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I'd bought 100 shares of RIMM in Dec 11 at a cost basis of 13.66 per share with a put option at strike price 20 for June 12 total for around $2100. The stock went up and down and I finally sold both the put and stock at the strike price for about $1993 before the put expired in June. On my tax sheet...

I wouldn't count on a pension - I would not factor it into your retirement estimates for various reasons .....retiring early depends on what sort of lifestyle you want vs can afford. To be conservative, that is, not factoring in bleak world events/unforeseen problems, if you want to have mid-range r...

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For Renters, all things being equal, how much extra (rent) would you be willing to pay to have a washer and dryer working/available inside your rental unit (ie. the garage or closet)?

Just curious what others perceived monetary value might be.....

Thx.

I like PenFed's 1.85% rate for a 3-yr CD. I also have AMEX for a 0.9% online savings account - good web-interface. But for the extra money I'd take the CD if you don't need the money right now. If you're just looking for a better short term storage place, AMEX is great. Ally is probably fine too.

Penfed has a 3-year CD for 1.85% APY with a 6 month penalty vs likely a 12 month penalty for a 5 years CD.....

https://www.penfed.org/Money-Market-Accounts-Overview/

Better deal imo

CD rates are very poor, but if you're going to get one, try Pentagon Federal Credit Union 3 Yr @ 1.85% APY with 6-month penalty. https://www.penfed.org/Money-Market-Accounts-Overview/ I've used Penfed for many years and am quite happy with them. Unfortunately, believe there's no end in sight for the...

imdb average ratings sometimes are completely off-base.

Hello,
Anyone with a 24 hr fitness gym membership upgrade to Super Sport membership from Sport? Do you find it worth the increase in dues if so?

As already noted, put in at least to the employers match limit for 401 trad. - then it's up to you. I like to put more into ROTH and pay the taxes now - but it's a bit of Crap shoot.

The rent I quoted would be on the low side according to comparables. Is that enough to keep it rented? Good question. House requires some upfront investment. As an investment return I'd hope after taxes, expenses, vacancies, fees, this rental could generate 5-8% ROI per year. Now over 10 years, who ...

I am entertaining the idea of becoming a landlord. Believe it would make sense financially for the area I'm looking at. $170k - 1450 sqft house renting for about $1350/month rent, 1.5% property tax. Of course there's much more to being a land-lord than just financials. Those of you who have been or ...

Nothing wrong with market timing if you get it right :)....just be prepared for the alternate outcome - ie suffering paper or real losses. As far as the timing of now? I think many stocks are currently over-valued (my big example is Amazon (AMZ) at a P/E of over 2000(!!!)) and perhaps the market as ...

The question at hand is whether the investment can beat the mortgage rate, which is in some cases 2.5% depending on term, amount, credit history etc. Can your investments make more than 2.5% over the life of the loan? My thinking is probably. But then again, I like the idea of paying a house off com...

I figured it was about $75 more over 8 months for about an hour of my time as I already have accounts at DCU. Worth it, barely.

Careful of alternative minimum tax - believe it may creep in for many more unless addressed by politicians - and your new stated income looks like a candidate.

Just got a special CD rate offer from DCU: https://www.dcu.org/

1.5% for 8 months (this is about equivalent to a 3 year CD rate at other places). Highest rate I've seen right now is 7 year 2% at penfed.

According to the author, only for the first $5k invested for that mango thing - something, but not worth the hassle imo. I like American Express online - they have a very nice interface and easy bank transfers to your other banks. I bought a 10 yr promo CD and am quite happy with it with a great rat...

Can anyone recommend a good foreign bond fund? Looking to add a bit diversity and hedging.
Thx.

I'm a little worried about US bonds in general due to possible future credit down-ratings or swings up in interest rates, but I couldn't tell you when or if they'll happen.They are likely better than a 100% stock portfolio with all those gyrations. I'm not really versed in bonds myself; I'm in my 30...

Yep, defensive measures inputted in September....will wait until Congress addresses it even if it means taking a paper loss.

Drop your candy, yes - or eat it too fast.

While you can't control return rates on stocks, bonds, interest etc, you can always try to goto (or back to) part-time or (gasp) full-time work again. I'm a long ways from retirement, but get the general feeling that there's no such thing as saving too much. Dying with a large balance to give to oth...

I shifted a good chunk of 401k over to Fidelity FSITX in September wanting to put some money into something "stable", but see it's gone down about 1% in a month. Is this normal for bond funds (drop from $12.04 -> $11.91)? I realize 1% isn't too much in the investing world, but my idea was ...

Thanks for the replies. Yes, I do wonder what will happen with HPQ, but I think selling at least a portion of it is good at this point. It is not for retirement specifically, though huge losses are not cotton candy. It was actually Compaq stock bought before being sold to HPQ during the company's in...

A family member has a fairly large holding of Hewlett Packard Stock (HPQ) and has unfortunately watched it tank over the past month badly. She seeked input as to whether to sell... - now I am not a stock expert, but it seems selling after quite a few slides in a row is letting your emotions get the ...

It could be, If you're out of the market, you either don't care one way or another, or are actually hoping for falls/downtrends to get back in. If you're in the market, it's reversed, you either don't care (stay the course no matter) or are hoping for uptrends to jump out and collect income. The old...

I would think that lower quality debt demands higher rated service/cost of that debt (?) (think Spain/Greece etc).

Here's a question I've recently been thinking about, could the US government credit rating be downgraded again say from AA to A? And if so, would that mean that interest rates would be forced to rise up? Just wondering....

I didn't sell anything, but was trying to answer your supposition.

Yes since you're still buying the stock - incur fees on 36 shares over the last 90 days.

So in other words if I want to rebalance and avoid the fees, I will have to stop paying into the account for 90 or 30 days depending on the fund.

When a company states "we might levy a fee", wth kind of language is that?! Either you incur a fee or not - what's with the ambiguity?

About 70% in cash. I would judge that allocation as highly conservative.

On my wife's 401k with Fidelity, I went to change future contributions for reallocation to a more conservative fund and I get this message: "Fees might be assessed to your account as a result of future transactions" And then listing a bunch of 0.75 and 1.5 percentages for any shares held 2...

2 Wet dollars folded once in a grocery store parking lot during winter time some years ago. They've since resided in my car for toll money, but unused since I avoid any local toll roads.

Thanks Taylor, but I'm probably always going to worry due to the cumulative nature of holding. You have a known financially precarious event and a political log-jam topped off with an election. Yes, we don't know the effects on markets, but we can hazard a reasonable guess that it will be less than ...

Anyone shifting temporarily out of stock funds in 401ks/stocks as a defensive move for the next 6 months until after fiscal cliff has been addressed one way or another? Thoughts?

Off the top of my head: Phone/Cable Service (ATT - threaten and if you need to DO change services) Newspaper - (threaten cancellation) Car Purchase (Back and forth) Car Maintenance (Make sure to double question best discounts/state you'll take the service if they can give more discounts) Anything Cr...

You can always borrow money off your 401k later for down-payment as well - paying interest to yourself rather than someone else

I've thought about the general topic, and have come to the conclusion that your yearly passive income needs to be at least twice your yearly expenditure. At 3x I'd feel comfortable in leaving work. Predictable passive income would need to come from owning property/collecting rent or having a very lo...

Well for starters, I saw quite a few toll roads in Sydney, Melbourne.......also the emergency stash needs to be in place.....a 2 week trip to Australia is almost as expensive as 3+weeker to NZ we did in 09

Anywhere State-side that gives a better rate than the airport scalpers for US to AUSSIE Dollar exchange? Had heard Travelex, but was not too impressed.
Thx....

Showing Ally Bank with 0.89%. AMEX with 0.85%.... Any others or National banks/ Credit Unions with better savings rates? Looking at liquid.....danke!

A coworker has OOMA and likes it - I travel alot for work and Skype does pretty well for me with that. Sometimes I get poor call quality, but usually not. I also like that my wife can use my skype account on her IPOD Touch interchangeably without any additional equipment - just an available wifi and...

As a younger investor I am pretty conservative, and so I have both Wellsley and Wellington funds. I know they won't give you a home run, but they're shielded from the big down-gaps as well. I'll take the less return for less losses.

Rates may go up, but when? And by how much? Japan has had ridiculously low rates for over a decade. The USA's rates have been low for a few years. I'd guess rates could be held low for at least several year longer minimum. They may only be put up marginally too.

[quote="rb6p"]I just got the salle mae card, which has no annual fee and gives back 5% on groceries, gas, and books. This does (I'm told) include amazon. For everything else I use the Amex fidelity card, which also has no annual fee and gives back 2% on everything. Just about everyone who ...

Nathan, Groceries are 25% of your expenses?..hmm....that would make sense if you're in retirement. Maybe out of context - our groceries are 9% of expenses.

[quote="twacapt"]Why would any Boglehead pay $75 or so annual fee for American Express, or any credit card? That's like paying an up-front load for a mutual fund. Plus, American Express is not accepted at a lot of retail outlets because of their high fees. I use the Pen-Fed Visa....no annu...