Bogleheads.org

But where do you wait now? If you find expected returns for US stocks unacceptably low - ibonds, EE if have 20 year timeframe, CDs with low early withdrawal penalty, some cash - Ex-US equity. Maybe not cheap, but some think has better expected return Yes, I am doing all of that and have just 23% in...

momar wrote:I'm hedging my bets and diversifying into human capital, ie a baby. If the stock market fails, I'll move in with him in 30 years.

If the economy continues to fail you may not have to move, he just might still be right there with you.

So I believe we do have to keep a weather eye out for what is going on, and revisit the underlying assumptions that we used to craft our investment plan. If that plan was based on the assumption that bonds would compound in a way that doubles money every 10-15 years, the 1.5% interest rate should m...

I stuck with boring old long bond funds and ended up doubling my money according to that boring old rule of 72. I slept well in 2002 I slept well in 2009. I'll sleep well the next time the market takes away the specious gains reflected in high PE ratios. And because I have enough to cover my retire...

Not having invested yet in the 90s, I have to admit this ongoing rally is getting a bit scary. And a bit painful as well, as I'm overweight emerging markets. Well in the 90s, treasury bonds were an alternative that actually offered positive real returns, maybe 5-6% from 10 year nominal treasuries, ...

bengal22 wrote:OK, you got to tell us what you thought of Joyce's Finnigan's Wake.

I've not read that yet, actually (whew, dodged that one, good thing you didn't ask about Ulysses or Becket's trilogy, Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable).

Believe me, I think about the taxes and California supposedly has very high ones. However, each of the states will get you one way or another. I looked at houses in Texas. I have got to say that I was shocked at 3.09% property taxes. In California, I pay only 1%. Well, if a similar house costs 3 ti...

Would be very interesting if one could find the data that shows when most $ was put into this fund. If most was put in the last 10 years, then people really did poorly. Possible to find this info, or would they rather not give this out? Also, when comparing these charts do they always include all e...

Thanks to everyone. I'm trying the BankAmericard Travel Rewards card. From their webpage it looks like points are only redeemable for travel expenses. jeffyscott, are you sure they can be redeemed for cash too? That's what they say... BankAmericard Travel Rewards™ credit card customers are automati...

Every state is going to collect taxes one way or another and sometimes lower taxes can mean higher fees for things like car registration. I used to think we should at least move across the line to IL in retirement, but now I look at about 3% extra in sales tax on every single purchase and maybe $100...

LOL. Maybe wait around another 150 years until you have enough statistical evidence and then make your decision. Well, that would give you all of 6 independent data points. So I would still rely more on other means of projecting possible future returns to make the decision. For myself I just use so...

BankAmericard travel rewards, 1.5% rebate, no forex or annual fees, and it is a "chip" card.

The rebates are "points", but redemption options include cash or a statement credit (for previous travel expenses).

Oh, also 10,000 point sign-up bonus, worth $100, after spending $500.

LFKB wrote:Fire Calc analyzes every 50 year cycle from 1871 on.

There are less than 3 non-overlapping periods, this is very little statistical evidence.
(Note that I have not expressed an opinion on whether he has enough, only on whether $80K per year is enough.)

No state sales tax in Texas is great. I thought it was no income tax? I've only ever visited the southwestern part of the state, El Paso to Big Bend NP, I don't know about crumbling, but most of the highway surfaces had this rough texture that made it extremely noisy. My theory was the locals had n...

The IRA's earnings can't be spent at his age, so he'd end up having to burn some principal to get to that $80k. That turns into a problem as it is very likely to happen long before he can withdraw the IRA money. I don't believe that is correct, I think you can start taking IRA early if you take a &...

Haven't looked into, but suspect that for many, local difference in health insurance cost may be much more important than taxes. Don't they vary widely geographically, even within USA? I'm seeing from perspective of early retiree, not medicare eligible, but maybe would still matter. Other unavoidab...

The issue isn't whether $80K is enough to live on or not. I think that everyone here accepts the OP's word on this point. No, they don't, the poster I had responded to stated that $80K is not enough for a family with two kids. This struck me as a very questionable opinion and so I posted evidence a...

I've been going through the Modern Library "board's list" of 100 best novels: http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/ In some cases this has led to reading more works by one of the authors. Recently ran across this list of "books everyone should read". I've saved a ...

mlipps wrote:IL doesn't tax retirement income and Chicago is a world class city, but property taxes are quite high here, at least in the Chicagoland area.

Also sales tax is 9.25% in Chicago (2.25% on food) and maybe averages around 8% (~2% food) elsewhere in the state.

I have a son turning 26 in July, my thought is to encourage him to get temporary coverage to Dec. 31. He will be eligible to sign up for subsidized coverage on the new exchange in the fall, even if a pre-existing condition were to appear before then. I just checked the cost with a reputable non-prof...

I would assume that if the drug is not in their formulary it is not covered at all, the insurance would pay nothing and it would not count toward any maximums. Sounds like that is more or less the case: Non-formulary drugs also do not count toward the "true out-of-pocket" ("TrOOP"...

$80,000 a year income with your assets would be OK for you and your wife, but not enough with two 5 year old kids. The median income for 4 person households is about $75,000, this makes me think $80K with no mortgage is likely more than "enough". https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2...

That said, you still end up taxing long term capital gains as ordinary income if you are holding stocks in a tax-deferred retirement account, so swapping them probably still puts you at some disadvantage relative to someone who weights tax-deferred accounts more toward bonds and taxable accounts mo...

-too much of a hassle having to log in everywhere again. just delete the cookies for that one site. i know how to clean chrome browser of cookies. i do not know how to prevent cookies at 1 site. please inform me -thanks The anti-spyware scan I use lets you deselect any items you want to retain usin...

After a couple of false starts, they now have a working online version, which brings up a complete image of every page. Including all the car ads and funnies! I've been assuming that all the paid versions of online newspapers include something like that where you get the entire print version electr...

No, I understand the limits are separate and the drug part technically has no limit on your costs. I just meant the drug co-pays become pretty minimal at the catastrophic stage, so there is almost a cap on that part. For example in my area the AARP-UHC complete plan covers both drugs and medical wit...

I'm not a condo owner, but wow! 75-80% funded for 30 years means roughly fully funded for 22-24 years. That seems VERY excessive, especially if those reserves are (as seems likely) earning minimal or no interest. I'm not either and likely never will be, one big reason being these fees over which yo...

Or just delete cookies. They fixed the cookie thing, you do have to use a search. I'd pay for it, but it includes paying for smart phone apps, and I don't even have a smart phone. I have complained about that and gotten nowhere.[/quote] Does anti-spyware get rid of whatever the NY Times is using to...

Furthermore, consider the tax rates on those TSM and TBM dividends. They are not the same, so one's after-tax yield is something to look at. Stocks with 1.97% yield means a tax bill of 0.3% at 15% tax rate, while bonds at 1.56% in the 25% tax bracket gives you a tax bill of about 0.4%. Of course, t...

Interest rates rising would tend to mean an improving economy, an improving economy would tend to result in increasing stock prices. Of course the timing is in question, perhaps stocks have already risen in anticipation of further improvements in the economy, which are not yet resulting in rising in...

I just checked what our Milwaukee paper charges and for digital only it is $4.29 per month, so yours is asking for more than double. (For our package, Sunday, Wednesday and digital it is $5.99)

By the way, you might see how the paywall shakes out. NY Times is super reliable and well-constructed without any loopholes, but ours, they don't seem to care if you read using a tablet app for free, so that's what I do. This may be unethical but one can access NYTimes articles through the paywall ...

Since the chart is a graphic, and the legends are not part of it, but just text, it is not a simple URL link pointer... SO - I did a screen capture, then crop, then save it to my local drive - but then couldn't see a way to PASTE it back from my local drive.... I could copy it to my clipboard, but ...

Medigap vs. Medicare Advantage plans: This is what I think I know, I may be in error. I looked at both and ruled out Medicare Advantage plans because I read that they cost the government (i.e. you and me) 17% more than Medigap plans for the same services. I understand that has dropped to 14% becaus...

I think a Medicare Advantage cap is limited to Part A and Part B -- the medical costs. If the MA plan also covers prescription drugs, that part of the plan is unlimited. For example, if the cap is set at $4,500, that covers medical costs, not prescriptions. Prescription costs is open-ended. Well, s...

$0. My wife thinks engagement rings are a heteronormative paternalistic anachronism. I spent quite a bit more than that. It continues to make my wife very happy. :D Well, I'm still married 39 years later so I guess the answer is to find out what your wife wants rather than asking an online forum. A...

What about a Medigap policy? Does he qualify for that? (I don't know how Medicare for disability works.) If so, I would certainly get one, that would give you a lot of protection. Another option could be a Medicare advantage plan, unlike traditional Medicare these have maximum out-of-pocket limits.

... during a very good run, modify one's plan? Why can't one's plan be to reduce risk (equity % allocation) as assets increase? Many years ago, I had 75% stocks with a plan to reduce that to 50% as assets increased.That asset level was reached and then we went through 2008/09 with 50% stocks... &qu...

The liklihood is TBM will adjust much more quickly and then you find yourself having to make a decision - I bonds or TBM. So because TBM might someday possibly be a better deal, I should buy it now? Why? Also if the yield of TBM does improve, it means there will first be a decline in the NAV. If th...

Buying high quality assets without paying premium prices is just as much value investing as buying average quality assets at discount prices. Strategies that exploit the quality dimension of value are profitable on their own, and accounting for both dimensions of value by trading on combined qualit...

It looks like I-bonds yield about as much or more than TBM and this might open up a bit more tax advantaged space. With the SEC yield of VBMFX at 1.44% (1.56% for admiral), it seems likely that I-bonds with a yield equal to inflation will most likely provide greater returns at this time. I-bonds ar...

What a great thread. I'm wondering though, of the more seasoned (veteran?) Bogleheads who have been rewarded nicely over time for owning a broadly diversified portfolio of equities and bonds, assigning an AA suitable to their risk tolerance and re-balancing accordingly, and investing for the long t...

How do they propose that the employee does it? Almost certainly, if en employee hits the limit, it will be in the middle of a pay period. How can the employee control this -and still max it out to the penny? :confused Don't you simply tell them how much to take out per paycheck, for example my wife...

Exactly. My point is that we often equate "natural" with "good" for some reason, although this is not necessarily the case. For example, cancer, pestilence, and death occur "naturally" throughout nature. Just trying to understand where the OP draws the line between &qu...

some years back in the go-go era of the Internet rage, a fellow I was acquainted with held quite a bit of Lucent (i know undiversified risk, yada yada) - it was worth $2 million dollars, enough for him to cash out and retire in style. Instead of doing that, he got greedy and thought it would double...

I read a book by the guy responsible for fenway park grass. He claims it is impossible to have great grass without lots of chemicals. I do one 1/2 dose fertilizer run each year and live with a crappy yard. I do about that and also some selective weed spraying, using maybe 4 gallons of weed-b-gone m...

Currently in my opinion the market fundamentals as measured by PE, PB, etc., are not overvalued relative to the other possible investment options such as bonds and cash. But if everything is about equally overvalued, then a return to fair value for everything will mean much greater losses to stocks...

Almost all intercontinental business class these days is fully lie flat seats, FWIW. I was not aware of that, but it appears that there is a difference between: "Full-flat beds" and "Slanted lay-flat seats" http://www.ausbt.com.au/lie-flat-or-fully-flat-beds-we-put-the-truth-to-...

So, what I did was to segregate an amount of money to short-term bonds, cd's, money market, I-Bonds and cash that would represent the difference (roughly) between my former salary and what my pension pays me annually x 25. I've done something similar, only based on spending not income. When I am no...

I think that "rule" is used by insurance agents in order to encourage over-insuring. Who totals their car once per decade? Also why would it be the market value rather than the amount you could collect? If you have $1000 deductible and the market value of your car is $1000, would you pay $...