Bogleheads.org

A Very Happy Birthday, Mr Bogle!
Your accomplishments have been truly remarkable. All of the "Bogleheads" (and a lot of other folks who discover each year how they have benefited from your efforts) really appreciate what you have done for the "little guy"
Shawcroft

+2
David Grabiner's posts and participation on the Forum have always been highly informative. My congratulations to him as he attains and surpasses 10,000 posts.

Shawcroft

I am delighted that Nisi found my limerick entertaining as well as original. Indeed, my rhyme with Connecticut was original ....though it took me a while to invent the phrasing.

Nisi's posts are always enjoyable.

Shawcroft

Phineas J. Whoopee wrote:Just out of curiosity, could you tell us which Treasury Secretary signed each of the denominations?
PJW

Hank Paulsen signed the $1000's and the $200, Tim Geithner signed the $500 and the $50's. I hadn't noticed that. Interesting observation
Shawcroft

Nisi:

There once was a guy from Connecticut....
who picked stocks just for the heck of it....
while he thought he was a master....
his stock picks caused pure disaster..
and retirement plans became a wreck of it....

Shawcroft

To my colleagues: The "good news": I can report that filing a Form 8888 with an overpayment of $5,000 to your estimated Federal still permits (as of April 15, 2013) purchase of $5000 of I-Bonds. The "other news" The Treasury sent out the $5000 in about 13 different bonds !!.........

Magnus: Hard to believe it has been about 2 years since this post was updated. I was one of the guys who looked at a whole bunch of trust companies. My summer 2011 findings as to costs, pros and cons remain about the same. I did speak with BNY Mellon and will dig out their information to update my e...

Chaz:
+1 with your thoughts regarding sscritic. He is, indeed, a highly respected contributor to the Forum and I hope things are well with him.
Shawcroft

Quite a remarkable accomplishment.
My thanks to all who contribute and, of course, to the folks who monitor the Forum to maintain decorum!
Shawcroft

+2 Yawn.
I've always loved the buzz words used in these video commercials to convey wisdom and expertise......as Bill Bernstein has said, folks like these are often referred to as "Gurus' because that is easier to spell than "Charlatan".
Shawcroft

The folks in and around Seattle are lucky- as are the Bogleheads in the vicinity. Sounds like a great event, made more enjoyable by the informal gathering before the reading. Perhaps Dr. B will have a few more of these as a means to promote his new book....and we folks in other parts of the country ...

Call the number on the ad - ask them if they've ever been on a boat, much less sailed on one. :oops: Most of these professionals couldn't find their way out of a dark building, let alone a ship, a mountainous region or a city without a GPS. Grt2bOutdoors: You are being too kind! I mentioned this ad...

The March 24th issue of the Sunday New York Times magazine had a BNY Mellon "Wealth Management" ad which stated: " The only investors staying the course are those with a broken compass". I laughed so hard when I saw it (in the library) that folks nearby were stared at me. Anyone ...

These should prove to be interesting discussion topics on the Forum. I know a bit but certainly not enough to purchase one of these "new-fangled" index funds. I will await-with interest- the discussion of these funds by my Boglehead colleagues, virtually all of whom are far more astute on ...

Indeed, David I don't remember when I first posted that the real value of the M* forum (and now this forum) is not any one person, but the collective wisdom of the whole group. That thought is "spot on"! And I note you are approaching 10,000 posts.....soon to join a very distinguished grou...

I, too, have greatly benefited from all the thoughts, suggestions, and explanations provided by my Boglehead colleagues. I doubt I will ever be able to fully repay these favors...but I will certainly continue to try.
Shawcroft

I am reading closely what people have said and have started the process by setting up a special email account. That is a great idea.....sort of a single purpose e-mail account. .....in my observations, most of the "dealer delivery guys" are usually retirees in their 60s and 70s who do it ...

Good morning! Our cars are getting "long in the tooth" and we are beginning our efforts to decide what type of vehicle would be best for our needs. As we looked at a few of them, I noticed some now come with "continuous variable transmissions" (CVT). I grew up in the era of "...

Well-deserved recognition for a fine fellow!
Shawcroft

Y: Great service and a nice surprise I, too, have always enjoyed great service from Vanguard. They helped me gather stuff from all over the place and simplify much of our financial activities.....I have recommended them to lot of folks, most importantly our kids (who no longer find the Boglehead thi...

I may have been asleep recently. Did Vanguard announce they were going to lower the expense ratios on the Total International and the FTSE All-World....or is the new news to everyone?
Shawcroft

Conclusion: If you are starting out, it's better to use Total International, but if you already hold FTSE All-World Ex-US, you might as well keep it rather than selling it for a capital gain, as it will take a very long time for the tax difference to make up for the tax paid on the gain. David: My ...

I have also bought refurbished Mac's from the Apple online store with absolutely no problems. They come with the same warranty as a similar new model. If you are looking for a Mac Mini, keep checking the Apple Sore and see if one of the October, 2012 models (latest version) becomes available with a ...

David: Yes, a very helpful review of the tax implications of the funds you mentioned. If I may, I have one another question. For those Bogleheads who performed a TLH in mid-2012 and moved from Total International to the FTSE All-World EX-US, do you have a view of the tax management implications of t...

Grt2BOutdoors: Thanks May I ask how you determined the interest rate over 40 years? I'd like to be able to do that in the future- just in case this financial innovation attempts to visit our town.... The Times article did not address anything about reserving funds for ultimate payment of the bonds T...

Great that Rick makes some time available to meet with Bogleheads. Hope a number of Bogleheads can take advantage of this opportunity.
Shawcroft

If someone wanted to create their own "Total World Bond Fund" by purchasing the Total US Bond fund and the new Total International Bond Fund, what percent of the holding should these two funds represent? Would it be 45% Total US Bond and 55% Total International Bond?
Shawcroft

sscritic:
When Linenfort uses the abbreviation TD, I believe he means Toronto-Dominion Bank of Canada, which acquired Commerce Bank in the US and I believe has other branches in the US.
Shawcroft.

Owing to the February 8-9 blizzard in the Northeast, I just had a chance to read the Sunday (2/10) New York Times in our town library. An article in it on Capital Appreciation Bonds being issued by school districts in California to finance construction projects surprised me. Essentially, these are b...

Boggler: I haven't heard of a "Total World" Bond fund but I believe our more learned colleagues will have very helpful thoughts on that question. Using these four funds you have identified, you certainly would have (to me) a simple and well diversified portfolio. I recently asked a somewha...

Mike: I've thought about the Wellington Fund as well but the big three I have been considering are Lifestrategy Growth, Target Retirement 2050, and - at a distance- Fidelity Four-in-one.(FFNOX). Actually, I do like FFNOX but I went into a Fidelity office in the area ( I live in Connecticut) to ask s...

An update with answers to the questions above: I wrote my VG representative about the open questions: The first question : Could my wife (as primary beneficiary) disclaim a SPECIFIC IRA, allowing it to go to our two sons who are identified as successor beneficiaries? (I currently have two IRA's at V...

I find the use of Mr. Bogle''s name in this advertisement irritating....... :annoyed I've been to a few of these things in years past and its all about variable annuities. At one of the dinners I attended, they wouldn't identify the company offering the annuity until they reviewed your assets to det...

Travellight:
Great concept! In these times of "Groupon", that might be a great way to see how she reacts .......
Shawcroft

Sidney and jegallup: Thanks for your comments. I tried moving about about $3500 from USAA checking to VG last week and encountered this amount limitation. ( I made the transfer in two amounts over two days) Must be something I am doing wrong. It did strike me as strange. I will look into it. Shawcroft

The burden of proof is on those who say that foreign currencies are particularly effective at hedging inflation. Another fascinating graph, Nisiprius. Thanks for the effort I, too, have some skepticism about foreign currencies being very effective at hedging inflation....Since my mother raised a fo...

We have used predecessor banks of Bank of America since 1972 and still have a small checking account with them. I've had a checking account with Navy Federal since 1975 (when I was on active duty with the Navy) and have been using it more over the past 5 years. Savings rates are fairly good and the ...

If this does not work out to your satisfaction, I still think you should give consideration to Fidelity's Four In One FFNOX retiredjg: Thanks for your suggestion. I have been going through a few "hoops" trying to reach a decision. I've had a few messages which essentially said: "Don'...

An update: 1). My VG representative confirmed that Vanguard still will not permit different beneficiary sequences if you have two or more IRA's with them. Alas, I do....I currently have a T-ITRA and a Rollover IRA. (My response to this would be to quote General Anthony McAuliffe: " NUTS" )...

More thoughts on this question... I got a message saying that I might be able to keep the rollover IRA (from the 401k I mentioned above) at Vanguard if my wife survived me and she disclaimed receipt of just this rollover IRA- not either of the two other IRA's I have at Vanguard. My dumb question for...

From recent posts, I had also thought the US was 45% and the international was (overall) 55%. I'm interested in what research methods were used to come to the 32.7% figure.
Any references on that in the article?
Shawcroft

Nisiprius: Thanks for that thought. Lots of good ideas from my fellow Bogleheads....which I appreciate. If there wasn't any cost to establish (and purchase VG funds to place into) a rollover IRA with Fidelity, it would seem that a mix of 45% VTSAX and 55% VTIAX would attain most of what I am current...

Boy, is this a timely discussion.
I asked some colleagues about this very subject about 4 months ago. They had some recommendations...about hardware (mostly for Apple operating systems/computers) as well as slide scanning services.
Let me see if I can reconstruct what they suggested,
Shawcroft

Retiredjg: I have thought about using Fido funds in my (hypothetical) rollover IRA…their Total US Spartan and Total International Spartan would be cheaper than VTWSX Investor shares (the ETF version [VT] has an expense ratio that is more competitive with the Fidelity Spartans). To me, the VG Total W...

A follow-up of sorts.... I've been "poking around" the Fidelity website, looking at their Rollover IRA program. I went to their rollover offerings for "global funds" and they list 3 Fidelity funds and 79 other funds (the only ones which Fidelity apparently authorizes) available f...

I’ve had a few Private Messages on this post so let me give some clarification about my Fidelity question. I would like buy VTWSX in a Vanguard IRA account...but I am seeking to work around a Vanguard "glitch". Long story short: I want to convert a small 401(k) from a former employer of 20...

Zebrafish: I agree..The Callan Tables are an excellent example of the logic for index investing. Simply stated: Determine your investment philosophy (active or passive), establish your strategy (your asset allocation), set the asset allocation and stay the course you have set- with occasional rebala...

Nisiprius...
Thanks..
I missed what livesoft meant....we folks from the farming country can be quite dense.
Shawcroft

Livesoft:
Thanks.....
I've never purchased a VG ETF so I didn't even think about a Fidelity ETF. (I've led a sheltered life)
One of these days I just have to move into the 20th Century.......work on becoming accustomed to that time period before I try the 21st.....
Shawcroft

Taylor:
I regret my birthday wishes are a tad belated- but better late than never! I hope your birthday was a warm and wonderful event.
Best wishes,
Shawcroft