Bogleheads.org

3. Some people literally do bid things up in increments if they are new to ebay. One time I went to bed with a super high bid in place I didn't want to stay up. Then someone bid the item up beyond my initial bid in 40 bid attempts. Some people that are new will do this. I just don't see the problem...

I had the same problem with my truck recently. I keep a notebook in my glove compartment with a record of any maintenance or repairs along with dates. It showed that it had been almost 5 years since I replaced the battery. I took the battery out and took it to my local parts store. They checked it a...

It would be interesting to know if the OP bought the house or not. And if so, how it worked out.

I have learned that people who don't have bank accounts often have a history of trouble with money. My old tenants didn't have a bank account and sent me the rent via money order. Everything was good until they stopped paying rent. I had to evict them and found that they had done thousands of dolla...

I have some rental properties that are about 30 miles away as yours are. Most of these tenants mail me a check or money order. I usually send them a few envelopes with my address on them for their convenience. Although I have not tried it, I would not have any problem with them depositing the money ...

I scored 100%. On question #15, I was not sure if the correct answer was A or C. I picked A (College) and got it right. Lucky me.

A Section 529 Plan is a tax-advantaged way to save for:
A.College
B.Retirement
C.Long-term health care
D.Don't know/Not sure

The wife and I have dumb pre-paid phones from ATT (phones were free). We are kind of locked into them because we buy $100 per year in phone time and are able to roll over the unused time. As of today I have $400 worth of time and the wife has $175; so jazzier phones or changing the service provider...

I've seen people who didn't have anything as far as material posessions, and they seemed to be happy. I've seem people who had plenty of material posessions and they seemed to be unhappy. I would say happiness is a state of mind. It's all in how one looks at it.

For several years before my elderly mother died, she received sweepstakes mail from Publishers Clearing House and Readers Digest. It always sounded like she was about to win a lot of money, but she needed to sign a document and mail it back to them. When she signed the document, she was authorizing ...

Investopedia defines speculation as: The act of trading in an asset, or conducting a financial transaction, that has a significant risk of losing most or all of the initial outlay, in expectation of a substantial gain. Using that definition, all investments are speculative. To me, speculation is mor...

I think being a boglehead and managing real estate don't go well together because one of the principles of boglehead investing is keeping your investments as simple, low maintenance and low cost as possible, and managing real estate is neither simple, low maintenance, or low cost. WOW, if this is t...

I didn't even have a cell phone until about four or five years ago. A girl called me from AT&T the other day and said she wanted to see if she could save me some money on my phone bill, ha ha. I played along just to see what she had to say. She asked if I had a cell phone and I told her that I d...

I sell my scrap gold to Midwest Refineries http://www.midwestrefineries.com/ When I say scrap, that means the value of the actual gold content if it is melted down. It could be worth more as a piece of jewelry. The scrap or melt value would be the lowest amount you should get. Roughly, this is how M...

Where I live Walmart will replace the battery free if you buy it from them.

I don't at the grocery store or big box stores... Is Walmart considered a big box store. I bought 4 tires at Walmart recently. The sign on the displayed tires I wanted had $10.00 off per tire, but the $10.00 off expired the day before. I asked the clerk what the price was and she quoted the regular...

I'm not against waiters making a decent wage, but what I don't understand is why are restaurant owners allowed to get by with only paying $2.13 an hour. Most other businesses are not allowed to do this. For the same reason that all special exemptions become law -- because lobbyists asked for it. Re...

The minimum wage for waiters is only $2.13 an hour in some states. When 80% or more of your take home pay consists of tips, not an employee wage, you can be sure that workers consider tips a fee for service, not a gratuity, no matter what euphemism they print on the bottom of the bill. I'm not again...

I live in an area that is very economically depressed. My barber charged me $6.00 to cut my hair until he retired. I never gave him a tip. Not because I was that chintzy, but because he didn't expect it. Since he was the only barber in town, I would go by his house after he retired and he would cut ...

Happiness is not external: it's internal.

bkslainte wrote:"Is that the lowest possible price?"

This simple phrase has saved me thousands over the years

It is amazing but it is also true that just saying the right words can save thousands of dollars. Always ask for a discount.

[This was merged in from its own thread. It was off topic when posted in isolation, but works as a reply here. There were only a couple of followups, they can be recognized by the post titles. - admin alex] I was going to post this on another thread, but the topic was locked, so I decided to start ...

The hot water heater in one of my rentals went out recently. The renter is a licensed plumber. He said he charges $100.00 to replace water heaters and that is what he charged me. I bought a 40 gallon electric water heater at Lowes for $270.00 plus tax. Total cost was $370.00. One of the posters sai...

I don't see how you could afford to do it for $100, unless you sell the heater at a profit. I would like to find someone to do it for $100, but both of the guys I talked to wanted $400, but that included fittings, pick up and wood repair. On the other hand I can't imagine paying $1600. As I said, m...

The hot water heater in one of my rentals went out recently. The renter is a licensed plumber. He said he charges $100.00 to replace water heaters and that is what he charged me. I bought a 40 gallon electric water heater at Lowes for $270.00 plus tax. Total cost was $370.00. One of the posters said...

A while back, when I was (foolishly it turns out) using article marketing to promote my websites, I wrote this article about Dave's financial planning boo-boos. It contains little new commentary compared to the posts already in the thread, was maybe too "nice" to Dave's ideas, but I'll po...

I don't like to carry a wallet in my pocket, but if I am going somewhere, I carry one in my right hip pocket. I have a leather bifold that I have had for years. I think I have a couple of backups at home. The only thing I carry in my wallet is cards. I carry cash in my right front pocket with a rubb...

Overcoming obstacles gains respect, not ridicule. The greater the obstacle, the greater the respect. I can't imagine what it must have been like going to school day after day after day struggling to understand the teachers, and being ridiculed by ones peers. You had a huge obstacle in life, and you...

I have been asked for a Medallion signature guarantee a couple of times. My bank did not have that service or a least that is what they told me. I just told the people who wanted the Medallion signature that I couldn't get it, so they transferred the securities without it.

I was watching the show recently when I realized that I recognized one of the victims. It was Lonny Scruggs. Lonnie is a well known real estate guru on the speaking circuit who has written several books and teaches seminars about how to create paper with mobile homes. The scammers name was Troy Titu...

I've been watching it lately and it is just amazing to me how many people turn over their life savings to scammers and lose all their money. Most of them are pyramid schemes. http://www.investopedia.com/articles/04/042104.asp#axzz2N5ERlMYE Also amazing to me is how many scammers there are out there...

I've been watching it lately and it is just amazing to me how many people turn over their life savings to scammers and lose all their money. Most of them are pyramid schemes. http://www.investopedia.com/articles/04/042104.asp#axzz2N5ERlMYE Also amazing to me is how many scammers there are out there.

Abe - great story - thanks for sharing. A topic for another thread - What is your opinion of micro-lending? Would you characterize any of the lending you did in such fashion? Do you think someone can earn a reasonable return on micro lending? Peter: After responding to your post the first time (I d...

[color=#FF8040][color=#FF8040]am still puzzled by something you wrote. You don't spend more than $40k/year and yet you feel that $6m is not enough. Is this a psychological quirk or there is logic behind it? A part of being a Boglehead is knowing when to quit. Victoria To tell you the truth, I don't...

Abe - great story - thanks for sharing. A topic for another thread - What is your opinion of micro-lending? Would you characterize any of the lending you did in such fashion? Do you think someone can earn a reasonable return on micro lending? I really don't know what micro-lending is. I started out...

I don't think my story would be something that anyone could or would even want to duplicate. Thanks for sharing, Abe. I would be very interested in duplicating the part of your story where you get rich by lending. Did you ever manage investments for others, or was this always your own capital? Do y...

Yes, I guess I had the Boglehead philosophy from the very beginning even though back then the Bogleheads were not even in existence. I just applied the principles a different way. I am still puzzled by something you wrote. You don't spend more than $40k/year and yet you feel that $6m is not enough....

Yes, I guess I had the Boglehead philosophy from the very beginning even though back then the Bogleheads were not even in existence. I just applied the principles a different way. I am still puzzled by something you wrote. You don't spend more than $40k/year and yet you feel that $6m is not enough....

Abe..........The most important things I think anyone needs to do in order to get ahead are to save, invest and compound, in that order. I never had a job as far as working for someone else, but that probably worked out for the best. Life works in mysterious ways. I hope this is not too boring a st...

I have never discussed my personal business with anyone, but since I'm posting anonymously, why not. My networth is around 6 million. I don't feel like I have enough and don't think I ever will. I don't think I ever earned more than $50,000. per year and even then, it was just for a short period of...

My networth is around 6 million. I don't feel like I have enough and don't think I ever will. I don't think I ever earned more than $50,000. per year and even then, it was just for a short period of time. How old are you? That is an impressive number on your earnings. Possibly you are well on in ye...

reggiesimpson wrote:Hmmmm? So many folks talking about their "number" today on the Forum. What happened? The Dow hit a high or something?

I don't care what the Dow does.

I have never discussed my personal business with anyone, but since I'm posting anonymously, why not. My networth is around 6 million. I don't feel like I have enough and don't think I ever will. I don't think I ever earned more than $50,000. per year and even then, it was just for a short period of ...

I think I know why Mel doesn't post a lot on the forum. He is just trying to introduce new ideas, but a lot of people on here want to nit-pick everything he says. Most everything these people are disputing, Mel has already covered in prior post, so he has to keep repeating what he has already said....

I think I know why Mel doesn't post a lot on the forum. He is just trying to introduce new ideas, but a lot of people on here want to nit-pick everything he says. Most everything these people are disputing, Mel has already covered in prior post, so he has to keep repeating what he has already said.

I don't know why, but ladders do not extend to the length that they say they do. I have a Werner generic version of the Little Giant. It says 13 feet on the side, but only extends to about 10 1/2 feet. I bought it at an auction for $27.50. Even if you bought one at a retail store, it would cost much...

I think the concern with counting home in net worth is that it's difficult to value, and the value cannot be readily extracted (sure, you could sell your home, but it could take months, you don't know how much you'll get for it, you have to pay taxes and fees to do so, and then where would you live...

Before this gets out of hand, check the insurance policy. Unlike health, some dental insurance is really more of a prepaid dental plan, and the dentist is not necessarily bound not to bill you for amounts not paid by the insurance co. Also, have you considered that suing in small claims court is li...

I don't have any kind of academic credentials in this area, but to me human capital is an individuals capacity to produce value. If one can produce value, then people will pay money for it. It doesn't have to be a job necessarly. A person can be in business for himself and produce value. The more va...

The concept of human capital is bogus, because you do not own your job. It's as simple as that. Reminds me of a story. John drove by this house every day. Apparently the house was abandoned because it was in disrepair and the yard was all grown up. John went over and fixed the house up, mowed the y...

How about: "Nobody knows what a safe withdrawal rate is. Might be 2%. Might be 4.8%. Come back in 43 years and find out." You make a calculated guess and hope the guess is right. The trinity study, like all academic studies, is based on the past. Everyone here knows that past performance ...