Bogleheads.org

Many people cannot grasp the concept of comparing a fund only to its appropriate benchmark. To them, if it beat the S&P 500 over the past X years, it's good enough, nevermind the volitility during that time. Ironically, the extended market -- ie. everything BUT the S&P 500 --- has also kille...

If you are concerned about volitility, why not a 2 or 3 year CD? Yes, you will pay income taxes, but if you shop around you can get an interest rate to compensate. Check out http://www.depositaccounts.com for best rates. Another idea: if you currently have a mortgage you can prepay principal. - Brian

Thanks for the heads up. My employer also uses OptumHealthBank. I just checked, and yes the 3 vanguard funds are there. You would think they would announce ahead of time. Anyway, I went ahead and changed my allocations to take advantage.

- Brian

For my older kids, I have been using Vanguard NV. However, for my newborn last year, I decided to go with Fidelity's UNIQUE.
It has index funds with ER down to 0.25%. You can also get their American Express card which has 2% rebate going into the 529.

- Brian

I've wondered why they even have the TM growth and income fund.

I would rather see two funds: TM growth (low dividends) and TM income (high dividends)

- Brian

I helped my retired mother invest an inheritance a few months ago, and after some analysis came to the conclusion of going 50/50 between TR Income and Wellesley. As much as I love index funds, it is hard to argue against the track record of Wellesely. This was for a taxable account. The dividends go...

I've lived in Austin 20 years and can't imagine living anywhere else. NW Austin is a great area for tech jobs and raising a family. Yes, it is hot in summer, but not too bad in mornings and evenings. Winters are wonderful. Yes, traffic is stop-and-go on all highways during rush hour. Fortunately, I ...

1997 Honda Prelude with about 140k miles. I just went through a bunch of minor repairs, and hoping it lasts a few more years.

If you know your 'end point', for instance 100% bonds by age 18, you can just gradually slide every year toward that point. For instance, you could be 100% stocks until age 8, then shift 10% toward bond side when rebalancing every year for 10 years. Another example is Vanguard's Nevada plan 'age-bas...

Beethoven. The symphonies are one thing, but also listen to range of emotion in the last few piano sonatas (29 through 32).
The second movement of sonata 32 (opus 111) is one of my favorites. He basically invented ragtime.

We just got carpet and wood flooring through the vendor using a kiosk at Costco in Austin. They were running a special, plus there was a significant rebate in the form of Costco gift cards. I don't know the numbers, but my wife checked around and it looked like the best overall deal in the area. The...

For last couple years, my diet has included lots of eggs, red meat, nuts, coconut oil, butter, all bad foods according
to mainstream medical. Regardless, my cholesterol profile is excellent and I have no health problems (44 y.o.)

As said, they have the best yield around, but that's not saying much these days.
It can be fun to collect paper ones like baseball cards but those are going away (mostly).
Electronic ones may not be worth the trouble for you at only 5k per year.

TBM yield has gone down as treasury yield has gone down. Muni yield has not gone down as much,
but there is more risk than treasuries. Corporate bonds, of course, have greatest yield and risk.
I'm no expert, but it does look like municipals are in the sweet spot at the moment.

- Brian

Last month, I took my 14 year old son to the Beatles tribute band "Rain". There were quite a few other young folks in the crowd and they all were enjoying it. Rain was great and the songs sounded close to album versions. My favorite 60's rock groups 1. Beatles 2. Led Zeppelin 3. Cream / Cl...

The Beatles rule. Their collective creativity from start to finish was amazing. I bet that 200 years from now,
people will still listen to those songs occasionally. Not quite as extraordinary as Bach, Mozart, or Beethoven, but
pretty close.

- Brian

Thanks again for the input. Now I know much more about annuities, and started playing with the Income Solutions. I usually shy away from insurance products but there may be some benefit in this case. I will research some more, and order the "Bogleheads Guide to Retirement" (I only own the ...

Regarding municipals, the inherited account currently has some individual bonds, municipal bond funds, and a UIT that all have some capital gain since the death of her mother. Except for the fund with high ER, I was going to just leave the rest alone for a while. Seems like they would give diversifi...

Thanks for the responses. I had originally intended 20% stocks (which is also LS Income's allocation) but reconsidered after I realized how risk-adverse she is. Would a compromise at 10% be adequate for the 3.5% return? Also, her IRA is invested in Wellesley Income (some stock exposure there) and th...

My mother received an inheritance of about $400k, and I'm helping her use it to establish an income stream. She is 65 and will be retiring next year. She will have a state pension and SS. She is very risk adverse, but needs the additional income of about $14k/year (increasing with inflation) for the...

I agree with above. Take time to educate yourself now. So many people make mistakes in their twenties and it is harder to recover later. Resist temptation to buy individual stocks. You do not need a brokerage account. For the Roth, a target or life strategy fund would be great (when you can meet the...

EmergDoc and brisni and others who do/have done CrossFit, do you see strength and efficiency gains, maybe with a little size? I want to have generalizable, broad peak fitness.My hiking is 15-20 miles per day and I go solo on snow/ice, so I want my fitness to be an absolute given, so I can concentra...

I do crossfit 3 times a week, and I cherish the moments when I can yell "TIME" and collapse into a puddle of sweat for a few minutes! It is amazing how an exercise as short as 5 or 10 minutes can totally wipe you out.

Is there a high-quality crossfit affiliate in your area? They should be able to give you the coaching and nutrition advice to meet your goal.

Omega-3 is one of the few supplements I take. The others are pro-biotic and magnesium. The argument is that even with a healthy diet these things are much lower than they would naturally be. I usually take fish oil pills to get 3000mg of EPA+DHA per day. My cholesterol profile is excellent. There is...

I thought about this recently, and I wonder that there two ways to balance stocks and bonds. The Wellesley method, which is more traditional, emphasizes dividend yield, while another approach is to balance growth. Maybe this has been articulated better in other posts, but in a nutshell.... High yiel...

With a new brokeragelink account coming to my 401(k), I am looking at the spartan index funds. Did Fidelity raise the ER to 0.31% on their bond index? Or is it still 0.22%? How would 0.22% after reductions become 0.31%? Expense Ratio: as of 02/01/2011 0.22% Expense Ratio after Reductions: as of 02/...

I had not heard of Fidelity UFund, but at a glance it seems pretty reasonable. It even has age-based portfolios using only index funds. Are you looking to move out of UFund, or just wanting to choose an allocation available within it? For instance, you could go with the "Index Portfolio 2015&qu...

Colorado13, I have been doing crossfit at a high-quality gym for a year, and only have positive things to say about it. The coaches have the experience to teach correctly, and only allow you to do as much as you can do correctly to prevent injury. All exercises can be scaled according to ability. Th...

Like you, I like to have REIT's, TIP's, and as much taxable bonds as possible in tax-advantaged accounts, then overflow with muni's in taxable account. I actually do keep some stocks in the 401k for rebalance purposes. One thought is that you might lower your % bonds (increase % stocks) but go short...

Any savings account is not likely to keep up with inflation unless you continually add to it to do so. Check out www.depositaccounts.com for best rates and other advice.

- Brian

I feel a bit the same way, and it is interesting how fear is out of proportion to real effect. If bond funds lost 10% in a year, it would be called a massacre and most people would be upset. However, that's not unusual loss at all for a stock fund. Maybe we expect bond funds to just plug along like ...

I've been foam rolling for years and can't live without it now. Ideally, I do a quick once-over before a workout, and then again more rigorously later in the evening. Initially you will feel muscle pain (not numbness) on trigger points but this should get better as you keep doing it every day or so ...

I was curious since the question was raised, so I checked on the current value of a $1000 I bond bought in May 2001 vs. the ten year return of TBM (disregarding taxes). I-bond (May 2001 -> May 2011) $1000 -> $1727 TBM (May 2001 -> May 2011) $1000 -> $1710 I realize the comparison is nearly meaningle...

I consider I bonds appropriate for an emergency fund or intermediate-term-goal fund where you don't want to lose principal. I don't even include them when analyzing my long-term portfolio. Compare them to money-markets and CD's. Right now, they simply have the best yield so I took the plunge and bou...

I recommend joining a crossfit affiliate even if the cost seems high at first. The coaching and nutritional information will be worth it. They encourage paleo diet and it really works in my experience.

- Brian

Rates are low everywhere, and currently the best you can do with an online saving account is little more than 1%. You will pay tax on that but at least it is better than Vanguards MM funds. Check out www.depositaccounts.com

- Brian

I wonder what changes he is making given his very negative outlook recently...
http://www.pimco.com/Pages/OffWithOurHeads.aspx

I've been using CapitalOne's online savings accounts (and CD's and checking account) for several years and have had no problems. I opened a costco version over a year ago to take advantage of slightly higher interest. As with all MM, the rate has been trickling downward but is always among the highe...

Marathon training suits the diehard mentality. We know how to plan, prepare, set long-term goals, deal with setbacks, "stay the course", etc. I've run four marathons, but only one faster than 4 hours. Usually I have some minor injury that keeps me from doing as well as I want on the big da...

I will try to come also, but may be a little late due to my daughter's volleyball game.

Brian S.

I have been doing Crossfit in Austin and loosely following paleo/zone diet for almost 5 months and feel great. Although my weight has not changed much, my %muscle is up and %fat is down. I used to just do long runs and gym workouts on my own but am responding better to these challenging, high-intens...

I just converted 5 funds. That was fun!

Thanks to all for the great information. On further inspection, my liability policy only applies to "other person's property" does not have a specific clause regarding collision of two covered vehicles, so unfortunately it does not apply in this case. My impression is that this clause used...

My wife accidentally backed her truck into my car which was parked behind. There is very slight damage to the truck, and moderate damage to the car. Both vehicles are covered by comprehensive/collision with $1000 deductible. I was hoping that my car could be fixed with no deductible because it would...

I think the main difference is the FTSE index includes Canada. It is also slightly higher ER (0.4 vs 0.32).

- Brian

Yes, in 1984 and I still use a coffee mug commemorating it. My oldest son is now a Tenderfoot and another son in Webelos.

- Brian

Larry currently posts for CBS Money Watch
http://moneywatch.bnet.com/investing/bl ... 2;blogroll

It has been said that the only reason to own gold is to bribe the border guards on your way out. However, one could see some future scenario where gold could be traded for necessities. I recently bought some gold and silver coins which I consider to be "insurance", not investment. I hope I...

I know that lifestyle is relatively common in Austin. Have you checked it out? 1 to 2 acres would be expensive, though. Maybe possible east of I-35.

- Brian