Bogleheads.org

There have been some posts on this, and many knowledgeable people have a good opinion of them. I'd certainly like to see these in my Stable Value Fund, or in a fund of their own. Hopefully they will have some in a 5 year duration, that would make me a very happy camper. We'll have to stay tuned.

Instead of increasing your stock percentage as a whole, you might consider taking something from the large domestic allocation and buying a bit of a small international fund. That would give you some exposure to all "four quadrants" of global stocks, so you are more diversified. So maybe 3...

So, what happens to bond funds if the inflation rate accelerates faster than interest rates rise? At that point, you have to fill in a hole that is getting deeper all the time. (I'm thinking about bond funds like Total Bond, not TIPS.)

As I understand it, when the Fed pulls back on its buying, interest rates should go up, all other things equal. Exactly where on the yield curve this will happen, I don't know. More importantly, I don't know how the market will react to anything the Fed might do. We've seen that the market is confus...

To me slice/dice is much more about diversification.. I get what I want of the Market, then Size and Price and do that in a Global way too. I don't tilt here one day and there the next - my slices are hefty enough to make a difference, and I maintain them by rebalancing yearly. If all you hold is t...

"After auguring with the guy for several minute..."

Coolest Freudian slip EVAH!

What tadamsar said. I've been spending a huge amount of time strudying, reading the threads, and working with Simba's spreadsheet. Doing all that work finally convinced me-- I had to "prove" the evidence for myself, not just have it dictated to me. And then I had to have some level of emot...

"...With home equity included, the median net worth of an American family in 2013 is $60,678..." Presumably that's all families, including young people just starting out? But if you're talking about people about to retire, you'd want the net worth numbers for the cohorts closer to retireme...

IIWY, I'd take the easiest way out. Sell the individual stocks, and buy a small cap value fund. That complements the 500 fund pretty well. Then take the 2k and buy an I-bond or a long CD. Now you have a portfolio with large caps, small caps, and a bond. Let it grow a bit, then sell off a little of t...

I think you could split the difference and look in the 200k - 275k. The important thing is the school district, obviously. If you do go for a less expensive house, at least make sure it has two baths. A master bath is a big help once children come along, especially if you both work. At any rate, IIW...

It's really easy, on a mechanical level, to manange a simple portfolio yourself.* You don't have to sell everything off every year, if that's what you mean. Just sell some of the investment that is getting "too big for it's britches" and put the money into something else. Quite often, thou...

Immediate Annuities is still there: http://www.immediateannuities.com/ they did not feel it was an attractive product When was that ever a criterion for an insurance company? :P Keith In other words, it wasn't profitable for them. I've sometimes wondered what's to stop an insurance company from sig...

There's an idea going around that QE may actually be deflationary, partly because of the effect on savings, and obviously income from savings. If people are not making as much money off their fixed income, that money is not being spent in the real economy, creating demand. So your stocks and housing...

I did the same thing, selling some intermediate funds and buying shorter duration funds. I don't need to take much duration risk anymore. Of course, bonds promptly fell after I bought, so I got a smackdown anyway, but that's life.

What Browser said. You have to allow for the "left fat tail," the worst case scenario. I have "stress tested" our portfolio quite a bit recently, using Otar's software. That was very helpful. Personally, as we are getting close to retirement, I am putting more money into cash and...

And this dude was once chairman of the NASDAQ. Makes you wonder how much corruption is still out there. Jack Bogle is absolutely right-- you really have to watch your back when dealing with the industry.

Look, I am so math impaired I count on my fingers, and I can do it. With 3 funds, it's nothing. That 1.5% will amount to tens of thousands of dollars over time. Let the guy go (politely) and put that extra money to work!

But how can this be? Whenever there are more sellers than buyers, of course prices will fall. Person A sells his shares of <whatever> to Person B at an agreed-upon price. Now Person A has this cash and puts it... where? In a certain sense, it doesn't matter. It's the wrong question, because it cont...

I think if you try to suppress your emotions, you'll end up with a heart attack. That said, I am "de-risking" my portfolio as I go along, since we are not too far from retirement. I learned this month that I will have to reduce my bond duration if I want less thrashing. This month felt lik...

The $1000 shortfall each month bothers me. Does she have unpaid debts you don't know about? I'm just saying, sending her money is one thing, but you don't want to be hit up by every creditor she might have as the "responsible party." Years ago, I got a call from my uncle's girlfriend sayin...

Are you sure that't the right URL? It looks like the first plot. In any case, wouldn't it be better to start looking at it from the 50's, when IIRC bonds came up from the very low levels of the war? It seems to me that's somewhat comparable. I am just using the years Browser selected, because that ...

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but if the risk level is 5, or maybe even 3, why would you buy this fund instead of buying an emerging market stock fund? I realize bonds are supposed to be a higher level legal claim than stocks, but do people really believe they will recover some of their m...

How about these-- the bond side is heavy on t-bills, with some 5 year mixed in. And there's a definite tilt to small caps. It seems to work under all kinds of conditions, so far at least! :beer here's your portfolios for the time period under discussion. They did great except for the first year htt...

How about these-- the bond side is heavy on t-bills, with some 5 year mixed in. And there's a definite tilt to small caps. It seems to work under all kinds of conditions, so far at least! :beer http://www.longtermreturns.com/p/historical-investment-returns.html?fromyear=1926&toyear=2012&real...

There are a lot of military people who post on this site, and can help you with any questions on the TSP plan, which is outstanding. I would also look at the Navy credit union for their long term CD rates. That way you can split your savings among TSP and Roth (for your retirement), and the CDs (for...

If you can save 7k per month at your age, and do that consistently for the next 25 years, you may not have to take much risk in the markets at all. That's very fortunate, and it's something you can control. You can't control your returns, or the future inflation rate. So the first thing I would sugg...

OP, maybe I'll be on the other side of your trade! :happy The way I figure it, if interest rates go down further, my NAV goes up. If interest rates go up, I'll eventually collect that. In fact, if the 10-year goes back up to 3-4%, I'll likely start buying a ladder of Treasuries and TIPs, and call it...

OP, it certainly isn't easy. I've had to rebalance from stocks to bonds, and it just makes me sick to my stomach. I even have to put new contributions to bonds to stay in the zone. Dr. Bernstein once said something like, investors make their best trades when they feel like they are about to throw up...

Why lock yourself in to the minimum, when the upside is so much more likely (expected) than the downside? Pascal's Wager. Even if the downside risk is small, the consequences should that risk show up are huge. It's the risk of "blowing up" and losing so much of your stake that you can nev...

scone The steepest part of the curve is typically at the short end, out to about 2 years you get the highest Sharpe Ratio Also note that the steeper the curve the higher the premium has been. So it's a balance between the shortest, say one-month bills and the term premium. Also note for munis the c...

O.K., I'm confused. If you don't need bonds for income, but simply to dampen the volatility you get from stocks, then why wouldn't you generally (all other things equal), prefer shorter, less volatile bonds, even with their reinvestment risk? TIA

I'm using a "home brew" glide path strategy as we get closer to retirement, namely lowering my stock allocation slightly, and shortening my bond duration. I'm also considering locking up a larger portion of the funds in Stable Value and CDs, so I have a secure "backup plan" for i...

Welcome! Just glancing at this list, without a deep dive into research, these would be my picks: Colmbia Large Cap Index Fd Class Z NINDX 0.20 <-- for large caps T Rowe Price Mid Cap Value TRMCX 0.81 <-- this actually has mid to small caps Lincoln Stable Value C65 <-- for part of your bond fund, pro...

What I don't understand is why is anyone so surprised that with all the manpower and computer power and profit incentive that we would not eventually come up with a better model, just as FF did. Do you recall the Myers-Briggs Personality Types? I think some people tend to find new information threa...

We hold our 401k and Roths at Fidelity, and it does take some time for the accounts to clear. I have some money sitting there "pending" and it's been days now. I wonder if Fidelity or their agents make money off the float? Or are small retail investors last in line to get everything execut...

For a retired individual seeking income, not wanting to take additional risk (increase % stocks), if bonds are not the answer, and it seems that currently it is not, and other fixed income like CDs are yielding close to zero, what is the alternative? The only riskless alternatives are to cut expens...

Thank you, Larry, interesting food for thought! Could this factor help explain why Wellesley and Wellington have done so well for so long? At least, I think of Wellington Management as being in the Graham and Dodd tradition.

My husband is in this situation, as he has dual U.K.-Australian citizenship. For us, it's a family thing, not a currency thing. If we inherit in Australian dollars, we will keep the money there and invest it, mostly in CDs and local government bonds. This gives us the option of having money on hand ...

The lovely software on my household account says I spend 24% of my monthly budget on groceries. I'm not sure what percentage is "fun stuff." I figure, since we are saving about 50% of our gross income, we need a few small luxuries. Otherwise there's too much deprivation, and we wouldn't st...

I'd like to go with all bonds, myself, but I can't make the numbers work even with a 2.5% withdrawal rate. Not at current interest rates, anyway. So I'm at 30% stock right now, planning to take it down to 25% over the next few years-- we retire in 4 years. I will also hold several years worth of &qu...

I'm not sure if this is the "right" way to do it, but here's how I did it. I have set percentages for each asset class, 30% stock and 70% bond. I break down the stock asset class into a couple of smaller subclasses, primarily Total Stock and Small Cap Value. The bond class is split between...

I'm finding it utterly nerve-wracking. I actually think I like bear markets better. I can totally relate. This is my first bull market. I just finished rebalancing from a couple of percent beyond my band, back into the low end of my band. I know this is supposed to be a good thing, but it didn't fe...

5-6% is more reasonable? any recommendation. Sadly, if you are investing in America, with low interest rates, a "safe" investment just won't cut the mustard. You'll have to take some sort of risk. But o.k.--this isn't the standard Boglehead reply, because I'm going to suggest an actively ...

Mr. Leesboro says "Huh," and I says how does one pass muster with insurance commissioners using equities with all those insurance subsidiaries? snip I wonder how all this will eventually affect Stable Value funds, especially if interest rates start to rise. I mean, the guarantee is given ...

Can you set up a Roth in addition to the other plan? If so, I would put the small cap in there.

5-6% is more reasonable? any recommendation. Sadly, if you are investing in America, with low interest rates, a "safe" investment just won't cut the mustard. You'll have to take some sort of risk. But o.k.--this isn't the standard Boglehead reply, because I'm going to suggest an actively ...

Scone. You are the man! You got the point of what I was trying to say. Thanks! Although I'm not a woman, FWIW... I'll say one thing for rebalancing, it really hurts. I just had to do it, and selling my winners to buy bonds that don't pay anything was really painful-- literally! I just took two Exce...

What nedsaid said. (Sorry, couldn't help myself.) As an investor, you start out with a certain (imperfect) state of knowledge, and that level (hopefully) increases with study and experience. I would say it's difficult for a "beginning" investor, like me, to hit on a perfect portfolio at th...

It took guts to post your story. I raise a glass to you! :sharebeer I also think you are further ahead of the game than you may realize. Substantial cash to the good, after all you have been through, and kids to raise, isn't bad at all. From here, you could certainly build a secure retirement, and h...

I've been fiddling around with backtesters lately, especially Simba's (it's in the wiki). The results suggest that the safest play is the 5 year T-bill, plus Total Bond. I've been focusing on a 30% Stock, 70% bond allocation, and the T-bill/Total Bond set, joined with TSM plus Small Cap Value, gives...