Bogleheads.org

So, at what point do you decide to tax loss harvest? Is it at a certain percentage loss or a certain dollar amount loss?

You could make a scary commercial on a cable news channel about how fiscal and monetary policies are destroying the dollar and how gold is the bestest guaranteed hedge/store or value ever. Then sell it to somebody for 120% of its value. Profit!

I did consider putting all 60K of emergency funds in Barclays 1% online savings account, but instead I'm probably going to do 40K in Barclays 1% online savings account and 20K in Barclays 5-yr CDs at 1.85% (10K per CD, with 3 month penalty if there is an unplanned event requiring me to liquidate a ...

Steelyeyed, Just curious how VMLUX fits into your plan (emergency fund, short term savings, etc)? As far as an emergency fund goes, it's hard to beat the convenience of Ally. Hi ivesjl, I've reached the point where I don't technically have an emergency fund in the sense of having cash set aside spe...

Maybe it's time to move to VMLUX (VG Limited-Term Muni Bond).

You may want to check your state's rules on rollovers and deductions. In my state, I can rollover an ESA to a 529 and deduct the full amount from state income.

In another thread, somebody was looking for an alternative to VSS due to the inability to make recurring purchases. The Investor shares version (VFSVX) was ruled out due to the expenses. As an alternative, I thought that the OP might lobby his/her employer for access to VFSNX. Its ER is one-half tha...

Get your employer to offer Institutional shares (VFSNX). The ER is only 0.25% (half of the investor shares' ER). Some employers cover "loads" as well. Maybe you can get them to cover the 0.50% purchase fee. I've had some success in the past affecting our fund lineup. This fund is on my wis...

I recently noticed that one specific dollar bill dated 2009 in my wallet was shorter than all the rest. The normal specification for a dollar bill is approximately 6.14" x 2.61". After careful measurement of several bills, I found that the bill in question is about 0.10" shorter in w...

As an example VBMFX 29.7B in 2008, 19.5B in 2009, to 11.8B in 2012. I think that you are only looking at the Investor class net assets. Total Bond Market (Investor/Signal/Institutional/ETF) has $116.7B in net assets. I'm not sure where to get past figures, but that might change whether or not it lo...

I am basically a wage earner not doing anything unique or extraordinary to reduce my taxes under the regular system. I do not think I am the person the AMT originally was designed to affect. I think that's true. We get hit hard with AMT because we are blessed with generous salaries and pay pretty s...

Make sure that you want a value tilt. If you do, then just use iShares' EFV. It is not perfect, but it is about as close as you'll get and is easily accessible. If you have access to it, then take a look at DFA's DFIVX. I don't have access to it, so I use EFV.

Why would anyone care about the percentage ? :confused Not all HR departments allow one to contribute fixed dollar amounts. Mine does not. I have to figure the percentage myself. If you are not salaried, this can be bothersome, especially if your pay fluctuates wildly due to bonuses, overtime, etc.

...blatant self-bump since I posted this late at night and it may have been missed.

Hello everyone, I have a traditional medical insurance plan through my employer, use the FSA, and there is no HDHP/HSA option. My employer is now offering a Retiree Medical Savings Account (RMSA). There is a $4k/yr contribution limit. After one turns 40, there is a 50% match (I am younger than that ...

MachuPicchu, I believe Charles Schwab offers these accounts. FWIW, I've been looking into opening a Coverdell for my two-year-old. We already have a Vanguard 529 for her college expenses. We want a Coverdell since we are leaning ever more toward private school and 529s cannot be used for those expe...

Alright, for all of you out there who like to make lump sum contributions to max out IRAs on the first trading day of the year: given today's gains, are you indulging in a little market timing, and waiting to make your contributions/conversions?

Can I open accounts (Mango/Unionplus/BBVA) in my name and in my wife's name and fund them from the same source? This could double the benefit. Yes. Thanks, I'll do that. My tax rate is getting higher, so all of this interest will be taxed at 33% (35% depending on AMT, I think). Perhaps the remainde...

There are a few more efficient ways to earn extra $250/yr without worrying about using your debit card 10 times per month or tying as much principal. Mango prepaid is one. BBVA savings is another. I'm currently working on a 3rd one. tfb, Can I open accounts (Mango/Unionplus/BBVA) in my name and in ...

Thanks for the responses everyone. Nisi, yes I will probably just stick with it for the time being. The rates are comparatively good. It requires a little tracking, but I use the two cards to pay all of my online bills and fulfill the remaining requirements with a few small purchases. I don't use th...

Hi everybody, I have been using rewards checking for about two years now. I even opened an account at a second bank. The interest rates have fallen (as they have everywhere) and I'm just about ready to stop going through the hassle of making all of the small purchases in order to satisfy the require...

I have this through the self-directed brokerage half of my 401(k). I have used it for about a year, only purchasing funds that are on the list in order to meet my AA, which was not possible using the mutual fund options in the regular 401(k). I have been very happy to have this ability and I have no...

Mar, Welcome to the forum. It sounds as though you are enlisted. How long before you leave the military? If you're not getting out until a few months before school starts, then I would live off your savings (if necessary) and contribute heavily to a Roth TSP. It would be great to stash away some mon...

Thanks for posting that dickenjb. I was assuming that it was showing me in AMT territory for the first time due to the lack of a patch. Time to make some changes...

Thanks tfb. Our company is a bit top-heavy, so I would understand if it might cause a problem, since it is mostly the highly compensated employees that would make use of the option.

Hi BHs, I asked this in another thread, but moved it here so as not to threadjack. I made a proposal to my company that it allow after-tax 401k contribution and in-service withdrawals/rollovers. They have not yet decided, but intimated that the greatest obstacle might be the new option's affect on t...

Mine does not, though I am working on getting both options added.

What you are relating is in fact wrong. If what he said was that your TSP and ROTH TSP contributions are limited to a total of $17,000 (for 2012), then he was right.

If the former, then fire him.

I use only one bond fund (VBTSX) in my 401k. My IPS calls for something a little different, but availability limitations led me to prefer getting exactly what I wanted in my equities as opposed to my bonds. I think that that is more important.

I got HR to move from Investor Shares to Signal Shares in our 401k. Our plan doesn't have the assets for Institutional yet -- it's a new company. Anyway, it is nice to have access to at least Admiral Share-like ERs in the 401k. That is better than most.

#Cruncher and Mel, thank you. I'm not planning on doing anything. The fact may give some psychological benefit to anybody that needs to redeem at that time, if this composite rate reappears.

If the compound rate does go to 0%, does that mean that the penalty for redeeming I-Bonds that are >1 and <5 years old will be $0 during that six months?

True total market Bogleheads do not hunt. Only the slice-and-dicers do so.

The Fed keeps making me feel dumb. I have a lot of cash put away for a home purchase in a few years. I keep doing the safe thing and using online savings accounts and rewards checking accounts, losing money to inflation while the people taking risk in bonds keep getting rewarded.

How about access to Institutional shares? Under the new rules, if you have Flagship status, then you are way beyond the Admiral shares minimums, at least for index funds.

Obviously, if a generation came after yours, it is dumber and lazier.

Company match: Is somebody giving you an automatic 50% gain upfront in your taxable account? Put another way, why refuse part of your compensation from your employer?

Here is a lesson that I learned the hard way that applies to both the Dependent Care and Health Care FSAs: if one spouse earns more than the Social Security cap, then have the spouse with the lower income open the FSA. Otherwise, you lose the SS tax benefit . What do you mean? Can you elaborate on ...

I'll throw in some appreciation for the Dependent Care FSA. Although it is a little less flexible than its Health Care cousin, the contribution limit is nice. Like many, our annual child care costs are significantly more than the contribution limit, so guessing how much to put in it is easy: max it ...

Meh. About a year ago, I started slowly transitioning out of VTRIX and into EFV. It is my only non-VG fund/ETF and I get it with no commissions through the TDA brokerage attached to my 401(k). VTRIX is my last actively managed fund and it accounts for about 27% of my foreign large value allocation. ...

I use my credit card to pay all bills and expenses. The checking account has between $0 and my paycheck in it most of the time. If it is just prior to the credit card payment date, I leave the paycheck there. If not, it gets transferred to savings. Now, rewards checking on the other hand...those fou...

Technically correct. But many prep schools will quote admission rates a group known as "Ivy, MIT, and Stanford". For this type of discussion, I think they're considered equivalent. Throw Duke on that list. Throw Northwest Missouri State College on that list (the "Ivy, MIT, Stanford, ...

See Threadjack

How do fellow SV tilters structure their international portfolios? Outside of DFA, I don't think that you can get exactly what you want. I understand why you would want to do so, but if you're not bent on gettting your value exposure from the same fund as your small exposure, then look at a combina...

No recapture of the state tax deduction for non-qualified withdrawals? Any amount you withdraw from the 529 that is reimbursed elsewhere becomes a "non-qualified withdrawal", and you would have to pay state tax on it. Ah, well that was funny. Nowhere in the state income tax forms or instr...

Hello, I would like to run this idea past somebody to see if it is technically/legally correct. I do not want to do anything inappropriate. My state offers an income tax deduction for any contributions to its 529 plan. My employer will reimburse me up to the IRS limit of $5250 per year for classes. ...

It's worth pointing out that unlike healthcare FSAs, dependent care FSAs will not have their limits cut to $2500 in 2013, they should remain at $5k (subject to any other limitations an employer may have). They're not prefunded the way that healthcare FSAs are at the start of a year (or coverage). Y...

Only on the very first statement. When you pay off the previous statement balance before the due date, your purchases get a grace period. If you don't pay off the statement balance by the next due date, you lose the grace period and every purchase will accrue interest. Those in the know understand ...

Is the cash advance balance kept separately from the regular revolving-credit-transactions balance? I ask because I wouldn't want the unpaid cash advance balance to cause the transactions to start accruing interest. I always pay the card off every month to avoid interest. Would leaving the advance o...

I agree with directing the distributions to a MMF, with one caveat. In a taxable account, if you are using any funds that have purchase fees and you are not at risk of hitting the upper bound on your rebalance limits, then re-invest the distribution. That way, you will avoid the purchase fee.