Bogleheads.org

I would also like to attend local events, and don't want to be a coordinator. So, since we lack a coordinator (which is OK), perhaps we should brainstorm what kind of event/locale would work for a get-together. I'm not even sure where to start! What do St. Louis Bogleheads think would be a good kind...

I agree about the driving habits. I've received one ticket in my life, and it wasn't for speeding. However, when my husband is pulled over, he gets a ticket 100% of the time. I've been pulled over for valid reasons probably ten times in my life. I don't cry or anything... I just don't get a ticket.

I'm wondering how I should pay a speeding ticket. I have two choices: 1) Pay $135, get points on the license, and have an auto insurance increase of unknown quantity 2) Pay $120 to a lawyer plus about $315 in fines, no points, no insurance rate increase My husband usually gets about one ticket a yea...

My Certainteed is from 2007. Most of the people I know with cracked siding have siding from 2004-2008. We had a bit of a lull in building from 2008 -2011 while the builder went bankrupt. I'm not sure what material they're using on the latest new homes. It may not even be from the same manufacturer.

I second the point about installation by qualified contractors. The first batch of houses sided in our neighborhood had more issues, and sooner, due to improper installation. The builder learned, and now we just have issues with the Certainteed material.

Certainteed siding is on my house and a couple hundred other homes in my neighborhood built by the same developer. After a few years (conveniently past the full coverage warranty period) the siding will crack. On my house, the side of the house that faces the most sun is cracked all over, while the ...

Husband and I have same employer, same 401k through The Standard. I wasn't terribly surprised because it's a small company. We pay 69 bps on top of every expense ratio. There are some very low fund ERs in the 401k, such as Vanguard 500 Index Signal at 5 bps, which becomes 74 bps. I already knew the ...

OP, you have been tricked, either by the physical therapy office, hospital billing or the insurance company. I haven't figured out which one is responsible, but somebody needed to say something to you about billing, and didn't. This has happened to me. A family member was receiving regular physical ...

Thanks for the replies. I've had rollover funds in TIRAs since the mid-90s. There's no way we can predict how long either of us will work for the current employer. It's a much better situation than our last few jobs, and could be many years. I'm not willing to roll into an expensive 401k just for th...

I've been thinking for years that we should have some of our retirement assets in Roth IRAs, but it never works out. I wonder when it's best to convert existing IRAs? We are both programmers who switch jobs frequently, so most of our retirement savings are in TIRAs that have been funded by 401k roll...

We adopted a five year old Labrador Retriever as our first dog. She was already trained and socialized (including kids and cats), though we had no idea. Being a typical Lab, she adjusted to our family within 24 hours. She has never chewed up our possessions. Until she reached age 12, we didn't have ...

Perhaps a better question for this thread (and less likely to get it locked), would be: Do you or did you send your children to private elementary school? Why, how did it turn out and what did it cost? That information may be more useful for parents of very young children and future parents. My chil...

Age: 39
Aggregate US Equities (sans REIT): 40%
Aggregate US REIT: 10%
Aggregate Intl Equities (sans REIT): 20%
Aggregate Intl REIT: 0%
Aggregate Nominal Bonds: 25%
Aggregate Inflation Bonds: 5%
Any Sector or Commodity plays: 0%

My husband and I are both in IT and we are both job-hoppers. I don't know how else we'd keep our careers going. The hardest thing about it are the benefits. Staffing and consulting firms have horrible benefits, probably just a step above those for retail workers. Almost every 401k we've had consiste...

1- Save a small emergency fund 2- Save $4000 3- Sell the car, use the $4k to pay the difference You're paying about $500/month for a car that you don't need and can't afford. The decision to buy it is in the past, but every day it's not for sale, you make the decision to keep it. When you need a car...

My 10-year-old kid has a UGMA in Vanguard LifeStrategy Moderate Growth (VSMGX). At some point in the coming years, I will move these funds to the conservative, then the income LifeStrategy funds. See the link below for more on these funds: https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/vanguard/LifeStrategy...

The AMT patch has already expired for 2012. I have a tax forecast spreadsheet set up for 2012. If I use the AMT exemption that is currently law ($45,000 for joint), then we will owe $6114 in April 2013. If I use the AMT exemption from 2011 ($74,450 for joint), then we get a refund of $182. So, shoul...

In some cases, you can leave certain fields blank and the IRS will figure your tax for you, and send you a bill or a refund. I don't know if there's a difference between zero and blank when entered in the IRS computers, thus the IRS might have figured this return needed to have tax calculated for it...

Dumbest financial moves, roughly in chronological order: - Throwing away a full-ride 4-year scholarship to a private university after 2 years because I was more interested in boys than college. - Not carrying collision/comp on a car that was a gift that we couldn't afford to replace, and being too p...

I cancelled AMEX a few years ago. We were getting ready to close on a new house, so there was a lot of money moving between our accounts. I attempted to pay the AMEX bill from a money market savings using ACH, rather than wait for the transfer to checking to clear (different banks). The money market...

We live on the edge of a large metro area, so an indoor antenna didn't work for us. Instead, we installed an outdoor antenna in the attic. It's in the attic for two reasons: 1) Midwestern storms would probably take it down every couple of years and 2) although federal law gives us the right to put i...

I fell in love with my '85 Accord. I miss that car. It was rusting, the interior was crumbling, the dash vents didn't work, both bumpers were crooked (replaced several times), paint was faded on one side (other side repainted in repair) and it needed an alignment with every oil change. Yet, I feel I...

Software engineering. Requires no graduate school (even college is optional). Starting pay in the major cities is around $120k (salary + bonus + equity), but could be more if you are lucky (you join a startup and it does well) or good (raises + bigger bonuses), and will go up as your equity refresh...

I am also trying to refinance, and I'm closing my ING Direct account after it's all over. The underwriters wanted a statement of account activity in the middle of the month. ING doesn't do that--it's simply not available. The closing has now been delayed. I'm still waiting for the February statement...

I don't know the total cost of my 401k choices. I work for a contract company that provides workers to clients who don't want the expense of hiring employees. My 401k is with John Hancock. I know that all the options include a .5% management fee on top of the expense ratio. I also know that the comm...

Maybe it's just the article's framing, but it seems like it's time for these families to stop idealizing the past. They are anchoring on past earnings. The family waiting to be foreclosed on must be living with an incredible emotional burden. I wonder if it would help them to sell almost everything ...

I wrote 152 checks in the last half of 2011. Extrapolated to the entire year, that's 304 checks per year. Private school, cleaning service, Girl Scouts, hairdressers, home repair/improvement, and charity accounts for most of it. Then there are the services that charge for online payment but accept a...

My minor daughter is carrying over a long-term capital loss. Her only income (dividends) is always well below the standard deduction (for dependents) of $950. The long-term carryover amount will remain the same year to year until she has long-term capital gains to offset it or until her other income...

I find that my cars need more inside washing than outside washing. I have kids and when we're on the run we just toss the Happy Meals in the backseat. It gets ugly very quickly. So about every 4 - 6 months I take a really filthy car to a full-service car wash where they do the inside and outside. I ...

I think you're on the right track by claiming so many allowances. My husband's Missouri allowances are set at 23. We do owe Missouri tax, but our Missouri itemized deductions are about four times the Missouri standard deduction. This year, the withholding has worked out well: refund from Missouri of...

I hate her voice. It's made worse by DJ's raving about it.

I sing in a chorus. That kind of singing has no place in choral music. I'm sure that's part of my issue.

I suppose I'm an obstructionist. Congested urban highways with left lane exits make the passing lane academic. During rural drives, I am very good about passing properly. I will avoid being tailgated at all costs, except I never speed up. That would drive the anxiety of being tailgated even higher. ...

When getting out of PMI, watch the loan terms carefully. When I last refinanced in 2009, I had a first and second. The bank wanted to combine them and charge me PMI on the refinance. The terms were such that I could not apply to have PMI removed until after I'd had the loan for 3 years, regardless o...

Baseball (and most other pro sports) is not completely free market because of the barriers to the entry of new teams. MLB controls the number of teams. Cities pay for stadiums to compete for one of the limited teams. Artificially restricting the supply of teams keeps the prices high. Imagine basebal...

I used to believe that poor parenting explained all brats over the age of 3. Then we had a second child... As parents of a brat, I can tell you that certain members of the public make our job very hard. They approach our child when he's tantruming or pouting, and attempt to soothe him (validates the...

I reconcile my accounts every morning while I drink my coffee. As soon as I enter a receipt, I determine whether to keep it. If it's for consumables (groceries, gas, restaurants) then I throw it away upon entering the receipt. I used to wait until a receipt posted to the account, but I stopped doing...

We moved interstate once. The company's moving allowance covered only specific moving expenses, and the basic move was going to be far less than the allowance. So I had the movers provide boxes and pack everything. That was a great move...

Abraham Lincoln faced a similar dilemma. His letter is worth reading in its entirety, and still quite applicable today.

http://www.quotablelincoln.com/LincolnLetters.html

In some cases, Vanguard does require a Medallion guarantee. My husband has paper stock certificates (they were a gift) and he wanted to transfer them into a Vanguard brokerage account. For this type of transfer, Medallion is required. We attempted to obtain a Medallion guarantee from our bank, but o...

My neighborhood has had a few intense discussions of this topic. We have new homes, small lawns, lots of dogs, and the builder planted only Kentucky Bluegrass. Certain grass types are highly susceptible to damage from dog urine and Kentucky bluegrass is one. These strategies will reduce lawn spottin...

My family of four has agreed that we will spend Thanksgiving with my brother-in-law's family in Maine. We live in Missouri. I haven't purchased airfare yet because I am so shocked at the prices that I yell at the computer and close the browser. I'm trying to figure out a way to get to Maine, for Tha...

Dave Ramsey recommends Churchill Mortgage for applicants who have no credit history because they've taken on little or no debt.

http://www.churchillmortgage.com/dave/

I haven't used them myself. But it may be worth a try.

All other investments are mutual funds, but husband received a birthday gift of Apple (AAPL) in 2001. Cost basis: ~ $75. Value today: ~ $3K

Advertising also plays a large role in poor food choices, especially if children are allowed to make food purchase decisions. Time is also a huge factor, for all families with little kids, even those who are well-off. In our family, there are two working parents and two long commutes. We get home ar...

I looked up my own neighborhood in the neighborhood scout link OP included. The name of the "neighborhood" was nothing I'd heard before. The neighborhood area covers several subdivisions, trailer parks, farmland, industrial sites, and a new urban development. I live in said new urban devel...

My parents never banned books, but there was one incident. My dad gave me his copy of Clan of the Cave Bear to read, when I was in high school. Then he read the next one, Valley of Horses, which was gratuitously sexual. My father then told me that he wasn't going to give me any more books in this se...

I'm a contractor and get paid hourly. If I'm not there, I'm not paid. I lost a contracting position that was about to go permanent because I was sick with a virus (102 fever for a week), and my kids got sick after me (for a total of about 9 sick days). Since they didn't want to admit their reasoning...

We bought a 2000 VW New Beetle. It was a lemon. The power train worked beautifully, but other stuff just fell apart. When we drove it off the lot, the horn didn't work. My husband discovered this on his first drive, when a truck tried to change lanes into him and no horn sounded. Under the standard ...

Type A Type B is impossible for me. I'd end up stuck--too close to a nearby car to back up or move forward, and looking for a compassionate passerby who happens to be a competent parker to please get my car out of this jam. (The passerby who helps is always male, and older than me. I know this becau...

Sorry about your job. I'll attempt to provide some info on your first question, no idea about the second. It's usually a good idea to roll over 401k funds, rather than leave them with a former employer's plan. Even if expenses were similar (and they're probably not), the employer plan is managed thr...