Bogleheads.org

Cherokee8215 wrote:[snip...]And of course, they pay no property taxes on the campus.

They are not alone in not paying property taxes. It could be argued that they provide as much public good as other non-payers. In any case, I think the good and bad uses of tax policy are not forum acceptable topics.

This may be sacrilege in this thread, but I would guess that many folks here are insensitive to the price of a college education. Lots of folks here describe how they are maxing out retirement accounts or starting 529 plans before their child is even conceived or how they are helping their grandchi...

My practice was to ignore anything that was restricted or unvested. Ditto for my wife's restricted stock. And, since we sell the instant she's allowed to (in the interests of diversification), if anything I'd count it as cash since that's the way it will be coming to us. Mostly though, we factor it...

I think it would be unwise. A substantial portion of "charitable" giving and volunteering are associated with religious and political organizations, which should make them inappropriate for discussion here. Not only that, but to discuss the effectiveness of charities is to say than some a...

bottlecap wrote:Just imagine how you might respond if I suggested your favorite charity was essentially worthless?
JT

... and that's precisely what I'd be waiting in the bushes to do

I'm still not convinced I'd be harassed by friends and family. They are just not that type of people - we have a percentage of people in the family and friends with lots of money and no-one harasses them, or even asks them for a dime. Dump the landline phone - we need to do that anyway. I'd be conc...

I think it would be unwise. A substantial portion of "charitable" giving and volunteering are associated with religious and political organizations, which should make them inappropriate for discussion here. To discuss non-religious and non-political philanthropy for the benefit of the worl...

I also wonder about bonds. Some say one should have bonds match one's age. But lately it seems that people are worried about them. Then again... if you don't have bonds and the stocks crash, you lose value. What is the answer? People are always worrying about one thing or another. There were people...

What do people think about marriage proposals made in extremely public settings or in extremely public ways (on Jumbotrons, with skywriters, on billboards, etc?) In a less extreme way, we just had this recently in our family: My son, a high school junior, is dating a lovely girl. It was clear that ...

I've always found it more useful (and positive) to focus on my own weaknesses rather than revel in someone else's flaws. I have no need or desire to feel superior. "For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." Lev ...

I've always found it more useful (and positive) to focus on my own weaknesses rather than revel in someone else's flaws. I have no need or desire to feel superior. "For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." Lev ...

Depends on the odds of being the SOLE winner. To increase the odds of being a sole winner choose a combination of larger numbers. Many people choose numbers associated with dates which only go up to 31 so by choosing larger numbers you decrease the odds of sharing in the loot. Not my observation, h...

You know the standard advice if you do win - Tell no one!!! Obtain legal counsel, set up a trust, have the trust claim the ticket. Purchase super high limits on personal umbrella. Be sure to share your largesse with charities that have low overhead including the John C. Bogle Financial Literacy Pro...

I know full well that the lottery is a tax on innumeracy. OTOH, I could pay $20+ dollars for a movie ticket, popcorn, and bottle of water to see a film with considerably less imagination than what I can conjure up for my post-win life. And yes, as a previous poster mentioned, my press conference wou...

I found that online resources report federal tax on lottery winnings is 25%. Where did you find that? Here's what I found: The prize, no matter how the winners take it, is considered income. So the highest federal tax rate of 35% will apply. http://money.cnn.com/2012/11/30/pf/taxes/powerball-lotter...

Happy or unhappy, law school is IMHO not a good choice for OP.

That's a fascinating chart, YttriumNitrate.
In addition to the income, debt, and time issues, I know very few happy lawyers (tax or other). My sister (who gave up being a lawyer for woodworking!) always told me that I would have loved law school but hated the actual work of most lawyers.

Careers (brainstorming): maybe doctor (37 too old? I took prereqs as electives), nurse (do they make $), paralegal, generic manager (how's the job market), lawyer (a gamble?), journalist (do they make $), investor (whatever that is and I didn't take prereqs), tax lawyer (always employed?), give pri...

Sam I Am wrote:Wife and I have had a pretty blessed life thus far.
[snip...]
So, we will attempt to pay it forward as much as we can.

How refreshing and commendable to see your response to good fortune is to share it with others.

Good on 'ya.

Aptenodytes wrote:

bucksfan2 wrote:If someone said to you, you can beat the market by over 1% you would take it, wouldn't you?

Of course not. Such a claim would have no credibility.

AFAIK, it also did not account for transaction costs.

deleted

vesalius wrote:

momar wrote:Might as well use Blue Cash Preferred and buy gift cards at the grocery store. 6%.

People doing this is likely why the Amex blue prefered added a $6000 max on the 6% grocery rebate.

Yes, that and the effect my two teenagers had on the grocery bill.

You basically got screwed by the system at a time when you were young and very vulnerable. Nope. The OP did not take out a $200,000 loan when he was 18 and the most expensive college cost $20,000/year and a homeless orphan could get financial aid. I have stayed off this thread because I have no adv...

No problem with the name, my wife and I have done it for decades. However, I much prefer having separate personal and professional email addresses. My wife does not keep them separate. She was telling me just yesterday that her admin was looking for an email from 2002 in my wife's account and found ...

Given a college cost of circa $250,000 and average post college starting salaries of circa $41,000, college is a poor investment in most cases. You shouldn't take the high end of college cost (250k) and then the average starting salary. Among other benefits of college, graduate unemployment is much...

Not to pile on, but it's up .51% today and futures indicate (at this point) another up day tomorrow. I never had any luck with using prior day futures as an indicator. The hour before opening they weren't too bad for predicting what would happen at the open, but otherwise I couldn't glean much valu...

You have an 80% allocation to stocks, remember that a 50% crash is a likely occurrence so you should be mentally ready to handle a 40% drop in your total portfolio value. A more conventional risk amount would be 54% in stocks. Since you have a state pension available, you have more capability to ta...

I think it's a fine allocation. Sometimes on this site, people discuss how many fund-angels can dance on the head of a pin. You do not want to have perfect be the enemy of good. The trick is having a plan, sticking to it, not acting from fear or greed, keeping investment costs low, and living below ...

22twain wrote:

frankjuka wrote:At the worst I sold high bought high.

Looks like you bought a little bit higher. The S&P was up 1.0% today.

Not to pile on, but it's up .51% today and futures indicate (at this point) another up day tomorrow.

It could be down 25% any day now, but I'm not smart enough to worry about it.

tc101 wrote:I was able to cancel the preferred card. It had a $75 fee even the first year, but you have right to cancel withing 24 hours of application. I'll study this a little more.

There have been threads about this before. I'd find one, but I hate searching on an iPad.

Dozer,
If you are talking about a taxable account, rebalancing will have annual tax consequences. A Target Fund will be more tax-efficient.

I've gone thru about 20 projectors since 2002, so I do know a little bit about the technology. Once you're hooked, you never go back. It's CRT-like w/o the maintenance or the bulk. Maybe the hook didn't take, but I went back. A large (100"+) projection screen is nice, but I find our large (72&...

Stan Dup,

That was a quick delete; it got deleted even before I could post my snarky reply

I am quite sure it is not that difficult. But please realize that many, many people probably never rebalance, either through ignorance or fear, or thinking it is more bother than it is worth. But, it is important to do. By SHOWING people that it is easy you will likely have a greater amount of peop...

What a pleasant way to start the day: Blues and 4nursebee working hard at serving the public. I know that you don't get enough thanks, so a big Thank You from me for your service. I've had a number of successes in developing software, but to be honest, none of them did much other than make money for...

Might as well use Blue Cash Preferred and buy gift cards at the grocery store. 6%. Well one positive thing came out of this thread, which is that I learned about the Blue Cash Preferred AmEx card. I didn't know you could get 3% cash back on gas. I just upgraded my old 1% AmEx. I hope I didn't overl...

Made my day 4nursebee.

Twins Fan,

I'm not a tax guy, but the house is so far under water that I think the risk of gains is only wishful thinking.

@zotty - thanks for the advice - I'll definitely check it out! @jsl11 - thanks for the tip! Larson does other services like reviewing my contract, helping me find the ideal disability, finding the best life insurance policy for me (they recommended a VUL), etc. After they get everything setup for m...

... and that, Floydtime, is what makes horse races.


EDITED TO ADD: As far as ROI goes, having children at allprobably provides a bad ROI. Some of us find it worth doing, regardless.

have you looked at current college costs? We have a target of $250k/child for our three kids. I have the same saved up, but OP might be planning public college, which is generally less expensive. Even though I don't know OP, statistically it's more than likely that he won't think of college costs w...

I am new to Ebay and Paypal. I was going to establish a Paypal account. I registered and entered a credit card, but it also wants my bank checking info in addition to my credit card. Is that normal? Why do they need both? Because PayPal will keep funding from your checking account unless you dilige...

My two cents: sell. You are going to be far away for an extended time. Management companies are okay at best, but in my experience their quality is inversely proportional to the distance the owner lives from the residence. It's the last thing you're going to want to think about for the next 5+ years...

Our kids know very roughly what we have, our wills specify what is to happen, and passwords are kept in a document in our safe-deposit box. I think it's a good idea for our kids to know roughly what the situation is: they are unlikely to have to support us, and they will more than likely inherit an ...

nowadays the technology for wireless or wired internet hookup is so good from the major brands that netflix should be no problem with most smart tvs - in my opinion you can forgo the need for an extra box (roku, apple tv, etc.) unless you have a specific need that only that box can provide. for exa...

pfrank wrote:Get a regular flat screen TV and get a Roku box. The box is about 90 bucks and gives you access to Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc. It is easier to upgrade the Roku than upgrade the Smart TV.

Could not agree more. Roku is easy to use and works like a charm.

Also, those 'top 1-2%' claims always seemed very overinflated to me from someone from a decent public school system. I suspect that they lump all comers into that pool, including the inner-city kids from very tough social and educational situations, so that if you're from a more affluent or more hi...

Getting a National Merit Scholarship can be helpful at some schools or if you work for some corporations. Being a finalist even without getting a scholarship should get her offers from colleges, including some quite good ones, at least it did in my day. Very true, at some schools it will result in ...

xram wrote:[Response to snarky comment removed by admin LadyGeek]

We can disagree without name-calling.

I guess you could retire, but I'd personally want more assets. Part of that concern is the fact that you have two young children. As an example, my daughter decided a few years ago that she really wanted to switch to goalie (she had been an ice hockey defenseman previously). It seems that between eq...