Bogleheads.org

I believe hedge funds tend to have high minimum investments and have not performed that well.

For SWR purposes, I like to see 100% success to age 95, and at least 40-50% success to age 105. If I had a family history of shorter lives, or any known serious medical conditions, then I might use other ages.

I suppose a better way to ask the question would be, what static percentage could one take from their portfolio annually and have a low risk of the portfolio being depleted? i.e start off with 1 million and 40 years from now still have somewhere around the 40 year inflation adjusted equivalent to t...

Seems it makes a difference in a safe withdrawl rate I don't think it's the SWR that changes. SWR studies always assume that taxes are one of your many expenses. Determining how much of it goes to taxes has always been left as an exercise for the reader. Of course, this exercise is somewhere betwee...

It's an interesting question because no percentage takes you to zero, but it's obvious that some percentages quickly lead to "uncomfortable" numbers. But the "uncomfortable" numbers come from roughly the original withdrawal style assumption. ie: there this is some amount of money...

It seems to me that people tend to pick 4% for this, even though 4% comes from a study of doing it the other way.

I had the same impression - a bunch of alternatives that have been discussed for some time wrapped up with a catchy headline.

I can't quite get my head around this. If the VG fund is the real yield and the TIAA fund is the real yield plus CPI, then the CPI is -3.5%? Or am I doing this wrong?

I didn't see this posted before. Apologies if I missed it:

200-day moving average market timing

I've only skimmed a bit of it, but with 1192 posts, there must be something relevant in there.

I was thinking balloon as well. A friend's mylar birthday balloon that we gave him 8 months ago is still partially inflated and still floating, but not as impressive now. Sounds about right.

Just tell your neighbors the WPA key for your wireless router and you've created a hotspot.

(Of course, many non-business ISP plans forbid this and you may be unhappy with the shared performance anyway.)

I just procured a Nexus 7 and with Firefox BETA I can use flash enabled websites. This is the reason I enjoy the more open Android OS. I played with several Android tablets today. The Asus TF700T is pretty nice, with a display almost as good as the iPad. It also fixed many of my ipad/safari annoyan...

Is safari on an iPad full-featured? I'm not a Safari expert but from memory, Safari on the iPad is (or was last time I looked) missing flash, the ability to chose fonts and sizes, doesn't save pages for off-line reading - which is a shame because this would make for a great in-flight browser. There...

If you use your computer like a tablet, then a table can replace it. I've often thought that it was funny that we got computers in most homes, but then they mostly got used as replacements for magazines, newspapers, TVs, and phones. For simpler uses, simpler machines may be as good or better. I like...

"If it bleeds, it leads". In general, you don't get a lot of: "things are normal" reports on news shows. You see people's homes after they get demolished. You hear about airline travel mostly when the system is all clogged up, etc.

rmelvey wrote:Who knows though, I thought the iPad looked stupid when I first saw it.

Good point. I have personally failed to see the attraction of a number of recent products and services that have turned out to be very popular.

Would you say that $5414 total couple's premiums to cover 20% of their medical bills small? (8% of our annual spending last year) Our private health care premiums are about twice that, but that's for all of our coverage, and we're only in our early 50s. Projecting our annual premium increases out t...

For better or worse, I think that outside of enthusiast web forums, most people are relying on (trusting) other people to figure many things out for them. Of course, at each forum, you have enthusiasts wondering why people would do that for the subject of THIS particular forum. I find that when I ta...

"simply code this up" sounds more like geeks talking on slashdot than most investors that I know.

That would seem to fall under the "Duh!" category of computer security, but I guess it pays to spell everything out. (At least as long as the list doesn't get so long that no one will read it.)

My CPA has mentioned a couple of times now that many of her clients believe that since tax rates are currently low, there is a high probability of them being higher in the future. Some are just moving part to a Roth for "tax diversification" on the assumption that taxes being higher is at ...

Today I was reading about someone who was financially independent at age 20. But in this case, "financial independence" just meant that his parents no longer supported him.

Taxes are a derivation that is left to the student. ;) If the money is coming from a taxable account, then they'll probably be quite low (compared to when you were employed.). From a Roth IRA - even lower. From a conventional IRA, they'll generally be higher than the other locations due to the distr...

This was a boon for many Bogelheads who were buying TIPS hand over fist at the end of 2008. Oh yes, I think there were about 6 busy threads about buying TIPS at that time. I had been well below my desired TIPS allocation for some time but those threads helped me get over "the world is ending&q...

Without knowing your age, life situation, and the rest of your portfolio, I don't know if that's a lot of cash or not. But I wouldn't tell you to do anything you don't feel at least reasonably comfortable about.

It's near the median, rather than the bottom, I agree. But, that is not usually good enough to qualify a person to give advice to others, especially when we are repeatedly told that Americans approaching retirement age, are, in general, poorly prepared for retirement. The article does say "$25...

I would also note that those who oppose gold have a tendency to make two contradictory arguments. On one hand, they argue that gold has climbed so high that it clearly is in a bubble and therefore should not be included in one's portfolio. On the other hand, they argue that gold has been a mediocre...

Just for fun, I pushed the slider up to 50 years, and I had the best chance of success with 50-75% stocks. (85% with a withdrawal rate of 3.5%, yikes!) This is probably another personal taste question but I prefer to use something in the 2.5 to 2.8% withdrawal range for the longer terms. Then you c...

As I recall the Trinity study had similar results - at least for 30 year retirements, most portfolios were fine at a 4% withdrawal rate. For 50, 60+ years, then more stocks helped out but even then I don't think the stock allocation had to be huge.

Wow. I remember using the JCP catalog - about 35-40 years ago. I admit I didn't even know it still existed.

Wade, to be honest, I thought you might be a person who had been lured into spamvertising for a huckster who was banned here. But even if so, I wouldn't blame you. Personally I'm open to "anything that works", but whenever someone (not you) tries so so so hard to sell it to me and doesn't ...

Even if VII ends up being wrong-headed, his heart does seem to be in the right place no matter whatever it is YOU might think about other aspects of his personality. Wade, I think you are confused about me. I spent several years at one of the few places on the Internet where he is not banned - firs...

There is someone, not Wade, whose "lunatic" behavior lead to the existence of this board? Yep - although it has obviously moved well beyond those early days. It was the third case I know of where a new board was created to be just like the old board only without that person. He said he ma...

Yeah, but buying a $0.25 meal will likely require that you also spend $2 on anti-diarrheal medicine, so the real cost of that meal would be $2.25. In four trips to China, we never got sick (except for catching a cold on the flight over once.) We did get the recommended shots first but they were pai...

On using it for travel - I've found China to be convenient on credit cards and cash. If you avoid the western-oriented hotels and restaurants, it doesn't take much money. We had breakfast for two at one little local place for $0.25. It wasn't always that cheap but it can be very reasonable.

Would you really let a computer control your behavior? Have you seen the movie: "Colossus: The Forbin Project"?

Reminds me of the old adage that you make more money selling advice than acting on it. So you eliminate market risk by getting regular income from clients instead of trying to make it in the markets.

Opponent Process wrote:exercise and eat right.

I've done that, but I still have the issue pf premium inflation. Mine have gone up 20-22% each year for 10 years even though I've had no medical issues.

If the eclipse takes the shape of a Zeppelin, then I will be nervous.

Don't worry. It's a perfectly reasonable question and I'm you sure you didn't even realize that the answer was more an inconsistency in complex laws than some simple logical reason.

Fibonacci should be reserved for more serious pursuits such as Punkin Chunkin.

shawcroft wrote:(PS: there were "Normal Schools". I am not kidding)

In some places there still are, like: Shanghai Normal University.

I remember laughing at a sign like that when I was a kid and the driver told me that the intent was that when he as away at the bathroom, ticket office, etc. that passengers weren't supposed to just yank the door open and get on. Seemed plausible but still funny.

OK how about this one: The person had taxes withheld from the conversion because he thought taxes were going up a lot but didn't have enough in taxable accounts to cover the entire tax. So he has lost some of his tax-deferred, and if under 59, gets to pay a penalty. But then realizes that he could h...

That is confusing. Maybe they are referring to people who elected to have taxes withheld during the conversion? But that wouldn't be the full amount for most.

Pesky culture that expects single men to have pretty cars. Hmm, but earlier didn't you say that you might have to buy a bigger car in the future if you got married? Maybe tell culture to stop bothering you for awhile. ;) Either that or stop the financial rationalizations and just go with the what c...

DesertMan wrote:Who besides the dealer can service a Mazda well? I agree that I'm getting burned on maintenance.

Ask around. A local mechanic is often the best.

You can get tires and wipers anywhere.

A foreign car with no warranty is going to cost a lot more to service The warranty on my Japanese car ran out 6 years ago and I haven't needed anything but oil, tires, wipers - stuff that the warranty doesn't cover anyway. No guarantees of course, but the end of the warranty doesn't mean it automat...

The first choice is "Yes, and then run it into the ground." but that sounds highly speculative given that the current car is only about 4 years old and the loan isn't even paid off before you want another. I think you should see if you actually can run the current car into the ground befor...

"The average American lacks the financial savvy to build a solid retirement portfolio on his or her own, says Marston. This became painfully clear when the stock market crashed in 2008 and decimated retirement accounts." That isn't as bad when view in the context of the sentences that fol...