You can borrow up to 50% of your 401K up to $50,000 max. Although the IRS allows up to 5 years Fidelity will only allow 4 years. You pay interest back to yourself on payroll deduction basis (based on whatever the rate is - currently around 4-5%. If you take the max it works out to around $1100 ($550/paycheck). You can pay it back in full with no penalties (no partial paybacks). The one thing you need to be aware of is if you take it out for something like a house you will want to season it (borrow early) so you don't have to account for where the cash came from in your account. You can also withdraw up to $10,000 cash from your IRA for a down payment without penalties. Also, remember you can always withdraw contributions from your Roth IRA with no taxes or penalties (you already used after tax money). Sorry about the long post - used to do mortgage loans on the side (stopped after the crash - not worth the time any more).

Actually, last time I looked at my list there were somthing like 25 SAQ airports for the 73. I guess I'll have to look again.

GS on Reserve
 

So this is my first month on reserve...I screwed up my December bid and i am not looking forward to this. I do want to make the best of the situation and since my category has no days with adequate coverage I figure there may be some GS opportunities. So here are my questions.

1. Where do I input my Golden Days?

2 Can I do a GS on a non Golden Day and do I still get payback days?

3. I live in base so I do not care about SC or not but do we bid for SC during the days we are on and if so how?

4. Anything else you can tell me to make this "opportunity" better?

Thanks

Any new rumors on the next AE and if it is a MOAB or not? Also what about timing January or February still the thought?

Golden days have already been awarded for December. You should see the asterisks "*" on your schedule. For next time -- its under "Bids" - "Initial Bid" - "PBS Reserve Golden Days".

You can put in a Green Slip for any days you want. Put one in for Dec01-31 if that's what you want. The trip is only a "Green Slip" if it touches an X or * day. The only payback days are the X or * days. ie => you could get a 4 day green slip that only touches 1 X day. You only get green pay for that day and you only get the 1 payback day. Bid what you want and want what you bid.

You don't really "bid for short call". They just assign it. You can put in a request to be placed on short call. The template is on the same page as green slips and white slips, etc. "PCS" - "Slip Requests" - "Enter Dates to be First on Shortcall".

Thanks Check hopefully this is a one time deal :)

1. Where do I input my Golden Days?

If you haven't already done it, you won't be able to request specific Golden Days, as those needed to be entered through ICrew by the 19th. If you check your December schedule, I believe CS will have placed Golden Days on your line at their discretion. Someone else can correct me if I'm wrong, but if you didn't request specific days, then the days they will give you as Golden default to your first couple of groupings of days off, provided that those days are available to be awarded to you based on your seniority. Otherwise, they just continue on to your next stretches of days off and so on until all your Golden days have been awarded.

2 Can I do a GS on a non Golden Day and do I still get payback days?

Yes and Yes

3. I live in base so I do not care about SC or not but do we bid for SC during the days we are on and if so how?

If there are certain days you would prefer to be on SC, go to the "PCS" option in ICrew, then "Slip Requests", and "Enter Date Ranges to be First in Sequence for Short Call". You can enter the dates and whether you'd prefer AM or PM. CS is supposed to make every effort to honor requests, but it is still at their discretion. I've been about 50/50 in having them honor my requests so far.

D'oh...somebody already beat me to the reply.

In the last crew room visit they were stating that the Late Jan bid will be a normal bid, and the 2Q 2011 AE will be the bid that utilizes a 365 day conversion window. ( therefore it will probably be a bigger bid) :D

As for hiring, lots of balls in the air right now in regard to the plan going forward. I suspect we will see some guidance on a few of them in the last part of this year or the first couple months of next year.

Imagine they are still waiting on the new rest rules to officially start as well as the LGA slot swap.
Speaking of which, any news on the LGA thing or is it still in the courts?