Bogleheads.org

The assumption that energy companies are a large portion of the FM 100 is not true. Financials are by far the largest area. This is due to most resource plays being owned by the host nation and either being extracted by the host nation or under contract from the host nation. Until they do develop in...

I think that you will be better served if you modify the topic to ask for a portfolio evaluation so as to include your other assets as well. That way we would be better able to assist.

Allen

P.S. Are you sure you want to do the rollover to IRA? Have you checked to see how good the next 401k plan is? Yes, this is something significant to consider. If there are some institutional class index funds available be it from Vanguard, Schwab, Fidelity, or others that have low ERs, it may be adv...

The fact is that individual investors are a very small part of the market. So, if everyone followed the boglehead philosophy, they would continue to have minimal impact on the market. Buying index funds as money becomes available and selling them as needed to rebalance or to withdraw funds will not ...

I am glad for you Mitchell777, I imagine that it feels good to be in that situation. I am far from it, but hopefully I will reach it earlier than i desire or expect. Allen I am at an age where I surely should know my number but I kept increasing it. Not good, I know. Mostly it is the real rates in f...

Personally, I would try to liquidate the Lending Club account. I am currently doing so myself and I wish that I had did something else with my money initially. If you do not wish to sell at a loss, then charge a premium of 1% or greater. A lot of loans will sell that way. I have sold some at a premi...

Not that I was involved, but I am glad to hear that you are doing well and I wish you the best with the coming child.

Allen

I think that it doesn't matter what someone else thinks about your portfolio or your savings goals. As long as you're comfortable with it and you understand the advantages and disadvantages of it, then that is all that matters. If you expect to live exactly 41 2/3 years after you retire, then it is ...

My personal goal is to earn enough to be able to retire at age 55 and spend around $90,000 inflation adjusted per year and not prematurely exhaust my retirement savings. Considering that I will receive at least one guaranteed pension barring incident that increases with time in service and that I wi...

I have downloaded the domestic and developed international values from the French website. Does someone maintain one for emerging markets or do you use the global values?

Allen

I am assuming that you can not change the allocation for your wife's pension fund, if so I would not include that in calculating your asset allocation. Also, you should use your employer 401k funds for the entirety your bond allocation. I would also consider increasing your bond allocation to above ...

Back on topic, from a purely economic standpoint, I do not believe that a used PHEV or EV would be considered cost effective as well. While a used 2011 Volt will cost around 6-7k less than a new model, that is still around 8k above a used 2011 Cruze Eco, so the amount of use required for a break eve...

I agree with all stated before. If you have an employer 401k/457/403b, et cetera plan, with a relatively inexpensive target date fund (preferably less than 0.5% ER) available, then use it, otherwise you may have to divide into individual funds depending on expense ratios. If that is the case, ask fo...

Returns will likely be in the range of returns for EMB and PCY. Those are the two largest USD based EMB ETFs. All three will follow a different index. I personally have around $1200 in PCY and $2000 in FNMIX. I do not have a problem investing in emerging markets debt especially considering how more ...

As EmergDoc mentioned, the military is an option. However, you mentioned that you are foreign born and did not mention your naturalization status. If you are a naturalized U.S. citizen, you can apply to the Uniformed Services University for the Health Sciences or for the Health Professions Scholarsh...

The first stock that I ever bought was only slightly less risky than this. I purchased AMD at $15 in the summer of 1999 and set a limit sale at $50. In less than a year, I sold it after commissions with a return of over 300%, but that was very speculative. If their new CPU had not been adopted even ...

The only guaranteed advantage specifically of a mortgage is the current ability to deduct fees and interest from your taxes. The deductible amount is less than you pay in interest, so that is not a significant advantage. So, in order to see having a mortgage as an advantage is through speculation. I...

If you think about it, we have probably had different type of market and property bubbles since we have had societies. As all resources are scarce, and as new things are found and developed, the likelihood of a bubble prior to classical times is great. Allen I think I read there is at least plausibl...

I am looking into opening a Canadian brokerage account with Questrade in order to place recurring purchases of the Vanguard MSCI Canada ETF, VCE. I may also use it for my taxable account for other ETFs that are not available commission free through a major US brokerage house. My question is: what sh...

This sounds like California before the great recession. When Australia falls, and it will likely fall, it has the potential to fall hard. Here's hoping that the cities and counties don't manage their funds as poorly as some areas of California did.

Allen

I personally have about 25% of my portfolio in international equities, 84% total in equities, and about 14% in junk bonds, and about 2% in investment grade bonds, but I have accepted that level of volatility. I am able to be less risk adverse since I have a guaranteed pension that I will be able to ...

Managing multiple accounts does not bother me. I use websites like wikinvest.com and futureadvisor.com to get an overview of my portfolio through the multiple accounts. I use multiple accounts in order to gain access to commission free ETFs and certain mutual funds in order to minimize transaction c...

As mentioned at before, the daily leveraged ETFs have a great amount of tracking error and do not include dividends. Some ETNs with monthly resets may have less tracking error and some pay out dividends, but all that I know about are for very specific area of the market such as mortgage REITs, MLPs,...

Since I am a servicemember and should receive at least 1, possibly 2 pensions when I officially retire, I am using that as my baseload for income. I currently have a little over 2% in investment grade bonds (completely international though) and I intend to add international inflation linked bonds to...

One other thing to be considered is that Vanguard returns the proceeds of all securities lending to the fund, while Schwab likely only returns a portion of the proceeds, and since that would add to the return of the fund, it would create a positive tracking error over time as well, however small tha...

I agree. For most people, I would recommend maximizing their tax advantaged space before trying to pay off a very low interest loan anyways. (As mentioned elsewhere, if it was an emergency, you could cash in a Roth IRA if necessary to make payments.) Allen Since mortgage payments are certain and ste...

I totally agree. I just believe that there are 3 things necessary for EVs to gain widespread use: 1: Better batteries. Batteries that will allow for 3,000 cycles or more with solely fast charging technology. They will also need to significantly increase energy density. 2: More affordable. This will ...

With things as they stand now, I believe that someone with a mortgage below 5% will be in great shape in the future, since interest rates are very likely to go up in the future and guaranteed returns such as CDs may have a rate of return above 5%. So, it would be most logical to purchase those CDs a...

With high speed trading though, will it become useless eventually when there are too many computers attached in close proximity to NYSE's (or whoever's) central servers? One would cancel the other out so to speak.

Allen

I personally would not try a long trip in an EV right now anyways. Maybe if I lived on the west coast where Tesla and others have many charging stations I would, but I don't. I currently live in a somewhat rural area of Japan, and don't really require an automobile right now since I am able to bicyc...

Something else to consider is do you qualify for loan forgiveness? I would try to find out what federal, state, and local programs I qualified for. Also, after the interest rate adjustment will the 3% be fixed for the life of the loan? If either are the case, I would put more emphasis on developing ...

There are two things that aren't being considered in this conversation. One is that a majority of the large and/or expensive universities have compensation packages for people of lower incomes so that they will attract the brightest students regardless of how rich their families are. If your child i...

Honestly, I have no clue how much I will need to save in order to have a comfortable retirement. I currently plan on retiring at age 55 with my only income being my military pension, never advancing beyond E-6, and having to save the remainder. I have no clue what social security will look like in o...

I am regularly in the 15% tax bracket and am stationed overseas, so about 40% of my income is not taxable when I am in a taxable status and I normally spend several months of the year in a tax-free zone. This and my deductions normally only have me paying a small amount in state taxes and none or ve...

I am active duty military and the majority of my investment funds are in the TSP and I can afford to contribute to the maximum in the Roth TSP and a Roth IRA, but not much taxable. I am trying to come close to balancing my portfolio to my desired allocation, but certain areas in international (such ...

I rebalance annually. I modify my allocations in my TSP after I have purchased the ETFs that I am interested in buying in my Roth IRA accounts.