Bogleheads.org

I asked my agent how much my auto / boat/ homeowners insrance would increase if I fell from the top tier credit score. A couple of percent or $15 -20 per year was the answer. While I get credit reports I don't pay for the largely worthless score. No credit card balance, no installment loans, no mort...

Like others have said Dave gives good debt reduction advice, but I don't necessarily like his investing advice. It's not for the squeamish and definitely not for a Boglehead. A pet peeve of mine is that Dave tells all his callers that you need a budget and you can't do it without one. Well I must b...

I have a small issue with #4. There are strategies that will ensure a larger SS benefit, but nobody can say for certain if they took it too early. Nobody knows when their time will be up. And depending on other factors taking SS earlier might allow a larger portfolio more time to grow. The payoff f...

Wow. This stuff makes me wonder what will happen when we return to real volatility.

All the more reason to pick your diversified portfolio and stick to it, regardless. We can look at all sorts of timeframes and scenarios, policy, what happens when rates rise or drop etc. and think we know, but we dont. :beer +1 to that (especially the beer!) Pick your AA and stick to it, by all me...

Isn't this kind of like saying there's going to be a major earthquake in the next ten years? What I find most disturbing today, is the effect the media has on public option and how they respond to situations. Something as stupid as one person making an off the cuff comment through Twitter, can chan...

I have to agree the statement from Vanguard appears a bit self serving for my tastes.

Call it human capital, a career, compensation path or whatever, it's a job. I prefer to treat my occupation and my investments as separate worlds. Why create new categories of finances just to rationalize a position? Do I include a pension and SS in my net worth? No - does it matter? How will this a...

I've had a RMSA acct for 7 years. The withdrawals can be taken tax free after retirement age ( 10 years of service after age 45) if used for medical insurance premiums or out of pocket medical expenses. The only downside to my plan is that there are no low cost VG funds. High expenses but the 50% ma...

At 57, I'm 45% equities / 40% bond and 15 % cash. However the bond portion is shorter duration and I really don't see much difference in yield between cash and bonds at this point. So I'm tempted to just say my AA is 45/55. I really don't feel this or your allocation are overly conservative.

OK, I'll confess: I'm in the "bonds for safety" group. Yes, I like the income component, but "safety" is my primary reason for investing in bond funds. So long as they can at least stay even with inflation, I can survive with that, although I would prefer some real gain. So, wha...

I'm close anyway with only a year or two to go. It would only take about 10% for me to pull the plug now.

Thanks Taylor, which one is your favorite :?: I went back and read all the quotes. They are all so good that it is difficult to pick a "favorite." However, never one to knowingly avoid a question, I will pick this subtle "gem": "Investing is simple, but not easy." -- W...

Beagler wrote:"Diversification is a protection against ignorance. It makes very little sense for those who know what they're doing."

Warren Buffett

Interesting

At my current age of nearly 57 I have hit my age 60 "number". I plan to stick fairly close to my current AA of 45/40/15 for the next few years. Since I am still accumulating my rebalancing is partially accomplished through new contributions. Currently these are all going into a stable valu...

My ISP and AA allow me to take some profits (rebalance) if things start to get crazy high. Keeps it simple

Yeah, at least if everyone followed that advice no body would have been misled by his advice in early 2009. "when you can't stand to lose another dollar...." Fortunately for me I only follow anyone's advice from a critical perspective. While he's done great things for all of us investors h...

I've had new cars every couple years for business purposes. Over the last 30 years I've put about 1.5 million miles on these vehicles with all going over 130k miles up to 170k. I never had any problem with any of them and certainly never gave them any special break in treatment.

Since you didn't say specifically that you have Vanguard TDF's the answer is really it depends on which brand fund you have as each supplier of these funds has their own idea of what is the right glide path for you. In an Aug. 2012 article in Money magazine they compared the so called glide path (%...

I own Wellington and my wife Wellesley in our Roth IRA's. The Roths are the accts we plan to hold until passing to our children. We feel fairly secure with these funds. The other bigger accts are held in VG Index Funds which are rebalanced at 3% bands.

I believe that if everyone here is really a Boglehead there's not much to talk about.

Pimco Total Return Fund PTTRX .46% in 401k. Overall according to VG - .21%.

I don't understand why stock investing percentage of total net worth, home and autos included . . . My mistake. I forgot that "home and cars" are part of net worth. I guess I should have excluded physical assets. Perhaps the better question is what percentage assets are held in cash equiv...

I think it's fair to say that: 1) no institution out there is immune from mistakes (please let me know if there is one out there!) and 2) Vanguard's best features are its fund offerings, low cost, and shareholder ownership. I like #2 and luckily have not encountered #1 at Vanguard yet. Sorry you ha...

I would suggest taking a look at all the VG funds. There is very little difference in yield between the stock and bond funds on the whole. Assess your risk tolerance, set your allocation and stay the course.

I found during a rollover of my wife's 403b that Vanguard has some room for improvement. During the transition the phone reps literally made up the status of the transaction during the process. At one point I was told the other company had not released the funds while I was looking at the funds rece...

I flown plenty over the last 35 years. Many times I gotten free upgrades but have always flown coach overseas. My take on it is that combined you'll be flying 36 hours for $9000 or $250 per hour each in savings if you go coach. I can find a lot of ways to have fun with that cash. It's all about prio...

Joint everything for the last 35 years. Teamwork in this case really paid off.

Yes, it's on an index card posted on the fridge. If I tried real hard I could probably memorize it and take it down.

Sounds like an incentive to buy a SPIA and just live forever. I love simplicity

Sounds about right. Have a Merry Christmas

Having a little experience in this area it amuses me when people want to retire to manage rental properties. All I can think is that they must have had really lousy jobs. My suggestion is to find your passion while your working and the rest will follow. From the investment standpoint I prefer the 3:...

I'm not putting down Stable Value Funds, but I simply don't understand why a person would want to be in one. You can create your own stable value portfolio by simply putting a few index funds together, all with much lower expense ratios, and you can adjust your risk tolerance to your exact needs, a...

Or as my DW has said, put it all on Red

rmelvey wrote:I think Irving Kahn knows exactly what he wants and takes great satisfaction from his stock picking. When you are 107 you can do whatever the hell you want!

Exactly

The phrase emerged in the depths of 2008-2009. It has been controversial all along. To me, it is encapsulated in John C. Bogle's comment: Unfortunately I think it is going to be bad timing but if you can’t afford to lose another penny or another nickel, you have to get out, That's the Bogle quote I...

Does it even matter? His assets may grow or decline but we're ignoring the 800# gorilla in the room

Plan B has been confusing because of various meanings. I don't consider a plan B at all because if you have incorporated a contingency into your plan, it is part of your investment policy, not a secondary option. Worth noting that Larry's Plan B does not include selling. Larry's plan is more about ...

It all looks good and has sure worked for me. However the quote about the new car smell does not ring true for me. I've had a lot of new, used, slightly used cars over the last 35 years. The best ones have always been brand new cars which provided many more years of service than even the best used c...

While I estimate thoughout the year I'll wait until the first week of Feb. to download and calculate.

We own two homes, one being our primary residence and the other a lakeside weekender. I include the value of the lake home as an asset but not the house we actually live in. I know it has value but you have to live somewhere right? Likewise we have both. I don't count the lake house. However it is ...

I have encountered the same problem. Another reason why Fidelity has just a little bit better website and acct service. In this case I firmly believe you get what you pay for.

It would be very difficult to provide an answer based on the wide variety of personal situations. No cash ? Living off the dividends & interest, perhaps a pension with ss, annuity? Unless the full picture is disclosed it is difficult to draw any conclusion.

My company offers VG Inst Index and Ext Market rather than Total Stock market. The Inst Shares have such a low ER that I don't mind a bit. However on the Int'l front they offer ony VG Developed Market Inst shares w/ no emerging market. We get our allocation by using the VG EM Admiral shares in my wi...

I spend quite a bit time reading, following the markets and logged on to this forum. This forum reinforces my investment plan and keeps me focused. I only occasionally rebalance my AA when bands are hit. Otherwise I'm happy doing nothing.

For the short time period I would use an online bank. Currently I use Ally for my car/transportation, CapitalOne for my self imposed HOA and ING for vacation/recreation. At this point I don't see anything at Vanguard to meet thse needs. Prime MM has no return at all so I just keep a couple hundred i...

Default User BR wrote:Twenty choices and no mention of stable-value funds.


Brian

Good point. The only change I've made is shifting some TBM into a stable value fund at virtually the same yield.

As an early retiree, I need a lot of my money in taxable accounts to get me to age ~59.5 so I can start tapping into my IRA in an unfettered manner. I have about 67% of my investments in taxable accounts. Likewise I'll need a fair amount in taxable if I'm going to retire at 57 or 58. I plan to have...

I watched the show a number of times but found no benefit. The good advice given is so basic that it would have been realized long ago by members of this board. Probably while we were in grade school. The bad advice is just plain dangerous and shifts with the prevailing wind.

I can't remember contacting HR in the last 30 years. If the policies are correctly written there should not be a need for explanation and hand holding.