BusinessWeek recently posted an interesting article discussing some strategies used by the ultra wealthy to avoid paying taxes.Â* Some of these techniques hold lessons which are useful for more than just the ultra wealthy.Â* And several of them are simply about avoiding estate taxes rather than...

I have been thinking more about allocation from an entire asset point of view. Now that I am closer to retirement age and unemployed, I am trying to do a better job looking at allocation then I had previously done. I recall reading that it's better to re-balance within non-taxable funds to...

Every year, I get a statement titled "Your Social Security Statement" which details all of my earnings since I started paying social security taxes and provides a summary of benefits I would be eligible for in various scenarios. I didn't get that statement last year (2011). Has something changed...

I have always considered it bad to reinvest distributions in mutual funds, and new tax rules will make it a worse nightma...

I am still here running Microsoft Money sunset. It no longer automatically imports data from financial institutions. Any recommendations for tools that do not require a lot of manual entry? Should I convert to quicken? It would be nice if I could get a quick picture of my credit union, TD...

On years with lumps of income I used to smooth it out federally by paying state income tax prepayment due Jan 15 earlier at Dec 30 and increasing it. Maybe just moving it helps, due to it vanishing from that years deductions and appearing in the year that you most need deductions. Helps for...

I have two condominiums I rent out. My understanding was my condo fees covered insurance of everything outside my walls. But my realtor told me I should still have home owner insurance in case I create some problem for other units due to issues with the interior of my unit. Is this correct? If so,...

Misc.invest.financial-plan is a *moderated* newsgroup, meaning moderators review posts to assure compliance with the newsgroup's guidelines. In general you can expect that any well-tempered post dealing with general financial planning will be posted. Further: 1. Posters should trim posts to which...

Currently have a couple of CD's with Ally bank in a ladder. http://www.ally.com/bank/high-yield-cd/index.html#CP=75125275%3B0&tabs=rates As the first CD is coming due in June, was wondering about a comment that I read. Instead of going with the 1yr @ 1.0%, go with the 5yr @ 1.74% and forfeit...

Was just reviewing our NW Mutual life insurance, that has a larger term life + smaller whole life I was curious about the whole life, since it has the death benefit + cash value. Here are the last 4 years of death + cash value, and was wondering.... is the $2k worth it ? 2011 - $160k - $70k

An experimental tool I created is available: http://stockato.com/ The user needs to specify the symbol of one mutual fund/etf to receive similarly behaving other financial instruments. In case similarly behaving patterns are found, the user receives information on their benefits (for example,...

Morningstar article on dependent-care FSA vs taxÂ*credit A must-read for anyone with kids in daycare, with a nanny, etc. http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=539497 In particular, there are some great examples of how much less is going to be paid in taxes one way vs. other. The...

The first race of Melbourne Cup has been held in 1861 and in those days it was held over two miles that is about 3,218 meters but Australia converted this running distance into metric system since 1970s and after 1972 it was held in 3,200 meters.To participate in this race, the horses should be at...

Hello, Using Vanguard, what would be best for a taxable account? Tax managed funds, index funds, ETFs, or is there something better? Looking for something long term but still able to be liquidated if we should need the money. Not looking for anything too complicated or will cause too many...

Several years ago, folks on this forum provided extensive advice to me as I was first authoring the Visible Policy site: * http://r0k.us/insurance/vp/ It is a detailed analysis of my whole life insurance policy from New York Life. I should update it each year as a new annual statement arrives,...

Should investors in TIPs reduce their holdings, as a bond sell off is predicted? Or, would it be worth holding them for future inflation hedge? Mig

QCDs are a direct donation to an established charity from an IRA without impacting Adjusted Gross Income. It does count toward Required Minimum Distibution. It appears they may be renewed: http://www.kiplinger.com/columns/ask/archive/do-not-transfer-ira-distributions-to-charity-yet.html Parts 1...

News is obam wants to tax corp debt higher to pay for a lower corp income tax. If so what does this do owners of existing bonds, such as value and yield of lqd? Also are there any funds of puerto rican bonds, which are triple tax free? They have 4 ish yields as is suited for the shakey greece of...

I'm sure most of you saw this, but just in case... http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/02/pf/efficient_market.moneymag/index.htm Quick summary: Andrew Lo (MIT economist) says technology is one of the major driving forces of stock market volatility. And volatility is so high now that buy-and-hold...

Major piece in today's Wall Street Journal, "Why Stocks are Riskier Than You Think" by Zvi Bodie and Rachelle Taqqu http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204795304577221052377253224.html?mod=googlenews_wsj (Of course, Bodie and Taqqu are also hoping that this article will lead a lof...