Bogleheads.org

You don't say which country your parents are citizens - if they are Canadian or Mexican you might be able to claim them as dependents on your US tax return.

Just as a follow-up, the Chinese CD purchases have been going well. Recently I purchased two and three year CD's for 4.125% and 4.675% respectively. Meanwhile the RMB has continued to appreciate to 6.18 from about 6.38 since writing this initial posting in Oct 2011. About a 3% increase or 1.9% annua...

It's down 23% from the bubble peak and still falling down to it's inflation adjusted price of between $500-$600. There won't be another bubble like the one we've just seen for 20 years. We aren't anywhere near the next gold bubble! Rick Ferri Hmmm, this sounds like chartist talk if not market timin...

MarcMyWord wrote:

Sidney wrote:Or frankincense, or myrrh.

Well that's only because now we have body deodorants and they've mapped out the South Pacific. Gold is still a stalwart storehouse of wealth. The average person can't tell the difference between the grade of diamonds or even if they are zirconium.

Waiting for a RBD . . . . which probably means I won't be able to get VT<$50. Anyway, dry powder is always a good feeling with days like this.

OMG, he/she doesn't have a carbon fiber? Several years ago, I purchases a $1k bike online with a very generous return policy. After nine months, I was happy, but returned the bike. They said they would give me full trade-in if I upgraded, which I gladly did. With my $2k bike, I was passing many of ...

Interesting. I just called TD this morning to confirm and was told just this same information. I can only tell you that I was hit with a commission in the past under these circumstances.

Recently I found a little hitch with the TD commission free ETF program, but luckily there is a workaround. 1) There is a 30 period after purchasing one of these that if you sell, you are going to be hit with a commission. Normally this is not a problem, but if one has automatic dividend reinvestmen...

There is also a psychological reason. If you are a Boglehead and regularly read this forum, you will feel part of this group. When you invest like a Boglehead, you will feel the pain with your colleagues in arms and rejoice together when the world's markets rally. This will help you avoid selling at...

This might be an opportunity to bring up another aspect other than ER - turnover. High turnover results in costs which are not reflected in ER. I have a large position in the Mairs and Power Growth Fund. I think one of the major reasons why it has managed to beat the S&P500 over the 10 and 20 ye...

Hand Surgery- GA. The problem with the decreasing medicare reimbursement rate is that the private insurers follow medicare fee schedule. They'll usually pay a contracted rate few % (10-30%) over the medicare fee for their insured patients. So when Medicare cuts the physician reimbursement by 25%, t...

non physician: I find the whole medical insurance game to be a racket. You quote cash payers one price, bill insurance another, accept yet another then sometimes bill me what the insurance doesn't pay and some times I am not required to pay anything else. Yes, it is a rather opaque pricing system. ...

The other big difference between BRK and GE is the honesty of the management: Jack Welch famously criticized the present Bureau of Labor Statistics administration for playing with the unemployment numbers. But it is quite clear that under his management, GE manipulated earnings. Charts show after hi...

Bongleur wrote:If you invest a sum on a regular schedule, you could certainly have a rule that you will invest each tranche either 30 days from today or on a day when the market has lost at least X% by 3:45PM, whichever comes first.

Exactly. +1

rr2 wrote:

xram wrote:ETF = VWO

What if it kept going up and up for 60+ days? What would you do?

If you are dealing with a usual BH AA, wouldn't that be unusual? I think examination of most charts of (VT, VTI, VWO, BND, TIP, etc) review a 60-90 day period when you could buy the same for price than many days prior.

I would love to know what true bogleheads returned on this RBD? For me it was JAD, just another day About true BH . . . . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman No true Scotsman is an informal fallacy, an ad hoc attempt to retain an unreasoned assertion.[1] When faced with a counterexample t...

My automatic triggers unleashed today, bought in VT. Glad to see it go on sale. Maybe with some luck we will get a few more bargain sale days.

FWIW, there is one more method using options: (Collar) 1) Buy your entire position 2) Sell a slightly out of the money call for your entire position 3) Use the premium from the call and purchase a put position which covers your entire position. This way, if the market crashes, you only lose that por...

You could buy enough slightly out of the market call options on the SPX to cover your upside and put the rest into short term treasuries. If you were wrong, you've captured the upside of the market. If the market tanks, you lost the SPX call premiums, but preserved the majority of your investment an...

Pray tell. What are your credentials across: Again, another argument from logical fallacy. Stay on discussion. What does my credentials have to do with the line of reasoning? Please, you are only on your second of a long "List Of Fallacious Arguments" - the list is too long . . . . and yo...

The Dollar is a fiat currency and still exists. - dates from Federal taxation and destruction of individual State currencies in mid 1800's The Pound is a fiat currency and still exists. - Hmmm, seems to have lost purchasing power after the Boar War and GB's loss of ascendency after Lend Lease The Y...

1) No fiat currency has ever lasted. Three centuries ago, we might be talking Spanish reales, two centuries, the British pound. As far as I'm concerned the defining characteristic of a "gold bug" is that they make statements that are not only untrue, but so utterly and deeply untrue that ...

[Personal attack removed by admin LadyGeek] I almost flagged this as inappropriate because of the condescending and insulting tone. Perhaps you might wish to rewrite or redact it before someone else does. Brushing aside your Strawman fallacious example, consider this: 1) No fiat currency has ever l...

If I did own Yen, I think that as a US resident the only relevant thing to me would be the value of JPY vs. the USD. Why is the price of gold in JPY at all important? Keith It is because people all over the world buy gold based upon their own currency. I am answering the OP's question. Looking at t...

Just so there isn't any misunderstanding, this is a chart of gold, except it is denominated in yen.

Not as many people seeking to defend their purchasing power in dollars - as of recently.

Interesting question. Are doctors, labs, medical manufacturers allowed to quote prices below Medicare prices? It is not that Medicare . . . . many insurance companies require us to quote prices as good as our best customer. This leads to the strange situation whereby the guy without insurance gets ...

With this post I hope to elucidate behaviors of both physicians who are cognizant of Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates and those knowledgeable healthcare consumers. The posting is actionable because certain healthcare consumers potentially can use the responses to individually negotiate with...

There is a way around this: Use the I-bond purchased after 1990 to fund a 529 program when you are in a lower income bracket in retirement. The interest earned on Series EE US savings bonds issued after December 31, 1989 and all Series I bonds may be tax free when the bonds are redeemed to pay for q...

Every two years we should get a 10% correction.
Every 3.5 years we should get a 20% correction.
Juy 2011 there was a 20% correction in VTI
April 2012 there was a 10% correction in VTI.

http://stockcharts.com/freecharts/gallery.html?vti

Let me clarify the question a little bit more: (the following is from the Treasury Direct website) How much can I buy? Note: In any one year, for any one Social Security Number, you can buy $10,000 per year in electronic I Bonds. -------------------------------- Who owns the bond and who can cash it...

Is it possible to exceed the limits on individual I-bond purchase limits by having others purchase an I-bond in their name and gift it to you?

Thanks!

BND at the time of this writing has the highest level of unrealized gains ever: "A fund which defers gains realization accumulates unrealized appreciation, which when distributed, will be taxed; thus the unrealized gain/loss figure shows the potential gain (or loss) that would be realized if th...

Sure, several more. Tax loss harvesting, avoiding the drag from other investors churning the fund and forcing the manager to hold liquid a portion. I might even argue in this environment with PUNY yields, the advantages of owning your own bonds are increased over when interest rates are higher. Fina...

I absolutely love what I do for a living. While I want to be able to retire, I do not plan on actually retiring. I thoroughly enjoy my work, and I would continue to do it even if I became extremely wealthy. That being said, I want to get the the point of security that I know that I can retire as so...

"If money doesn't make you happy, then you probably aren't spending it right" Funny, I was going to post the exact same quote from a book just finished, http://lauravanderkam.com/books/all-the-money-in-the-world/ The book is a little cliche'ish, especially for BH's but the point is just a...

If you write a call option for $200 and it expires worthless as the ETF price remains $100, you have a $200 short-term capital gain on the call, and you need to sell 38 shares for a $1520 long-term gain. For index options, the 60/40 rule holds for long/short cap gains. This is an inherent favorable...

Later this month I am giving a talk about the hormonal basis of hunger and experienced a eureka moment when reading this thread. For those who have overeaten in the past, their stomach has hypertrophied, (grown larger) and has more cells producing Ghrelin when ever they eat. Not only does it take mo...

That is the problem isn't it . . . . -Lacking in imagination, unable to formulate a direction other than one dictated by a hierarchical structure like work -Lacking in structure, unable to structure ones life to get through each day -Lacking in direction, stuck in a productivity paradigm where value...

Timely question. My WH just started leaking one night. Wife and I spent two hours draining it, carrying the water up the stair to dump down the sink, as we have no floor drain. Since it was a GE WH and under the 12 year warranty, HD honored a full replacement. A friend showed me how to use the "...

OMG! The train is leaving the station and I'm not onboard! (what that a sign of?)

OMG! Where's the bottom! I should've punched out a month ago! (Buy signal)

Generally speaking, freestanding radiology units are substantially cheaper than those associated with hospitals. LabCorp and Quest are the Walmart's of the diagnostic world. You can bring your requisition to any lab within the state your provider is licensed by law. Billing issues aside, the testing...

I think medicine is a great career that is dynamic and very interesting and pays well than most fields. You are basically guaranteed a starting six figure salary (at least 120k) after you finish residency. Also, residency is not bad as you get at least 50k with full benefits. Very buoyant and uplif...

Please refrain from discussing political influences to salary. The posting is not meant to be political - only that the OP may be unaware that aside from physicians who operate "boutique" services (cash only), physician pay is essentially set by the Federal government and that since 1997,...

Pathologist here, largely retired. Some points which haven't been mentioned here: 1) There is a big difference between making a large salary after training and gradually making a similar total over a lifetime. The "progressive" tax system will wallop you when you are in your peak years. It...

OMG, how many time are we going to do this? Can someone post the last age/corrected google graph?

This is not an either or proposition. You could buy a little annuity now, and essentially dollar cost average in over the next couple of years. The payout is related to the 10 year Treasury, which right now - downright stinks!

Hey, maybe periods of high correlation are followed by periods of low correlation, or NOT! (Where is the certainty I need? )

I would be interested to know what fields in medicine those who love what they do are in..... maybe there is a theme. I agree it is a stable and financial secure profession but you certainly shouldn't go into it for financial reasons. The key is finding the niche where you love what you do; getting...

I think there is another aspect from which to consider the question. Suppose some entity allowed you to purchase all of your healthcare needs, housing and utilities in perpetuity for a fixed sum now and you could easily afford and had the funds in your savings. Presuming you thought it was a fair pr...

I think MrMatt is on to something here. There is a difference between those of us who are retired and those in accumulation phase. For the former, it is a simple matter to liquidate enough assets to buy the home outright. Of course, the problem then is one has to generate sufficient income, pay the ...