Dominique Simonian

Comments:

• You have made a big difference in my life - I used to be nervous making decisions on finances, but you made things easy to understand and gave me confidence. Thanks for all you have done for so many of us.

  Post: No Regrets

  Link to comment from September 7, 2024

• We do the same! The 5% Amazon credit card discount also applies to Whole Foods and Whole Foods frequently has additional discounts on items for Prime members.

  Post: Best/worst deals at Costco

  Link to comment from July 22, 2024

• Thank you for such a beautiful story, you put into words my feeling for this site and Jonathan. I hope you still paid Michael. I know what his mother said but the agreement was in advance of the trip and that kind of money is very significant to a young person.

  Post: What Friends Do

  Link to comment from July 3, 2024

• • While reading on the internet an article of interest pops up, click to read and you find you can’t till you subscribe to the newspaper or magazine –  never, just based on principle.
  To get around paywalls, try this site. Copy the article address and open this site: https://archive.ph/ Paste the address into the black “I want to search the archive for saved snapshots” bar. If the article you’re trying to bypass isn’t already archived, then put the address into the red “My URL is alive and I want to archive its content” bar.  I occasionally use this, but most articles I'm interested in reading are available on my library's online access to digital copies of Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, etc.

  Post: Monday is a good day for a rant. Let’s talk everything annoying. People, money, people

  Link to comment from June 24, 2024

• Regarding the couple "who cashed out their entire six-figure retirement account from a former employer, without understanding the tax consequences." I volunteer for AARP Tax Aide also and had a young couple come in this year where the husband had recently left his job and done the same thing (although it was not near six-figures). It was the first time in my life I literally saw someone turn white, when I explained the tax and penalty consequences. Fortunately, he was within the 60 day period to roll the money into an IRA account and they had not yet bought the boat they were planning to use the money for.

  Post: Many Unhappy Returns

  Link to comment from June 19, 2024

• I also volunteer for AARP Tax Aide. Most returns are pretty straightforward but we are not trained to prepare things like rental income, farm income, certain K-1 income, AMT, etc. You might want to check if your somewhat-complex taxes, as you describe, are in scope for the service.

  Post: Many Unhappy Returns

  Link to comment from June 19, 2024

• The tax deferred retirement plans like 401K, 403B, 457's etc. have also been a great way to shelter income from taxes. I see that the government has decided too much sheltering was taking place, first passing the SECURE act which forces many retirement plan beneficiaries into taking the entire inherited amount out in 10 years, sometimes with nasty tax consequences. And in 2026, savers aged 50+ making more than $145K/year in wages will no longer be able to make catch-up contributions to pre-tax accounts and will have to put the catch-up contribution in a ROTH account, losing the tax deduction.

  Post: Could Be Better

  Link to comment from April 21, 2024

• Regarding whole life insurance, a business does not have to be very large to benefit from a policy. My in-laws owned a small farm in Central California that supported them in a middle-class lifestyle. But land is expensive in California. My in-laws had a second to die whole life policy in an irrevocable life insurance trust. When my mother-in-law died the family could not have kept the farm if the policy had not existed to pay the estate taxes.

  Post: Almost True

  Link to comment from April 17, 2024

• Keep a record of your expenses and budget. I always save at least 10% of my income. Usually much more than that, maxing my company's 457 plan and funding a traditional IRA also (we need the tax break). It doesn't matter how I choose to spend my money if I see my savings increase each month.

  Post: What popular financial advice do you ignore?

  Link to comment from March 16, 2024

• As you point out, Wayne had assets at risk, since Apple originally formed as a partnership. When shortly later Apple incorporated, Jobs asked Wayne to return but he was not interested. I've never heard that Wayne had an issue with Job's personality.

  Post: Easily Avoided

  Link to comment from February 22, 2024