Bogleheads.org

Does the gift cards at grocery stores thing work for Blue Cash Preferred? I thought they excluded cash equivalent purchases. If you have a bunch of stuff on your grocery bill, how can Amex know whether you bought gift cards, ice cream, or cheese? Does your local grocery store submit that informatio...

Hey, sorry for the delay in replying. The last part is the money that should be in my retirement accounts right now, and is my regret. But as you said, can't change the past. I am glad that I learned about the Roth IRA in time to make a 2012 contribution. Makes sense - I was just curious.Some days, ...

Hah, not that decisive. It took me 4 years to come to that decision. Washington, eh? Vancouverite here. I'm very familiar with your state. :-) Me too :) I've been here a bit over 3 years, but probably won't be super decisive on the matter until I marry someone. Citizenship status of future spouse w...

3) You can't put any money in a Roth IRA on her behalf until you're married. Yes, I'm aware of that. That's what I meant. Advise her to sell $5,500 in securities from the taxable and put that money into a Roth. Or maybe just transfer the securities directly, if that is an option. Continue to do so ...

I do address these in my longer reply above, but I want to suggest one correction. I am in the 28% marginal bracket. Could you point me to the thread where you got 33%? That's a mistake. :-) Yep, I see that now. I think I confused age 33 and 33% tax bracket :) My statement still holds for 28% thoug...

Questions 2. 401(k) and Roth 401(k). Should I adjust what portion of my income goes to each? Presently 100% is in Traditional. This is impossible to know without knowing your income / tax bracket. But most likely based on your age and current single status, it's almost surely a MUCH better idea to ...

Everyone else has mentioned stuff about keeping your investments separate until marriage. I'll concentrate on your investments in a moment. 1) Don't pay a cent down on her student loans prior to getting married. 2) Will Her Taxable investments cover the 6.7% loan? 3) You can't put any money in a Rot...

Schwab has a checking account that rebates ATM fees worldwide: http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/ban ... ng_account
I've had it open for a few months now and it's completely free. I would transfer US$ there and then withdraw cash from an ATM in Canada.

AmEx Blue Preferred trumps all @ 6% back for groceries, even after the 75$ yearly fee. I'm single.. did the math.. and I don't spend enough for it to be worth it unfortunately. I'm also single and will probably apply for the Amex Blue Cash Everyday later this year. It's 3% on groceries, 2% on gas s...

Well, it depends on the interest rate on your student loans. If it's higher than what you could get on a mortgage (so > 4%), I would be paying those off first. I just kept adding money to an account labelled "Down Payment Savings" at Ally until I hit my goal. It happened sooner than I thou...

Why not just open the Cash Management account and then ACH the rewards funds somewhere else instead of investing with Fidelity? You could ACH the money to your house down payment account at Ally. That's what I plan to do when I open the card sometime this year.

You can actually schedule your i-bond purchases: http://thefinancebuff.com/how-to-buy-i-bonds-on-a-future-date-in-treasurydirect.html That's what I've been doing and it works great. The catch is that you can't cancel the purchase once you've scheduled it, so be careful that you actually want to do it!

Whether the $225/year is worth it or not is dependent on the exact expense ratios, your desired asset allocation, and your other investment accounts. If you update your post with the info here: http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6212 then we can help you make that decision. The ...

I would ask the mortgage person you end up working with. She/he should be able to run the numbers both ways. I think it's better legally to have both people on both the mortgage and title in most cases. I would calculate your DTI (debt-to-income) ratio with (1) just your income and your proposed mor...

What about something like Car2Go? It should have a fairly low daily cost since you only pay for the minutes commuted each way, unlike Zipcar.

Ally Bank is at 0.84%, no minimums. There are other online banks with similar or higher rates. That's where I kept my down payment money before I bought my place.

Given I've been maxing out - even when my salary was lower (it certainly didn't start at 75k) - I basically was living like a dirt-poor college student with whatever was left with the paycheck. Good on you for doing this! I had a lot of trouble convincing a friend to max it out when their base sala...

You and joyfulnoise are making me feel like ~74k in tax-advantaged accounts isn't all that much at 24, wow! Love it! Definitely second joyfulnoise's suggestion of reading the wiki through and through. I may have devoured that many times over at this point :D I like the portfolio Duckie has suggested...

I'm in a similar spot to you, but swap your brokerage account out for equity in my condo! 1) Are you sure you're in the 33% tax bracket? 33% starts at $183,251 for single filers, so take off the standard deduction ($6,100) and one personal exemption ($3,900), you're at $193,251 in allowable gross in...

I bought an Admiral shares index fund in taxable last year after I bought my condo (TISM). I'd had some small taxable investments prior to that, but I sold them to raise money for the down payment. It was good to do that learning experience will small dollar amounts (low 4 figures). But now before i...

It seems like this needs to be made as a lifestyle decision, not a financial one, as it sounds like the finances would work themselves out just fine. Ignoring money, do *you* want to live in a house versus your current condo? Does your girlfriend? Do you want to have a yard? Do you want to mow the l...

Thanks for the advice. Why did you choose Ally for your savings account? Do they typically have better interest rates? Also, what do you know about USAA and how they compare in this aspect? I am in the military and am planning to switch to USAA as my primary bank. I know nothing about USAA. I was o...

I kept my down payment fund entirely in a savings account at Ally. Principal guaranteed since it's FDIC insured. I did use some CDs as well, but I ended up cashing them out early at a small penalty. I would consider tossing the $15,000 into a CD and put future cash flow into an online savings accoun...

What would be your recommendations for a taxable account to use in place of the 401(k)? Vanguard, especially if your Roth IRAs are there. Do you know what you want your asset allocation to look like? If not, I would take a gander at the wiki, read up on investing. Since the majority of your investi...

Meg77 wrote:Hell, my savings account pays 2% right now and it's FDIC insured!

Where is this 2% savings account???

Normally, I would say to max out 401(k)s, IRAs, and then pay down the mortgage. At least, that's what I'm doing. Since you don't have 401(k)s, I would consider investing that amount in a taxable account before paying down the mortgage: $17,500 x2 /.75 = $46,666 ($17,500 per person, so times two, and...

9% (FSEVX) Spartan Extended Market Index Fund Advantage Class (0.07%) <-- Roughly 80% large caps (Institutional Index) plus 20% mid/small caps (Extended Market) makes up the total US stock market. FSEVX being considered a "Domestic Stock" index fund correct? How does the large cap/mid/sma...

Apologies if this is a dumb question but why would it be beneficial to hold international in my roth?? Not a dumb question :) Your 401(k) has the following international fund: VANG FTSE AW IDX INV (VFWIX) - 0.30% No additional fees apply. It's not a bad fund, but if you compare it to Vanguard Total...

I've heard stories of people having Canadian satellite dishes in the States since Canadians get access to both countries' channels. Not that I know anyone who does

1. 46%
2. Not yet, but should do so within 5-6 years.
3. I expect it to go up to about 55% by the time I pay it off.

Are they in a taxable account? You could probably transfer them in-kind to a Vanguard Brokerage Services account. Trades aren't bad at $7/each: https://personal.vanguard.com/us/whatweoffer/stocksbondscds/feescommissions If you're not buying and selling and you're happy with your current brokerage, i...

When I got my mortgage, the lender told me that mortgage scores are different than the scores you pay for with Equifax/TransUnion/Experian. My credit score was definitely lower when applying for the mortgage than I thought it was going to be and it unfortunately was not 760. With my assets and cashf...

I think it's also that IRAs will have RMDs. So if you reduce the balance of your Traditional IRAs between 59.5 and 70.5, then you will reduce the amount you have to take out in RMDs each year. Roth IRAs can also be passed on to heirs at a more favourable taxation than Traditional IRAs. My general id...

I recently worked with Quicken Loans through Schwab Bank: http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/banking_lending/mortgages I've also heard good things about Amerisave. Some credit unions and mortgage brokers will also do everything online - it pays to shop around. I did all of my mortgage applications ...

I received something similar last week! I calculated that it should save me probably about $200/year this year and then even more going forward as my balance grows. So small steps, but still awesome.

I would consider playing around with the NYT Buy vs Rent calculator: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/buy-rent-calculator.html For me personally, I pulled the trigger to buy when the following were true: ⋅ I had enough in cash to cover a 20% down payment and six months' expenses...

Try Coast Capital Savings. They're a BC credit union. I've had accounts with them forever and they're pretty awesome. They have a USD chequing account that you could deposit funds in via a USD cheque. https://www.coastcapitalsavings.com/Personal/Banking/Chequing_Accounts/Coast_US_Chequing_Account/ Y...

I'm in my mid-twenties now and have a net worth around $250k. I have about 30% equity in my condo and my investments are approaching $100k. I've been out of college for just over 3 years now. Didn't do a Master's degree and started working within 3 months of graduating from college with a $100k+ job...

I would highly recommend a pre-nup. My grandma was in a very similar situation, but a bit younger when she rekindled her romance. She had no idea that her new husband had no money and they lived off of her money during their marriage. He spent a lot of money. She passed away last year and he's still...

I would play around with this spreadsheet: http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2007/10/01/accelerated-mortgage-payments-and-the-grs-amortization-calculator/ Make two copies, one for your current loan and one for the new loan. Compare the balance and payoff dates between the two loans. I would also see...

FYI: You can each contribute $5,500 to Roth IRAs for FY 2013. I am in a similar situation. I have a 5/1 ARM. I've calculated the average monthly payment required to pay it off in 5 years and the end of year balances if I stick to that payment schedule and I'm tracking towards that each year. Then ea...

What are the expense ratios on these funds? What are the balances and interest rates on your student loans? Take a look at this: http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6212 How many months of expenses does your emergency fund represent? PRGFX is an actively managed mutual fund and t...

Are you sure that you want to stay in the SF Bay Area for the next 5-10 years? I might consider foregoing retirement savings for 6-12 months to beef up your after-tax savings, but not for 4-5 years. Some middle ground is necessary here. Decide how much you want to set aside for retirement and then s...

I would definitely set up auto-pay, especially with the 0.25% rate reduction. I have auto-pay set up with my mortgage, but I make extra payments at random points throughout the month.

I liked roymeo's advice beyond that point.

Awesome!!! If you consider refinancing again and you plan on paying it off within 5 years, you could also consider a 5/1 ARM.

Is that a typo or do you really have a $725k mortgage? Are you comfortable with that much debt? What is your plan for paying that down/off? Why do you have a $100k emergency fund? How much is necessary? It looks like your uninvested cash and non-retirement account cash add up to $725k. If it was me,...

I have a question about keeping separate property separate. With brokerage accounts, you can just open a new one. Do you plan to keep your pre-marriage savings accounts separate and open new ones to be joint? How will you deal with that with your IRAs and 401(k)s?

My boyfriend and I have some different ideas about spending, but we both LBYM and prioritize saving overall. I've educated him about 401(k)s, health savings accounts, the existence of the Roth IRA, and many other things. The difference in us isn't in our financial or long-term ideas but in our perso...

I immigrated to Canada 5 years ago after a corporate career in the US. I'm semi-retired and make about $10k/year at a seasonal job. My Social Security benefits will cover 80% of my basic living expenses when I start to collect in 11 years (at full retirement age). I would have, admittedly, a lot of...

I pay them myself. I don't plan on holding the mortgage for more than 5 years and I wanted to get in the habit of paying the property taxes myself. It also seems like much more of a pain when you're refinancing to adjust the escrow accounts to where they should be and then get refunds, etc. Thankful...