Bogleheads.org

I am 45 and retired; have been for 4 years. I have two kids, 15 and 10, and we live in a pretty low cost of living city. Since retirement, I have comprised a monthly balance sheet and as long as our assets equal or exceed our starting balance plus inflation plus 1% we live and spend as we want. As o...

My son and wife have been taking tennis lessons from a coach for almost a year and they really like him. The coach is less expensive than others around and from what we have seen does a better job and we want to continue taking lessons from him. The lessons have been provided at various city facilit...

For international travel for a young family on a seemingly tight budget (standby, really?), I'd recommend Costa Rica instead of Europe. Europe will be crowded and expensive in most of the capital cities. I have traveled a good bit in Europe and just returned from Costa Rica. Very different experien...

My family and I just returned from Costa Rica. It was a great trip but I could not help comparing it to Thailand since we went there last year. It is much closer than Thailand so it is easier, but we felt Costa Rica was very overpriced for what you get. We were there for four weeks and travelled aro...

Just to follow up - I bid in the auction today and was the only bidder so I got the property for the taxes owed plus admin fees. I could be upset in 10 days, I doubt it though as the lot is not too nice and only an adjoining owner would really want it. I did not realize there was one being auctioned...

I have used Everbank for many years, probably around 10, and have always been very satisfied.

I finally reached the person responsible. It seems as if the county has searched for the heirs for some time and had no luck in locating anyone. The property has no other liens so it will be auctioned on the steps of the court house and the winning bidder gets the title. There is a 10 day upset peri...

I have a call in to the person responsible for the county, she is listed as working over tax foreclosures for the County Tax Department. This department sent me a letter which is titled as a "Tax Foreclosure Auction" and within the document states it is owned by "unknown heirs of XXX&...

Thanks MathWizard. I am quite happy to have the lot for about $4-5K in total. There are presumably 2-3 other adjoining owners that feel the same way. If my risk is only that someone pays me back then that is ok. Do you have experience in doing this or know someone that has done it? If they only have...

I would happily pick it up at a bargain and wait for a year to see if they reclaim it. I doubt I will do anything with the other lots for at least a year. I realize you are not certain this is the case in NC but as far as a possible downside, it is not a bad one.

Thanks

I live in NC and have several small lots that I have held for a few years. I have no intention to do anything with these lots and will sell them at some stage. They are not worth a lot of money so I have not gotten around to doing anything with them. I received a letter from the county that an adjoi...

I found this ranking http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/05/20/america-s-best-high-schools.html and counted NY/NC high schools in the top 100 and came up with 17 vs 10, respectively. NY's population is twice that of NC so that would presumably account for some of it. Many of the states are su...

My property tax rate has definitely decreased dramatically since I moved to NC. However, the quality of the schools has as well, so I'm calling it a wash. Were I to retire here, bad schools wouldn't bother me as much, so the lower property taxes would be all gravy. I agree that the schools in NC le...

I live in NC and on about $540K of property (home and cars) will pay about $3200 in property tax. Annual inspection fees run $25 per vehicle. That is not too bad I don't think.

I do not think NC is very expensive to live in...

I worked for 2 of the Big 4 and would agree that if you get the opportunity to work for EY, you should do it.

We were very fortunate and spent about 4 days in Bangkok, 4 in Chiang Mai and the rest in Phuket. While in Phuket we spent 2 nights on a liveaboard out by the Similan Islands and I went scuba diving and my wife/son snorkeled. It was fantastic. I have a good friend that always does tours like you men...

I spent six weeks in Thailand with my wife and son earlier this year. I would recommend doing everything yourself, not so much to save money but I think you can then focus on what you like. What are your interests? Which parts of Thailand are you interested in seeing? Have you travelled frequently o...

I started as a staff accountant with a Big 6 audit firm in 1992 making $51K in today's dollars.

I started with the Big 6 in the US and then transferred to the Former Soviet Union after 4 years. Eventually (at this stage it was the Big 4) I switched firms and was promoted to partner. I was an audit partner at first and then an audit partner plus ultimately responsible for several country practi...

is it possible to do a backdoor Roth if you have no earned income?

I helped my dad decide between the plans when he turned 65. It does seem like for the cost, plan F is definitely the way to go. I was surprised to learn that all Plan Fs are the same no matter the provider, as the premium differential is huge. Those with much higher premiums seem to say that they wi...

the internet connectivity was very good. about the same as we have at home in the US, not noticeably better or worse

I spent 6 weeks in Phuket at Karon Beach in February and March. Great vacation. Living there can be quite cheap or it can be a bit expensive - it all depends on you and your interests. We ate a lot of the street food and never experienced any sort of stomach problems and really enjoyed it. A few yea...

I lived in Moscow for years and that is how I got my cash since my salary was deposited into my US bank. I never had a problem.

Great city. PM me if you have any questions on things there. Have a great trip!!

I appreciate the replies so far and will try to do a better job of explaining my thoughts and I do not know all of the details that I would need to know if I were to approach him about doing it. At this stage there has been some idle chatting between games we play. He is not underwater on his house ...

Thanks for your replies. At this stage he does not even realize I am considering making the loan. He mentioned that he plans to sell the house and as he lives nearby I have seen him making improvements in order to get the house on the market. It is a nice home on a sought-after lake. He said he is c...

There is a guy I have known for a little more than a year through sports. He still has a first mortgage on his home and some HELOC's. He is considering selling his home but since his rates are not that great he plans on going to the bank to refinance all. I have been considering paying off the exist...

I worked for a Big 4 (then Big 6) firm in the US and transferred overseas as I received a 50% increase in pay. I lived/worked abroad for just over 13 years and retired at just over 40 years old, just over 3 years ago. I had the right skills and was in the right place at the right time. I knew many U...

Trying to estimate the ROI is an exercise in futility because of all the confounding factors. Furthermore, getting a major in X because you've heard X's make the big bucks is likely to get you snookered. You read that "there's a shortage of X" or "the nation needs more X'es" and...

I never knew there was a sister bogleheads site in Canada...found the link on the wiki...I did try to search originally before posting but did not see it until just now.

thanks to the wiki!!!

I have a very good Canadian friend who is looking to invest a relatively large amount of money soon. He has not lived in Canada for many years as he has lived and worked abroad. He has no intention of returning to Canada to live. He sent me a proposal he just received from RBC to manage his money an...

I am travelling with my family in Thailand now. Today my son and I went on an elephant trekking excursion in Chiang Mai which he loved. We have not had a wifi connection for a few days so no responses... We were living overseas his first 5 years so his first language was Russian. When he was origina...

He was tested for the gifted program in his school system and did not make their 99% requirement to be qualified as gifted (he made 90% on the aptitude test). He may or may not reach this mark in the future but if he does the gifted program does not really seem to be overly challenging. To be a bit...

I had never seen the Donald in Mathmagic Land cartoon. I just showed it to him and he really found it to be fascinating. Thanks for the recommendation. We are travelling now, but when we are home I will go through many of the other recommendations.

thanks to everyone for some great ideas. I was aware of some of them and we have either done or are doing some but many are ones I have not come across but will look into now. I am pretty decent at math and believe I can get him through several more years without too much struggle. My biggest concer...

we have somewhat backed into the individualized math for him as his current teacher realized he is way beyond what they are doing. she has allowed him to use their classroom computer to log into IXL and complete exercises while the class is working on math. hopefully we can do this next year also. m...

thanks for the recommendations so far, I was aware khan academy had training tutorials, it seems like there is more there than I had seen, I will look into it and others recommended - I am hoping to come up with more of a 2-3 year plan than I have now sscritic - he likes sudoku's ok, but not nearly ...

My 9 year old, third grader, son likes math and is very good at performing calculations. He was tested for the gifted program in his school system and did not make their 99% requirement to be qualified as gifted (he made 90% on the aptitude test). He may or may not reach this mark in the future but ...

It seems sorting out the best cell plan is more difficult than setting up an asset allocation and sticking with it. As there are many of you that have a much better grip on things than I re cell phone plans I was hoping to get some suggestions: Currently I have a plan with TMobile that gives me 1000...

My third grade son has used the Khan website a few times when he was struggling with a concept. He liked it and it seemed to help him understand how to calculate "percents" which for some reason he was having a hard time calculating. We have used IXL for about a year and we tried to use Ma...

While I still do support a deposit or an enviro fee, your comments have certainly helped me understand some of the downsides. I am not sure if I always had green tendencies or if it was living in a few former soviet countries and seeing the rampant littering, etc that made me hope for more enviro fr...

thanks v much for the insights and comments.

I am often saddened by the lack of recycling in my state. There is pending legislation to require a small refundable deposit on bottles/cans and I understand similar legislation in other states resulted in an immediate and tremendous impact on recycling rates. Does anyone have any experience in help...

Audit is tough starting out and can be a bit boring. As you progress and see the bigger picture, get to address some of the meatier issues and have more discussions with higher level client personnel it becomes pretty interesting. I never thought I would stay with the Big 4 but ended up sticking aro...

My wife and I blew in cellulose last year in our attic. It is a tough job but our energy bills did decrease plus we got a tax credit such that the installation cost was minimal. We also made/installed an attic hood which significantly decreased the temperature of the ceiling so I assume contributes ...

It is amazing how many defend the astronomical healthcare prices which we are charged in the US. I lived overseas for many years and was able to get my regular meds much cheaper w/o a prescription and had several procedures at a fraction of the cost. The level of care offered in the US is not better...

retired at 40 and then worked for a year as a part time consultant. We are able to live pretty comfortably on approximately a 2.5% withdrawal rate from the portfolio. I track the portfolio balance monthly to ensure it does not fall below the initial balance as adjusted for inflation. Plan to cut bac...

I worked in accounting and never had the opportunity but would cross union lines in a second. I was in charge of several overseas offices and one of the small underperforming offices sent me a demand letter signed by everyone. I travelled to the office and spoke to everyone individually and told the...

In 2008, my wife and I bought a Hyundai Sonata using carbuyingtips.com and were very happy with the car and the service. Basically you do as many have posted above and send faxes/emails requesting the out-the-door price. I cannot recall all the details but I think you try to time your emails to the ...

I graduated with an accounting degree and passed the CPA exam in the early 90's. My plan was to get my required experience with a Big 6 accounting firm (now the Big 4) and then get a law degree. One of my first year audit clients was a very large law firm and as a first year auditor, payroll testing...