Bogleheads.org

flipflopliving wrote:The best for lowest overall taxes are NV, SD, TX, and WY and SD and TX are the two with the biggest mail forwarding services.

What about Washington state. No income tax, does it rank as favorable?

You have the unbelievably good luck to be able to send your daughter to Georgia State University, right there in Atlanta, at the bargain price of $5484 per semester. TAKE IT. You have the unbelievably good luck to be able to cut her room and board expenses to ZERO. TAKE IT. Load her up with debt an...

I feel for nuclear families, especially because college costs are outrageous. If I were in your situation, I would be making the difficult, yet necessary, decision to reject these loans, or any college loans. You are taking on $20,000+ a year for four years. This will be an enormous burden at time w...

Examine the "grass is greener" phenomenon. As someone who works regularly in finance, I've known a lot of accountants, CFAs, CFPs, etc. There is a lot to dislike about accountant-related jobs. The details can be mind-numbing. How do you feel about staring at Excel spreadsheets all day? If ...

The CFPB recently released an interesting report entitled, "Senior Designations for Financial Advisers." You can download here: http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201304_CFPB_OlderAmericans_Report.pdf . Takeway is, there's a ridiculous alphabet soup jumble of letters, standing for designat...

For additional confirmation, people should look at the posts during 2008 and 2009 when equities were getting slaughtered, some of the "Plan B" posts, etc.

College = federal taxpayer corporate welfare.

OP, I bought a nice watch. Now that I've had it, I want to dump it, and regret buying it. I want a Seiko now. Thankfully, I don't like "stuff," but even this rare splurge purchase annoys me.

harikaried wrote:If for some reason you don't want devices from South Korea, there's HTC, Motorola, Sony just to name a few. You did cite 2 bad experiences both with Samsung phones, so it's fair to not support/recommend their products, but there are plenty of companies not named Samsung that aren't Apple.

I agree.

cubaboymatt1316 wrote:I stopped contributing to my 401k/both Roth IRAs so I could pay off the cars (new cars) . . . . and doing enough to max the employer match in 401k. Sounds like a solid plan?

Employer 401k match is the next best thing to free money. This should be number 1.

I'll give you one very good reason to go with Apple and iPhone 5: updates and support. When a new IOS update is released, your iPhone is going to get updated, which is very, very nice. The rest of the field? Bad to nonexistent update support for Android products. Samsung, HTC, and the rest of them r...

I-bonds. $10k per year per Social Security Number, plus the additional $5k via tax refund. Search forums on this. Not enough time for EE bonds. Department of the Treasury Question: What is the Education Savings Bond Program? Answer: The Education Savings Bond Program permits qualified taxpayers to e...

Reupping a previous question I had. Is it appropriate for a high income earner, maxed in all tax brackets, and without any tax-advantaged space, to maintain a 90% or even 100% allocation to municipal bonds or bond funds in their taxable account?

Thanks for posting this. SEC yield much better and more accurate. "Distribution" yield can be pretty deceiving.

oragne lovre wrote:It looks those whose salaries significantly exceed the thresholds, say $500K a year for married couples filing jointly, should invest somewhere to realize some investment income, say 1K a year, to minimize the effect of ACA surtax.

Could you expand on this? Useful discussion.

I do wish I had your problem though!! :) The stress of thinking about and providing for our employees, in this environment, it's given me quite a few sleepless nights. Knowing they have families and young kids and they are relying on us to make the right decisions. Ugh, I can't tell you how much I ...

Thank you. The 2013 tax changes, plus the recent California tax changes, have complicated the analysis. Had a comfortable AA of 60% bonds 40% stocks. But these recent tax changes have me rethinking everything concerning the taxable accounts. Counting the days till we vacate CA. Will be happy to visi...

2011 return: 159 pages, single individual, no dependents. Includes a few pages from our tax accountants summarizing the returns for us.

^^ wouldn't this mean you cut back on your stocks since Wellesley holds some large caps as well? Or are you saying your buy the appropriate TSM and TISM to make up for that? That's exactly what it would mean. Lower stock allocation, period. Nowhere to go in tax-advantaged. Don't qualify for Roth, 4...

Why the wake up just now? Munis have been the fixed income "go to" choice for high income investors for generations. In the past, generally had favored dividend-paying stocks and the 15% rate. This forum, together with the recent tax law changes at both federal and state level, have resul...

Thank you for this post.

Myself, I love bonds and div. stocks. Being in the highest tax bracket, getting eaten alive by the fed, state taxes, plus the bump in dividend tax rate to 20%, I shifted into Vanguard's municipal bond funds. Really, really hoping they keep their tax-exempt status.

Does this apply to buying treasuries on the secondary market as well, or are you only talking about munis? The analysis I did applies to munis, and to a large extent, corporates. Treasuries I have no experience with, but as I recall it may be even more complex. In the primary market, I understand b...

OP, be careful if you are buying bonds on the secondary. The fixed income market is treacherous, and the preferred way to buy munis is at issue, or the "retail order period." During this period, fees are low and fixed, and pricing is set equally for all, a unique feature of muni market. Th...

How are people purchasing $20k in EE bonds per year, as discussed above? TD says max is $10k per year per SS number.

Make college loans dischargeable in bankruptcy. Once banks and lenders properly price the risk of some of these questionable $150k degrees, it may impose some market discipline. Currently colleges offload all their risk onto the public, zero price discipline. Broken system.

First, get a new charger, try one that comes with Eneloop batteries. If you're a battery nerd, get a MaHa C9000. Second, we use Eneloops exclusively for everything that takes batteries. Eneloops are worth it if you get them for the right price, we bought a package deal on Amazon. Eneloops last a lon...

robjer wrote:personal attacks

Didn't see his response as personal attack. Just a direct, informed response. A helpful one too.

Search the forums, you are going to find scores of posts about analogous topics. For example, how to simplify Vanguard retirement accounts so if the more knowledgeable spouse passes, the investment accounts are on autopilot. Similarly, lots of posts on what to do when we get older and faculties star...

Here's a post I had concerning emerging markets, may be of some interest to you. viewtopic.php?f=10&t=109216

Read my recent posts on bonds, stocks, and the amount of risk you are taking versus the compensation received for the extra risk. http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=112668 Look at those stock drawdowns. Are you sure you want to abandon bonds? Are you really being compensated fo...

If you are a minimalist, prefer something narrow and small, and travel light, let me recommend Tumi's Delta. Top-notch construction. http://www.tumi.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11639548&prodFindSrc=paramNav This little wallet is great. Put your license in the center pocket, one or two bank/c...

I'm doing almost exactly this. Buying the full amount in EEs, $10k a year. Just started this year, got my allotment. Really, really wish I had started years earlier, in my 20s, even. But savings bonds just fell off my radar, plus there were no online tools that many years ago. But thankfully this fo...

The replies were informative and helpful. I've also reconsidered my position. I overreacted, guess I need some tolerance for the fact today identity theft and fraud is rampant. So I went ahead and faxed the documentation to Capital One. Also, after looking at some of the suggestions, I just got appr...

Thanks for the input too, DualIncome. If you don't mind me asking, what kind of firm/job are you in right now? Area of practice? Still at a big law firm or did you transition out to smaller firm or in-house? I've definitely talked to friends who are current 1st/2nd year associates at law firms and ...

My suggestion: don't give notice. Don't quit. You're doing well already, you can have financial independence. Take it from someone who's in the law game (and doing well): you are likely to regret it. Counting the days until I am out for good. A permanent vacation from law practice cannot come soon e...

I generally use cash for everything, because I dislike big banks and I despise interchange fees. Have had one personal credit card for internet purchases with a low limit. So recently, just this once, I decide to apply for a "better" card. Didn't do much research on it, simply went to a re...

We've recently seen several discussions in the vein, "why bother with bonds?" Or, "I'm young, forget bonds." Or, "I'm 90% equities, I can withstand losses." Seems to me we're seeing more of this as the market pushes higher. Despite the market rising, I still like bonds....

Check your agreements with the advisor's company. Did you agree, or did they disclose, these account closure fees? If you did agree to them, I'd quickly move on and not worry about it. You're now free of this person and the high fees, and can now manage your own affairs. Small price to pay.

You are neither dumb nor foolish. To the contrary, people simply "do" better in life and financially when we can trust one another, transact honestly, honor bargains and commitments. It's one of the strengths of the United States that contracts and agreements are usually honored and can be...

Research the forums concerning EE and I savings bonds. EE currently guaranteed to double every 20 years, I-bonds are inflation protection (if inflation goes up, I-bond interest rate goes up). You are limited to a $10k purchase on each series per year, and you pay no taxes on the interest until you r...

Get your deposit back ASAP and do not execute on this house. Also, if you are looking to see how much the flippers paid for the house, do not -- I repeat do not -- trust the MLS or any records they provide you. There is a massive amount of short sale and similar fraud and misreporting going on in th...

“Vanguard ONLY sells their funds through Vanguard. You have to deal direct with them and their 800#. You cannot buy them through xxxxxx or any other firm, except Vanguard. And Vanguard does not have financial advisors to assist you. They are a ‘do it yourself’ firm. Hence the super cheap costs.” Th...

Short answer is I don't know. I surmise people are doing their taxes now, and probably are having these conversations right now, as they begin to appreciate the new tax regime. So maybe the tilt will occur in the months ahead. Or maybe investors were waiting to see if the exempt status was preserved...

Was reading the following article, which says the following: "We haven't had a major shift in the tax law like this for some time. So, people made decisions on asset allocation based on the tax rates that were in existence prior to 2013. Now, that we have higher tax rates the efficiency of the ...

I know they pay like 5-8cents on the doller for this debt. What should I offer the agency? Also, will it make a difference to the bank that a settlement was agreed upon, and that the full balance was not paid? All that should matter is the party is satisfied IMO. It matters. And settling versus pay...

Reading this, I regret not having bought U.S. savings bonds in my 20s.

This recent post touches on many of the same issues: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=111948&newpost=1628494

Pay off the car and mortgage first. If you take on another liability (condo) you may have no room or safety valve if something goes wrong (job troubles, can't rent one of the condos, repairs).

No debts or fixed obligations = much greater flexibility.

I hope for future young generations, this is the future of education. Costless, or extremely cheap, education where you get the "lecture" at home, and you do your "homework" in class, i.e. actual problem solving with the teacher, where it is needed most. Today's college prices ar...

Expert computer user here. Without reservation, get the Mac. iMac is a great machine -- and it comes standard with a fantastic IPS monitor with LED backlighting, one of the best on the market. I will go many months without rebooting the iMacs we have, not even a restart. We run our business on Macs....