Bogleheads.org

About $2,500, 32 years ago.
Worth every penny.

This was my reasoning when I was deciding on a 1 or 2 fund portfolio, necessitated by my advancing years, and a younger wife that has 0 (zero) interest in asset allocation, rebalancing, tax implications, etc. I looked at both Wellesley and TRI trying to decide on one or the other or a 50/50 split. I...

Not a book but an essay, Letters from Earth by Mark Twain, coupled with Your Most Enchanted Listener by Wendell Johnson.
They changed my life in that they affirmed what I had suspected/thought.

We bought ours and continue to do so in lieu of a Long Term Care policy.
If we need it, they will be there and inflation protected though probably not sufficient to cover health care inflation.
If we don't need them, then so much the better.

I am curious to know if Firecalc, FIDO RIP, or any other predicting calculators have worked out.
I know that it's past history and probably no one has tracked it but has anyone kept their projections from say, 20 years ago, and how have they panned out.

Just curious.

This is really good and I agree with you Nis. I stopped for a bit after reading that one. I am also using the test for another purpose. One of my concerns about when I pass is leaving the management of our assets in my wifes hands when she doesn't have a clue. I gave her the test and she got 66%. Sh...

We are trying to figure out what my wife's benefits will be when she becomes eligible, eligible+1, eligible+2, etc., and at FRA. She will be retiring this Sept. at age 57 1/4. The SSA web site assumes she will continue working at her present salary, when they do their projections of her benefits. Ar...

We did this and are still working out other solutions. We had DirectTv to the tune of about $80.00/month. 4 TVs with 3 DVR 2 were HD We installed an outdoor antenna in the attic and used the existing DirectTv wiring for the antenna. I think the antenna cost about $100 and we installed it ourselves. ...

And then that begs the question "Do Bogleheads make any kind of adjustments if inflation ramps up and stays up ?" Our plan provides for an inflation rate (IR) of 3% and I am not sure what we would do (if anything), if the IR went up like it did in the 70s. Those holding TIPs would be ok bu...

I looked at Gmail but rejected it in favor of Fastmail.fm What I didn't like that was important to me, and that Outlook and Fastmail had, was the ability to create and organize a lot of folders and sub-folders, by topic. At the time it was cumbersome to organize saved messages and then be able find ...

The most interesting thing I've gleaned from this forum is this: one should carefully compare bond funds to the absurdly simple alternative of FDIC-insured bank CDs. Nis, just a question on how you do your comparisons. Do you look at CD rates with an equivalent term to the duration of a bond fund ?...

We generally write about $5,000 annually to the church and it's a toss up whether or not we get to itemize. Normally I would be withdrawing the $5,000 above and beyond the RMD in order to fund the donations as part of our annual budget. Since you are right on the bubble as far as itemizing, start g...

Are you referring to a "qualified charitable distribution" allowed in 2013? Have you attained the age of 70.5 at the time of distribution to the qualified charity? Have you taken your "required minimum distribution" prior to making the QCD? A qualified QCD is a distribution from...

I saw that it is possible to do a rollover from an IRA to a charitable organization, thereby avoiding any thought of having to pay taxes on the IRA withdrawal. Would that be preferred rather than writing a check once a week ? In theory, the weekly check comes from a RMD from the IRA which would be t...

Hexdump, Re your username and icon: does anyone still read hexdumps in this day and age? I used to, for a living, in the early and mid-1980s. Even then it was becoming a lost art. Lol, Scooter. I still do it once in a great while just to impress my java and c++ enabled, son. I love the 404040404040...

^I think grayfox made a ton in investments (i.e. stocks and LT bonds) and did not want to lose those gains by leaving his money in those investments. So he sold his risky assets and bought fixed income funds paying 0% to 0.3%. For the most part, I have been selling risky assets, both stocks and LT ...

For the most part, I have been selling risky assets, both stocks and LT bonds, and buying short-term CDs and Treasuries. They are only yielding 0 to 0.3%. But I've made a ton in the past few years, up about about 48% the past four years. That is like 15 or 20 years of withdrawals. Why risk it? It s...

Because my wife is quite a bit younger than me and has no interest in rebalancing, etc., we have settled on a one-fund solution and the fund is Wellesley. So, is Wellesley "OK" in a taxable account or is there another fund we should consider ? I will need to leave her instructions on how t...

We did something similar for our son with a proviso. If he made the honor role through high school, we would buy him a new car upon graduation. He did and we did and it was a 2003 Toyota Corolla and importantly, a stick shift. He hated it at the time but thanks me now. Oh yeah, he also now owns a Co...

Thank you for this.

If anyone is looking for a low cost solution for basic computing or a media PC, check out Rasberry Pi. I learned about this neat little piece of tech recently and am planning on building a HTPC to replace my Roku (lack of youtube really killed it for me): http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs http://en.w...

Bottom line: Don't invest more than an amount that if it did drop 50% and took 15 years to come back wouldn't ruin your life. So, what happens to the dividends and cap gains of say, Wellesley and Wellington, if the Black Swan event of a 50% drop does happen ? Looking at those 2 during 2008-2009 and...

What we use is with Vanguard, VMLTX, Limited Term Tax Exempt.
It works the same way as the money market as far as being able to write checks on it.

I think somewhat related so,,,,,
Does anyone know what the plans being offered by the exchanges will look like ?
Deductible ?
Office Visit costs ?
Annual exams ?
Prescriptions ?
Etc ?
Etc ?

All those good things that I worry about ?

Guesswork, but the number you stated for her survivor benefit of $1395 at 60 seems to be your current benefit amount. That's judging from you saying her spousal at 62 is $371, implying your PIA is $1140. (That looks like you delayed SS past 66 somewhat). Her PIA seems to be around $1057 if she is g...

These have to do with my wife's benefits and are based upon my fumbling with the various calculators which is another frustrating story. 1st, just the facts maam. My age = 73, estimated death year = 2025 based upon SSA mortality tables. Her birth date=5/30/1956 She is working now but plans to stop a...

I think that this is possible in that I saw some questions on a form somewhere asking if any part of the IRA withdrawal was going into an HSA. It appears to be a once a lifetime event and I think it will make sense to us next year. My questions are these. My wife's HSA is with Optum Health and the I...

I am looking at my wife's statement and when they project her benefits at FRA they estimate a certain figure for her remaining working career. My problem is that I would like to estimate what her benefit will be at 62 and 66 1/3, if she were to stop working in 6 months. According to the SSA, her FRA...

Are dividends pro-rated ? A google search says that it is a rare event, but I seem to remember getting partial dividends. Hmmm, it might have been when moving some funds from Fidelity to Vanguard, but I am not sure. I always thought they were, even though you sell the fund before the record date. An...

Hmmm, I don't see any bond funds there, specifically VBMFX. Also, is it accurate to say that the funds like VSCGX, Life Style Conservative Growth, which is made up of 28+-% of VTSMX (div=0.166), Total Stock Market Index, would post a dividend of 28+-%, of VTSMX (0.166 x 28% = 0.04648) ? Phew, that's...

70% equities seems risky for 3.7% withdrawal and 30 years of joint life expectancy. My guess is the risk of portfolio failure is high. have you thought about annuitizing part of this? It also would satisfy your simplicity requirement. You're absolutely correct Tarn, and I had the numbers backwards....

Thanks for the reply. I think that what it proves is that if the past (1996-2013) 17 years were to repeat exactly the same starting today, this where I will wind up. Are you trying to look at funds for withdrawal optimization? One thing I can guarantee is that the next 17 years will not be anything...

We always liked to go to the Reuben Fleet Space Theater in Balboa park, I think. Along with the zoo and the wild animal park.
Though it's been a lot of years since we have been there.

Hi. We are in somewhat the same boat, though your paid off house is better. We too have about 1.25m in assets with about 1.1m of that investable. What we are going to do is settle on one fund whose track record is attractive. IE, didn't lose too much value during the recessions. So far we have boile...

Maybe a naive, but sincere question--what are you going to do with this data? Paul Well, I have crafted a spreadsheet that back tests various funds. It takes a fund from inception, and then quarterly, reinvests the distributions, and sells enough shares to meet my quarterly budget. I then look at h...

I use Yahoo, but that is simply because that's what Perl's Finance::Quote module uses. What specific errors have you seen that make you want a different data source? And probably more importantly for alternate recommendations, what download format do you need the data to be in for your purposes? Ex...

retiredjg wrote:Since you no longer have your old TV channels, is it possible that others in your home are also streaming stuff at the same time more often than in the past? I'm no techie, just guessing.

Good point. My wife periodocally streams Korean video and it plays heck with my speed.

I have ROKU hooked to ATT Uverse and it also varies though seems to eventually settle down. Is your ROKU connected via wired or wireless ? I think there is an option in the ROKU box to test what speed you are getting. So, poke around in the menus and see if you can find it. I also, periodically powe...

What I use is KMyMoney. I went from MSMoney to Quicken all the time trying other products like GnuCash and Moneydance and a few others before I settled on KMyMoney. I have 2 investment companies, Fidelity and Vanguard with about 10 accounts combined. 4 banks, 6 credit cards, and 2 credit unions. I o...

I used to use Yahoo for historical records of Vanguard funds. Prices, (open, close) and dividends, and capital gains, but I have found a lot of errors and was looking around for another, preferrable free. Vanguard only goes back about 1.5 years. I especially want to be able to download them so I can...

As I read a bit more the fund supposedly holds approximately all the common stocks in the US. From the NY times: which represents approximately 99.5% or more of the total market capitalization of all the U.S. common stocks regularly traded on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq over-the-count...

I am reviewing my fund selections towards the 3 fund solution and saw something that I am not sure of. It's this. VTSAX, the total stock market fund has not distributed capital gains for the past 2 years yet my understanding is that it is a crucial component of the 3 fund solution. Equities are to p...

***Moved to a new thread.

Is there a link to, or has anyone done a back test to see how a 3-fund portfolio has done ?

I would like to plug in my AA %s and see how it would have performed. Understanding, of course, that past performance, etc., etc.

Terrific article Taylor, and thanks again.

What we have instead of the money market is VMLTX, Vanguard Limited Term Tax Exempt. It doesn't fluctuate a whole lot and we write checks on it.

I would say yes, but only with no annual fees, and if you pay it off every month.
Plus, get one with some kind of rewards that help you. I am not keen on flyer miles.

To the OP my wife and I have set a budget of $5500 per month. Living in a "no tax" state, TX, but still have 5 years left on the mortgage. Wow Trudy, no offense meant, but that's a lot. Did you consider a library card or sites like http://www.fkbooksandtips.com/ where you can get free or n...

This is very interesting to us and pertinent. I have been retired for 8 years and my wife will retire in Sept. of this year at 56. We are invested 100% in Wellesley Admiral(VWIAX) for 2 main reasons. It is close to our AA, 38% equities, 58% bonds, and primarily the simplicity in that my wife has no ...

I owe my Frau an apology. There were 2 things causing it, at least that seems to be the case. The speaker grill cover was loose and rattling slightly and I think there was some multi-path as Nis suggested or some other interference. I had never experienced any signal distortion from this station bef...