This is a head spinning comment.
Search found 173 matches
- Thu Apr 19, 2018 8:57 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Wanting to leave Fidelity
- Replies: 79
- Views: 7200
Re: Wanting to leave Fidelity
- Sun Apr 08, 2018 8:14 pm
- Forum: Investing - Help with Personal Investments
- Topic: If you want an actively managed fund, which one would you use?
- Replies: 68
- Views: 3982
Re: If you want an actively managed fund, which one would you use?
I have Fidelity Contrafund (ER=0.43%) in my 401(k). About 10% with the rest in indexes. Its fee is about 53% of the total fee. Not sure why I chose it :?: , but "contra" somehow sounds some counter-weight. It has done well and interestingly it is the only one that shows gain :!: , +1.63%, YTD. DW's...
- Sun Apr 08, 2018 6:59 pm
- Forum: Investing - Help with Personal Investments
- Topic: Continue investing?
- Replies: 8
- Views: 1455
Re: Continue investing?
Thank you all for the responses :happy My portfolio is majority U.S. Stocks. (mostly large cap), followed by developed international stocks. I was advised to use the $6K to invest in emerging Int'l stock. However wouldn't it be better to split the $6K among other areas instead of just Int'l emergin...
- Sun Apr 08, 2018 9:38 am
- Forum: Investing - Help with Personal Investments
- Topic: If you want an actively managed fund, which one would you use?
- Replies: 68
- Views: 3982
Re: If you want an actively managed fund, which one would you use?
An excellent actively managed fund with good stable management.TwstdSista wrote: ↑Sun Apr 08, 2018 9:09 amFidelity Contrafund (FCNTX), ER 0.74%
This fund did very good for me for years. I recently sold it though, solely because I switched to a pure 3 fund portfolio.
DW has held FCNTX in her IRA for years along with Wellington.
- Fri Apr 06, 2018 6:35 pm
- Forum: Investing - Help with Personal Investments
- Topic: What should I sell?
- Replies: 19
- Views: 2162
Re: What should I sell?
You do realize your NHMAX is pulling something like a tax free 5.1% yield because of this: From Morningstar: The portfolio can be leveraged up to 30% using inverse floaters, and Miller occasionally uses futures to short U.S. Treasuries, which is a duration-hedging tool. These tools have given the fu...
- Fri Apr 06, 2018 6:24 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: How often do you replace your office shoes?
- Replies: 58
- Views: 3432
Re: How often do you replace your * laboratory * shoes?
when w@rking, I typically wore decent non-slip shoes in the lab; I had other shoes for general meeting shoes (black or brown) and had higher end when giving presentations/platform sessions in conferences ...and steel-toed shoes for the pilot plant wore through the lab shoes in usually two years but...
- Tue Apr 03, 2018 3:02 pm
- Forum: Investing - Help with Personal Investments
- Topic: Annuity w guaranteed 5-6% return [payout]?
- Replies: 50
- Views: 4423
Re: Annuity w guaranteed 5-6% return?
I just found that for 100k, a 61 yo woman in mn could receive a yearly income of $5724 . This is 5.724% of the 100k. No cola. I would argue for the first 17 1/2 years she is receiving her own money. The average life expectancy of a female in her sixties the USA is about 85 years. That doesn't work ...
- Fri Mar 30, 2018 9:40 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: When did you know your kids would go to college?
- Replies: 91
- Views: 4041
Re: When did you know your kids would go to college?
Lots of responses indicating their kids have no choice in the matter...I'm interpreting this to mean it is strongly encouraged. Pretty hard to force someone to do something they don't want to do. Our two daughters were raised with the expectation they would attend college. It was either college or ...
- Fri Mar 30, 2018 2:40 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Applying for Medicare - now or later?
- Replies: 20
- Views: 1602
Re: Applying for Medicare - now or later?
Get some advice before delaying Part B.
This may be of some help:
https://www.medicare.gov/your-medicare- ... nalty.html
This may be of some help:
https://www.medicare.gov/your-medicare- ... nalty.html
- Wed Mar 28, 2018 8:21 pm
- Forum: Investing - Help with Personal Investments
- Topic: How many are using Automatic contributions?
- Replies: 41
- Views: 2761
Re: How many are using Automatic contributions?
Before retirement we had automatic contributions for both the retirement accounts and the two taxable accounts. It kept us from over-thinking (market timing) our purchases. DCA rocks!
- Sat Mar 24, 2018 12:24 pm
- Forum: Investing - Help with Personal Investments
- Topic: Nice tax problem to have – Please Advise
- Replies: 14
- Views: 2663
Re: Nice tax problem to have – Please Advise
Yup it's a nice problem to have. In our case we had rental and taxable income from investments. Our goal was to pay 100% of the prior year's total taxes in order to avoid a penalty. To do this we bumped up our W-2 withholding and also paid quarterlies.
- Mon Mar 19, 2018 7:10 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: What is your favorite reasonably priced bourbon?
- Replies: 148
- Views: 12441
Re: What is your favorite reasonably priced bourbon?
Nothing wrong with their bourbon. Today my SIL, a bourbon snob had my daughter pickup two bottles of Kirkland's finest. If Costco is out of Buffalo Trace then Kirkland does the job.
- Mon Mar 19, 2018 4:58 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: What is your favorite reasonably priced bourbon?
- Replies: 148
- Views: 12441
Re: What is your favorite reasonably priced bourbon?
Knob Creek & Buffalo Trace, we look to see if they are in stock at Costco.
- Wed Feb 28, 2018 11:26 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Physical cash
- Replies: 121
- Views: 7871
Re: Physical cash
DW and I have maybe $40.00 in our wallet/purse gathering dust.
- Wed Feb 28, 2018 10:29 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: How much cash do you keep at any time on checking?
- Replies: 146
- Views: 9187
Re: How much cash do you keep at any time on checking?
We use cash back credit cards for almost all our purchases and have the accounts on autopay so we keep the monthly total cc balance plus an extra 3K as a buffer.
- Sun Feb 25, 2018 7:50 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Blasphemy... DO PEEK!
- Replies: 100
- Views: 9350
Re: Blasphemy... DO PEEK!
+1
We have been doing this too many years to get excited by the daily changes.
- Mon Feb 19, 2018 7:51 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Is window replacement this expensive?
- Replies: 27
- Views: 2473
Re: Is window replacement this expensive?
I am looking to replace 5 windows at my home (Seattle). - 3 windows are large (around 7 ft by 8ft). Each of these window will have 3 sashes (1 fixed picture and 2 open-able sashes) - 2 small windows (around 2 ft by 3 ft). both with two sashes each. I opted for all default options - low e glass, dou...
- Mon Feb 12, 2018 11:21 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: L.L. Bean, Citing Abuse, Tightens Its Generous Policy on Returns
- Replies: 41
- Views: 4615
Re: L.L. Bean, Citing Abuse, Tightens Its Generous Policy on Returns
Good for them. I've thrown out lots of worn out llbean clothes - when someone once told me I could turn them in for new clothes I told them that was ridiculous as I felt I got my money's worth out of them. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. Ditto and it helps me sleep well a...
- Wed Feb 07, 2018 3:39 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Are Banks Worthless [to invest equity in]?
- Replies: 32
- Views: 2908
Re: Are Banks Worthless?
miles monroe wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2018 3:08 pmthe ONLY reason i have a brick and mortar bank account is for the safe deposit box.
+1 and even then we use a credit union. We closed our Washington Mutual/Chase bank after we finished paying off our mortgage.
- Mon Feb 05, 2018 4:22 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Vanguard site is crashed now?
- Replies: 188
- Views: 15209
Re: Vanguard site is crashed now?
AZAttorney11 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 05, 2018 4:04 pmCouldn't access Vanguard, but no problems using Fidelity. Sigh...
Yup and this is the reason we maintain parallel accounts at both houses.
- Sun Feb 04, 2018 3:24 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: T-Mobile Coverage in Rural Areas
- Replies: 31
- Views: 1207
Re: T-Mobile Coverage in Rural Areas
We went from AT&T to the T-Mobile geezer plan and are happy with it. T-Mobile's unlimited cellular data has been a money saver. We haven't noticed any difference in the coverage area.
- Sat Feb 03, 2018 4:22 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: For BHs who actually like cars - [what car do you drive every day?]
- Replies: 280
- Views: 17616
Re: For BHs who actually like cars - what is your daily driver?
2008 Honda Accord with the 3.5 L VTEC engine. It's quiet, comfortable and almost as quick as my garage queen a 1994 Corvette coupe.
- Fri Feb 02, 2018 1:50 pm
- Forum: Investing - Help with Personal Investments
- Topic: What advice would you give yourself if you were 27 again?
- Replies: 120
- Views: 8041
Re: What advice would you give yourself if you were 27 again?
Ditto, married at 22 and still blissfully married to her some 45 years later.oldcomputerguy wrote: ↑Thu Feb 01, 2018 6:26 pmGuess I’m luckier than some; I married her at age 22, and am still happily married to the same woman at age 62.
- Thu Feb 01, 2018 6:15 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Sales tax deduction
- Replies: 7
- Views: 550
Re: Sales tax deduction
Another Washington resident. When we purchase a major item, say a new heat pump or a new car, our CPA adds the extra sales tax found on the invoice to his calculated amount. If you are remodeling then you should have a sizable sales tax deduction.



- Tue Jan 02, 2018 7:37 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: What are you up YTD? [Year To Date]
- Replies: 1821
- Views: 324983
Re: What are you up YTD? [Year To Date]
2017: +14.97% with AA 62/38 and a 10% international exposure.
- Fri Dec 29, 2017 3:16 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Investing in Vanguard funds via Fidelity
- Replies: 11
- Views: 1475
Re: Investing in Vanguard funds via Fidelity
We have a Fido account and buy and hold VG ETFs in our taxable account. The DW moved a her tIRA over to Fido which holds a slug Wellington and there has been zero problems. Her quarterly reinvested dividends show up at the same time Vanguard distributes the proceeds. Other than the trade fee, now at...
- Thu Nov 30, 2017 11:18 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: How your FA, insurance agent, your community reacts when you show your financial knowledge?
- Replies: 39
- Views: 4931
Re: How your FA, insurance agent, your community reacts when you show your financial knowledge?
When DW and I were young and dumb we let an insurance agent into our apartment. As he hit us with his spiel about WL I mentioned what a crappy, expensive deal his product was. He blew up and yelled something about me failing to provide for my wife if I were to die early. My DW said if I passed she'd...
- Thu Oct 19, 2017 6:40 pm
- Forum: Investing - Help with Personal Investments
- Topic: Need help with Trust
- Replies: 8
- Views: 638
Re: Need help with Trust
Are you the trustee or the successor trustee. Are you the only beneficiary of the trust?
Anyway, first things first; get a copy of the trust documents.
Anyway, first things first; get a copy of the trust documents.
- Thu Oct 12, 2017 5:10 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Tracing House Wiring
- Replies: 10
- Views: 1019
Re: Tracing House Wiring
I don't think there are any shortcuts, pretty much one at a time systematically. If you only need to find one, binary search might help a tiny bit. You can use another person and a walkie talkie, cell phone, intercom (some cordless phones have one) https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-KX-TG4742B-Answer...
- Thu Oct 05, 2017 6:26 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Driving from Boise to Missoula: Best Route?
- Replies: 11
- Views: 1047
Re: Driving from Boise to Missoula: Best Route?
Both my wife and I lived in Idaho and still have relatives there. Any road trip from Boise to Missoula will be an adventure. Please be aware of the elevations of the mountain passes. The weather changes quickly. Prepare according. Also from experience, if you are driving from dusk to dawn be on the ...
- Mon Oct 02, 2017 6:54 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: business owner, what is your income from business and how did you get into successfully business, what's your networth?
- Replies: 17
- Views: 2735
Re: business owner, what is your income from business and how did you get into successfully business, what's your networ
From our package delivery person we heard some of their drivers have a betting pool on how long new small businesses will last.investing1012 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 02, 2017 6:13 pmWell that’s because the majority of small business owners fail and they don’t post their bankruptcies on this forum![]()
- Mon Sep 25, 2017 9:47 pm
- Forum: Investing - Help with Personal Investments
- Topic: Investing in construction equipment rental business
- Replies: 15
- Views: 1144
Re: Investing in construction equipment rental business
Construction Equipment rental is a competitive business with many players. Before jumping in, you should look at the competition. A quick Google search turned up national companies such as Home Depot, Sunbelt rental, United rental, etc. What are you and your friend going to offer that they don't? W...
- Wed Sep 20, 2017 4:42 pm
- Forum: Investing - Help with Personal Investments
- Topic: 5-6 wks. for IRA transfer, (expletive deleted)
- Replies: 10
- Views: 1429
Re: 5-6 wks. for IRA transfer, (expletive deleted)
This is the amt. of time I was told to expect for an IRA transfer request. "It is easier to change a 'No' to a 'Yes' than the reverse." You are experiencing Marketing 101. It probably won't take that long. Always best to under promise and then over deliver. Vanguard quoted five to six weeks to move...
- Fri Sep 15, 2017 1:52 pm
- Forum: Investing - Help with Personal Investments
- Topic: Multiple Investment/Brokerage Accounts?
- Replies: 3
- Views: 473
Re: Multiple Investment/Brokerage Accounts?
My opinion is that you should have at least two main locations for assets, money holdings, etc. as a precaution against some temporary glitch in access to your assets. That could be anything from an IT fiasco, hacking, suspected fraud on your account, etc. Going beyond that seems unnecessary. It co...
- Mon Sep 11, 2017 10:30 pm
- Forum: Investing - Help with Personal Investments
- Topic: How does your business value adjust your risk tolerance?
- Replies: 3
- Views: 623
Re: How does your business value adjust your risk tolerance?
We owned a sucessful C-Corp privately held service business for thirty years and always valued it as a net zero in our net worth. Our investments were split 60/40. The rationale was the business at it's worst was worth the salvage value of the office furniture.
- Wed Sep 06, 2017 4:52 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: C Corp - Salary/Dividend ratio
- Replies: 13
- Views: 1235
Re: C Corp - Salary/Dividend ratio
That is the reason for the question. Dividend tax rates could prove to be lower for say 200K in net profit before salary, 100K in salary and get the rest in dividends after paying payroll, futa/suta, income-tax. Maybe 0% if taxable income is less than 75k if I understood correctly, assuming one can...
- Wed Sep 06, 2017 4:36 pm
- Forum: Investing - Help with Personal Investments
- Topic: Schwab, Fidelity, or Vanguard for taxable account?
- Replies: 21
- Views: 3930
Re: Schwab, Fidelity, or Vanguard for taxable account?
Both taxable and retirement are split between Fidelity and Vanguard.
- Wed Sep 06, 2017 4:11 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: C Corp - Salary/Dividend ratio
- Replies: 13
- Views: 1235
Re: C Corp - Salary/Dividend ratio
Had a C-Corp for about 27 years and I took a salary at the upper levels of range for managers in my industry and took the rest a dividends. I also personally owned the building the business occupied and set the rent at the upper level of the local prevailing rent. The rent/dividend question is indus...
- Wed Sep 06, 2017 1:38 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Name something you had to have and now you regret purchasing it?
- Replies: 376
- Views: 39897
Re: Name something you had to have and now you regret purchasing it?
Our trailer trailer. It is now on consignment at a local dealer. Live and learn.
- Tue Sep 05, 2017 9:37 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: How do you track expenses ?
- Replies: 58
- Views: 4535
Re: How do you track expenses ?
Apple's Numbers. We put maybe 90% of our spending on credit cards. Most of our expenses are reoccurring. Our income is fixed so we are basically running a monthly cash profit and loss.
- Tue Sep 05, 2017 6:31 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Got hit with a fee from td ameritrade on a transfer
- Replies: 23
- Views: 3147
Re: Got hit with a fee from td ameritrade on a transfer
Leave a few dollars in a dormant account for 5 years, and then begrudge the brokerage for their small transfer fee. The sign of an extreme Boglehead. :oops: I agree. Not only was this an extremely unprofitable account. An account closing/transfer fee is the norm for the industry not withstanding Va...
- Tue Sep 05, 2017 10:44 am
- Forum: Investing - Help with Personal Investments
- Topic: Vanguard Brokerage missing $ again
- Replies: 19
- Views: 3270
- Wed Aug 30, 2017 5:42 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Learning from loss
- Replies: 23
- Views: 3095
Re: Learning from loss
During the 90's we had our one and only advisor. He had too much our money concentrated in the Munder NetNet B fund. That fund went sky high until it didn't We were caught when the bubble popped. We were lucky to get out with a small profit. We weren't his only victims; other clients were far less l...
- Fri Aug 25, 2017 1:39 pm
- Forum: Investing - Help with Personal Investments
- Topic: I need some fidelity bond action! FIBAX or FSITX ?
- Replies: 9
- Views: 1471
Re: I need some fidelity bond action! FIBAX or FSITX ?
Use FSITX at Fidelity and BND with a touch of VCIT at VG.
- Thu Aug 03, 2017 9:56 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Study: Who Sold Stock During the 2008-9 Crash?
- Replies: 85
- Views: 8592
Re: Study: Who Sold Stock During the 2008-9 Crash?
To us it was a hair on fire buying opportunity.
- Tue Aug 01, 2017 10:10 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Why is it hard to beat the market?
- Replies: 45
- Views: 4016
Re: Why is it hard to beat the market?
A mutual fund manager would be in the investing hall of fame if they could beat a comparable index fund by 1% a year over the long term. They also do stock picking as their full time job and have staff to help them. Thinking that you might be the market by a significant percent when you only spend ...
- Sun Jul 30, 2017 12:38 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: New 2018 Honda Odyssey Problem - Need Advice
- Replies: 41
- Views: 10961
Re: New 2018 Honda Odyssey Problem - Need Advice
It's a bit late for this suggestion now, but for others... DRIVE the car, the exact model, you are considering buying. Drive it for an extended time, not just 10 minutes around the dealership. Take it on bumpy roads, fast highways, etc., for a few hours. Also keep in mind that if one is driving dem...
- Wed Jul 26, 2017 10:10 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Should you wait until the due date to pay credit card balance?
- Replies: 126
- Views: 10208
Re: Should you wait until the due date to pay credit card balance?
Three credit cards. One, Fidelity Visa is on auto pay the other two I manually schedule the payment two days before the due date. I put everything on the cards which sometimes gives us a larger balance which may or may not affect our credit score. We don't worry because those days are behind us. It'...
- Mon Jul 17, 2017 9:46 am
- Forum: Investing - Help with Personal Investments
- Topic: VWINX a 1-Stop Shop? [Vanguard Wellesley]
- Replies: 51
- Views: 12477
Re: VWINX a 1-Stop Shop? [Vanguard Wellesley]
We have VWINX happy with it. A more "Boglesque" similar fund (or "Sharpesque") might be Life Strategy Moderate Growth VSMGX, which is total market index. Believe performance is a notch above VWINX. In Fidelity I use PONDX as a surrogate which seems to match VWINX Given VWINX is basically 40 : 60 wo...
- Sun Jul 16, 2017 6:40 pm
- Forum: Investing - Help with Personal Investments
- Topic: Transferred Roth from NWM to Fidelity, now what?
- Replies: 14
- Views: 1192
Re: Transferred Roth from NWM to Fidelity, now what?
A Fidelity site search for "FIDELITY FREEDOM" will return a list of their target date funds. Don't consider the Fidelity Freedom Funds. They have higher expense ratios. Consider only the Fidelity Freedom Index Funds. They have lower expense ratios. Yup, Fido has about 33 target dated funds of which...