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Miss Manners wrote: There is no such thing as an invoice for a wedding present. Close, but actually Miss Manners' article is entitled: " A wedding invitation is not an invoice ." Your "correction" was incorrect. Mine was a direct quote. More is below: There is no such thing as a...

It may not be obvious from a subway map of Boston, but you can get to/from the airport easily using mass transit. To get to the airport, take the subway to "South Station" and, from there, find the Silver line heading towards Logan airport. It will be a bus. Your 7 day pass will allow you...

momar wrote:Why do you think this is a new phenomenon?

Partly because traditional manners experts (Emily Post, Miss Manners, etc.) are appalled by the practice, and it runs counter to general principles of hospitality.

I honestly have no idea when it started (and am curious).

There is no such thing as an invoice for a wedding present. I am fascinated by the extent to which weddings are viewed through the lens of a financial transaction. I mean, pretty much by definition it's always been a financial transaction between the couple getting married. But now we're seeing eve...

Because I’m an investor not a speculator. There’s a fundamental difference between exchanging your money for defined income (bonds), anticipated earnings/dividend streams (stocks), or future rents (real estate) – and exchanging your money for nothing but metal (gold). Pure investing is buying cash f...

Valuethinker wrote:He was a failure as First Sea Lord.

And as the Atlantic points out, in that role he had a major effect on the 20th century and beyond. (The Churchill part is only the first four paragraphs.)

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/05/what-if-we-never-run-out-of-oil/309294/

MAP-21' which was part of a transportation bill The reason pensions are part of MAP-21 is because the law was intended to be "revenue-neutral". That is, government spending had to be exactly offset by government savings. Congress saw a way to get pension plan sponsors to temporarily pay m...

Good summary by cherijoh, but one point of clarification: This is done with a contract through an insurance company. Therefore the company is not taking on the risk that some of the posters have implied. They are confusing this with a traditional "guaranteed benefit" pension plan. Cash bal...

Are Discobunny's calculations reasonable? No. What Discobunny's calculations are is a recognition that investing with an assumed rate of return higher than 30-year treasury rates will yield more than investing at 30-year treasury rates -- that's simply arithmetic. In reality, you are currently (or ...

Why shouldn't the OP opt for the $30,000 now? Because he has assessed how much overall risk he would like to take (i.e. an asset allocation) and includes bonds to reduce risk. (That is, his bonds may return lower than "the average 60/40", which is okay because he's not taking as much risk...

tfb wrote:The only question is whether the interest rate credited by the plan is good enough. What is it now? What is it tied to?

Soccer888 wrote:Interest is accrued based on your Account balance at the end of the prior quarter and the 30-year Treasury rate in effect for November of the preceding year.

What do people think Based on what you have said -- the clear answer is for you to keep the pension. You've decided on a 60/40 allocation, which tells me you've put some thought into the risk you'd like to take on, and realize bonds have a place in your portfolio. With your pension, you're getting ...

I'd take the money and run--very little to lose This is the reverse of the truth. At the moment, you could lose nothing -- whereas if you cash out you could lose it all. Your prior employer currently holds the risk of providing a defined benefit to you, which is fully insured by the PBGC (since you...

There’s a logical approach to this: The 15-year mortgage most likely has a lower rate than the 30-year mortgage, so with the 15-year your borrowing costs will most likely be less (presuming other costs equal). If you’re borrowing only because you don’t have the cash to buy the home outright, and hav...

I'd go with gmail or hotmail.

Another possibility is to use a school alumni address. Presumably you're never going to renounce your good old alma mater with the same gusto as jettisoning an evil cable provider.

This is a fantastic idea. It should greatly enhance your life, and the lives of those you interact with. Of note though, you'll likely find this easier and more enjoyable in pedestrian-friendly cities with good public transportation. Although every place where people live has much of interest and va...

A more concrete view is that for any true investment, current cash is exchanged for expected future cash flows. In the case of stocks, those future cash flows (i.e. dividends/earnings) are uncertain. In efficient markets, trading determines a best consensus estimate of those uncertain cash flows. Si...

I wonder if they assume that owners are able to itemize? Don't tell me, let me guess. I bet they do. Now let me actually look. Oh, what a surprise: To compare the costs of owning and renting, we assume people will get a 3.5% mortgage rate, reside in the 25% tax bracket and itemize their federal tax...

Another investing analogy is that the tournament brackets give a bit of insight into investor overconfidence. Despite being aware of the unpredictability of single elimination tournaments (i.e. knowing the poor odds), despite not having watched and studied the capabilities of each team (i.e. not kno...

Here is my theory on dividend paying companies.... My theory is a good company is there to generate money, and pay that money out to people who own the company. My take on that is that I believe the value of a stock is the present value of its future stream of dividends. I probably read that somewh...

Harold, given that the future of bond prices is pure speculation, that prices could well stay the same, indefinitely, or that they might even go up, is it not just as "reasonable" as it might ever be to stay or go long in bonds, in the current environment, as it is to go short as so many ...

This even more specifically addresses your question (of course, it will need to be read to be of any value).

http://www.crsp.com/50/inaugural.html

Leesbro63 wrote:What does 1960-2010 have to do with my question?

The content of the link, if you read it, provides a pretty thorough answer to the question of yours I quoted.

Much more info can be found elsewhere on the CRSP website.

Leesbro63 wrote:Why do most stock data points start at 1926?

http://www.crsp.com/50/index.html

Rather than feeling at the mercy of mysterious (or some might overconfidently say imminent) interest rate movements, there's a much more insightful way for you to view bonds. Bonds are simply sets of cash flows. Buyers have varying degrees of desire for cash flows at different risk levels. The price...

I've done the NY Times crosswords since I was a child, since my dad regularly did them.

Now I do the Fri/Sat puzzles any time I get my hands on them. (I still vastly prefer holding the folded newspaper and confidently doing them in ink, rather than doing online versions.)

Lev and Victoria, thanks to each of you.

If stocks were such a sure thing there would be a great business model of issuing 30 year zero coupon bonds and buying stocks :D Many times I've mentioned versions of this observation to those who feel stocks will reliably have greater returns than bonds -- and many times I've gotten the equivalent...

I see a lot of the reverse. Someone grows up with very little material possessions in a third world village and as a young adult comes to the U.S. where it seems that everyone has everything. He or she gets a very average by U.S. standards job, but it's more money than they've ever seen. Along with ...

Future income should not be ignored. But it is not a current asset. It is not current wealth. But likely a majority of what we consider our current assets (e.g. stocks/bonds) consists of present values of future income. Stocks and bonds have a current market value and can be sold today for cash (th...

Future income should not be ignored. But it is not a current asset. It is not current wealth. But likely a majority of what we consider our current assets (e.g. stocks/bonds) consists of present values of future income. Stocks and bonds have a current market value and can be sold today for cash (th...

Future income should not be ignored. But it is not a current asset. It is not current wealth. But likely a majority of what we consider our current assets (e.g. stocks/bonds) consists of present values of future income. Not that I would treat Social Security benefits that way (for a number of reaso...

Appears like there's a lot of apples to oranges comparisons on this thread The entire thread is apples/oranges. Rent and mortgage aren't equivalent concepts. But the question was asked (what % of gross income do you spend on apples/oranges?) and many people seem interested in the answers to that qu...

No matter the time period, risk-taking may not be rewarded -- and may actually be punished. Most people do not need to put all of their assets at risk (and those who feel they do should probably take a look at their current levels of consumption/savings). Hence many prudent people choose not to, no ...

Some believe you should not even own bonds if you have debt. It's the total reverse. If one doesn't want to take on additional risk by effectively borrowing to invest, he doesn't buy stock -- he either pays down the loan or buys bonds. Not to restart the whole negative bond discussion (which by thi...

I'm surprised to hear a couple of you saying that the pharmacist job market isn't that great. My dad (a pharmacist) always said that they dang near fight over you after you graduate. He always needed more pharmacists (he owned several pharmacies). Granted he works in rural Arkansas. I had just assu...

A main reason mortgages can be considered separately from homes (e.g. negatively offsetting bonds) is because very many people maintain mortgages while buying other assets (instead of paying off the loan) and because the mortgage doesn't really correspond financially with any aspect of the home ass...

Can you not treat the house as an asset (albeit illiquid) offsetting the mortgage liability with the returns on the asset being equal to the imputed rent? To the extent that the home is worth the present value of future rents, it’s more like in any given year the home value is generating imputed re...

This mortgage as a negative bond always confuses the heck out of me. If you treat the mortgage this way, do you treat the imputed rent that you receive as income? The mortgage is just a loan secured by your home asset. Your home asset has imputed rent equal to prevailing rents. If you rent out the ...

I just read that original post and the replies, and honestly, it doesn't clarify anything whatsoever about the rent vs mortgage situation. Since it's all carefully outlined in there, you're either going to see it or you're not. If you are honestly still trying to wrap your head around it, I suggest...

Given that you do not currently have a desire to purchase a home, nor have you shown a desire to speculate that the market is mispricing (e.g. "borrow money cheap"), nor have you shown an inclination towards leveraging to invest -- you are making an impeccable financial choice. With your c...

Your use of the term home equity is limiting how you view your situation. Looks to me like you own a $630K home. That's an asset of yours -- you own it. You locked up $630K (or whatever the value was then) in your home when you purchased it. Also looks like you have a -$180K loan secured by that hom...

Kathleen, For me to relive the sixties, I'd have to have lived them in the first place -- I wasn't even alive for the Beatles farewell concert. I know the history well though. About the meeting, despite the rock star allure I'll probably still be working at 4PM on that day. (The Man is keeping me do...

Oh my, Rick must be a real rock star!

The title was reminiscent of some breathless 60s headline, like The Beatles are coming to Candlestick!

Then this:

for reasons of security.

I need to find myself a copy of Tiger Beat and see what the fuss is about!

Harold, which do you think are the "more impressive" places to see redwoods, other than the Muir Woods? (North or South of SF) And thanks for the specific ideas about routes and places to stay, that's just what I was hoping for. Well, I mentioned one of them (Big Basin) and there are a va...

SamGamgee wrote:I also endorse Muir woods.

Muir Woods is wonderful if someone is looking to see redwoods near the city (and would miss them otherwise) but there are many other even more impressive places to see them.

Driving south out of San Francisco, you'd probably want to take some combination of 280 (which follows the San Andreas fault, and accompanying lakes etc.) and Skyline Drive which follows the ridge (giving views of the bay and ocean, depending where you stop and walk). Then you'd want to cut through ...

I was an arbitron "family" as a single person in the 90s. I didn't have a device though. I had a booklet to record what I watched. Given that according to what they provided me I represented something like tens of thousands of local viewers, I felt a sense of power. I resisted the temptati...

No, bonds do not have high risk. They still have low risk compared to stocks. And the reason for this is clear if investing fundamentals are applied. In its purest sense, investing means exchanging current money for future expected cash flows. In the case of high quality bonds, you know what those ...

No, bonds do not have high risk. They still have low risk compared to stocks. And the reason for this is clear if investing fundamentals are applied. In its purest sense, investing means exchanging current money for future expected cash flows. In the case of high quality bonds, you know what those ...

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