Bogleheads

We live in San Francisco and it is so easy to eat out and drink a lot here.

I am originally from New Orleans - very hard not to eat. A couple of tricks:

Eat from the appetizer menu - same quali ...

Taking the bus is also cheaper than owning a car.

Perfect. Enough said.

Drop the gym and eat and drink less for the same result.

Right. Here is the pertinent page from the IRS:
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=106799,00.html

Use losses against short term gains first, then against long term gains.

Nothing, but he is gaining 5.75% with his choice.

That is fairly standard. There is a recent thread on umbrella insurance you may want to read:
http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=41505&start=0

Auction rate securities were generally used in money market funds (high yield and tax exempt), not bond funds. Whether Vanguard used them in their tax exempt money market I don't know. I do know tha ...

Though I am no where close to 90 I realize a day will come when I become frustrated with handling financial affairs. That is the reason I have begun consolidating my holdings to Vanguard who has an o ...

I don't know about the explorer's towing capacity but I use a Ford F150 V6 for our mineral business. I have no problem pulling hills fully loaded with rock and have towed 3000 lbs while fully loaded ...

I was listening to the Motley Fool podcast yesterday and the fellow made the point that everyone can name great value investors - Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, etc... but can you name even one great (w ...

For younger people I addressed reasons to hold mortgage above.

For the preretirement crowd:

1)It potentially puts you in a better position to negotiate with the mortgage company. It is one of t ...

I continue to see these analyses on the forum. I have yet to see one that takes into consideration escrow. Some people are floating the mortgage company up to 14 months of tax and insurance. Also i ...

Here is an article http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.aspx?Feed=BW&Date=20090929&ID=10432811&Symbol=MTUon MLCD (market linked CD's). Here is the downside as stated in this a ...

How about a picture book of money with very few words or graphs that illustrate complex investment concepts? It might attract people who learn from pictures rather than words. Pictures are almost alwa ...

Hopefully they will start serving better customers better. I have suffered through the last 15 years being told "we don't care if you have $5 or $500,000, we treat everyone the same". Bull ...

www.refdesk.com

A great compendium

If you move to another location at retirement or shortly before retirement

Staying put is my initial assumption. A future move changes everything.

Andy: I guess I assume that the retirement is fully funded or on track to be fully funded. I don't see any point in carrying debt once my retirement is in place and any added benefit is to my heirs ...

But I'm not sure plans to stay put are relevant.

I think with the current market conditions and the lack of visibility in the real estate market it might be wise not to retire debt on a short term ...

I want to add they probably consider this a gift. Gifts don't come with strings attached.

To the original post. Why would you buy someone else's investment choice? If they want to keep the policy that is their business. Whether you need/want LI or not is a measured decision you must mak ...

Epilnk: I agree. This is definitely a life stage issue. I think once the uncertainty of the expenses of children are behind you then you should give serious thought to paying off the house if you a ...

Agree with get a dog or get a "bad dog" sign. Agree with sign in yard even tho you don't have the system. Wasp spray is just as good as mace for personal protection. Easier to learn to us ...

Rookje said:

I’m not super in on the details, my parents will tell me the least about their finances as possible

You don't give "loans" to people who won't show you their financial s ...

Take some gains and yes consider taxes. March 2009 was easy. You may not have quite the same returns in the future. As noted in many other threads you only get a few major market crashes in a lifet ...

Bankrate's safe and sound gives it a 1 star, its lowest rating. Here is the link to the financials (bankrate website):
http://www.bankrate.com/rates/safe-sound/financial-statements.aspx?thriftid=100 ...

Hi Ron: We were posting at the same time however I got a phone call while writing. Lack of decision making is a problem that is why I think IRA's are a better solution. You can keep a simple FDIC i ...

Being self employed and coming from a long line of self employed folks I have never understood the desire for people to attach all of their financial life to employment. It really is an "all egg ...

There is no modern way to prevent reoccurrence. If you use the bait method you can actually buy the kits at Home Depot and do it yourself.

Before the bait method was available we had limited suc ...

I have not read the financial report perhaps someone here has. I have always assumed that the lion's share of Vanguard's profits are from plan managing, not individual retail accounts. It seems to ...

Absolutely not. I think you need to question first why the landlord is kicking them out (late payments?).

I have lent money to relatives before but you have to be more hard core than the bank be ...

It is the record date that determines your dividends. Shareholder of record date are paid. Ex date is after record date. Embarassed

moment of senior confusion, my mistake

I have made this same suggestion to Vanguard. Maybe if enough interest is expressed in this forum they will give it further consideration.

I find energy efficiency upgrades including mechanical systems (appliances, ac, furnace, etc...) payout pretty quickly and are good investments. The return comes from reduced utility costs over time. ...

The last scenario apparently does fly. Layperson X uses Religious orders Y's insurance/demographics.
This would actually be obviated by an electronic medical record and a physician who's not asleep ...

Years ago I had someone steal my identity for surgery. Employees at the hospital went through the plans to find inactive accounts. I don't know how they were going to bill this surgery but my mothe ...

So you want to sell your entire position in the etf? The etf is at Vanguard brokerage? Since you are a novice I would suggest you call to place the trade. There is another thread right now about pe ...

I don't know about Fidelity or Schwab but whenever I have put in orders for mutual funds at Etrade they give the same warning that once a mutual fund order is placed it cannot be canceled. This warni ...

I think the poster who said "highest returning" meant highest yielding assets. High yield, low risk - Bonds, income producing stocks, reits, etc. Those are the types of assets that belong ...

The hurricane might destroy the real estate for real and that's hard to bounce back from.

Sort of like Lehman Bros., eh?

I find them safe enough to have my mother's taxable portfolio heavily invested in them. You just have to be careful in your selection or better yet buy a well managed muni bond fund like Vanguards. ...

That is sort of like wishing for a class 5 hurricane so you can buy up real estate.

Read this:
http://www.publicbonds.org/major_players/regulators.htm

We all know that central banks are so smart:

Bank of France blamed for gold sell off (2006)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2948414/Bank-of-France-blamed-for-gold-sell-off.html

SEER of air conditioners are reduced with wear and tear over time. Here is one table showing the drop:
http://www.coloradoenergy.org/procorner/stuff/ac_seer.htm

You could do further research to ...

Since this continues to come up on the forum, I suggest everyone read this SIPC brochure:
http://www.sipc.org/how/brochure.cfm

Please note that SIPC coverage is for missing securities, not a bankr ...

Most brokerages have insurance above and beyond the SIPC limit. But if you are bumping up against the limit and plan to stay above the limit Wink

I would start looking for a firm you feel more co ...

While we did combine accounts we have never lacked independence in our spending. It was just a matter of administration rather than spending habits. I am the spendthrift, John is thrifty but we mana ...

That is the going rate on appraisals here. Some people will quote a by the hour rate of around $200 per hour. It is not only their expertise but they also must write the letter.

I agree with your tax analysis and further from a psychological point of view a paid off mortgage is a wonderful thing. From my experience most of the very financially secure people I know have paid ...