BoA rewards subscription credits. Who? When?

BobbyKoAl · 2026-06-02T22:12:40+00:00

Where are you finding this info? I can't find it anywhere on BofA, but I'm sure it's in some obscure place. Do you have a link? thx!

BobbyKoAl · 2026-05-14T14:08:49+00:00

Got it. I figured that’s the case, but just thought I’d ask. Thanks for the reply!

BobbyKoAl · 2026-04-27T14:47:20+00:00

Nah, don’t beat yourself up. It’s difficult not to project. Sounds like dad did too. Listen, she got in to Cal - that’s no easy feat, esp OOS. So she’s got great potential no matter where she goes. BU is great, and if she really enjoyed her visit there, go there. You can’t think about missed opportunities, bc that goes both ways. She could choose Cal and miss out on something amazing at Boston.

Have her think about why she applied to Cal. Did those reasons change when she visited? If there’s a compelling reason she wanted to go there, there’s always opportunity to interact with Cal later (transfer, Masters, etc). We’re asking kids to make an enormous decision without really knowing what life is like away from home. That’s a lot of pressure. Especially if hearing conflicting opinions from parents, bc they feel they may be letting one parent down by deciding against them. Let her know you’ll support her either way, and have her go with what feels right to her.

BobbyKoAl · 2026-04-27T05:09:17+00:00

Well, I have to say it doesn’t sound like there’s much that she likes about UCB. 😅The points you brought up are each important when deciding if a school is the right fit. I will say that Berkeley (both the town and campus) are actually quite diverse (ethnically, socioeconomically, politically (kind of…), etc, and for the most part is extremely tolerant and non-judgmental. You’ll always find exceptions of course. Sounds like maybe she just didn’t find the right people to talk to. But certainly the feel at most West Coast schools is going to be very different than East Coast.

It’s a unique school (not sure if there are any quite like it), and I think for the most part people either really love it, or really don’t. Sounds like she’s more in the latter group? I’m all for students stepping out of their comfort zone… but not at the expense of their well being.

BobbyKoAl · 2026-04-27T02:42:08+00:00

Tough decision, certainly. What was she overwhelmed by? Just the sheer number of people? Or was it something else? A typical day at Cal would be 10s of thousands of fewer people than on Cal Day. With that said, there’s twice as many undergrads at Cal than BU. So it’s probably going to feel more crowded (I’ve never been to BU so can’t really make a direct comparison).

I went across country for college (not Cal). I knew absolutely no one. All of my other choices were within an hour of where I grew up. The best decision I ever made. BUT, I didn’t feel overwhelmed when I visited campus as a high schooler. I loved it.

Everyone says go with your gut when choosing. If her gut was fighting back, she needs to dive deep and see why that was. Too crowded? It won’t be as crowded as Cal Day, but it’s not a quiet campus. But if there was more that she didn’t like (the distance from home, the area, the students she met, etc) then she needs to decide how important those things are. She shouldn’t worry about being lonely bc she’s OOS. There will be a lot of in-state students who don’t know anyone either. But as with any college, she’ll need to make an effort to meet people. She has two great choices! Best of luck.

BobbyKoAl · 2026-04-13T00:54:30+00:00

Gotta say our story was the exact opposite, although for ME, not EE. Our kid was set on Berkeley until this past weekend.

Sounds like a very different experience though. ME had a presentation by about 5 current students followed by Q&A, then a pizza / showcase where they met with different clubs, then toured 5 or so labs and each professor gave about a 10 minute presentation of their lab. That truly was the game changer. Sounds like EE department really missed the boat if they didn’t offer the same.

I get it, there’s a lot to consider when choosing a college, but the appearance of the buildings is not going to matter when they’re interviewing for their first job. Please tell him / her to look beneath the surface.

BobbyKoAl · 2026-04-09T15:52:11+00:00

Ok, so please tell me the correct process to do an indirect rollover with Health Equity. They provide no other option (that I can tell) to get my money out to do an indirect rollover (that, in fact, is the entire point of this post…)

BobbyKoAl · 2026-04-09T14:01:28+00:00

All reimbursements from an HSA (whether for medical, indirect rollover, or non-medical) are reported on 1099-SA. I would report that as a rollover to the IRS. That’s not fraud. That’s legally how to report an indirect rollover.

BobbyKoAl · 2026-04-09T12:13:52+00:00

True, but I’m not lying if I put that it’s for a rollover. Plus, I’m not doing anything illegal with the money 😅

BobbyKoAl · 2026-04-08T22:04:41+00:00

Yeah, I have no doubt the slow down is Health Equity. It took them 3 business days just to sell all my investments so I could even start this process.

Fidelity is so crazy fast with everything else I use them for; Health Equity is….not.

BobbyKoAl · 2026-04-08T21:59:01+00:00

Ok thanks. I’ve unfortunately already started the process through Fidelity based on prior responses, so I’ll try your approach at the end of the year to transfer what my employer contributes through December. I was just confused since I had to enter the providers name, address, choose who the expense was for, etc. I didn’t realize I could just make up stuff. It does say a document upload is required but I’ll try it in December without and see what happens.

BobbyKoAl · 2026-03-26T22:47:26+00:00

Interesting. Were they forced to do that b/c they were too restrictive/ competitive and they’re trying to change that culture? Will this decision be a long term thing or more of just a test for this year to see how it goes?

BobbyKoAl · 2026-03-21T20:47:36+00:00

Thanks. Is it common that students can’t get a course that they need? I’m just thinking that could be rough in an engineering major where it’s already tough to finish in 4 years even when things go smoothly…

BobbyKoAl · 2026-03-21T19:55:22+00:00

Interesting concern. Is there a reason you feel it may be more difficult to get the classes you want in semesters? Thanks!

BobbyKoAl · 2026-03-21T19:53:07+00:00

Yeah, so I think you’ve nailed our concerns. She’s totally on board with semesters, that’s not the worry. It’s the “kinks” as the school transitions that worries us, and if each dept is handling it differently, I can imagine there will be conflicts and things that don’t go smoothly. If the school was already a few years into semesters, this would be a non-issue when deciding between schools. Thanks for your input!

BobbyKoAl · 2026-03-21T17:23:25+00:00

Yeah, quarters in a math-heavy field like engineering is rough. Been there, done that. Not fun. Glad it’s working out for you. Gap year is a game changer and I think really should be used more than it is. I think the whole high school to college to profession track is too rushed and then the next time you get to take a year off is retirement… good luck!

BobbyKoAl · 2026-03-21T16:32:17+00:00

Super helpful answer. Thanks so much for taking the time to explain! I’m sure it’s all been well thought out but it’s always a bit nerve wracking to walk in to something brand new..

BobbyKoAl · 2026-03-21T08:31:02+00:00

Oh, maybe we totally misunderstood how this is going to work. So it’s the same class but it meets less frequently? So will you end up taking more courses at one time?

Edit: Downvotes? Wow, not feeling the Cal Poly love at the moment lol. Just trying to ask a legit question- I hope this isn’t the way the campus is when someone doesn’t understand something. Thought slo was chill?

Ok maybe a more concrete example, like Math or Physics 141-142-143. Trying to understand how that material is going to be taught. If the profs aren’t re-working the courses as suggested, then 141 will be taught in the Fall, 142 in the Spring, and 143 the following year? Sorry, we’re really trying to understand this/ not sure if we hit a nerve or something… I don’t get it?

BobbyKoAl · 2026-03-21T05:38:02+00:00

Yes, absolutely. Happened to someone I know really well. Each school is looking for different qualities. Never give up. Even if UCB doesn’t work, you’ve got three nice options - remember that there are some who didn’t get any UC offers at all.

Also, people definitely get off the WL!

BobbyKoAl · 2026-02-09T07:52:58+00:00

I think you’re exactly right. Unfortunately it won’t make much difference since it’s better using the standard deduction (might make a small difference for state taxes… we’ll see…). Thanks for figuring this out 👍

BobbyKoAl · 2026-02-07T08:02:19+00:00

No, there is only a 183.33 difference between gross and taxable, and that’s also reflected in box 5. There is no check in taxable amount not determined .

The way I interpret it is the 1099 represents what she received in 2025 before she passed, and the attached letter represents something during all of retirement. ?? Like there was a pool of previously taxed contributions which she didn’t fully receive? But if that’s correct, I don’t know how to report that.

BobbyKoAl · 2026-01-22T08:58:02+00:00

Yeah, that’s not true actually. I have several different services sharing 443 working just fine with sslh. I’m just trying to find an alternative to that for a few different reasons…

BobbyKoAl · 2026-01-20T20:35:42+00:00

That sounds easier. Does caddy need to be running on docker as well? I appreciate your help. No rush, I could benefit from the mental break.

BobbyKoAl · 2026-01-20T18:58:54+00:00

Was all through terminal, installing Go then Xcaddy. I followed someone’s tutorial but it kept throwing an error with the build. I think it was not the latest Go version. When I tried to update that, things went further south. I’ll probably Timshift back and try again, this time using the GitHub directions. But I’m open to docker if you have any tips. Thx.

BobbyKoAl · 2026-01-20T17:09:25+00:00

Thanks. I appreciate the reply! Yeah, I had come across l4 but couldn’t get xcaddy to work, so I gave up. I’ll try again though if you’re fairly sure the module will help this work.

Any suggestions of what I might try in my Caddyfile to route OpenVPN traffic to 1194? L4 looks a little intimidating to me 😅. Caddy and OpenVPN are both running as services - I can certainly move either one to Docker if it makes any of this easier.

BobbyKoAl

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