Bogleheads

I still drive a Mercedes. I can't buy a cheaper vehicle and convert it in to a Mercedes. I can, however, make a sandwich as good as anyone.

So....

You drive a Mercedes and have a Rolex (I assm ...

Food $1800

Peanut butter sandwiches are expensive! Smile

No, really... you're $135k in debt... and you spend $60 a day, every day, to feed one person? Shocked

If you look at his other expense ...

Food $1800

Peanut butter sandwiches are expensive! Smile

No, really... you're $135k in debt... and you spend $60 a day, every day, to feed one person? :shock:What's the annual income?

Here's my expenses, many of which are rough guesses, because I don't pay the bills:

Mortgages, taxes, upkeep and insurance on my home: $7,000
3 car payments: $1,500
Gas: $400
4 Cell phones: $20 ...

What about the risk of U.S. government default on Treasuries? Would this be a good reason to diversify into foreign bonds?

(And please don't say "we'll have bigger things to worry about if tha ...

US defaulting on it's debt would essentially signal the complete collapse of our society, so one's bond portfolio really wouldn't matter much during the ensuing chaos for survival.
What about Argenti ...

Foreign bonds provide currency diversification rather than security diversification, and they do it at a high cost. You can invest in US bonds via the Vanguard Total Bond Market and pay about 0.14% in ...

The landlord would like a year's worth of rent letter of credit from my bank, Wells Fargo. I am no expert on this, but isn't showing the landlord that you have the funds to pay one year's rent better ...

Why would you not need a buyer when redeeming mutual fund shares?
Because mutual fund share are redeemed by the mutual fund company when sold rather than being sold to a buyer.
Don't they have the ...

Go to the Ann Frank House. In addition to the emotional impact, the residential area itself is very beautiful. -----Jim

http://www.annefrank.org/content.asp?pid=1&lid=2

Yes, do the Anne Fran ...

Tell me if I am missing the boat on this...

Lets assume that the crap has hit the fan and the markets are in a severe decline and I need to sell a portion of my holdings.

A mutual fund will rede ...

The big change I have left is moving my asset allocation from 97% stock/3% cash to 80% stock/20% bonds
In that case, rather than using all the proceeds of your Large Cap sale to buy Total Stock Marke ...

In my opinion, waiting for a month so as to avoid the distribution with an expected distribution of around 0.5% only is overdoing the whole aspect of tax-efficient investing and the timing of the purc ...

Do I have to wait for the wash sale thing if I sell the Large-Cap ETF and purchase either the 500 Index or Total Stock Market Index?
No.
One would only have to wait 30 days if you wanted to buy the ...

The new question is should I sell before the ETF distribution or after? I tried to look at the FAQ, but couldn't figure out which would apply if you are trying to "maximize" your loss and m ...

1105.37, hit intraday 11/11/2009. In other words, I am betting that we will see 0.85*1105.37=939.56 before we see 1105.38**.

- DDB

** I actually don't have any opinion on this poll, but it's al ...

.
To summarize what Mordoch and others have said - from transcript for “About Vanguard” given by F. William McNabb III:

“. . .
That's why Vanguard has always been organized differentl ...

With all that said, is iShare ACWX something which can be compared to VEU?
Either one contains fairly high volume stocks (e.g. no small cap), so I am not sure that diversification away from Vanguard ...

For some reason, I am a bit hesitant in putting 100% of money in vanguard. I completely understand that even if Vanguard goes bankrupt, money is safe. But then, sometimes when your heart says, somethi ...

Gary Klein, a psychologist at Applied Research Associates, of Albuquerque, N.M., recommends imagining that you have looked into a crystal ball and have seen that your investment has gone bust. Next, ...

Do you have the Larry Swedroe quote to hand? I'm a fan of Larry's as well. I think in one of his books he said the sweet spot for munis was somewhat further out than for treasuries/corporates.
http:/ ...

Sort of a tangential issue, but exactly what ratio are they converting
mutual fund shares to ETF shares at ? In other words, VTSAX (Admiral
share of TSM) trades at abut 27, VTI (ETF share of TSM) ...

Sort of a tangential issue, but exactly what ratio are they converting
mutual fund shares to ETF shares at ? In other words, VTSAX (Admiral
share of TSM) trades at abut 27, VTI (ETF share of TSM) ...

Someone has to explain me some time why for example a low but not zero percent yield on a short or long term bond cannot go down anymore.
The net return can go down further, if the rate remains low a ...

It's hard to outguess the market. The fact that interest rates have to go up *sometime* should already be priced in.
That doesn't make sense to me, because it makes it sound like bond fund prices won ...

At least the availability of VSS reduces the likelihood that there will be enough of the open-end mutual fund shares to warrant a separate Admiral share class and all the associated extra costs for Va ...

fcalpine, tony, thanks for sharing! I was looking for something like that where quotes are updated automatically. Then all I need to do is change the number of shares as I contribute. How does this wo ...

We desperately need 20-year records.

Even better yet would be some kind of appropriately weighted measure... total internal rate of return for someone DCA-ing in equal amounts, perhaps.
I don't th ...

Hi,
I understand what I read on the new homeowners tax credit rules. I don't qualify for the "old" credit based on too high MAGI. However, under the new rules I believe I would qualify. M ...

I think it is because they came out with an ETF share class at the same time as the other share classes. There is no need for an admiral share class.

livesoft, thanks!

I guess there is no need ...

Does anyone know, why are there no Admiral Shares for FTSE ex-US? They have the corresponding ETF as well as signal and institutional shares. At an expense ratio difference of 0.40% for the investor ...

fcalpine, tony, thanks for sharing! I was looking for something like that where quotes are updated automatically. Then all I need to do is change the number of shares as I contribute. How does this wo ...

Any reason why Vanguard Munis aren't offered in ETF form?

The Vanguard funds aren't indexes, so they don't have a portfolio which can be created by an authorized participant for replication. There ...

Remember that the point of bonds is to preserve your capital for the long term (in real terms, which is why you bonds instead of cash).Alex, thanks for your comments! Okay, I am on the same page that ...

Just use the intermediate.
If you look at the contents of intermediate muni it's essentially a TBM for munis.

It has shorter and longer term durations and some lower grade credit quality. Just li ...

Muni bonds aren't that liquid. In addition to the premium/discount problem with muni bond etfs the other knock on them is they have to invest in only the most liquid bonds making them less diversifie ...

I can second number 16, particularly on the cheese part as more and more restaurants seem to make their waiters grate the cheese right onto your plate rather than brining it on a side dish:
16. If so ...

Just use the intermediate.
If you look at the contents of intermediate muni it's essentially a TBM for munis.

It has shorter and longer term durations and some lower grade credit quality. Just li ...

Why does Vanguard not have a Total Municipal Bond Market Fund similar to the Total Bond Market Fund with all sorts of maturities and maybe even a slightly wider span of credit qualities?

Or does an ...

By the way, has anyone ever used the Costo Auto Program (If you can pay cash for a new car, God bless you. But do yourself a favor, don't ask for a special deal, you may end up paying more. That's rig ...

Also, with regards to my time, I look at it like this: If I have to sit down and spend time on *any* trades each month, I might as well do all trades. So I'd only switch entirely to automatic funds if ...

If there's lots of people out there trading ETFs way too often, I benefit as an ETF buy-and-holder because they narrow the price spreads, and you benefit as a mutual fund owner because the ETF share c ...

I was surprised to find that Fidelity Spartan Advantage shares beat the ERs of similar Vanguard ETFs -- and they're contractual rates, not teaser crap. For instance:

Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF ...

Interesting discussion. I am also a big fan of simplicity and as such I would not buy more of VWO (or its equivalent mutual fund) to get an Emerging Market tilt. Rather I'd simply, purchase FTSE ex-US ...

I would recommend purchasing $20,000 worth of I-bonds in denominations of $1000

Why in denominations of $1,000? I thought one can make partial redemptions of I Bonds.

Aside from that, for someo ...

Use VLC, EZTV.it, and a torrent program
Would that get me in trouble?

Ignoring the question of the value of CEFs, let's get back to your original premise:it is often recommended that investors in retirement shift towards income- rather than growth-oriented investments. ...

Is this good?

Seems better than most CDs as well - and tax deferred.
In the 25% tax bracket the tax deferral after 25 years adds 21 bps to the annual rate.

How do you calculate this?

Don't know if this has been posted already. The new I-bond rate in effect from 11/09 - 5/10 will be:
0.30% fixed rate
1.53% inflation rate
-------
1.83% composite rate
Here's how the composite r ...

What do you all define as "Long-Term" as part of this discussion?

The Long-Term Tax-Exempt Fund has an effective duration of 7.3 years for example, while the Long-Term Bond Index, the Lo ...