Bogleheads.org

This far out I probably wouldn't even consider the pensions because they are far too many variables at play and far too many years between now and retirement. A lot can happen in 30 years. I certainly wouldn't make any changes to my AA because of it. Once you get within, say, 10 years of retirement ...

As a twenty-something male, I and my friends think that driving a nicer car makes it easier to get dates. More precisely, it makes it easier to get dates with the types of people who care what sort of car you drive. I don't think that's necessarily the case. It's just a form of signaling. It could ...

Perhaps you could tells us what exactly you are worried about wrt to your estate and we can give more pointed advice. Your estate doesn't appear to be nearly large enough to warrant anything special from what I can tell. Clearly you need to designate potential caretakers for your minor children and ...

I do not understand this logic. People don't want to own bonds because of a moderate chance their value will drop by a small (< 10%) amount. That's fine. But to then invest all that money in equities instead, where you can expect the value to regularly drop between 10-20% and somewhat regularly drop...

If you prefer reading articles to listening to podcasts, here's an article on the same subject by Tressider. Worth a read. Even if you don't agree with his conclusions, he does point out some serious shortcomings with prior SWR methodologies. http://financialmentor.com/free-articles/retirement-plann...

Not really. A boglehead would still have to adjust their AA to be more conservative over time as their need/ability to take risk shifted. The TRF's are just a shortcut for lazy people.

Yes, definitely. Better get out now while you're still rich.

I can't help but add a rant about the continued use of faxing. Scanning and sending the scan by email is so much better. Faster, easier to confirm receipt, no telephone charges, much clearer prints, easier to save, etc. I cannot understand why it has taken so long for scanning to catch on in relati...

At about 3 times your husband's income alone (allowing you to stay home for a few years), a $300k home would be doable. You might feel cash strapped for a few years, but as soon as you reenter the workforce you should be able to handle it comfortably. Homes were going for 5-6 times earnings in the b...

I would find it more useful to look at it from a cash flow perspective. Presumably, if you were making $85k you would have to take out a loan on a $25k vehicle unless you had a ton of money saved up. I would therefore say you probably shouldn't spend more than 10% of your take-home pay on a car paym...

The whole concept of a SWR ignores the fact that spending patterns change dramatically. Practically nobody spends the same later in retirement as they do early in retirement, even taking healthcare costs into account. If anything, the 4% number is probably a bit on the conservative side. Start with ...

Where have you been reading that? I have seen no convincing evidence that 4% is too high for most people.

Giving up 1% of future profits indefinitely reeks of desperation to me. A loan would be much more advantageous to him. What reasons could he potentially gain by choosing to give up future profits instead?

If you really don't care about risk, just start a business and invest in index funds. Or make risky career moves and invest any increases in salary. I just don't see how you can make the math work on this plan. If it were really THAT easy to do what you are proposing, everybody would already be doin...

1. The points are diverse, as you can see in my original posts. At least 3 if you choose stocks randomly, and 4 if you use a value approach. 2. Yes, but I don't care, I sacrifice stability for returns (that's why I also don't invest in bonds). The majority of people want more stability, that's why ...

The costs of mutual funds/ETFS are now so low that it makes absolutely no difference unless you have tens of millions invested. This plan won't work and even if it did, your out-performance will likely be at most the expense advantage of your plan. Maybe you could buy a few cups of coffee with that...

The costs of mutual funds/ETFS are now so low that it makes absolutely no difference unless you have tens of millions invested. This plan won't work and even if it did, your out-performance will likely be at most the expense advantage of your plan. Maybe you could buy a few cups of coffee with that....

I don't see any advantage to starting an LLC or getting a business license or any of that.

USUALLY one can defer more income with a Solo 401k but it's slightly more trouble to set up. And yes, this year's contribution would be reduced by the $9k he already contributed.

Doubling every 10 years requires a 7.2% annual return. I'd say that's a very reasonable return for a reasonably stock-heavy portfolio over a long period of time. You may not end up getting it, but that doesn't mean it isn't reasonable.

There are services online that will rebalance a portfolio for you for 1/10th that price. But for a 3 fund portfolio, rebalancing will take something like 10 minutes per year. Not difficult at all. You don't say whether a lot of your portfolio is in a taxable account of not, but that would only make ...

Not enough information. How old are you? What's the cash flow like on your rental and what is the interest rate? If you are cash flow positive and your rate is reasonable, I would recommend paying the bare minimum on the rental mortgage and dumping every extra cent into your 401k. The cash flow on y...

Interplanetjanet-- Really? No problem turning a manual over to valet parking? A bunch of really old guys must work there. I don't know anybody under sixty who has ever driven a stick. Except Mr. Money Moustache and the missus: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ And how do you know the attendant can dr...

My Corolla is 9 years old with around 115,000 miles and I've never done anything but the scheduled maintenance. I anticipate driving it at least another 4 or 5 years. Not bad for a $13,000 car.

Anyone have recommendations on restaurants, bars in Barcelona? We're more of a low key, tapas, beer, wine type of couple. Nothing white tablecloth or anything. Restaurants like that are pretty much everywhere. Just walk around the corner and you'll find them. Anyone take a day trip to Sitges? We're...

I would strongly recommend against Las ramblas. Mostly tourists and everything is more expensive. If you want to be close, the northwestern corner of Ciutat Vella or El Raval are both superior choices. Barceloneta is also decent and right on the beach, albeit somewhat touristy (at least along the po...

I'll often ask a tradesman if he offers a cash discount. What he does with the money and how he reports it for tax purposes (if at all) is none of my business and not my problem. Actually it is your and our's business. People who do not pay their taxes shift the burden to those of us who do pay our...

I'll often ask a tradesman if he offers a cash discount. What he does with the money and how he reports it for tax purposes (if at all) is none of my business and not my problem. Actually it is your and our's business. People who do not pay their taxes shift the burden to those of us who do pay our...

It's perfectly legal for him to offer a discount for cash and it's perfectly legal for you to take him up on it. What he does after that is between him and the IRS. I wouldn't let it bother me.

REITs are very volatile. 7% in two weeks doesn't seem like too much more than noise i.e. it doesn't really require an explanation.

Paying off the 9% mortgage seems like a no-brainer, all else being equal. What about these car loans? Do you really NEED 3 cars or is it possible to get rid of one of them (and the corresponding car note)? That would free up more money for retirement savings.

And you are right about trees. The great merit of trees is that they have an inherent return-- bigger trees are worth more (I had this number in my head of +8% pa, but that would give you nonsensical valuations-- perhaps it is 4%?). The numbers I have heard are that trees will grow in the 3-6% pa r...

I think Swensen owns actually Timber land and not Timber REITs. I would expect the REITs to be more correlated with the broader stock market than timber land itself. As for why timber land might not be correlated with the broader economy, while it's true the demand for timber might decrease during a...

I would scrap that particular email and start over. It is far too negative and accusatory, in my opinion. There is absolutely no way that email is going to do anything but make it worse. I'd be more likely to just sit down and talk to him rather than send an email. Try to find out his point of view....

From what I've seen, most attempts at teaching financial literacy have failed for the same reason people are overweight. You don't need to be told to save money just like you don't need to be told not to eat junk food every day. It's not really lack of knowledge that's the problem.

When it comes to stable value funds, ERs don't matter, anyway. Just compare the yield.

Not in a taxable account. You could probably do something with a variable annuity if you don't mind the extra layer of costs and paying regular income taxes at withdrawal, but that's probably not a great idea.

I'm 31 and hold 10% in bonds and all small/value tilt aggressively. It all just depends on what you're comfortable with. I think anything from age in bonds to age in bonds - 20 is reasonable as a starting point.

1.) Flip a coin. Mathematically, investing it all upfront in a lump sum is likely to work out better in the long run. There are psychological advantages to DCAing, though. 2.) Your understanding is incorrect. Mutual funds distribute capital gains occasionally regardless of whether or not you sell an...

It sounds like you can easily afford this. Hitting $2 million 10 years out doesn't seem like a stretch even if you buy it. I'd go for it. There's no way this place is going to pay for itself, though. Don't fool yourself.

I would argue that over a 30 or 40 year time horizon, 0.37% is quite significant.

You seem well on your way. If you only need $16k per year, I'd consider maybe continuing as things are for the next 3 or 4 years, saving as much money as possible, and then doing the blog thing full-time. Blogs can be insanely profitable. 3 or 4 more years of part-time work doing that ought to build...

I own farm land and I don't count it as part of my asset allocation at all. Farm land DOES go down in value at times (mine did) so I definitely wouldn't count it as a bond replacement. It's just a business venture involving real estate.

It's something installed on your computer. Not sure where you picked it up but you should be able to remove it from add/remove programs in the Windows control panel.

As platforms go, you could do a lot worse than Wealthfront. 0.25% pa isn't bad, and it's not like the underlying investments are expensive, either. You do the same thing yourself for less but there are legitimate reasons some people may not want to. I personally tilt to small/value, so I'm sympathet...

Sounds like you're trying to time the market. The market dropped by half a few years ago and has already completely recovered. Sounds like a reasonable worst-case scenario.

I've become more and more of the opinion over the last few years that widespread financial literacy movements are a waste of energy. Those who want to learn will seek it out - we all wound up here, after all. Those who don't, won't. No amount of required financial literacy classes in high school/col...

This isn't really a valid comparison to make because in most cases, these kids don't have $220,000 on-hand to invest when they are 18. They also don't take cost-of-living into account. Of COURSE graduates in California are going to earn more, on average, than graduates in Kentucky or Mississippi eve...

I'll go ahead and say what everybody else is thinking but not saying: there is a 0% chance the manager will beat a simple indexed portfolio over the long haul on a risk-adjusted basis. Not 10%. Not 1%. 0%. You're going to have to tell your wife she's wrong. Good luck with that.

I'm assuming you're talking about Amazon. You can get around it by using something like vigilinks, but you have to give up a slice of your revenue to them.

to the original poster: I HIGHLY recommend reading the book Stop Acting Rich: ...And Start Living Like A Real Millionaire http://www.amazon.com/Stop-Acting-Rich-And-Millionaire/dp/1118011570/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367499456&sr=8-1&keywords=start+living+like+a+real+millionaire The book ...