Bogleheads.org

mega317

think "used" first. +1. I think of all baby stuff like Bogleheads think of cars. Buy used and use it until it's worthless. Anything new is a luxury. You can get a baby monitor for $200 or you can put a 3 dollar app on your phones. Strollers can be found in good condition very cheap on cra...

mega317

You have it backwards. VMMXX is the higher yield, VMFXX is the settlement fund. Anyway, the short answer is no there really isn't a good reason to leave money there, but again it depends on the dollars involved and the purpose. If you want to park a sizable amount like an emergency fund long-term th...

mega317

What's the benefit of doing that?

mega317

I don't have the numbers to back this up but I'm certain that (full price phone + 24 months service) > (subsidized phone + 24 months more expensive service). Regardless of how they pay Apple for the phones they must be making more money which is the only reason to change the system. Update to my cre...

mega317

If the constraint is that it must be an iPhone 7 your options are limited. You could finance it at 0% and spread the payments. If you've been paying your bill with credit some cards offer phone protection. I don't know the details.

mega317

Welcome to the forum! You're off to a great start and have made some good choices. 1. Yes, bonds have lower expected returns. I would argue that's what you want in your 401k; you'll get lower RMDs when the time comes. Bonds are less tax-efficient for taxable, capital gains are taxed more favorably, ...

mega317

In my area people have veggie gardens in the front yard. It can be done to look very nice. Is that an option?

mega317

$0.02. I am very happy with my CX-5. I believe it's the only one in this class without a CVT which I kind of enjoy although I'm sure I'd get used to it quickly. We're also happy with my wife's Forester although it feels bigger than it is, while the CX-5 drives more like a sedan. I thought the RAV4 a...

mega317

I've always wondered this: what if I put things in my cart, using my phone for example. Can I then use the BH link just to check out?

mega317

Do you think this is a feasible and effective strategy? I have no idea how to buy these things but if you do then sure, it's feasible to make 100 transactions once and then do nothing for 10 years. The question of effective leads directly to where you don't want to go. What do you mean by effective?

mega317

If this is more than can be handled by Quickpay/Venmo/Paypal, Option C is the only way I know to get the type of confirmation it sounds like you want. I would probably do that and send it UPS/FedEx overnight or whatever is their top-priority-most-important-VIP-treatment method. But then you either n...

mega317

Welcome to the forum. Thank you for spending time to create such a thorough post. Many of your questions can be answered in great detail by searching the wiki and old threads. I'm not one of the experienced people but I'll address some of them through my own lens. 1. No. It would be a mistake though...

mega317

What are your expenses? 4% withdrawal rate before the windfall is 100k a year. You have a paid off house, college taken care of. I agree with above, that you should take some time to think. But it seems to me like you could spend almost the entire inheritance on a house and retire tomorrow. I'm not ...

mega317

Cons of relying on a HELOC for your emergency money: economy goes south and home values drop and the bank cancels your HELOC around the time you lose your job, which is why you needed the emergency fund in the first place. which begs the question, why not just take out the entire amount of the HELO...

mega317

Those are money market funds. They are extremely safe, although money market funds have lost principle before, while the government has never reneged on FDIC. So technically the internet banks are safer. You mentioned Vanguard--if you have accounts there, the Prime Money Market fund VMMXX is now ove...

mega317

+1. No need for a separate account and I wouldn't do mental accounting either. You can use your taxable account for college, or retirement, or anything else. Are you maxing retirement contributions? Do you think there is a reasonable chance your child won't go to college? If so I wouldn't bother wit...

mega317

1. The plan is a good one (your explanation does make sense). I don't know enough about PRIMECAP to comment except to say I wouldn't hold it JUST because it's closed. With international in taxable you can take advantage of foreign tax credit. 2. Regarding the Roths, I understand the logic behind the...

mega317

A couple of things. You didn't account for IRA contributions in your expenses. I would definitely max 2 backdoor Roths. Also how did you calculate your tax of 70k? I come up with a little less. I would suggest you can probably afford it but it's not the right time for your family. You say "if&q...

mega317

[quote="miamivice"] because car accidents generally don't change insurance rates very much. (My experience is a big accident that I had as a new driver increased my insurance premium by $100 per six months). /quote] I don't have experience here but someone on another thread this week said ...

mega317

I would put it in all in Total International in my new Roth and adjust my allocation in the TSP and spouse's Roth to keep me at my 70/20/10 split. I wouldn't add a second fund in my Roth IRA until I had to, which might be never with the TSP presumably much larger and growing faster. Thanks Currentl...

mega317

Well of course if you ask should I spend X or more-than-X we're all going to say X. But I would like to ask how did you determine X. Why is "keeping my monthly housing costs in line with what I'm currently paying in rent" the least expensive option here? I'm asking because every time I mov...

mega317

Are you saying you won't have the 3k to buy VTSMX/VGTSX and you want to know what to do until you get there? How about an ETF? It probably doesn't matter that much but if you already have a 3-fund portfolio split across multiple accounts then a target fund will add a little more complexity to your s...

mega317

You could do a little of each and learn how they work and how they affect your taxes.

mega317

United2008 wrote:I am hesitant to invest significant amounts of additional capital into the market at current valuations outside of my regular investment plan.

I would incorporate it into my regular investment plan and it seems like your instincts might be telling you the same.

mega317

Welcome! I had to google ethereum and first hit says it dropped 25% today. So now you have more like 49k in savings. Is that what prompted this post? Anyway I'd start here https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting_started and click on all the links and videos along the way. It will take you at least a...

mega317

CABob wrote:
gasdoc wrote:Once you "subscribe," what happens then?

You will receive an email indicating there was a new post to that conversation.

You don't need emails either. There is a "notifications" icon at upper right with new posts.

mega317

Tax-equivalent yield = Tax free yield / (1-tax rate). So for you and VMSXX, TEY = 0.65/(1-.28) = 0.90. VMMXX is slightly better. And GS is slightly better than that. For the typical size emergency fund the difference is tens of dollars a year or less. I suppose it could be worth paying that premium ...

mega317

I'd say anyone who spent significant time and/or money on their job training took a big financial chance. What if they got to the end and hated the work?

mega317

What's your concern that makes you ask the question? I'd think it's only a problem if you are spending money you can't afford, or if you are concerned about e-waste.

jebmke wrote:for two adults...

... Three wireless printers

Wow!

mega317

I agree it's a fine plan. I'm wondering specifically why you don't want to sell stocks for this? You might be able to find 22k with a lower tax bill than the HELOC interest. But I guess at this point I'm worrying about hundredths of a percent of your assets.

mega317

I typed a few versions of a response and then realized I probably don't understand the question. Why are you asking? I'll give it a shot but this can't be you don't already know. 1. Not if you're going to use the money to improve your house soon and you can afford all this. Yes if you're going to le...

mega317

People have different decisions of "afford it". Some will say only if you can swing it on one income if one of you loses your job. At this point you probably can, but it gets really tough on half your salary. So I think job security is a factor. We just bought at a similar price to salary ...

mega317

I totally agree, but where do those smaller bills come from?

mega317

It sounds like you're definitely buying the 2018 and your question is what makes the most financial sense in the meantime. I think the clear answer is drive your current car until it truly dies, then rent until you buy the 2018. A rental for a few months would be cheaper than the depreciation plus t...

mega317

I want to say don't have kids. If money is no object and you're torn, you don't really want it. Whether to have kids or not shouldn't be that hard of a decision. You either know or you don't. I don't mean to pick on you, yours is just the most recent response of several similar ones (and I agree wi...

mega317

Does this imply that as that generation passes on and the median age decreases we can expect inflation? Is it that predictable and straightforward?

mega317

I decided a while back that I no longer like savings accounts. They pay very little interest and are taxed in my case at 28% + 5% =33%. So I now keep up to $10k in checking and the rest in VTSAX in my taxable investment account... I recently increased federal and state brackets and my taxable accou...

mega317

One thing to consider before rolling the 403b/457 into an IRA. If you have pre-tax money in a traditional IRA it will impact future backdoor Roth contributions. I'd probably just leave it in the current plans. (Or she might have a 403/457/401k at the new employer that will accept a rollover.) Questi...

mega317

I think it is more than notarized, I seem to remember needing multiple witnesses. I certainly don't have multiple friends who want to come to the bank with me, so I just have my wife's accounts all in one fund and then rebalance around that.

mega317

You can have someone put a camera through your main connection to the city system and see if the main needs replacement (root growing into it or something). THAT is a pain to replace, they have to dig up the whole yard. Not sure of the cost but it certainly looks expensive.

mega317

As far as I know some (or maybe all) California counties tax sales and property but not income/investments.
Also-not what you asked but do you not have tax-sheltered space to hold bonds?

mega317

I opened a Chase checking and savings account for a bonus this past weekend. The rep gave me an option to open without a debit card at all. You should probably be able to request the same thing as a current Chase checking account holder - no debit card at all. Some banks, like co360, also allow you...

mega317

Your options are limited within the stated parameters. Many people use online banks as mentioned. How much money are we talking about? It's usually not worth the effort to squeeze another 1% or less from your emergency fund.

mega317

Another factor is kids. Based solely on the word "family" I assumed you do have at least one. How old? If little I don't think I'd give up significant time with them. If they're older and doing their own thing on weekends I might be more likely to take the job. I realize this contradicts t...

mega317

I'm not clear about something. Current monthly info: Monthly gross: $11K Withholdings: $2,560 401K/mo: $1,500 Employee stock purchase plan (15% discount): $558 Non-housing expenses: $~5,100 (car payment, groceries, insurance, entertainment, etc.) Remainder after savings/expenses: $~1300 What are you...

mega317

I interview residency candidates and was typing the same thing while the last two posts went up. No one cares. What specialty? Maybe neuroradiologists care or something.
You didn't ask for other advice so I won't give it, but there are dozens of more important factors.

mega317

I created spending categories in the rows and used the columns for each month. This is what I do as well, but I don't spend as much time. Every couple of months I basically transcribe the numbers from our credit card statements into the spreadsheet. It takes maybe 30 minutes to do 3 months. I like ...

mega317

munemaker wrote:
mbk734 wrote:... it's a MasterCard so it's more widely accepted.

Are you saying MasterCard is more widely accepted than Visa? I always pictured them as being equally accepted.

That post was over a year ago. I think Fidelity's card became Visa recently.

mega317

What an interesting situation. If they could retire now and this is "spare money" and they don't care specifically what you do with it, I would just treat it like an inheritance and invest it according to my own AA. Keep track of the basis and then when/if they ask for it you can just tell...

mega317

SOP for a reason. First: all bonds in 403b. Next for me I put my desired ratio of US/International in all three of 403b/Roth/Taxable. Then I set automatic 403b contributions which are by far the largest to my US/int/bond ratio and don't think for a year. I don't think bonds in taxable help you with ...

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