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The main advantage [of muni ladder] is that there is no fluctuation of NAV, so that as long as investor holds an individual muni bond to maturity or redemption will be assured (absent default by issuer) of getting return of principal. This is an advantage if you have a target spending date. You can...

Barry Barnitz wrote:

Epsilon Delta wrote:I'm looking at Roth IRA as an emergency fund and I believe there are some math errors in the "Case Study"

Thanks, check and verify if the figures are now correct: Roth IRA as an emergency fund - Bogleheads

regards,

That was a quick turn around. Looks good now.

I'm looking at Roth IRA as an emergency fund and I believe there are some math errors in the "Case Study" 1) In Year 0 we have $15,000 in the 401(k) but in year 1 the starting balance in that account is $12,000 Year 0 401(k) Fund Balance Allocated Toward Stocks $15,000 Retirement Year 1 40...

Thanks.

It all depends on the ROI that company can obtain, compared with what you can obtain. If you take those dividends and put them in a CD it is a losing battle. If you buy stocks with those dividends... wait! If you buy the same stock, why would you want a dividend at all ? And if you buy another stoc...

The "Reference library and Wiki" forum is locked. Where is the appropriate place to discuss changes to the Wiki?

Bold mine. If I frontload emergency savings into a Roth (example 1), after 5 years I'd hope to expect to have more money overall than if I had kept cash in the emergency account (example 2), right? Or, perhaps what I'm missing is an understanding of how moving $5000 from taxable savings into a mone...

So, my individual market, medically-underwritten policy would be a grandfathered plan since I had it prior to 3/23/10. But new people could not sign up for this same type of policy after 1/1/14. And there would be no sense in my changing to another individual market, medically-underwritten policy n...

And now, they're not? Models are essentially curve fits of observed behavior. They work until they don't. In the financial world, they are useful until the advantage is arbitraged away. In physics and engineering they contain the basic equations (and those are exact!) and a huge number of particles...

furwut wrote:Perhaps the new water heater is or has gone faulty and is not cycling off? Is there an idndicator light on it that you can observe to see if it is cycling?

If the water heater is that faulty there will be steam. Almost certainly a quite obvious amount of steam.

Look at the kWhr used rather than the cost. If the energy usage has doubled then turn off everything you can find and go watch the electric meter. If there is a constant parasitic load it will be whirling like a dervish. You can narrow it down by flipping breakers until the load drops. It's possible...

But that doesn't mean those models are useless. Before the age of supercomputers, engineering models where based on a simplified reality. Yet, 707's weren't exactly falling from the sky and they managed to build the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937, and they did it at the first try! They also built the C...

If instincts are wrong, can we just do the opposite and be right ? :happy No, because it's not a binary decision. Or, if you prefer, the opposite of "buy GE" is not "buy an index fund", it's "don't buy GE". Also you need to find a good model. A lot of models are rigged...

If you have any taxable investments you want to defer any earnings for eight years. Non-dividend paying stocks (e.g. Berkshire Hathaway) and US savings bonds (I and EE) will be more than usually attractive. Also try to harvest $3,000 per year of capital losses.

I

camoaero wrote:
I keep telling her that she's in charge now.....or does that not start until after the wedding?

Somebody planned a wedding. If you don't know who's in charge by now, it's not you.

The intelligent Investor also knows that the difference between 0 and 0.00000001 is very small. When you multiply by $50M, which have a practically infinite subjective value for most, no it's not. The demand for larger jackpots demonstrates that most people do not think that $50M has practically in...

True, but the statement was, "The Intelligent Investor . . . and does buy a few Powerball tickets." We're discussing investors, not those folks. However, they shouldn't be buying lottery tickets either, in spite of it seeming to be the only way for them to catch "the dream". The...

Do not to let your immediate need for transportation lead you into making a decision that will have long term consequences. If you don't know what car you want for the next 5 or 10 years or you can't get financing or a good deal on the desired vehicle it might make sense to get a junker for a few mo...

Frengo The answer has two parts If you pay more than the expected value you are clearly overpaying relative to the fair value. However, if you have a preference for skewness you are saying I am willing to pay above fair value because I value the small possibility more than is economically the case....

Question regarding the above info - Assuming the taxable investment is sold after 1 year and one is in the 25% tax bracket. Will you "only" pay 15% taxes, or is is 15% taxes + state taxes? 15% + state taxes. The 15% is only the Federal Income tax. You also have to pay any other taxes that...

If you have an IRA, either from prior contributions or because you rolled over a 401(k) from a previous job, you can effectively do the same thing by contributing to the 401(k) and withdrawing from the IRA. This does not help if you're trying to avoid lousy 401(k) investment options but it will help...

3) Toyota Prius, I would stretch the budget to get the improved mpg. That 50mpg is a sirens song that I am having a hard time resisting. I have never driven one and that's on the agenda for today. Your only driving around 10,000 miles per year. That makes the extra cost for 50 mpg less enticing tha...

The first TIPS were yielding 4%, and traditionally, savings bonds have been set with a yield slightly lower than comparable Treasuries, so 3% for I-Bonds made sense. Given the premium which investors have now shown they are willing to pay for inflation protection, in a time of low inflation, I don'...

In my opinion, the biggest risk of the gap is that someone at the former employer messes up and causes the window to pass. It could be that such a mess-up might not be able to be fixed. You say you mailed it on the 20th of the month, and they claim it never was received or that they didn't get it u...

I was just thinking about this new phenomenon, where people seem to talk more ABOUT their phones than ON them. When we all had landlines, I don't ever remember talking ABOUT my phone. EVER. "Hey, what kind of phone do you have?" "I simply love my new Bell Princess Phone"- and I ...

Supposedly Ford sent his engineers to junkyards, to buy used cars to take them apart--so that they could find which parts in them were still good and cheapen them . Not a bad idea, actually. This could be interpreted as a conspiracy companies plot so products break down right after the warranty. On...

However do remember that earnings in the year you reach 62 and later are not indexed so the increase may not be as much as expected. A common misapprehension. Assuming inflation (rather than deflation) the indexing after the age 62 would use a multiple of less than one. So the lack of indexing resu...

I try to sit in when I can and try to ask the types of questions which will hopefully give other audience members pause that these guys ( all men of course ) aren't just nice guys looking out to help financially illiterate medical professionals out of a sense of moral obligation. Clearly pushing wh...

Depending on the individual year missed, they've got 15 years of zeros and would not receive more than 20/35 of what someone else with 35 years of contributions at a much lower level. This year the maximum taxed income is $113700. Therefore, someone with 35 years at $113700 (actually less for years...

Unfortunately, there were no really interesting numbers available. There are no uninteresting numbers. The proof is by induction. How do you prove it? Victoria Take an uninteresting number, if it was the smallest uninteresting one it would be interesting, so there must be a smaller uninteresting on...

VictoriaF wrote:Unfortunately, there were no really interesting numbers available.

There are no uninteresting numbers. There would have to be a smallest uninteresting number and that would be interesting. Hence, etc., Q.E.D.

Of course not. But in a world without SPIAs, what else would you propose? I was simply answering the question. I'd say those are the best alternatives, which is different than saying they are perfect substitutes. As you say there is no perfect substitute. For the extreme longevity risk I think your...

You can try the Way Back Machine: http://archive.org/web/web.php http://web.archive.org/web/20121013035445/http://www.brkdirect.com/spia/EZquote.asp That proves the site existed and shows you what it looked like, but it won't actually generate a quote. It also strongly suggests that the site stoppe...

How do you think these small safes will do at protecting a hard drive from fire damage? Any tests anyone is aware of? The UL rates safes for data protection. For data protection you want a class 125 or class 150 fire resistance rating rather than class 350. The number is the maximum temperature in ...

A pity. I wonder whether interest in SPIAs will dry up to the point where other insurers stop writing them? If that is the case, what will retirees/pre-retirees use as a means of estabishing their "floor of income in retirement"? EE savings bonds anyone? I'd imagine SS, savings bonds, and...

If they wanted to move to a sales model where you go to a "showroom" and pay $X for the test drive before ordering over the Internet, I think that could work for me. Avis? I have requested specific models on business trips and have usually been accommodated. Sometimes it's been because I ...

Ten years ago, the couple retired with an IRA account worth $2 million. They did not take any money out on the advice of their adviser. The account earned 7% per year since retirement, and is now worth $4 million. Through good financial planning described in Mr. Baldwin’s article, they have paid no...

Google Voice problem: I just got a GV number and testing it on my smartphone. When I call the smartphone using the GV number, there is a lag of 3 rings on the calling phone before the smartphone starts to ring. After 5 rings on the calling phone, it goes to voicemail and I've only gotten 2 rings on...

I bought this safe last year: http://www.amazon.com/First-Alert-2096DF-Waterproof-Digital/dp/B000WUJ5X6/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top My concern with push buttons on a safe would be that fire would burn/melt the buttons and/or mechanism required to open said safe. I prefer a key and/or mechanical dial o...

Generally "sweet equity" increases your basis by what you were paid for it, which is a big fat zero.

You need to sit down with an accountant and rethink your approach.

I agree. But that is a personal addiction problem, not a technology problem. Same thing with TV, internet, video games, wine, etc. If you have a problem you need to address it. If you don't, and choose to use the technology in a positive way (as I imagine the majority of people do), then it's a gre...

The next frontier is Cyrillic. This provides a few new letters and only Ш is in common use.

What about the "ick" factor? Have you ever shopped cars with 100,000+ miles on them? I recently helped a young friend in med school look for a car within her $7000 budget (this was a gift). We couldn't get past the smell of most of the cars. I have a 40+ year old car and a 20+ year old ca...

Chicxulub.

Meg77 wrote:$5,500 Non-Deductibe IRA
$1,540 tax to convert non deductible IRA to a Roth

Normally you won't pay any tax to convert a Non-Deductible IRA to a Roth (see Backdoor Roth IRA ). You did the same thing on both examples so it should not affect your point.

8. Install dimmer switches and use energy-efficient halogen bulbs, rather than incandescents. Dimmable CFLs are even thriftier, but some flicker at low power. Cost: $10 per switch at The Home Depot, $5 for a Philips Halogena bulb at Bulbs.com. Savings: $20 per fixture on electricity over three year...

That's a good point, and I had overlooked it. But I think its validity is diminishing in the age of internet-based clearinghouses. In the old days you had to really pound the pavement looking for someone willing to sell a car at a fair price. Sellers didn't really know the fair price to start with,...

Victoria: Do you carry a camera? This is one more function that can be mapped to a variety of devices and may favor carrying a smart phone. A camera is not only useful for taking souvenir photos but can help with note taking, when the information you need is presented visually (for example a street ...

Look, I try to steer some middle course. If I'm going to tune out the noise, I want to at least understand what noise I'm tuning out. I'm going to assume you mean this and try again. MOVE is by construction (or definition if you prefer) a function of bond option prices. If you want to know why opti...

As I understand it the VIX (and MOVE) are functions of option prices, not the prices of the underlying assets. Perhaps your looking in the wrong place.