Bogleheads.org

midareff wrote: Perhaps you should work on your disipline?

Valid point midareff.

1.) Vanguard Total International Stock Index (VGTSX/VTIAX) (holds all non-US stocks including equities held by VSS) 2.) Vanguard Small Cap Value Index (VISVX/VSIAX) (a fund I would use to DCA in on the US-equity side) 3.) Vanguard Emerging Markets Index (VEIEX/VEMAX) (I believe of all the Vanguard ...

livesoft wrote:Just a note: The bid/ask spread is not the same as premium/discount to NAV.

You are right. I stand corrected. The premium is indeed closer to 0.5%.

Thanks, to all of those who responded. I just use the mutual fund equivalent. If you have access to DFA, they are a better option. If not, and you don't like VSS, I'm not aware of a better option than the Vanguard MF version of VSS. Unfortunately I don't have access to DFAs. Beside, I think the expe...

International Small Cap forms a sizable portion (~10%) of my portfolio. I have been using VSS (Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US Small-Cap ETF) to fill this asset class. However, over the past 12 months I have found myself lacking discipline to DCA into this ETF. I set reminders to buy, but other priori...

American Express, from time to time, has online promotions where you can buy fee-free gift cards. If you are time bound, this may not work for you. But something worth considering/researching.

I think it is still advisable to contribute to your 401(k). You can file tax returns to "claim" some of the 30% back.
Alternately, you do not have to wait until you are 59.5: If you do not have any other US income, taxes + 10% penalty may still come out to be less than your current tax rate.

Thank you, for your responses. I agree with many of your comments. I must say that all the points expressed in your posts did cross my mind. Can be interesting work for the right type but again too hard to say from a label like that. I agree -- the title is too generic. Here are some more specific r...

Someone recently contacted me to inquire if I am interested in a Quantitative software developer position with a high-frequency trading firm. While I do not believe in anything that is not passive, low-cost indexing and have no intentions of changing my present job, it got me thinking about these ro...

VSGIX is not a bad option, if you desire exposure to small caps.

Dominion!

To each his own.

Quicken + Excel

livesoft wrote:I use VSS instead (the ETF share class). I want to overweight small-cap international equities in my portfolio.

+1

Pimco Total Return (PTTRX)

Are'nt you getting hit by bid-ask spread every time you do this? If you need to do this frequently, these can add up.

We keep track of the assets in excel and manually rebalance. We rebalance only once/twice a year and does not take more than 15-20 minutes.

We use Quicken and Excel Stock Market Functions Add-in (Google: smf_addin), which makes it somewhat easier.

0%

I'd guess a lot of the individual stocks would remain the same, so I would guess taxes wouldn't be that bad, but could be way off? There is no "automatic" conversion planned by Vangurad, or atleast, I am not aware of one. So you will have to sell VFWIX and then buy VGTSX. Which means ther...

The article mentions that Vanguard is implementing an Admiral share class of the Vanguard Total International Stock Index. Does anyone know what date this happens? The article implies it will be early next year. I couldn't find anything more specific on the VG website. I have tried calling Vanguard...

Also, if you happen to have a capital loss down the road you can *potentially* use that to offset the gains.

rhaung wrote:
What if something happens to Vanguard? Investigation by SEC, change in management, etc. Would this affect performance of funds?

You may want to read this (you may already have):
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Vanguard_safety

IMHO, you can not go wrong with Vangurad.

VFWIX+VSS Does it for us.

I use a combination of VTRIX and VSS.

Buy any in the Canon SDxxxx series. We are on our third and could not be happier.

IMHO: Diversification is provided by the fact that the correlation between US and International is closer to 0 than to 1. Or, at the very least, is less than one. It does not have to be zero to provide diverification benefits.

I know you asked about LA, but may I suggest driving down to San Diego? I almost always prefer spending time in SD as oppoed to LA. La Jolla, Coronado Island, Balboa Park, etc. are some things you can consider doing there.

No. I subscribe to The Economist and follow Google News.

I am 6'1" and ride Trek 7.3 FX. Have been pretty happy with it so far.

Do not worry about it too much. Even if they shopped around at 10-15 lenders, they probably pulled your credit report/score only once. In any case, multiple credit inquiries for the same type of loan (auto/mortgage, etc.) during a certain time span countl only as one.

We used to. Now we take reusable bags for grocery and use store-bought bags for trash!

The Predator Real Estate Buyer 1. Patience - Have patience. Your deal(s) will probably take a while to find. Don't fall in love with a property. Be prepared to walk away. There are plenty of nice properties out there with few qualified buyers today. Don't be too anxious or too quick to make a deal....

I successfully use Quicken to download transactions from Vanguard, Wells Fargo Bank and Brokerage, and ING Direct. I have 2009 Premier version.

I contributed $5,000.00 to my Roth IRA with Vanguard last year, and the total fund has about $5,277.00 currently. Did you report this contribution on Form 8606 with the taxes for the last year? If you havent filed already, you should do that. Once this has been taken care of, then you have establis...

It is because VBINX attempts to maintain 60-40 split between stocks and bonds. In a year (2009), where stock market experienced so much volatility, it is only exected that there was high turnover for a balanced fund. In comparison, VTSMX experienced a turnover of only 4.5%.

+1 for Brian. So I assume the traditional 401k is not affected by this. Do you know a good source to read up on this aspect? I mostly read pub 590 [Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs)]. I had to read it multiple times to understand some of the aspects. In addition to that, I used many online s...

Can I make non-deductible traditional IRA condributions ($5,000?) for 2009 by April 15, 2010 and then immediately convert to a Roth IRA? Yes. Can I make non-deductible traditional IRA condributions ($5,000?) for 2010 by December 31, 2010 and then immediately convert to a Roth IRA? Yes. Does this ef...

Take a look at this thread:
http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=45936&highlight=vgstx+vfwix

If you convert all, you will be taxed on $38K. You will simply add this to your income when you file for taxes. The actuall tax bill will depend on your tax rate. If you are in high tax bracket, IRS also provides the option to claim 50% of the taxable amount as income in 2011 and the remaining 50% i...

Thanks, kaneohe and SurgPath, for your responses.
od

Happy New Year, Bogleheads!! I have been ineligible to contribute to Roth IRA in the past due to income limits and since I max out my 401K, I have preferred not to make any non-deductible contributions to a traditional IRA. Ergo, as of now I don’t have IRA of any kind including those originating fro...

I love Canon SD series. I have previously owned a canon SD1000 and currently own SD1100.

Some dealers counter this by imposing a fee (usually 2-3%, but can be up to 5%) to use your card to pay for the car. Given that, it does not help to use the card unless your reward % is higher than this fee.

Having sufficient auto insurance is always a good idea. Basic liability insurance (state minimum coverage) is generally included with the car rental (but you should check with the rental agency). The supplemental liability insurance will extend this coverage to the limits you mentioned. In addition,...

I use actively managed funds sparingly and only when thay have a low ER. Currently, I have Wellington and PIMCO Total Return (PTTRX).

I do not know if you want to consider ETFs at all, but VWO (ER 0.27%) will be a good option to get the desired emerging exposure. On VFWIX(.40) (.25% purchase fee) May be I am reading this wrong, but as far as I know there is no purchase fee for VFWIX. However, there is a 2% early redemption fee (if...

I second billb. SSD is a neat product, but they will give a noticable boost only when the application is disk usage heavy. Also, capacities of SSDs are somewhat smaller (after factoring in the cost).

On a related note: Does anybody use quicken with Wells Fargo and is able to download transactions without paying $3/month fee for direct connect? I am considering the PMA package with them and wanted to make sure that I will be able to download transactions without having to pay this fee (through Qu...