Bogleheads.org

Tacoma- You asked about an unbiased look at active vs. index. Here's a simple way to look at it from Morningstar. Please let me know if this is helpful. http://corporate.morningstar.com/us/documents/methodologydocuments/factsheets/morningstarratingforfunds_factsheet.pdf See the histogram on the seco...

Tacoma, It seems to me that you're more bothered by AUM fees than expense ratios within funds. Am I correct, and if so, why? In terms of advisers, I would recommend a fee-only adviser who does not have any interest to consider besides yours. You should decide first whether you want an hourly adviser...

I've been to both of those places...unless you have something off the beaten path I'd pass on a car. Take a TGV (train) from Paris to the coast, and use public transit where necessary (it's much better there than in the USA). In Paris, I recommend having a meal in the eastern section near the Canal ...

I'm in as well.

How do Jim Cramer's picks compare with Cosmo Kramer's?

As for futureadvisor- I like the idea. However, three problems: There suggestions were complicated and involved lots of funds to hit their target. No consideration of gains/losses and tax impacts were considered. Couldn't enter I-bonds as I-bonds only as cash. It wants me to sell this and buy a tips...

vanguard1234- Actively managed funds have a 50K mimimum for admiral, but index funds have a 10K minimum.

SVT- Mutual funds have to distribute capital gains to shareholders when they sell a stock, even if you don't sell the fund. these are taxable in a taxable account even if you don't sell the fund. Many index funds today rarely if ever distribute capital gains because they have to sell rarely. However...

Mel - liquidity needs on the amount may also impact when I buy them. I may need a bit more liquidity than usual in the next few months.

I guess my choices are 1. Invest now and earn 1.47% for the next year, 1.175% w/ withdrawal penalty 2. Invest between May and October and get 1.18% for half a year. 3. Wait until November and start at whatever the new rate is at that time. (I can still invest 10,000 in 2013 and 10,000 in 2014 if I c...

Hi,

I know the new CPI-U came out for March. Can we now figure out what the i-bond rate will be for the next 6 months?

Thanks.

Brian

I sold some stocks over the weekend....then again I've gotten lucky other times so I can't complain.

I would contact Vanguard, initiate a transfer from your current brokerage account. Given your initial thoughts, I'd transfer everything into the Vanguard Life Strategy Growth Fund (80% Equities) for simplicity and then figure out exactly how to allocate later. You could also do the Moderate Growth (...

I agree....Get the contribution in now. Then figure out where you want it.

Thanks. I've done the following: Sold the Morgan Stanley Real Estate and reallocated among my other 3 funds in my 401K, slightly increasing my bond allocation in the process. Sold Total International and US Value in my Roth IRA and bought Admiral shares of Vanguard US REIT index. This seems to lower...

I've found for the most part service has been good, but once had a person who didn't understand what I was talking about. I said, "I think I'll hold off for now," then called back and got a rep who answered my question.

Thanks.

Brian

Are the options of tax-exempt or PIMCO better than I-Bonds? Or would it be better to buy I-bonds?

Thanks... any idea where I should look to increase my bond allocation closer to 15-20%. Thanks.

Brian

Livesoft- If I were to do that, I would increase my 401K contributions and hit the max. Should I change it all to Traditional 401K and hit the max, or use some kind of combination of traditional and Roth-with greater weight to traditional than now?

I believe as long as the rollover into the 401k is completed by the end of 2013 and the conversion is in 2013, the pro-rata rule should not apply. Someone please advise if I'm wrong on this.

Thanks.

Brian

I've posted on here on other topics but until now haven’t opened up my portfolio to comments. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks. Emergency Funds: About 9-12 months of expenses (would be 8% of portfolio if were included below). Earning 0.7% interest. Debt: None Tax Filing Status: Single Margi...

It's the Mango prepaid card/savings account. Max $5,000 that earns that, and that's only with a direct deposit. You have to have a card which comes with $5 monthly fee unless you load $500 onto it each month....the only way to get money out (from what I understand) is to use the prepaid card or clos...

Perhaps the FINRA Investor Alerts page should be prominently linked on the site....there are a number of good postings there about things to be wary of.

First, congrats on being a responsible former athlete who is looking at their money a big picture way for the long term. We've all heard many stories of athletes going bankrupt after they retire because they become accustomed to using their money in an unsustainable way. Glad you're not joining that...

I just used Nate Silver's picks as my bracket. We'll see how that works out.

So you're saying you want something closer to 70%, rather than the 60% or 80% of those two funds? If I'm misunderstanding the question, please let me know. Assuming your contribution from both 2012 and 2013 totals more than $6,000, you could always split it 50/50 between the two funds. If not, it's ...

The Wellington fund differs from the 2 others you mentioned in 2 ways. 1. It is an actively managed fund 2. It does not invest in international stocks 3. Of US Stocks, Wellington is focused more on larger stocks, and does not invest in smaller cap stocks. 4. Wellington has somewhat of a value tilt. ...

Not sure how it compares to Magellan at its peak, but I thought the Vanguard 500 index is the largest mutual fund today.

Only problem I have noted over the last several years - due to size - are the economies of scale and VG constantly lowering the expense ratios, lowering the limits to admiral funds, etc. How are they ever going to make any money giving us lower and lower costs? Isn't a mutual ownership structure gr...

WindGypsy- You are correct, no fees- but you can't go back into the fund you leave for 2 months (there are ways around this but you probably won't need to do it anyway).

To clarify: If I want to buy any funds with money transferred to a bank account, I have to wait a week to use it to purchase securities in my brokerage account? I never tried to make trades prior to funding, but I shouldn't have to wait a week between transferring money and executing a trade. Never ...

Watty- I don't think you understood the question properly. The IRA investment's already there, I will shift investment from bond to equity in the IRA if I buy IBonds to keep allocation the same. If I buy the i-bonds I would get the money by selling from my taxable account and generating a $3000 gain...

Thanks....I'll probably do that.

Brian

I'm not opposed to ETFs, though I don't own any at present. An investor who chooses an ETF similar to Vanguard's for low cost, low taxes, and market diversification is likely making a sound choice. However, the tone of Delegge's piece was clearly uncalled for, being far too extreme (waiting for end ...

Thanks BBL. Another option is to not-reinvest distributions and then buy i-bonds with the distribution amounts. There's no reason I couldn't by i-bonds multiple times during the year, right? What's your thought on this?

No, I'm above 15% marginal, but the Cap Gains rate is 15% on LTCG.

My state marginal is 6.85 + 3.25 city = 10.1%, so that's where I got the 25% from.

Though I would have to pay $750 now, isn't that $750 gains that I would have to pay eventually whenever I sell this stock (perhaps long into the future). I know in general its a good idea to defer taxes for compounding purposes but if I'm correct it's not fully being 750 in the red because my overal...

Thanks. This is not a question of maxing tax advantaged space. I am happy with my current contributions there. This is a question of: Are I-bonds preferrable enough over a Vanguard bond fund in my IRA that it is worth it to generate the gains and pay about $750 in taxes, given that I can achieve my ...

Just some clarification on the feedback regarding employer stock. You're doing something quite common, which is thinking that a company being a "good company" is a reason to own lots of its stock. This is not necessarily the case. Apple when it was at $700 may well have been a good company...

I have the option to do 1 of the following 1. Invest about 10,000 in Short Term Investment Grade in my Roth IRA. 2. Sell 10,750 in stocks, buy 10,000 worth of ibonds, and take invest the 10,000 in the IRA in Equity funds. This option would generate about 3,000 in capital gains, which I figure would ...

I guess I should have put savings bonds/CDs as an option as well. I've been using I-bonds myself as well as shorter duration.

I've created a poll to see how people are responding the current interest rate environment. Feel free to comment as well.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I have a good list of resources.

Brian

Thinking this article could be a good one:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/busin ... d=all&_r=0

Thanks Toons. Good article, though I would dispute the statement "Index funds are ideal for those who have no idea how to evaluate competitive advantages of various corporations, differentiate an income statement from a balance sheet, or calculate discounted cash flows." I calculate discou...

Hi, Does anyone know of any good articles that are both easy to read to a novice and from a well respected source (known by the general public) regarding the superiority of index fund investing. One of Rick's articles on Forbes could work, I found a couple but they seemed a bit complicated for the p...

Also have to decide what to do now that I've lost the 1% (5 x nothing) rate from Capital One after a year.

I do want at least one account at a bank where I can walk in, but am leaning towards moving the bulk of my money to an online savings account, lined to a local checking account.

Brian

That scenario is highly unlikely. Two funds with perfect correlation would have (presumably) equal risk and therefore equal return.

Might this explain some of the value premium. My belief is the following: 1. For the most part, the stock market is largely efficient. 2. Overhyped stocks, such as Apple, are likely to underperform others. To what extent is it stocks such as Apple, which are overvalued and then revert towards the me...

Receive an email whenever I get a dividend so I can reinvest it somewhere (I like to use dividends to rebalance in taxable).