major title company like First American Title and find out for yourself. I suspect that if you don't have a Trust and are incapacitated they will require proof of conserva...
by otinkyad
Thu Jul 27, 2023 3:05 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Is YubiKey Useful with Vanguard?
Replies: 9
Views: 1521

Re: Is YubiKey Useful with Vanguard?

[Unnecessary comment removed by moderator oldcomputerguy] The use of a YubiKey is beneficial even with SMS enabled, and even if you leave the Nano in your laptop at Starbucks. Phishing is a much greater threat than SIM swaps, let alone thieves stealing your security keys. Using a security key prevents phishing, each time you use it, which SMS codes and authenticator apps do not.
by otinkyad
Mon Feb 20, 2023 1:46 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: how to register yubikey at VG
Replies: 10
Views: 1616

Re: how to register yubikey at VG

Now, next couple of questions. then tried logging in again without yubikey. It sent me a text code and we logged in as before, without a yubikey. So, I presume if we want yubikey security, we have to do away with the text code option, which we will need to know how. Also, what if this computer were to break down. Can we use the yubikey to log in from another computer? Would hate to get locked out of my account. Welcome to the quirky world of Vanguard 2FA. First, there are conflicting reports about whether having two security keys allows you to turn off SMS security codes, but due to a misfeature in the mobile app, you don’t want to do that anyway. I live with this, and take the phishing protection the security keys offer, but others switch...
by otinkyad
Sun Feb 12, 2023 3:14 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Practical issues with an unusual revocable living trust
Replies: 5
Views: 702

Re: Practical issues with an unusual revocable living trust

As of now, it's just still her account isn't it? Her login will work. Can you add yourself with POA under (on their webpage) Profile - Account Access? It's under maintenance now, but I remember there being options to do that ... not sure if POA was one though. I don't know the process after you become the trustee. But for now, there shouldn't be any trouble connecting her bank accounts. At Schwab at least, I have had zero trouble linking a RLT (under the grantor's name) to bank accounts not part of the RLT but in the grantor's name. There is no trust account now, just her IRAs at Vanguard and her bank accounts. We are her trustees (not successor trustees); she’s obviously the grantor but never was a trustee. We have transaction access at V...
by otinkyad
Sun Feb 12, 2023 1:59 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Practical issues with an unusual revocable living trust
Replies: 5
Views: 702

Practical issues with an unusual revocable living trust

My mother has dementia and two of us are her RLT trustees and durable POA. She is the grantor but is not a trustee. We don’t have any company-specific forms on file and it’s too late for that now. We’re thinking about how to arrange accounts to cope with her finances moving forward. She has accounts at a few banks and Vanguard. First issue is how to move money around and pay her bills. We can’t open a trust account at her banks, specifically because she isn’t a trustee, but Schwab, Fidelity, and Vanguard seem OK with it. Whose logins would such a trust account be accessible from? Can we connect her bank accounts (which have existing autopay arrangements) and move money from the trust account? Whose name needs to match when dealing with trus...
by otinkyad
Sat Feb 11, 2023 4:18 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: please help me get started with TV streaming
Replies: 152
Views: 18230

Re: please help me get started with TV streaming

rockstar wrote: Sat Feb 11, 2023 1:54 pm I can't believe people still DVR. I didn't realize it was still a thing.
People do, but I haven’t seen that mentioned in this thread. Streaming DVRs are essentially just bookmarks. The part I can’t fathom is services like Hulu that have “storage limits” for things they aren’t storing (separately, at least). Weird technical limits, I guess, like some streaming services won’t let you start watching a live show at the beginning, you have to wait until it ends.
by otinkyad
Tue Feb 07, 2023 9:49 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: WWII Non-Fiction Book Recs
Replies: 103
Views: 8183

Re: WWII Non-Fiction Book Recs

I’ve only read Ambrose and Beevor from your list, so I may be misreading your wishes, but they seem to be more for stories than histories. In which case, ignore these, which are my favorites, both by Jonathan House and David Glantz:

When Titans Clashed
The Battle of Kursk
by otinkyad
Sat Feb 04, 2023 4:05 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: PSA - LastPass breach!
Replies: 718
Views: 65046

Re: PSA - LastPass breach!

mptfan wrote: Sat Feb 04, 2023 8:47 am
otinkyad wrote: Sat Feb 04, 2023 2:26 am Along with the standard recommendation not to use your password manager for authentication codes...
Is this the standard recommendation? What is your source?
By standard, I meant usual, for example, in most reviews of password managers. Even in this thread, it has been mentioned repeatedly that even if your vault is decrypted, accounts with 2FA remain secure. That is not the case if your TOTP secret keys (or, as I was saying, your security answers or backup codes) are in your vault. It’s the usual trade-off between security and convenience.
by otinkyad
Sat Feb 04, 2023 2:26 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: PSA - LastPass breach!
Replies: 718
Views: 65046

Re: PSA - LastPass breach!

If you're going that route, you need to change your security questions too if you haven't done so. Along with the standard recommendation not to use your password manager for authentication codes, you really shouldn’t store answers to security questions or backup codes there, either. I suppose a nice feature would be a second master password for them, but just using another password manager that you rarely need to use seems OK. We’re just using paper for now. We’re migrating to 1Password from various things and adding authenticators and security keys to everything we can. I noticed that I have a bunch of security answers for sites that don’t appear to use them any more, but it’s hard to know for sure. We haven’t yet changed providers over ...
by otinkyad
Fri Feb 03, 2023 10:39 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: 1Password experience and question
Replies: 27
Views: 2560

Re: 1Password experience and question

I mentioned elsewhere I had no issues going from LastPass to 1Password except on my ipad. So far no matter what I try, it wants my master password on every single login. I'm hoping it will fix itself otherwise I'll just keychain. My masterpassword is quite long and typing it on a computer isn't too bad but typing it on a phone or ipad gets painful quickly and I don't like to use faceID or the fingerprint, I prefer using a pin/password. I had the same experience and preferences. My Apple ID password is designed for typing on the phone, but I forgot that with my 1Password master password. I caved to using Touch ID only for 1Password. I noticed that Chrome started using it for auto filling passwords, too, even though I have that setting turne...
by otinkyad
Fri Feb 03, 2023 5:40 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: First timer - London in June?
Replies: 66
Views: 5797

Re: First timer - London in June?

Lots of good stuff. Both London and outside of London have enough to see for a lifetime. A few I haven’t seen mentioned that our kids like are the RAF Museum London, the IWM Duxford near Cambridge, especially if there’s an air show, and Old Sarum near Stonehenge. We check the English Heritage site if we’re driving and usually find something nearby.
by otinkyad
Thu Feb 02, 2023 2:51 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: 1Password experience and question
Replies: 27
Views: 2560

Re: 1Password experience and question

The Chrome export is awful. The export CSV file has a line for each URL, so you get duplicate entries in 1Password. You could edit the CSV file to fix that part (I didn’t see a way to do bill deletes in 1Password, but I don’t have the app). It also uses the hostnames instead of the site name that 1Password would have picked by default. I also had issues where the stored URL in Chrome was obsolete. I ended up with a manual process of copying the password, opening the site, deleting the password so that 1Password would save the credentials, and pasting the password into the save dialog. Yeah. I’ve seen some sites where 1Password doesn’t pop up the “button” to fill the credentials, but it does have the icon in the text field, and you can use t...
by otinkyad
Sat Jan 28, 2023 10:32 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: one-week trip to Europe in July
Replies: 30
Views: 3002

Re: one-week trip to Europe in July

London Bridge Surely you mean Tower Bridge. London Bridge is possibly the most boring bridge in the city. I like the London Eye, but I’d definitely trade it for the Globe Theatre and maybe a Thames cruise to Tower Bridge or all the way to Greenwich. Last year I spent more than a week in the British Museum alone, and still only saw a dozen of the hundred rooms. Even just the Rosetta Stone, Elgin Marbles, and the rest of that side of the main floor is worth the trip, though. I’d take the Eurostar to Paris (despite being a boring train ride), and fly home from there. The overhead of extra flights and trains to Geneva and Zermatt seems too much on such a short trip. Certainly, I would go somewhere you could open jaw the flight home (or at leas...
by otinkyad
Tue Jan 24, 2023 6:07 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Inputs needed: France in Summer 23
Replies: 19
Views: 2294

Re: Inputs needed: France in Summer 23

I would pick two places to stay, with day trips. We liked to see things our kids had learned about in school, such as the Tower of London, the Waterloo battlefield near Brussels, and Napoleon’s Tomb in Paris. We started with 9 days in London and Paris at ages 6 and 8, and it worked a treat, but our 6-year-old was teed up with Henry VIII and Napoleon in school, and was reading the first 39 Clues book, so he had some idea of what he was seeing. The Midi Fair in Brussels was a delight, although it runs later in the summer during the more crowded school holidays. Mini-Europe is a short walk from the Atomium, and I feel like the adjacent shops had more to offer than we saw. Parks in Paris (and France, generally) frown on playing on the grass. Th...
by otinkyad
Tue Jan 10, 2023 5:35 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Revocable Trust IRA Beneficiaries:
Replies: 36
Views: 3301

Re: Revocable Trust IRA Beneficiaries:

You could name a revocable trust as beneficiary of an IRA, but since a revocable trust is an administrative trust which will wind up, it wouldn't serve any purpose other than to add complexity. You could simply name the beneficiaries of the revocable trust (either individuals or continuing trusts) as the beneficiaries of the IRA. The beneficiary designations at many brokerages are fairly limited. They handle a contingent chain of 100% beneficiaries, or a set of beneficiaries with fixed percentages and descendants per stirpes, but not much else. Vanguard, Fidelity, and Schwab have much the same rules for most customers. Vanguard used to allow Flagship customers more flexibility, but I think it now requires Flagship Select status. I don’t kn...
by otinkyad
Sun Jan 08, 2023 4:26 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Travel luggage preferences
Replies: 58
Views: 4988

Re: Travel luggage preferences

It depends on the nature of the trip. For a multi-city tour in the summer, I’ll take a soft convertible bag (we have a Tom Bihn and a Timbuk2). For most trips, I check a bag and carry-on a small personal item. For extended international trips, I’ll take all three, packing enough in the Tom Bihn to cope if my checked bag is lost, and using it for overnight sub-trips. For family trips, in particular, checking bags was easier than wrangling kids plus carry-ons.
by otinkyad
Sun Jan 08, 2023 3:17 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Let kids spend freely?
Replies: 39
Views: 5861

Re: Let kids spend freely?

i grew up in a very frugal lower-middle class household, and my parents always said no and my delayed gratification skills are extraordinary. these skills may have worked for me as a broke college student, but they don't anymore when i'm in the highest earning years of my career. Same here. When I was a kid, “we can’t afford that” was a refrain. I realized when my kids started wanting things in stores that “we can’t afford that” was untrue, and I didn’t think that nuanced discussions of how I spent money were going to be effective. Our denials seemed aggravating and random to the kids. That’s why we gave them allowances and told them they could buy whatever they wanted to spend their money on. It was astonishingly intuitive for them at fai...
by otinkyad
Sun Jan 08, 2023 2:15 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Estate Planning young kids and when to pay out
Replies: 104
Views: 8832

Re: Estate Planning young kids and when to pay out

You'd include a statement of intent so that the corporate trustees understand that it's your intent to allow such distributions and even encouraged. Or not because you care more about legacy planning. That said, I find your scenario unlikely. Hems is extremely broad. She can pay for all of her living expenses via that standard. As such she can plow all of the business profits back in. Also, she should be able to secure a business loan and the trustee is more likely to approve a smaller down payment distribution. Another solution is she finds a directed trustee firm. I don’t find it unlikely. I started two businesses in my twenties, and neither was prudent or loan worthy. Both were decent ideas that could have worked with more money. That’s...
by otinkyad
Sun Jan 08, 2023 1:26 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Let kids spend freely?
Replies: 39
Views: 5861

Re: Let kids spend freely?

It was mostly their free choice on spending their allowances starting around age 6 or 7. We gave advice and said we would veto things we didn’t think they should have, but never needed to. We didn’t include food; they couldn’t buy ice cream or candy just because they had money. Books (except comics and graphic novels) and souvenir T-shirts were free. We paid for phone lines and they paid for phones. We used Bankaroo so that all of us could see how much the kids had, to automate their allowance, and to avoid needing them to carry cash or for us to remember to settle later. We switched to Capital One MONEY accounts when they were older and needed to pay for things themselves. We ended up with a saver and a spender, but neither one bought friv...
by otinkyad
Thu Jan 05, 2023 10:47 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: My nephew was asking about getting a pre-nup
Replies: 126
Views: 12266

Re: My nephew was asking about getting a pre-nup

I haven’t seen any suggestions for what such a prenup should say. For late-in-life marriages with existing assets and children, both the need for and content of prenups is pretty clear. In the case of early-in-life marriages with low assets and no children, just unequal salaries and (possibly) unequal earning potential, what would you agree to?
by otinkyad
Thu Jan 05, 2023 9:59 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Estate Planning young kids and when to pay out
Replies: 104
Views: 8832

Re: Estate Planning young kids and when to pay out

We were only offered the (sub-)standard 25/30/35 formula, and went went full distribution at 25. The idea of trying to control people’s lives while dead was not appealing. The living will have to cope. Yes, though in most cases the child gets to control his/her trust upon reaching a specified age so at that point the trust is to keep the assets out of the child's estate for estate tax purposes and to protect against creditors and spouses, and Medicaid. Since then, I’ve been reading this take a lot, and I struggle with it. The appeal of it is obvious, and the nuisance of finding an appropriate co-trustee seems real (and is much debated in this forum). What I struggle with, though, is that the last phrase essentially reads as “protect against...
by otinkyad
Mon Jan 02, 2023 3:22 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: College Tuition Agreement With Children?
Replies: 140
Views: 12436

Re: College Tuition Agreement With Children?

Child #3, struggled with grades and mental health throughout her college experience. First, we paid for another semester even with bad grades so did not stick to our agreement. Later I refused to pay for the next semester due to bad grades. She waited a semester and then re-enrolled with my support. Finally her scholarship ran out. A this point she was 22 and Vanguard required the UTMA funds be transferred to her direct control. She paid for an extremely expensive 9th semester with the last the 529 and the UTMA funds. She was scheduled to graduate, but failed every class except one. At this point her 529 money is spent and she has control of her remaining UTMA money. She now works as a teacher assistant. She is looking for jobs in her fiel...
by otinkyad
Mon Jan 02, 2023 2:45 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: IPad WiFi From IPhone
Replies: 10
Views: 698

Re: IPad WiFi From IPhone

My in-laws use a prepaid Verizon Jetpack, but that supports two iPads and two laptops in their case. For just one iPad, it won’t save money.
by otinkyad
Mon Jan 02, 2023 2:36 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: New AA: Rebalance or change future contributions?
Replies: 3
Views: 420

Re: New AA: Rebalance or change future contributions?

We just used the age-based funds, which were not quite what I wanted, even after choosing “ages” based on the allocation and not the kids. There are lots of things to worry about in life; rebalancing the 529s didn’t feel worth the time. It’s certainly possible to avoid bonds if you can cover stock losses. Bonds are a bit like insurance, they’re likely to just cost money, and are intended to avoid losses you can’t recover from. We’re certainly saving money having bonds in the 529 now, even with the terrible year, but I doubt it pays for having them the past seven years. I did it for peace of mind and so my spouse didn’t glare at me, not financial gain. Unless you have a state deduction, the tax benefits of contributing to a 529 later on, cer...
by otinkyad
Mon Jan 02, 2023 2:00 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Vanguard Brokerage versus Mutual Fund Account Decision thread
Replies: 347
Views: 41708

Re: Vanguard Brokerage versus Mutual Fund Account Decision thread

jeffyscott wrote: Mon Jan 02, 2023 10:10 am
riverratnorthfork wrote: Mon Jan 02, 2023 8:47 am One change that Vanguard doesn't mention in their literature is that they do not allow brokerage accounts to have beneficiaries.
So they did allow beneficiaries on joint mutual fund accounts?
Sometimes. Whatever the rules were, it had something to do with the timing and balance. We never had the option on our joint mutual fund account, but others did.

My own laziness is in solving this by replacing our joint mutual fund account with a trust brokerage account.
by otinkyad
Mon Jan 02, 2023 4:25 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Do individual AA's matter in a couple w merged finances
Replies: 5
Views: 770

Re: Do individual AA's matter in a couple w merged finances

There are other threads here on similar topics that might be interesting.

We’re the same age, I manage the finances, and I maintain the same AA for each of us, just to avoid any possible conflicts about one of us gaining or losing more. Different investment choices (401k funds, etc.) could easily tip the boat, but we don’t have that issue. With even a 4-year difference in ages, there may be tactical reasons for a difference, like SEPPs, Roth conversions, RMDs, etc. I don’t think there are any hard rules, it’s just what works for both of you.
by otinkyad
Mon Jan 02, 2023 4:00 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: College Tuition Agreement With Children?
Replies: 140
Views: 12436

Re: College Tuition Agreement With Children?

Our parenting style is support and advice. No strings for grades, majors, or cost. We discussed our willingness to pay for a major and a university we thought they could succeed at, and how they could be useful for potential careers. It was neither a blank check nor a fixed price. We do have a “we’re paying, we see your grades” rule, but with no repercussions, just our best efforts to help them improve if necessary.

Many variations will work, but honestly the only ones that matter are the ones that work for your kids. Kids are not fungible. Under many of the plans espoused here on Bogleheads, our kids would be homeless dropouts. YMMV.
by otinkyad
Sun Jan 01, 2023 9:29 am
Forum: Forum Issues and Administration
Topic: Open Links in New Tab/Window
Replies: 23
Views: 8033

Re: Open Links in New Tab/Window

None of the forums I read open a new tab (or worse, window). That would drive me nuts, whereas clicking links with the middle button is trivial if desired.
by otinkyad
Wed Dec 21, 2022 5:58 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Anniversary Trip: Australia or Japan?
Replies: 32
Views: 2305

Re: Anniversary Trip: Australia or Japan?

I’ve enjoyed 9 day trips to both Japan (Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima) and Australia (Sydney and the Blue Mountains). They were both lovely and completely different. I didn’t have much jet lag on either trip, though I recommend 787 or A350 flights.

I don’t see how strangers could possibly pick one for you. I haven’t been to New Zealand, so I’d go there.
by otinkyad
Sat Dec 10, 2022 8:43 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Gmail account security question
Replies: 42
Views: 5014

Re: Gmail account security question

tibbitts wrote: Wed Dec 07, 2022 2:59 pm Recently I became aware of someone […]

Does anybody else find this surprising (or not), and what (other than maybe using an authenticator service vs. texting for a 2nd factor) should have been done to secure the second (new) account?
So a possibly apocryphal story, possibly with elements missing. My main suspicion would be on a compromised device, not a SIM swap or GMail security.

The obvious step for improved GMail security is to use two security keys and disable security codes (both texts and authenticator apps). I haven’t tried the Advanced Protection Program myself, but this is a required step in that direction.
by otinkyad
Sat Dec 10, 2022 5:38 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Confused about VPN
Replies: 42
Views: 3915

Re: Confused about VPN

I don’t quite get the bit I’ve read about DPI retrieving matching pages, since it only knows the destination IP address and not the host or URL path/query. Any good primers on how all of this works? If you decrypt an HTTPS session, [[…]] So you’ve assumed the miracle, in the absence of controlling the browser’s trusted root CAs. If you can decrypt the HTTPS traffic, why bother fetching pages in the background? I was also asking about the entirety of DPI and intercepting HTTPS communications, not just the page-fetching I read about, but I still don’t get that, either. Pretty much any website you connect to has load-balancers in front of it that terminate the HTTPS session and look at the URI in the headers to make routing/forwarding decisio...
by otinkyad
Fri Dec 09, 2022 10:42 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Gmail account security question
Replies: 42
Views: 5014

Re: Gmail account security question

brad.clarkston wrote: Thu Dec 08, 2022 2:23 pm Your 2FA token will do nothing to protect you from Google selling full e-mail scanning to any company that pays there price - end of story. This has been proven by the WSJ and AP multiple times. By e-mail scanning I mean a 3-rd party company (not a government) scanning private and business e-mail for keywords to run market analytics on or selling customer purchase information.
Do you sources for this (preferably other than the WSJ due to their paywall)? All I could find, some of it referencing the WSJ, were references to user-approved apps like travel planners. Your message seems to suggest stuff that users didn’t install and can’t remove, which I haven’t found a mention of.
by otinkyad
Fri Dec 09, 2022 10:33 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Confused about VPN
Replies: 42
Views: 3915

Re: Confused about VPN

Not true, your telco is a full man in the middle attack and it works against straight port encryption. We use F5 Big Iron & IPS switches to deconstruct 443/8443 packets in flight all day long. They get depacted, inspected, put back together and then sent on there way without you ever knowing it all for homeland security. I build those types of security systems for a living btw. I don’t want to derail this thread too much, but I’d appreciate pointers on that. I get how trusted self-signed certificates could work in a corporate environment, and how many kinds of metadata are available to sniff. I don’t quite get the bit I’ve read about DPI retrieving matching pages, since it only knows the destination IP address and not the host or URL p...
by otinkyad
Fri Dec 09, 2022 10:23 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Confused about VPN
Replies: 42
Views: 3915

Re: Confused about VPN

It is possible to specify a different DNS and then your ISP won't know what website you are visiting. That’s false. Not only can they see the DNS request go by, but all your traffic is routed by your ISP. Unless you use a VPN or similar, they have to know where your request is going. HTTPS is better with HTTPS-only mode and DNS over HTTPS (which still doesn’t hide your visited web sites from your ISP, it just makes it much harder for a random WiFi router to give you bogus DNS answers). Those are still optional add-one, not defaults. At that point, though, I don’t really trust VPNs enough to bother. At the moment, the ISPs and other main infrastructure like Google are large, well-known, well-probed, do what they do at huge scale, are under ...
by otinkyad
Fri Dec 09, 2022 4:46 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Vanguard takes away access to online statements within days of account transfer
Replies: 27
Views: 11058

Re: Vanguard takes away access to online statements within days of account transfer

TD Ameritrade just shut off my online login entirely less than 24 hours after Fidelity got my transfer. Stray dividends and the cost basis do follow along later.
by otinkyad
Fri Dec 09, 2022 2:24 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Minor Travel Consent Form
Replies: 14
Views: 1765

Re: Minor Travel Consent Form

This is from an earlier thread I posted on. As I said elsewhere, I’ve been asked for them twice.

viewtopic.php?t=376260
It’s just a free-form letter that says your children have permission to travel with their other parent. We’ve included relationships (“their father and my husband”), passport details (full name, country, number, expiration date), and itinerary (dates, cities, and flights). We’ve just had them notarized with older kids. With younger kids or when traveling with my niece, we got an apostille, which is a government seal confirming that the notary is registered. You might find templates in various places (government, AAA, travel agents).
by otinkyad
Sat Dec 03, 2022 4:22 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Should the average user be concerned about port scanning?
Replies: 49
Views: 4970

Re: Should the average user be concerned about port scanning?

So, brief summary: External port scanning is bad. Any modern router will block external port scans. It's not what this thread is about. JavaScript port scanning is what this thread is about. It's minimally an invasion of privacy by retailers trying to fingerprint my computer or detect possible breaches by scanning my computer without my permission. uBlock Origin will stop a few good guys from using JavaScript port scanning. It won't stop most bad guys. JavaScript WebSockets are limited and make exploiting vulnerabilities difficult. It is, however, not at all hard to believe that some network services on your computer or home network are vulnerable to crafted HTTP requests, even if they aren't web services. Given the apparent lack of protect...
by otinkyad
Fri Dec 02, 2022 8:36 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Should the average user be concerned about port scanning?
Replies: 49
Views: 4970

Re: Should the average user be concerned about port scanning?

gavinsiu wrote: Fri Dec 02, 2022 7:26 pm
otinkyad wrote: Fri Dec 02, 2022 5:59 pm Do you have a reference for this? All I could find was that it blocks some of the popular scripts that do such checking, not that it blocks all of them or directly blocks local web sockets.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/s ... ost-sites/
So no, it doesn’t block the scans, just some of the scripts that do that scans.
by otinkyad
Fri Dec 02, 2022 7:22 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Help figuring out 529 plan investing strategy
Replies: 12
Views: 1384

Re: Help figuring out 529 plan investing strategy

maineeagle wrote: Fri Dec 02, 2022 5:08 pm I would prefer an approach that does not require rebalancing frequently. I ordinarily would have chosen target date funds for the simplicity but they seem very conservative (for example would invest in 27% bonds starting in year 6 of the child’s life).
I agree with others that given the timeline, 27% in bonds 12 years out is perfectly sane. However, if you prefer, does your 529 plan allow you to pick a later date? The new Vanguard Target Enrollment plans were a smidge too conservative for me, so I picked one two years later.