Bogleheads.org

With your description, and if you file jointly, it doesn't seem to matter which one to max out. All else being equal, why not just split the extra contributions equally to His and Hers ? Even if you leave the employers it can be rolled to IRA (if the employer doesn't let you leave the 401K there) so...

I voted for lifestyle fund and calculated the amount of EF based on that. But, of course under emergency such as lost of primary income we would drastically cut everything to the bare minimum, including moving to a much cheaper apartment, etc. We've done it before when we're in grad.school and so we...

I use mint.com, but as other have noted, it of course cannot differentiate what you buy if you buy everything at a superstore such as Walmart, Costco, etc. But it has a "Split" feature when one charge to credit card can be split in mint.com and assigned to different categories, so for exam...

In your situation, yes I would use ROTH IRA as the "next tier" EF and just use the target retirement fund since you already have the "first 6 month" of EF covered in cash. But before doing that I would probably put all efforts towards eliminating the debt first. However, this is ...

$420 per week (from total a year / 52) for my wife and I for 2012. This includes all living expenses (groceries, gas, car maintenance, utilities, charity contribution, eating out, furnishing, etc) except taxes, rent, and one out-of-ordinary vacation we took at the end of the year.

Thanks for the responses. My return should be fairly straightforward so I think I'll try the free version this year. The IRS even maintains a list of all the free options: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Free-File%3A-Do-Your-Federal-Taxes-for-Free Yes, I've seen that. What makes me wonder is the TaxACT versi...

Hello, I looked at TaxACT because of some mentions of it in this forum and I see that they have a free version (online) or for download (with registration). I am wondering, have anyone used this? What's the catch for the free version ? any limitation, etc ? I wonder what's their business model is to...

About 40% of gross income, or 47% of (what I call) "take home" at age 32. I guess the challenge is to not let this rate go down as life "happens".

What I'd be interested to hear is some anecdottal stories of someone who has their own full-coverage car insurace and also uses insurace from credit card (e.g. VISA) to rent a car and then had accident / damage to the car. How do they fare ? Have this situation ever been "tested" ? I've al...

I don't think that will be a problem at all, especially since you have enough emergency fund. In my case, my "cushion" (take home - budgeted expenses) is nearly zero after 401K and ROTH IRA since I like to contribute as much as possible to the retirement saving, and it's been fine that wa...

I don't think that will be a problem at all, especially since you have enough emergency fund. In my case, my "cushion" (take home - budgeted expenses) is nearly zero after 401K and ROTH IRA since I like to contribute as much as possible to the retirement saving, and it's been fine that way...

I do a reasonable amount of Amazon shopping, so their card was one the stood out to me - will buying things with this card and paying it off help me develop a good US credit record? Amazon Visa Card is just like any other credit card, so in that sense the answer to your question is Yes, having it w...

But Ramsey always tells people to knock out the smallest first and use that cash flow to "snowball" into bigger debts. I don't understand this philosophy at all.. $13.4k in debt is $13.4k in debt. It's not as if knocking out the loan at 2.6% will somehow magically allow you to pay more on...

Sorry, I disagree. That kind of network speed should have no effect on voice quality. It's speech voice we're talking about; not video, not even music. Speech voice can be compressed to only require minimal bandwidth. For comparison, when modem uses POTS, the bandwidth is around 44 kbps. If anythin...

I checked, the network, according to speedtest, has a 2.5 Mbs upload and .6 Mbs download. This is your problem. Peasants in rural India and China have faster download speeds than this. The average internet download speed in the US today is 7Mbs. Speeds of 20Mbps and 30Mbps are common in most places...

I haven't experienced it personally, but my guess is that the coordination of benefits issue could be more hassle to you going forward than just providing evidence of your employer coverage to the university every 6 months in order to decline the university coverage. That actually seems pretty stra...

I've been using Google Voice since it was first available via invite only to make both domestic and international call and the quality has always been good. In fact, it's pretty much my primary number as all my calls are 'routed' through it. On Talkatone, I've never used it but I used something simi...

Hello, My wife is currently covered as dependent from the group insurance at my work place. The premium to cover her is about the same as mine, and we get health insurance, and some kind of pre-paid dental and vision coverage. She's enrolling as a grad student though and will also be covered by the ...

University usually has access / subscription to the electronic version of many scientific journals from which you can download the PDFs of these papers. Usually this is accessible either from university network or from a "proxy" provided by the university library. In my case, for example, ...

I've been doing this for a while, although I have been using the scanner at work (it's a big industrial scanner/printer/copy machine). I may be thinking to get one at home and open to recommendation. What scanner (brand / type) do you have ?

Thanks for the responses. I think I'll stick with the TR funds at least for a few more years or until there's a good reason to switch.

Hello all, We currently have the same Vanguard TR 2045 funds in my 401k, 403b, and two Roth IRAs (my wife's and mine) at Vanguard. I dont have any taxable at the moment so fund placement for tax efficiency is not a factor (at least for now), and I am pretty happy with this fund at this point regardi...

If you have income disparities, or if one of you stays home to look after the kids, then you may want to consider some individual accounts for spending money. Or use cash if that's easier. It's nice to retain some ability to spend as you want and not be subject to oversight. This is a good point. W...

We have joint everything (that can have joint account), although there have been debt previously (autoloan) that only have myself as the loaner. Both of us did not have any significant assets before the marriage. My primary concern is to make sure that DW knows how to get to our accounts if I am gon...

Hello, DW and I are doing our annual review of our financial situation and a part of it is getting the annual free credit report. It turns out that we are having some trouble getting DW's credit report from Transunion from annualcreditreport.com (got "Unable To Complete Request" error and ...

It is very quick process. Just go to http://treasurydirect.gov/, create an account, and transfer the money from your bank to buy I saving bonds. A couple days at the most.
Best,
AC

A good website to start with is http://www.term4sale.com. You can get basic quotes, but your final quote may differ. Still, it's a good tool to figure out the price range you should expect. After getting basic quotes, you need to contact an independent agent who will get you started on recommending...

3) withdraw money from Mango account as needed (.e.g. back to the primary checking account). Or am I missing something ? There is no ACH out. If by withdrawing you mean withdrawing cash using the card, that's exactly what you would do. I was thinking ACH out since its website on Saving says "Y...

I am debating closing the checking accounts. I currently get 2% on a max of $25,000 in one account and 1.5% on a max of $50,000 in the other. Both accounts give you extra $250/yr over the alternative of a 1% savings account. $25k * (2% - 1%) = $250. $50k * (1.5% - 1%) = $250. There are a few more e...

What kind of car ? I have a very similar issue with my Civic after I replaced the brake pads. I had to replace the pads when I was out-of-town because the wear indicator of the old pads made so much noise (I had been travelling for a while) and thus replaced the pads at a small shop. It turns out th...

Honda Civic LX 2004 manual/5-speed, 145000. Bought it used at 26K. No plans to replace it yet, I want to drive it as long as it lasts.

I am a fan of IKEA. I have their "Galant" corner desks with all the extension to make a spacious working space. They are solidly built. The bookshelves are also simple and nice.

Of course, you can't attend the party since you already have a family reunion (or something like that) on your schedule 8-) , but a small inexpensive gift is perfectly fine for someone not attending, especially since there is no real tangible (or positive) relationship between the two. If this pers...

Thanks for all the replies. It seems that the general consensus is to bring cash (USD) for exchange and/or pull cash from local ATM / bank. So I think I'll do a combination of both. I wasn't planning to use CC because of the issues mentioned above, so that would only be if necessary. Thanks again.

Hello, I'm visiting relative in Asia and wondering what is the best way to bring /spend money (USD) with me. I can bring some cash (e.g. hundred dollar bills) to exchange with local currencies there but I know that banks / money-exchange place there are sometime picky about the 'mint-ness' / conditi...

3) Vanguard – this is where most of our investment money is located $$$$$ ..................a. Website = https://personal.vanguard.com/us/home ..................b. My account – has just my Roth IRA ....................................i. . username ....................................ii. password c....

I wax my car twice a year: in the Spring to protect againts the Summer heat, bird, and sap dropping (those are acidic and quickly eats into the paint job if there's no wax to protect it); and in the late Fall before the harshness of winter with its associated road salt, etc. In the middle of Summer,...

You can originate (but not receive) free domestic calls via Gmail. It actually works quite well, provided you have a headset. A $20 headset I had laying around worked good. You can receive too. Get a Google Voice number, then assign "Google Talk" as one of the "phone". Now if yo...

If money were no object, if you could live anywhere, what would be your dream job? I am probably one of the lucky few who can say that my current job right now is pretty darn close to my dream job; at least for a job that is in the realm of current possibilities. Or maybe I'm just content. And then...

recently read, or believed, that 17K is the total ceiling of contributions for Roth and Traditional 401(k)s combined. That's correct as you have it in this sentence, but incorrect in the context you give. You probably read that your total 401k contributions, Roth 401k or traditional 401k, are limit...

I am curious, for those who only has 50 - 60% of asses on tax advantaged space, is that aftet you max out all the available tax advantage space for you and still have more in taxable ? Or is it by choice not to max out the tax advantaged space ? If the latter, what are some rationalization ? In my o...

I purchased a new car when I was young (15 years ago) and regretted the decision because I didn't hold onto it like you did. I would have rather invested it and see it double. But now might be a different story. You;re loyal to the civics and you know what to look for in a used car so that may be t...

Thanks for all the responses. It looks like most here says that the extra expense for a new car (Honda) worth it for the long run. Stability control is the most important safety device since the seat belt. I would strongly advise against buying a car without it. Chris and Watty, good point on the St...

I am glad to see your focusing on the safety features when comparing new versus old, especially with children in your near future. What is the price difference between a new Civic compared to a certified used Civic? And what are the specific safety features you'd have to give up to get the used mod...

I am having a hard time deciding whether it is better in the long run to get new car or used car. Here's the specific situation. I am trying to get a 2nd car for DW. Our mode has always been to keep the car as long as possible. My previous car was a 93 Civic bought used when I started grad school an...

I don't have the same experience. In the last 5 years I've been using the same company, and my rate has been going down. The last few years not by much, probably because it's already low, but a bit less still from year to year. Just to make sure, 3 years ago and just this year I shopped around diffe...

Why worry about the details of whether you are only an authorized signer or a joint account holder of an account that you don't use, didn't want and prefer to have nothing to do with. Get off it. It may be older, but the high credit utilization is hurting your score if it's included in your report....

Were you added as just "authorized user" or a joint-account holder ? Sometime even with just the former, it can show on your credit report. If you're just "authorized user", AFAIK you don't have any responsibility with regards to the card, so if you want to leave it as that it sh...

Here is the lesson for Bogleheads. If you can't fully fund your tax deferred accounts, 529 plans , insurance, health, and transportation costs, and vacations and luxury items and still have money left over to prepay your mortgage , then you bought too expensive a house. Living within your means and...

Hi everyone, .. their index-hugging philosophy has been discredited domestically and internationally. Nobody believes that this market is riding the coattails of a robust global economy and so shifting your portfolio to an index orientation just at this point is not advantageous in any way. Ask him...