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Lowest price I've found is big boxes -- namely, Home Depot. Like SSSS says, CREE is on sale at HD right now. I've had trouble finding soft white/warm white. Lots of bright and cool on the market, but they look overly harsh indoors. The CREE on sale is 9.97 for a dimmable 6w (40w equivalent) warm whi...

The bottom end dishwashers (even the ones rated highly by Consumer Reports) are extremely poorly made nowadays. They have all the programmable gizmos and get EnergyStar rating, but the dishes come out dirty. I'd recommend you pay up for a higher end dishwasher. We went from a plain old Kenmore crapo...

hazlitt777 wrote:I've purchased from California Numismatic Investments here: http://www.golddealer.com/

+1
I have not purchased from California Numismatic, but I have sold to them through the mail. They are very honest and give a seller an excellent market-based price.

You can do your own homework at morningstar.com. For example, here's a link to the morningstar report on Schwab's S&P500 Index fund, which, apparently, you have access to:

http://quotes.morningstar.com/fund/swppx/f?t=SWPPX

Expense ratio is .09%

Seems to me that Vanguard hasn't announced that they've changed their expenses, just that the expense ratios have changed -- probably due to a bigger denominator (total fund assets). Remember the ER is a ratio of expenses to assets.

I used to invest in these turkeys. The problem I ran into was the issuance of warrants. The CEFs periodically issue new shares of stock for sale. Existing shareholders get first dibs, but if they pass on the offer it turns into a dilution of their shares. So you basically have to pony up more money ...

You might consider just buying the S&P index fund inside the 401k and keep your AA balanced with a Roth or taxable. This is an excellent suggestion. Forget about the small cap and other stuff if it doesn't meet your standards. SP500 and a fixed income option will give you a perfectly acceptable...

Personally - I would pay out of pocket to consult a lawyer to understand your exact, personal legal risk in doing your fiduciary duty on behalf of the pensioners for whom you are managing assets. If I had a bunch of other people on the board that wanted to look at alternate asset classes, active ma...

Recognize that board members have a fiduciary duty to protect the pensioners and the assets. Actually, their duty is to act SOLELY in the interests of the plan participants and beneficiaries. This is by Federal Law and is even stronger than you suggest. The OP as an informed Boglehead must act to t...

Go to energystar.gov and do some research on your climate zone and residential insulation standards. You may need more than R-30. A few years ago in my prior house I added r-30 fiberglass batts. Even though batts are not the best thing, the increased comfort was noticeable. Especially in summer AC s...

Yes, Morningstar xray is for bonds, stocks, and mutual funds.

I usually total up my bank/CDs/ibonds and other cash equivalents and input them all as Vanguard Prime MMF.

Gold or silver coins you could input as a gold ETF, but I don't personally include coin collection as part of Asset Allocation.

First every investment in equities is a form of speculating, if it wasn't then we would all be millionaires wouldn't we? Most of us on Bogleheads don't see it this way. For what it's worth, many posters on this forum are millionaires and didn't get there by speculating in individual stocks. We all ...

The riverfront in Savannah has a nice cobblestone walk with lots of restaurants and gift shops. In the middle of it is a great Irish Pub with live music, decent food and a lively crowd. Highly recommended. But expect it to be packed on St. Patty's.

The VPAs offered through Vanguard give you the option of using Wellington as the backing mutual fund. Coincidentally I already have a substantial investment in Wellington. Does this mean that my mix of a pension (a fixed payout SPIA) and Wellington give me essentially the same thing as a VPA backed...

I used stable value throughout my career and still have some 401k money in it. Stable value funds are typically based on institutional insurance contracts. However, they can be contracts with either a single company, or with a portfolio of insurance contracts from various insurers. In the latter cas...

Try using google or your favorite search engine. I did and found the following at http://www.privacyrights.org/data-breach "An administrative error resulted in documents with sensitive information from Unisys members being emailed to an incorrect party associated with Unisys. The mistake occurr...

I suspect that something has been lost in translation. 401k record keeping costs are in addition to normal mutual fund management fees (the fees that everybody pays whether they are in a 401k plan, IRA or after tax investing). 401k fees cover all the costs of tracking your pre-tax contributions, wit...

Just stay out of debt. Investing now would be nice, but I'd suggest you invest in some experiences at this point in your life. Summer is on its way and Paris is really, REALLY nice in summertime. Hang out on Ile de la Cité on the walkways by the Seine at dusk with a bottle of wine and see what happe...

I had to do this last year. It is not hard to file an amended return especially if you already have all the information in Turbo Tax or some other program. I would rather deal with it on my timeline rather than getting a letter in the mail and having to deal with it on the IRS's timeline. Right, I ...

I think temerature extremes wreak havoc on the body and shorten the lifespan. Here in Florida, I have seen individuals regularly live into their 80's and 90's who, I believe, would have died 10-20 years earlier had they stayed up north. With Hawaii number one and Minnesota number 2 in longevity, I ...

gvsucavie03 wrote:

reggiesimpson wrote:Lower the thermostat.

Where's the blankets??:happy

and your honey...?

I agree that health and a healthy lifestyle are number one. Number two? Just look for bubbles that have popped recently. Residential real estate? Beanie babies? However, this is not entirely reliable. Tulip bulbs are still overpriced in my opinion, and the peak of that bubble was in 1637 (according ...

There are higher end coin dealers, but a place to start might be JJ Teaparty on Bromfield Street in downtown Boston. They've been in business in the same location forever. I was a buy and sell customer of theirs for 25+ years and they never ripped me off.

My net worth includes my house. I didn't have one, and I had a certain net worth. I then sold some bonds and bought my house. My net worth did not go down. Why do you think your home equity is not part of your net worth? I know mine is. When I die, my children will be able to spend what they get fr...

A few comments: 1. Generally speaking, balanced funds are tax-unfriendly and therefore belong in tax sheltered accounts like IRA. In that light, your new taxable account in Vanguard Balanced is probably a (minor) misstep. Balanced Index has its equity portion in Total Stock. Why not use that? It's a...

But like the general public, a lot of folks are unaware of the opportunity and some folks just don't realize that after-tax contributions are different from Roth 401k contributions. First time I'm hearing this. Care to explain what's the difference between after-tax contributions to 401k from Roth ...

This wireless world is "of no more service to man than as an escape from himself and his true aims, and a means of surrounding himself with an ever closer mesh of distractions and useless activities." (Hermann Hesse in Steppenwolf)

All of the above.

I'd also add spiritual, when I thought I couldn't care less.

Sure, I do Organic Composting. All composting is organic. I throw organic plant remains into a bin and it rots until there is compost. Composting should not be rocket science... My sentiments exactly. All that other stuff is just somebody trying to sell you a product you don't need. Just toss some ...

Generally with a 403b you can leave the money where it is. So this would affect new contributions only.

There are worse funds than Vanguard 500 Signal.

As for reading material, I don't know what to say. Save your money for a down payment and start looking at neighborhoods you might be interested in living in the future. There's no book out there that will tell you to buy in XYZ neighborhood. There are some that go through the mechanics of home purc...

Our experience buying/selling in November was that houses that look good, smell good, and pass with home inspectors are selling quickly -- we sold ours in 5 days and the one we bought had been on the market for 5 days. Great neighborhoods are important too. People are willing to pay for quality. How...

My wife and I recently made the move you are contemplating. We insisted on selling first, then buying. As it turned out we found the house we wanted a few days after we received a quality offer on the home we were selling. Our buyers were financing, but had excellent credit and were approved for far...

One key point that needs to be made is that you don't need to beat the market to meet your financial goals. This is true even if it is possible to find an actively managed mutual fund that will eke out an edge over the market index. You can meet your goals just by owning the market through an index ...

I think Bershire Hathaway has debt. The companies they own do for sure. Correct. Any of their insurance subsidiaries would hold huge amounts of their general accounts in fixed income. If asked directly about this question, I suspect Buffett would refer you to Benjamin Graham's Intelligent Investor ...

In spite of all the modern advice to the contrary, you might want to take it easy on the car in the first 1000 miles. And then get the oil and oil filter changed. One thing I've noticed in life is that people who give their cars unnecessary care and maintenance always seem to have cars that look bet...

Try looking at a few facts. http://www.morningstar.com should provide you with the answer. VHDYX (Vanguard High Dividend Yield Stock Index Fund) has PE ratio of around 13.6. VTSAX (Total Stock Index) is around 14.5 This and other measures of valuation might argue for moderate relative over-valuation...

While Tempurpedic can be comfortable when initially laying on it, the foam does not dissipate heat. I absolutely detest the product as it causes people's skin temperatures to rise too much and causes excessive sweating. I recommend Tempurpedic only for those individuals who are always cold. Nonsense.

We own both a Tempur-pedic and a house brand generic memory foam mattress from a big New England area furniture store (Jordan's). Both are very comfortable. However, the genuine Tempur-pedic is worth the extra money in my opinion for the following reasons: 1) When my wife rolls over or gets up, I re...

This is not the first time there's been a debate in Congress about spending and taxation.

I don't see that the fiscal cliff has had any big impact on precious metals prices so far -- at least no gigantic up and down days. Hey, it's not like y2k when we were all supposed to turn into cannibals...

No loss if you don't sell. A paper loss isn't a money loss. I guess it's all in how one looks at it. To me, it's a loss regardless. You are not looking at it correctly. When you buy the SP500 index fund you are buying shares of 500 corporations. You own those businesses. The market price has nothin...

He makes some compelling arguments for the downfall of the U.S. dollar. I am giving thought to two of his main points - - investing our savings outside of U.S currency, Switzerland comes to mind first but he recommends others as well. - moving my allocation out of U.S. bonds and stocks and into glo...

The prime advantage of using a balanced fund is that it gives you a complete investment program in one fund. You lose that advantage when you buy two balanced funds. Holding more than one balanced fund leads to some complications with respect to maintaining asset allocations and rebalancing. Simplic...

After 4 years of heavy use, we are extremely happy with our Cutco knives.

- not cheap
- made in USA
- extremely high quality

Probably best to just ignore them. Agree to disagree. I managed to both pay off the mortgage and fund the plan, but 401k was always the top priority. Reasons: 1. Math might show, as your co-workers believe, that paying the mortgage is the better deal, but it's a fixed income investment. I liked to h...

And another thing: variable annuity products like this one are usually designed for people who are saving for a future retirement and have excess wealth beyond 401k and IRA limits that they want to shelter from taxes. If you are already retired, you need it like a hole in the head.

Mutual of America is the 10th largest mutual life insurance company in the US. It's located in New York City. Their ratings for financial strength are similar to other large insurers like MetLife, etc. Generally speaking Variable Annuity products are complex and expensive. Most Bogleheads avoid them...

tnx for the info and comments.... Here's the last coin toss - (pun) I've held the ETF - GLD - for awhile as a proxy for Gold - also had the gold/copper mining stock FCX for awhile. SO - why would I go for physical assets like the American Eagle 1oz coins vs just continuing to use my stocks - like G...

She can look into organizations, their efficiency, and financial strength by checking

charitynavigator.org

Your plan is fine. My mother faced a similar situation many years ago and we agreed to place her funds in Vanguard's Life Strategy Income Fund, which is another balanced fund with allocation somewhere around 30/70 stock/bond. She is now 90 and enjoys the quarterly dividends. Through the 2008-2009 de...