Bogleheads.org

We realized that, with a one-income household (and that one income is not huge), our hopes of a healthy retirement fund would rest on getting out of the mortgage ASAP and putting that money into our investments. So we're still in our "starter home" for 28 years but it's paid for. Yes, we c...

How do you divide the maintenance costs and taxes?

Some day one of you will want to do something with the property, and the other won't. Then what? For example:
- Sell off a piece of the land.
- Or sell it all.
- Clear some land.
- Sell trees for income.
- Improve the property.

I would take the cash so the assets were under my control and not dependent on someone else to stay solvent enough to make the payments for 30 years. A prize of that size is so immense I wouldn't care about the tax hit to take the cash option.

One thing that astounds me about college costs. When I started (at a private) college, my parents had nothing to give me. They were so far in debt from medical bills there was nothing left. But between modest grants, some loans, a summer job and working 12 hours a week while in school, I paid my own...

Two main reasons for the skyrocketing costs - students who believe more expensive = better, and government guaranteed school loans. I don't think the huge increase in college administration staff is a cause - it's an effect. When your customers are willing to assume any amount of debt to meet your a...

Yeah, credit card use is a good way to keep your record freshened up. I know my score is lower than it could be due to no installment loans and no mortgage, but I'm not going to pay interest just to boost my score a little. You don't pay interest if you pay the card in full every month. True. I was...

Yeah, credit card use is a good way to keep your record freshened up. I know my score is lower than it could be due to no installment loans and no mortgage, but I'm not going to pay interest just to boost my score a little.

I would never open any sensitive files on a computer that wasn't mine.

Fighting to hire someone else's intern after the internship ended. The group she was in had no open positions but it was clear she was the kind of brilliant person you find a way to hire if you have the opportunity. Her supervisor at the time shrugged and said nothing could be done. I fought to take...

Professor Irwin Corey would be proud of that guy.

When I read posts like this (regardless of which company is being praised) I always wonder how much of the great experience was because of the amount of assets the customer holds at that firm. Some places look up accounts by caller ID while the phone is still ringing, and based on the customer's val...

To be "precise", though, (and this will get me tarred and feathered with government and education employees), someone who has a "stated" or official or disclosed annual salary and is paid biweekly (every two weeks) should NOT have the annual salary divided by 26. That overpays t...

Nice work, dm200! This thread reminded me of how many times I had a new hire timidly ask me to review their first paycheck because it didn't look right. Most of our new hires are right out of college and it's their first "real" job. The confusion stems from where they start within the pay ...

Really really, sore point for me. I paid $3500, I was 24 and a graduate student. While I did have money, it was up to that point in my life the single most expensive thing I had ever purchased. I decided to save on the ring and to pay off her undergrad loans then for her dental school instead. Thro...

When the time came, my wife-to-be asked if we would be able to buy a home sooner if we skipped the engagement ring. So she decided to skip the ring. Thirty years later and she's never asked for one, or any other jewelry for that matter. It's just not her style. But the number-one criterion has to be...

I buy mine from the local Batteries Plus store. There might be cheaper ones out there but I like to buy local and they'll take your old one for recycling. My understanding is that the battery backup only runs the telephone, not anything else. It's there as a safety net so you have a few hours of pho...

Being a neutral observer, after reading your pros/cons it seems clear that you would like to do this.

I think the ability to handle constant travel is highly personal. I think travel today is a lot more painful than it used to be. But I have colleagues who do it all the time and don't mind. I know it would kill me. I would seriously consider relocating to the West if that's where your clients will b...

You can't sell them ever? Or just for a period of time?

If it's just that you can't sell them until some time in the future, I would count the value in net worth, keeping in mind that the shares are illiquid for now.

One source http://www.bankrate.com/financing/banking/banks-losing-big-on-free-checking/ says it costs banks about $350 a year to maintain a checking account. However, one can argue whether overhead should be part of that number, and perhaps marginal cost should be the more applicable cost. I can't ...

Our tithing is in between gross and net but much closer to net.

First, I would want to be able to offer compelling reasons for the move, none of which would include "that job would be easier for me" if at all possible. A better career path, expand your areas of expertise so you can make greater contributions, whatever. I would go into this with the ass...

I agree with the OP. I would like to know what a $300 account costs a bank, if they don't issue paper statements. Unless the customer is traipsing in there or taking up phone time, my guess is check processing time, which I will bet is largely automated for large banks. And the customer is not writ...

Some more versions of the popular saying: Money can't buy you happiness but it is way ahead of whatever comes next Money can't buy you happiness but neither can poverty Money can't buy you love thats true but I love the things that a little bit of money can do--Song named ? Coastline Band...Gordon ...

klewlis wrote:Are there also disadvantages to this method?

The bond interest paid will have to come out of earnings, theoretically affecting earnings per share. Whether that's enough money to actually matter, I don't know.

I've been using it for close to 20 years. 1. Do you use Quicken and if so, which version (starter, deluxe, premier, home & business)? I use Premier, since it supports investment accounts well. 2. Is it Mac compatible? Don't know. 3. How often do you need to upgrade to the latest version? Every t...

^^ These are all good recommendations. I read all of them when I was nominated to be a trustee. Even though the first two are written for trustees, they have plenty of info that is useful when thinking about creating a trust, and the Condon book is essential reading for someone creating a trust.

I'd just like to give my 2 cents here after following this thread from the start. I'm amazed that no one has agreed with Leonard he is advocating for a very BH approach. I know I agree with him. The advice given here by most posters to me flies in the face of 99% of the advice I've seen on other qu...

When a person at a bank signs off a Medallion guarantee, the bank is financially liable if it turns out to be fraudulent. That't the big reason why people are reluctant to do it. And their authorizations to do so have a dollar cap, so that's why they need to see your statement - to make sure they ar...

That's a killer for moms or dads who don't work outside the home. With zero income, they'll never be able to get a card from Chase.

I think this issue is worth more than one conversation with mom. I think she is breaching fiduciary duty by allowing this .7% fee. Perhaps if the going rate for such management was 0.2%, but 0.7% is not an excessive fee for trust management, and I suspect it's actually on the low side. I am not def...

Huh...costs matter, except when the money is in a trust and it might entail a hard conversation with your mom? Missed that caveat somewhere on this website. OP - I would go ahead and suggest continuing to pursue this. .7% is a very unreasonable asset management fee. At the very least, I would sugge...

Your mother has a fiduciary responsibility to the beneficiaries and is protecting herself from legal issues by using a pro to manage the trust. I am a trustee myself and could easily manage the money but I also pay someone to do it. I won't risk a serious market decline and have beneficiaries sue me...

I use my credit union's billpay for everything. I do not allow autopay but with one exception. I have a couple of credit cards set up for monthly donations to different charities, in order to keep them active. Since I can see the amount in advance and know it's always the same, I don't have to wonde...

So computers scan twitter and other sites for news, then automatically start trading on such news without any human intervention? I'm pretty sure that's not a good idea.

I'm not sure a financial planner will help. I have friends that have been going to a planner for years, and he has no problem telling them that they don't need to fund a Roth because they both have 401ks and that they can afford multiple vacations a year and toys (like a sports car). They are in th...

I don't know what can be done. I get them too. My landline phone has a block call feature that works off Caller ID, but the numbers keep changing. I've decided that the only way I can fight back is to waste as much of their time as possible because at some point I hope they will voluntarily stop cal...

There's a risk in how this gets sold to the free-spending spouse. If both of you want to get advice on money management, I think it would be fine. If the idea is to pay a planner to tell the free-spending spouse to knock it off, I wonder how well that will work. "See, this expert said what I've...

I bought one once, went fine. But I would stick to the larger, more costly-to-rent cars. I believe the small cars (= cheapest to rent) are abused more by renters. The younger drivers tend to like to beat up on rental cars based on years of comments I have seen on message boards. But they won't pay m...

Another angle to consider is whether you are comfortable with firms having a record of your purchases. If you have a local shop available with competitive prices, you can buy with cash. I don't want a place I bought from sending me snail mail that advertises precious metals. Mail can end up in a nei...

I have been receiving it for about a month (free trial). I found it fascinating at first as I had never read anything like it. A blend of individual stock analysis stories and big-picture stuff, and puff pieces with CEOs, and in great detail. Stocks, bonds, ETFs, commodities, voluminous tables full ...

+1 for seeing a counselor even if you have to go by yourself. Perhaps a counselor could help suggest ways to get her to go also. That is such a radical change in personality and habits. Has she gotten a thorough physical checkup since this started? Perhaps there is a physical problem that is contrib...

Good catch, grabiner.

That part seems to have some problems. Yes, something isn't right. I tried the same thing with the Vantage score tab: Initial page load: My score is higher than 99% of all CK members (any state, any age, any income) Change "Any state" to my state: higher than 78% of CK members in my state...

Maybe instead of a "no" you could (if you are so inclined) provide a notarized letter that states the 1065 has no information that is relevant to her income or creditworthiness other than what is on her personal K-1, and due to company confidentiality you decline to provide the 1065.

I understand why my credit score is good but my home insurance score is baffling. My score is lower than 75% of the others in my state, age and income bracket. But I have been in the same home for decades and never filed a claim (and have a high deductible, making it even less likely I would file on...

Could not find anything on Vanguard's site called "Personal Advisor Services". But with a search engine I did find a reference to Vanguard's "Personal Online Advisor Service" that had approximately the same fee as mentioned in the OP. That reference indicated the service offered ...

I voted 0 but it's actually just a little over zero. Maybe 3 meals like that in 30 years. My wife is uncomfortable spending that much on a dinner (she thinks it's wasteful) so I don't bring it up.

Congratulations, and nice work! I think that is certainly worthy of a celebration.

Might be a good idea to start a new thread with the question about your wife's IRA so it doesn't get lost in this one.