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Grt2bOutdoors wrote:

EmergDoc wrote:Best answer is that sometimes active management DOES work.

Believe the Total Intl Stock Index excluded Emerging Markets at one point. The Value and Growth funds have the abiity to go "anywhere".

I've owned it for years and it's always included emerging as near as I can tell.

Best answer is that sometimes active management DOES work.

REITS can be volatile. Take a look at 2008. 3% is nothing. I remember swings of over 10% a day.

Not much to the first. http://etfdb.com/mutualfund/DISVX/ I suppose EM Index at VG may be a reasonable comparison to the second but performance lags by 3% a year for the last 5 years. I believe the core fund contains a lot more small and value stocks, thus the higher risk/return profile, aside from ...

Here's another tip: If you've been there 9 hours, and you're not dead yet, it might not be an emergency. I'm just kidding of course, but it's usually a good sign when you're stuck in the back of an emergency department and ignored for a while. How about my neighbor, in such pain from kidney stones ...

Emergency funds: $38,000 (about 5 months) Debt: -Medical School Loan #1 (Sallie Mae) – $62,000 (2.75% variable) -Medical School Loan #2 (ACS) - $79,000 (2.625% fixed) -Car Loan - $22,000 (3.25%) -Mortgage - $580,000 (5.625% APR) – Doctor’s loan with 0% down and no mortgage insurance Tax Filing Stat...

If you're going to use an advisor, get one authorized to use DFA funds and pay him a flat fee or a fee based on assets under management.

If you're not, buy Vanguard index funds.

Lose this guy.

Be sure to thank you friend. He has done you a tremendous service.

This article may help. I wrote it with people like you in mind:

http://whitecoatinvestor.com/student-lo ... investing/

UESP gets even better with a state tax deduction!

I do get annoyed at how they pay the fees though. Your shares are slightly decreased. It makes it a pain sometimes to keep track of.

I guess it's because it was rural and an FP covers the OB service at times. That's the only reason I can think of that the FP had to admit you. Presumably the FP billed you for the first day's physician services and the OB billed a consult for the first day. Sucks, but keep in mind you requested the...

The fun thing about adventure is that it can be toned down to whatever level you like. I've done some canyons with a 2 year old on my back. There are others I wouldn't venture into with anyone in the group who isn't an experienced trad climber and canyoneer. Those are my two big adventures for the y...

I didn't know you climbed Mike. You should come out sometime and we'll figure out a way to write the trip off. We (my wife and I) are still pretty new to climbing -- just got into it about 1.5 years ago. And we're still very new to actually getting out and climbing real rock. Our closest known crag...

lostInFinance wrote:
My guess is that doctors with $500-600k in loans are 1-2% of doctors. It looks like $170k is the median.
https://www.aamc.org/download/152968/data

They might be 1-2% now, but give it 5 years.

I didn't know you climbed Mike. You should come out sometime and we'll figure out a way to write the trip off.

At any rate, my next rope will be bicolor and dry-treated. Both worth the money IMHO. My next rope will be the Canyonero from Imlay, but it's not a dynamic rope.

Much better thread now running its course:

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=115723&newpost=1697871

LadyGeek wrote:The OP is asking about negotiating a hospital bill under a High deductible health plan. Please stay on-topic.

Livesoft pretty much covered that in the second post, no?

Good advice in this thread. Good post Nisiprius.

I always wonder why the hospital doesn't run an "urgent care" clinic next door to the emergency room. It would have people headed in the right direction in case there is a real ER type problem and they could shuttle the non-ER cases to the PAs next door. I suspect that the "hospital&...

So half the loans are eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Incentive Based Repayment, no? I'd pursue that and try to increase your income to get rid of the rest. +1 this Only thing is, OP needs to get a job at a non-profit to qualify for the PSLF. Can still do Income Based Repayment and...

While on vacation in Utah, we saw something we'd never seen at home: big billboards right on the Interstate in which various hospitals were advertising their current emergency room waiting times. Yes, big electronic panel, "the waiting time at our ER is currently ......[43]...... minutes."...

So half the loans are eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Incentive Based Repayment, no? I'd pursue that and try to increase your income to get rid of the rest. I also have "Valuethinker-style" sympathy, but agree that all mistakes weren't made at 18, and besides, isn't 18 the...

I was going to go on a rant about a previous rant, but that's not useful. I'll say this though, there's a reason that any person on the street can't sign off on the structural integrity of a building. It's the same reason they can't determine a medical emergency. In college, I had 2 separate friend...

Nice rant and can not agree more. Too bad there is not a direct relationship in cost and receipt of service. Jim There are plenty of other issues with health care billing and provision. No doubt it's complicated. And perhaps emergency care should be a little cheaper than it is. But my point is that...

I'm continually surprised at the inability of the lay public to properly determine a medical emergency. Pardon me for not being educated enough to correctly diagnose whether I'm having an actual emergency. Next time I'll just wait at home until I'm positive I'm bad enough to be one of the people wh...

While I appreciate emergdoc's rant, he needs to understand that he is far, far better able to evaluate what is and is not an emergency, because he works in an ER! For the average person who is not an ER doc or nurse, a sudden-onset malady or injury causes a great deal of concern. If it's your kid a...

But the doc-in-a-box will likely do nothing for the broken finger and tell you to make an appointment with your orthopedist. So one can skip the trip and just make the appointment yourself. My last visit to the ER resulted in three full-anesthesia orthopedic surgeries, but I had to walk out after 9...

EmergDoc, Your comments about doctors having more debt aren't very helpful. Doctors get paid 10 times what an English major does so having 2 or 3 times the debt is not somehow equivalent. First of all, lots of doctors ARE English majors. The two are not exclusive. Second, "an English major&quo...

Yosemite is great, but you really need to make plans 6 months in advance. You'll be lucky to find a place to stay, and that includes camping.

All these people are giving this dire advice to someone with a college degree and $200K in loans but no one seems to think it an issue that docs are now coming out with $5-600K. The $300Ks seem routine now. One financial advisor told me he saw someone in the $700Ks. If $200K is a problem for a colle...

Why is there a question mark in the title?

Welcome to the club.

Larson is a good firm, although IMHO a bit on the expensive side. I reviewed them here: http://whitecoatinvestor.com/larson-financial-review-friday-qa-series/ Their VUL uses DFA funds, which doesn't mean it's a good idea for you, but perhaps shouldn't be dismissed immediately like most VULs. I start...

I agree. I also agree that LC insolvency is a bigger risk to the investor than mass default of the notes themselves. I am somewhat reassured by the fact that at least LC is now profitable.

The relevant section from the prospectus: Our arrangements for backup servicing are limited. If we fail to maintain operations, you will experience a delay and increased cost in respect of your expected principal and interest payments on the Notes, and we may be unable to collect and process repayme...

cb474 wrote:
You immediately quoted my entire initial post and rather derisively critiqued and picked at everything I said.

I apologize if you felt my comments were derisive and personal. They were not meant that way. Tone is very hard to determine on the internet.

Good luck investing.

Not for me. .. if I ever wanted to reach for yield (more risk) it would be easy enough to do with VG either in HY or adding equities. That is fine, but this investment doesn't correlate with HY (which will sink in value if/when rates rise) or equities. I consider them a bond like investment, but IM...

This is the same logic that led people to believe [in magic] Your mistake ... What you say has a superficial logical appeal,....I really have no idea how you could possibly think you know this about me, ....the unjustified assumptions you're making....You don't actually know anything about my inves...

Guys as I contemplate entering the business of landlordship I ran some numbers on some available homes in the area I am interested in renting. Homes are only 2-5 years old. Here is a rough average: Purchase Price: 200000 Cash down: 50000 Rent/Month: 1900 Total expenses/month: 1008 (includes HOA, Pr...

So, for what it's worth, I searched around a bit and found this Wall Street Journal article from a month ago discussing the risks of Lending Club and the fact that there are already a lot of professional investors in Lending Club. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240527023045877045773338012017...

1) I think the question is: When an financial crisis of some sort hits, how is the default rate on the loans going to hold up? You're assuming that the way things are going now, when things are relatively stable, is how it will always be. But it will be in a crisis that one wants one's fixed income...

I agree with almost everything you've said and have participated in your referenced discussions for years. What I don't agree with, however, is that P2P Lending is somehow the same asset class as the bonds used in the studies you referenced and the discussions previously had on this forum. Is it rea...

I heard about Lending Club today on the radio and thought there's not such thing as a free lunch. If people are earning better returns in Lending Club, than they can through more typical fixed income investements, it's because there is more risk. In this case, the risk of default is probably much h...

It would be fun to hear the rest of the story now.

My main concern is liquidity. Right now it is very easy to dump a note when you see it start to have issues. I would guess I've sold six so far. A recent example would be a note that made maybe 5 or 6 payments and then didn't batch through with the rest of the notes due that same day. I went to the...

I have an opportunity to buy 2 homes at $200K each cash or pay down my mortgage $400K. Interest rate is 3% with $800K currently owed. Rental income will be $16K per home net per year. I know rental income would be good for long term cash flow, but paying down the mortgage will save me a lot of inte...

Welcome to the club. Most of us have moved money from somewhere to Vanguard at some point in our investing careers. I occasionally move money away from Vanguard, but not very often.

Edward Jones and SIMPLE IRAs. That's like a broken jaw and a tough steak. Nobody really likes either of them, but put them together and yikes..

stevewolfe wrote:Classic weed puller works best in my opinion. Then you can just put regular lime and fertilizer down. Weed puller.

That's exactly what I use. Twice a week in the Spring I pull out 5 of 10 plants. It's nice of the dandelion to throw up those yellow flowers so they're easy to see.

0.16%....BRSIX kills me. I'm not counting non-ER 401K and DBP fees.

We all chuckle, but this is how 90% of investors think.

40 is plenty early. You've still got 20-30 years. Don't beat yourself up. You've come to a good place. Keep in mind that half the people on this board are millionaires, but a very small percentage of Americans, even retirees, have a million dollar portfolio. So there's a certain selection bias. When...