Bogleheads.org

Today the distribution channels for goods are simply incredible. A couple of on-line sites I use for medical supplies deliver the very next day. I have ordered as late as 3:00PM in the afternoon, and had UPS ringing the doorbell at 10:00AM the next morning. When you consider the price of gas, an ord...

Wife and I have had a pretty blessed life thus far. Our children are grown, all college educated. What worked for us was purchasing prepaid tuition plans. Now I've turned my attention to the grandchildren. I know that retirement could be more difficult for my children, given the fact that pensions a...

I was going to go on a rant about a previous rant, but that's not useful. I'll say this though, there's a reason that any person on the street can't sign off on the structural integrity of a building. It's the same reason they can't determine a medical emergency. In college, I had 2 separate friend...

Most of my email comes to my email account set up in my domain. My domain is lastnameusa.com, email is firstname@lastnameusa.com.

I haven't had any problems with it, it gets no more or no less spam than my other email accounts.

Sam I Am

Every time this thread gets updated with a new post, I sign into my account using the OTP, as I periodically clean out cookies. I also print off the current inventory, though I track both my paper bonds and electronic bonds in the Savings Bond Wizard. So far, so good. Everything is accounted for at ...

:thumbsup :thumbsup for Hsu Research speakers! I have them, and not only are they great to listen to, they are also beautiful. For a period of time you could get them in maple cabinets. I don't think you can any longer, though. I have my Hsu Research speakers connected to my Onkyo 7.1 A/V receiver, ...

Here ya go!

http://www.callan.com/research/download/?file=periodic%2ffree%2f655.pdf

AND

http://www.callan.com/research/periodic/


Sam I Am

Speaking of AAA, I had an occasion where my van wouldn't crank a couple of months ago. I called AAA, they came out, diagnosed the problem as a dead cell, and replaced the battery at a competitive price. The total time from the initial call until the job was complete was about an hour. Granted, I li...

Just finished Sharp Edges by Jayne Ann Krentz, and Breathless by Dean Koontz, a couple of good books I found in the "K" stacks of the library. I will definitely read more Krentz, and Koontz never disappoints. I just started Pete Townshend's memoir, Who I Am . I have always liked The Who , ...

I would think $50 would be nice for a graduation gift.

Sam I Am

If you need 11K a year and get 44K ss you have a free roll. The CFP will do a nice job setting up a 3 fund portfolio for you. But how in the heck can a person get 44K a year in social security? I think the max is about 2500 per month. I read it a little different. Ah, looks like she has put in some...

Good point made in the interview: If you are going to "go away" in May, you should have something better to "go to."

At the current low interest rates, even though the stock returns might be lower, they (stocks) will still beat alternatives.

Sam I Am

Yep, a knowledgeable poster, and a fair-handed moderator. Great combo!

Sam I Am

Interesting article. I never realized how high the labor participation rate was for older workers over the last few decades, even earlier. I think a typical retirement for many of our grandparents was an early death of grandpa, and grandma living with a son or daughter. Grandma probably had a small ...

I received the offer last week. Downloaded it as a PDF file. I'll put it on my Samsung tablet to read when I'm in my doctor's office or stuck waiting somewhere.

Can't beat the price, for sure.

Sam I Am

I have a Roku box for my streaming.

And, Roku offers many more channels in addition to Netflix. There are many free movie channels, and other channels for a variety of offerings.

Sam I Am

Tolerance can be a beautiful thing. I doubt seriously any of us has suffered anything more than a bruised ego on this forum. If the subject offends, then quickly look away, lest you be more offended. We are a diverse group, and all subjects cannot possibly appeal to everyone. Where all think alike, ...

Getting your travel in early sounds like a good idea to me. Life can change in a heartbeat, so far as your health, and therefore your ability to do extensive travel.

If your lifestyle gets crimped later on, at least you will be able to load your pictures and relive your travel experiences.

Sam I Am

Sam I Am, You're perspective is legitimate, of course. The problem is that the website is symptomatic of a larger arrogance that I see too often with Vanguard -- that any problem or shortcoming is written off as "service to low fees." That's a risky proposition, no matter how big Vanguard...

Vanguard's efforts in any of their activities are justifiable so long as the business model works. Given their ability to gobble up deposits, I would have to believe that more clients are interested in low expenses even at the expense of perhaps an average website, fewer account tools, and a sparse ...

This might be useful:

https://www.tsp.gov/PDF/formspubs/tsp-776.pdf

Sam I Am

15/15. Yippee!

But, I would have been ashamed to have scored anything less than 100%, since I was a finance major.

Sam I Am

All three of our daughters left home to go to college, even though two went to the state university in our city. The deal I gave all was that tuition, fees, books, car insurance, health insurance would be paid by us. Housing was their responsibility. They were welcome to live at home, but wanted to ...

I'd like to see examples of real experiences, as well. It seems at first glance to be something that should be approached with a great deal of caution. I can see how in certain circumstances it might be a real lifeline to seniors having no other or few other good options. Hopefully someone with real...

My bill paying strategy is pretty simple: 1. Pay any bill possible (no fee, of course) with credit card. Trusted vendors automatically paid via credit card on file with them. My pest control company has been taking care of my homes since 1980, I think I can trust them. Other longterm vendors are giv...

https://personal.vanguard.com/us/insights/article/proxy-commentary-042013?SYND=RSS&Channel=AN I especially liked this statement: "While our approach of quiet diplomacy focused on results, as opposed to noisy activism to gain attention, has led some to conclude that our voice is silent on m...

I prefer to allow a pull from my CU account by the various credit card companies. That way any problems are theirs. Three of my cards are paid in full each billing cycle, two sometimes have special "no interest" payment offers that I might manually administer each month. However even those...

A message via twitter said Obama had been injured in WH explosion. Not true, of course.

Sam I Am

I wear black shorts probably 360 days of the year. None of my shorts have any bleach spots.

We use All- fragrance free, as some laundry soaps cause me massive itching.

While my black shorts will fade a little over time, it is always all over the garment, never in spots.

Sam I Am

For very special occasions, we enjoy a great steak at Bern's Steakhouse. Excellent food, impeccable service. We have never had anything but a great experience dining there. Two steak dinners and a fair bottle of wine will blow thru a hundred dollars. Add in a custom dessert, you would be looking ne...

For very special occasions, we enjoy a great steak at Bern's Steakhouse. Excellent food, impeccable service. We have never had anything but a great experience dining there. Two steak dinners and a fair bottle of wine will blow thru a hundred dollars. Add in a custom dessert, you would be looking nea...

chaz wrote:Engine braking is illegal in some jurisdictions - it must be unsafe, otherwise, why?

I think it might be primarily aimed at large trucks, as they produce a lot of noise when braking in that manner.

Google Jake brakes.

Sam I Am

Sometimes an ant and a grasshopper can balance each other.

Sam I Am

I have bought tires at Sam's and Costco, and had no problems. However, when I had a tire pick up a piece of metal and end up being ruined, I found the Ford dealership came within a few dollars for a replacement. That surprised me, but I suppose you either give the customer a decent deal or you don't...

I do check it daily with one click, but it does not tempt me to trade more. Same here. I'm not worried about what is going on in the markets, they go up and they go down. I'm not sure I could rest easy not knowing that nothing has happened to my various accounts. I check each credit card and our Va...

I believe my married daughters use the proportional method to decide how to divide the bills fairly. Both of them earn more than their husbands, but I don't think they have any issues. I expect the husbands are simply seeing their pre-marriage assessments of their future wife's earning abilities com...

Aid depends on if the university wants you.

My oldest daughter was asked to stay on at her university with her MBA program tuition paid because the university orchestra didn't have a good viola player lined up to replace her.

Obviously she accepted their offer.


Sam I Am

I have not changed our AA, but I did exchange 25% of our Intermediate Term Treasury Bond fund to Short Term Treasury Bond fund. Given the fact that our AA is 50% equity and 50% bond, I wanted a shorter duration for some of our bonds. Our other bond holdings include Vanguard Hi-Yield Bond fund, and a...

I wondered the same thing earlier today. :wink: I don't see how it is possible for tax-advantaged accounts to be that large today. Maybe for person just starting out at age 21 and contributing the max every year for the next 40 years.... Remember, a person could roll-over their 401k plan AND their ...

Here is what I would do: 1. Pay the money to get your car fixed. $650 for even 3-4 months could be a great deal. If it craps out sooner, $650 isn't that much to start with. 2. Rent a car for your trip, even if you get a new(er) car. Sure, 8,000 miles isn't anything on a new car, but it does represen...

The few times I have had to call Vanguard, I received good service. But, honestly, I prefer to interact with Vanguard, indeed most companies, via email. It is easier to use email to convey my question/issue, and IMHO an email, properly composed, has less risk of the info resulting in a misunderstand...

I would consolidate to one location simply to reduce my paperwork. Personally I've been happy at Vanguard, works fine for us. Bear in mind that for Vanguard's Flagship Service only Vanguard ETFs count toward the minimum account holdings. So SPY and QQQ wouldn't count toward the $1mil threshold. Sam ...

I think wife and I could do it, but like others have said, it isn't something I'd want to do. Now my father, had he a wife when he was drawing SS (mom had passed), no doubt would have lived well and perhaps even saved some on TWO SS streams. :shock: He was very frugal, but also very generous. Sam I Am

Well, I didn't like it (the info), but it doesn't mean Rick is wrong! Sure wish he was, though.

I think he nailed an awful lot right on the head.

Sam I Am

Anyone here wear a tungsten ring? Seems they would be very, very durable. They are inexpensive, and can by dressed up a bit, if you desire. I am considering buying a tungsten set for wife and I to use as "exit" rings. No way do I want our current set to be buried with us. Of course the fru...

Can you expect a pension from whatever sport you played?

That would really help your situation.

Do you plan to work at all?

Sam I Am

Nope, already received any inheritance coming my way. I pretty much knew Dad's finances, but today a lingering death can drain the wealth away pretty quickly. But, that is OK, it was his money. Dad had a nursing home policy we could have used when his health declined, but my brother and sister and I...

Did you complete your taxes via TurboTax?

The software should have walked you thru your return..... did it throw up any red flags/questions concerning your return?

Was there something about your return that you don't feel comfortable, or confident TurboTax handled correctly?

Sam I Am

Doesn't this usually happen? Market drops, people sell and swear off stocks. Market recovers, starts hitting highs, suddenly people love stocks again. And they buy at higher prices..... :oops: It is sad, on many levels. Saddest at the personal level, seeing folks jumping in after missing so much of ...

I haven't kept those type records for years, and I don't receive paper copies any longer, anyway. You might be able to stop the paper copies coming to you, I should think most insurance companies offer electronic EOBs or summaries on line of some sort. I have a Humana Medicare PPO, and I can go onli...