Bogleheads.org

There is A LOT Of luck involved with those approaches. There are many, many. many real estate folks, mechanics, etc... who bet on themselves who came up bust. That is life. The higher the possible return the higher the risk. Sound familiar?? Just because many people try and fail doesn't mean it is ...

If you manage to accumulate a net worth of $1M by 40 (completely achievable, especially for high level professionals) I simply said, "If you accumulate $1M by 40." The scenario and the math is true wheter it's 1900 or 2100. That is not simply what you said. How many "high level profe...

i would define a lot of money as $10 million plus. that figure cannot usually be attained by high level professionals such as doctors or lawyers. Typically one would have had to started a business that was successful or inherited it. I couldn't disagree with you more. If you manage to accumulate a ...

I’ve come to the conclusion that inheritances should be used like an endowment fund. Absolutely. This has partially been influenced by watching Downton Abbey and learning about the way estates were held and passed along in that time/place. I believe that the beneficiary has the responsibility to ma...

Are there any mainstream providers that will allow for transactions to be approved by a third party? I want to setup an account and I don't want a single person to be able to take all the money or make crazy trades. I know I can have managed accounts, but I am hoping to avoid the fees. I would be fi...

I never got into the reasons for wanting to be wealthy or philanthropy. Im interested in how does an average person like myself do better than the average retirement account. I want to excel and learn about different strategies whether it be real estate, stocks, business, a combination of all of th...

Remember that studies show that money doesn't make you happier after about $75K a year. Having made less than that and more than that, I'd have to say that number is about right. That is just a feel good quote for people that only make 80k :D http://www.cnbc.com/id/100497407 New research is coming ...

If you are looking for higher scaling exponents, recognize the risk. And realize the extreme survivor ship bias in the data you see around you. You see business owners making $1M, but you don't see the 1000 that failed for every one that made it. Do thousands fail for every one that makes it? That ...

Im already making some money, its the invest wisely that I am trying to figure out. I currently throw everything extra into my AA but I am wondering whether or not to pursue a mix of index funds, stocks, real estate, etc to create the most wealth since I can afford to have more risk right now. You ...

Most telling if you lived in Iceland it would have preserved your wealth when that currency collpased. A classic 60/40 portfolio would have been wiped out. I don't believe that is true. Stocks hold companies with actual property. If you look at what happened in Germany during their currency collaps...

What did you mean "after you know about a liability"? Does this mean once a negligent act, lien, or judgement has or is about to occur or simply signing on as a general partner? Again everything I write is fiction blah blah blah... My understanding is once you are aware of an act that may...

My spouse has entered a general partnership with several other family members. I am aware a General Partnership is one of the worst mechanisms for seperating business and personal assets for liability/risk management purposes. This is my understanding of things I might be wrong etc. etc. There are ...

Many bonds these days are selling at a premium to par. When they mature, you receive par, not the premium. This decrease is captured by SEC yield, but not distribution yield. That's why distribution yield is a larger number. Both bonds and bond funds are subject to this, so it's not a reason to pre...

I am looking at VWIUX. It has an SEC yield of 1.62%. If I look at distributions, I see the distribution yield is about 3%. Based on the above and assuming no major changes, I would expect to continue to see a roughly 3% payout. The maturity/duration are around 5 years. If I look at composite bond yi...

Put 50% in the Vanguard Total Market Index fund and 30% in the total international fund. I am curious about the idea of 80/20 for a 50 year old couple with 5M. If we go with any version of age in bonds, it would be in the neighborhood of 50/50. Why the recommendation for more stock? Is it a combina...

Selling an appreciated asset creates a capital gain. All interest income from the asset is still taxed as ordinary income. Selling an asset for, tax purposes only, often does not make sense. Your reinvested capital is reduced by the tax bite, producing less income. If interest rates don't rise for ...

I would look at a transmutation (post-nuptial) agreement. This is very cheap (no annual cost) and as I understand is 100% bullet proof to protect 50% of your assets as long as both you and your spouse are not liable for an action. This has been discussed on this board before. Also, you can setup a 5...

I recently received a PM from someone that got me thinking. I have done some research and I am left with a question about international allocation. I am currently 60% US 40% international. I am struggling with possibly changing to 40% US 60% international. It seems to me the case against global cap ...

I haven't looked at a typical response to this type of behavior on forums, but I suspect filing a lawsuit is not likely the best way to handle this unless you "know" who it is before you start. What if they are not in the US? You will spend all the legal and investigative money for nothing...

It seems like you are: 48% bonds/cash 50% stocks 2% commodities I am basically your same age and I am 60 stocks/40% bonds. Right now many smart people are saying go short or shorter on the bonds (cash). From my perspective your cash/bond % is just fine - granted on the conservative side. I might pic...

As Warren Buffet noted on CNBC a couple of months ago, taxes are only one part of the decision, and if you are paying taxes, come on folks, you are making money! Depends on whether you include inflation in the equation. Consider a bond paying 3%, inflation at 2.5%, and a tax rate of 50%. Your payin...

I have raised my home owners deductible to 20k-50K (I can't remember exactly). The savings was substantial. I would do the math on the car insurance and if it works out and if you can handle the new liability, I would go for it.

Of course, if the 1% investor knew the value was zero... There is no KNOWN value of a start up, and no one involved in a start up would value it at zero. There are valuation methods to try to deal with start ups, but they are pretty poor. For example lets us use a valuation method of 500K/founder. ...

1. Think of a somewhat "extreme" case (but not impossible), where (by some objective measure) the company is 'worth' zero. You are offered 1% ownership for 10,000 cash. You buy. Immediately, the company is "worth" $10,000 and you now "own" 1% of 10,000 - $100. . In thi...

It looks like "high growth" in this case means "employee growth" and not revenue or profit growth. Not particularly relevant to this situation, since revenue and/or profit growth is what's going to drive higher valuations. Also, the 10-employees-to-start thing excludes the types...

Out of curiosity, why couldn't the value of the company have increased 40 times in a couple of years? That isn't all that unusual. LOL, why are you investing in the stock market? Just invest in the usual run of the mill 40x in a few years investment. BTW, I wouldn't mind two or three of those. :D I...

Out of curiosity, why couldn't the value of the company have increased 40 times in a couple of years? That isn't all that unusual. LOL, why are you investing in the stock market? Just invest in the usual run of the mill 40x in a few years investment. BTW, I wouldn't mind two or three of those. :D

But markets are efficient - the tilt-toward assets offer no better prospects than the tilt-away assets. Do you mean to say by "no better prospects", no better risk adjusted return? EDIT:Assuming you did mean that, for the sake of the OP: Tilting may very well increase your expected return...

My understanding is not specific to Texas, but I would guess it is applicable. 1. If you split assets in an arrangement of something other than 50/50 A. You leave yourself open to the transfer being challenged. B. The party with less than 50% looses out in a divorce 2. As this is a split, there real...

I've inherited a Krugerrand from a dying great uncle, which I certainly appreciate to this day. I'd like to buy more Gold Coins, and keep till I possibly hand down to my children, etc. I assume the US Mint has a markup and is certainly not the cheapest, but probably the safest? Any advice on coins ...

I would place your business into one of the following 4 categories: 1. Makes less than 200K/year - total owner compensation - this company is worth zero or virtually zero 80% of the time. 2. Makes more than 200K/year you are the sole management team - depending on the margins this maybe worth someth...

During my time fidgeting with indexing and passive investing, I have had fits of I am special. In my I am special moments, I think I have way more money that 99% of the people on this board and therefore their advice doesn't apply to me. They don't QUALIFY for the types of accounts I can. Why would ...

1. No card comes close to the centurion - status on airlines and upgrades at time of booking 2. SPG card is one of the best cards if you travel Check out http://www.flyertalk.com if you want to learn more. AMEX is generally thought of as the best network for points. Roughly 90% of my charging is don...

They must plan and save for the "worst-case" returns in the range of 1-2% real regardless of the estimated mean returns of their AA. Why? This seems to be a premise of running through this thread. Why can't I plan for the likely return? Why is 1% the worst case scenario? Have you no imagi...

2) The amount you need to save is the same no matter what your asset allocation is. To say "it's very hard to save enough to retire just using Treasury bonds and TIPs" is just to say that it's very hard to save enough. If you aren't saving enough to retire just using Treasury bonds and TI...

I'm reviving this post because I have the same need. The following are the key decision variables for me: No monthly fee No/low minimum balance req. Can deposit checks by smartphone Low cost of paper checks Interest rate VISA check card There's got to be some of you out there that are self-employed...

....Sure I'd keep a fairly conservative AA for the base of $2m, to protect myself. But for the excess $18m, why wouldn't it make sense to go heavy on equities, because they provide greater return than bonds? Some folks seem to advise the exact opposite: go conservative with the excess amount; no ne...

Spoiler (See table 5.6) if you want the fun to end. http://books.google.com/books?id=0yjjyO5Sz1MC&pg=PA160&lpg=PA160&dq=copi+problem+kings+and+aces&source=bl&ots=CiU78mYvnH&sig=mxO9Tz7_mxIzoLo2sYEV6qF9oFM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=P9kMT9zLNaGXiALX-KGVBA&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAg#v=...

Thank you for your quick reply. These two links, however, lead me to AUM managers and i suspect that with my assetts these fees may be too high.I realize both of these people (BAM and Ferri) are well spoken of but i am following advice i have seen elsewhere on this forum that even their % fees may ...

Based on your post I would suggest looking at:

http://www.investmentadvisornow.com/

or

http://www.portfoliosolutions.com/

If you really want to do it yourself, I might suggest reading a couple books then come back ready to get into the "nitty gritty".

*Cheers*

It doesn't look like there is a way to set a "default" basis for new purchases. In the future if I purchase a new mutual fund would it prompt me as part of the process of buying into that fund to set the cost basis method?

I used actual data (Google for "Shiller data") rather than simulations, this is probably the easiest way to get a simulation we can agree on. I was going to use 30-year rolling periods from this data, but for a quick and simple test I just decided to simulate a single retirement, January ...

What Cut-throat and wellmoneyed advocate are simply variations of a variable withdrawal strategy, and of course they are safer than inflexible, fixed withdrawals unless the needed withdrawal rate is much lower than 4%. Picking a withdrawal rate and method is very important. Saying it is just a vari...

A house IS an investment. The dividends are the free rent it provides. There may also be capital gains or losses associated with it. Any given house can be a good or a bad investments depending on its costs, comparable rent in the area, and the housing market. Substitute wine for house. Substitute ...

So I set up a smoothing versus 4% for 30 years. Here are the formulas. Return for the year=((0.5-RAND())*1)+1 4% rule = =C3*0.04 Smoothing rule==E2+(C3*0.04-E2)/5 Hitting f9 resets all the random numbers. Using this method which is not biased up (due to inflation I believe this would favor the smoo...

I believe overall the smoothing will return more I haven't looked at your smoothing method in detail, but I thought I just chuck in a general explanation of why smoothing increases risk, compared to an income directly correlated with portfolio balance. When you take the same average income with smo...

Withdrawal = Last years withdrawal + (4% * portfolio - Last years withdrawal)/X With this formula you are always taking more money than the initial portfolio Withdrawal amount. I cannot understand how this could be less risky. Are you sure you have your parenthesis in the right places in this forum...

I would add a smoothing factor. Withdrawal = Last years withdrawal + (4% * portfolio - Last years withdrawal)/X X can be your smoothing factor (maybe between 2-5). This has the effect of stabilizing your withdrawal rate versus the ups and downs of the market when you use a straight percentage. You ...

There was a BIG argument thread a while back on Rich Dad Poor Dad. I some people hate him. I do think his advice on a house is dead on. A house is NOT an investment. It is an expense. Bigger house = Bigger expense. Smaller house = Smaller expense. Couple broad brush points: 1. Probably the biggest l...

I would add a smoothing factor. Withdrawal = Last years withdrawal + (4% * portfolio - Last years withdrawal)/X X can be your smoothing factor (maybe between 2-5). This has the effect of stabilizing your withdrawal rate versus the ups and downs of the market when you use a straight percentage. You c...