Bogleheads.org

In an industry rife with needless complexity that preys on the ignorance of individual investors, it's comforting to have a pioneer among us that has laid the foundation to maximize the returns of his clients rather than of his own interests through a simple approach that works. A rare thing in the ...

Here's an article that recommends Petroleum Engineering. http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/25/news/economy/engineering-best-paid-jobs/index.html?iid=HP_LN I would be careful chasing "best starting salary" lists. Engineers tend to start out with good salaries but quickly plateau (usually within...

700K/year in expenses is absurd. Perhaps this isn't the proper forum you should be asking for advice, because it will likely not be what you want to hear.

Bonds are almost certain to perform around (or worse than) inflation. We won't be seeing huge bond gains like what's happened during the prior decade. And people should be OK with that because it will keep their portfolio stable even if they're not gaining much, or perhaps are even losing out slight...

http://www.moneynews.com/MKTnews/Market-Collapse-Predicted-By-Scientist/2013/03/13/id/494569?promo_code=1304C-1&utm_source=taboola Chris Martenson is a world-renowned expert on identifying dangerous, yet hidden, exponential growth patterns in global economies, energy demand, and food consumption...

Are they taking US corporate profits and comparing them to US GDP?

If so, that's not a very good comparison given that the share of US companies business overseas is growing.

I'm in a similar boat, except I don't have a mortgage. I wouldn't worry about the mortgage value too much -- you have to live somewhere, think of it more as a consumption item that's not liquid. I check my net worth every single day -- I know people recommend NOT to do this, but it never results in ...

Be thankful that you're getting an extra 4% in lieu of a pension. I started at my job a year after they stopped offering pensions. My extra contribution compared to my peers? 1% .... Yeah, I'm actually so mad about it that I'm seriously considering finding another job. I feel I'm at a huge disadvant...

I haven't seen one, also nothing that compares Shiller PE to dividend payouts of earnings vs. stock buybacks.

I find the Shiller PE to not be particularly helpful, especially given so many different factors for different periods of time.

This seems like a case of picking end points (1969 and 2008).

Nobody is putting all their money in the market in 1969 and taking all of it out in 2008.

A better look would be what the average real return was over the period from then until today.

The headline implies that it is the small investors that are driving up stock prices. But as I understand it, small investors make too small of a % of overall purchases of equities to have that kind of effect (perhaps a fraction of a %, but not the kind of growth in the last 2 months). Please corre...

They nature of the market is to grow with time. There's a lot of bumps along the way, but I think the past 12 years has really skewed the perspective of markets to most investors, thinking that "all time highs" mean that the market is somehow overvalued, simply because the past decade has ...

Do these results take into account Hedge Fund expenses?

And I can cherrypick tons of other metrics that say they're undervalued.

Nobody knows. I don't like the alternatives to equity investment right now.

What was your "good strategy", and why do you believe it will persist? I'll write about this strategy if/when I hit seven figures, though I will say it is unrelated to blindly leveraging into equities. No clue if the edge will persist. I don't expect another double next year, but it would...

Roth (25% of financial assets): +27% 401K (50% of financial assets): +16% Taxable account (25% of financial assets): +112% Sounds like new contribs were included in that taxable account, eh? That's exclusive of contributions. I had a good year trading with a new strategy. Net worth around $300K, up...

How in the world did you manage to make so much money by 35? Get lucky with a start up? Not to sound cliched, but lots of hard work and a little luck... (e.g., landing a few key consulting clients). No startup involved :) Did you work with a consulting firm before breaking out on your own? What kin...

How in the world did you manage to make so much money by 35? Get lucky with a start up?

I tilt more towards intl due to market cap and the fact that intl is attractively valued right now.

From the article: While individual investors have been shunning the market, institutional investors, such as hedge funds and pension funds, have been significantly adding to their stock positions. So individuals are pulling money out, but hedge funds, investment banks, pensions, foreign governments...

This may be a silly question, but the following article breaks down inflows/outflows for equity funds and lists retail investors and institutional investors. http://buzz.money.cnn.com/2012/12/27/investors-stocks-bonds/ The net chart makes it look like there should have been a net outflow for the sto...

Yeah what Honobob said is absolutely correct.

You can generally expect about 10+% (conservative) appreciation on housing, plus 10+% annual rent increases every single year reliably with no troubles. People from my high school did it all the time.

I'll give them a call then. So you keep your Roth IRA with Fidelity instead of rolling it over to a different firm?

It may be simpler that way, but I have all my Roth IRA with Vanguard which offers a better international fund than the Spartan global ex-us fund (doesn't include small cap intl)

Has anyone tried doing this with Fidelity? I see the option for both "rollovers" and "in-service withdrawals".

The "rollover" option only says "IRA" (doesn't mention a Roth).

Gordon may have big credentials, but his point that he doesn't see any big growth drivers on the horizon is unpersuasive. I don't think anyone foresaw the steam engine, electrification, or computing before they emerged. One of Gordon's points is that these big drivers don't occur very often. The st...

larryswedroe wrote:Dick
If properly constructed to not care about TE, so rebalancing with divs and cash flows only, yes. More diversified from variety of factors and clearly higher expected returns. Also reduces risk of bubbles somewhat.
Larry

Having less of the market doesn't appear to be more diversified.

It was shown in another thread that a married couple over age 66 could have $90,000 of income and pay no taxes (under present tax law). Indeed, the IRS would send them a check because their income was so low. So even with paying no taxes, the IRS paid them money. These tax things are tricky to esti...

I like the total stock market approach because its much easier to invest with large companies like Vanguard and they also offer the lower fees and broadest diversification of the entire market. In order to capture the small cap premium, proponents say you need to invest your money at smaller funds t...

Gus Sauter points out the facts. Sorry but Andy Brooks of T. Rowe Price seemed more credible than Sauter. If the article is correct that HFT generates $1.25 billion in profits, that money isn't coming from thin air but rather from investor returns. Sauter knows this but as with the other recent int...

P/E10 is only really useful at the extremes.

Today's PE10 may seem high, but is that so given how low interest rates are? Your expected return will come from future cash flows, not cash flows in the past. I don't put much value in these tools for predicting future returns

So I assume you get taxed at short term capital gains rates?

Maybe it's just better to leave the gains is traditional IRA while transferring the contributions to a Roth IRA

What's your profession?

In 40 years, what the Market is doing today is not even going to show on your radar screen. What is most important is that you have a savings plan and that you follow it. Exellent advice. My biggest pet peave is the secondary stuff the young investors on here focus on. If your young I can confident...

The market isn't the highest it's ever been, adjusted for inflation. We're not even to 1999 highs, and we've had 13 years of earnings growth and inflation. The nature of equities and economic growth coupled with inflationary fiscal policy lends stocks to frequently be at all time highs, otherwise wh...

Tilters believe the small cap value premiums can't be captured at vanguard. Even modest tilters do use the Vanguard Smallcap Value Index fund. If you don't like the loading factors, just buy more of it. If you look at expense ratio, tracking error, simplicity of keeping all your funds at Vanguard, ...

Tilters believe the small cap value premiums can't be captured at vanguard.

About every quarter or so I transfer my 401k match (in company stock) to index funds. Prior to this past month I never saw any fees show up in my transaction history from fidelity, but this past transfer showed some 'real time trade commission' fees and 'RTT SEC fees'. Granted, they're not a lot - ....

I started at $60k in the mid-2000s straight out of undergrad (with a Math degree at a management consulting firm). And then I more than doubled my salary (115% increase) within 4 years. It came down to luck. Also hard work, but the hard work wouldn't have mattered without the luck (right school, ri...

Thanks all, I was never seriously considering this offer, just wanted a sanity check on an "investment" that appeared to have a P/E ratio of close to ~1. Someone earlier in this thread mentioned that investments like this do exist, my only question is - what kind? It seems to me like if a ...

I know nothing about the company selling it, just that they "passed" on the deal and would only invest in 10-15k monthly income coming from at most 3 wells (not 100). If professionals in the industry are passing on it, there has to be a huge catch it. Just wanted some boglehead sanity to r...

Your initial investment returned within about 18 months and then the income just continues to flow? Definitely sounds too good to be true. Seems too good to be true You already know the answer. With $10k net income it would pay back in 20 months, investments that nice don't exist. Sounds like the w...

Some oil interests are on the market that the seller is pricing at $200,000 and generates $10-15k in net income per month. Seems too good to be true, and I know that there are a lot of oil scams out there. Apparently the reason for the low price is that the interests are split up among over 100 diff...

Maybe it's just me, but after paying-off my mortgage, my expenses are so low that it is hard for me to believe I would be better-off renting for the next 30 years. I currently rent, but if I were to own, the annual property taxes, maintenance, and insurance would easily exceed the amount I pay in r...

Noobvestor, everything is possible, but less than half is not probable. I think it more probable that the total U. S. stock index will outperform the total international index. I also think there is less risk and lower costs. That's why only 10% of my portfolio is I. E. I'll rebalance based on that...

Faber pointed out the recent divergence of international stocks well below US stocks. I'm considering nibbling at VXUS but will wait a bit to rebalance into VTI. I know it isn't very Bogleheadish, but I'm currently zero equities, holding my nose and sitting in TIPs, gold, and short treasuries until...

While replicating their portfolios would be difficult at best, there are a number of lessons you can take from the "Ivy Portfolios": Keep costs low, diversify broadly across many asset classes and sources of returns, stick to a disciplined plan, rebalance and ignore the "noise of the...

ETFs are way less convenient for regular investing than mutual funds. This assumes you practice a buy and hold strategy.

Just as the shop was about to hand over my car they noticed a leak coming from the radiator...so now I'm going to need to get that replaced less than 9 months after I had the radiator replaced last year. Total cost of hoses + radiator + thermostat + coolant flush is going to be over $800. The shop I...

My 13 year old Car with roughly 150K miles is having overheating issues and I decided to get the thermostat and all hoses replaced (they were all original prior), and have recently had all my belts replaced and water pump. What sort of preventative maintenance schedules do Bogleheads use for cars t...

I'm not sure if I can say the market has priced in the risks involved for small cap stocks at the present moment. So, large cap stocks are appropriately priced in today's market, but small cap stocks aren't? Large cap stocks are more attractively priced relative to small cap stocks at the present m...