Bogleheads.org

What I don't get (not saying this in reference to the OP) is folks complaining after they get the treatment they sought they decide to later complain about the charges?? Does anyone go to McDondald's eat a burger and then go up and say "boy I don't think I should have had to pay full price&quo...

At your income level, maximizing tax-deferred makes sense. I'm surprised a little that you can't easily do both 401(k)s. If your mortgage is at a good rate, especially if you can deduct the interest, then I wouldn't accelerate the payments. Personally, I am not afraid of debt. I think that it gives ...

A 30-year treasury bond is risky! You will be eaten alive with inflation. There is no such thing as a risk-free investment. Ultimately, you'll have to decide how much and what type of risk you're comfortable with. Yes, and that's why those who purchased 30 year treasuries in the early 1990's have b...

Those seem to be unrealistic expectations. $5000 for a trip is over 15% alone. How much in home repair money are we talking? She wants that AND to grow the money for heirs? You need to have an honest discussion about that with her. The better idea would be invest it conservatively, use it as she nee...

Before it was fashionable so to do, Schmitz wrote strong, believable female characters in Science Fiction. At one point many of Schmitz's works were available in the Baen Free Library in electronic form. Unfortunately, not so at this time. There's a message about reconstructing it and that some tit...

My original follow-up got losted too. The Black Company by Glen Cook- especially the first 3 . . . And his Garratt, PI series is Raymond Chandler set in the city on the edge of an interminable war orchestrated by the wizards who command the city, Garrett (like Philip Marlowe, and Chandler himself) i...

I would NOT pay off a 1.5% car loan.


Brian

I was at about your point last year, although lower home value and therefore remaining balance. Mine was difficult to do a standard refinance on, so I went with the Penfed home-equity loan (5-year at 1.99%). That rate isn't available anymore though.


Brian

Riverstwo wrote:I would put an ad in the paper and say "open space - garden for lease"

Many people who do not own land would love to have a garden

I doubt they're eager to have one in the desert with no water available.


Brian

For the former, I prefer a 5-7 day auction so I have time to notice them, since I'm not at my computer every day. Longer ones are annoying since I don't want to monitor stuff that long. Even 7 days is pushing it. I don't care what day auctions end, but I prefer not in the middle of the night becaus...

Probably many here are like me, and there is no choice. I can't deduct a Traditional, so a Roth is the only sensible choice. I don't need to do any analysis. Furthermore, MyMegaCorp doesn't offer a Roth 401(k), so I don't even need to consider that. I max the Roth IRA, put all I can in the deferred ...

No. However, why do you think you will have to take RMDs on it? What would that even mean for a non-tax-advantaged account?


Brian

thorice wrote:

Default User BR wrote:Why not go for a 15 year, or even a 10 year?

We want to keep the current option: low monthly, but the flexibility to pay off early.

Under your circumstances, I think that's overly cautious. However, it's your call.


Brian

The market is 'way up' since mid-April? Really? Like 5-8%, depending on when you start. I ask because on my first playing with the charts I started on April 15th and saw NASDAQ first went down 4% to end up 4%, Dow Jones down 2% then up 2% (though with today's numbers they're both up a touch more th...

roymeo wrote:The market is 'way up' since mid-April?

Really?

Like 5-8%, depending on when you start.


Brian

Looks to me like she knows what's she's doing. How's your portfolio look?

BTW, 60/40 is more in the moderate category.


Brian

Any advice on the funds. I was going to pick the VEIRX because of low expense ratio. That's a good candidate. However, it doesn't form an entire portfolio. I cant have Roth IRA because of high income. That's not the case. Anyone can have a Roth through the backdoor method. However, that works best ...

Why not go for a 15 year, or even a 10 year?


Brian

There have been a number of threads on this. No one knows what the market will do. Certainly not me. If I knew, I'd make a LOT of money.


Brian

Are these blended funds better able to track the entire stock market versus an all growth or all value fund? Yes. By definition, a growth or value fund eliminates some stocks. A blend fund generally holds all the stocks within a valuation range. The S&P 500 is a bit different in that it is a cu...

JupiterJones wrote:I think you guys missed the last part of my post.

No, I didn't. There's a big difference between insurance scores and the other things you mention.


Brian

Don't use the canned mix. Too much overlap and too high of an expense. I would at a minimum consider all of "his" to be one portfolio. If you'd prefer to keep "hers" as a separate one in a TR fund, that's probably fine. I think 90/10 is too aggressive, but that's up to you. You s...

tomd37 wrote:Thanks for all the replies. I ended up using #Cruncher's method and I am satisfied with the resulting gain between the end of 2002 and end of 2012.

Now that you have calculated it, what will DO with the information?


Brian

Just to pour a little more gas on this, I would be very skeptical of a 3.5% return going forward. Stable value funds have returns like short term bond funds, which are more like 1.5% right now. I have a very good Megacorp 401k and the stable value fund has a current yield of 1.3%. I don't think it'...

I've never understood the thinking that Vanguard should be all things to all people. Vanguard is a store. If you like some of the products it offers, you should buy them. If you don't like some of its products, but prefer the products of DFA instead, you should buy those. You can still be a Boglehe...

JupiterJones wrote:I was about to say the same thing. If you "don't borrow money any more", who cares what your credit score is?

Insurance scores.


Brian

i am moving my brokerage taxable account (basically only vanguard ETFs) to Fidelity from a small-time low-commission online tradehouse that is raising their commissions. as many of us know, there is a one-time ACAT transfer fee when you transfer OUT of one house's account (no fee from the receiving...

In some cases the car is slightly faster than a bike in actual drive time. "Some cases"? "Slightly faster"? You have to work hard to find a case where an electric bike isn't much slower than a car. Yeah, gridlock city traffic. But not any real commuting. Bikes can't even go on t...

My only comment is that it seems a common misconception that stable value funds are an adequate or equal replacement for bond funds. Like they are fungible. However, don't let the adjectives lull you into thinking a stock fund of that nature is somehow less volatile or equally volatile as a bond fu...

Actually, Fidelity offers bonuses to new deposits of existing customers. You should at least ask him about your bonus money and when it will appear in your account. :) You usually have to get the account coded for the bonus. They can probably do it after the fact, but I'd contact regular customer s...

Wellesley is managed, so there's no hard and fast rule as to when or if they will rebalance. It will be whenever and to what extent the managers decided.


Brian

Does anyone know about SSgA Russell All Cap Index Fund? It is being offered by my new carrier which is Merrill Lynch. I can't find it listed anywhere. All I have is that it is a Russell 3000 Index mirror. I would like to pair it with the SSgA US Bond Collective Investment Fund which is SSINX. It wo...

How many people here have IRAs and/or taxable accounts with Fidelity? I have an IRA with Vanguard and will soon be starting a taxable account. I was wondering if it makes sense to open the taxable account with Fidelity? I opened a taxable account at Fidelity in December for the transfer bonus. I ha...

The percentages you show should be of the total. We need to get a feel for how the Roths stack up against the 401(k). That determines fund selection and placement.


Brian

For those who are tilting, how do you maintain your allocation? Or do you just let the allocation float to wherever it goes? Tax-loss harvesting can only get you so far. New money goes a long ways towards keeping things on track. I have a spreadsheet that aggregates all the fund information, comput...

What I meant to say is that bonds would lose value if the interest rates rise. (They have to rise - they cannot go much lower.) This is a common, but incorrect, sentiment. This is a false dilemma, in that you present only the two choices, "yields go up" and "yields go down". The...

inbox788 wrote:I tried to take out a 1.99% Penfed HEL last year, but things dragged out and fell through.

How did it fall through? Things were slow last year, but most I heard about eventually finished. Mine took about five months, but some of that was my fault.


Brian

That canned portfolio is not a good one. There are few good funds, you concentrate on those.

You haven't said how much is in the Roths. Does your wife have a company plan?


Brian

InvestorNewb wrote:I'm just going to do the opposite of what the forecasters are predicting.

Given that it's easy to find forecasters with contradictory positions, that could get challenging. Here's a radical thought, don't anything based on what they say.


Brian

By the way, if anyone is thinking of taking one out, it should be noted that the 1.99% rate is history these days. The best you can do from PenFed is 2.49%. Looks like the <2% rates on PenFed's used auto loans is gone, too, unless you have a 2012 or 2013 vehicle. So they have. Good to know, as I wi...

By the way, if anyone is thinking of taking one out, it should be noted that the 1.99% rate is history these days. The best you can do from PenFed is 2.49%.


Brian

Iorek wrote:Thanks. I think those are all points worth considering (but I am not sure I agree they amount to a general rule).

I don't recall saying that it was. It's some of the rationale those who advise against replicating the same allocation in multiple containers use.


Brian

Watty wrote:If you had a paid of house would you take out a home equity loan just to invest it?

I know I would. See above. After tax deductions, I'm paying closer to 1.5%. I could get 2.3% in stable-value if I wanted to be super conservative, but I just threw it into the general investment pool.


Brian

gips wrote: We refinanced our 4.25%, 10 year mortgage with a %1.99 five year fixed penfed hel. our balance is around $175k.

I took out one of those on a paid-off house last year, so what do you think I'll say?


Brian

What you should avoid in most cases is deliberately duplicating to have the same allocation in all accounts. And why would that be bad? tax efficiency reasons? That's one reason. There's usually a best container for each investment type. Another is that company plans often have a poorer selection t...

It looks as though the recommendations have wound down, so I will say that I appreciate all of the input and I will take it under advisement. Thanks everyone.


Brian

Just curious, because I have been thinking about this issue lately as well. I get that all accounts should be analyzed as one portfolio, but saying "you shouldn't duplicate holdings because you end up with a lot of duplication" doesn't really make a lot of sense to me. What is wrong with ...

primus wrote:What's the different between VTSMX & VTI? I understand the expense ratio is better for the latter and its an ETF vs. index fund <I think>, but both seem to have the same investments?

They are share classes of the same fund, so little difference besides what you mention.


Brian

DTSC wrote:I wouldn't go out and get a loan to invest in stocks (or stock mutual funds).

I would. And I did.


Brian

Brokerage Account: 80k Is it possible to roll this to Vanguard? Will there be tax issues? i don't think you can transfer a taxable investment account; i believe you'd have to liquidate the holdings, then cash out of the old one and into the new one. selling holdings in taxable will have tax consequ...