Bogleheads.org

While I agree that in principle one shouldn't let the emergency fund get down to zero... When our mortgage was our only debt and we were paying it down rapidly, once it was the same size as our emergency fund we liquidated that money and paid off the mortgage. Caveats: we had 2 stable jobs, no upcom...

I have a few answers to this. One, I went to grad school so felt I started saving late and wanted to catch up. After a few years of working I was able to ease up the saving rate because I felt more comfortable with what I had accumulated. My husband, while frugal, was not as much of a tightwad as I ...

The thoughtfulness of the gift will vary greatly depending on the needs and personality of the bride and the groom. How well do you know them both? Are you choosing this gift for them or for yourself? A gold coin is not a gift I would have appreciated. I didn't have a safe or deposit box to store it...

I remember reading some statistic that on average men would apply for a position if they met about 75% of the posted requirements while on average women would only apply if they met all of the requirements. Considering how much HR is involved in writing up job descriptions, I would apply if you meet...

I put money into the 401k for retirement in diversified funds. I participate fully in my company's ESPP, but I consider it to be akin to a 6 month CD paying at 15% (my discount buying the stock). It is a short term holding, I liquidate the stock as soon as it is available. This is a short term cash-...

I valued mine, from 2 different companies, at zero.
One company, bought eventually by another and my stake now would buy a pizza or two after trading costs.
Another company, not public after 8-9 years but not quite dead (yet).

About 2 years ago we hit the first number I had in mind, the number that means we can live off the portfolio with a low-but-not-cat-food standard of living if we never add another penny. This gave me much comfort since my husband quit his job to start his own business 10 months ago. Perhaps that is ...

If the stress is so much that it is knotting up your shoulders, neck and back then a massage will provide physical relief. I generally get massages to cope with physical stresses such as overtraining and muscle aches, however. I don't find the deep-tissue massages I get to be relaxing while I am on ...

I graduated from UMR in '98. For me, I greatly valued being at a school where practically everyone else was doing some sort of engineering/science curriculum. In contrast to other engineering students I met from other schools when I had internships, at Rolla I knew engineers who were stoners, who we...

We get our chicken and pork from a local, organic operation. We pay a lot for the meat but it is worth it to us. Tufts University nutrition dept works closely with small farmers and those who want to become farmers, the chicken farmers we use work extensively with them to help train new farmers. Sin...

Generally an umbrella policy requires an underlying homeowners or renters insurance policy. I would ask your agent if what you propose is even possible.

I was surprised by how low his guess was, he guessed a range that was 0.59 to 0.74 of the actual. He hasn't checked the accounts since his 401k was rolled over in April so that accounted for some of the growth plus he underestimated my 401k by a lot. Luckily when I asked him where all the accounts w...

Not to be a downer, but your wife is an adjunct professor looking for tenure track positions. There are literally hundreds of applicants for each position, most of whom would cut off their left arm for one. She won't be able to take more than a few months off to raise kids if she gets such a positio...

My husband used to have a Dahon, sold it and we both have Bike Fridays. They have several models to fit various needs, we don't have speedy folders but they fit nicely into a standard suitcase for traveling. Not all bike shops are good at assembling them, the wobble might be due to that model or tha...

Your PhD was supposed to teach you to learn how to learn, not lock you into a niche. Most of us have to switch subfields a few times over the course of a career. I am only 7 years out from my PhD and am working in a field completely different than what I started in. My advisor was an expert in one f...

I don't see anything in your post comparing the funds within your respective 401k plans. If there is a significant difference in the quality of the funds and their expense ratios then it may make sense to prioritize one of the other, after you are married. Do either of you expect large increases in ...

Our credit union held our mortgage. While the fine print states that they have the right to resell their mortages, in practice they have never done so. You might be able to find a local credit union that does not resell mortgages.

Have you thought about offering significantly less than asking price?
If you could get this house for much less, but still more than the average home price in the neighborhood (400 to 425K, for example) would it be worthwhile?

1. My thought exactly, and also it would put us on track to work on getting our small caps out of my 401k and into a cheaper VG fund in a Roth. The $1k and $3k limits are still in effect as of a month ago. After all that planning to redo our AA across the 3 accounts...now we throw in the STAR fund!...

I like to listen to my gut, not fight off its urges. It is an error to think that all our best thinking occurs with the conscious parts of our brains. Trust me on this, I teach martial arts and self defense when I'm not being an engineer! A few years ago we realized that we were earning a lot more m...

There are a lot of 3 family houses in Boston and the close towns, have you considered one of them? You could rent out 1 floor while FIL lives on the other for the next few years, then each have your own living space once you return for good. There should be several in your price range though you mig...

I know it is not the most prudent thing to do, but we did it in an extremely similar situation. Our emergency fund was at $0 for about 2 weeks then very quickly replenished and nothing went wrong. Caveats, we have CC with high limits that we could have used to charge an emergency and pay off in a mo...

Mice and rats can chew through plastic bags, so do not depend on them to keep rodents out of your books. I would use hard plastic bins in a storage facilty if you are worried about rodents. Rodents won't chew books for food but will use them for nesting material. Do you have any family/friends with ...

Some people have kids, we are having a dojo :-) We saved a lot for a while and paid off the mortgage, now my husband can quit his day job to turn his hobby into a business. 10 years ago we could not have predicted that he would find this passion and want to pursue it full time, but the financial bas...

A few weeks ago I was at dinner with a group that included a commodities quant trader. He spent a long time talking about how they hire mathematicians/programmers from just a few of the top universities and how very few of the kids last long. He was practically bragging as he talked about how they b...

I would hazard a guess that this makes 90% of the American population financially incompatible with the typical Bogleheads. I believe I am emotionally, tempramentally and mentally incompatible for a long term relationship with 99.9% of people. That does not mean that marrying my spouse was a bad id...

I cycle for transportation, primarily to work but also for other needs around town. I am embarrassed by the behavior of some cyclists who ride without helmets, running red lights, earbuds in, no lights. However, I also despise being premptively judged by their behavior. I get yelled at for simply ri...

He came within 10 feet and I just hollered at him "stop". He stopped and slowly walked away. Learned on the news that night 2 people had been robbed in the same vicinity that a Have you considered taking a self defense class? A good class would teach you that the first line of defense is ...

I am the wife. Do you think that only men read and comment in the threads here? We do exchange gifts, but generally only nominal tokens. Throughout the year we mostly buy everything we need. Most of our good gift ideas go to others, e.g. he picks out the perfect pair of winter gloves for my mother i...

If you plan to sell your current home when you move to the larger home, it might make sense to save some money by prepaying your current mortgage. While you will certainly need some liquid savings for moving and closing costs, if you plan to roll the proceeds from the current space into the new one ...

Many, many years ago my boyfriend and I moved into a 350 sq foot studio apartment. Our household income was 19000/year at the time and we lived there for 8 months. The fact that we could live in that small of a space without killing each other was a signal that we had a great relationship (eventuall...

One option my wife pushed for during our bathroom remodeling was radiant heating. We used products from WarmlyYours and it's a nice option on cold winter mornings. We did the same thing and it was probably the best $500 we have ever spent. Minimal extra costs compared to the bathroom price as a who...

Are you interested in learning to do scientific research or just to learn the facts and theories of a particular scientific field? Science is the method, it isn't the collection of facts. Science is the act of designing experiments with good controls, making observations, thinking about them and the...

Shorter strides with faster turnover and a midfoot strike will reduce injury whether you wear a minimalist shoe or not. I prefer minimalist shoes but they aren't necessary for everyone. I don't have any trails nearby but choose routes with asphalt or grass whenever I can. I can tell the difference i...

Why do the options have to be 5, 20 or 75% down? It appears that 20% would stretch their cash flow and 75% would leave them with insufficient liquidity. Put down 40-50% so their cash flow and their liquidity needs appear to be balanced.

If you daughter will be living in a dorm she will probably have a bike rack at ground level in which to lock her bike. If she will be in an apartment, will she store the bike on the ground floor or in the apartment on a higher floor? If she has to carry the bike upstairs every day then a lighter wei...

Probably biggest tip I can give is how to cut and paste Excel sheet into ppt slide. Often, if you just highlite the cells in Excel.......and do copy and paste into ppt file............the format becomes all jumbled and sometimes impossible to fix. My method is: -highlight cells in Excel you want to...

Your credit score is a measure of how responsible you are at using and paying back credit. If you never charge anything to your credit card you aren't showing usage and the card might be canceled. Do you have a regular, recurring expense that you could put on the card? For example, if you drive, put...

I am interested in attending and the Sunday afternoon meet time works fine. I would prefer someplace accessible by T.

For this Tuesday, there is a Legal Sea Foods across from the Aquarium as well as their test kitchen, both within an easy walk of the Seaport hotel/conference center.

I was thinking of this as I plotted our rebalancing last week and how much simpler it would be if we had fewer accounts. Age 34, 8 accounts.
Her Roth
His Roth
Their taxable
Her SEP-IRA
Her ESPP
Her 401k
His 401k
His 401k brokerage account

You work for this small employer with no 401k now, but likely in 5 years or so it is likely that either you will work someplace else with better benefits, the company will expand and offer more benefits or you might have a spouse that works someplace with better benefits. I would not get locked into...

Though I'm still early in the accumulation stage, I've started studying more about the deccumulation since I also manage my mother's portfolio. After my father died she didn't know much about investments so I volunteered to take it on (with my siblings' approval). She has less than 5 years til retir...

We have a Husqavarna that is very dependable. Mostly I just use the straight stitch and zigzag, don't need the other 18 stitches. I like the dependability and the ability to adjust tensions easily. Ours has more than paid for itself even though I don't make clothes from scratch. The sewing machine a...

I have shares in 2 small, privately owned companies from previous jobs. One company is now listed on the pink sheets and I have enough shares that, after transaction costs, I could buy a pizza and maybe a beer. The other company is still privately held and I am restricted from selling the stock; thi...

If you want to know more about this sort of thing, I recommend learning some calculus rather than statistics. Calculus for Dummies exists and your local library might have it, it would help some to understand subjects like limits and dividing lines into infinitely small divisions.

I think that for many cars these days if you are buying with cash and intend to keep a long time, then buying new can be equally as good as buying used. However, if someone doesn't have enough cash to buy a new car, then the financing rate of new and used can really make a difference. If someone had...

While in math we often approximate 1/infinity as zero, it isn't actually zero. It is indescribably small but not the same as zero. Then next you are multiplying this indescribably small number by an equally indescribably large number to get one.

As an anecdote with an N=1, the person I know who markets himself as a "life coach" is one of the most $*&$ up people I know. What qualifications does someone have that makes them a life coach? What track record can they point to and how did they receive their education? Have you consi...

FYI, East Coast Grill in Cambridge is having Hell Nights next week Mon-Thurs; you won't get a table without a reservation and they don't serve the regular menu. Great place though. Legals is dependable and good, several locations to choose from and I love their sides. I don't like Summer Shack very ...

We've had one for years at the credit union that held our mortgage. For us there were no downsides, we did not get a new appraisal and there was no fee to open one. Since we owed much less than the home was worth the credit union agreed to use our assessed value from the city as the appraisal value....