Bogleheads.org

Asset allocation is all about allocating assets to asset classes, most of which can be thought of has having sub-classes that therefore also receive allocations. In the case of the stock/equity asset class, for example, most people consider the sub-classes to be US and International (though some peo...

Wouldn't the plan would be incorporation of a mutual insurance company, subject to regulations, which could work but not likely on a small number of people, or would be a tontine, which I think is not legal everywhere in the US. Never heard of tontines before. Thanks. FWIW: * A Short History of Ton...

In Emile Zola's 1890-91 novel L'Argent [ Money ] there are two low characters -- BUSCH and LA MECHAIN -- whose occupation includes the purchase of the shares of bankrupt companies. They are the vultures of the Bourse and their appearances instill dread and loathing in the high-flying speculator and ...

I just stumbled across a website devoted to: Finance, banking, and investing documentaries, from Wall Street to main street Some of the documentaries are just catalogued and described; but some are actually available for viewing through the site. Among the latter is one that will no doubt be a Bogle...

I'm interested too ...

Socrativestor wrote Upon further reflection, I think the major difference between family strategic planning for "modest" households and "wealthy" households is when financial assets are made available to heirs. In households where are significantly more financial assets than nee...

Lee Schafer, a business columnist for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune had an article about family strategic planning in the February 6, 2013 edition of the paper: See http://www.startribune.com/business for details. The title of the article is "Money talk isn't just for those with millions"....

Larry Swedroe answers the question "How much money do I really need?" in a 5:27 video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX0YyxYf85w While one may disagree about where the threshold is, IMHO I think one almost has to agree that there *is* a threshold for each person and that the appropriate i...

Although the material I found is not primarily geared toward those who are leaving modest inheritances, a great deal of it is relevant IMHO and it would be relatively easy for most Bogleheads to make the adaptations relevant to their particular circumstances. The key thing I think -- and I think th...

^Thanks for the thoughtful feedback. I intentionally did not present "practical guidance" because I did not want to pretend to be an authority. Rather I was hoping to present an overview that might interest a person in doing further reading and research to find the practical guidance prese...

Building on a post of mine from several months back, From "Estate Planning" to "Family Strategic Planning" Plus , I accepted the invitation of the wiki editors to try my hand at a wiki entry on the subject (a first for me). After starting and stopping several times due to holiday...

By using color this way I am trying to remind myself that my stock allocation is really "47%-plus" (and for some purposes might be considered as much as 58% -- or even 75%) and that my bond allocation is really "25%-plus" (and for some purposes might be considered 35% [since TIA...

IMHO there a number of issues embedded in the OP's question, most of which have been touched upon by the previous posts: 1) The whole point of investing in CCFs is to break out of the "2 dimensional" stock-bond paradigm by adding a new asset class to create a "3 dimensional" stoc...

Good article. Thanks for posting.

There is a reason vanguard's fund is not called "international REIT fund," several posters here are doing a diservice but representing it as such. I (partly) agree and this used to be a bigger concern for me in the past than it is now. VNQI is currently 50% REIT and 50% REOC. As such, it ...

1) The Cost of Conspicuous Consumption

2) Stupidity Tax

Not very "catchy", I know ...

two key points GREAT diversifier, as its all local. No good location as not tax efficient and lose FTC (roughly 10% of div yield). So have to decide how much you think diversification is worth. Right now IMO worth a lot relative to US REITS as they are very cheap relatively speaking in valuation me...

Long time Lurker looking for portfolio review... Emergency Funds: Yes, 2 Years Debt: zero Tax Filing Status: Single Tax Rate: 35% Fed 0% No state Tax Age: 41 Asset Allocation: 80/20 International Allocation: 28% ... New Annual Contributions: $150,000 Taxable $5,000 Traditional IRA, then back door t...

The next industrial revolution is already under way. Curiously, it's also incompatible with capitalism, so it's going to be a scary ride. I'm talking about automation. You're no longer necessary. Except the engineers, scientists and managers. We're the elite. And we've got to feed everybody else. A...

In my continuing research, I came across this page of JefNat publications (some of which can only be accessed by advisers): http://www.jeffnat.com//resources/publications.cfm Of particular interest to the risk/safety issue: "Monument Advisor: A Pure Separate Account Product" Monument Advis...

Transitioning to JefNat would cut my fees by a few hundred dollars -- which is attractive but not compelling to me, especially given the (perhaps only "apparent") risk of switching to a lesser-known company. Why is this a risk given DDB's point above about company quality not mattering fo...

Jefferson has the entire lineup of DFA VA funds: LV, SV, ILV, IS, STFI, and Global Bond. If you have a few hundred thousand dollars in a VA, then a rollover could bring you down to single-digit basis points for fees. You'd certainly want to minimize rebalancing at $50 per trade. This merits further...

Every structure a family elects to create must create revenue by directly enhancing the family's system of growing its human and intellectual capital. A family should never create a structure to reduce taxes, which are, after all, a cost of doing business, unless it perceives that the lifetime of t...

Another resource recently found (geared towards professionals but useful in general as a brief introduction to a framework about thinking about an "advisor" should ideally be): "A Reflection on the Nature and Practice of the Role of the Personne de Confiance in a System of Family Gove...

Excellent points all. But how much money are we talking about before we begin to discuss wealth and Family Strategic Planning? Where's the break point? The Break Point? How about $0.00? Seriously. For in this line of thinking everything that began as thinking about "Family Wealth" ends up...

In order to not hijack this thread and also to afford myself an opportunity to go off on my own tangent I have begun a related thread that some may find of interest:

From "Estate Planning" to "Family Strategic Planning" Plus

In another thread sscritic posed the question "Do Your Adult Children Understand Inheritance?" and began with his own answer about his own family situation. Along with others, I chimed in with a post that began: I, too, am just beginning to grapple with this -- but at an even earlier point...

I, too, am just beginning to grapple with this -- but at an even earlier point in the process: involving heirs in the estate planning process itself. Rather than present them with a fait accompli that they must then be educated about, the idea is to educate them as part of soliciting their input in ...

Hi, I'd like to offer a different approach, FWIW. If I understand the situation correctly the OP will have (entirely or almost entirely) paid off his student loans by April 2014. This means he will have free cash to make a 2013 HSA contribution in April 2014 (since HSA contributions can be made anyt...

One of the supporting documents you might exhibit is a recent "Periodic Table" of investing returns, showing what are traditionally considered legitimate / genuine "asset classes" (thus, including REITs but not health care, e.g.). There are a couple of different ones to choose fr...

Rick Ferri wrote: If you can find a reference, please post it. I've been aound for a long time and have never read an article or study suggesting that young people have anything other than a high equity allocation. Great article. As I read the article, especially the graph on the "flight path&...

Also, you may find it useful to consider savings bonds to stash a chunk of your inheritance. You can buy $10,000 each of EE and I bonds per calendar year, so if you buy in December 2012 and January 2013 you can salt away $40,000 -- as long as don't need the funds for 12 months. The interest rates ar...

Great. Thanks again to everyone for their input.

Thanks John and Janet. Very helpful. One further question to you and others. What about level of joint coverage? If each had $2M separately is $2M sufficient jointly? $4M needed? (And, of course, I can always split the difference at $3M). I guess the question really is whether we can create more dam...

In Clash of the Cultures , at "location" 3912--whatever happened to Amazon's promise of "real page numbers" for Kindle books?--it's in Chapter 6, part 1, in the section on "Vanguard Index Fund Family Milestones 1976 to 1996"--John C. Bogle gives an interesting rational...

Are there any differences (other than a possible difference in total premiums) between having two insureds (e.g. spouses) covered by a single personal liability umbrella policy vs. each insured having his/her own policy? For example, are there weird situations in which one would be better off having...

Thanks for the quick response. Grateful for any other insights and/or suggestions others may have.

Quick questions that I have not quite been able to answer. My understanding/research indicates that one can take an early distribution of qualified retirement plan (IRA, Roth, etc.) up to the amount of deductible medical expenses without incurring the 10% early distribution penalty. However it appea...

One year ninja bump... ;) It looks like the Yahoo group is pretty much dead. Any reason why? I'm surprised given the fact that a Diehards gathering was held in Chicago a few years ago. Anybody up for starting a Meetup group? I can't explain it, but I'd certainly be interested in an attempt at reviv...

Ah, yes ... the old debate: Portfolio Contemplativa vs Portfolio Activa ... For better or worse, we live in an era and a country (for those of us in the US) in which "Contemplativa" in general "Don't get no respect" -- and certainly not in "Business" and "Finance&q...

INTJ

It seems clear to me that anyone who was investing before 2008 and finds themselves in a panic today over the market's behavior and their equity allocation learned nothing and perhaps should be looking for someone to mange their money for them. 1+ This is barely a correction (so far). If you are ap...

I recently ran into this issue when upgrading to Windows 7 and Office 2010. As far as I can tell the MSN Excel Add-in has been removed from online. Turns out I had saved a downloaded copy from before so I was able to install it. The add-in worked for a spreadsheet in "compatibility mode" (...

So after you guys get your paper Ibonds, where do you store them? To cash them out, you just take them back to the same bank, and they will give you the money plus the applicable interest? I believe that paper bonds can be transferred into electronic ones at TD. So if you wanted you could get all $...

On a tangentially related point -- the "MSN Stock Quote Add-in for Excel" that I and many others have long-used to import prices into spreadsheets has been discontinued and is no longer available from MS. The old/existing add-in continues to function but you can't get a new download from M...

... I suspect the cartoonist intends it as an indictment of the "experts" rather than as a statement of the "obvious" ...

Depends on what the meaning of "is" is... :lol: There are a number of Bogleheads in Chicago and we did meet for a few times several years ago when the local chapters were getting set up. But somehow we were never able to sustain momentum. Personally I'd be thrilled to meet (with) you when ...

How about contributing to a Traditional IRA for the spring amount of earned income? Probably the most straightforward way of doing it. (Of course that would reduce the amount of Roth contributions she could make -- assuming she was doing that.)

I'm in a gadfly mood today. With such concepts as tactical asset allocation and 'Plan B' chipping away at 'stay the course', what is the definition of a Boglehead these days ? It seems there are more slice n' dicers than total market folks here, which can also be confusing to some. Maybe a Boglehea...

waitforit wrote:Its a lonely world out there once you have stopped participating in rampant consumerism and get rick quick schemes.

To go beyond, you have to leave a lot behind.