Bogleheads.org

I guess whether you think Spotify is worth $10 depends on how much you like listening to entire albums. I have been subscribing for a week and have found some great new albums: (Steve Earle's Low Highway , Pattui Griffin's American Kid , Dawes' Stories Don't End, and Jake Bugg's Jake Bugg .) I also ...

I recently got my first smartphone. I decide to try the Spotify Mobile app. After 2 days, I am hooked. For $10 a month you get access to millions of songs. I highly recommend it for music lovers.

FYI, I got the Galaxy S3 and love it. The price dropped to $99 a few weeks before the S$ came out. I love it.

Also, I got a great case from Urban Armor Gear.

Thanks for the replies. After reading them, I realized I know nothing about this area, and it would take too long to learn. I decided to hire an appraiser.

I own an interest in a piece of real property with other people. The property has a factory on one part of it, and 16 small commercial units on another part. It has no liens against it and generates approximately $250,000 a year in income. One of the other owners is interested in buying my interest....

Given that I have 3 weeks until I can upgrade, the amount of research I have conducted is staggering. In manpower hours (including the hours of those who respond to my posts), the effort put into this phone choice will probably exceed the Manhattan Project. Today's opinion: I may have dismissed the ...

Have you looked at Pandora, Petro? Their free service is great and allows you to create your own "stations", based on your likes and dislikes. I have used both Pandora and Spotify, and prefer Spotify because Spotify allows you to play entire albums, unlike Pandora. However, I have to deci...

. . . and the battery life on the Androids really suck. Up until the day I bought my iPhone 5 I was a die hard Android boy and told everything my next phone was NOT going to be an iPhone. That is until I actually held the iPhone 5 and fell in love. I've held all the other smartphones and they just ...

LifeIsGood wrote:I'm not sure if this matters, but won't you be out of pocket each month with only a $50 allowance? A Verizon or AT&T contract usually ends up being in the high $70's for voice & data.

Yes. But I am already paying for a cellphone, so i figure I will net about $30 a month.

Thanks for all your responses. I spent about an hour today playing with phones. Here's what I think. You get a lot less phone for your money with an iphone. The Samsung S3 and Motorola Razr Maxx HD have better screens, better batteries, and are just faster. Assuming those are the two choices, does a...

harikaried wrote:What carrier? Are you okay signing a 2-year contract where I'm guessing your employer will reimburse up to $300 for the phone + plan? How soon do you need to pick a phone?

I am with Verizon and will renew my contract in April. As stated above, I get $50 a month for phone charges.

Cosmo wrote:
Go with what works and what works best. Hands down, the iPhone 5.

I looked at one that a friend at work had, and the typing screen seemed small er on the iphone that on the Motorola or Samsung. I'm an old guy and I need big letters for my thumbs.

Mudpuppy wrote:I'm a big fan of using a stylus, so I have a Galaxy Note 2.

I looked at that phone. It seemed too big for my hands.

Will you own it after your employer buys it? I ask this because if your employer owns it all of the information on the phone is his. I will own it. The reason my employer is so generous is that about 10 years ago, my firm got us all Blackberries for email access. I am the last person in my firm sti...

My employer is going to buy me a smartphone for up to $300. I have never owned one. What one should I buy?

I am thinking about the Motorola Razr HD or the Samsung Galaxy S III. Any thoughts?

I make my butler eat leftovers.

In 1986, when I was 26, I had 10,000 shares of stock in a company that I bought for $1 a share. The stock went to split-adjusted price of around $60 a share. I sold some of the stock, and bought my first house for $250,000. I sold it when I was 29 for $410,000. I then bought a two-bedroom fixer uppe...

I was an arbitron "family" as a single person in the 90s. I didn't have a device though. I had a booklet to record what I watched. Given that according to what they provided me I represented something like tens of thousands of local viewers, I felt a sense of power. I resisted the temptat...

It sounds like easy money, but Mrs. Petrocelli is not thrilled with the idea of wearing a little box. It clashes with her Rolex.

I was contacted by arbitron reserahc to be a rating family.

I understand that part of the deal is that you wear some small device that tracks your ratings. Has anyone worn one of these? Are they a pain?

Only if the non-boglehead has a lot of dough.

Thank you all again sincerely for your help. I had no idea that Microsoft had free anti-virus software.

Thanks for your replies!

I have been using MacAfee, but it is getting a little pricey.

Thanks in advance.

I had suggested (strongly) to a colleague at work that he should take out his first dates to a nice restaurant that he has a 50% discount coupon for. Whip out the coupon when he pays the check and anyone who responds negatively is automatically out. Frankly, I would rather go to a restaurant with P...

I have a spreadsheet which calculates the average of the following returns of each of the stock funds in my company's 401(k) plan: 12 month, 6 month, 3 month, and 1 month. I use this to track the momentum of each fund. Each month, I sell an amount of one of the funds with lower momentum and buy one ...

I am flattered there is someone who places golfers in a survey with triatheletes. Thanks.

Rupert wrote:Google "Seinfeld" and "smelly car." God I loved that show.

I thought the exact same thing when I read the title.

I noted something interesting when I ran my spreadsheet today. The "Petrocelli portfolio's" lead over the Target fund has narrowed significantly over the past week. It is down to .82%. So in just a month, It has lost .5% to the Target Fund. This shows that a "study" (and I put th...

..."where are the International stocks?" Or is this a US only anomaly? What I don't really understand about a method like this is the arbitrariness of the numbers used? What makes a 2% dividend relevant? Why isn't 1.8% or 2.2% better? My same lack of understanding applies to the PE and ma...

I chose less than 39, because I got married when I was 26. That really limited my hobbies.

Use this screen: (1) Beta less than 1; (2) dividend yield greater than 2%; (3) PE ratio of less than 20; and (4) market cap greater than $10 billion. Put the dividends in cash. Every few months, buy one of the 5 stocks with the lowest balance. Here's a sample portfolio: http://socialize.morningstar...

Yes. You should move.

My portfolio ended up beating Target 2025 by 1.12% in 2012. Note that it lost a lot of ground over the last 3 weeks -- because it was up 1.32% a few weeks ago. I guess that says something about the danger of deviating from the index. That under performance can show up at inopportune times.

Use this screen: (1) Beta less than 1; (2) dividend yield greater than 2%; (3) PE ratio of less than 20; and (4) market cap greater than $10 billion. Put the dividends in cash. Every few months, buy one of the 5 stocks with the lowest balance. Here's a sample portfolio: http://socialize.morningstar....

Also on topic, my observation is that raisan bran is frequently on sale at my market. When it is, I buy 3 or 4 boxes, which lasts a while.

While we are on the subject, has anyone figured out if it is cheaper to raise and butcher a cow rather than buying steak?

I saw an awful lot of "that guy" types at the old site on Morningstar. But a quick search of their old posts would almost invariably turn up dog mutual funds that they owned.....but they conveniently ignored those funds, but bragged about their lucky find. We have at least one of those he...

A large cap low volatility value portfolio. You have used stock picking to get your own value tilt. Could I ask why you chose market cap greater than $10 billion? I have no pride of authorship on this screen. I got it from a person named Geoff Considine, who is a big proponent of using low beta sto...

I would also suggest for comparison purposes, to make it simple. Instead of comparing 1% of TR2025 to 99% of your fund. Compare 1% of TR2025 against 1% of your fund. So instead of splitting 1% to TR2025 and 99% to Petrocelli Fund, split it 3 ways. 1% to TR2025 fund, 1% to Petrocelli Fund and 98% to...

About 2 years ago, my doctor told me I should lose weight.I set a goal of losing about a pound a month. I made some minor changes in my diet.I started eating apples at work as my only snack. I stopped eating cheese on my sandwiches. I avoided mayonnaise. I used to eat a cup of rice at dinner, and st...

I would also suggest for comparison purposes, to make it simple. Instead of comparing 1% of TR2025 to 99% of your fund. Compare 1% of TR2025 against 1% of your fund. So instead of splitting 1% to TR2025 and 99% to Petrocelli Fund, split it 3 ways. 1% to TR2025 fund, 1% to Petrocelli Fund and 98% to...

I'm also not sure why whether you out perform a given TR fund matters, or what it means? There are always going to be investments that out perform it and investments that under perform it. It does not indicate whether you have more skill, it may simply mean you have taken on more risk and currently...

I'm still not sure why you need to own the TR fund at all to do the comparison? You can just use Quicken, MS Money, Morningstar, or other sites to compare your portfolio vs. TR. ... Am I missing something here? Yes. You are missing something. I used to track my portfolio's returns versus the Target...

Last month, the Target Funds was about .991% of my portfolio. It is now down to .987% of the portfolio. Thus, the remainder of the portfolio (55% active/45% index) continues to outperform the 3 fund portfolio.

The idea that individual stocks can provide some diversification benefit is a good one. However, I disagree with the proposition that you should pick them randomly. Use this screen: (1) Beta less than 1; (2) dividend yield greater than 2%; PE ratio of less than 20; and (4) market cap greater than $...

The idea that individual stocks can provide some diversification benefit is a good one. However, I disagree with the proposition that you should pick them randomly. Use this screen: (1) Beta less than 1; (2) dividend yield greater than 2%; PE ratio of less than 20; and (4) market cap greater than $1...

Not a good idea.

From my knowledge of Jack Bogle trivia, I recall it being around $12, but I don't know when he bought it.

chaz wrote:

Petrocelli wrote:On a less serious note, I wear an $89 Orvis watch.

I remembered it was less than $5,000.

Adjusted for inflation, it may cost less than Jack's watch.