Bogleheads.org

livesoft wrote:I suppose broker ratings should reflect how they handle wash-sale reporting nowadays.

I think I will create a wash sale at Vanguard and see what happens and how they handle it.

Thank you, that might tell us if this is a "one off" or they have a systemic problem.

1. Vanguard will not report anything to the IRS until February 2014 at the earliest. Even so, folks get corrected 1099s long after that. Cost basis reporting including wash sales were effective as of January 1, 2011 and they had to be report as of February 2012 for stocks/ETFs. That is several mont...

I say relax and let Vanguard fix their accounting to match the facts. You know the facts anyways, so why do you care what Vanguard does? 1) Because the wrong data is going to be transmitted to the IRS and I don't want to have to try to explain on my tax return that it is Vanguard that is wrong and ...

There appears to be a serious problem with how Vanguard Mutual Funds is treating wash sales. Here's what happened in simplified form. January 2012 buy 500 shares VBIRX February 2012 buy 100 shares VBIRX March 2013 sell 300 shares VBIRX using specific ID at a loss (200 and 100 from above) April 2013 ...

It is possible and not very difficult. If I could do it anyone can. Log on to Vanguard and search for "Direct Deposit". I don't remember the details but you wind up with instructions for routing numbers and other data which you take to "your employer". Don't use "Schwab Bank...

grok87 wrote: I'll discuss the two maturities you mentioned and advance some hypotheses, in the form of a hypothetical discussion between the issuer, the bond underwiter, institutional investors and (clueless) retail investors
...

Great story line. When does the movie come out?

Wiki article link: Tax-Adjusted Asset Allocation By putting an equal dollar value of stocks in the Roth IRA, you are taking more risk. If your Roth stocks lose $1000, that's $1000 less you will have to spend in retirement. If your taxable stocks lose $1000, that's $850 less you will have to spend. ...

Jim, It's still a very good idea. You could even expand it to sign in names and passwords. One problem I foresee is that a site could change its name. I've had this happen when a company got bought out or merged with another. Keeping a list of the original addresses would be prudent. I have a crypti...

I use a simplified version of this (well, maybe simpler). I stick the first three letters of the website name on the end of my normal answer. For example, if vanguard asked what's my favorite color, I'd type in bluevan (blue's not really my favorite color). This keeps everything unique, even across...

Many posts saying if this occurs a certain bond segment will do well and if that happens another bond segment will do well. But we don't know if the next crisis will give us "this or that". But you don't need to have only one bond fund. If you like TBM slice and dice it. In the next crisis...

Assuming the shares sold were from the same lot purchased, and assuming there were no additional purchases within the wash-sale window, the Service has clarified that you have a short term capital loss rather than a wash sale. See Rev Rul 56-602 OK. The rule makes sense (especially for the IRS). ht...

Buy 200 shares of xyz today at $10. Sell 100 shares tomorrow at $8. Do I have a STCL of $200 or 100 shares of xyz at $12? This could be a nightmare for those of us who are trying to use a short term bond fund instead of a MM fund. I had a similar type occurrence at Vg several weeks ago except I boug...

I don't see how you can "correct" for monthly versus annual data. If you don't have the monthly data, you simply cannot calculate a monthly standard deviation--not without making a metric boatload of assumptions that we know for sure are not close to true for financial data. It's a matter...

My Vanguard ROTH shows gain/loss data for covered stock funds on the mutual fund side and covered bond funds on the VBS side. I think you are probably seeing the covered/uncovered situation as caroljm36 suggested.

It's been over 40 years but as I recall you use [ x(i) - x(avg)]^2 if there is no time trend in the data but [ x(I+1) - x(i)]^2 if there is a time trend in the data this problem is mitigated if you use percent changes but I don't think it goes away completely. You also have to correct for annual vs ...

Question: If you are holding your bonds for the long term, what does it matter if they drop in value during a equity market collapse as long as they not only come back to the value of Treasuries but in the years after the collapse they consistently surpass the value of Treasuries. Because is you wa...

Lots of people are talking about shortening the duration of their bond holdings to protect against interest rate risk should rates start to rise. If I'm a long term, buy and hold investor though, then why should I shorten the duration of my bond holdings? So what if rates rise and the NAV takes a h...

I also do not understand basing one's longterm fixed income philosophy on one year's performance whether it is TIPS or Corporate Investment Grade as long as one "stays the course". It depends what you mean by "stay the course". If you mean buy and hold forever one year's data me...

dbr, I was talking from the point of view of someone in the accumulation phase, whose income is from salary and not from the portfolio. Yes, the second half of my comment was narrow minded. However, the principle still applies: in accumulation you care even less exactly what your bonds do and don't...

From 1993 through 2007, the lines are very close; you wouldn't have a difference of more than a few percent no matter which fund you used. A rolling return chart can do a better job of highlighting what happens in the short run during market/economic disruptions. By looking at both the growth chart...

The reason I say his desire is because there are almost no bond indexes per se so it is up to the fund to define what it buys. For example there is no index that defines what a "Intermediate Corporate Bond" is. Similary there is not one for munis or short term corporate and so forth. http...

Vanguard's treasury, muni and investment grade bond funds are passively managed non-index funds. Yes, they have an "active" manager who tries to keep turnover and expenses down. Paul OK. The hardly ever mentioned "passively managed non-index" funds which has no statistical data ...

Third, it's much harder to win in bond market than stock market because much less idiosyncratic risk. For example interest rate risk is the same for all bonds in the same asset class. And no evidence that people can guess rates better than market. And with bonds of the same credit rating, at least ...

Fidelity is showing the 30 year tips bid/ask spread at 0.534/0.555 so i actually have a shot now at being able to buy at've the next auction in May (i've decided i require a minimum real yield of 0.52% or 1 bp a week !) cheers, Me too but I don't get your math. 1bp x 52wks x 30yrs = 15.6% real :P W...

I've found Vanguard to be very helpful by email. Some questions take time to research, so I wouldn't expect an immediate response by phone. Agreed they are very helpful but it is my experience that the information is often incorrect. Much of their problem stems from the different rules between the ...

... And no one yet has given me a good reason why CDs bought direct from nonprofit credit unions which clearly state the penalty for an admissible preterm withdrawal is somehow inferior or riskier than bond or bond funds paying virtually the same, pathetically low rate. ... Scooter, you are arguing...

Doc, If you reinvest the diminished capital in a higher paying vehicle you are getting a yield that, best case, will preserve the rate you were getting when you originally invested the whole $100,000. I understand that. But the questioner was asking why not just sell the bond fund, take the loss an...

Hi Scooter57, I don't know what route Greenie will take if he harvests losses nor do I know what tax bracket he is in. However you lost me when you said , in one sentence, that his investment lost 20% of NAV, and yet, he somehow preserved the full $100,000 in a later sentence. How did his investmen...

You locked in whatever the rate was when you purchased. If you can live with that rate going forward five to ten years, you did the right thing. The key here is that you have it "locked in" for the duration of the bond. If you sell it at a gain or a loss and repurchase a bond with a simil...

:?: I am very curious as to what people are buying with the proceeds from all those long bonds they are selling. After all this is fixed income and you can't increase your return for the duration unless you take on more risk. Considering the recent history of stock increases, anyone with a rebalanc...

I am very curious as to what people are buying with the proceeds from all those long bonds they are selling.

After all this is fixed income and you can't increase your return for the duration unless you take on more risk.

One that surprises me is ShareBuilder. Their FDIC insured sweep option is paying 0.50% APY. Brian That's the difference. For accounts less than $500,000 Schwab forces you into a Schwab Bank FDIC "cash" account which at present is paying more than most MM accounts. That may change in the f...

OK, Here's the actual math which I confirmed with 2012 TurboTax, for a married couple. Scenario #1, extremely rich couple both waited to age 70 to withdraw large social security -- maximum tax-free amount they can withdraw is just north of $125,000 tax-free! Scenario #2, more normal couple, both ag...

One other thing to realize is that it is very possible that a married couple could have $30,000 to $40,000 dollars of tax free income due to both Social Security and tax standard deduction and exemptions... Refresh my memory, if the standard deduction and 2 personal exemptions total $20k how does a...

Because of this, is there really any reason to invest in bonds? My gut is telling me that with the stability that the pension brings to the portfolio, I should throw the bonds out the window and stick to a more aggressive approach. Thoughts? You are falling into the numbers trap. You asset allocati...

With $3000 available in my bond fund, $2000 unavailable (recently deposited) in my bond fund, an $100 in my money market fund, I'll try to order some brokerage transactions: 2. Entering an order above $3100 is flat-out rejected. 3. Entering an order between $2800 and $3100 gives "Because this ...

Assuming a high tax bracket, would it make sense to sell these now (and pay LT capital gains taxes) and repurchase a TIPS index fund in my traditional IRA [currently in cash]? I know it's not a 1 for 1 exchange. You don't even need to repurchase in a tax advantaged account. What you are doing is tr...

"How will you make this purchase?" Select brick and mortar bank savings account XXXX. Message pops up that "This bank account has not yet been authenticated for redemptions..." which is fine, no withdrawls for several decades! Click continue and confirm. Next day I logged in and...

The $469.60 came from outside: a brick and mortar bank savings account. This is getting weirder and weirder. Did you "pull" the funds by initiating the transfer from Vanguard or "push" them by initiating the transfer from the S&L? If pushed from the bank what "term"...

3] Suppose your retirement was imminent and your plan was to very slowly draw down that Wellington money over the next 30 years I would seriously reconsider my need and ability to take risk. Having a portfolio with 65% stocks 30 years after retirement stretches the "need and ability" cont...

I have another transfer in process pushed from Schwab to VG that was executed before the previous Schwab transfer that has not showed up at Vanguard yet. I think it is probably there but won't show until they close today's books. Don't know if the money will be available at VBS tomorrow as indexfun...

No problem here either, using vanguard and VBS. Bought 5 VSS for 469.60 on 3/21. Then bought 469.60 in Money Market, also on 3/21 , taking balance from 0 to 469.60. Sweep to brokerage on 3/26. No issues. The question is where the $469.60 came from. If it was from an inhouse exchange all the rules h...

I personally don't know what to make of this. I'm open to the possibility that it's just luck, and I'm open to the possibility that it isn't. I'm an indexer. Index funds do better on average because of low cost. The heavy use of derivatives by PIMCO is another way to reduce transaction costs. If yo...

Sorry I was not specific enough. The right metric is marginal tax rate . Which could be your bracket, or your overall average or maybe the average of a couple of brackets. A marginal rate is never an average. If parts of the contribution are going to end up taxed at different rates then it's best t...

UPDATE Last Friday I purchased VBIRX by automatic investment from a linked bank account. The buy date was Friday and the bank debit didn't show up the next business day but Vanguard shows the money as Unavailable Shares with a seven day hold date and a message: Purchases by personal check, a check w...

Dan, you are correct. For the same amount of pre-tax money invested and no change in tax rate the ROTH and the tIRA/401k have exactly the same after tax return. That's not completely true. If your average tax rate in the future is the same as your marginal today, then the return will be the same in...

Dick, when you add outside money to pay the taxes you are doing just that - adding money. The OP is about investing in a ROTH or a tIRA/401k. As I understand it, using the numbers in my example, if the OP has $5,000 to invest, he can either invest $1,000 in a taxable account and the remaining $4,00...

Dan, you are correct. For the same amount of pre-tax money invested and no change in tax rate the ROTH and the tIRA/401k have exactly the same after tax return. Doc, that may be true, but you lose overall return by not using funds in your taxable account to convert IRA to Roth (tIRA/401k to Roth). ...

Dan, you are correct. For the same amount of pre-tax money invested and no change in tax rate the ROTH and the tIRA/401k have exactly the same after tax return.

If your tax rate is exactly the same in retirement as it is while you are working, there should be no difference whatsoever between the Roth 401k and Traditional 401k. Most retirees will be in a lower bracket and have a lower effective tax rate in retirement, so it is usually more advantageous to c...