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I haven't been watching the market at all, just saw this news somehow because an online dealer sent me an email that my price target for silver (~$22) had been reached. So I'm thinking, stack some silver today or tomorrow. why wouldn't I buy when on sale? I guess I have to plug my numbers into the s...

Looks like it's buying time. Gotta build up my stacks. Silver is cheap today!

interest rates may not be this low again. I don't have a crystal ball, but they are historically low, and are now trending upwards. I'd get some quotes on no-cost refi, even with PMI, and then perhaps take 50% of planned retirement savings and put it towards getting to 20% LTV (if you're going to be...

The 401K loan would be at 3.25%, while a home equity would be somewhere in the 5-6% range. IMHO it doesn't make sense to compare interest rates like this - in a 401k loan (at least, mine works this way), you pay interest back to yourself. So your 401k is actually growing at that rate - instead of p...

Hi - One thing struck me in your post: Current yearly gross income = $1MM+ New annual Contributions $17,500 his 401k + $6,000 company match. Total $23,500 $5,000 his Rollover 0 taxable Is the net income much lower, are you accounting for it elsewhere, or is there another plan for what to do with the...

Buy some alternative investments if you don't like bonds. You can get into a TIMO if you have money, that gives you a direct timber play. (Alternatively, you can buy and manage your own timberland, but this is not for the faint of heart). Real estate, as mentioned by others. If you want to keep your...

I went through this a few years ago. I'd suggest moving everything over in kind. Vanguard selling fees are quite low. That way, you can slowly sell and manage your tax impact. I'd suggest just mapping out what the actual asset allocation is today, based on what you have (even if you don't like it) -...

5% for me, split between GTU and physical. Consider GTU instead of GLD. Read prospectus carefully for any gold ETF. Look at NAV premiums before buying (and consider not buying if it's too high), and try to limit premiums over spot also when buying physical.

Thanks NY Dad. If I set up an 80/20 Stocks/Bonds in index funds and needed (lets say it took me some time to find work after school) money could I sell a portion of my portfolio without penalty and rebalance to 80/20. I guess what I am asking is: are index funds fairly "liquid"? Not sure ...

I disagree - if you are confident you Will be under the Roth IRA contribution limits for the year then just make the contrib now - that way it's done And the money is out of your bank account and your Roth for the year is done (limit Is 5500 I think) If you want to keep it in money market for a few ...

If you're really interested in long term thinking, 100 years is nothing. You should be thinking on 1,000 or 10,000 year timelines. check out these guys: http://longnow.org/ . Some companies have even issued 100 year bonds, so you may want to buy some of those - but don't get me started on the intere...

Buy some managed timberland, harvest it and plant a fresh crop. In 100 years, harvest again. Repeat.

Note: I am not a timber expert, but done wisely (and managed well) timber can be a good super-long term investment IMHO.

Why did you pick 80/20 for small/large division of blend instead of say 50/50? Also, what does 'FF' mean? FF= Fama French For blend, I split it as 50/50 as value and growth. The 80/20 split was for midcaps - since I don't have a 'midcap' allocation target, I just considered 80% of the midcaps as &q...

This is what I do: 1) AA for domestic is based on LCV, LCG, SCV, SCG - using cascading asset allocation method. I have a tilt to value and small. 2) I use the morningstar xRay for each of the funds. For each "blend" percentage, I assign that half to value and half to growth. For midcaps, I...

+1 to what Ladygeek said. A few other thoughts: 1) think about the zvi bodi plan for some of your assets which is I think 100% in tips ladder with appropriate maturity. This puts a floor on your expenses that is inflation protected. 2) this essentially means you would have two portfolios - one Which...

Congratulations! Interesting that you have such an aggressive AA. You've clearly hit your number, so why put more of it at risk? Also, investment real estate is not guaranteed to go up, as you know... so with 75%/25 and then the rest in RE, that's fairly risky. Have you considered just paying off yo...

I think that is right for that part -- but if your income is over the Roth limits you cannot contribute to that account any more. So (and someone correct me if I am wrong) you will need to create and convert a new account each year.... but I think that's why it's called a "back-door" - in...

Not to threadjack but... If I'm in the same situation, but have a low-cost/VG 401k , would there be any reason not to roll my traditional IRA into the 401k vs converting it to Roth? To me a tax deferred is a tax not paid, and by rolling it back into the 401k, I don't pay any taxes and can open up th...

+3 for tapatio

agree with above 1) roll all IRAs to Vanguard and consolidate. Why pay those expense ratios? Once all of your accounts are rolled over, you'll have her 401k Vanguard her roth Vanguard his roth Vanguard his traditional IRA Vanguard his roth 401k at Fidelity you could even pay the tax and roll the tra...

sell the stocks, pay down the mortgage, and refi. Rates are under 4% (now around 3.5%). that will save you a ton of money...

It's my understanding that a) if you don't have any rollover or traditional/deductible IRAs, and b) don't quality for a deductible contribution to the IRA in the first place that a backdoor roth is a no-brainer right? You fund it with after tax dollars, roll into the Roth, and "presto" - n...

Have you ever felt a sentiment here of bogleheads who would rather make 5% and pay 0% tax than make 10% and pay 15% tax. There's a real aversion to paying taxes...

If there was a fund that guaranteed 50% return and charged 10% fees, would any Bogleheads jump on board??

new yorker here. Yes that house is probably a reasonable price - I mean, if that's what the market will bear, then that is the price you have to pay. I would encourage you to look outside of the city though, for that kind of money you can get a lot more house. Westchester, new jersey, etc. And you c...

On the savings bonds, you may want to hold on to those - those will continue to earn interest for 30 years I think - and if you got them a while ago they're likely earning more interest than any bonds you could buy today. Find out what you have, but consider keeping them until they hit 30 years matu...

I've thought about it, but it makes me nervous. I'm not sure what I'd choose. You've already made a great start - maxing out your retirement accounts, and buying a target date fund - those are excellent in my opinion - you get exposure to the whole US stock market, the whole international stock mar...

Don't you think the expense ration of Russell target retirement plans are horrible? I thought they were pretty bad... But then I am still learning. Ah, sorry I hadn't looked at that closely. They're not that horrible - the bond fund you hold in your 401k is 0.5 anyway - but if you want lower expens...

In general it is suggested that you max out tax advantaged vehicles before investing in taxable. in this case, I don't know your basis in those stocks, nor your tax bracket so I don't know how much capital gains tax you would have to pay on a sale. You need to understand this before selling - it dep...

I have generally been very risk averse, and for the last 5 years or so kept most of my investments in Money Market and Bond funds... Desired Asset allocation: 60%-70% stocks.... If you're risk averse, then perhaps that stock allocation is too high. Given your income, expenses, and savings, do you t...

I vote to sell $10,500 of the stocks and dump it into Roth IRA for 2012/2013, put it in total market index, then use the $5k to pay down some debt - that way you've tax sheltered a lot of money - there is only a small window for tax shelter each year, so if you can stretch, I'd try to fill it. I als...

It says nothing about some sort of absolute performance of gold.

How would you define this, since gold is denominated/traded in different currencies around the world. If the dollar tanks against the euro, does gold go up or down, or is it not related?

I like the book on bonds by Larry Swedroe: "The Only Guide to a Winning Bond Strategy You'll Ever Need" However, as pointed out above, bonds are quite complex - there are many different kinds of bonds, in different sectors, with different maturities, and understanding the price/yield relat...

Another solution would be to put your whole Roth into VTIVX. (see the allocations as they change here: https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/vanguard/TargetRetirementList#targetAnchor). Then you'd have a 1-fund portfolio - the dream of all bogleheads... :) When you choose a target retirement fund, ...

There are a number of reasons to own an individual life insurance policy instead of being covered under a group policy.

Would love to hear about these. Thanks!

Here's another poster who had a similar question: My current asset allocation is 60% stocks 40% cash. I'm afraid to invest in bonds because my 401 plan offers mostly government bond funds and I've read that government bonds are in a bubble and therefore not a good buy. This question was from April, ...

are you sure your company doesn't offer insurance? If they do, you can sometimes pay to expand it to cover multiples of your salary. I agree with the other posters, term life is what you want here likely.

Actually, the majority do qualify, i.e. present all points fairly from a neutral perspective using credible sources. I agree that those are important criteria, but what I meant by "qualify" was "pass the notability test": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Notability . As I ...

Hmm... a few questions: 1) Isn't *saving* a key pre-requisite of *investing*? This thread is all about tips for saving money. That seems directly relevant to the "boglehead" philosophy. 2) We have entries like this: http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Video:_Start_with_a_Sound_Financial_Lifesty...

3. Make a non deductible contribution to my Rollover IRA. Convert the entire thing to a Roth. This is most straightforward, but I"m not sure if there is a difference between a Rollover IRA and a Traditional IRA and if a brand new non-Rollover TIRA is necessary. I believe that in this case, you...

I don't really care if the employees are happy or not as long as the ERs continue to decrease. while obviously not equivalent, you could make a similar argument by saying "I want my clothes that I buy at Walmart to be cheap, I don't care if the people making the clothes are suffering" My ...

Any thoughts on turning this thread into a wiki, page, sorted by category of tips - then we could archive these for the long term and would make it easier for people to find our frugal ideas in one place.

this reminds me of coffee house. http://www.assetplay.net/samples/10.html , but with a bit more tilt towards emerging and no large value tilt, and fewer bonds. I don't see anything wrong with it. It''s actually similar to my portfolio, except I decided to split bonds 50/50 with TIPS, and I added a b...

I called Vanguard this afternoon and set up an appointment for my husband and I to speak with one of their Certified Financial Planners. Hopefully, we are on our way to untangling this mess..... and we won't have to eat beans and rice for the next 25-30 years! Great news - though I think it's not t...

On a 30 year conventional I'm seeing rates
Of around 3.375 these days. Check zillow.com
For mortgage quotes to see what else is out
There...

In any case, 3.75 is still good in a historical sense,
But it's still not free money...

By my calculations, .07% is around $350 on a 500k portfolio, so you're not giving up that Much by staying with a single fund. That said there are also tax considerations - So you may have to balance yourself. But if you Really want fire and forget why not stay With betterment or wealthfront or other...

I think the copy policy is silly. Many people don't have copiers at home. Even if they do, they fill out a medical form at work to submit a claim, and why can't they copy it? Again, I don't work at VG, but my understanding was that it's an honor system - if you make a "personal" copy, you...

When I asked our advisor why they purchased "non-traded" REITs we were told it was because they are less volatile than listed REITS. I'm wondering if this is true. Wow. That really takes the cake. Listen, I'm not an investing expert, but I've read the books here, hung out on the forums, a...

In 2013: pay real estate taxes for 2013 and 2014 (early). Make charitable donations for 2013 and 2014 (double up). State income taxes are paid as normal. Itemize deductions in 2013. In 2014: Pay no real estate taxes (already paid) Make no charitable donations (already made). State income taxes are ...

Well, he said this apparently: ETF = no management/oversight, low fees. Similar to Vanguard. Which to me doesn't sound like he's proposing to buy a Vanguard ETF, just to buy an index fund ETF - but that's a minor point. OTOH, saying that there is no management or oversight of an ETF is deceptive as ...

We can turn that question around:

Wouldn't a good Japanese American boglehead have been substantially investing in markets other than the Nikkei S&P 500?


(I keep my equities at 50% US/50% International, FWIW)