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Afty

We flew to Thailand last year and had a similar decision to make. We just couldn't justify flying business class. The amount it would have cost for all of us would pay for a pretty decent new car!

Afty

The market may never be lower than it is now, or not lower enough to trigger you to buy, or it might be too long for you to wait and you'll end up buying in at high prices. People have been waiting for a crash for years now, but it still hasn't happened.

Afty

+1 on Givewell.org. I really like their idea of effective altruism.

Afty

I have a financial advisor. But at least he's through Vanguard PAS.

Afty

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Boglehe ... the_market

Afty

This “lead engineer” role sounds like what we call a “ tech lead ” in software development. Typically this role is a stepping stone to a larger role, either in management or as a tech lead for a larger team or multiple teams. Typically you’d drop some of your day-to-day work to allow you to take on ...

Afty

One possibility that no one else has mentioned is a Nonqualified Deferred Compensation plan. Some companies offer this option where you defer some of your salary/bonus to a future year. If you will have a lower tax rate in a future year (e.g. if you are retiring soon), then this could save you money...

Afty

Here is a classic Bogleheads thread about using leverage. The OP attempts to apply a strategy from a Nobel Laureate and ends up totally wiped out. Let it serve as a cautionary tale.

viewtopic.php?t=5934

Afty

I posted earlier in this thread that I was considering taking a 2 month leave this summer to travel with my kids. Well, today is my last day of work until August. I scaled back our travel plans to stay inside the U.S., and I added a trip with just me and my 8 year old as avalpert suggested. My kids ...

Afty

I’m curious about OP's interest in an MBA but disinterest in management. Isn’t management the end goal for people with MBAs?

Afty

As I've said multiple times, he can go to law school and spend the rest of his life publishing law review articles. Do you really think this is plausible? I'm just curious. One would be hard pressed to do this in other academic areas unless you wanted to fund your own research. I get that law revie...

Afty

Another place where this can bite you is if your child receives a scholarship and doesn't need the 529 funds. You are allowed to withdraw the scholarship amount from the 529 without penalty, but you pay income tax on the gains. If the gain is large (as you'd hope from superfunding) and your tax brac...

Afty

You could consider a home warranty. I suspect this would be covered BUT they might put a 'lifetime cap' or similar language on it. Mine covered my water softener once, but i don't think it would cover a new one should that occur. My home warranty company refused to replace my water heater that wasn...

Afty

Have you considered doing some kind of PhD instead? Since they are usually funded (free tuition + $25kish stipend), it won't cost you $200k like a law degree would, and you'd still have a path to becoming a professor at the end. You mentioned that you like work that "doesn't wake [you] up in the mid...

Afty

I wonder whether OP's mortgage was originally for much more, and they paid off most of it using the inheritance, or if they received the inheritance first and used it for a downpayment. If it's the former, they may be feeling squeezed by large mortgage payments that will disappear pretty soon. They ...

Afty

I work in this field and people with clinical experience are immensely important for developing these systems correctly. Your medical expertise will be highly valuable to tech/medical/pharma companies. But businesses are run using teams so your role in tech would most likely be "clinical/medical ad...

Afty

I currently work in HR for a megacorp and have worked for other megacops as well in HR. The process has always been that an HR or Compensation person comes up with a salary amount and then has to get it approved by the hiring manager and typically that managers boss as well. If the hiring manager t...

Afty

RDB wrote: ↑
Wed May 30, 2018 1:28 pm
She used to be one of my wife’s best friends.

I ask because people involved in MLM have an incentive to exaggerate their earnings to draw in new people. I would be skeptical of anything they told me about their income.

Afty

RDB wrote: ↑
Wed May 30, 2018 12:05 pm
I do know someone who makes ~400k per year as a beach body coach.

How do you know they make $400k as a BeachBody coach?

Afty

Never used a formal budget. But I'm an oddball in the boglehead group because I have never subscribed to the "pay yourself first" theory. I have always lived the life I wanted to live, and if I have extra at the end of the month then I save it. I also use this system -- we spend whatever we are goi...

Afty

I use an iPad and an Android phone. No issues. There are iPad versions of all the apps you mentioned.

Honestly the iPad is a much better device than any of the Nexus tablets. Multitasking in particular is much better on the iPad. You can run apps side by side, drag and drop, etc.

Afty

My understanding of deferred compensation plans is that they only make sense if you plan to retire soon, or have some low-income years coming up. Is that correct?

Afty

You could contribute to an HSA, if you aren't currently.

Afty

Bookmarking this thread for "U.S. stocks in freefall" potential.

Afty

Do a ton of people really rent horrible little apartments/homes that they don't really want to live in? That seems very counter-intuitive. We did, for many years. "Horrible" is an overstatement though, more like the houses we rented were not ones we would buy. The first one was poorly built but in ...

Afty

Where are all these jobs that let you wear jeans? :confused I would love to wear my Wal-Mart Wranglers all day everyday. (I even sleep in them occasionally.) Apparently I missed the Life mini-lotto... Software development. All this talk of suits and "wear what your boss's boss wears" makes me laugh...

Afty

Where are all these jobs that let you wear jeans? :confused I would love to wear my Wal-Mart Wranglers all day everyday. (I even sleep in them occasionally.) Apparently I missed the Life mini-lotto... Software development. All this talk of suits and "wear what your boss's boss wears" makes me laugh...

Afty

If you want to be ultra-safe with Keepass, you can always cut and paste the old password into the Notes area before generating a new password, and then save Keepass with both passwords before changing the password on whatever site you are using (e.g. Gmail). I don't do that for every site but I hav...

Afty

Mostly true! You will pay taxes on the prevailing interest rate. Assume that you take 100k loan and prevailing rate is 2%, 2k will be added to your W-2. How do we know, we have a similar loan (it is forgiven after n years) and we are paying taxes on the interest. No free lunches :( Yup, same here. ...

Afty

Which one is higher on average? Surgeon salary vs owning a business salary/profit? I am wondering if a surgeon salary + benefits almost always comes out ahead of starting your own business. I am ~25y/o and am pursuing the medical school/surgeon track but am just wondering who produces more money an...

Afty

So to clarify, you would owe no payments until year 10 for the 175k loan and no payments for 30 years for the $450k loan? Correct :greedy :sharebeer :sharebeer :greedy Mostly true! You will pay taxes on the prevailing interest rate. Assume that you take 100k loan and prevailing rate is 2%, 2k will ...

Afty

I would look at what colleges the top students from the associated high schools attend, and decide based on that. If they are not sending any kids to "elite" colleges, that will make it harder for your kids (assuming that's a realistic goal for them). Not impossible, but harder.

Afty

I wonder if he actually lives far away and is using your address to establish residency? e.g. to register his kids for school, qualify for some resident discount, etc.

Afty

> my wife and I make over 900K per year So you can do whatever you want. High earners are often very ambitious for kids, want them to get into Harvard or wherever, and will do anything that might get them a leg up. The downside, I suppose, is that kids might grow up feeling superior, or might turn ...

Afty

It seems to me this is also setting up your kids for hard choices later. They can stay in an extremely high HCOL where they grew up with family and friends or move to a lower COL. I’ve noticed that young adults in high HCOLs seem to put off marriage and having kids until later given student loan de...

Afty

If you are committed to staying here long term, I would not rent and "wait for the crash." I don't think the strategy of waiting for a crash is any more applicable to housing than it is to the stock market, for the same reasons -- what if the crash never comes? And how will you know when the crash i...

Afty

Don’t take this the wrong way, but if neither of you are in tech, I would strongly consider moving somewhere else. You should be able to earn comparable money in areas with much lower cost of living, where you could actually afford a house, a really nice one. I’m a software engineer married to an at...

Afty

I'm sorry, I wasn't aware that Treasuries were not subject to state income tax, but that does seem to be the case. Vanguard provides this document showing how much of the income from various bond funds come from "U.S. government obligations": https://personal.vanguard.com/pdf/USGO_012016.pdf I think...

Afty

This sounds like "brushing": https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/201 ... es-fakery/

Afty

Is this the fund you're referring to? https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundIntExt=INT&FundId=0035&funds_disable_redirect=true I don't think this fund is exempt from CA state income tax. This one is exempt from CA state tax: https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0100&F...

Afty

For context, I am a first line manager at a tech megacorp. I am in a role we call "Tech Lead/Manager" where I am both the technical lead and the manager of a small team. I have found myself near the bottom of the totem pole in the department despite my years of experience (and being told by many man...

Afty

I love my 5.1 system, but my wife doesn't really care. I think she would be happy with the built-in TV speakers. She's just not picky about sound quality.

I wonder if there is some other thread on Bogleheads where she is complaining about my profligate spending on a silly sound system.

Afty

Our local Cinemark theater has also switched to the motorized recliners and assigned seating. They are fantastic.

Afty

If you lump sum and the market drops 10%, you've lost 10%. If you've been invested for decades and the market drops 10%, you've lost 10%. The loss is the same. The second doesn't FEEL as bad, but it is. Its not the same loss. If you were invested for decades your average price could be lower than t...

Afty

If your system is difficult to use then its not setup right. The only extra button I have to push is to turn the receiver on and now just control the volume on the receiver remote. I could probably program the receiver remote to turn the TV on but haven't gotten around to it. If your TV and receive...

Afty

OP is renting a house at well under market rate. The best strategy for him is probably to continue renting. If he saves/invests the difference between his rent and what his PITI would be if he bought a similar house, he'll be well prepared to buy if his landlord decides to alter the deal down the ro...

Afty

But more important, especially for someone not used to riding, is learning how to safely ride a bike in more densely populated areas. This site is a pretty good starting point: https://lifehacker.com/the-practical-guide-to-biking-in-the-city-1748424313 Most importantly: don't ride on sidewalks -- e...

Afty

I find it odd that a 42 year old woman would ask her grandmother for $100. What middle-aged adult would even think to do that? If it were a question of the grandma wanting to gift the $100 unprompted, then it’s a different discussion.

Afty

If your system is difficult to use then its not setup right. The only extra button I have to push is to turn the receiver on and now just control the volume on the receiver remote. I could probably program the receiver remote to turn the TV on but haven't gotten around to it. If your TV and receive...

Afty

Sony does not have a good reputation for speakers. For speakers, go with a company that only makes speakers (i.e., avoid those that also make tvs or receivers), with the notable exception of Pioneer Andrew Jones series. +1 on the Pioneer Andrew Jones speakers. I have a 5.1 set and they are amazing,...

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