Bogleheads.org

I was in a similar situation. I adopted a bunker mentality. Every month/quarter I survived was a victory. It didn't feel great at the time but now, looking back, I am grateful I toughed it out. Towards the end I set a 12 month count-down which helped reduce the stress.

Although I like Vanguard more as a company, Fidelity has a better website IMO and so I use them for most of my investing instead. It may sound silly but I am willing to pay a few basis points more in fees to have access to all the website tools that I'm now familiar with. Can't go wrong with either ...

Jebediah wrote:

mac808 wrote:In the long term, it's likely to be much, much higher than it is today.

Oh really? What makes you say that?

History. If you want to make an options bet that the market will be flat in nominal terms over the next 30 years, I am sure you will find many takers.

The near term future is impossible to predict - it could go up 20%, or down 20%. In the long term, it's likely to be much, much higher than it is today. My advice, having faced the same mostly psychological situation, is to DCA in 1/12th of the money every 2 weeks for 6 months (or whatever #s seem r...

I'm friends with a kid who has a family office and it seems like the rule of thumb is, the more money you have (into the billions), the more diversified you are or should be into alternative asset classes. Not necessarily hedge funds, more stuff like raw commodities - a 20 thousand acre redwood fore...

Mac808 - that definitely resonates. I've actually found myself frustrated that the efficient market hypothesis means proper investing requires so little effort once you've got the basics sorted out! Anyway, thanks very much for the perspectives everyone - it's been very helpful! The benefits of sav...

I was in a similar situation as you and then I realized that over time, saving became more fun for me than spending money - at least spending it in 99% of the ways that most people do. I still love traveling, but almost all other consumer purchases lost their appeal to me. Instead, I derive a lot of...

Bitcoin is very much a speculative virtual currency. I am personally a big fan and think that over time it could become a viable, fun, albeit niche means to facilitate certain online transactions -- but I don't think it will ever be appropriate for 95%+ of normal folks to use, due to the massive ris...

At that amount, between parent and child, no one cares - certainly not the IRS. If you're asking a practical question, then it's a non issue. If you're asking a theoretical question, then other posters have provided the answer. Furthermore, there is no need to space out the payments. You can give up...

For what it's worth, I'm in the same position but I stick with Fidelity because I like the website & web tools so much more than Vanguard's.

two chicks at the same time.

I'm significantly ahead of where my parents were at my age, but only because of the sacrifices they made and the opportunities they provided for me.

Fascinating to watch this develop. I think they made a huge mistake in hitting people below 100k Euros which is the insurance limit similar to FDIC in the States. Even if Cyprus went bankrupt, those folks were not supposed to be harmed at all. Faith in the banking system is the foundation of modern ...

"It's not what you make, it's what you spend."

How much do you plan to spend on a house, and then what are your estimated annual expenses in retirement?

Normally I advise startup employees to sit on their options and never exercise them. The risk is too great relative to the reward (some tax savings). Given that the spread between exercise price and current value is greater in this case, this might be one of the rare exceptions. If you have a lot of...

it's better to work for 30 years @ $150k/year than spend 10 years in school (taking on loans) and then 20 years in the work force @ $300k/year. I haven't done the exact math but there's merit to that argument. I think you need to do the math. Programmer starts working at 22, while Med Student heads...

I also like the idea of wshang that it's better to be making lower and continuous salary at a lower tax rate than a large income/large tax rate for a shorter period of time after accumulating a suitable amount of debt. I can't really believe I'm reading this. Making more money kind of trumps making...

We see a lot of outsourcing in software, but the prices have risen to close the gap with what domestic programmers charge. Good offshore development is $30-$40/hour now. We would pay a premium for a native English speaker who understands context and works in the same time zone, up to $50-$60/hour. I...

Thanks for following up with such a thoughtful and detailed reply. You're right: my reply was harsh. I had mistakenly assumed that you were speaking off the cuff, and not from direct experience. My bad! My primary issue is with your comparison of job stability between the two fields. Many software ...

Med school sounds like a terrible financial investment for you. A decent CS grad pulls in $150k + stock options/benefits with the same job security as a physician, and a lot less stress. If you have an aptitude for programming, that's where I would focus. Your portrayal of the financial lives of pe...

Med school sounds like a terrible financial investment for you. A decent CS grad pulls in $150k + stock options/benefits with the same job security as a physician, and a lot less stress. If you have an aptitude for programming, that's where I would focus.

If she's living beyond her means, how's she paying the bills currently? Parents? Credit cards?

80% of after-tax income. No kids, no car, no other major expenses other than rent.

I too want to give my children a "level playing field" on which to compete. Given so much increasing global competition, it's hard to understand what that will mean for the next generation. I work around a lot of people from other cultures and it seems like their families save, invest and ...

I deal with a lot of trust companies. It's exceedingly difficult to find a decent trust company for trusts under $500k. So if these guys are good, then 50 basis points is a totally reasonable fee.

Rather than dispersing lump sums at 25, 30, and 35, why not set up the trust to provide a life long stream of payments? This will force them to learn how to budget, will protect them from future gold diggers, divorce, etc. This is how I've set up similarly sized trusts for my own kids. If my 25 year...

If possible, I would extend that range to 1.5-2hrs from San Francisco. The prices go down a lot after that extra 30 mins because you quit competing with the tech commuters. As for me, I'd go 2 hours north straight up past Napa and Sonoma.

Just another data point for you. I'm late 20s with a slightly larger portfolio. I assume 2% real return from a 50/50 allocation. Better safe than sorry.

When I had nothing, financial independence and retirement were just vague concepts to me, not real possibilities. Who cares if I spend $250 on an upgraded rental car, versus $100 for the basic option, when I have nothing and it takes millions to retire? Once I started to build up significant wealth,...

I'd say the most common reason is proximity to high-paying jobs. If you want to be a five minute drive from your $150k-a-year job at Google, it's going to be expensive. If you're willing to commute two hours each way, you will save a lot of money.

It's not what you make. It's what you spend. Don't fall into the consumption trap and lose your freedom.

I'm an entrepreneur who became financially independent relatively early in life. I tried to take some time off just to travel, watch tv, golf, and pursue some of the other hobbies mentioned in this thread. During the first month, it was nice to have a break and relax. During the second month, it was...

Don't mean this reply to be snarky, but between property taxes, and condo fees, I don't really feel like I'll ever "own" my home. Buying it just felt like paying $ to lock in price stability and have the right to do whatever I wanted inside the walls. (Understanding this made me much more ...

Actualy, in CA it's entirely unclear whether or not a municipal government can stop its payments that it makes to CALPERS, which is the state retirement system. CALPERS maintains that as a matter of law these payments cannot be stopped, and CALPERS comes before bond holders. This has never been tes...

As a California resident let me tell you guys that Stockton was the first city to declare bankruptcy, with other cities like San Bernadino to follow. The general attitude here is that we are only harming the super rich by defaulting on these bonds and we can live with that. The reality is that the ...

Are you single? If so, one challenge may be to maintain that savings rate while in a relationship. When I was single, I lived like a monk (and enjoyed it), but once I got into a relationship, I had to loosen up a bit.

I am facing a similar situation to the OP. I am a software developer living in San Francisco and haven't been able to come to terms with the high housing prices, relative to other places I have lived (Seattle, New York, San Diego). Housing just seems out of whack here, in terms of price and value re...

noob, I live in the same area and work in the same field. assuming that a decent 1bd is 400k and a decent 2bd is 600k, minimum, i would caution you against tying yourself down too much. flexibility is huge in our field and the ability to go work for lower pay at a startup, or move somewhere for a be...

I started a new job and was looking through the 401k fund choices today. Most of the fund choices are terrible; one of the few decent options appeared to be a 2015 target retirement fund under the ticker ARFIX from American Century. Upon further investigation, I discovered ARFIX is just a fund compo...

Um, why not have them buy groceries, or cover repairs, or gift you the money? Seems odd to view the rent kids pay as taxable income. Did they count their allowance as taxable income growing up?

About 55% of gross income. Taxes > personal expenses.

The only problem I have with anti-virus software is getting rid of it. Myself, I use a Linux system, and I don't need anti-virus software. But occasionally I have to fire up my wife's MS Windows system, and I always have to deal with a bunch of whining from Norton that I haven't paid them anything ...

AVG is excellent, and 100% free for most needs

http://free.avg.com/us-en/free-antivirus-download

The total peace of mind that financial independence brings is worth more to me than any material possessions.

Think of your parents like Greece. If Greece sold its islands off and paid off the national debt, what would happen? They would just run the debt back up again. No pain, no changes. Instead, the Troika is forcing Greece to live under massive austerity for 20 years at 120% debt to gdp (the highest po...

I sell small tech companies for a living. It's hard to engage a banker if you're selling for less than 10m, but there are other professionals you can use. 5x ebidta seems a little cheap, but the devil is in the details.

The reason I want them to cash out the annuity is that I believe paying of 12% credit cards with the money will be a better investment than whatever the annuity returns, in terms of growth but also peace of mind. Yes, unless they just run up another $90k in debt. A lot of people won't change spendi...

If they do pay off their credit cards, what's to prevent them from running up the totals again?

Are any lifestyle changes needed?

I bought a condo similar to the one you describe, with high HOA fees and taxes. It was torture to write that check each month. I recommend rolling the amount of $ needed to cover the HOA into the purchase price, at least for mental calculations. By that I mean, if the upkeep is 12k/year, then add 12...

Thanks for all the replies. I am 38, my wife a little younger, and we have one 2.5 yr old with special needs. One of the things I was hoping would be better out there was the health care. IMO, health care around here is not that great especially for children with special needs, in spite of a fairly...