Bogleheads.org

Like most of you, I grew up in a working class family (trucking). Went to college, got a job, eventually started a business, did pretty well after a while, cashed out after 25 years, lost lots of money along the way listening to "experts", always had conservative moneys at Vanguard, eventu...

Yes, I did sell some of my equity position starting in September of '12 but only to maintain my asset allocation per my IS. Last sale in March '13. Right back to where I am supposed to be

Regards to all,

Bob

Hi ricb One thought... I do my withdrawals as a way of "rebalancing" back into line with my AA goal. In that way, you are always withdrawing from whatever has done well lately, avoiding selling equities when they are down. I went into 2008 at 60/40 equity/bond at the recommendation of an a...

Hi dbr and dickenjb... If fact, I have used Quantext Portfolio Planner, an Excel based spreadsheet to make similar projections. It does have a "glide path" that allows for adjustments in expenses and the addition of liquid assets as hard assets are sold. The reason for my post, is it tends...

Good Morning... I have been seeing some press on adjusting our expectations on returns and therefore the Safe Withdrawal Rate when doing our retirement calculations. I have wondered what other Bogleheads use as the pool of moneys upon which you apply your percentage? For instance... I have $x amount...

Thanks, DBR. I will try to locate the other thread...

Couldn't find it through search... Anyone have the link?

Tried to buy ~ $225K of VTAPX (Vanguard Short Term TIPS Admiral) this morning and received a message that in the interest of long term investors that I could not purchase that large an amount and that I should contact my Flagship Representative :confused Anyone else have that problem? Anyone know wh...

Cyberbob,

Just saw that too... Wonder why the dramatic change

Regards to all,

Bob

I currently have 40% of my Portfolio in the (Vanguard Total Bond Market Index I VBTIX) fund. I am worried about interest rates going up which will decrease the value of bonds. Therefore, I was thinking of purchasing the 2 bonds below and selling the total bond fund which I feel because of its holdi...

I don't know about the 0.25% purchase fee. That is paid into the fund. If I establish a position in the fund, then I am collecting that extra 0.25% from other buyers until it is discontinued. Just thought of something else... If the 0.25 % goes into the fund, is the SEC yield actually -1.75% :shock...

Hi artthomp, I had started a similar thread on the "help with personal investments" part of the forum earlier this morning. Having been concerned about the extended duration of the current Intermediate Term Inflation Protected Fund VAIPX, I am interested in moving at least a portion of my ...

femur wrote:

WHL wrote:so, should our 3-fund portfolios now be changed to a 4-fund portfolio?

Or now a 5-fund if you already split between TBM and TIPS?

And, should the Intermediate Term Tips fund be replaced by the Short Term Tips fund as they are also doing...

I know that this might be considered heresy but isn't avoiding the "CFA view" the role of active management? I can see where the MBS portion of an index fund such as TBM will react as described but M* notes that GNMA has 189% turnover. Wellington seems to have done an exceptional job explo...

I just read an article in M* that indicated that Vanguard will be updating their Target Retirement funds (among others) by adding a new foreign bond fund and by switching the intermediate term TIP's fund VIPSX to the short term TIP's Fund VTIPX. It has often been a common recommendation on this foru...

WOW, I just had a Vanguard CFP financial planner call me Monday. Here is the complete plan provided by the sophisticated support staff: 21% Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares (VTSMX) 9% Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund Investor Shares (VGTSX) 70% Vanguard Total Bond...

Hi hoops, I have owned VMLUX for many years. It is a leftover from my high earning days (now retired). I continually think about changing to either a higher yielding short term fund such as Short Term Investment Grade or CD's but for some reason, cannot seem to justify the change as the fund has per...

Has anyone else had problems logging in to TD this morning? I tried to check a recent I bond purchase and got a message that the server was "overloaded".

Now if I could just mentally separate the "fear". I admit it, the markets scare me. They're spooky. And I don't respond well to spooky behavior. Hi Bustoff, This comment seems pretty consistent with what you did in '08... If I go back to your original post, you admit that you answered the...

10% for all Vanguard accounts. 42% equity, 58% bond and cash.

Happy New Year to all

Bob

75/25 US/Intl. Half way between Mr. Bogles 20% max and Vanguards 30%. FYI 63 and retired. Sleep fine...

Regards to all,

Bob

IronHorse: Does anyone feel that Total Bond and Inflation Protected Securities funds are adequately diversified bond fund options going forward? We have held these two funds since 2000. This is the result: YEAR..INFLATION..TBM ....I.P. Sec. 2001......2.8%.......8.4%.....7.7% 2002......1.6%.......8....

Where would the world be without the occasional optimist to balance out the "doom and gloom" sellers of the world We'd all be depressed for sure...

I have a friend who will be attempting to sell their small business to fund retirement. First off, how do you value the business? Without getting too specific,the business to be sold manufactures small parts used in the Technolgy industry. Would the present value of future cash streams be the most ...

Rick, I am grateful for your insight and agree with the basic idea of what you present. Why? Because as they say... " I represent that remark". As I have scanned through the posts, each seems to offer a viewpoint based on their personal experience or some form of mentorship from a parent o...

Don't look back? :D Seriously, as another former Ameriprise client, I believe that the account closing fee is per account number, not per fund. You may, however, be required to pay 12b1 fees on the sale of the funds depending on the share class. I found that I could not transfer many of the funds &q...

Are we, as a group, heavily invested in a product that we really don't understand? That's pretty scary :shock: The combined effect on TIPS of rising interest rates and rising inflation can be hard to understand. This is especially true if we think of TIPS in the traditional way: as a bond denominat...

I don't think anyone really knows what will happen to TIPS in an environment of rising rates and rising inflation. TIPS haven't been around all that long. That is my thinking exactly (and my hesitation). There is not enough historical information with this asset class over different interest rate p...

If inflation gets out of control and you lose 10% or 20% on your tips fund, ... Inflation getting "out of control" won't cause TIPS prices to fall. If anything, their prices will rise as inflation fears increase the TIPS inflation-risk premium. The only thing that will cause TIPS prices t...

Hi Van, I have been having the same thought with a modification. I have thought of reducing my TIPS exposure due to the extended duration as well as the current negative yield. I started buying I Bonds as an alternative a few of years ago. As my TIPS are in a SEP IRA, I am considering trading some p...

Hi DBR...

Yeah, I know. Gives me the creeps though as the Ameriprise guy tried to sell us annuities to the extent that in his words "it eliminated the need for bonds" in our portfolio. Still concerned about putting that much faith in an insurance company...

All of the cat food jokes aside, I found this to be a very thought provoking article on a personal level. The "Reader's Digest" version is as follows... Was with Ameriprise for more than half of my liquid assets up until 2008 including Annuities and VUL products. Advisor constantly chided ...

Happy Birthday!

I rebalance every year the week of my birthday, September 10th and add one percent to my bond holdings each year as I get older on that date. This was indeed a good year to be born in September

Regards to all,

Bob

Snowjob... lots of good advice here, if only to help you understand your friends motivations. I too worked in the corporate world for 10 years, left to start a small company, managed that company over 25 years, only to sell that company to a public company (corporate world). I lasted 2 years after t...

62, wife 63 no pension. Retired since 59. 48/52 equity/fixed. Plan to glide at 110 - age in bonds. BTW Vanguard tool also fixed me at 50/50...

Bob

Convert: It was my job to review nearly every Small Business Administration loan in South Florida. Based on my knowledge and experience, I would not risk my family's personal savings for the "investment" you describe. Factoring Best wishes. Taylor Thanks, Taylor... As always, sage advice!...

Here's what I do know... He owns his house free and clear. The business owns real estate appraised (not assessed) at 750,000 with 200,000 in mortgages. Sounds like he has wonderful opportunities to tap equity at super-low interest rates. Why does he need you, at least yet? Brian Speed... Banks are ...

Another thing to be careful about is the state contracts. Will they pay eventually, yes. Eventually is the key word. All states are strapped these days and I know IL stretches out their payments for a very long time on purpose and solid businesses are going under waiting. The business did their par...

Accounts receivable factoring isn't very complicated, and you would think a bank would jump at the opportunity to earn 1.5% a month. Something is going on behind the scenes (why can't he get bank financing?) and until you figure out why banks won't touch him....I would steer clear. You may also end...

Accounts receivable factoring isn't very complicated, and you would think a bank would jump at the opportunity to earn 1.5% a month. Something is going on behind the scenes (why can't he get bank financing?) and until you figure out why banks won't touch him....I would steer clear. You may also end...

Good morning... I have been offered an opportunity by a friend and former colleague to provide working capital to his privately held excavating/demolition business. The proposal is based on a proposal that he has received from a group of lawyers to provide the same. This group has offered to provide...

I agree... Run, do not walk to the nearest exit. Left Ameriprise completely in late 2009. First liquidated the wrap accounts (at that time lots of TLH) and then the IRA's and transferred all to Vanguard. The the VUL and Annuities??? My recommendation is to take the hit and move on. I calculated that...

I tried to sign our living trust up on Treasury Direct but it said that I need to mail in a photocopy of the trust document. Did you have to do this? If so, how long did it take after you mail in the documents before you were allowed to invest? I had to do this and I think it took around 2 weeks be...

Actually, I thought I would get a lot of requests by members who wanted us to adopt them! Can I have them running errands, cleaning the dog, cutting the grass, doing maintenance around the house, washing the dishes, etc? I think convert949 is expecting to pick up a few more children in this Forum r...

Hi... This is the OP speaking... Well, I asked for financial advice and got a lot more than I bargained for. Lots of different points of view especially where parenting skills are concerned. I DO appreciate all of the advice but need to let you all know that there is nothing here that I have not tho...

I wanted to know this too! What do the independent kids think about all this? Actually, we did discuss it with a couple of them and they feel that as we would own the house that they are OK with it. We have avoided discussing our continuing cash support as that has been received negatively in the p...

Wow :shock: Based on the first few posts I though it would at least come out 50/50. Actually, I thought I would get a lot of requests by members who wanted us to adopt them! As to the dependency issues, we have thought long and hard about which is worse, i.e. endless subsidies vs. an attainable goal...

It's your money - you can do what you want. That can mean writing the kids checks, buying a house for them, or cutting them off altogether. It sounds like you're not entirely happy with providing the present level of support and are looking for this house as a way to cut them off with one final sub...

Good Morning, Having finally finished the completion of our transition to the Boglehead way, we find ourselves confronted with one last challenge to our happy retirement. Having retired somewhat early at 60 a couple of years ago, we have continued to subsidize two of our five children who are chroni...

Do I go with my "gut"? I don't trust my gut when it comes to investing, so why would I trust my gut when choosing an investing book to follow? What I really want to do, for my peace of mind, is pick a management firm, tell them my risk tolerance (which is "moderate"), and let th...

Hi nosher1, Congrats... I went through the same situation in 2005. I had many of the same feelings that my nest egg was too large to manage on my own. Those that contacted me at that time did everything they could to reinforce that I was right. At that time, decided to split the "after tax"...