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I recently rebalanced back to 48/48/4, equities/fixed income/cash, as a retired 65 y/o. I look at the market, hitting new highs almost daily with equal doses of amazement and terror at what will inevitably come next, for both equities and bonds. Swans come and they can be very darkly colored for bot...

Kill the cookies and keep going.

The second part of the deal is to tell the dealer (new car), after you have your best number from them, you want $2K over what the CarMax number is for a trade and see what they come back with.

You might try checking at 4 - 6 AM for a day or two on different carriers. You might catch one of those 2 seats only at this price offers.

51 posts about an investment that is not "our" style, and that did poorly compared to well diversified indexing. Personally, I recommend everyone enjoy this period for as long as it lasts as the upside is more fun than the downside.

I voted that I should have retired earlier, but that would have been by a year. Had I known our friend Mr. Market was going to do what he has done I would have retired at the end of December 2010, instead of April 2012. I could probably make even more precise calls if I knew how long I was going to ...

Within the last 9 months or so I purchased two Samsung "Smart" TVs. Both 55", one a 7500 series one a 8000 series. .. both LED and 3D able. Both Wi-Fi direct to my router for Netflix or Hulu or anything else on the web. Both auto update their software via Samsung updates all by themse...

Not for me. .. if I ever wanted to reach for yield (more risk) it would be easy enough to do with VG either in HY or adding equities.

You will need a sound pressure meter (Radio Shack) to calibrate the rears and center and making sure any receiver you get has a volume check speaker by speaker is important. Consider that some A/V receivers, especially the "prosumer" grade, have built-in room calibration software. Just pu...

Ditto on the Samsung 60" in a 7500 or 8000 series these 3D LED units are truly amazing. If I was building another home theatre today I would use NHT speakers ... California company which has been around many years and builds exceptional value. I might even pickup another Yahama RX 1070 5.1 rece...

why don't you just wait for a big black swan to fly by and eliminate the capital gains issues?

chaz wrote:Try the Bogle brand. It is very good.

+1 .. Very good (esp the cab) for a grocery store 9 to 12 bottle.

Had Liberty Mutual for many years, just switched to AARP Hartford. Very pleased with rate and total package (auto-renter's-umbrella). I can relate... had Liberty Mutual for 47 years, perfect for last 17 years. Rates seemed too high so this year I called the (AARP) Hartford for a quote. It was very ...

What Larry says about high yield can't possibly be right. The Vanguard HY fund has outperformed the total bond market fund by roughly 3-5% ANNUALIZED looking at 1,3, 5 and 10 year returns (courtesy of Vanguard's website). Taking money from TBM and putting it into HY has got to make an investor more...

You may be right Larry but it's extremely difficult to see how an asset that can be price depressed for 5 or 6 years, vs. an asset that was depressed in price for 7 months after the swan is a worse investment for a retiree using systematic withdrawals.

I just got rid of a Jeep I had almost 10 years. The OEM tires went 48K before I replaced them, with plenty of legal tread remaining and evenly worn front to rear, side to side, as I wanted to change them out before the Florida rainy season. The replacements went almost 40K before I replaced the car....

When it comes to commodities, I believe most would argue that the small percentage devoted to this asset class belongs on the equity side of things. If you're a 60/40 investor and you want 5% commodities, take it out of the 60% column. For those in favor of high-yield bonds, given their high correl...

The company I work for sent out an e-mail that Morgan Stanley's Financial advisors were available to take a look at our 401K investments and if any of us need advice they are available at any time. I called the person and he got back to me. I should clarify that Morgan Stanley is the company that r...

me three, but I get the humor.

I'm with livesoft on this one.

Clive... interesting BUT.. how many out there are able, let alone willing to if they are able to, live on a 2% drawdown?

Snowman, Bonds are also supposed to preserve the principal. My concern is that if I continue with my current AA and keep feeding the bonds every 6 months or so, when the interest rates go up, principal will not be preserved (or I will take a very very long time to get my principal back). I am not t...

midareff wrote:I turned 65 last December and enrolled in Medicare and AARP United Plan F. No deductibles at all and no copays.

I also seem to remember that the list of available hospitals was much smaller.

If you decide to go for a surge suppressor, the Tripp Lite Isobar Ultra line is very well regarded: http://www.tripplite.com/en/products/product-series.cfm?txtSeriesID=825 or av products: http://www.tripplite.com/en/products/product-series.cfm?txtSeriesID=829 I have used Tripplite products in high-...

YDNAL wrote:

midareff wrote:You doing a rain dance over there Landy?

Yeah... Saturday midday I drove through 1' of standing water in some streets.

I hear you.... wifey and I were over in the Bed, Bath and Beyond area..... I had to hide out in Starbucks for almost an hour.

That certainly qualifies as apples and oranges Eric. M* chart shows a fund with a 3+ year recovery you are comparing to a bond fund with a 7 month recovery? Seems like a good way for a retiree needing a relatively steady income source to really take a beating. .. maybe even find a nice life under a ...

I love all the know-it-alls around here.... OverTheHill, you appear a bit irritated. I read your OP to mean 15% of your Fixed Income Assets are placed in HY with full knowledge of "hybrid risk, sort of between fixed/equity." Well, I don't know whether I did the right thing or not, but I d...

This year (so far) I have been grounded with medical issues I hope to resolve shortly. Last year I spent almost three weeks on Safari in Kenya/Tanzania and 7 weeks in BKK. I have been taking 2 international tours a year since 2006.

Not so nice today. Glad I don't own any.

mephistophles wrote:One man's facts are another man's fiction. Don't know who said this, but it seems appropriate.

LOL, at this point we know U did.

I think the planner's are reasonably reliable and qualified but they are not inside your head. I had a consult awhile back wherein the CFP pointed out where my portfolio was above and below market weights. I could have done that myself and did not find that particularly valuable. Having said all tha...

I had a three or four day arranged (by me) layover in London on the back of a Scotland and Ireland Tour in 2006. I stayed at the Thicket Victoria Hotel which is about 2 blocks from the Victoria Station exit from the airport underground. Tower of London, London Eye, London Bridge, Tour up/down the Th...

It seems to me that you won't be living in this house very long. As a (young) single doctor, a home valued at 1X annual earnings won't be where you wind up down the road when it's family time. As such I see no value in shortening the mortgage, it will be paid off when you sell and move. I recently r...

spreadsheets are not needed. Two year loan of $6000 paid down to zero. Average amount outstanding is $3000... $4500 mid way through the first year and $1500 midway through the second. Interest on $3000 @ 5% for two years is $300.

I'm a couple of years from you .. age 65 and retired. Pension from a well funded state plan and taking SS. I'm 50/50 with which I sleep well at night and am unable to find ANY compelling to reason to move from that. I was there a year ago and just rebalanced back to it. The split is about 45% taxabl...

I guess I'm pretty happy with 15 basis points average across a diversified portfolio.

Love it... a couple of hundred for ME!

Index Fan wrote:I seem to remember William Bernstein in The Investor's Manifesto saying that rebalancing every 2 or 3 years worked well (I hope I'm remembering that right).

and Otar says every four years at the end of the Presidential Election cycle.

DB no contest.

I feel your pain! And to make matters worse look at what Mr. Buffett has said a while back. He seemed to be one of the first to be saying this. http://www.moneyweek.com/news-and-charts/people-in-the-news/guru-watch/guru-watch-avoid-gold-and-bonds-says-warren-buffett-57513 and I have to say he is co...

The tension mounts, more experts, more opinions, more advice. .. and I sold some equities today to buy bonds and get back to my AA. What's a guy to do.

I have an 80's model Curtis Mathis television set that I can highly recommend. It still works, and it is too heavy for a thief to steal. Beyond that (or rather because of that), I have recently looked into televisions. The understanding that I have is that Visio is going to show the same picture as...

Formats are relatively settled now ... the every six months change is really past. In that price range any CURRENT Canon, Nikon, Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, Fuji or Olympus will do what you want. You can gets lots of comparisons, side-by-side and lots of reviews and knowledge at http://www.dpreview.com

Looking to buy a new LCD/LED TV and was wondering if you guys have any good recommendations. I am thinking 32 inch would do the trick for me, I don't know if anything bigger than that is really needed? Will use it to stream netflix and watch movies via dvd. Thanks! Don't know if this will help you ...

I've just started to read The Great Depression: A Diary by Benjamin Roth and it is SENSATIONAL. I'll be posting about this in the books thread. But one of the things it drives home is living in a world of illiquidity. Bank accounts are frozen, banks re-open but tell depositors they cannot withdraw ...

Vanguard is telling us the total bond fund will be returning 1.6-something% for a very long time. Do you really understand what this means for savings you put in there now if inflation rises to 4% a year? If you do, and can accept losing that buying power, fine. If you don't, you really need to com...

Midareff, Each alternative suggested comes with a rationale. It's up to the intelligent investor to choose the options whose rationale works best for them. Agreed I wouldn't invest in the Emerging Market bond fund because it looks too risky to me. But the case the authors make in the text is for Au...

You might check out the Vendue Inn on Queen Street in the Historic District. ... of if I remember right the Admiralty Inn right across the street. Short walk into the heart of the historic district, 1/2 block from the pier .... both are historic locations and if memory serves both have breakfast and...

So are you folks Flagship that you received this for free and us lowly Voyager and Voyager Select folks are left peering in the window sans book? :beer I'm a Flagship client and have not received a copy of this book. Any other Flagship clients NOT receive the book? When the authors are quoted as sa...

Yes, this was a Flagship perk. Re "Stay the Course." I don't think I have ever read anything from any of these investment gurus that says, "Never reevaluate your portfolio, but stick to whatever investment decision you made at one point in your life and never change it. The "sta...