Bogleheads.org

eBay does not allow sellers to bid on their own auctions. That may be part of the terms of service, but it certainly happens all the time. Or perhaps it's the seller's wife or a "friend" who puts in the shill bits. It seems to be fairly common and leads to weird situations such as "t...

If I want to bid on an ebay item, bidding before the last second only invites others to outbid me and increases the risk I may get carried away by the excitement of the auction and bid more than I might in a calm and rational moment. On the other hand, I often find it useful to put in a bid perhaps ...

Be careful when you say rolling the inherited IRA to Vanguard. Inherited IRA money is not allowed to commingle with other IRA funds. You need to make sure that Vanguard knows this is an inherited IRA so they can title it properly and so that you can do RMD from it, which you probably need to start n...

Your 401k is only 14% of your total portfolio. Just pick any of the lower cost funds that you have at least 14% asset allocation and use better (less expensive) funds outside the 401k to round out your selection. For example, put it all in mid-cap in the 401k. Then buy large and small caps in better...

In a previous generation, there were siblings that didn't get along and unequal distributions of an inheritance pushed them even farther apart. So much so that they didn't reconcile before some of them passed away. My parents were of that generation, and we hope they remember that. Among my siblings...

The recipient of the gift does not owe any tax. However if the gift was securities, you also get the cost basis from when they bought the securities, not from when they gave them to you. So while you may own no tax for receiving the gift, you may owe considerable capital gains tax when you sell, if ...

I personalty like a somewhat more risky AA than many. If someone has a 90% equity portfolio that's more than I like but that could be right for them. I am comfortable weathering the ups and downs and confident that I can reduce expenses comfortably (and radically) if needed. However, even with that ...

The minimum investment one can make in the firm is measured in the billions of dollars (invested over a couple of years). At 24% annual returns, over 35 years, that billion dollar investment would be worth 1.5 trillion. Since a trillionaire would easily be the richest investor on the planet and wel...

Using their rather pessimistic view of taxation at marginal rates on withdrawals from tax advantaged accounts, they managed to measure 5.78% in a fully taxable account versus 5.72% in a tax-advantaged account and concluded from that that there were no advantages in the tax advantaged account. I'm ve...

What terrible choices. Do we work in the same place? I went with midcap index (0.54ER) when I had a similar list of bad choices and then pushed the rest of my portfolio outside of the 401k around to give me an overall Asset Allocation that seemed sensible. You do not have a lot to work with here.

There is usually some context surrounding the "do not do this" admonishion. That context matters a great deal. If I have reason to believe that I know better than the person giving the order, then I am almost certain to ignore the order (and might or might not do the thing, based on my own...

Never had a midlife crisis, or at least not yet. Either some people never get them or I haven't reached midlife yet (that's a hopeful thought, implying I have a lot more life left). My wife had one however. It was beyond horrible and she is now my ex-wife. All the loving helpful support in the world...

I much prefer simpler controls, so for me Cuisinart TOB-40 was a better item. One element failed after a year, but Cuisinart honored the warranty with a brand new unit. Replacement unit has been completely reliable and makes good toast.

If you invest like Bogleheads and stick to your 120K gross withdrawal rate (including taxes, expenses and everything) you should be fine. It's a lot more than I am planning to retire with. The only cases I know where people with this kind of asset base ran into problems were out of control spending ...

I think Dave's investment advice is poisonously bad and he sets people up with absurdly unrealistic expectations (12% returns, 8% SWR, 100% Growth Stock portfolio). But his basic get out of debt advice and LBYM advice is sound and delivered colorfully enough that he's entertaining and gets people to...

I think you need to include property taxes in the mortgage calculation because it's implicitly included in a rent payment

So should the 0% paid off mortgage crowd revise their estimates to include property taxes and insurance?

I don't agree with this sentiment. I believe it matters a lot to drive defensively and always try to be prepared for other drivers to do something stupid or reckless. That's how I get my peace of mind, not by paying extra for supposed safety features. I think many Bogleheads believe in defensive dr...

If you do not abuse it, you can still get into problem situations with a debit card. If you do not abuse it, a credit card can avoid many of those same problems and can also be a useful tool. The financial world is mostly based on credit score and a credit card is one of the best ways for a young pe...

I'm curious why $200 is unrealistic for even a junior lawyer. I did find a couple firms that would do it for $200. As a simple situation with minor children, mine is about as simple as possible. Surely they have done one very similar. Use a word processor to edit the old draft and insert the names o...

Really, the only service I need is to make sure the will is properly signed and put in force. All the designations of guardians and executor are known. I provided a detailed list of all of these. Didn't need a conversation with an attorney to figure them out. The "fine tuning" of the will ...

This is a timely thread as I am in the midst of updating my will. I had lawyers quote rates that ranged from $200 to $5000 for essentially the same work. A simple will with minor children. Most of them pushed the idea of creating a living trust for thousands more. When I last had a will created (dec...

So the last suggestion is adapting the withdrawal rate to the PE of the stock market. Depending on PE you might draw between 4.5% and 5.5% So I don't understand how this can possibly be safer than a 4% draw. It's sensitive to market conditions, but in every case it's a larger draw than the Trinity 4...

If you're concerned about premium increases then get a policy that has a premium that is guaranteed to never go up. I have not found any such policy and the "combos" that do have fixed premium were much more expensive than expected. Usually the argument for buying insurance well before yo...

Welcome back. I have very much enjoyed your posts and look forward to more of them. We missed you. Congratulations on your weight loss success. I have heard stories from people about how they had to find the foods and activities that worked for them. I appreciate hearing all about what foods and wha...

I have a friend that I trust enough to hold my child's money for me in the event I die and am unable to do so. Needless to say I only entrust such a responsibility to someone I trust completely. The trust documents give him very wide latitude to make his own decisions and compensate himself if neede...

The 401k plans from employers who offered "advice" just had the guys who had sold the plan to the business do a pitch to the individual employees. Their advice was mostly that investing was complicated. Diversify. We should all take all our non 401k business to them, so they could advise h...

I also think that there could be some selection bias, since some single people are divorced, which means as a group they have been preferentially selected to have had a (possibly recent) disruptive economic event - that is their divorce. This probably significantly impacted their retirement plans an...

The output quality of the "prints" is pretty poor in home machines. You can get much better results from outsourcers like shapeways or ponoko. For hobbyist who enjoy playing with the machines - half the fun is getting it to work - there are some suitable home printers available, but they a...

This sounds like a standard practice for this company when renting to students. The $200 amount is small enough to be a nuisance that many people will pay. The idea of charging each departing tenant $100 to clean $10 for trash and $100 for misc is probably a nice return sweetener for them. Did they ...

As long as your company plan is with Edward Jones are you stuck with poor choices. If this is a tiny employer they may think they have limited ability to get a plan with a better provider. This is usually not true, but the Edward Jones rep might also be someone's son-in-law, so maybe you are stuck. ...

I like the idea of paying off a mortgage, but I sure don't like the idea of having little savings or reserves when facing a layoff. When my company looked in danger of layoffs, I did the opposite of what you are considering. I pulled all I could out of my HELOC and conserved cash in case I was facin...

You can safely provide all the income you expect to need with only a portion of your portfolio. Why would you not diversify the excess into other asset classes, as insurance against the unexpected if nothing else? If you put even half in equities, you still get 2x your annual expenses in yield and h...

One possible argument that may gain traction, is to compute the expenses for a "typical" account holder. Suggest someone who has been at the company for 5 years and may have a significant balance. Show the expenses in the current 401k vs the expenses in a hypothetical 401k with a lower ER....

Never used the movie viewing benefits, but the shipping plan has been worth it to me. Without the plan, I can get free delivery by waiting long enough, but with free 2 day shipping, items that I want to buy pretty much now I can use amazon to find the exactly right item at a good price instead of dr...

I think you are saying that the company is changing providers. If this is incorrect and this is a new job, by all means roll this into your own IRA, but if it is just a company changing plans then that option is not available. Your plan to go with the S&P 500 fund and balance elsewhere is probab...

Last article I read about this so-called forecast of higher meat prices was worded like any scary market catastrophe story and suggested that retail prices would rise by at least 5%. Wait a minute, the language made it sound like the end of the world as we know it, but the numbers in the story were ...

downshiftme wrote:Some kinds of online transfers between brokerage and bank are now disallowed and have to be done manually, but I suspect that is a computer problem introduced about the same time, not a deliberate policy change. Like what? I have had issues with transfers between linked accounts t...

They changed the name under which the former WellsTrade services were provided, and there is sometimes confusion about the Advisor's name. The minimum is changed for new accounts but some old accounts appear to be grandfathered with the old minimums, although some people report this is not consisten...

My job is not particularly "safe" and there have been considerable upheavals in both my personal employment and my industry in the last ten years. I don't expect it to be "safe" in the foreseeable future. In theory, if I took out a maximum mortgage on my house, I could invest tho...

Gifted shares carry their basis with them. Inherited shares get a stepped up basis on inheritance. You can make this is complicated as you want, depending on the details of the situation.

If you believe that your side investment will "certainly" return more than your mortgage interest rate, then you should minimize your mortgage payments and maximize your savings in the side investment. (Maybe even do it in a tax sheltered vehicle like an IRA or 401k). This probably also me...

A trust can control the money, even after your father's death. Is that what he is hoping to achieve? If one or more of the beneficiaries are irresponsible or could somehow lose the money (irresponsible or unreliable spouse perhaps) then a trust may possibly accomplish some protection. But it's a lot...

My employer used Principal and we had one of the worst 401k plans I ever heard of. Expense ratios over 2% for most funds, even a basic S&P500 index. Plus other account fees as well. Eventually they managed to switch to a new plan, also administered by Principal, and expense ratios are about a qu...

Over the years as a hiring manager and group manager, I've had lots of contact with HR departments at the companies I worked in. Most were abysmal. The interests of the company (and HR) are not always aligned with the employees and sometimes that results in HR problems or HR making situations worse ...

Buried on the second page: "while a 60-year-old would have received a 3.86 percent rate." Please count me out of a plan that requires I buy an annuity that pays less than the usual 4% SWR I might use when I retain ownership of my money. I get that the insurance company "promises"...

Possibly GBGH means Go Big or Go Home? This is a contribution to nieces and nephews. Every bit will be helpful and thanks to OP for providing something. I don't think it has to be big to be useful.

First World Problem?

It's taken a lot of work, a lot of conversations and perhaps a bit of political capital from your boss to get the promotion and the raise. I wouldn't want to jeopardize all that by asking for retroactive pay that is not a common business practice and could impact how they regard you going forward ju...

Nobody is owed anything, ever. Why should existing kids just get some inheritance for doing nothing? What makes the kids more or less valuable than the second spouse and/or the second spouse's children? I don't think that my kids are more or less valuable than other kids, except for my sentimental ...

Glad to see Bogleheads back online. Can we ask for the details of what happened and how it was all recovered. Welcome back.