TheBOSman

Yes it is normal, and the second question I can only answer for myself. If you have an Amex credit card, Amex already has that info anyway. Due to federal regulations, they must collect that information. If you're not comfortable inputting that info, this game might not be in your best interest. And that is fine, I feel like I enter my SSN 3-4 times a week at times, and that would make a lot of people uncomfortable. I monitor my credit reports very frequently so I am not overly concerned.

fti

Obviously you dont understand what he was trying to say. To carry a mortgage just to have mortgage interest and a +-25% tax deduction might in fact make you poorer in the long run than paying off your mortgage and just using the standard deduction. Your tax rate is not 100%

Happy: the issues of people's paper losses and their effect is more a result of improper investment allocation than anything. The market will go down, again, and will go down again a lot. The key is a correct allocation based on long term and short term needs. There is no 20 year period when the stock market has lost money. In fact over any 20 year period the avg stock market gains have been 7.9%. Since none of us know when the next crash will come you either get out of the market (dumb), get lucky and time the market like in your example (very risky) or have a good allocation plan (wisest of the options).

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming!

shoreline

fti,

I thought I understood. My response was that if you have investment property, carry a mortgage (yes with interest) and you rent it for double the payment, the renter is paying the mortgage the interest and more. Meaning that makes up for some of the loss from a personal property with this going on, + the itemization on tax deductions + other things you can deduct due to itemization = alleviating some personal loss. (am I confused or thinking incorrect? )

I know my personal tax bracket is much higher if I don't have these deductions, rental property, mortgage, etc.

Yes, of course, I wish I were debt free. But, I can see the positive side with investment property alleviating some of the loss, (correct?)

Now, as fti says: back to our regular programming.

fti, you can pm me if you wish. this is probably not the best thread for a tax discussion. It was simply a side note from the BB mortgage discussion.

LivelyFL

If you have an investment property and collect rent, then you file your income/expenses on Schedule E. Investment property mortgage interest does not go on Schedule A (itemizing).

shoreline

oh, I see.

Thanks for the info.

Stoughton

I booked the same day they moved the date from June to November. I've already got the room lined up for next year as well. Will be booking flights as soon as the 330 window opens.

Achilles

I searched high and low in the Pasadena area for icecream. All CVS stores are out of them Anyone know any store nearby that has it in stock? I only need a couple

shoreline

in the area and did not find either.
in fact, it looked like they weren't even carrying them around this area yet.

Zamboni Driver

They will cut you a check if you prefer - that's what I did.

johndoe123

BB will never know...

In any case, don't do it again. Best to spend on the CC. However, it's the CC that frowns on this practice. The most common abuse of this is a balance transfer (0%) from another card, sending different one into the positive and cashing it out via a check. Other uses include money laundering.

I think for just once, the CC company will overlook it.

NYBanker

Welcome to FT.

NYBanker

Yes. Just don't do it often. And, assuming you are funding via a credit card, how would your cc balance fall below your Bb balance?

Your second statement is incorrect. CC credit balances are always refunded by check upon request. A bb payment simply shows up as a payment to the card issuer. Very different than "reversing" a transaction.

Your first statement also could use some clarification. If the cc being paid isn't an Amex, bb would not even know about the credit balance on the card. That part of shut down risk is nil.

Your cc issuer, however, would look oddly upon having repeated credit balances and check requests. I go back to my earlier statement...with bank to bank eft as a fallback and the high likelihood you have charges equal to your bb balance, why would you do this more than infrequently?

NYBanker

Achilles

I'll probably do it infrequently as you suggest. In my case, I buy ice-cream using Amex Hilton. Just wanted to pay some other card (Chase) which has a lower balance.

shoreline

removed