Bogleheads.org

A sailor, while sailing a waterway, Ask the the captain, "Just how much does water weigh?" "As much as the boat Because that's why we float-- And that's just the amount that it oughter weigh." Now I have a poem to share with my students when I teach them about Archimedes' Princi...

Hard to believe the tuition for my freshman year of college cost $5,000...in 2006. My dorm cost more than my tuition! This was at an in-state school (in the top 3 for my state). It's gone up the maximum amount (6-7% per year) every year since then. Compound interest in action!

I'll check back in 5-10 years and let you know.

Didn't know about this, interesting. This is one of the 4-5 individual stocks I have remaining that I haven't sold. Will be interested to see how I input this into my portfolio manager!

I recently sold the last of my Ameriprise holdings (yay!) and am moving the cash (~$12,000) to Vanguard. I more or less use the basic 3 fund approach, with Total US and bonds in my tax advantaged accounts. I keep international in my taxable account. Last year, I sold out of Vanguard Total Internatio...

Good advice ^^^

JstSomeGuy wrote:It was started last fall and has done 0.47%, but I was unable to find anything referencing a fixed rate.

I missed this earlier. If it's only yielding such a small amount, I'd probably go with the Pimco Total Return fund.

Any comments for the group here? grabiner's "rule of 30" shows even if the plan's expense ration is 2%, you are better off maxing it out if you don't stay longer than 15 years. I've read a bit about this rule on here before and I'd love to know more. 1) Is this rule accurate for people of...

I like these 2 variations of the popular saying: Money doesn't buy happiness, but it doesn't hurt. Money doesn't buy happiness, but not having any money makes it hard to be happy. Interesting that I'm reading this thread after just reading this guest blog post on the MMM blog (which is apparently qu...

Correct, I plan on directing it away from my emergency fund. I don't plan on needing the money soon but would rather not lock it up in the 401(k). I'm guessing something like 5-10 years. In that case, as mentioned earlier, I'd go with directing it toward the Roth IRA. If you need to pull the money ...

I have a Nintendo Wii and a Roku (bought for $39) that both do the trick. For other internet videos, hook up the laptop to the TV via a HDMI or VGA cord (no sound with the latter).

I went there when I was 19 or so. I remember it being relaxing, but I don't really remember what was there. Interpret that as you will!

But, interestingly, I see no mention of "Badassity" on the site's masthead now, and the "MMM Recommends" pull-down has linked pages for credit cards and banking products. So perhaps he decided that the word wasn't so essential after all. I remember reading the post you were talk...

bdpb, BrokerageLink requires a minimum of 2,500 and has a $100 annual fee. And yes, this is Fidelity. This may be worth it later on if you stay with the same company for many years and your 401k gets large. Let's run the numbers with a few different scenarios: SCENARIO 1 - $10,000 401k account - HI...

Yes, I confirmed this with HR last week. A generous plan! I'd stick with contributing to the 401k as much as possible. If you eventually are able to fill that up, you can then try to fill an IRA (I'd probably do Traditional if I was in the 25% federal bracket and had a 9.3% state tax too). From Fid...

Desired Asset allocation: Unsure Desired International allocation: Unsure This is the first thing you need to figure out. At age 23, it would not be unreasonable to be 80% stocks and 20% bonds, with 30% of your stocks being international. However, this depends on your need, ability, and willingness...

My family of 4 has spent $23K last year (not counting health insurance). I've started a discussion about grocery expenses on this forum and many posters (like Grt2Outdoors above) spend even less / person than we & MMM do. It is not an alternative lifestyle . It is people who want you to read th...

Let's just imagine the whole thing is phony...who cares. Im not paying him a dime but am taking valuable insight from his blog (just like I do here) and incorporating it into my life. First time I've ever written this, but +1. I don't really care if he meets various criteria for being what others c...

I am afraid of the retirement bail out that is going to be required in the future. I don't want my hard work and sacrifice to be distributed to those that refused to do the same. I really wished that hey taught financial well being in high schools or even earlier. It took a few years of making the ...

Although I think TR funds are great for simplicity, I would not use one in a multi-account portfolio. I would take advantage of the excellent funds available at Vanguard to get what I couldn't get in the 401K. Also, the TR fund makes tracking AA more complicated. That's me though. Given your sister...

Sounds like it is the riskier variety of stable value fund, the type where the assets are just in the general fund of a single insurance company? To me, this is too much like buying the bonds of single insurance company and I would not do that. My wife has this type of stable value, also from Prude...

Thanks for all the feedback. The opinions are pretty one-sided, perhaps rare for the Bogleheads, but that makes it easier for me. 25% of her 401k allocation is for fixed income, so maybe I'll have her do 15% stable value and 10% Total Bond Market. I'll have to wait until her 401k plan lets her chan...

I don't have cable but I do have internet with TWC here in Raleigh. My internet rates are a bit ridiculous, and after reading on the Bogleheads how people had tried the cancel technique, I decided to give it a shot. I called TWC trying to threaten to cancel, and I mentioned ATT. The TWC rep pretty m...

Thanks for all the feedback. The opinions are pretty one-sided, perhaps rare for the Bogleheads, but that makes it easier for me. 25% of her 401k allocation is for fixed income, so maybe I'll have her do 15% stable value and 10% Total Bond Market. I'll have to wait until her 401k plan lets her chang...

I'm helping my sister out with her 401k choices. She has some great Vanguard offerings, including Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Inst (0.07%). On the other hand, there's also a stable value fund offered by Prudential, the 401k provider, which is yielding 3.25%. However, the fund's rate is set semi...

"fearless leader" haha

Will have to check this out!

FYI I just sold a '98 Honda Accord with 210k miles, some problems, and ugly paint for 2k. The guy that bought it from me? Replaced the starter for a hundred bucks or so and turned around and resold it for 3.5k. People love those Hondas...I'd consider putting it at a higher price and let people feel ...

Nirvines88 I appreciate your reply and your knowledge. I am not sure what else I can post on my portfolio. I listed everything I have including percentages. The only thing I can go into more detail is the exact dollar amounts I have in my accounts, which I thought I read in the Portfolio Questions ...

I have maxed out my Roth IRA since I was 27 and I continue to max it out which at the current time I have 100% invested in the VG HC fund Admiral shares. This fund has undoubtedly done well, but I would consider diversifying away from just a single sector. You're basically betting on one segment of...

I read about the three-fund portfolio as well. As far as I understand it the "Lazy Portfolio" is sort of a specialization of the three-fund, right? Is it less advantageous to try to follow a Lazy Portfolio compared to the three-fund? There are many types of lazy portfolios, including the ...

Fund allocation looks OK. However, there's probably some overlap, and you're tilting to certain sectors. You could definitely simplify, if you wanted. See the link on the 3 fund portfolio posted above by user mhc. Personally, I started with the 3 fund portfolio and then added other pieces (e.g. smal...

In my opinion you would be bettter off, have a more diversified lower expense portfolio, if you did this: 401-k (low 5 figures; adds enough to get match) VINIX- 58%, net expense ratio: 0.04, <= more than enough to get the match is fine, very low expense ratio PTRAX- 29% net expense ratio: 0.71 TIVR...

Only putting 5% in 401, will not need taxable for awile John Good point, he can do what I mentioned above as an alternate scenario (both Vanguard Institutional Index and Thornburg in 401k). However, he should be contributing more than 5%, if possible! 10% to 401k + maxing out Roth would be an impro...

If it was me, I'd put 100% of my 401k into Vanguard Institutional Index (0.04%). I would place bonds (Vanguard Total Bond Market) in my Roth IRA, and put international stocks in a taxable account. This setup would look something like this: 401k Vanguard Institutional Index Roth IRA Vanguard Total Bo...

NYBoglehead wrote:I predicted 1,580. I hope I am way wrong and someone with 1,600+ will win.

Me too! You and some other guy boxed me in! I feel like a contestant on the Price is Right!

Minor consideration depending on how large your balance is: Vanguard Simple IRA's charge $25 yearly account maintenance fee per fund held in Simple IRA. So 3 fund would be $75 annual service fee for 3 funds versus $25 for 1 Target date fund (edit to add: in addition to expense ratio of funds). This...

Close, but I moved it to Personal Consumer Issues, as it relates to a consumer item. If we were discussing about financing the item (loans, etc.), it might go into personal finance. No big deal. Makes sense, I usually just look at the Bogleheads main page rather than the forum index page, and I did...

Amazon did away with this policy many years ago, however. At least it's no longer listed. Strange that you were able to take advantage of this still in 2013. Yes, apparently they did away with the policy a while back. Despite reading about the policy cancellation, I did a little additional Googling...

I think this relates to personal finance, so here goes: Just wanted to give the Bogleheads a heads up on something I found out today. ~25 days ago, I bought a watch from Amazon for $95. Today, I happened to see that the watch price had dropped to $65, a 30% change or so! I called Amazon politely ask...

Assuming SS will still be around in some facet, I will be affected by the WEP in the future. I started working at age 16, contributing toward SS since then (age 24 now). I currently teach at a school where I do contribute to SS, and I will likely keep this job for another year or two. After this, I ...

10% (before taxes, FICA, etc.) of income on rent. This does not include utilities nor internet.

I held about $12,000 of FTSE All World Ex US this past year, and had a $19 foreign tax credit. I TLHed into FTSE All World Ex US out of Total International.

If I was you, was in the 15% bracket, and had the same goal of buying a house, here's what I would do: 1) Fill Roth IRA for 2012, as this window closes in April (April 15th, I believe) 2) Pay off student loans 3) Fill Roth IRA for 2013 4) I-bonds/CDs 5) 403b* *This might be bumped up since you live ...

I would definitely take some action. If nothing else, send him a letter. Perhaps you should let his response to your letter dictate your next action.

Keep in mind that you will likely have to pay fees to buy and sell a stock. $7 buying and $7 selling = $14. If this is the case, that means you'll have to earn about 28% just to break even!

Keep trying! I will do the same thing when I start teaching at public school. 403b and many 457b plans are notoriously bad. I did have success in getting my private school to switch out of a high cost 401k plan for a SIMPLE IRA, where we get to choose our funds (hello Vanguard!). Most employers are ...

With all of that said, I am going to really try to never own individual stocks again, because reporting the sale was a huge headache. Umm, if you reinvest dividends in a mutual fund, you'll have the same issue - many different lots, each with a different cost basis. Even if you sell all of it at on...

Currently all FTSE All-World ex-US Index Fund Admiral (btw, this is the hardest mutual fund name for me to remember). I transferred into this fund when I sold my entire Total International position last year to tax loss harvest. This makes up 15% of my overall portfolio. I hold this in my taxable ac...

-$1000 cash in a savings account I worked a couple days a week in college to pay for all the stuff I needed in college. By stuff, I mean mostly beer. With that being said, I rarely had more than $1,000 in my checking account, and it worked OK for me. If you're not a big spender and have a reliable ...

Did a Traditional to Roth Conversion in 2012: $1,400 (don't think this affects it, but just in case) This does affect your tax liability, because it is income. However, the tax you paid on it got wiped out by the Saver's Credit, so you made a free conversion, which was a great deal. (If you had mad...

Interesting, thanks for the explanation.

I'm 1 year too young for the earned income credit, otherwise I would go for that too.