Bogleheads.org

bikechuck

We are moving from our home of 30 years to a patio home and my wife says our 40 year old bedroom furniture in our master bedroom is not coming with. I am not battling her on this, what we have is pretty beat up and not worth attempting to salvage, we will donate it if we can find someone who will ac...

bikechuck

Am I crazy? Yes, Rather than making an interest free loan to Uncle Sam consider investing this money in a no penalty cd with Ally or building a CD ladder with CDs of your choice of a duration that makes sense to you depending on your need to access the funds. Sit back, relax and build some wealth w...

bikechuck

Wow. This confirms my suspicion that there is more risk in bonds than what is commonly perceived. I remember posting about this and getting poo-pooed. This makes me feel fortunate to have worked for a company that offered TIAA traditional (a variable annuity which I have not annuitized) and which I...

bikechuck

In my opinion, it is much better to have everything in a single, strong, low-cost mutual fund company than spreading investments around. I listed the risks and advantages in this earlier post: What Are The Risks (and advantages) of Investing in One Fund Company Best wishes. Taylor There are very fe...

bikechuck

I have some money in TIAA from earlier in my career amounting to approx 1/5 of my retirement portfolio. I have it mostly invested in traditional where half is earning 4% and the other half 3.75%. I feel fortunate to have this and I am using it as a portion of my fixed income investments as I feel it...

bikechuck

My wife's retirement funds are with Schwab and we plan to keep them there. I would never consider keeping all of our investments with a single provider. Too much risk these days as any business can be hacked. If your investment firm was hacked it might eventually get sorted out and you might and pro...

bikechuck

as an fyi, just finished first draft of Your Complete Guide to a Safe and Secure Retirement, it will cover the broadest array of topics of any retirement book to date. Hopefully will get out around year end Larry Thanks so much for posting this, I will order it and read it when it is released. Ther...

bikechuck

It was from the GE Profile series with I believe 500 cfm capability at the highest setting. Which as you say, sounds like a leaf blower but fortunately it comes with four different speeds and we rarely use above level 2 which is pretty quiet and does a good job removing smells and heat. As to your ...

bikechuck

FraggleRock wrote: ↑
Tue Apr 03, 2018 8:28 pm
Walk away.
Find another house and builder.

Walking away would cost us $5,000 at this point which is more painful than the $800 to vent the gosh darn thing.

bikechuck

A dedicated exhaust fan (no microwave) above a stove and vented to the outside via a good duct system can't be beat for smoke, fish odors, etc, etc. Recirculating it only passes the air through grease filters but the smell remains. Install a microwave elsewhere for better accessibility, longevity (...

bikechuck

There will be a microwave above the cook top and we have two choices 1) Vent to the outside and pay $800 to do so 2) Recirculate the air after passing it through a filter This is not a custom home, there are only these two choices and the price cannot be negotiated. What say you Bogleheads, is it wo...

bikechuck

Just curious but isn't a valid move sufficient reason to terminate the contract without penalty? [/quote] Unfortunately I do not think so and worse still I will need to pay for a new dish and a new installation at the new place, those costs were absorbed by Direct TV for the initial service. That s...

bikechuck

My wife and I HATE Direct TV, unfortunately we signed on to a two year contract. We happen to be moving this Oct and at that time we will have less than 12 mos remaining. At that time I will contact other providers to see if anyone would be willing to buy us out in exchange for changing services. Wh...

bikechuck

These are difficult choices. My wife and I helped until it hurt while our two daughters were in college and then had each of them borrow some money. My thought was that if we were both employed after they graduated we could help them pay off their loans. We did stay employed while they were in schoo...

bikechuck

You didn’t pay tax on putting it in so as long as the RMD doesn’t boost you into a higher bracket in retirement, you came out ahead. If she’s working and taking RMD/SS it may be worse (high bracket with salary too) than a 401k Roth would’ve been. While I agree that this is true re the amounts that ...

bikechuck

I have $3500 to invest for baby. My 1st choice is VTSAX. But since I don't have $10k, it's out of the question. I also want to separate it from my own VTSAX. So ETF comes to mind. I read that mutual fund is preferred over ETF because of bid-ask spread but you can invest in mutual fund and then conv...

bikechuck

I have $3500 to invest for baby. My 1st choice is VTSAX. But since I don't have $10k, it's out of the question. I also want to separate it from my own VTSAX. So ETF comes to mind. I read that mutual fund is preferred over ETF because of bid-ask spread but you can invest in mutual fund and then conv...

bikechuck

I'm back testing using portfolio visualizer and VTSAX with bonds (such as 80% VTSAX, 20% total bond) beats anything I throw at it. Is a 2-fund portfolio actually the best thing to do? Using tickers: https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-portfolio Using asset classes: https://www.portfoliovis...

bikechuck

Response time must be vary depending on traffic. I have always been surprised by the low wait times and good service that I have experienced with Vanguard compared to my other financial services providers.

bikechuck

That's what I was thinking about lately. Since you're getting a guaranteed 8% return waiting on SS. You could theoretically withdraw more than 4% until then no? Define guaranteed ... I am not so sure about this guarantee given the financial shakiness of the system and the lack of political will to ...

bikechuck

My wife and I are spending principal in our first year of retirement. We are upsizing from our very small house of 26 years to a mid sized condo that is more expensive and in a better neighborhood. Wre will likely spend some in year two as well. Once we begin taking Social Security in year 3 we will...

bikechuck

why did they close your accounts? Per their T&C they can close without explaining why. Have you calculated whether you lost any money? Markets might be down from where they sold your positions. Right now it is down, but that may change by the time it gets over to TDAM. Likely was some minor MS on a...

bikechuck

Recently I applied for Medicare and I received and promptly laminated my cardboard medicare card. I am told that I might have violated prohibitions against laminating social security and/or medicare cards. Does anyone know how many years I am looking at? I am told that there is no reduction in sente...

bikechuck

Not all annuities are evil. I have a fixed annuity (not annuitized) that pays a guaranteed minimum 4.5%. I can add or withdraw funds without penalties.

It is a great bond fund substitue.

bikechuck

I would like to sell my house and purchase a condo. I was wondering if developers ever negotiate price on new developments or if it is pretty much take it or leave it pricing. The place I am looking is approx 70% sold so I doubt if there is much wiggle room but I do not want to be a chump.

bikechuck

I have a basic question from a new member (joined in January). I’ve read the threads on the forum, but I’d like to hear it from the man himself. What strategies would you use to avoid the sequence of returns risk? Thank you, Andy Great question. I would like to hear the answer to that. Will be inte...

bikechuck

The first line of defense against all of this is to be an educated investor. The second line of defense is to invest primarily or soley in low cost index funds. The third line of defense is to avoid market timing. In other words follow the Boglehead approach to investing. Sadly, most people are not ...

bikechuck

Mel, thanks for posting this, I enjoyed the podcast. While I'm at it I would also like to say thank you for all off the time and erffort that you spend on the Boglehead community

bikechuck

Nothing beats an odyssey for hauling bikes inside. Not even a full sized SUV. Agree, I love my Odyssey for hauling bikes especially on vacation. They are protected from the elements and more secure when stopping to shop or overnight at a motel. I also like that I can roll my tandem in without remov...

bikechuck

I have a small 401K from a former employer that I am using to hold a portion of my fixed income investments. Through this 401K I have access to a guaranteed income fund currently paying 1.75%. The 1.75% rate is low and I have not been using it extensively. However, given my expectation that interes...

bikechuck

baseballbogle.....I have bought a brand new car exactly once in my life. I will not do it again. FWIW, I would buy a Toyota, two years old with low mileage. And be sure that you either pay in cash, or you can pay off the loan within a year. Just my 2 cents. I have purchased both new and used cars i...

bikechuck

I called today and asked for help executing a transaction that I had not previously done on my own. I had them on speaker phone so I could do this myself as they talked me through it. My wait time was zero. The Vanguard rep was polite, helpful and knowlegable. My wife listened in and commented about...

bikechuck

I have a small 401K from a former employer that I am using to hold a portion of my fixed income investments. Through this 401K I have access to a guaranteed income fund currently paying 1.75%. The 1.75% rate is low and I have not been using it extensively. However, given my expectation that interest...

bikechuck

I follow Vanguards recommendation to diversify at 40% international. They know more than me. https://investor.vanguard.com/investing/investment/international-investing They know more than me too, but so do Jack Bogle and Warren Buffet. There are smarter people than me on all sides of this issue. I ...

bikechuck

Not much advantage to meeting with your TIAA advisor, in my opinion. One question to understand is whether you have any TIAA Traditional in a restricted account. Do you? Also, it might work better rolling your entire TIAA balance to a Roth IRA at TIAA first. Then do a simpler transfer of the Roth I...

bikechuck

Totally wish we had installed an instahot water tap for tea. We make tea all the time. This was by far the most favorite feature of our kitchen remodel. Also love our pullouts in our pantry.as a first runner up. Hillview you might be able to add the instant hot water tap after the fact. I don't thi...

bikechuck

I am in a similar situation as I will turn 66 in June of 2019 and my wife turns 65 in July of 2019. Our current plan is for her to take her bernerfit in May of 2019 and for me to file for a restricted application in June of 2019. I will then wait until I am 70 to file for my benefit. However if the ...

bikechuck

I have two Hondas which I bought at two different dealerships, I will not use dealership A for anything due to all of the negative posts in this thread. I do like dealership B as they match coupons, do excellent work and do little to no suggestive selling. I would use a local mechanic but I have not...

bikechuck

I have some money with TIAA from a former employer's 403 b plan. I left the funds with them and have them in traditional. One chunck is earning 4% and another 3.5%. The 4% chunk is subject to a ten year withdrawal period but the 3.5% chunk is not. I also own some TIAA Real Estate in an IRA. I am hap...

bikechuck

For emergency funds I like Ally 11 month no penalty CDs. They had a nice rate of 1.75 percent for a while and I was fortunate to purchase them at that time. I might need to renew them at a lower rate but I will likely continue using them for my emergency funds.

bikechuck

I have my credit frozen with the three major credit bureaus, Chex Systems and Innovis. Today I received a letter from Experian that has me concerned for two reasons 1) It has my name spelled wrong though it has been spelled properly on their web site and in all past interactions 2) The letter says t...

bikechuck

Tressider seems like a bright guy. I have visited his web site often and he could very well be right in his analysis. As a 2017 retiree his writing confirms that I want to stay at 50/50 for now. It also makes me wonder if I should use more cds and dial back on the bonds a bit. Tressider is a good wr...

bikechuck

I commute 40 miles to work every day. It is worth it for my boyfriend and I because we carpool (we work at the same place) in his Prius most days. It's also worth it for us because the cost of living is much, much cheaper in our small town compared to the larger town we work in. Some days the drive...

bikechuck

Or you could TLH and, if taxable bonds are appropriate for you, exchange for another intermediate term fund. It's exactly the same amount of work as putting it in the sweep account and then you can leave it there beyond 30 days if you get busy or something. And you might end up with more losses to ...

bikechuck

Thanks for starting the thread. I am retiring January 2018. I will be 61, my husband has just retired, and he will be eligible for Medicare. I had some second thoughts due to the recent uncertainty about the individual health insurance market, but decided to go for it. A bit hard to lose employer p...

bikechuck

Recently, after retiring, I took a total distribution from a 401K with a former employer. I funneled my investment in stock and bond funds into an IRA and I funneled some company stock into a taxable brokerage account which enables me to take advantage of NUA (net realized appreciation) rules. I wi...

bikechuck

Recently, after retiring, I took a total distribution from a 401K with a former employer. I funneled my investment in stock and bond funds into an IRA and I funneled some company stock into a taxable brokerage account which enables me to take advantage of NUA (net realized appreciation) rules. I wil...

bikechuck

Spell out the acronyms in your posts! Yes, I know how to look them up in a wiki. Yes, I know how to google them. But why should I have to do that???? Many times I just give up and move on to the next post. i think that it is polite to spell out acronyms, it takes the poster a couple of extra second...

bikechuck

Before completing any real estate transaction you must first pass through the Valley Of The Shadow Of Doubt. That said, do pay attention to whatever your attorney(s) is saying that is putting them in conflict with your Real Estate agent and do pay attention to the inspector. A good lesson is that al...

bikechuck

This scares the BEJESUS out of me.

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