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There is a nice REI link about how to choose your rope http://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/ropes.html In Europe Mammut and Petzl pretty much share the market, I am Swiss and always used the Mammut ropes, they are very safe. I wish I wasn't working so much and had time to get out there... By the w...

Valuethinker wrote I'd rather be in EM equities, where there is this potentially huge upside associated with equity investing. Thanks for your input Valuethinker, I agree that the upside (and may be the downside) is much bigger, and I have a portion of my equity portfolio in EM Or at the very least...

AndroAsc wrote
Has the Vanguard Developed Market Bond Fund been launched yet?

I am not sure if I would prefer bonds from Greece, Italy, Ireland or Portugal over bonds from Brazil and Singapore, the default risk is probably similar...

Calm man wrote Why would anybody buy this? That's even under optimal circumstances. But now there is a large purchase fee and high ER. If one did want it, what's the rush? Do you really want bonds from Turkey, Russia, Brazil and who knows where else? I think you have a good point here. If someone i...

If you have an appetite for some risk on the bond side - the emerging government bond fund just opened, it might be worth considering it with a small fraction of your bond allocation...certainly much higher risk than high quality bonds, but at the same time not directly correlated to the equity mark...

hermitbear wrote The USD/NOK exchange rate is very close to being the best it has ever been, I think. Not really, I just looked at 5 year data at Yahoo.com http://chart.finance.yahoo.com/5y?usdnok=x&lang=en-US&region=US But that really doesn't answer your question regarding what to do with ...

For better or worse,
I just put a small amount of my bond allocation in em gov bond admiral shares, liquidated some REIT that were hitting their rebalancing band and my stock exposure is near a rebalancing band anyways....
Interesting times...

Most arguments about DCA versus LS are based on the observation that the stock market statistically over the long-term is more likely to go up than down, hence a LS statistically gives you an advantage, as all you capital "works" for you right away. If you use this logic to your "inve...

I would also look carefully at the size of your emergency funds - if your wife and you both work and each one of you has enough income to cover the basic recurrent monthly expenses and assuming you have health insurance and car/homeowner/disability insurance, then -in your situation -you might not n...

Thank you so much for posting Mr. Bogle - I am a huge fan and I am so excited to come to the BH forum for the first time and hopefully get a chance to hear you give a talk.
Happy belated birthday! - I wish you many years of good health to come.

I would recommend you go through the wiki and read about IPS. Even if you can't come up with an asset allocation right now, go through the process to look at your future retirement needs, (a good way to check is your current living expenses and estimate from there), look at your current income strea...

cajunmike wrote "Volatility depresses compound annual growth compared to what? " Compared to simple average return. dbr wrote I agree. I don't know anywhere that anyone believes adding cash and/or bonds to 100% stocks actually increases the return. Patrick wrote Simple average (presumably...

So livesoft, you look at your MM funds as part of your bond allocation? I have looked at my cash in my savings account as a "separate" asset class, - I have to think about this.

William Bernstein suggests doing this in his 4 pillars of investing - he does not recommend to time the market, but to have some "dry powder" available should markets tank - I guess psychologically if your have some fears about markets tanking, it allows you to rebalance according to your ...

letsgobobby wrote What ages do we start? And at what age do we go from "pound the keys if you like" to "here's how to play a C chord?" An experienced teacher should look at your child, sit down at the piano with him/her, and they will be able to tell if your child is ready to st...

letsgobobby Sorry if this is maybe a bit long, but this is something that is really important to us. I agree with Tet - the teacher is really important and it has to be someone who loves to teach and loves music, make sure you find someone like this. My two older ones (almost 7 and almost 9) are tak...

InvestorNewb wrote Another reason I want to buy more REITs in my tax deferred account is to take advantage of the high dividends yields without having to pay any tax on them for years to come. I think you just mentioned one of the reasons why REITS have a high valuation now. People are chasing divid...

Thanks so much Brian, that was really helpful. Here is a section of your link answering my question: Who is responsible for keeping track of the designated Roth contributions and 5-taxable-year period? The plan administrator is responsible for keeping track of the amount of designated Roth contribut...

Good moning Bogleheads, despite calling our employer retirement service several times, I am not getting any usable information – sorry if this is a trivial question. For the past 4 years I maxed out my Roth 403b contributions. I decided for aftertax contributions thinking that taxes will only go up ...

by market timer By my ballpark calculations, you'd need to save over $85K/year your first four years out of residency for the MD to be financially preferable to the MD/PhD. Assumptions for 12 years: MD/PhD path: Live on stipend for 8 years, save nothing; live on resident pay for next four years, sa...

John 3754 wrote Think about this...during the 4 extra years you'll be in training doing your PhD making a $30k stipend, your classmates who did MD only and moved on to private practice will be making over $200k a year. Doing MD/PhD only makes sense if you love doing research, as a money saving move...

Family dynamics can be very complex, especially if it comes to inheritance money. Don't get involved with managing the investments until your get your own money in your control. Be glad you have a professional advisor who goes for conservative allocations (and doesn't buy shady/exotic products with ...

letsgobobby I read your post with great interest - I am a physician also and I have to admit that there are moments where I think about doing something different. It is the feeling that a hamster must have running in his wheel and not making any progress - but then again there are these great moment...

Take the 200 K and if you want to go to Boston, do your residency at one of the Harvard affiliated hospitals...

by Iorek » Thu Apr 11, 2013 2:35 pm I have a child around the age of your oldest and we have been invested in the MD target 2020 portfolio, and I was very surprised to find out that during college the MD target portfolios are still 20% equity (and I think the year before college they are even highe...

Our oldest is 8 now, the two younger ones are 6 and 3, and we changed the asset allocation about a week ago from total market index to 25% index 500 and 75% bonds (=target portfolio 2015 in the MD college savings plan) - we had returns of almost 50% on the 3 portfolios and I didn't want to be greedy...

by xram » Tue Apr 09, 2013 8:46 am Leesbro63 wrote: Wricha is just plain wrong. +1 +2 I really like PHG and perceived it much different than Wricha. Even though we lived in PGH only for a few years, I think it is a great city to live if you are young and like going out, and also a great place to ra...

Thanks Rick for posting this, I was shaking my head too when I read it yesterday. I have to agree with Levett, the sadest part of the article for me was that they are both physicians - they should know better and not get greedy at this point - but articles like this also make me think that may be I ...

Thanks Valuethinker for bringing up the issue about safety of MM accounts. I just read Bill Bernstein's "Four pillars of investing" and he also describes the added risk of MM accounts versus FDIC insured accounts and describes an event in the 90's when TRowe Price had to pump a lot of thei...

I also consider VGPMX different than investing in gold. VGPMX holds operating company stocks that earn money (hopefully) for their investors through mining and selling various natural resources. Granted VGPMX performance may be affected by gold prices but its still operating companies rather than a...

I wondered the same thing when I checked a few days ago...if no one knows, I'll call them next week to find out

I just rebalanced and bought more VGPMX two weeks ago - I would not call me a gold bug but I try to keep the portfolio allocation I decided in my IPS and I try to stick with my IPS. Therefore rebalance - or in my case new money to VGPMX. I look at gold as an asset that probably behaves different tha...

EmergDoc, I don't know if this is competitive for investment properties, but this is what the NIH FCU gives me today for investment property rates, (I just entered numbers that could fit a rental property in Arlington, sorry the colums get a bit messed up with the copy and paste, for better viewing,...

Yes they knew, I told them, but they told me no problem...After closing, they passed on the second mortgage fairly soon to (I think it was) Fannie Mae and just serviced the mortgage from then on. I could imaginge that there is a financial benefit in selling mortgages to third parties? May be they sw...

Our mortgage payment is 23% of our after tax (net) income, consisting of: Interest( 8%), principal(11%), taxes (4%)
Despite a 3.125% APR I want to pay it off as fast as possible.

We had a property that we rented out and our initial mortgage was with Chase. The strange thing that happened was that Chase contacted us to refinance to a much lower rate while the property was rented out in 2011, and they refinanced with no closing cost. To this day I don't understand why they wou...

I have 5% REITS in my portfolio, half US domestic and half international. I mentally assign REITS in my stock allocation, but I think of them as a separate entity and therefore don't include it in my international equity - I just like to geographically diversify them, since real estate is such a loc...

Overall, I am decreasing my bond duration by investing all new fixed income savings in short term investment grade bonds, but I didn't sell any intermediate-term bonds (and don't hold any long-term bonds).

Thanks RabbMD and happymob, I will definitely look into a rollover (after the tax season) to a lower cost VG plan. I liked the link you gave RabbMD, the link indeed says, that Maryland does not recapture rollover tax breaks - has anyone actually done this? Is the 12 month rule to avoid recapture eff...

Hi RabbMD, Thanks for your post. I was not aware of the option to roll over a part or all of 529 assets to another 529 plan in another state. That allows you to have the tax benefit in our state and at the same time you can lower expenses. I just looked at the NV Vanguard options on the Vanguard web...

We have a 2007 Honda Odyssey minivan and my wife loves it. We had it for 6 years now and had no issues whatsoever. I know they have a premium, but reliability, durability and safety seem to be worth a premium. In terms of Siena versus Odyssey, I think it is probably a coin toss, both companies have ...

Re: What's your favorite frugal thing(s) to do? by reggiesimpson » Sun Feb 24, 2013 5:44 pm After shaving clean and DRY the blade (blow on it, hairdryer etc). Its the water that corrodes the blade not the actual shaving. That is great advice - I hate to spend money on razors. How much longer do the...

"Naturally, there is a price to self-management as well. For one thing, your advisor might be an idiot. Yes, I mean you."

Great quote! I can't beleive he knows me!
Thanks Taylor, I love the quotes and I am looking forward to reading the book
Michael

Re: questions about 529 plan - asset allocation by Greenie » Sun Mar 03, 2013 3:16 pm The Vanguard 529 allows for your own preferred AA mix but only one asset allocation change a year. I got bit with that during the 2008 meltdown. I made my one yearly change and then the age based target fund kicke...

Thanks I2ridehd
I wish we had a granddad like you alive for our kids...your plan makes perfect sense. The only issue is, if you want to pay in full for out-of-state tuition and your grandchild was just born recently, 166K might be on the low side of estimated cost projections.

Here is a recent thread with related discussion. There is no consensus. viewtopic.php?f=10&t=106121&newpost=1542576 Regarding your first question, if you dont save the money in a 529 what would you do with it? If the question is taxable vs 529, you have four kids to spread the 529 money aro...

I thought about this for a while, and then finally decided to use the age-based portfolios in the NY/Vanguard plan. They're all low cost, and they adjust to more conservative as you approach college age. I added an additional 10% of international to overweight that a bit more, so I have a 2-fund po...

Hi everyone, After years of reading the forum and finding answers to many of my questions in other people’s posts, I need some help from the forum. I have questions about the 529 plans for our kids and any suggestions how to move forward from here are welcome. Overall financially, I think we are wel...

by grayfox » Sun Feb 10, 2013 10:54 pm Thanks for posting that. Very good reading and lots of factual data in there. Some Observations: Lost empire Austria is interesting. Austrians are some of the most industrious people on the planet. Shouldn't have attacked Serbia. Lesson: Don't be on the losing...

Thanks for the link stratton, I found figure 5 interesting, it kind of seems to contradict of the way we look at negative or absent correlations between equities and bonds. This figure seems to show the opposite, that if bonds have a real (after inflation) negative yield (to the left side of the fig...