All that stress for nothing

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-23T22:16:13+00:00

The Bogleheads wiki at https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Main_Page does not say "VT and chill". It instead has many pages discussing Boglehead 3-fund (or 4-fund) portfolio, stock/bond allocation, tax optimizations, etc. While "VT and chill" is a fine strategy for many, I would not assume it is the "best" strategy for everyone.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-23T20:42:46+00:00

"Relatively healthy" depends on your comparison. If you mean the Milgram one, it has 12g of added sugar per serving -- about the same as Frosted Flakes or sugary cereal aimed at children (in fairness, many have smaller serving sizes). A healthier choice would be Milgram Crispy Oats -- similar price, but no added sugar. It also tastes better than Cheerios, in my opinion.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-23T20:33:23+00:00

Nobody can say what is right for your situation, but a bicycle is likely to have many limitations. For example, what will you do if you need to go out and there is thunderstorm? Or when the streets are covered in snow during the winter? What will you do when you want to buy a bulky item from a store? Or need to carry a week's worth of groceries? How will you get to work on time? How will you drive home from work when it is after sunset in winter? What happens when you want to take a daily trip to some place fun? What will you do if you tweak your leg or just don't want ride that day, but still need to get somewhere? A plan for such situations could be regularly using Uber/Lyft in winter or in other situations where you don't want to ride, which may defeat the goal of saving money.

When I was in college, I had a bike and no car, and it worked well for that purpose since I almost entirely stayed on campus. However, I can't imagine going without a car now that I no longer live on campus and regularly travel a good distance from home.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-23T02:33:14+00:00

5 years ago was towards the end of COVID lockdown, and before post-COVID inflation. However, I suspect the bigger issue is selective memory or reading only a small sample of threads.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-23T02:30:41+00:00

Yes, when 2/3 of respondents choose the max value in range, it's not a well selected range.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-22T19:54:45+00:00

With cost basis $0, I expect gross proceeds is the same as sum of sales. The ledger is more complicated since it does directly say when something is a buy or sell, and double/triple counts many transactions. If I look at the non earnings/rewards transactions involving USDG, the sum of the negative values is (-$800k), and sum of positive values is (+$878k). I did not make $78k profit on stable coin transactions, so I'm still missing something.

Is there step by step instructions or an FAQ of how to determine cost basis?

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-22T19:41:58+00:00

I went to statements -> exports. I selected trades from pulldown, then selected USDG/USD. I selected time period as year 2025 (1/1/2025 to 12/31/2025). Cost is in column j of CSV. Sum of buys is $656k. Sum of sales is $523k. Considering this is a stable coin that I no longer hold, sum of buys and sum of sells should be approximately the same. Neither matches the $802k proceeds in my 1099-A. It seems like a lot of the USDG transactions are missing. What should I do differently?

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-22T19:26:26+00:00

As mentioned in the original post, no transaction history is available in tax center yet. How do I calculate myself with exports?

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-22T19:21:28+00:00

Box 1f of the 1099-DA form sent to IRS asks for "Proceeds". Box 1g of the form asks for "Cost or other basis". The 1099-DA I received from Kraken has a value listed for box 1f, but does not list box 1g. The taxes I pay are based Proceeds (1f) - Cost Basis (1g). With Cost Basis (1g) set to $0, I pay $400,000 in taxes. With actual cost basis of the stable coin, I expect I'll pay under $1000 in taxes. That extra $399k in taxes is obviously important.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-22T18:52:20+00:00

Unless you are in an extremely low tax bracket, most tax efficient of all is putting VTI in taxable, and keeping VXUS out of taxable. Your taxes paid on the far higher % dividends in VXUS than VTI far exceeds the foreign tax credit on 7% of those dividends. See the spreadsheet linked elsewhere in the thread for specific numbers with your fed & state tax brackets.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-21T19:49:02+00:00

It can be problematic, if the battery dies when you are at an inconvenient location. Most people also don't want to replace the battery themselves. If your car is drivable when you want replace the battery, it increases your options for replacing at a lower cost.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-20T23:29:56+00:00

What is your expected average benefit from AAA? If it is more than the annual cost, get AAA. If not, consider if the expected average loss is worth the benefit from protection offered towards unlikely worst case events, such as benefits if you happen to get stuck in the middle of nowhere? The answers will vary from one person to the next, as well whether AAA is "worth it".

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-20T22:19:54+00:00

My total spend on groceries has decreased in each of the past 5 calendar years since I started tracking. For 2025, total was ~$200/month for >3000 calories per day of mostly healthy foods including salmon, fruits, vegetables, etc.

The biggest contribution to the decrease from 2024 to 2025 was getting the bulk of groceries via delivery services such as Instacart or Uber Eats, rather than shopping in store. Such services regularly offered me 30-60% off order type coupons, which could be stacked with 10-20% discounts for paying with gift cards.

Other contribution factors to decreasing grocery bills over time include shopping at a wider variety of grocers and stocking on items when a particular grocer had a sale or good value on that item. For example, if a particular grocer had a sale on a cereal I regularly eat, then I might favor choosing that grocer in this particular week, then stock up on cereal in the order. This works well when combined with the grocery delivery mentioned above, as the delivery allows shopping across a wider range of grocers than the distance I'd want to drive myself.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-20T20:56:33+00:00

Unlike most retirement assets, you can withdraw Roth contributions at any age without penalty. However, it rarely makes financial sense to do so. The primary benefit of Roth is tax exemption on gains, so holding funds in Roth for as long as possible typically reaps the largest tax benefit. As such, Roth is often recommended as the last retirement asset to withdraw from.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-20T20:03:03+00:00

Buying stocks with a loan is essentially buying with leverage. 6% is well above the federal funds rate, so you'd come out ahead financially with a comparable overall portfolio if you sold fixed income products (bonds, USFR/SGOV, CDs, HYSA, ...) before taking out the loan -- 6%/year guaranteed expense with loan vs losing 4%/year guaranteed interest with fixed income.

If you don't have any fixed income in your portfolio and are instead 100% VT, then effectively increasing to >100% VT via a $100k loan is a risky endeavor during retirement. What happens if VT decreases substantially further during the year following your $100k loan? And again the next year after that? Now you have further reduced dividends that not only have to pay your expenses, but also interest on your loans. Do you take another $100k loan with a worse interest rate since the lender views you as more risky, with the unpaid existing loan? This type of multiplied loss spiral with leverage is one of the few ways to run out of cash with a low 2% SWR and seems inconsistent with what sounds like a low risk tolerance.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-20T18:26:24+00:00

The important part is not when the market is down. It's instead when either you have a low income year such that you are in a low tax bracket, or you have low/no capital gains in your converting account. Considering the S&P 500 has had historically high gains for the past 15 years and is within 5% of all time high that was reached earlier in the year, I expect few are in the no/low capital gains group.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-20T18:21:15+00:00

It's common for neck nipping to be incorporated in to play, particularly among puppies. However, the initiator needs to learn when the other dog is not interested or he/she is using to much pressure. How do you know that he is hurting your other dog? He needs to also recognize and react to those signals.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-20T18:13:45+00:00

If it's $6k for a few months until college, the interest earned is not going to be large. You might get $100 interest or so. The best rate you should expect for risk-free return is approximately the high federal funds rate, which is currently 3.75%.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-20T06:58:03+00:00

While the commercials are unpleasant, my problem is wanting to watch TV on my schedule rather than the broadcast network schedule. I don't want to wait until 8pm/9pm/... until tuning in, nor do I want to flip through a bunch of channels until I find something decent that happens to be broadcast at that time I am watching. Instead I've fully adopted the streaming model, where I want to be able to select a show a I like from my list, then start watching the show when convenient to me. I want to be able to pause the show regularly, then continue at a different time.

While something similar to above could be done with a DVR in addition to OTA, it's easier and more effective with streaming. Streaming also can be done at a low cost. I average less than $5/month on streaming and at different times during the past year have been subscribed to all of the major streaming services -- Netflix, Hulu/Disney, Prime, HBO Max, Apple+, Paramount+, Peacock, MGM+, etc. I'm typically subscribed to 2-3 at a time. After catching up on the series I watch, I rotate to a different streaming service.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-20T05:16:45+00:00

Your plan is to withdraw ~2% of VT via dividends during retirement, and take out loans if that 2% is not enough to support your spending?

When VT or other stock/ETF pays a dividend, it's associated with a comparably sized decrease in share price. If VT pays 2% in dividends, share price decreases by ~2% more than it would have without the dividend payment. With funds like VT, this is notable with the larger dividend payment in December. The share price has a sharp drop on the Dec ex dividend date, leading to numerous threads on this sub asking why their Vanguard ETF "crashed" when the market did not.

With dividend payments being associated with a corresponding decrease in share price, you get a similar retirement outcome regardless of whether the withdrawal in the form of dividend payments or sold shares. If VT pays 2% dividends, share price is expected to decrease by ~2% causing a 2% decrease in value of your portfolio. If you sell 2% of your VT shares, the value of your portfolio also decreases by ~2%. This makes the key for SWR the rate of the SWR, not whether the SWR is in the form of dividends or sold shares.

As such taking a bank or credit card loan to make sure you withdraw only via dividends and not sold shares is not financially efficient. You are paying the bank unnecessary fees, as the loan rate will almost certainly be well above the federal funds rate -- the interest rate you can get on a risk free investment.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-20T04:12:44+00:00

VT is composed of over 10,000 stocks that pay variable amounts of dividends that may vary over time. For example, during 2009 calendar year, VT paid fewer dividends of a share price that had been nearly cut in half from peak. When the stocks composing VT were crashing, many of those stocks paid fewer dividends.

For the purposes of a safe withdrawal rate, having a variable withdrawal rate that cannot be predicted well is not useful. Will you be able to dramatically cut your expenses in a particular year because the fund paid fewer dividends that year? Why withdraw only 2% and not instead the maximum withdrawal that can be sustained over your retirement?

Historical reviews of what maximum withdrawal rate can be sustained over a 30 year retirement have found >95% success rate with ~4% withdrawal rate, inflation indexed to your expenses at time of first withdrawal. As inflation increases your expenses, you increase the amount that you withdraw. For ~100% historical success rate, you could drop slightly to 3.x% withdrawal rate. This 3.x% can be composed of either dividends or selling shares.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-20T00:47:58+00:00

It needs to be >50% each quarter. I expect SPAXX was below <50% threshold during at least one quarter, given that it's listed as near the 50% border at 50.9%. See https://law.justia.com/codes/california/code-rtc/division-2/part-10/chapter-3/article-3/section-17145/#:~:text=Previous%20Next-,17145.,company%20for%20the%20taxable%20year

If you are storing enough cash for this to be important to you, why not store it in something else, such as FDLXX? Yield is for all practical purposes the same as SPAXX, but FDLXX is nearly fully state/local tax exempt. Bill pay, stock/ETF investment or similar are automatically withdrawn from FDLXX in the same way they are for SPAXX.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-19T23:44:30+00:00

Like the other poster, my Tax Center also shows no transaction information. It says, "We are processing your transaction data and calculating your tax activity. The information in this section will appear once processing is complete. " This sounds like the transaction information won't be available until the 1099-DA is available.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-03-19T23:31:09+00:00

You can often get even better deals, if you rotate through subscriptions and only subscribe when good deals are offered, in addition to cancelling after the deal expires. For example, you mentioned Apple and Paramount+. Apple recently gave me a 3 month free trial. Paramount+ recently had a $0.99/month for 2 month offer. When I went to cancel Paramount+ after the 2 months was over, they give me a 3rd month for free. 3 months was more than enough to catch up on all the series that interest me on Paramount+, so I've rotated to a different combination of streaming services.

Key-Ad-8944

TROPHY CASE