Bogleheads.org

Archbish99, thanks for your reply. Let me respond: My original sale was this December and I understand because it was a gain rather than a loss, wash sales don't apply to this transaction. (I just mentioned this to explain why I bought the fund back a few days later). I also understand I received a ...

In late December I sold a Vanguard non-tax-sheltered mutual fund and realized a long-term capital gain to avoid taking a future gain at a potentially higher rate. A few days later I bought back the same fund (more shares than I sold). However, duh, I forgot to check Vanguard's dividend schedule and ...

Back in the late 1990s, Bill Bernstein would occasionally publish "What's Cheap" on his Efficient Frontier website. His lists would include P/E and P/B for several asset classes and regions of the globe. Sometimes the list would be country specific. I would have thought this information wo...

I'd like to thank everyone, again! As an aside (and I hope this doesn't violate forum rules) I used SocialSecurityChoice.com's free tool and then paid the $29.99 for their "premier" tools. I then built a spreadsheet as penguin had originally suggested to fine tune their results, but was un...

rocket, My wife's PIA is 111.8% of mine. We have sufficient assets other than SS to help the surviving spouse, but some of those assets aren't terribly liquid which is why I'm opting to take one full benefit and one spousal benefit. penguin and dickenjb, I crunched the numbers and the breakeven poin...

Penguin, you make be right. We would gain 9 or 10 months of spousal benefits by starting now, but my benefit would be reduced about 5%-6% as long as I draw breath, so it all comes down to how many breaths I plan to draw. I'll crunch the numbers.

That's good, new info. I had thought widower's benefits were based on the deceased’s PIA. Not that it matters – odds are she'll out live me! The windfall elimination does not come into play. Thanks so much!

I think I have my social security strategy figured out, but I am hoping sscritic or other experts will critique it and assure me I'm thinking clearly: I will turn 66 next April (my FRA). My wife will be 67 years and 4 months old at that time (her FRA is also 66). Her PIA is somewhat more than mine. ...

Obviously, I didn't explain myself well. In Modern Portfolio Theory as originated by Markowitz, and expanded by Sharpe, Miller and others, standard deviation of investment returns is used as a proxy for risk. More recent research referred to as PMMT by Sortino and a host of others uses downside risk...

In an eternal attempt to lessen downside risk, every few years I try to update my understanding of Post Modern Portfolio Theory, if for no other reason but to see what the latest academic theories are. Bogleheads bring up PMMT in varied forms usually involving discussions of the diversification bene...

To me, the piece of advice I liked was the reference to human tendency to extrapolate current observations into the future (e.g. European debt crisis) without considering that humans might make decisions to "right the ship". I know I'm guilty of that. If you're there Lbill, I too couldn't ...

Following is a link to a recent article on the Vanguard web site, in case you missed it: https://personal.vanguard.com/us/insights/article/invest-hocknell-042012. I'm not familiar with Mr. Hocknell, a co-manager of three actively-managed Vanguard funds, but I thought his comments made a lot of sense...

GRT2Boutdoors, Thanks. I used to have a second home in the northern tier of PA and I'm very familiar with what's going on with Marcellus shale gas. The glut will likely get worse before it gets better as, say, New York, relaxes their moratorium on fracking and even more drilling is done. For the rea...

Hi, Victoria, I'm fascinated by your post, and would like to throw in my two cents, but with a slightly different slant. I retired very early and my wife and I traveled extensively, often going off for six months to a year at a time. It was the most mind expanding and fulfilling thing I've ever done...

I thought the most interesting part of the interview was that natural gas was a "dazzling" opportunity, but he didn't follow up as to how to play it. He seems to be saying that the relationship between the price of natural gas and oil will revert to their historic relationship, but will ga...

I'm a firm believer that advisors can add great value, even if you're the most informed person on this forum. Although I self manage my portfolio, I have used a low cost DFA advisor to access certain equity classes not easily accessed through other fund families, and to access institutional share cl...

donfairplay: $1 million is actually a low amount to join a TIMO. The Molpus Group, one of the big boys who manages timber for the Ivy League universities, had an entry price of $5 million, last I knew, and that's down from $50 million! I guess times are tough. Valuethinker: Thanks for your reply. I ...

I own timber land as an investment and include it as part of my commodity allocation. My experience is that it is possible to buy timber land for less than $100,000, but you'll have to devote a lot of time chasing down bad leads (poor quality "stems"). Beware that non-diversified timber in...

Valuethinker, I can't argue any of the specific faults you find with other currencies. To quote the WSJ (I think it was) "the US dollar is the least ugly dog in an ugly dog contest". But I do stay up at night worrying about the US' fiscal situation (read Reinhart and Rogoff -- "This T...

Valuethinker: I appreciate your comment, and, no, I don't know very much about, say, Australian politics. But I do believe, and I think the literature backs me up, that overseas investing in both equities and debt is a great diversifier -- and a possible hedge against a declining US dollar. My reaso...

Thank-you, Karamatsu.

Does anyone have experience in buying individual sovereign bonds? My research to date has produced no low-cost on-line broker who traffics in these assets. Here’s a somewhat outdated link that seems to support the difficulty: http://www.kiplinger.com/columns/balance/archive/2009/balance0811.html I s...

I'm writing to add my two cents to this thread. I've been a Flagship customer for 20-some years, and I believe that Vanguard's competence in processing routine brokerage transactions has reached a level that I can only describe as wretched. In frustration, I’ve written Mr. McNabb with a long litany ...

Insurance1288: The broker sent me the recent open offerings, and they are still in the range of 7%. nisiprius: I'm not looking for liquidity; I would hold to maturity. grok87: I think you've hit the nail on the head with respect to legal risk. My opinion of the Investment News artcle is that it does...

Mel, Not on this case. E.g., a recent sale of a State Farm annuity cost $109,082.53, and had a single payout scheduled on Dec 5, 2021 of $240,000. That's 7% Y-T-M. Check this out: http://www.annuityfyi.com/compare-secondary-market-immediate-annuities.html. These are recent deals that closed. Ed

I recently stumbled across the following site: http://www.annuityfyi.com. The site has a link to secondary market annuities that are brokered by Somerset Wealth Strategies, a Raymond James franchise. The product works like this: Someone wins the lottery or wins a court award and accepts a fixed annu...

I tend to agree with your wife. I know what I'm about to say is a form of market timing, but: by traditional standards most observers think equities are richly valued, including REITS. Why not wait for a big correction, whenever it comes, and then reallocate equities/REITS to your ROTH and bonds to ...

Penumbra, once upon a time I was the chief administrator for a group of 150 MDs, so I know whereof you speak! Every day was herding cats. It was fun though; kept me on my toes. You couldn't possibly have given Steve a better endorsement. Once again, thanks to all for your comments. They have been ve...

Thank you very much to all of you for responding. I talked at length with Steven Evanston last evening and was very impressed. It's good to have my impressions reinforced. Like all Bogleheads I'm extremely sensitive to expenses, but for those of you who aren't familiar with Evanston, his fees are as...

Back in August 2008 "ABQMarie" began a thoughtful thread, 21973, regarding her need for a financial planner. I was just reviewing that thread because I've come to the tentative conclusion that a planner might well be worth the price for the following reasons: My spouse is much less interes...

Recently, I spent a lot of time studying William J. Coaker’s article in the September 2007 Journal of Financial Planning. Link: http://www.fpanet.org/journal/articles/2007_Issues/upload/56354_1.pdf It has led me to a few questions and I would like to know what others think: 1). Because mid-cap stock...

Hi, I've just spent several hours enjoying thread #12332, The Great Debate. Much of that time, however, was spent in looking up terms used by very sophisticated members. For instance, the term CCF was used scores of times, yet never defined. I understand that it somehow relates to commodities and co...

What a powerful and fast tool! Thank you very much.

Ed

I woke up in the middle of the night and said, “duh, of course those guys are right about taxes on Roth IRAs”. When I did those spread sheets when Roth IRAs first came out, they were based upon making an Roth IRA transfer, versus doing nothing. Guess I misspoke. Sorry.

Ed

I've never exactly been tortured with self doubt, but you all have given me a lot to reflect upon! Humbling. But allow me to defend myself a little bit, since none of my portfolio decisions were made without some thought. I don't have a tax code crystal ball, and I'm not trying to make a political a...

Hey, Buckeye, don't worry about me -- I AM having a heck of a time!!! I wanted to also respond to Greenberry's thoughtful comments. I ran spreadsheets regarding Roth IRA conversions several years ago until I couldn't see straight, and yes, there is a decided advantage in later years to a conversion,...

Thanks for your responses. As requested, here are my holdings: Vanguard MM 21.63%; Tips, i-bonds and VAIPX 14.19; VFIJX 8.70; TASCX 8.47; OAKIX 5.58; VWEAX 5.36; PLMDX 5.20; VWNAX 4.91; VFSUX 4.90; OAKEX 4.09; FDGFX 3.43; VGPMX 3.03; VGHCX 2.90; VINEX 2.67; VGENX 2.49; TAREX 2.45. The taxable portio...

Hi, My name is Ed and I’m a new member of this forum, although I have been lurking for many months. I’d like to think I’m a fairly sophisticated, long-term investor, but I’m amazed at the depth and breadth of knowledge exhibited here. Capital preservation is my main concern, and my deceptively simpl...