Bogleheads.org

Good point, although buying a rental property with negative cash flow so you can offset bond gains is moving well beyond "a stretch" and into the realm of ridiculous.

Also consider the expense ratio of the small cap or extended market fund. The difference in performance between the S&P 500 and the TSM is so slight that I don't consider it worthwhile to increase your ER for this purpose. I personally like approximating the TSM as closely as possible, but I wou...

That's a different question. If you are in the RMD phase, I'm guessing you might be eligible to offset ordinary income with passive activity real estate losses. Social security doesn't count toward MAGI for this purpose. MAGI must be less than $150K for any offset. Max offset is $25,000 (which occu...

I would consider it in terms of cash flow. In your case, the equity you build is going to end up reducing your living expenses once it's paid off or traded for a free and clear home. That is going to affect your cashflow, but it won't directly affect your portfolio since you don't plan to cash out. ...

Thanks for the elaboration, pascalwager and retiredjg. That makes sense.

Finally, unless I am mistaken, a portfolio that includes a total U.S. "X" index fund and a total international "X" index fund actually does not need to be rebalanced-- the indexes themselves automatically track the total cap-weighting of their market , and if they are initially ...

I don't really agree with this analysis. You are assuming the current landlord has kept the rent the same for a reason. In my experience, it's just as likely that there is no good reason. Landlording isn't exactly an efficient market. It's full of small players who have absolutely no idea what they...

TISM doesn't provide much int'l diversification, but int'l small/value do. Is this a typo? I would have thought TISM was the most diversified. I am only putting 5% of my stock allocation into REITs because of my concern that rising interest rates over the next decade are going to put some pressure ...

It is better to have gains in a Roth than in a traditional IRA. It is not it is better to have no gains in a traditional IRA than to have gains in a traditional IRA. This use of a MM account is pointless and the fact that it is widely repeated indicates that there is a complete lack of understandin...

This 8% return fund is an annuity guaranteed by a government body until a specific date. It is important to know who is guaranteeing it and when the rate is due to expire. It can certainly serve in place of the bond portion of your asset allocation, but you should know the above information before i...

The 457 contribution limit is considered separately from the 401k and 403b limits (those, however, are shared - you can't contribute 17.5k to a 401k AND 403b in the rare event that both are offered).

Aside from risk management (of course AA and rebalancing both control that), doesn't the rebalancing add an additional return due to the buy-low sell-high result? Or is that factored into these graphs? As a young investor with income rising I am comfortable with 100% equities, but I maintain an 80/2...

Thought 80/20 has a better risk adjusted return, plus you can get some additional return from rebalancing. +1 I don't object to the risk of 100% stocks but the ability to rebalance outside equities has got to be worth something! Rebalancing is one of the cornerstones of the whole Bogle approach. Mo...

As Alan S says, a 404c is not actually your retirement plan, but a set of guidelines regulating your retirement plan. I would also agree that you need to find out more information about your plan. Your employer's retirement plan is not going to affect your Roth IRA annual contribution limit, if that...

The problem with the SEP IRA is that only 25% of your wife's self-employed income would be contributable. At this point it looks like either a solo 401k or a SIMPLE IRA would work equally well for you. I would recommend the solo 401k as it has higher contribution limits (although at 10k she shouldn'...

There is a wide range of acceptable US/Int allocations, but whatever you pick, you should stick with it and rebalance as necessary. By letting your allocation vary you are losing all the possible sell-high and buy-low profits, even if you maintain the right risk tolerance by messing with your bonds....

How can additional funds hurt current shareholders?

I have to ask, you just went to your local bank and exchanged for rolls of coins? I'm thinking a bank is going to come up with a fee for something like this. Getting rolls of coins from the bank is usually easy and free. Re-depositing them can be tricky. If you use your own bank, you might end up g...

Joe S. wrote:It is hard to resell 1 ounce silver ingots and make a decent profit due to the large markup between what you buy them for and what you sell them for.

I am unfamiliar with junk silver prices and spread.

Larger ingots are no more profitable to resell than 1oz coins.

It's hard to resell 1 ounce silver ingots, even if they are genuine. If you want to invest in silver you should buy larger ingots/bars. There's less of a markup between buying and reselling. (Not that I recommend buying silver at all.) How is it hard to resell 1 oz ingots? Also, the lowest premium ...

their forum is lit up with angry customers How? Not their internet forum, a Roman-style forum. Kaspersky maintains an open square in Moscow where their customers can congregate and voice their concerns when their Internet is down. The forum is lit up with all the torches brought by the mob. I doubt...

You might try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89ATeNy3DIo You'd need a micrometer or calipers and the ultrasonic thickness tester to do it. You might be able to find a bullion buyer who is properly equipped if you don't have access to the instruments or don't want to spend the money to buy the...

The target retirement funds that have been mentioned several times in this thread have minimum investments of $1000, so that is where your $2000 can go. Just pick the furthest retirement date to get the highest stock allocation. Target Retirement 2060 is about 90% equity. Or put them in an ETF if yo...

Your contributions to a Roth IRA shouldn't be showing up on your tax return at all, so it doesn't matter.

So you contributed to Roth IRA for 2013. That can be reversed. Find out about "recharacterization". Wouldn't recharacterization mean turning the Roth IRA into a TIRA? I believe you can recharacterize back to no IRA at all - as if it never happened. According to these IRS instructions, htt...

So you contributed to Roth IRA for 2013. That can be reversed. Find out about "recharacterization". Wouldn't recharacterization mean turning the Roth IRA into a TIRA? He couldn't do that, because with no income he doesn't qualify for any kind of IRA. Reversing his contributions would mean...

Also look into tIRA to Roth IRA conversion. I wish I had done that in 2007. +1. If it's an option for you at all, I would convert into high brackets rather than realize cap gains I've already maxed my Roth IRA contributions for 2012 and 2013. I'm 38, single, no dependents. If you have a TIRA that y...

Kind of silly if you ask me to lend money to the gov., corporations etc. at 1.6% via TBM when you have a mortgage that is higher in %? When stocks decline you can't pull money back out of your mortgage to buy stocks without taking out another loan with interest, and if you did that, why pay it off ...

I spent a short time coin roll hunting. In $300 of dimes, $300 of quarters and $150 in nickels, I found four silver dimes. It is certainly not profitable but it is a lot of fun! It feels like hunting for treasure. I have never found anything in my change, but I am young and don't use cash much. I al...

If you take the totality of all your current and future assets and liabilities, then think of that as a round hole, while percentage-based asset allocation is a square peg. I wholeheartedly agree with this. I am a new investor and there is literally no way to include any aspect of my two rental pro...

I did not mean messy in terms of the number of funds, but in terms of transparency. You really want to understand and control your allocation to the basic asset classes - stocks, bonds, cash, gold, etc. I am a purist, in the sense that I want to define an asset allocation in terms of the basic asse...

Thanks wesley, it is good to know that the ER won't be an issue. Not to me. The PP is allocated equally among 4 asset classes. If you have a 50/50 stock/bond portfolio and replace bonds with PP, you will end-up with a portfolio that is 62.5% stocks, 12.5% bonds, 12.5% gold, and 12.5% cash. Now there...

It sounds like the role of bonds in a three-fund portfolio is stability, and to provide a separate asset class for rebalancing purposes. The PP should theoretically be more stable than bonds, since it is designed specifically to weather all economic conditions. It is also not correlated with stocks,...

Everybody seems to agree that it makes sense to hold at least 20% international because it lowers volatility a lot. Everyone also seems to agree that it makes little sense to allocate more to international than its global portion of the market, which is something like 55-60%. So I picked 40% interna...

Just curious, for those of you using WF, can you access your IRA at the moment? Their main site has been down all day and I am wondering if that cuts off IRA services.

Very helpful thread!

Capital losses from selling bullion at lower prices than you bought it for CAN be deducted. However, there are caps on claimable losses per year, so you would need to consult a professional to determine if you can deduct the full amount. You cannot deduct anything if the bullion is held in a tax-adv...

Every month, you are charged interest based on the principle remaining. That is why your ratio of interest charged vs principal remaining will not change. Yes, if you have a 25 year mortgage and pay the minimum for a 15 year mortgage every month , your total interest paid will generally be equal to ...

Craig, Those are excellent points! With the state tax advantages of long term bonds, could they be more tax efficient than stocks? I am at 7-7.5% state and 25% federal income tax rates. Or is that a specific enough question to ask a professional? You can also do a hybrid approach where you hold some...

Could you put bonds and cash in 401,gold in Roth and stocks in taxable Gold in Ira http://www.smartmoney.com/taxes/estate/gold-for-your-ira-1309886856846/ John Yes, I could. As I said in my post I am aware of the rules for putting gold in an IRA. I want to know if it is viable to hold the gold pers...

Epsilon Delta wrote:Gold is more favorably taxed than interest (since taxation is deferred until a gain is realized). Why aren't you worried about the cash and bonds?

Because I can put cash and bonds in my Roths. I can't put personally held gold in a Roth.

I've been reading through several of the Harry Browne Permanent Portfolio megathreads on this forum and they are very interesting. I'll be starting to invest consistently for retirement soon and I'm trying to choose a good rebalancing portfolio. Holding physical bullion in a PP sounds very nice, but...