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This used to work well for me, but recently I discovered that the 25% discount to the cash customer was still far more expensive than the insurance rate, which is often far more than 25% off the "list price" I asked for a discount on the amount they submitted to my insurance and that they...

stratton wrote:
Ishares has several. MUB is intermediate and SUB is short term.

Are they comparable in quality to the Vanguard Admiral Fund offerings? What about a "long term" option comparable to VWLUX (only a slightly longer duration than intermediate, but a much higher yield)?

Does anyone know why there are no municipal bond ETFs available at Vanguard? Are there good alternatives?

I'm trying to deal with a portfolio that isn't located at Vanguard, which means Admiral shares are not available (which gives a huge preference to ETFs).

Does the insurer negotiate a good rate for customers who have a high deductible ($3000)? Or am I treated as a cash customer and will end up with a large bill? It's all negotiable. You can either take their rate and have it counted against your deductible. Or you can ask to be treated as a cash cust...

For those who are tilting, how do you maintain your allocation? Or do you just let the allocation float to wherever it goes? Tax-loss harvesting can only get you so far.

I have very little tax-advantaged space (I'm taxable Ted) and haven't come to a good conclusion on this and haven't found good resources (I've asked on here before). The problems with trying to "tilt" or slice and dice in a taxable account is that many "tilt" strategies are very ...

If a Vanguard rep somehow steals from your account, or someone hacks into Vanguard, it's unlikely you will be personally liable. On the other hand, if you have poor computer security or poor passwords (or you get suckered by a phishing link), and your account gets accessed by an unauthorized person ...

I sat through the 2008 crash with 100% equities and didn't do any selling other than tax-loss harvesting into other funds. I slept fine, even though it's a fairly good amount that's invested. I am also young and won't be touching the money for 30+ years. I do/did wish I had some bonds to rebalance a...

I'm a little unsure because you mix the terms living will and living trust, which are very different things. Generally, the advice for living trusts is that you should talk to a lawyer in your new state to see if your old trust will account for differences in the law because revisions in the trust m...

I manage an account at a financial institution where the share purchases and sales are charged on a per-share basis (averaging to around 0.1% of purchase price for most Vanguard ETFs). Mutual fund purchases are generally no charge, and there are a few Signal class versions available of some Vanguard...

jbreittling wrote:What is the boglehead take on such alarmist types of articles?

Alarmist articles are alarmist and the article is just plain bad.

That being said, could a 90% drop in the market happen? Yes, of course. It's just unlikely.

I don't think you're wrong to be paranoid. A former colleague of mine had a nanny who tripped (or maybe '"tripped") in her home and sued for compensation. She figured homeowners and/or umbrella would cover it - NOPE! They'll cover a babysitter (infrequent, irregular visits) but not a hous...

We've been struggling to find a housekeeper we like since moving and we've finally found one that does an amazing job (they are also very popular and highly rated and have been mentioned in a big media publication). However, they act as a "referral agency" that "outsources housekeepin...

Becoming a Dr is generally not worth it from a pure financial standpoint. When you add up tuition, lost wages during medical school and residency, and the total hours worked, you could definitely do better financially in another field (especially a financial one) if you're willing to work just as ha...

I was doing some more investment reading lately about the idea of rebalancing helping increase the return/risk ratio of a portfolio. A rebalancing bonus is somewhat controversial, but some theory and evidence seems to back up the idea. Even if there is no bonus, rebalancing might help keep portfolio...

Suppose I accepted three (3) one (1) oz American Eagle silver coins as payment for, well, anything. The coins are marked "One Dollar," though they might be worth anywhere from $30+ upward if circulated, up to $65+ if they are proof coins. Of course realistically the current crop of silver...

Over at the Total International Bond Fund thread, a number of people asked about the implications of this fund for taxable accounts, but I think their questions got drowned out. I'm one of those people with mostly taxable account money. Because of this, I keep my bond allocation a little lower than ...

Thanks for the advice. We moved from Georgia to NY. Looks like I get to spend an extra couple days on tax preparation separating everything out. Hooray! :sharebeer I'm still not quite sure how to handle things like the foreign tax credit (part-year resident instructions are long), but I figure the f...

I'm putting together all my tax documents and we moved mid year between states that both have income taxes. How do the taxes get divided up? I assume by date? (e.g. capital gains and interest received before moving go to the first state, the rest go to the second state). Does this mean I have to go ...

A fund with a six year duration should be considered moderately risky for a bond, so it depends how much volatility you can stomach in your emergency fund. It's worth noting that when I calculate the tax-equivalent yield of LT Tax-exempt and New York LT tax-exempt they come out virtually the same. T...

The problem in my mind is that if this changes and you have to switch bonds back into tax-advantaged accounts, you may incur taxes to make this switch. When that happens you get a capital loss on bonds. No taxes on capital loss. Actually you use the capital loss to offset your ordinary income, $3k ...

1. For a mid career working fella do I bonds and TIPS make sense if they fit into your desired AA? I seem to see advice here, and on the Vanguard charts, where these kinda bond assets are recommended more at around 5 years from retirement. From what I can tell, there's no certain answer to this. I ...

I still wouldn't buy TIPS in taxable. I wouldn't buy TIPS anywhere, unless your portfolio/situation is otherwise extremely exposed to unanticipated inflation. Yields are negative out to, what, 20 years? And then you have to pay annual federal income tax on the phantom inflation income if in taxable...

letsgobobby wrote:I bonds seem better than TIPS, especially in taxable accounts. Of course subject to low annual purchase limits.

The annual limits keep it from having a meaningful impact for me.

Hi all, I'm reviewing my allocation and trying to figure out how I want my bonds to be setup. My IPS still calls for: 10% bonds 10% TIPS I'm trying not to market time my bond allocation too much by changing this. But, this is all in a taxable account, mind you, and I'm subject to NY State and City t...

We drew up a contract with the owners with stuff we both wanted in it. Then we hired a real estate attorney, called a home inspector, and got the ball rolling on the financing. We honestly did very little after that until the attorney called us to sign the documents. I highly, highly recommend you ...

Nobody needs one and you can sometimes negotiate a lower fee with the selling realtor if you don't come with one. Further, if you know the area, it's unlikely that they'll be able to help you find properties that you couldn't find by spending your own time looking. However, realtors can be very help...

The main reason to hold REITs in my mind is the low correlation to stocks, which suggests that owning them should have a diversification benefit. My only options in tax advantaged space are: 1) Vanguard inflation protected securities + TIAA CREF Real Estate Account 2) Vanguard REIT Fund only + somet...

If opening a brokerage account before April allows you to keep free trades in all future accounts, I'd probably do it if you see a future need for it and don't mind whatever you have to do to get it. Wells specifically told me that only my existing accounts would be eligible and not new ones (and w...

We have a 403(b) that has a number of good Vanguard and TIAA-CREF options. However, our IPS calls for a percentage of our allocation to TIPS (no inflation protected securities available in 403(b)) and REITs (but only Real Estate Account available). Both of these options we'd like to have in tax-adva...

livesoft, thanks for the validation that my thinking is correct and thanks very much for the linked thread mhc, yea I agree. That's basically what my calculations were showing me. I had simply heard somewhere that unmatched 401k contributions were a bad idea for this reason, but I couldn't see it wh...

My wife's employer offers a tax-deferred retirement account, but doesn't match. Should she still max it out (assuming she maxes out her IRA first)? My fear is the fact that capital gains in a 401k are converted to income tax, but I think you still come out ahead because you start with more. Here wer...

Thanks for all the responses. You've given us a lot to think about, and we'll probably try to give the lender a call and see if we can't communicate more with them and see what we can work out. Just to respond to some of the comments: we didn't sign the loan expecting the person to not be trustworth...

Let me preface by saying: We knew the very high risks when we co-signed this loan for a sibling and are prepared for the possibility that we will be responsible for the full remaining amount. No whining from us about this, we just want to know what to do now. We co-signed a college loan for a siblin...

Maybe find a good accountant, but it seems like your only option is to sell it. As you allude to, maybe you can do something creative in how you sell it (and therefore basically receive a stepped up basis).

Weird... I can't find the signup link but this is definitely active on my account as well. Edit: Found a link to it. Go to "Snapshot". On the right, see a button that says "Save time with automatic full balance payments". It sends me to https://autopay.fiacardservices.com/. Ah, ...

Not true. I set mine up to pay the full balance. No more, no less. What!? Can you tell me where? I just checked again: I went to Pay Bill, clicked Auto-Pay, and was presented with two options: "I do not want to participate in auto-pay" and "Sign me up for auto-pay with these options&...

How long do you wait to cancel these credit cards? What's your approach with this?

Being that it is issued by FIA (bank of america), what does AMEX actually have to do with this card? My concerns are the benefits of AMEX, such as great chargeback protection, warranty protection, etc, instead will be a hassle to report a claim if need be. I have the card. Pros: Does seem to have t...

Hey all, I currently use a spreadsheet to manage my asset allocation, but it gets a bit complicated. Wondering if there's anything good out there now that can manage this. It needs to be able to: adjust portfolio allocations using tax considerations (tax-adjusted allocation), inform me of tax loss h...

"If this is your first year of coverage under a HDHP and you start mid-year, you can contribute up to the full applicable federal limit...If this is not your first year of the HSA and you stop your HSA eligibility mid-year, you are only allowed to contribute 1/12 of the applicable federal limit...

I hope that helps. For more, see All About Asset Allocation . Hi Rick, You bring up some useful points and I think I mostly agree and understand -- I did specify that the asset classes should have similar expected returns! (I'm undecided on a couple small other points you make, but they're mostly i...

I know I've discussed these assets in the past on this board, but I need some more knowledge and help with my thinking to decisively push me into the right decision, and I hope you will oblige me with this discussion :happy MPT says that if one invests in assets with low or negative correlation (and...

We sold our house this year before the property tax assessment came out. The property tax assessment turned out to be over $1,000 less than the previous year. We suspected this, but the closing attorney said that this would be the way they had to make the settlement statement and that they would adv...

Thanks for all the responses. Some good thoughts here. The provided statistics don't seem to match my observations or fully make sense (and are from a non-profit funded by insurance companies, it appears), although that doesn't disprove them. Part of the issue is that a lot of the mentioned disabili...

My wife and I are discussing disability insurance and whether it's worth it or not for us. We might manage without it, but if one of us became disabled it sure would be nice. I prefer to self-insure except for things that we obviously can't afford, but my wife wants to feel protected if something di...

Since the underlying shares from the ETF represent a wide cross-section of stock types, sectors, capitalization, etc. - is the root correlation (the only reason I have this account in the first place..) of high yield as an investment type sufficient to satisfy the wash sale rule and avoid a capital...

Having recently moved to New York, where Amazon already collects sales tax, I've discovered that it hasn't changed my purchasing habits one bit. It's still far more convenient (and usually cheaper) to order from Amazon than from any of the brick and mortar retailers. And because Amazon's customer se...

There's nothing you can do. You can "create" earned income, but I don't think any way you can do that is a good idea tax wise. You'll just have to focus on making your taxable investments tax-efficient.

Congratulations! Having twins is my biggest fear about choosing to have a "second" child :|, but I'm sure you'll get through it fine. It sounds like you're doing a lot to prepare, and way more than most people. If I were in your shoes, I would try to make a couple conservative estimates of...