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The question is --- to those folks who have bond ladders in their Roth IRAs -- what strategies do you use? How far out are the rungs? What is the composition? Is it STRICTLY investment grade, or do you occasionally buy some junk? How often do you re-invest? Just once a year, when you input new money...

Are there many folk here who have bond ladders in their Roth IRA's? I'd be curious to hear some different strategies.

That was a typo yes. Thanks.

I'm trying to figure out how the math on Series EE bonds' "one-time adjustment" works. Since they are guaranteed to double in value in 20 years, the Treasury will make a one-time adjustment at the 20 year mark to ensure this happens. Currently, they are yielding .2%. Interest is compounded...

I'm looking to retire in 14 years, at age 67. Between my pension and SS, I'm anticipating about 70K per year in income. For the sake of this discussion, let's say both of those things come through. That leaves me with about a 30K annual gap in desired income. That number increases as time marches on...

That's the plan --- have 5 accounts --- one for each member of the family. The question is this --- am I allowed to change benficiaries from my wife and I to child #3 after 10 years of contributing (and taking the tax break) for all 5 accounts? Honestly, my wife and I are probably NOT going back to ...

"Recapture provisions"? I don't even know what that means. I just looked it up. Doesn't that pertain only to non-qualified withdrawals, where the state wants to get their tax money back? This wouldn't be a non-qualified withdrawal, right? Simply a change in beneficiary, who would use the m...

I already have 529 accounts for each of my 3 children. For each account, I am the owner and they are the benficiary. I fund each account up to the $2,000 Ohio tax deductible limit --- that's $6,00 per year total. I need to save more for the third child though. So, I was going to do this: 1) Open two...

According to Wikpedia, there is an internet hoax circulating regarding FDR's order and the seizure of gold stored in safety boxes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102#The_myth_of_a_safe_deposit_box_seizures_order Another web site, which appears to have the full text of Executive Order...

Annualized?

Here's a muni bond offering in my state of Ohio. This is offered at E*Trade. I'm trying to understand the yield-to-call number. I'm missing something, but I don't know what. CUSIP: 677525QS9 Ohio St Air Quality Dev A Coupon 4.8 Maturity 01/01/2034 Price $102.506 Principal $1,025.06 Accrued Interest:...

I'm curious to know how different Bogleheads went about capturing the ENTIRE WORLD MARKET. I know there are several folks here (and probably more than I'm aware of) whose equity portion of their portfolio tries to buy the whole world market. I'm very interested to know what specific funds --- and in...

Tax loss harvsting. Man, I have lot to learn. I have only recently become aware of TLH (thanks to this forum), but it's always in the back recesses of my mind. That's great. Thank you!

Can someone please shine some light on this for me? I'm trying to figure out why anyone would invest in Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US Index Fund Investor Shares (VFWIX), when Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund Investor Shares (VGTSX) is cheaper --- 0.22% vs 0.30% --- AND has more stocks i...

My bad. I guess I should've named the thread: "What are your opinions about backtesting and your assumptions about how I'll use it? You're absolutely right. It was quite the stretch to ever even possibly imagine that you would use backtesting software for ..... backtesting. And then, on top of...

I think backtesting is pointless. And I know you didn't ask for this, but I think you can learn that more quickly and cheaply (at least more cheaply) by doing the calculations yourself. I learned how to create my own Efficient Frontier charts in Excel by using this web site: http://economistatlarge....

Raa: I look at the health care choice as more stable than the international choice. I don't view it as sector investing. Maybe I should, but I don't. I look at the history of both and conclude that the Health fund has less volatility than the international fund. In my mind, international investing i...

I really just wanted opinions on the quality of the funds and the asset allocation to each. Everything I invest in turns out to be about 65/35, maybe 60/40. I'll add this: Desired allocation: 60/40 to 65/35 Opinion of bond funds: low Fear of bond funds: high Certainty that I'm right about bond funds...

As usual, I'm wavering on a final decision.... Here's the scene: I just deposited money into my TIRA and will convert to a Roth once the dust settles on the transaction. I want to re-balance my Roth at that time. The Roth will have just over 24K in it. With minimum investmens generally at the $3,000...

I would tell the poster that since the two funds are so highly correlated AND since it appears that either one could outdo the other for a given time frame -- go with the lower fees. If the higher-feed fund were consistently trouncing the lower-feed fund that would be a different story. But that's n...

And, if you keep "indexing" the start date of the chart a year at a time, VEXMX "wins" most of the time.

Well, just playing with the chart a little tells alot. Put in 8/1/2001 as the start date and Oppenheimer wins the "Growth of $10,000" race. Start the chart a year later and VEXMX wins.

So... since they're so closely correlated, and "better" depends largely on the historic time frame one analyzes .... go with the cheaper fund?

I see that since 2008, VEXMX has done better. Is that what you're seeing?

I'm looking at 2 small/mid cap funds, one of which is VG Extended Market Index Fund (VEXMX). The other is Oppenheimer Main St Sm & Mid Cap (OPMYX). I'm comparing these because these are the small/mid cap choices in my Ohio 529 plan. My correlation analysis shows they correlate within 96%. For si...

Jeff: Well, if the investments do that well, then bring it on!
Damjam: Emergency fund is OK
Niko: yes

Put money in her 401k that is. It was suggested by some veteran poster here(his name is not Bob), that I pay her to contribute. And she went for it! You might be scratching your heads at this point --- pay your own wife to contribute to both your retirments? --- but you have to understand: she only ...

I thought the tax efficiency part of it would be more earth-shattering. I was under-whelmed.

I was wondering myself about ETF's. From what I see at morningstar.com, some Vanguard ETF's are not even as tax efficient as their mutual fund counterparts. http://performance.morningstar.com/fund/tax-analysis.action?t=VTSMX&region=USA&culture=en-US Go to the above link and then click on the...

I found this on the web and then searched bogleheads.org to see if anyone had previously posted it. My searches returned no relevant results, neither for the title, a portion of the title, or the author. I apologize if this has been pored over before: http://advisorperspectives.com/newsletters12/pdf...

I have to say it again ... what a great forum. Thanks to everyone who took th time to respond. nisiprius: I read your post and external link. The link -- to an article at The Oblivious Investor --- seemed logical and well-reasoned. But I'm trying to learn to take historical charts with a grain of sa...

by Alan S. A separate 8606 is required for each spouse. How many spouses do you figure he has? Sorry. Couldn't resist. Actually, I wanted to thank you, Alan, for the explanation. I had googled my situation --- which was similar to fitz's --- and a Wikipedia entry made the top of the list. It said t...

Thanks all. I promise to read the links and think long and hard before acting. I can't right now, though. My Boy Scout son went camping last night with his troop. Mister "Be Prepared" forgot his glasses and dad has to deliver.

I'm 50 yrs old. My 401k is at Fidelity. The AA is 60/40, stocks/bonds. 25% of the whole pie is in one bond fund --- Fidelity Spartan US Bond Index Fund (FXSTX). Average duration of this fund is posted as 4.8 years. I feel like that quarter of the pie (25% of my retirement money) is just sitting ther...

To BrianOB: Glad to be the sacrificial lamb. I figure I can't possibly be the only one thinking what I'm thinking.

My research for a safe investment for part of my portfoilio has led me to look into CD strategies. Specifically, buying into a long-term CD but withdrawing early when interest rates rise. To that end, I've downloaded the Boglehead CD calculator and am busy filling in the blanks and pondering the pos...

Thanks gang. I'm back on track now.

I can't find the exact thread now. But I definitely got the feeling that the veteran Boglehead was questioning the wisdom of TSM in an IRA.

I'm not getting something, and I hope you folks can straighten me out. The Holy Trinity of Bogle-ism seems to be Asset Allocation, Rebalancing, and Asset Location. I've read the wiki on Asset Location, and understand the advantage of stuffing tax inefficient investments into an IRA. What I don't get...

When folks hear say TIPS, do they mean they hold the individual bonds, or are they referring to the Vanguard fund VISPX/VAIPX? If they're holding the fund, that has exactly 36 bonds in it, about 1/3 of them long-term (10yrs+). Average duration is 8.5 years. I'm just wondering why TIPS seem to be hel...

I just wanted to share this with the group. Probably somebody here has already done this, but it was a real eye-opener to me and I wanted to pass it along. I wanted to know what intrest rates have done historically. I started with the Federal Prime Rate. I was going to do some analysis of that versu...

It's a Roth IRA. My concern was that withdrawals (from contributions, NOT earnings --- sorry, should have specified) could be used for qualified college expenses. But I wasn't sure if a student loan is considered a qualified expense.

I've read IRS Pub 970 and searched this forum, but I didn't fnd what I was looking for. Question: Can I withdraw money from my IRA (before 59 1/2) to pay off student loans for my children? IRA Pub 970 lists qualified expenses as tuition, books, fees, etc ... but does not specifically say student loa...

That's beautiful. But we don't qualify for a tax deduction for contributing to a TIRA.

I already made the Traditional IRA contribution. I will be moving it to a Roth, as soon as the funds clear.

As far as the wife and her 401k are concerned...... that might be tough to get her to put more than say, 3%, into her 401k. I'll discuss it with her.

I've gotta take this in baby steps. Let's talk tax year 2012: 1) The calendar year 2012 is behind us, so contibuting more to a 401k for 2012 is no longer possible. 2) Givem my high income for 2012, I cannot contribute directly to a Roth IRA for calendar year 2012. So, given that, which is better: A)...

One question on 401k contribution limits. I seem to recall several years back (maybe 5 to 10 years ago), that MY contribution limit at work was limited by what others in the company were contributing. I forget the particulars, but the rule then seemed to limit my contributions based on what others i...

Follow-up question. I came across an article at the Motley Fool on Roth conversions. From http://www.fool.com/investing/general/step-3-roth-vs-traditional-ira.aspx . In it: "You should also note that funds rolled over into a Roth IRA come under greater restrictions for penalty-free and tax-free...

You guys are great. Thank you. I'd love to contribute more, but we do have 3 kids, 2 dogs, and an uncle who lives with us in the basement (true story). I do need to talk again to my wife about her 401k plan at work. Last time I checked, I think the company was NOT matching. I will revisit that. Plus...

Married filing jointly. Unusual income year, in that AGI is above 200K. That will probably happen again in 2013, then, starting in 2014, settle back down to around 100K. I'm over 50. Wife is not. I work. Have a 401k AND an employer pension. Wife works part-time. She made about 20K in 2012. Also has ...