Messages

1

Early Retirement / Re: what is my fire number

« on: December 25, 2020, 03:48:25 PM »

not sure the credibility, but came across the following article the other day -
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-inventor-of-the-4-rule-just-changed-it-11603380557

Personally I'd rather go more conservative (between 3% and 4 %) than the number the article suggested (4.5-5%)

2

Taxes / Re: Roth IRA Conversion and Capital Gains Harvesting Calculation Amounts

« on: August 30, 2020, 10:16:44 PM »

Jeremy's infamous post "Never Pay Taxes Again" should contain the information you need - https://www.gocurrycracker.com/never-pay-taxes-again/

Basically every year you can earn the following amount TAX-FREE - 
standard deduction + max amount of 0% long term capital gain tax bracket (https://www.gocurrycracker.com/capital-gains-tax-rates/)

For a married couple, the amount would look like below:
2019: 24,400 + 78,750 = 103,150
2020: 24,800 + 80,000 = 104,800

you can use the quota of standard deduction to do the rollover from Traditional IRA to Roth IRA (assuming that you don't have any other taxable income).
then use the 0% long term capital gain quota to harvest your capital gain.

assuming on average you move $25K every year from Tradional IRA to Roth IRA, $225K will take you about 9 years to complete the roll over without tax.

You can try out this calculator to have some better idea - https://www.gocurrycracker.com/federal-income-tax-calculator/
hopefully this helps!

3

Travel hacking / Re: Looking for a new card to pay taxes

« on: August 30, 2020, 09:45:33 PM »

Hi BrandonC,

Thanks a lot for the suggestion! My plan is to file/pay 1040ES for Q3 and Q4 to catch up the federal tax payment. So I've used the link you provided to apply for the Chase Freedom Unlimited. it's approved right away. 
I probably will give Chase Ink Preferred a pass since I've just downgraded this card to Chase Ink Cash earlier this year.

Thanks again!

4

Travel hacking / Looking for a new card to pay taxes

« on: August 16, 2020, 06:02:01 PM »

Hi all,

I just did some tax planning for this year. With the current federal income tax withhold rate, I probably will owe IRS around 7K for the year 2020. I understand I can increase the rate from W4, but I'm looking for suggestions on which credit cards I could use to take advantage of this big expense.

some context- cards I already have:

• Amex platinum
• Chase Freedom (downgraded from CSR in 2018)
• Cap 1 Venture
• CIC (downgraded from CIP) /CIU
• Bofa Cash Rewards

only 2/24 for Chase 5/24 rule with FICO 800+; though normally I travel abroad once or twice a year; I don't see myself travel around in the following year due to this pandemic...

Any suggestions on credit cards I should consider?

Thanks in advance!
Sandra

5

General Discussion / Re: Welcome

« on: August 08, 2020, 12:33:07 AM »

Hello everyone,

I've been following Jeremy and Winnie's blogs since 2013. I first discovered FIRE through them and had been trying to save half. last year finally convinced my hubby to FIRE, sold our house and 1 of our cars since then.

registered the forum last year and this is my first post.. (did I hear someone say the first post is the hardest?)

Thanks!
Sandra

ps. it's currently Father's day in Taiwan so happy father's day to Jeremy and big congrats on the new member to GCC family!