Passkeys, anyone? by 1PF
14 replies
AUTHOR: 1PF on 11/30/2024
FIRST: David Lancaster on 11/30/2024 | RECENT: mytimetotravel on 12/1/2024
Do you favor mutual funds or ETFs?
5 replies
AUTHOR: 1PF on 6/26/2024
FIRST: Jonathan Clements on 6/27/2024 | RECENT: David Powell on 6/30/2024
Comments
Yep, that's my point. You see it one way. Depending on definition and context, someone else might see it another way. That doesn't mean one way is right and the other way is wrong.
Post: How important is Social Security?
Link to comment from February 8, 2025
I queried an AI (in this instance, Perplexity) whether person X's RMD should be included as income along with Social Security retirement benefit, portfolio earnings, and annuity payments. I stated that the calculation is to determine not what the taxable income total is but simply what percentage of income the Social Security benefit represented in the budget. The answer was yes. When I edited the query to include that X does not need the RMD and donates it as a QCD, the answer was no. So to this AI, at least, and I'm guessing also to HD readers' minds, it's all about definition and context.
Post: How important is Social Security?
Link to comment from February 8, 2025
I'm not sure why the prevailing opinion of Vanguard's customer service is low. The one time I needed to contact Vanguard on the phone, to transfer my investments from TIAA to Vanguard upon retirement, the rep helped seamlessly. For everything else, I've been able to do all transactions via the Vanguard website with no trouble. So for me, it's been fine. Maybe lucky?
Post: Some Good News
Link to comment from February 3, 2025
Great question, Marjorie! I retired from academia in summer 2021 and moved immediately to my CCRC. I've been catching up after the chaos of the pandemic years. Perhaps the following can count as hobbies. Since I'm an introvert, my activities hew toward alone time. I get all the socialization I care to have by helping residents solve their tech problems four afternoons a week plus occasional emergencies. I'm the contact person for the resident tech volunteer group, and I do the triage and follow-up. After a hip replacement and two cataract surgeries in my year of "deferred health maintenance" in 2022, I feel like the old/young/new me. So now I get exercise by walking fast and in good weather by riding my racing-adjacent trike, not only around the CCRC campus and to residents' cottages or apartments for the tech help but also to my college town a mile away for faith-based meetings. For additional volunteering — it's a big deal here — I proofread a couple different resident-produced newsletters, and I maintain a database and produce an annual document listing residents willing to talk informally with other residents about their experiences with medical conditions. I keep my mornings and evenings for reading HumbleDollar and whatever else catches my interest online, doing many different puzzles, refreshing my languages on Duolingo and Anki, and reading library books online borrowed via Libby — whatever I can do to ward off cognitive decline. I did revisit one old hobby: I dug out my crochet hooks, taught myself three new stitches (thanks, YouTube), and made a winter hat making up my own pattern. One of these days I'll get to the pool here. When the dining room menus are too high in saturated fat for my taste or contain condiments I dislike, I enjoy cooking some simple supplements to the always-available carry-out items; for example, I make Greek yogurt a gallon at a time in the Instant Pot. Not sure whether any of this gives readers new ideas, but it's making me happy. Just yesterday two people commented how much they appreciate seeing me always smiling.
Post: A Balanced Retirement by Marjorie Kondrack
Link to comment from January 29, 2025
"... within six years of starting, I collected benefits (including spousal benefit) equal to all the taxes I and employers paid since 1959." Just curious about the amounts you were using in your calculation: Did you convert into current dollars each year's tax paid and each year's benefit received?
Post: Should Social Security benefits be income tax free?
Link to comment from January 27, 2025
I've thought a lot about this question, as I talk with friends who have not yet retired. For me, having enough money meant I could move to a CCRC when I retired, which has simplified my life, thus reducing stress. In particular, aside from several of the answers you listed, I'd say being able to get enough sleep and not having to wake up to an alarm.
Post: What Drives You? By Jonathan Clements
Link to comment from January 24, 2025
In #2, another part of Bengen's 4% "rule" that's often overlooked is the portfolio composition used in his analysis: 50% common stocks, 50% intermediate-term U.S. treasury bonds.
Post: Reality Check
Link to comment from January 19, 2025
"Last but not least, there is gratitude." Agreed! Hanging on my wall for decades, reminding me every day, has been a calligraphic rendering of the first lines of the poem "Gratefulnesse" by George Herbert (d. 1633) with "me" changed to "us": "Thou hast given so much to us Give one thing more A grateful heart."
Post: The Burgeoning Boomers, by Marjorie Kondrack.
Link to comment from January 15, 2025
At retirement from teaching in 2021 at age 70 my portfolio was all in Vanguard: roughly 30% stock index funds, 65% bond index funds, 5% cash reserves. The bond index funds are all in my IRA: intermediate-term treasurys and short-term TIPS. My plan has been to use a rising glide path, taking RMDs from the bond funds. I would budget how much to use from the RMD for expenses and invest the rest in the index-adjacent tax-managed stock fund in my taxable account. The other stock funds are mostly in the Roth IRA, along with a small portion in the IRA and now building up in the taxable account. My stock funds are now up to 44% of the portfolio. How much to budget? I wanted something simple. I originally intended to follow the plan in Bud Hebeler's article "Marriage of two simple planning methods gets happy results" on his AnalyzeNow website. Then I landed on Larry Sayler's article "Our Exit Strategy" here on HumbleDollar. Having Social Security, a SPIA, and eventual payout from a QLAC, I felt comfortable reducing the 3% in his plan to 2.5%. So far, so good. Thanks, Larry!
Post: Spending It
Link to comment from January 11, 2025
Ok, I'll say it: Switch to Vanguard?
Post: Fidelity Brokerage Cash Interest Rate Changes
Link to comment from January 10, 2025