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I had submitted a lower buy amount than I really wanted on Monday due to lower real rate being offered. But with yesterday's move up in real rates, I just increased my buy amount by 25%.

It was great because it was open 24 hours and didn't have the silly restrictions of no food or coffee ... like the library had. There's a reason why libraries have those "silly" restrictions. Yes, I know a lot of people like lots of rules. It made the library mostly useless for most study...

I did my undergraduate at University of California, San Diego. There was an unused building near the center of campus at that time. They put lights and tables in there so students could study. And then they put some computer terminals. This was the early 1990's. It was great because it was open 24 h...

As a non-homeowner who spends a good deal of time overseas your biggest risk, probably by an order of magnitude (and maybe by 100x?), is driving in the USA. I wonder if you could request umbrella only for your USA driving? Would Geico do this? It's not as good as you want, but realistically would co...

Here are the numbers in a chart for a (75% S&P500/25% commercial-paper) Portfolio for a Y2K retiree using an inflation-adjusted 4% SWR: [Scroll 3/4 way down the page for the latest year by year chart] http://www.raddr-pages.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1208&start=330 As of January 1, ...

If I recall, in your last thread you didn't explain what you want the insurance to cover or provide enough details.

Are you looking for something that actually covers you in China, also? Do you own a house in the USA and vehicles there?

Here are the numbers in a chart for a (75% S&P500/25% commercial-paper) Portfolio for a Y2K retiree using an inflation-adjusted 4% SWR: [Scroll 3/4 way down the page for the latest year by year chart] http://www.raddr-pages.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1208&start=330 As of January 1, 2...

Thanks, Peter, that explains a lot.

The auction is already available on Vanguard's site.

Now, I wish I could compute what I would need to pay for my desired face value of TIPs bonds given my estimate of the auction price.

This 30 year TIPs auction was announced today: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/instit/annceresult/press/preanre/2013/A_20130613_3.pdf They are offering a face value of 0-5/8% ??? [bloomberg showing 1.19% this morning on similar issue in the secondary market] Is the Treasury always this conservative? I...

I've lived in mexico (6 years ago now) and have travelled/driven through a lot of it. It's an amazing and beautiful country. I think the drug war stuff is a bit overblown--the vast, vast majority of related deaths are locals, especially those involved in the drug trade. it is very, very rare for an...

For 8 years I worked in NJ but live in NY, so I was able to take a resident credit on my NY return for taxes I paid to NJ (NJ's tax rates were much lower than NY's). But just to be clear, I don't think this is what the OP is talking about. He will not be physically working at the work location, but...

I am surprised by the responses here. I worked for a MegaCorp in California. Several of my co-workers moved to different states during that time and worked remotely (some to places where there were corporate offices, others worked strictly out of their new home). They all paid the income tax in thei...

There were tariffs slapped on imported Chinese tires from 2009 to 2012 which caused some tire inflation (pun intended) and I think we can see who was hurt most by higher tire prices . . .

Speaking of hardware tokens, I used an RSA Token with my former MegaCorp computer company, it was required for any login external to the company. But when I was traveling, I once put it into my pocket and I sat on it and destroyed it (I am skinny not fat!). So they are breakable. The type I used loo...

On that budget (which includes transport to/from your location ?), I think you need to disclose what part of the country you will be leaving from . . . Also, is this for one person only.

I certainly see no problem with paying a bit extra (for Euros) for piece of mind before you land. Personally, what I do, is that I always have some USA dollars with me. You never know when the networks for ATM/Debit/Credit cards might be down (a common occurrence in many places) or you may not have ...

On a day when Visa was giving 1 Euro = 1.310569 United States Dollar, Chase bank gave me 1 Euro = 1.3871, so they charges about 5.8%, but Chase apparently charges 3% conversion fee for ATM withdrwals and it appears the ATM networks charges 1%. Does Visa also have a 1% charge built into their exchan...

A lot of it depends on where you travel. I was just thinking back to my recent travels, and in 9 of the last 10 countries that I visited, credit cards were not accepted at most places so it was mostly irrelevant. I live in the Philippines and there is almost no opportunity to use credit cards in my ...

It looks like the announcement will be published on Thursday, June 13. Within the announcement there will be an estimated real interest rate for the offering and it will be interesting to see what Treasury uses for that number. I last bought when the real number was 2.125%. I was considering adding ...

The couple is also paying a lot of imputed taxes on their municipal bond holdings -- just not paying taxes directly but getting less income via lower interest rates due to their tax free status. Also, they are not getting much credit for their foreign taxes paid because their overall tax rate is so ...

There shouldn't be different tax rates for cap gains vs ordinary income--a nirvana we briefly achieved at one point after the 86 tax reform IIRC-- much less different rates for certain forms of ordinary income. I disagree. As part owner of the publicly traded companies I invest in (i.e., a sharehol...

Be super careful for pickpocket teams, possibly more than any other place in the world. They are effectively allowed to operate with impunity because the crime is so difficult to prosecute there.

I am single and when I lived in the USA I had a Costco membership for a time. My conclusion was that for a single person like me it didn't make sense but for a bigger household it would be great. So I gave up my membership and just did my big box shopping at Walmart. The membership cost and addition...

I am early retired in my late 40's and put this concept into practice. I have I-bonds maturing in my mid-60s (along with a sprinkling of later dates). I have TIPs maturing in mid-70s. So if I wait until I am 70 to take Social Security, I would be "OK" on Social Security plus these the cap...

I am currently at about 57% international. I would have a higher international holding but the Expense Ratios are slightly cheaper for USA stocks, especially for value indexes, and due to my low tax rate I don't get the full benefit of the Foreign Tax Credit which effectively increases the Expense R...

That is what I do, and the address is actually on my US driver's license (Texas). Not all states allow an address that is not a physical residence to be on a driver's license -- Texas specifically allows this for an address change (but not necessarily your first address there). It is possible that y...

What exactly are you trying to insure with your regular (non-umbrella) insurance? Do you own a home in the USA? Do you own vehicles there or do you have a non-owner policy?

One thing worth checking on is how hard it is to get your money out when the 5 years are up. Some banks/credit unionbs make this much harder than others. Can you elaborate on this? I did notice one deal that I was looking at. They notify you one month in advance when the CD is about to expire. They...

The surgeon accepted $10,000 in total in the end for his labor. This is presumably for a single surgery and for his labor, not total hospital charges or even total surgery charges. But he billed $112,000!! That is just plain scary. And this was open for over 6 months. I am so glad you got this resol...

I am early retired in my late 40's and put this concept into practice. I have I-bonds maturing in my mid-60s (along with a sprinkling of later dates). I have TIPs maturing in mid-70s. So if I wait until I am 70 to take Social Security, I would be "OK" on Social Security plus these the capi...

All responses so far defaulted to the U.S. locations. I understand--but have not been there myself yet--that Thailand offers fantastic beaches and cheap living. Victoria My guess is that one of the biggest issues with Thailand (or other nearby parts of SE Asia such as Bali or the Philippines) is th...

A lot matters where you live in a city, of course. When I lived in downtown San Jose, California, my walkability rating was 90 and I really enjoyed living there. But that is totally different than most parts of San Jose. Also, it pays to think about the kinds of places you truly want to walk to. Wil...

With respect to tipping, the U.S. is really on the high end on the tip range. The U.S. also has the lowest wages for waiters of developed countries -- $2.13 in some states, less than $4300 a year for a full-time employee. This varies a lot by state and, of course, by employer. According to a google...

A quick search on Kayak shows Turkish airlines offering round trips throughout this period in the $1300 range. And Aeroflot in the $1500 range. These are out of Dulles to Vienna and filtering out any flight legs longer than 18.5 hours. Does this have something to do with very specific dates or you m...

have you looked at current college costs? We have a target of $250k/child for our three kids. Some would consider that a terrible return on investment. I don't mean to be glib about it, since I know that for some kids/families, it's worth it. College tends to be a much better deal through scholarsh...

Yes, you can retire as your withdrawal rate is around 2.0% Also, since most of your assets are taxable, it makes it easier to manage your portfolio. Don't forget to include things in your retirement expenses like some income taxes, dental work, vehicle depreciation, etc. I think the caveat here is w...

With your wife starting to work now staying there a few more years saving a lot then moving could allow you to save up enough to pay cash for your dream house in low cost area in a few years. I think this is certainly something to consider. I worked in the Bay Area for almost 12 years (single not m...

My "outliers" on Expense Ratio are VNQI (Vanguard's Foreign real estate and REIT fund) and BRSIX (Bridgeways Ultra small stock fund). VNQI has an ER of 0.32% and BRSIX has an ER of 0.75% and they only represent about 2% and 3% of my portfolio, respectively. I believe they both add enough d...

Some good suggestions here and I would take your analysis to the next level. This means examining your current spending in more detail and coming up with a more detailed estimate for retirement spending, including health insurance. And to carefully evaluate the effect of taxes, both federal and stat...

For the record, smokers have lower lifetime health care costs than non-smokers. Obese people consume less lifetime health care than non-obese. And obese smokers have lower lifetime health care costs than any of these categories. Of course, lowering lifetime health care costs is probably not the goal...

I worked for a big public corporation based in California, a well known tech firm. I lived and worked in Silicon Valley. Many of my co-workers did what you are doing, they moved out of state but their primary work was often working with us in California remotely. Some moved to where there was anothe...

Portion size. You are simply eating too much at each meal. Here's what I ate in the last few days. Today: Breakfast: bowl of cereal and milk. Probably a dollars worth. Lunch: Homemade spinach salad with a few grape tomatoes, carrots, blueberries, walnuts. Probably $2 worth Dinner: 2 slices of lefto...

I once read an expert on downsizing who had good comments about this. Hi Kramer, Do you have a reference or a link to that expert's comments? Is it a book, an article, a blog? Thanks, Victoria Sorry, Victoria, no reference. The guy was saying that collections of sentimental objects just paralyze so...

Plus we have odd pieces of furniture/paintings that are from my parent’s estate, which I would hate to say good bye to, but only for sentimental reasons as they really don’t serve any “useful” purpose. I once read an expert on downsizing who had good comments about this. His point was that "se...

benus217 wrote:Randy,

I saw that Korea is present under VPL, but not sure if its South or North Korea or both.

Thanks,
Ben

North Korea has no international stock market.

I see this topic repeatedly in fora such as this. I can't understand the problem. When I go abroad, I simply stop at the nearest ATM and get some cash, be it Sterling, Euros, Quetzales, Soles, or whatever. Sure, there's always a buy/sell spread. There is when you do it at home, too. That amount is ...

Other reasons against annuities: * You have capped your annual inflation-adjusted spending forever * There are negative mortality credits for young retirees -- insurance companies assume annuitants are healthy and long-lived so the mortality credits don't help you until you are old enough to overcom...

The way I understand Bill Bernstein's current point of view on CCF is that the past data are indeed promising for CCF -- and also irrelevant. That is because CCF has become so popular in the last decade that financial players have overwhelmed the futures market, depressing any future returns and inc...

I have spent most of the past 6 years overseas. This has been almost entirely funded by no-fee ATM cards, 0% foreign exchange fees, they refund any overseas ATM fees. This gets me the online market rate for local cash. An incredible deal when you think about it. I now have a local bank account overs...

I hadn't really thought of it until it came up, but is age a factor? I consider myself quite fit - mentally and physically, but do these programs favor adults just out of college ? as in, college the first time around? When I was thinking about doing this and scouring the forums, age really did not...