Bogleheads.org

many thanks! Blue, appreciate the link to the article.

n the "anyone selling" thread, someone mentioned they had hit their target # to live comfortably in retirement. This started me thinking so though i'd pose the question in a separate thread. I'm very close to hitting a # where i think i could live comfortably at my current standard of livi...

valuethinker has it exactly right... there have been a few folks making the point over and over that intentional negative real interest rates equate to a stealth tax/destruction of value. Yet, people seem oblivious...

Gold's appeal is yet again apparent versus a fiat currency.

My privately held employer merged a month or so ago and is now publicly traded. i was fortunate enough to monetize 10 years of iso's. While i'm excited, i'm now staring at a single stock 30+% concentration of my investable assets.... i plan to sell down to 10 to 15%. What is the forum's thoughts on ...

2010 jetta tdi owner.... wife and i LOVE, LOVE that car. Always a toyota owner before. For performance and mileage, it's easily the way to go. Don't buy one though unless there is a reliability german mechanic in town. Fortunately we have a shop just down the street that's very affordable. Otherwise...

all, many thanks for comments. most helpful.

My father passed away a few weeks ago. We are in the process of probating his small estate. It's minimal with a small ira, a pension, a small house and a vehicle. My mother has been placed in a nursing home. We will be spending down their estate paying for her care until such time as she qualifies f...

Cd's........ My son did poorly his first year in school and is not returning. I'm glad my funds were not in a 529.

I'm 43: 45% bonds 21% cash 13% TSM 5% Emerging markets 9% gold/commodities 7% reits I'm working my bond exposure down. My long term goal is to get to a 4 X 25 construction of cash, total bond market, stocks, commodities/reits. I'm increasing commodities/hard assets as the fed repression continues. I...

I'm struggling with this issue myself. I was awarded a decent number of shares in a company that I work for. While private, there are over 400 shareholders, therefore it's treated as a non-traded public company. It's a sizeable, private held company. The amount of cash I need to excercise my options...

It's a highly risky means of stretching for yield. Unless you visit the country annually, plan to move there, or have some sort of residence and need to transact business, best avoided. Buy hard assets instead. At least this way you can put them in a vault in your house or safe deposit box.

Lots and lots of discussion on this topic and the permanent portfolion in general to be found in other threads. I subscribe to permanent portfolio theory and I own the fund. It's expensive no doubt but I can't stomach owning the various 4 pieces individually and watching 25 to 50% of it crashing at ...

sigh.... first hsbc direct, then am ex online and now, looks like, i'm headed to tiaa direct. The sad yield chase continues.

Being a fan of economics and anthropology, I find these sorts of articles and social experiments very interesting. Article mentioned 11 separate local currencies and the impact it was having on impoverished areas experiencing "skewed wealth distribution". No agenda here... just wanted to p...

6% on groceries, 3% on gas is still excellent.

most interesting... blevine, hong kong and value thinkers comments I find most insightful. "wasteful consumption".. very true. I've posted numerous times my weariness regarding being questioned, judged, looked down upon my by colleagues and neighbors for living in in the same small house t...

i'd say my struggle with money is borderline unhealthy. my wife and I drive very old cars and live in a tiny house. With regard to the car, hers was in very poor shape. After reaching the point of near divorce threats (an idle threat of course as we're happily married) we took the plunge and upgrade...

i own the fund. it's a hybrid though in that the fund is really treasuries... they purchase futures contracts only. Regardless, I count it in my commodities asset allocation. active mgt is the only way to go in this sector.

when you have structural deficits funded by fiat currencies, combined with a central bank holding rates artifically low for an extended period (obvious financial repression) you have no choice but to think in terms of hard assets....i.e., gold or real estate. This should serve as both a store of val...

well, congrats to you first of all for accomplishing the "no debt except the mortgage" point. That's a big one. Not that many people have the necessary wisdom and discipline. You absolutely should pay cash for a car. Never put debt on a depreciating asset.. never have any debt except for y...

Family of four (used to be 5, but, the oldest has left for college), right around 1900 sf. Smallest home in our neighborhood by far. We could afford much more but we have decided to live simply, on purpose. i sense many of our neighbors think we're poor... very funny, actually.

If you're vehicle is already 12 years old, with higher mileage, think you're on the right track with parking a car replacement portion in a money market account. I always thought that if I could get 10 years out of a vehicle i was doing fairly well. But, I have a somewhat long daily commute. You mig...

As for our household, absolutely not... we clean our own home, we wash our own car, we cut our own grass..

Another vote for ooma. Going on a year now and very pleased. Call quality is excellent.

Personally, i've a big chunk of funds in an emergency cash account (am ex personal saver earning 1%). If nothing else, i sleep well at night. I stand by the view that only those dollars which you think you could completely lose should be invested in equities... particularly against the current dysfu...

I've a good friend that is a professional money manager. Over dinner a few weeks ago, he make the argument that he's advising a good number of his clients simply to purchase annuities. That, against the current backdrop, could not argue against it given the return. It seems to me that it's a persona...

I've nothing to contribute other than to say god bless you wives that purchase beer kits for your husbands!!! (grin)

In my own personal AA, i maintain a 5% real estate allocation to reits. I've never included my home equity in that #, although I suspect I should. There have been varying arguments on this board discussing the fact that owning reits is not the equivalent of truly owning r/e. I tend to agree but I do...

To the home roasters - certainly intrigued by this idea. What has been your experience in learning to do it properly? What green beans do you prefer/recommend? is is something you enjoy or truly something to save money?

Here you go:

http://www.fairbeancoffee.com/Welcome.html

Anyone have experience opening a canadian or other foreign account? I bank with HSBC but they no longer accept accounts from the states. Many other foreign banks are now saying no thanks due to recent issues with ubs and such. How would one go about opening an account from the us? Any particular ban...

To the practical question post: sadly, i know this from personal experience, a burglar will hit a large number of homes in quick succession for electronics mostly. As I posted early, make a relatively cheap investement in simply safe. Your home will be monitored and you'll know that a potential burg...

Check out simplysafe. A cheap and effective way to have your home monitored. Having had my own home broken into and emptied out of electronics, best to have some sort of an alarm. At least that way you know: 1) when your home has been entered, and 2) the burglar has at most a couple of minutes. They...

Probalby better to visit the early retirment site. I recall lenghty discussions there about issues/lifestyles in various countries. There a good number discussing mexico specifically. I have a good friend that lives in Mexico probably a 1/3 to half of each year. From the limited amounts i've read an...

wow, there is seriously some outstanding comments and advice contained in this thread! Amazing stuff, and of course, I completely agree. I'd only add that that the pursuit of material things is a worthless pursuit. The more you have the more you realize this very fact. The joy of life.... is life! A...

had my ooma for 7 months now and loving that thing.... i don't like the call waiting either.. way to loud. I jump every dang time that thing goes off but, hey, saving 42 per month, i'm good.

I've read it four times now and, sadly, no help here!

economic theory says that when you have structural deficits and fiat currencies, golds value will increase until those issues are solved. If not, ultimately the currency collapses and a gold standard is reinstated. That's been the cycle for thousands of years and I dont' think it will be any differe...

Link? I'm not aware of any capital controls having been imposed.....

The resulting contagion and it's impact on the market is impossible to know. 17 nations, each with it's own separate issues and voters, are not able to move like our us treasury and federal reserve did in 2008. What you can know though, is that an implosion is coming. At a minimum, a more conservati...

Meh... i've not been pleased. I'll say that customer service has been generally ok. If you need something on the weekend, you're out of luck as last time I called, an answering service handled the call. My issue is that I have a credit freeze on my account. I'm currently an account holder in good st...

I own it.. it's on the expensive side no doubt but a nice vehicle to deploy the PP concept without having to try and build it yourself.. and, more importantly, stick with it when you see 25% of your portfolio crashing. Harry Browne's philosophy has stood the test of time and continues to deliver thi...

As has been discussed on this board many times before, you should be prepared to fully lose anything you allocate to stocks. Accordingly, if you agree with this logic then your stock allocation would be considered way too aggressive, not conservative at all. This seems particularly true in your case...

OOMA is the way to go.... far superior to magic jack.

your asset allocation? I've not changed mine but with most developed world economies facing structural deficits, impending euro implosing and the chinese announcing they will liquidate treasuries in favor of hard assets, hard to see a scenario where equities perform well anytime soon. The deleveragi...

Just got back this weekend from dropping off my oldest son at college. My wife and I stay a year ahead via contributions from current cash flow. He's paying for the vast majority of his spending money from $'s he earned this year at a summer job. We've told him that starting next semester, he contri...

Well said... Harry's writings reveal a very serious libertarian. It's from this that the PP is best understood. I'm still trying to slough threw the various writings/commentaries on his web page. Can be a little dry and scathing at times. He was no fan of recent fiscal policy... Ron Paul'ish it seems.

Now this is an interesting thread... I will be following the discussion closely..

Valuethinker, thanks for the point to the guardian article. Most interesting. I also read Charlie Brookers article on the same subject. Both funny and thought provoking. Reading the guardian daily now.