Bogleheads.org

folks, my apologies if you guys found the poll confusing. But nevertheless, thanks to all who shared their valuable experiences. A few clarifications: --> I was trying to find out if growing up poor taught you to be cautious with money as much as the other way around - if you grew up in a upper midd...

I was recently talking to a gentleman who does consulting work in organizational behavior and he mentioned that often our experiences while growing up shapes our perspectives - which i believe is true. Just curious to see if any of us became bogleheads to get a security blanket that they never had w...

thanks folks for the guidance and the link to the savings bond calculator - this is exactly what i was looking for.

I know this is probably not an apples to apples comparison but just curious if anyone has already done the math. If i invested 10k in VWITX 10 years back - would it have given me a better return than i-bonds for the same period of time ?

thanks,
Rex.

Thanks for all the pointers folks - much appreciated. Yes , the whole situation changes when you're on parental duty -its very difficult to stick to your routine when everything revolves around the baby. It seems like I'll be going with amazon and shelling out something like 1k for a decent piece of...

Hi Folks, I never purchased any exercise equipment before - usually worked out at the gym - that is no longer possible because we just had a baby. So looking to buy a treadmill at home. Does anyone have suggestions on : 1. What price range i should be looking at to get a decent machine that does not...

do you have any other TIPS in your portfolio? if not, i think I Bonds are a good choice. see also http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/I_Bonds_vs_TIPS. EDIT: they're a reasonable option regardless, but i think they're especially worthwhile if you don't have other inflation protection in your portfolio. h...

Hi Folks, I have spare 6K coming in tomorrow and wanted to use this to fix my AA a little - right now it's tilted more towards stocks. So here is the dilemma - I usually invested in the following bond funds in my Roth ( TGEIX and VIPSX) and VWITX in taxable( Intermediate term muni). Given the low in...

I was dazed this weekend after being heads down on design work for the whole of last week - so decided to read some old plays. I pulled out of of my favorites - "Merchant of Venice" - and as i was reading through , one of the opening paragraphs really struct me - the last time i read this ...

Google "home cholesterol test" returns several shopping results for home kits around $50-100 that seem to be geared much like diabetic test kits for regular home testing. Not sure about accuracy but clearly there are products out there. Yup - i did that and looked on amazon as well - but ...

I'm starting a new exercise and diet regimen and would like to measure my progress in lowering cholesterol every other week. Needless to say, getting a blood test twice a month is expensive. I was wondering if anyone has any recommendation for a good in-home cholesterol measuring machine ? Thanks, R...

IEMG is a lot better than EEM VONE is another large cap option that is slightly broader. And the Schwab ETFs are another low cost alternative VEA -> SCHF VWO -> SCHE I don't think there's a good option for VGK, but I'm not sure why you're holding that unless you are trying to market time. Thanks ! ...

After quite a bit of deliberation, I've come to the conclusion that dollar cost averaging by letting available money sit in a money market account is not what I want - and would go for the lump sum approach when extra money is available. If the fund/etf I buy falls in price by more than 10%, i'll sw...

livesoft wrote:My family buys contact lenses online: lensdiscounters.com

Nice!!! thanks a lot.

Hi folks,

My wife uses the acuvue for astigmatism contact lenses and we've been getting them from the local pharmacy for $37/box. Just wondering if someone sells the same brand for less (it'll also be nice if they have the ability to bill our insurance directly) ?

thanks,
Rex.

Joe S. wrote:
I think you need to read up on all the "great" funds that did well for a while and then underperformed. Then don't invest in a "great" fund.

Thanks for the article Joe - food for some serious thought ! i'll prob end up putting the money in VEU ....

Probably the wrong question for this crowd.... I think you should ask questions like this, so we can tell you why we won't invest in this fund. It has had a great 5-year return, but research has shown that mutual funds that have had a great 5 or 10 year return usually end up underperforming the S&a...

i think the fact that it has 73% in cash is intriguing - maybe just set up to exploit the swings in the market (just playing devil's advocate here). The other thing that caught my attention is that it dropped just 9.96% in 2008 while most mutual funds including a S&P index dropped 37%.

but ...is anyone here investing in this Oceanstone (OSFDX) fund ( http://investing.money.msn.com/investments/mutual-fund-rates/?symbol=US%3aOSFDX&ocid=en-us_bingiaquotebtn ). I currently have no allocation in any actively managed fund - but to be honest, this one caught my eye. Thinking about us...

Hi Folks,

I'm currently paying $7.99 every month to have Experian (http://www.freecreditreport.com/) monitor my credit . Are there any cheaper alternatives to this ? Like any credit card that gives me my score/report every month ?

Thanks,
Rex.

Hi Folks, I want to transfer some money from wells fargo checkin to my vanguard account. From what i understand, the money for buying mutual funds is debited from my other bank acount as an ACH debit. Will i have to pay any fees to wells fargo for this kind of transaction ? Thanks, Rex P.S. Wells fa...

Look again. The current* SS tax rate is 4.2% (total 5.65%), not 6.2% (7.65%). * Current end of current is 12/31/2012 True :) i was trying to decide for 2013 ... actually realized this won't help in my case my last 17.5k is outside the Social Security wage base. a roth probably provides better retur...

Hi folks, I was looking at my payslip and it seems like the traditional 401k is deducted before SS and medicare taxes . Since in retirement, i'll not be on payroll, regular 401k seems to have a definite return of 7.65% because i won't be paying SS + Medicare taxes in retirement... right ? the contex...

Thansk Op - I've changed the title of the post

yes absolutely - please DONOT restrict your liability claims to just auto as Op mentioned.

Good way of estimating - i did something similar myself. The only thing I'd suggest is to account for inflation (2%?) using excel or something similar.

Thanks to all who contributed to a related post regarding the typical umbrella boggleheads carry: http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=106274 This is a followup post to get some more perspective on the issue - what is the biggest auto liability claim (or other liability claim) you...

I'm still wondering about how much insurance is enough and thought a nice way would be to collect some stats on what type of coverage bogleheads carry. Please provide some perspective into the amount you carry vis-a-vis your net worth.

thanks for the thoughts and insights guys. The money is just sitting in a savings account - i plan to invest 5500 in a bond fund and 5500 in a stock fund. I did not contribute lumpsum this year because i did not have ready cash - but i think i'd have liked the results if i did. Seems like i'll be pu...

Hmm I'm not sure if i can put 5500 in roth before my payday in Jan - are there any laws restricting it i.e., I have to fun 2013 roth from my 2013 income only ?

Hi Investment Gurus,

I read somewhere that missing the best market days can dramatically lower investment returns.

So i was wondering if i should max out my and DW's roth IRA in Jan or put a fixed sum each month ?

thanks,
Rex

Thanks all - I'll try to first negotiate a new rate with AllState as per your advise.

Hi Folks,

I just received a quote from Kemper insurance company and the rates are 40% lower than all state. I'm wondering if there is a catch somewhere and if anyone has had any experience with this insurance company ?

thanks !

Thanks for the great advise folks. I'm basically looking for something within $5000 . The main worry i have about an used vehicle is if something goes wrong after the purchase, say a month down the line, there is no warranty to fall back on. And yeah, I can get a bicycle , but my commute to work is ...

Hi Folks, I'm looking for a used car for commuting to and from work (about 3 miles/day) - I'll not be using this for long trips or anything (we have a 2010 Sonata that's pretty reliable) - just commuting back and forth from office. Looking to spend the least amount possible for a car that'll serve m...

Thanks Folks.

My takeaway:
1. 1M in umbrella coverage will do it for me for now.
2. Need to research the details and clauses for LTD and see if the one i have at work is good enough or need to get an individual policy.
3. Get a life insurance on my wife

-Rex

Thanks Folks . I currently rent and do have a renters insurance. I have a 800k term life through work and a seperate 500k term life outside. Disability is covered through work - any particular reason why group disability is less useful (other than changing /loosing job situation ) ? So , for umbrell...

Hi Folks, Just wanted to get a quick checkup on whether i have the right kind (enough?) auto/liability insurance. Info: Male ,married, 30 One child, wife stays home to take care of him Annual Income = 144k Assets: --> 135k in taxable investments --> 20K in Roth --> 75k in a 401K I currently have the...

Thanks a lot for the insights and the warm welcome guys. I think it did give me something similar to "Irritable Bowel Disease" and did slim me - mainly from waking up every morning to following the market and the stress of jetting in and out of stocks - after a while i just could not take ...

Hi Folks, Earlier in my investing career, I tried a bunch of investing / trading methods -- most of which did not get a good ROI. The one that I tried for a long time (before i became a bogglehead) was IBD - after two years , i was just breaking even. Just curious if anyone here tried the IBD strate...

+1 - it'd be interesting to see the intersection of MSFT and Bogglehead culture (though I don't expect the intersection to be very large)