Bogleheads.org

With regards to rebalancing, once the funds get too large to rebalance with new money, you can set the dividends to go into a money market fund instead of being reinvested. Then you can use the dividends in addition to new cash for rebalancing.

-K

I hate this game. I remember winning it in high school by betting it all on a penny stock. I more than double my money in a month. The company went bust within a year afterwards. This game attributes skill to those who get lucky and emphasizes stock picking over a steady index-based "hold the e...

Schlage code locks. Ow can be programmed wirelessly from your computer. Not as simple as what you're looking for, but may be easier than manually programming the lock.

-K

It is a truly rare and noteworthy event when someone of Dr. Bernstein's status in the financial industry takes the time to go out of his way to post here to specifically warn us about the future outlook of a particular investment. I certainly take note. Thank you Dr. Bernstein for sharing your insig...

Nice chart. The notion that during a crisis, switching bond allocation from treasuries to corporates, is an interesting one. However, one should also keep in mind that in such a situation, one ought to be selling some of the treasuries to rebalance back into stocks. The rebound of the stocks should ...

Age 39. Am 80/20 until age 45 when will dial back to 70/30, then 60/40 at age 55, and so on. Bonds don't look like a great investment at this time, but that will only hold true if there is no stock crash in the future. If there is a stock market decline of even -5%, then the 1% yield on bonds will s...

$1000 I was just beginning medical school so didn't have much money. We got a gold/platinum ring from a German designer that she really liked but got a CZ instead. It looks great and no one knows the difference. The stone ended up falling out of the fitting and getting lost which made us feel really...

You can't just pick a field because of salary. You cannot discount the years of suffering that are involved in getting an advanced degree such as medicine and law. For medicine it's 4 years Bachelors, 4 years medical school, 3-10 years residency/fellowship. You cannot discount the student debt that ...

I agree going all or nothing seems dangerous. As the saying goes, the market can remain irrational far longer than you can remain solvent. Edleson's approach is quite doable when the actual portfolio value is above the curve (above the value path). You simply keep the difference in cash. When the tr...

As market timer alluded, you should read Michael Edlesons excellent book on value averaging. If you're interested in being all in or all out, you could always track a theoretical portfolio. When it's value is above the curve move all your money to the sidelines. When below the curve, go all in. The ...

Hmmm. $200,000 seems cheap for four years of medical school, but you did say living expenses will be covered. The $200,000 can easily become $300,000 at today's interest rates by the time you finish 4 years med school and 3 years residency since you probably won't be making any significant payments ...

If his out of network deductible is $2500, I would expect him to have to pay that amount and have Aetna cover the remainder. I would wait until you get the bills from everyone. If Aetna does not cover it, you'll have to contact the anesthesiologist and surgicenter separately and negotiate. It's a lo...

I dragged my wife to Pittsburgh kicking and screaming (figuratively speaking), and then had to drag her away when it was time to move away. It's a great town. Many great recommendations above. The most important thing is that you don't have a tunnel to drive through on your work commute. They are ma...

If your sole consideration is to eliminate heat gain, then you put the window wall on the North side and the garage on the West side. Place all the utility areas such as laundry room, mud room, and bathrooms against the South wall as these generally have small windows and act as a buffer between the...

First generation immigrant here. 32 years ago, my mom left everything behind to come to this country with me in tow. I am infinitely better off now.

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I agree that having access to the negotiated rates is a huge advantage of having insurance. I personally like the high deductible HSA plans for that reason. You pay a much lower premium and you essentially self-insure for the first portion but at negotiated rates and with pretax dollars. Once you us...

As a physician, I think this is one of the biggest travesty in our current system. There is no link between real costs and the billed costs. I think it evolved over time when the insurance company agreed to pay 80% of the billed amount, so the providers increased the billed amount to compensate. The...

The article seems to mix up two things. The winner of the stock-picking game (which said 5th grader was not) and winner of an essay contest which this was really about. The essay was about which one stock you would invest in and the kid answered Honda mainly because of familiarity. I wouldn't know h...

I use a simple metal money clip like the one below: My wife had it engraved and gave it to me as a present a long time ago. It fits up to 5 cards on one side, and bills on the other. It fits perfectly in my front pocket. I now see that there is also a titanium version to save weight. http://www.amaz...

Out of curiosity, has anyone finished updating Simba's spreadsheet?

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I think EM might me emerging markets.

Have a plan with a set asset allocation strategy. When the percentages drift out of proportion, buy/sell to reballance back to the original allocation. Without a plan it's hard to make these decisions.

-K

Ditto the value averaging strategy.

-K

Mortgage 10%, taxes 5%, other housing costs (utilities, insurance) another 5%.

The solution is for the IRS to mail you a PIN that you will use to file the return. Conversely, asking for information from last years return would work as well. Comparing the W2s could be problematic if the IRS is slow in processing the W2s they receive from the employers and aren't able to use the...

I'm a minimalist at heart but all those kids keep getting in the way.

-K

4-slice toaster oven -- not another slice and dice thread!

When I added international REITs to my portfolio, I replaced half of my US REIT allocation with it so I suppose I count it as part of the REIT allocation. It pushed my international stock allocation from 40% of stocks to 50% which is still within acceptable limits for me.

-K

Sounds to me like diversification at work. Seriously.

-K

To answer the OPs question of PA vs NP... The answer is it depends. Though NPs and PAs are equivalent in their status as mid level providers, their utilization varies from place to place. For example, in my region, PAs are primarily used as surgical assistants and NPs for primary care. However this ...

No idea about PE, but my current portfolio has been above my value averaging path for the last two months so new investments have been going into cash. The cash will be deployed once the portfolio value drops below the value path again. That's the nifty thing about value averaging -- the portfolio s...

The target retirement fund is an obvious starting point. It provides domestic and international diversification, gradually increases bond allocation over time, and is a "set it and forget it" strategy which takes a lot of investor mis-behavior out of the equation. I would only suggest that...

I would agree that education cost is an important consideration, especially given today's high interest rates on student loans and trend toward lower physican reimburesement. My education debt is "only" $140,000 which is less than half of many of my colleagues. Considering folks are paying...

To be meaningful, looking at net worth should be in the context of one's age. Geing worth $100,000 at age 25 is very different than the same net worth at age 65.

-K

I'm going to take a step back and address the bigger picture here. From the posts above, it sounds to me like the OP is interested in investing, but has no idea where to begin. The penny stock ad cought his attention, but with no alternative strategy to compare it with, he is not sure what direction...

We also recently sold our old minivan on Craigslist. Because I live in a somewhat rural area, I also listed on Autotrader to get more interest. All the replies I got came from the Craigslist ad and not a single one from Autotrader. I had a few people ask to "hold" the car for them until th...

A few thoughts. You ignored tuition inflation that is 6-8% per year so your cost of attendance may be higher. You also give up earning a salary in school. Residency match is a competitive process. My program (anesthesia, not top 10) gets about 600 applications for 17 spots. We usually fill all spots...

I've used everything you can think of. Renting a steamer from your local Home Depot is by far the easiest. I used to loathe removing wallpaper. Now I don't really mind it. When you paint over glue residue, the paint tends to peel off over those spots. I'd use the steamer, then sponge with vinegar so...

I was in medical school/residency in mid-2000's Had accumulated a small amount in a 403b working between college and medical school ($1000 or so) but lost over half of it in the 2000 market crash. Did not reach positive net worth until age 37. However now able to save 20% of a good income so catchin...

I would not use paint on stairs. It will not hold up to the wear and tear of people going up and down the stairs and will eventually start to chip. If you are looking to alter the color, stain is the appropriate way to do it. If you are looking for traction, there are special adhesive strips with a ...

I'm not sure there are features that will predict who will become a Boglehead. However, there are certainly red flags that one should be wary about. Out of control credit card debt as mentioned above is one. People who engage in "retail therapy" to cope with stress. I'd also be concerned a...

Inflation at work -- $1 isn't what it used to be.

Sounds interesting. My question is how does this bond fund interact with a small/value tilted equity portfolio? We know that generally speaking, short to intermediate term US treasuries provide the best diversification for such a portfolio as the correlations tend to turn negative during a market cr...

I would echo the same advice. I've had several houses with basement and attic mold problems. The solution completely depends on the cause. The burst pipe scenario may or may not fit the actual situation. If it was a burst pipe and there was standing water in the basement, the cause may be fixed but ...

All the product materials that I have encountered so far make it sound like it's pretty straightforward to change beneficiaries as long as they meet certain criteria as far as relatedness. However, I haven't encountered anyone who has had to do this. Might make for an interesting separate thread. -K

I hadn't thought of the ticker issue, TURTL would work for my tortoise fund.

Maybe I'd have to work out a name that fits MOMNY (Mo' money)
or MOCSH (Mo' cash)

Of course MOMNY could also be read as mom in NY.

CASHX or simply MONEY would work for a money market fund.

-K

In the end, I've opted to go with the Fama French data and go with a significant small/value tilt. So it's an equal split between large-cap value and small-cap value for my US equity position. The psychological hurdle is coming to terms with the likelyhood that there may be another extended period w...

livesoft wrote:(And who says that some readers are not already following such a strategy.)

I must admit I become leery of asset classes that eveyone is clammoring about. I also notice, that those are the ones I'm usually rebalancing out of so it works out ok.

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I currently have two 529 plans. My state's (New York) and Ohio's. My state's plan had high ER's but I can deduct up to $10,000 from my state taxable income so I contributed the first $10K to my state's plan, and the rest goes to Ohio's which offers Vanguard and had the lowest expenses at the time I ...

VTRIX: VG international value fund. Unfortunately not an index fund and ER is 0.41 or so, but it is what's available to me.

I combine that with the global-ex US small-cap fund from Vanguard to get the international small-value tilt

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I'd probably exclude dread as well, but mirex has potential. Sounds miraculous.

-K