Bogleheads.org

neurosphere wrote:The holding periods for Roth ira do NOT apply to individual funds. It applies only to the "cash" which comes into and out of the account.


NS

Thanks for the clarification, NS. This information is all I needed to know.

I am over 60 and thinking of transferring part of my Roth portfolio into a new fund, but I may not want to hold it for 5 years before withdrawing a portion of it tax-free. Can I avoid the tax on early withdrawals before the 5-year waiting period by switching some of the money in the new fund into an...

There are two basic problems involved with repairs and alterations to a New York City coop: (1) dealing with contractors, and (2) dealing with the coop board. I bought a new coop in 1997 and have not made any major changes since then, so I cannot comment on the travails associated with contractors. ...

I retired in August, planning to withdraw 2.5% for the next four years or so. Thank goodness I have a DB pension which covers basic expenses. After 4 years, when I begin taking SS, a higher SWR would be justified. But actually, this year I have withdrawn nothing from my portfolio since retiring. Aft...

I disagree with some of the objections to TD's strictness in this thread. In dealing with investment companies and a broker, I have been repeatedly dismayed by a laxity in account security procedures, possibly leading to the withdrawal of all of our hardearned money and dispatching it to a post offi...

Frank's...... I put that $&@t on everything! The problem with Frank's is that it has twice or three times as much sodium as other brands. For those of us on a low sodium diet, Frank's is unfortunately verboten. :annoyed I love the La Morena brand homemade style chipotle sauce, but it also has a...

MrMatt2532 wrote:Also, it appears you might be in the 15% bracket: 57k-8.55k-3.9k-6.1k-3.25k < 36.25k

I understand the 57k salary part , but could you please specify what each figure listed above represents? Thank you.

There's more old world civility than New York but it's not really an English city any more-- people from all the world. I always enjoy VT's contributions and I would like to chime in with a few comments on the two cities. I live in NY and have visited London several times and always enjoyed it. New...

This is a serious forum, and I was annoyed when a previous poster recommended that the OP "bet it all on the red."

Sober and responsible investors, the kind of people here on the Bogleheads forum, know that the only responsible thing to do is to bet it all on the black.

Another factor to take into account is future tax rates. After reading Kotlikoff's book, The Coming Generational Storm, I am convinced (for reasons that cannot be discussed on this list) that just about *everybody* will be paying substantially higher taxes in the future. The only question in when th...

Rainier wrote:Rocks contain metals. Gold is just a shiny rock made out of one metal... In the end, it's just a rock.

Well, if you see any of those shiny rocks laying around, please put them in a box and mail them to me. I guarantee to pay your postage!

I enjoy sports but have never been especially athletic. In my 40s I took up sea kayaking and paddled frequently, including several wonderful weeklong kayaking trips along the Maine coast. At the age of 59, after giving up paddling for several years, I again went to Maine to go kayaking, preceded by ...

[quote] Have you checked your homeowner's insurance policy?/quote]

Yes, but the policy does not include holdings in a bank safe deposit box.

How many Bogleheads insure the contents of their bank safe deposit box? Of those who do, what insurance companies offer competitive quotes? It is my understanding that banks do not insure the contents of the safe deposit boxes on their premises. In my bank deposit box I keep some gold coins and the ...

I live in NYC and use Chase. It is satisfactory. I have no experience with First Republic. The only firm recommendation I would make is to stay away from the Bank of New York, which I believe focuses primarily on large account holders. I had some bad experiences there.

I am concerned by reports that John Bogle holds no TIPS or TIPS funds in his portfolio, contrary to what is recommended in Boglehead books. Does anyone know why he doesn't invest in TIPS? They sound very good to me, although I am chronically concerned about the rapid and unexpected return of That Ol...

Age in bonds has worked well for me. I am now 62, so my AA is 38:62 equities to bonds. I am waiting until I am 66 to collect SS. The standard advice is to place half of bond holdings in nominal bond funds and half in TIPS funds. I have no inflation protection for my NY State pension for the first fi...

thebogledude wrote: Congrats to the OP for being a librarian in NYC and retiring. Are you going to stay in NYC?

Yes, I will be staying in NYC for a while. Other possibilities in the future are: (1) move to Hilo, Hawaii, (2) buy an RV and see the many areas of NYC I have not yet visited.

I retired on Aug. 17, and I would like to express my thanks for all the superb advice posted on this invaluable forum, resulting in what I hope will be a financially worry-free future, despite earning a moderate salary during my career as a librarian living in New York City. I have been a daily read...

So another way to ask this question is: How many instances have there been when safe deposit boxes in U.S. banks were broken into? Does anyone have data to respond?

Will I be able to continue buying I-Bonds annually after I retire, or is it necessary to have earned income to continue buying them?

At work I often argue in a friendly manner with a colleague who is a devoted follower of Jeremy Grantham. Grantham periodically looks in his crystal ball and pronounces how to invest in order to win big earnings in the future. What is Jeremy Grantham's track record as an investment guru? For example...

The last NY-NJ-CT chapter meeting, as I recall, was held in late 2010. Any interest in scheduling another get together? By the way, I did not see the chapter listed in the Wiki.

In the past, when making retirement plans, defined benefit pensions used to be a "rock" on which we could rely. A colleague told me that, due to the European crisis, the wages AND pensions of public employees in Ireland have been reduced up to twenty percent. This is a heavy hit. Nowadays,...

Before now, when rebalancing my TIAA account, conducting business only required a brief call to speak to a real live human being. Now you have to go on hold in "voice mail jail," with a 1-hour wait to speak to someone. TIAA also has the option of rebalancing via a voice prompt, but it does...

I really LOVE those Roth IRAs! If I work part-time after retirement, in a given calendar year do I have to earn $6000 free and clear of taxes to purchase a maximum Roth? Or can I buy the full Roth after I have earned $6000, even though part of the income went to pay taxes? Thanks!

I hope to retire at 62 and wait until 66 to begin receiving my SS payments. I will have worked less than 35 years. I hear "zero years" can affect final earnings. To eliminate some zero years, I am thinking of working part-time betwen 62 and 66. My questions: (1) How much do "zero year...

I am 59 and hope to retire at 62. My portfolio is now 40/60 stock/fixed income. I was reviewing the terms of my retirement plan today (NY State Retirement system) and it states that no Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) will occur until *five* years after I begin taking retirement. This delay could wr...

I am in awe of the regular posters on this board, and I have no claim to be an economist. But it seems common sense that the huge flood of dollars being poured into the economy will generate inflation down the road (correct me if I am wrong, please!) If major inflation is headed our way, does it mak...

I am thinking of retiring at age 62, but I would like to defer filing for Social Security benefits until I reach full retirement age at 66. Will this strategy earn me higher benefits? If so, is there a formula which states how much extra benefit is gained by filing at age 62 versus waiting until I a...

I would advise against tilting Roth contributions toward equities. I myself did this, and my Roth portfolio was hit hard during the current market drop.

For this reason, I believe a mixture of euities and bonds is best for inclusion in Roth accounts. I learned this lesson the hard way.

Smaller houses makes sense. As a New Yorker with a tiny apartment, I am always surprised at the huge houses people live in when traveling outside of the city to visit what we New Yorkers call "the real America." I have to wonder what the folks who live in those McMansions actually *do* in ...

All these years I have had two companies handling my lhard wired phone line, one for local calls and the other for long distance. A colleague suggested that money could be saved by dropping the long distance company and relying instead on prepaid phone cards. This makes sense, as I don't make a huge...

Thanks for everyone's input. I am still deepening my knowledge of the Boglhead universe, so please bear with my possibly flawed reasoning. Yobria asked how my domestic FI returns compared with BEGBX. My TIAA-CREF 403b includes the intermediate Bond Market (4.77% over ten years) and Inflation Bonds (...

A lot of Bogleheads are down on international bonds, preferring to invest in international equities instead. But this year my modest international bond stake (BEGBX) is doing a lot better (or less worse anyway) than my international equities (EFA and VWO), which have plunged about 40 percent :cry: I...

For better or worse, I just rebalanced by moving 5% of my total portfolio from fixed income (intermediate bonds and a TIPS fund) to equities within my TIAA 403b. Like many people, I was reluctant to take this step, but I am reading Bernstein's Four Pillars (a superb book, by the way) and he inspired...

As for 2008, any debate over whether to rebalance is academic to me. I was getting ready to rebalance in January when the market went ahead and did it for me

This thread raises an issue: Should IRAs, both traditional and Roth, have an asset allocation that resembles our overall portfolio? It is generally recommended in retirement that we withdraw first from taxable accounts, then traditional IRAs, and lastly from Roth IRAs. Since this recommensation migh...

Testing

I should have made clear that my fixed income holdings are already in tax-sheltered acounts (403b and I bonds). What I want to focus on is future withdrawals after retirement. To be specific, my question is: Should a mix of bond funds be included in the Roth portfolio to ensure relatively steady wit...

All of my Roth holdings are currently equity index funds. Is it wise to include a mix of bond and equity funds in a Roth portfolio, as it commonly done for non-tax sheltered holdings? As I am about 3 years away from retirement (knock on wood), my overall portfolio mix is 50/50.

CORRECTION: I should have stated in the first response that if the market drops much lower I will wish I had rebalanced to 40/60 equities/ bonds, not 60/40.

Fortunately, earlier this year I rebalanced in anticipation of retirement in about 3 years. My new AA is 50/50 equities/bonds. So the new defensive position is timely (although if the market drops much lower I will wish that I had rebalanced to 60/40!)

"A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered." - Attributed to Emerson

I DCA in TIAA-CREF's Bond Market as part of my 403b. Does TIAA Bond Market include mortgage backed securities, and should I be concerned if it does? I know some Diehards are wary of bond funds with an MBS component.

"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone." - Thoreau

wastenot wrote: But the high ER of the TIAA tax funds is especially annoying, when considering Vanguard's excellent low cost alternatives.

Whoops! I meant to say "TIAA bond funds," not tax funds.

...the TIAA-traditional and the TIAA-real estate account may have some advantages not found in other investments such as Vanguard mutual funds.... Also I also understand that if you have TIAA-traditional in a retirement annuity (not a supplemental retirement annuity), that you have to transfer that...

wastenot, You should be able to do a rollover to Vanguard once you leave your current employer. Laura Thank you, Laura. If only other aspects of life were like the Diehards forum in offering such prompt and informative replies! And your response leads to a followop question. While I am an ardent ad...

I plan to retire in about 3 years. Presently, my tax advantaged funds are DCAed into TIAA-CREF's 403b, the best alternative offered by my employer. TIAA is a pretty good company, and its funds have fairly low ERs, but after retirement I would like to transfer my 403b holdings to a lower cost outfit ...