Bogleheads.org

I have made two "bets" with Bogleheads in which I selected an actively managed fund, and they selected an index fund. The first bet started on March 4, 2004. I took Primecap, and the indexer selected TSM. Since then, Primecap has returned 105.1%. TSM has returned 77.37%. Winner: active. T...

Both of these active funds have higher expense ratios but solid and seasoned management teams and a small total asset base, allowing them to be nimble. So far these bets have paid off. When good actively managed funds get too large with too much money to invest, outstripping the available supply of...

IlliniDave wrote:Wouldn't matter if I won the bet or lost.

But, it would matter in this situation. You would get a substantial prize if you beat your adversary.

technovelist wrote:Can I buy $10,000 worth of gold bullion? That's pretty passive.

Yes, you can.

Assuming the substantial prize is large compared to $10,000 I would probably use whatever products could get me the most leverage within the restrictions. I would expect the active investor to do the same and to have the greater odds of winning due to greater leverage available, assuming he's allow...

unless we plan on doing this for 1,5,10,25,50 years i'll pass You can write 'seperate' plans for different years/time periods, but you have to write all of them at the start. For ex. You can say, Invest $10,000 for 1 year in Vanguard TR 2020 then move it to Vanguard TR 2025. After 10 years move it ...

Here is a hypothetical situation (or a game), You and an adversary are given $10,000 each. The adversary is an Active management proponent and shall invest the $10,000 using a proprietary technique including the ability to see your portfolio and mimic it. The rules for your investment are as follows...

I believe this has been posted earlier. But is well worth watching again.

Epicurus on Happiness. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irornIAQzQY

nonnie,

I second mudpuppy's advice. Unless you are absolutely sure don't follow those websites, they are usually filled with lots of Malware.
I recommend using firefox+noscript for more protection during browsing those sites.

Having a good written IPS helps.
I have learned to ignore the noise, thanks to bogleheads.

akpk,

TDAmeritrade has quite a few commission free ETF's. 32 from Vanguard I believe with VTI among them.
I used this a few years back, but I moved everything to Vanguard Mutual Funds for simplicity.

Thanks for all the posts Grabiner.

I'm happy to be reading Bogleheads regularly. The Signal to Noise ratio (or whatever it's equivalent for discussion forums is) is simply amazing.
I have never come across a more informed group of people willing to help others.

Total Stock Market
Total International Stock Market
Total Bond Market
TIPS.

I also own Target Retirement 2020 but didn't count it because it is made up of the above 4.

For those interested in how OpenOffice implements XIRR. If you have some programming knowledge and are interested, you can implement it in a language of your choice. https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator/ooo/symphony/trunk/main/scaddins/source/analysis/financial.cxx // =========================...

Taylor Larimore wrote:The truth must be repeated again and again because lies are constantly being told around it. -- Von Goethe

Thanks for the reminders Taylor. I feel these reminders are essential. Else its easy to get lured in by market timing and its variants.

linguini wrote:I just started re-reading A Confederacy of Dunces.

What a delightful book. Boethius to Batman

Do whatever makes you happy.

Thanks for posting the video Lazy Nihilist. It's a good one. And the countryside and ruins were quite beautiful. Thanks retiredjg. The contrast to the idyllic country side against a busy city life does make it quite beautiful. This video is part of a series of 6, here are the links if you want to w...

Please let's not discuss sport on this thread. I'm not personally against it, but I think the forum Admins had specific policies about it, and I don't want to get this thread locked.

Thanks again Taylor. While the Three fund portfolio is simple and efficient. Should Bogleheads also be advised to include TIPS in their bond portion of the portfolio. Perhaps somewhere between 20-50%? I wonder if Vanguard can come up with a fund that does 75% Total Bond Market and 25% TIPS. That wou...

I like to distinguish pull and push phenomena, and I favor a pull wherever it's possible. - If I watched the news or a film on TV it would be a push; when I watch the news or a film over the Internet it's a pull. I can only do pulls, because I don't have a TV. - If a product is advertised to me it'...

My shopping is minimal, and so de Botton's main message does not apply to me. Or may be it still applies, but you already realized it without having to watch the video. :happy As for the Epicurus's principles, my friends (those I would have liked to share a house with) are spread around the world, ...

3. I agree that advertising is evil, so shouldn't there be some a priori rule that prohibits one from advertising that idea? It's probably a necessary evil. What I understand is that advertisers try to associate their product as our 'need'. We should be careful to discern between 'needs' and 'wants...

This is one of the most simple and at the same time most insightful/powerful videos I've ever seen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irornIAQzQY

Hope it helps a few Bogleheads like it did me.

If you have an opportunity to buy both, all other things being equal, VXUS is the better choice. But sometimes you might get VEU commission free @ some brokerages like TD Ameritrade but not VXUS, then you have a case for VEU. Looking at their performance on Google Finance, I can find very little dif...

I mostly use Firefox, but occasionally use Chrome browser. Pretty happy with both.

Don't travel to foreign countries. LIVE in foreign countries. Find a job or take a transfer to another part of the world. If you are English speaking (it appears you are) go to a country where English is not the primary language. Move every 2 years to a different country. You won't get a chance to ...

I also think upvoting/+1'ing a post has to do with the mindset or previous experience of the poster in other forums. If a poster is used to visiting a forum like reddit where you appreciate good posts by upvoting them, then they would feel doing the same here. I myself am guilty of +1'ing a few post...

Fair point. The fact that this became a much better deal for most and a less good deal, but still not too bad, for a few active managers isn't much to get upset about. Brian That is the issue. The move made sense on the whole, but was punishing active managers. I think it's OK for them to complain....

I'm not opposed to ETFs, though I don't own any at present. An investor who chooses an ETF similar to Vanguard's for low cost, low taxes, and market diversification is likely making a sound choice. However, the tone of Delegge's piece was clearly uncalled for, being far too extreme (waiting for end...

gkaplan wrote:What's VTSAX?

Vanguard Total Stock Market Admiral Shares.

https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0585&FundIntExt=INT

PROS and CONS, ETFs v FUNDS : http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=767441#767441 , Also : http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Investing_FAQ_for_the_Bogleheads%C2%AE_forum#Should_I_use_mutual_funds_or_ETFs.3F . These two links pretty much cover it. For long term investors there's practically n...

livesoft wrote:Message/thread was removed from public view. It was probably sequestered or deleted by a moderator.

Aaah, interesting. If a thread is deleted, would google cache remove it later? Or would it forever be on Google's servers?

Frequent posters have 15,000 or more posts. 800 doesn't cut it. Wait another 10 years to complain. sscritic, I think 15,000 is too high a limit. 500 or more posts should count as Frequent posters. That way I'm included in that 'club' :happy I see that you crossed the 15,000 post mark and want to be...

I find this forum to be great with very respectful users but would be nice to block post by certain user that I don't care to never read. Like this frequent poster: That's pretty silly. He posts in very few threads, usually ones he starts. It's not too difficult to check who started the thread and ...

I switched from a very old version of Quicken to GnuCash for the bookkeeping needs of my wife's law firm. It works and is open source and free. However, like a lot of open source software, you have to be willing to spend some time figuring it out and/or tracking down the answers to any questions. +...

Guys, Obviously we disagree on investing philosophy, I believe in tactical you believe in buy and hold. I will not bother debating that, I have great respect for John Bogle and Vanguard, we just do things differently. Because we are tactical, sometimes I will own something for longer than 60 days s...

Teetlebaum wrote:Marry a rich American heiress.

+1 would highly recommend.

Blue = DST is used.
Orange = DST is no longer used.
Red = DST has never been used.

From Wikipedia.

sscritic wrote:The real waste is the extra s.

Legion, I've been thinking of purchasing one of these myself. I have a few questions. What distro of Linux does it use? I am comfortable with using Debian, so I hope Debian can be installed. Looking at the website, this comes only with the board. Did you need to purchase a power cable? Any other acc...

Personally, I go with No. I think it's one of the most useless things.

Edit: Changed title from Daylight Savings Time to Daylight Saving Time.

For those who want to write in .NET, or the myriad of other languages, use caution. You don't want to write your own math processing functions. There's a reason that Mathworks, Microsoft, and other developers spend a ton of time on this. There are a thousand ways to have subtle coding errors (algor...

Love the Occam's Razor. I use it as a guide to many things in my life.
A couple of things to keep in mind is the Razor is only a guide/heuristic. It's not a proof.
And the Razor while stating that the simpler explanation is usually likely, it has to take into account all available evidence.

catchup wrote:so I guess that's not you in the picture?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicola_Benedetti

I am not partial about an online password programs. However, KeePass is free. If they are to be around and keep providing updates, how do they generate revenue? I debated between answering this as a crusty open-source curmudgeon and being helpful. I decided to go with a little of both. Short answer...

"Irrational" market movements are actually an argument for the EMH. Efficient does not mean "rationally" or correctly priced, it means only that future movements are unpredictable. I.e., that you cannot find a consistent method for beating the market on a risk adjusted basis aft...

Passwords without limit on their length please.

There's another point I never see mentioned. Most of the passwords I have to remember are for things I don't really care about, because almost every place on the Web thinks it needs to have a personal relationship with me. If someone gets my Netflix password, or the one I use to buy tickets at the ...

There are online solutions where the software is essentially a web page interface; you enter the passwords online, and have access to your passwords from anywhere. Theoretically the company whose software you are using might also have access to those passwords. I would not be interested in such a s...