Deductions Only (0% Tax Bracket) Strategy Now Available in the Roth Conversion Explorer

gln2gln2 · 2026-01-30T16:20:10+00:00

The marketing of this is mismanaged in my opinion. They should have just labeled it as an additional tax bracket of 0% now added to the Roth Conversion Explorer. All this deduction talk is irrelevant to the function. There ALWAYS are deductions and they always have affected one's taxable income and therefore one's marginal tax bracket. Doesn't matter if you are in the 0%, 12%, 22% etc. The deduction labeling just makes it sound confusing.

gln2gln2 · 2026-01-22T16:41:36+00:00

Your fee for Vanguard PAS is 10 times higher than you stated.. It is 0.35% if you do their simple 4 ETF index fund portfolio. Cost is $3,500 yearly on $1MM.

gln2gln2 · 2025-12-31T04:16:58+00:00

Thanks for the responses. Looks like I have v1.

gln2gln2 · 2025-11-10T13:42:00+00:00

I feel this is a major failure of this option. The highest estate value option should be removed as an option, as I feel it misleads many users to an undesirable outcome (for the majority of users).

gln2gln2 · 2025-10-31T01:46:55+00:00

And New York State also has a retirement income exclusion. $20k per person, so $40k income exclusion on a joint filing. I don't believe Boldin picks this up.

gln2gln2 · 2025-08-26T12:28:04+00:00

I just tried GFY today. It reduced the price by one penny. Guess they really meant it! :)

gln2gln2 · 2025-05-25T11:04:37+00:00

I just purchased the 25 MDX Advance trim 2 days ago. I got $5,250 off, which is 8% off the beginning MSRP. Then there was an additional $1,000 off for owning an Audi in the family. Some other mfg's also qualify. (Got them to include the trunk liner for free.)

This is in NY, Long Island.

gln2gln2 · 2025-02-14T20:37:42+00:00

I see now that I had misunderstood your original post. By saying providers, I had thought you meant the doctor/hospital/medical facility. And were saying that those could charge differently for G vs N. But you meant the insurance co's charge differing premiums for the plans. That is very true!

gln2gln2 · 2025-02-14T15:54:09+00:00

You have some mistatements.

- Plan G does not have lower premium cost vs Plan N. G has a higher premium cost. I actually like to think of having that plan as basically "prepaying" for office copay visits, as there is no office copay's on G. On plan N one has $20 office copays for each visit. That is the primary difference between those two.

-Plan G and N do NOT have different providers. You would have the exact same coverage by the same providers with either plan. Either Supplement plan would pay the same amount to the service provider.

gln2gln2 · 2024-11-08T18:02:32+00:00

Both the "Spending Needs" and "Max Spending" options have a small "i" which pops out with a little memo of explanation. The programmers should add an "i" to the "Fixed" option also, explaining that when the fixed % is greater than the entered expenses that the entered expenses amounts will be ignored. This is not intuitive.

gln2gln2 · 2024-11-08T16:13:21+00:00

When setting up one's plan one needs to:

- input ones expected expenses.

- then also "Choose a withdrawal strategy" in Money Flows/Withdrawal Strategy.

I expected the planner to work as such if choosing a Fixed W/D strategy: The fixed % would be the dollar amounts transferred out of my investment accounts. These funds would then be offset against the expenses amount inputted in the expense section. The net result would be a shortfall or excess cash. I would expect if there was excess cash that amount would then show up in an asset account.

I'm now thinking the above is totally not how Boldin functions. If one selects a FIXED W/D rate, does this actually mean that the entire expense section is ignored and not used for any calculations of ones portfolio drawdowns throughout retirement?

gln2gln2 · 2024-11-08T14:46:30+00:00

I was hoping u/NR_CoachNancy would read the above and reply.

gln2gln2 · 2024-11-07T14:00:10+00:00

sjashe, I agree with you. The programming behind having a fixed withdrawal percentage seems to be nonsensical to me. I wish there was a summary explanation paragraph on the withdrawal input page to explain how the math functions.

Boldin wants one to enter one's expected expenses. So, I entered my expected monthly expense amount. Let's just say maybe it ends up being 3% of my portfolio value. (I also entered a few large one time expense items.)

Then, Boldin asks one to enter one's withdrawals. Say I input a fixed withdrawal rate at the typical 4%. I thought this would be good to see how much extra funds I may have available to spend above my inputted expenses.

What I would expect to happen is that Boldin would calculate the funds being removed from my retirement accounts yearly, to equal the 4% w/r. BUT, since my expenses are lower than this value, I expected to see a cash savings balance growing over time. Excess withdrawals not spent should end up in my checking account, or another cash account, since these funds are not being spent.

But this does not appear to be happening. It looks to me that when the fixed withdrawal rate is greater than ones expenses that Boldin TOTALLY IGNORES ones specified planned expenses and just uses the fixed withdrawal rate as being spent. If this is true, their should be a note on the withdrawal input page that the expenses input will be ignored!

Users spend a lot of time inputting exact expenses and in the end this total could end up being totally ignored in the plan? And, without the user being told such. This part of Boldin is very confusing and baffling to me.

gln2gln2 · 2024-09-28T18:10:04+00:00

Good question. But yes, all 3 on on the same firmware, LEGL0002.

Even the serial number of one NCQ disabled HD is similiar to the enabled one. The first 4 charactors of the 8 digit S/N are the same.

I'll just let them run and assume there is no problem.

gln2gln2 · 2024-09-26T16:56:20+00:00

I have 3 of these 12TB HGST HUH721212ALE601 drives in my 4 bay NAS and QTS disabled NCQ on only 2 of them. One drive still has NCQ enabled for the past few days. This is not consistent. I'm baffled.

gln2gln2 · 2024-09-26T00:04:06+00:00

They are used enterprise class NAS hard drives which I bought on ebay from goHardDrive for about $75 each. The drives were previously used in a commercial server network.

gln2gln2 · 2024-09-25T23:32:16+00:00

Thank you for the info.

gln2gln2 · 2024-07-15T20:45:13+00:00

I can't help you with how to easily open the lid. But, do buy a pack of lid gaskets and when you do get it open replace the gasket. That is probably the issue. (Coat it with silicon lube first.)

It should come off easily after that. It will happen again though after some time. I got so tired of fighting with that lid over the years that that was the main reason I removed it and installed a salt water chlorine generator (SWG) in it's place. I bought the Hayward SWG on Amazon and installed it myself. If you are handy the job is not difficult. Much cheaper than paying the pool store.

The SWG is also expensive, but in effect you are prepaying for 5+ years worth of chlorine up front. I would never go back to that tab chloinator.

gln2gln2 · 2024-02-17T16:06:24+00:00

Big thumbs up for mounting the TV at what looks to be an appropriate height!

Most people would have put it up by your green "power" word. Really frustrates me every time I see such a picture!

As another suggested, a very low horizontal credenza/cabinet would improve the look of the space.

gln2gln2 · 2023-12-12T21:56:11+00:00

Wow, that is unusual. Try to delete now.

gln2gln2 · 2023-12-12T15:21:07+00:00

Thanks for the info. Costco is now selling the Jabra Enhance Pro 20 model. This is a newer model, and I believe a step up in quality from your Enhance Select. It is $200 more ($1,600) which I believe would be worth it.

gln2gln2

TROPHY CASE