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You've got the components for a fair counteroffer already: $1500 plus the $75 for the extra work and $250 for additional parts expenses. I would definitely require the above-mentioned accounting of work hours before paying more than that.

But if you have your gold in a bank's safety deposit box it is within reach of the bank and the government, violating my premise that you should ideally hold it out of reach if that is possible. You may be aware of the following: By Executive Order Of The President of The United States, March 9, 19...

Bob's not my name wrote:Still having trouble with the math. Accumulating interest while in school doesn't get you to $200,000.

The unsubsidized Federal loans, if they've been deferred, are still racking up interest today. Does that help?

All, The $200K doubtless includes a load of interest. He wasn't making payments while in school and both the private loans and unsubsidized Federal loans will rake it up even while deferred. EmergDoc, Your comments about doctors having more debt aren't very helpful. Doctors get paid 10 times what an...

It's a cool idea but I'd rather lend to the guys on Lending Club than to the Russians...

I also understand that replacing the battery down the road is extremely expensive. I saw a quote from Nissan's CEO a few month's back that the Leaf battery would likely cost "hundreds, not thousands" to replace/refurbish when they start to expire in 10 years. Who knows how Tesla batteries...

The wife and I picked out the setting she really wanted for maybe $1300 and then had them put in a diamond from an old, unwanted ring we had around. Throw in the melt value of the old ring and presto!, a $4 or $5K ring that she loves for a fraction the cost.

I would make sure you have documented any damage prior to moving in-including countertops, floors walls, etc. Take dated pictures, put copies with your lease and notify your landlord. In college towns they pretty much keep the damage deposit as a matter of principal, it didn't matter if you left th...

Thanks, Larry. Your comments were very reasonable.

I used expedia for a package deal last summer and was very happy. If you'll have a rental car, do yourself a favor and get a room at Palms Place. It's off the strip just far enough that you wouldn't want to walk but the bang for your buck is fantastic.

I also prefer paper for a couple reasons, web security being a big one. It's not so much that someone could hack the Treasury Department as it is that somebody could hack my account. Whether that's done entirely online or because they find my password in my safe, it doesn't really matter. If, on the...

interplanetjanet wrote:

brianbooth wrote:And just for the record, I'm not a gold bug or a gun-and-bunker type. I'm just an economist.

Butter instead of bunkers, then?

Hah!

The real value of gold, imo, isn't that it hedges inflation or stores value (it does, but is way too volatile). The real value is that it operates like a fear index every time we have a crisis. Great depression? Gold went crazy. 1970's stagflation? Gold went crazy. 2008? Gold went crazy. It didn't ...

Gold hasn't changed its value. It's cars and houses and food and tickets to sports events (et cetera) that have changed their value. I do believe we are approaching the start of the denial phase as the mania is fading and the damaged try to rationalize. Lots of room left to fall from there :wink: h...

The real value of gold, imo, isn't that it hedges inflation or stores value (it does, but is way too volatile). The real value is that it operates like a fear index every time we have a crisis. But that's not an argument for owning it - it's just an argument for using it as a signal, like the VIX. ...

I keep a small percentage of my portfolio in physical metals, not as an investment, but as a store of value. How is it a store of value any more than cash? I am just a cave-man, but is the answer not obvious. Or is this a joke? It's a perfectly serious question. If you put $100,000 in a Cypriot ban...

I noticed that too. Last week it was "Silver XXX for as low as $2.99 over spot" and today it's "Silver XXX as low as $4.99 over spot". Which isn't really spot because they post the bid and ask and always base their numbers off the ask... I did get a kick out of the banner ad &qu...

Well at today's price its only average a 15% return annually over the last 10 or 11 years. Hardly blood in the streets. It would have to fall much further to be truly bloody. May be if it resembles the 73-74 stock market bear it would look that way. It's down ~20% from its peak only a few months ag...

midareff wrote:Not so nice today. Glad I don't own any.

"Buy when there's blood in the streets, even if the blood is your own."
- Baron Rothschild

Just stick to your plans and rebalance, everybody

$1m in today's dollars, assuming my pension and social security are still around in 30 years. If not, early retirement can wait a couple years.

Vlaak,
I tell my friends to double major with one degree that is their dream and another that will be a fall-back even if it takes an extra quarter or semester. So that art appreciation degree isn't working out? Good thing they're always hiring accountaints!

Is $25000/yr for tuition reasonable for a state university? Engineering major? If you're starting out as a freshman and plan on going to grad school, the best bang for your buck is to go J.C. and then State U and then spend some of that money you saved on a top-shelf grad school; people won't care ...

It may be just a coincidence, but there's certainly an argument to be made that companies with powerful individual owners do not suffer the same "agency problem" with their management that other companies do. I think before you assign this to anything more than a coincidence you'd want to...

Guys, I think there's a disconnect here between what some people consider "inflation" and the currency risk that Craig is referring too. If the price of milk goes up because demand is up or supply is down, that's inflation. If the price of imported milk goes up because dollars are worth le...

It just so happens that big companies with large founder stakes tend to outperform the market over time. These are exactly the stocks that ETFs own less of, relative to the size of the companies. Are you saying merely that this has happened in the past, or are you postulating that it's likely to co...

Saw this in the news and thought you guys might be interested. http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/michael-santoli/etf-owns-too-little-amazon-other-index-quirks-205212177.html From the link: Standard & Poor’s several years ago began assigning companies weights in the S&P 500 index according to th...

My wife is working as a waitress while she finishes school so she goes through a couple hundred bucks worth of change every month. Sorry to say it but those rotten customers haven't given her a single piece of silver. Even worse, they refuse to accept fifty cent pieces as change so I can't use her t...

I am starting the process to convert my and my wife's paper i bonds to electronic version. I finally got around the creating a manifest for my bonds. I must say they could not have made it more complicated, though there conversion guide is helpful. My questions is should I create a new TD account f...

How do online banks deal with cash deposits?

Because of the markup and the difference in bid/ask, the best way to buy gold or silver is through a mutual fund or ETF. The reason to own gold or sivler is as a diversifier; for that purpose there is no need to own the physical asset. If you are thinking you want the physical asset because of a br...

Couldn't you just stop in at a gas station to buy a candy bar with your credit card and ask for cash back?

In regards to heat pump water heaters...

For those who live in the Northwest, there is currently a pretty nice refund (a few hundred bucks) going on through BPA. If you have an electric water heater in your garage, basement, or other unheated space, these things are a screaming deal.

Things have moved on since direct confiscation. Confiscation however has and continues to happen to anyone who pays tax on nominal gains. If both gold and consumer goods equally rise $100 compared to what the same basket of goods cost a year prior (assuming broadly that gold maintained 'purchase po...

Not everyone just looks at gross nominal. Net real is something that should be more widely adopted IMO - even if those figures just reflect the average basic rate taxpayers average result as a guideline. Historically the likes of Credit Suisse/First Boston, Barclays etc. have provided each of gross...

Is the chart taking dividends into account? If it's just looking at stock prices, then it should be no surprise that the megacap companies that pay out a ton of cash have lagged.

From another 27 year-old who bought in thinking exactly what you're thinking, don't buy a house. Save your money, retire early, buy yourself a home somewhere you know you can spend the rest of your life, and then buy the cheaper house down the street if you want to be a landlord. Transaction costs e...

I took the game theory course although between work and the *real* MBA program, did not have the time to complete it. The course was very good - good enough to make me question dropping a couple grand per class to buy a degree...

Does the book discuss what form of gold should be held or if silver should be mixed in as well? Imagining a Mad Max-style apocalypse, it seems like having some silver around for smaller purchases would be nice. Gold is the best because it is a monetary metal and the high value to small size makes s...

Hi Ron, I'm just heading out to lunch so can't run too many numbers but here are my initial thoughts: 1. With your nasty tax-bracket, the after-tax rate on your 8.5% student loan is only 5.1%, assuming that the interest is deductible from CA income taxes? 2. The 401k is appealing since you may be in...

snowman9000 wrote:Gold stocks perform far differently than gold in times of crisis.
Ask me how I know.

Mining company stocks or trusts? How do you know?

If you're not adverse to derivatives/leveraged ETF's, 7.5% in a 2x SCV, 5% in 3x gold might provide similar overall results whilst holding just 12.5% in total 'at-risk' assuming you consider 5-year-Treasury, 2-year-Treasury and TIPS to be safe assets. Which is an asset allocation that might be cons...

On the other hand, the VG international REIT index fund has a P/B ration of 1.1. Given this. Ablution compared to the US REIT fund, I think that anyone who considers REITs as a separate investment class should consider international diversification within that class. -K Don't US REITs get special t...

Oldsalt70, A couple things: - I wouldn't recommend buying gold, or silver for that matter, on craigslist or ebay for a number of reasons. The first is the question of quality. The second is the question of safety. The third, and this applies to ebay, is the markup which must take place as ebay take...

The Fed announced today that it would print more money to soften the "fiscal cliff". I noticed that my TIPS took a big hit. I would think that this announcement would help TIPS. What happened? That may not be the cause. I heard on NPR radio this morning that BLS or someone wants to switch...

Oldsalt70, After reading up on the permanent portfolio thread, I'm doing the same 10% but half silver and half gold. My plan is to keep the silver under my mattress and hope that the apocalypse never comes and forces me to use it :) As for the gold, I intend to keep a small amount of it in physical ...

Thanks, Guys. Good ideas.

All you assumptions look good to me. Only other major factor I can see that you might need to consider is state tax rate if there was any possibility you might move. It's most likely your lower than normal federal tax rate is going to trump everything else. Did you miss number 2 or is there another...

Hi Guys, Just wanted to run this by you before I go and do something dumb. I'm a municipal employee with a 457(b). 457s are nice in that you can withdraw you money penalty-free when you leave your employer but for a number of factors, reducing my 457 contributions in favor of contributing the Roth m...

The Fed announced today that it would print more money to soften the "fiscal cliff". I noticed that my TIPS took a big hit. I would think that this announcement would help TIPS. What happened? They also announced that they'd be ramping up interest rates if inflation hits a modest 2.5%. Th...

The huge price/book ratio seems pretty telling. Would you really spend $400k on a $200k house that will rent for $200k rates? Me neither.