Bogleheads.org

Somebody already mentioned soundproofing. +1 for that, not only in the floors, but also in the walls. Not hearing every step someone else takes makes a house feel bigger.

Also we have a deck with a large retractable awning. We love it.

"Investment game" is an oxymoron. Games should be fun. Investing should be dull.

I work in the commercial software industry, though not in the financial domain. I find it perplexing and even a little shocking that people would use Excel to develop complex statistical models with millions of dollars at stake. Excel is great for data entry, simple data analysis, and making charts ...

Thank you. That makes sense. Although now I do not see how the "adjustment reflecting the inVEST administrative fee for the Portfolio" is incorporated into the benchmark. I suppose the most literal reading would be that they simply lower their benchmarks by the amount of the administrative...

I have two young children. I treat their 529s as a single pot, separate from the rest of our allocation. I understand the rationale for including it in the overall allocation. If I had limited tax-advantaged space I might include it in the overall allocation so as to put tax-inefficient assets there.

The benchmarks for the VA 529 evolving portfolios all include the phrase "+ 100 basis points". From the documentation: "The Portfolio Benchmark is a blended composite benchmark that reflects the asset allocation of the Portfolio over time, appropriate strategic benchmark index compone...

I think some target funds are great. For example, I have Blackrock target fund in 401k and its expense ratio is 0.12%. You can't really beat that, so I put 100% in the fund and just forget about it. Sorry for topic drift, but on that Blackrock fund, are you sure that 0.12% is the total expense rati...

Without knowing more about your total financial situation, it's impossible to say whether you should be thinking about investing at all. For some people, "keeping their head above water" could mean having a small emergency fund but no long-term investments. For others, it could mean no sav...

I live in the DC area and second (third?) the advice to rent if you're only going to be there a couple years. The only way that buying is viable is if you are sure you'll be coming back later, you're sure you won't need more space when you do (e.g. spouse), and you're sure you can find reliable rent...

A coworker of mine who is generally in tune with politics and current events recently referred to the poor returns of the market in recent years. When I showed him the actual market data he almost couldn't believe it. I guess it depends on what you term as recent. I started investing over 30 years ...

A coworker of mine who is generally in tune with politics and current events recently referred to the poor returns of the market in recent years. When I showed him the actual market data he almost couldn't believe it. I guess it depends on what you term as recent. I started investing over 30 years ...

A coworker of mine who is generally in tune with politics and current events recently referred to the poor returns of the market in recent years. When I showed him the actual market data he almost couldn't believe it.

A good advisor could add enormous value by helping prevent someone from selling during panics, buying during runups, chasing performance, etc. The trouble is finding a good advisor (preferably fee-based as mentioned above). Unfortunately, the people who need this help the most are probably the ones ...

My wife and I have iPhones (through Verizon). When traveling in Europe recently for a conference, I would put my phone in airplane mode then enable the wifi. With free wifi at my hotel and at the conference, I could make free video calls home using the FaceTime app.

Unless you have superior manager-selection skills, that would be the idea.

I was going to say that I've heard this from Vanguard before, but then I noticed that the article is from May 2011, so I probably read it over a year ago. Although I have no evidence for this supposition, I imagine that the good folks at Vanguard know in their heart of hearts that index-based invest...

Congratulations on doing all that traveling. Lots of people wish they had the guts to pack up and go see the world. The first thing I would do is figure out how much of your money you need to keep in cash for near-term needs versus how much you want to invest for the long haul. In other words, how m...

I rebalance twice a year, on my birthday and 6 months after, which happens to be spring and fall. I don't do trigger rebalancing because I'd rather be spending time living my life rather than tracking my investments. I'm afraid that tracking my investments weekly or monthly (or maybe even daily when...

From the book description on Amazon.com: "The strategy is simple: learn how rich people think, copy them, take action and get rich." I'm amazed people take these sorts of books seriously. If you ever find yourself starting to be seduced by this sort of thinking, please go read Black Swan f...

So if you make 200K you *need* 4 times as much as someone making 50K? I don't understand how you can define need as a percentage of income.

Also junk bonds, which aren't in total bond market index. But I would quit while ahead.

I would recommend the book "Smart Couples Finish Rich". The saving and investment advice is rather entry-level, but the book does a good job of showing how conflicts over money ultimately stem from personality and values conflicts. It can help you figure out your level of compatibility wit...

Here's another option to kill some time: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/0901/American-college-kid-joins-Libya-rebels-for-vacation

It would look pretty interesting on a resume.

CaliJim, Thanks for the info. After reading the thread you linked, I looked for "ticker describe" in the Firefox add-ons repository and in the Chrome web store and couldn't find it. I couldn't tell from the thread whether it actually works in Chrome. I was curious to see another implementa...

Don't rule out skiing. My wife and I have taken our toddler twice to this very family-friendly resort in Montana: http://skiwhitefish.com. They have an excellent daycare facility.

I've updated my browser extension so that it now displays the fund family and category in addition to the name. You can see what it looks like and download it from here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/oaioococfgnikdjhcjkoiealnikffcgg?hl=en-US If you've already installed the extension, it ...

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Wonderful book.

Thanks, everyone, for all the thoughtful answers. This forum is great.

Since the sale of something by definition requires a buyer, why are market declines referred to as "sell-offs"? Couldn't they just as well be called "buy-offs"? I'm not being obtuse or snarky. I'm genuinely curious about the rationale behind this common usage.

Thanks for the feedback. I increased the fade-out delay a little to make it easier to move the cursor over the link.

Hi all, I'm a long-time reader and admirer of the forum. This is my first post. I wrote a simple extension for the Chrome browser. It puts dotted lines below mutual fund symbols, and if you hover your mouse over one, a tooltip appears with the full name of the fund and a link to the fund's Morningst...