Bogleheads.org

Thank you, everyone. Like I said, I currently have a Fidelity account, so I'm pretty up on what I can trade for free over there. It's Vanguard's brokerage account that I don't know much about. I know Vanguard ETFs and index funds (which I was leaning toward just for the automatic investment option)...

The term "Emerging" in this case is quite ironic.

This chart has been used here often, and helped me understand more clearly what the previous posters are saying about uncompensated risk when going extreme with all equities. I was 100% equities through the 08-09 downturn without bailing, but no longer am. http://529investing.files.wordpress.com/201...

1. No, looks very well done. 2. I personnally wouldn't bother, I think what you have is good as-is. But if you feel strongly, pulling 5% from Total Stock Market into Large Value is OK. 3. Not necessarily. If you are tilting toward Small Value, the key is to stick with it long-term. If you don't want...

Too soon.

1. You don't list the ERs of the Intermediate Treasury and Total Bond, but all things equal I would prefer Total Bond, as it gives you a more diversified bond exposure. Plenty of people choose to stick with treasuries for their bond holdings, so either choice is probably fine. The deciding factor co...

Thanks for the post and the additional way of looking at the information. Here is where I get hung up: If I put down 5% and invest the $33,000 -- assuming growth of 7% per year then I turn this into (ballpark) $235,000 over 30 years. If I put down 20% I would save $200 per month in the mortgage pay...

I am not a believer in 100%, personally. I think the extra expected return is not enough to justify the large increases in risk and volatility of outcomes. My opinion: 90/10 is "better" overall than 100/0, and 75-80% equities is even "better" overall than that. At the end of the ...

It didn't say explicitly, but are you required to keep that 26% in company stock? If not, that is your first move, get rid of all of that, and dump into your 80/20 AA. Every other decision you have pales in comparison to that from a risk perspective. Tinkering with Bond funds and deciding on what % ...

I agree with Gr2bOutdoors. PMI is never a good move if you can avoid it (which you can). Considering how low interest rates are, you can make a good argument for putting down no more than 20%, but getting to that 20% to avoid PMI is key (even if the rates were the same, which they're not, only makin...

If you currently have a 70/30 AA, then I don't see timing as a very significant issue. That shouldn't be very far off from what you end up with for an AA, albeit with better/easier/cheaper fund choices moving forward. The recent "run-up" should have helped the funds you currently own about...

If you so choose, there are many low-cost index ETFs at Fidelity, that cost $0 commission to buy.

https://www.fidelity.com/etfs/ishares

My thoughts are: -cancel whole life policy -increase term insurance (only have 500K right now, want to cover debt, college for twins on the way, etc.) -fully fund 401K/403b with $17,500 per year each -pay down stud. loans locked at 6.8% (slightly less with auto-pay/on-time payments) -once these are...

Does this seem like a sound strategy? If so, my plan is to create the LLC and begin this at the end of the fall this year. This would leave us with no stocks or bonds outside of our respective retirement accounts (to ensure liquidity in the event of repairs or vacancies). I do not want to get rich,...

I'm missing the part where putting money into the mortgage vs sheltered retirement accounts helps you, in terms of college financing. If either form of saving is sheltered from the FAFSA calculations, what does using some money that would have been 401k money to instead throw at the mortgage change?...

Excel. The one Microsoft program I never find myself cursing.

Kernschatten wrote:would be interested if someone has a better source than Google.

No such thing.

You have a car loan, two mortgages, a boat loan and an ATV loan. I'm wondering if you really hate loans.

Sure it's possible to save for a car. One way to help do that would be to not take out loans for things like boats and ATVs.

Yes, it's a good idea. You are paying 6.5% on that debt, and getting rid of the small loan entirely will free you of that monthly obligation. A normal loan calculator should tell you what you will save in interest on the loan over it's life by paying it off. If you are comfortable with a 10k EF, the...

Nope.

Have you calculated this out at all, to determine how much you need to draw 30k per year without draining your account over 40 years? You have ~200k right now, curious how you came to the conclusion that that is enough to sustain 30k (saying nothing of whether or not 30k is sufficient or not).

Your rent should be 1% of your asking price as a floor. 2% is ideal. As an investment, this is worth no more than $420K if that's what your rents are worth. You just can't find a two family house where the rent is 1% of the asking price where I live. Maybe if I bought a building with many apartment...

The operative phase is "I don't think that will always be true." In effect, you are trying to outguess the bond market, which is setting the 30 year treasury at just over 3% while considering all risks. Just as it is possible that in 20 years we will be looking at a long-term treasury rat...

david99 wrote:So I was wondering what you all thought about this purchase? Do the numbers make sense?

No. $4,200 monthly rent for a house that costs $700k doesn't make any sense, in my opinion. Would be tough for this house to be profitable.

So technically, there is no rate that is better or worse than another to pay-off your mortgage. It is always a "good" investment relative to other investments with zero or near-zero credit risk. This assumes you have the best available rate, or close to it (which I assume is the case for ...

A secret handshake, and a tattoo.

You can rebalance between accounts at any time. Seems like you are looking at each account individually, which is not optimal. Unless I'm missing something, this doesn't offer any real benefits over more traditional tax-efficient investing.

I would prioritize: 1. Investments that come with company match 2. Student loan repayment 3. Investments that don't get a company match (including Roth) While it's certainly not *bad* to be putting money into a Roth now, at ~6% interest, and Student Loan debt that can't be absolved no matter what, I...

Seems like a great time to be a young investor to me. Didn't lose much in the 08-09 downturn, been buying everything (real estate, equities) on the cheap since. If you are fortunate to have had a job the entire time, seems like great timing to me.

Any direction or suggestions as to how I can solve this problem are appreciated. I've got a tenant committed to a long term lease that is a few hundred dollars per month above my fixed monthly mortgage payments, property tax, and insurance. It seems crazy to me that this revenue stream AND apprecia...

Bustoff wrote:Our current att uverse bill is over $200. When I joined it was $130 for phone, internet and tv.

Isn't that insane, or am I just a cheapskate ?

What do you guys pay for tv, phone and internet ?

~150-160 for all three. And yes, it's insane.

1. What is the best method for saving money for a home? I am in a relationship now (maybe I should be saving for a ring? :idea: ) and would like to be a home owner some day. Right now it just does not fit into my lifestyle, but I would like to be prepared for when it does. 2. What are the negatives...

1st question: Should I go for this 51/22/27% balance in EACH of our accounts (i.e., 401k, Roth IRA, 529, and her “investment” retirement plan)? Or, is there a reason why certain accounts should be more heavily weighted with certain assets? Whether these account should be weighted differently or not...

Seems risky. You won't have your mortgage paid off at the two year mark, so your monthly cash needs will be exactly the same as they are now, except you won't have the EF and retirement funds to fall back on. Not a fan.

crowd79 wrote:Very poor investment option. Risk $5 and likely lose it all with a 1% chance of winning

In terms of gambling options, it's actually great. Total payout is 100%, the house takes nothing. Can't get that in Vegas.

You can only take a deduction on the traditional IRA if your AGI is 115k or less, and you can only get the full deduction if your AGI is 95k or less. I would stick with Roth IRA regardless, but in your situation it may be the only IRA option.

How does the value of your home compare to your total NW? If it's a smallish percentage, I would definitely ignore it. If it's 50% of your total NW (for example), it may be wiser to include it at some discounted rate, as Nova mentioned.

May be in part a generational thing. I know I will always default to using the number on the ID for the missed call, and really dislike voicemail in general.

Another vote for the car loan. I would vote car loan even with 0 tax deduction on mortgage interest. The difference in the terms of these loans is far more significant than the difference in interest rate.

The average person interested in maxing his/her 401 contribution or who even expresses an interest in learning more about retirement planning will a)know 4th grade algebra including how to divide, b)know where the library or bookstore is, c)have access to and know how to use the internet, d)be a sa...

Common sense is not a common virtue. Look at all the people that do the whole "tax return pre-payments" from H&R Block et al...they are giving up 10% of their return to get the money what, a month early? The tax prepper gets an enormous return on this pre-payment and people think it i...

~70k of expenses moving forward on a 92k salary. I haven't done the math, but I don't like your odds of retiring at 50 with those numbers. You'd need a much larger difference between the two to make this happen. Much larger.

If they had a section to put in gross salary, and would calculate the % you should be contributing based on contributions to date, I would think that would be a bit more useful, and not terribly difficult to add to the calculator.

150k in the bank as an EF seems insanely high. Do you really need three times your annual gross salary as an EF? You should be maxing all tax advantaged accounts and burning down that EF as necessary.

Seems good, I agree with the previous posters that approved. Only thing I would add is I hope that if you did in fact fund the Roth for this use, you had the money invested properly. It is a mistake to open a Roth for use within a short timeframe and load up on equities, your investment should match...

My advice is not to buy a rental house in Las Vegas. I can't think of a single good reason to do that, and it seems as if even your gut is telling you not to do it. In this case, go with your gut.

OK. Thanks a lot for reading and commenting! Out of curiosity, what sort of guidelines would you advise or suggest I consider in the future when purchasing a house? I'm trying to get an idea on how much house one can afford, generally speaking, if 20% is going to be put down as a downpayment. Is th...

I agree partially -- I guess the thought that came to mind is that if I did want to get married or get out of the shared living arrangement, I'd have two options: - Renting out the apartment completely (moving out of my room) and renting a new place with my partner OR - Asking people to move out an...

My initial thought is that buying an apartment for $899k that would generate 3,500-4,500 in rent seems like a horrendously bad deal. I understand that's simply the way it is in SF and NYC, but I would want no part of it. Only way this would hypothetically make sense to me is if you were 100% sure yo...

Have manners completely dissapeared from young people and modern activities? This theme has appeared throughout the thread. The idea that somehow these types of issues reside solely with "the young". My experience has actually been quite the opposite, although I don't have any false notio...

It disheartening to see our rent go up so much in the past several years when we could buy and have a comparable monthly payment to our rent. At what point does it make sense to consider buying? What else should we consider? Thanks for your help and advice! Would probably make sense at the point yo...