Bogleheads.org

Larry, I really appreciate this article, as I currently have chosen to not include any commodities in my asset allocation and this challenges that decision. I also love that you and Rick are willing to continue to debate this issue publicly with the board. As I think through the issue, I have come a...

Total return: Even though you can deduct the student loan interest, the after-tax interest rate is still higher on the loans than for the mortgage, so deductibility is a no-op. You get 5.1% return on paying down the student loans, but only 3.625% return (plus a bit on shorter PMI) from the mortgage...

I have a small-ish windfall coming due to an inheritance and am trying to figure out the right thing to do with it. Basically, it is an amount (~8000) that would either entirely cover my 6.8% student loans (leaving only lower interest loans) or reduce our mortgage to eliminate PMI (300/year). We do ...

...until tax time next year when I receive hopefully enough to pay off the second credit card.... After paying off the cars I'd like to utilize the money from not having any debt to figure out exactly what I should be claiming on my W4's to maximize my take home pay. One quick point not yet made, I...

Why not just follow the instructions on the W-4? http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf Be sure to also complete the Two-Earners/Multiple Jobs Worksheet on page two. I find that this rarely works out properly, especially with AGI-reducing deductions to factor in (like student loan interest). It als...

Generally existing benefits accrued are in a better position than future accruals (many states will move to Defined Contribution, for example). However that is apparently not always the case, that existing benefits are protected. This is the part that always concerns me and makes me uncomfortable w...

Why not just follow the instructions on the W-4? http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf Be sure to also complete the Two-Earners/Multiple Jobs Worksheet on page two. I find that this rarely works out properly, especially with AGI-reducing deductions to factor in (like student loan interest). It als...

Just calculate what your taxes should be and divide by number of paychecks. Then set your withholding to pay that amount out of each paycheck. Right now I'm having $20 withheld per paycheck which is probably too much. I am married and have 2 kids. If you can't get your payroll folks to tell you how...

I can't get the link to paste properly with my phone, but try this- Google "Vanguard brokerage fees" and the first thing that pops up is Vanguard brokerage FAQs. At the bottom of that page they talk about the fee and if you have paperless it doesn't apply. Hope that helps. I see that, but...

This is right from their brokerage website- A $20 account service fee, charged annually* *the fee is waved for Voyager, Voyager Select, and Flagship clients and clients who elect to receive statements and other important information electronically. Over multiple years I have had less than $50k comb...

Capital One and Discover don't charge a fee for foreign transactions, and both give cash rebates. I would also suggest this, but highly recommend having 2 or 3 with you. I had Capital One lock down on me a half dozen times during a two week trip (after telling them, of course) with each time the re...

Search for lump-sum vs. DCA debates on the forum.

I breakdown the funds I invest in on the major components I'm concerned with (size, intl/dom, EM/Developed, REIT%, for example in equities) and then play with combinations of each of them until the percentages work out to about my goal. It's messy and not at all precise and I definitely still have t...

I think that it would be nice if you included a REIT index and a TIPS fund. These are both lacking from my otherwise decent 401k and are things that I really wish they would include, especially the REIT since it is a small part of my allocation and so something that is harder to get to the fund mini...

If you have income disparities, or if one of you stays home to look after the kids, then you may want to consider some individual accounts for spending money. Or use cash if that's easier. It's nice to retain some ability to spend as you want and not be subject to oversight. This is actually a big ...

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It does seem like knowing more what this is for would be helpful. I got my father set up using a 40% Intermediate Term Treasury, 40% TIPS, 20% Total Stock Market allocation to provide some stability of a back-up E-Fund while also possibly allowing for a little growth to make up for the fact that his...

I would just do it by hand. Take some time to familiarize yourself with the tax codes of the different states and do it yourself. As you said, you don't have a difficult situation, you just need to make sure that you are handling each state correctly. I have had multiple state returns all but 2 year...

I'd be worried about mailing information like that. My parents have info hidden a certain place in the house. I've never seen it, but I know where it is if needed. Just as a quick word from experience: If you rely on this method, make sure you check in about its location regularly and know the alte...

Would you please share with me the advantages and disadvantages of putting our house in the adult kids names, so that they own such? advantage: reduces your estate Not if parents still living in the home. Gross estate includes value of property transferred with retained life estate. IRC 2036 Just t...

So I started with a new employer this August and had my first 401k contributions in September, but have received no quarterly reports, only weekly "summaries" and see no info on the website, including in the "Plan Documents" so as far as I can tell I have 0 info on fees. It's no...

How was I supposed to have been told? A mailing? Maybe it hasn't come in yet. I know the expense ratios in my 401(k), but I don't know what they charge for the entire portfolio (if there's an AUM fee or some such, and if so, what it is). What should I be looking for in the mail? Or should it have b...

It used to get a lot of favorable mention for new investors simply because for a long time it was the only Vanguard fund with a minimum investment of only $1,000--all the others were $3,000. If someone asked "I have $1,000 to invest, what should I buy?" it was "STAR--or go to Schwab ...

Rick Ferri's book "All About Asset Allocation" covers both of these classes pretty well. I'm considering REITs at 5% or 10% of equity, but think I'll just be happy with whatever commodities are in VTSMX and VGTSX. Yeah I think you would find this book very relevant to your current interes...

Should you decide to pull back on investments and pay down the HELOC, why not drop your 401k contributions down to company match and keep your IRAs higher? This will allow you the freedom to invest as you like in your IRA as opposed to being stuck with 401k options.

I am also the sole money manager in our household, so we deal with this as well. Our solution has been for me to sit down with my wife and talk through the spreadsheet every couple months (this doubles as our monthly financial status update and a refresher on the spreadsheet and what it contains, wh...

We used an ING savings sub-account for this. We had our primary checking there too, with different savings sub-accounts for each major thing we were/are saving for (house, cars, travel, etc).

Please help us settle an argument. We recently moved. I said we needed to change our address with IRS. My husband said since we were not expecting any refund, we should just file the tax return next April using new address, and don't need to fill out a form to change the address now. Who is right? ...

Anything that is important is stored locally and on Dropbox. Obviously sensitive information is encrypted (locally, and then the encrypted file is uploaded to Dropbox). This has gotten me through lost drives and such while also allowing me to access things remotely in a few tough situations.

I agree that FireCalc can be quite helpful and that it is important to know how much you intend to rely on this pension (is it 50%, 80%, 100% of your retirement income?) and how much of that $50,000 you plan to use a year, but I thought I'd throw in my (or rather, my father's) own personal experienc...

I would love to hear someone's argument that it can make sense to diversify into assets that are likely to lose value over the long run. It's the argument for paying for any type of voluntary insurance policy. The expected return on insurance is less than the premiums. Thank you for your response, ...

I would love to hear someone's argument that it can make sense to diversify into assets that are likely to lose value over the long run. So I take it you don't have any cash? Not in your wallet, or in a checking or savings or money market account, or CDs? None that I consider a part of my retiremen...

There is nothing in principle wrong with diversification into an asset that is likely to or even sure to lose value over time. It is this statement that explains the problem that I have with gold. I do think that there is something in principle wrong with diversifying into an asset that is likely o...

I will second the value of having travel insurance, and I would recommend it for the whole group. It saved us once already when a trip needed to be cancelled last minute (for a reason that fit the conditions of the insurance) and the medivac and repatriation coverages that are often found can certai...

We just recently faced this decision and opted for the house. We were moving to a college town in a low cost of living state (high rent, cheap houses) and faced a situation where rent for a place we would've enjoyed is about 60% higher than PITI (including PMI). We only had enough savings to put 10%...

Much like has been mentioned above, we use an "envelope" sort of method. We have an ING sub-savings account for about a dozen or so different categories (though this could just be done on a spreadsheet just as easily as having separate accounts). Anything that's in the account, we can spen...

I would also second the thought that online checking is fine. I have all of our checking and savings through ING and USAA. We had a brick and mortar for a short period of time during the transition to this but found we never used it and closed the account as soon as possible. I would actually say th...

I just finished getting a mortgage from USAA. Their rate was competitive and I have most of the rest of my life with them, so I decided to go with them. I also was very worried about their customer service though my experience was actually awesome. Our processor was way on top of things, calling a f...

I wonder if perhaps taking a significantly lower job doing something you truly enjoy would be valuable. It would keep you occupied and it wouldn't take much income to combine with your wife to match your current living expenses. It would seem like you have put in your time in a very successful caree...

You are asking us what we would bid if we were purchasing tilts in a competitive auction. We don't have to purchase tilts that way, so we don't have to figure out what the tilt is worth. Yes, this is more or less exactly what I am asking for, which is why I thought it was an interesting question. T...

You're basically asking us to predict how much better specific sectors you want to overweight will do. Since you think specific sectors will do better can you tell us by how much you think they will do better? From there you can figure out how much of an increase in ER its worth. Set your increase ...

I am currently struggling with how much I should be willing to pay to add an asset class I would like to overweight. I have decided that I would like to have a slice and dice portfolio that is tilted towards SV and has some extra Emerging Market and REIT exposure, as well as a small allocation to HY...

Now, having said that, I could obviously have my employer deduct the funds and just direct my Adsense revenue to my checking account as a replacement for the paycheck deductions. This is what I would recommend. Also, here's a question about 401k...I'm a software engineer and the nature of this indu...

To reiterate what NYBoglehead mentioned, is there a reason why you are avoiding investing in the 401k? The fact that your employer doesn't match is a good reason to invest in the Roth IRA first, but not a reason (by itself) to invest in taxable accounts before the 401k. Is there some other reason yo...

I started my IRA with almost nothing with a savings account at ING. I have plenty of other savings account there, but calling this one an IRA made it feel more like real retirement savings. I think it is important when you have a little momentum to get a Roth IRA opened somewhere, even if it is just...

nisiprius wrote:Too bad pennies aren't made of copper.

They are, however, copper-plated, which is what I'm guessing matters here. Whether or not it actually works, I have no idea.

I found reading Rick Ferri's "All About Asset Allocation" very helpful in answering this question. Just my two cents.

I'm currently in the process of purchasing a house and stumbled across the following article which advocates for not paying off the mortgage. The author argues a mortgage can make sense financially if you follow certain rules. It's a different take that made me think more about the pros/cons of pay...

It seems like a small step and is probably worth it, though I wonder how much it is worth. I have had Capital One both refuse transactions after I told them I was traveling (multiple times for the same trip) and allow transactions overseas when I didn't tell them. But for the time it takes to go to ...

You already paid the load, it's gone money at this point. "Averaging it out" is just a way to make yourself feel better about it. You sound like you have figured out how to get your desired AA between the 401k and the IRA, so your goal should be to meet that AA with the lowest costs possib...