I've been meditating for years, 20 minutes every morning immediately upon waking using the Headspace app. I've found the experience enormously beneficial, both for stress reduction as well as general well-being.
I was forced to stop meditating around a year ago as I didn't have the time with an infant in the house, and I immediately noticed the difference. I was more irritable, less focused, and my anxiety levels were higher. Since I've resumed meditating, I've returned to my usual calm self.
Search found 30 matches
- Sat Nov 11, 2017 4:26 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Do you meditate?
- Replies: 142
- Views: 19231
- Wed Nov 08, 2017 10:31 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Interviewing at a former employer, should I give them my current salary when they ask?
- Replies: 94
- Views: 9763
Re: Interviewing at a former employer, should I give them my current salary when they ask?
To me, it always seems wise to avoid disclosing your previous salary when interviewing. Employers will adjust down their offer to just over your previous salary far more often than they'll adjust upwards. If needed, a simple honest "that isn't competitive with my previous salary" can be used when negotiating.
- Fri Oct 20, 2017 1:06 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Mercedes Benz E300 Navigation System
- Replies: 35
- Views: 5522
Re: Mercedes Benz E300 Navigation System
How is the E300 otherwise? Thank you for any thoughts you may have. I think it's a fantastic car. I went through a lengthy car search a little over a year ago and chose the E300 over the Audi A6, Lexus GS350, and Tesla Model S. Pros: 1. Safety: This was very high on my list of priorities. I think the E300 is one of the safest cars on the road. The blind-spot detection, rear-view camera, lane-keep assist and other safety features are implemented flawlessly. They're intuitive and helpful without being overbearing.I know many cars have these features these days, but the implementation in the E300 outclasses every other car I've experienced. I pull into a tight garage spot every day with ease. Besides the accident avoidance features, the crash...
- Fri Oct 20, 2017 11:59 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Mercedes Benz E300 Navigation System
- Replies: 35
- Views: 5522
Re: Mercedes Benz E300 Navigation System
I have a 2017 E300 and the navigation system is really disappointing (one of my only complaints about the car which I love). We had an issue where it directed us to a different street of the same name in the city despite us entering the address correctly (it directed us to W Elm instead of E Elm for instance).
It's also slow and cumbersome. BMW's navigation system is much more impressive.
It's also slow and cumbersome. BMW's navigation system is much more impressive.
- Wed Oct 11, 2017 8:32 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Major home maintenance vs return on investment
- Replies: 7
- Views: 1399
Re: Major home maintenance vs return on investment
Did any issues come up in the inspection you got before you bought the house?
- Mon Oct 02, 2017 10:42 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: $10 million+ - Still Working and LBYM
- Replies: 162
- Views: 24115
Re: $10 million+ - Still Working and LBYM
My wife and I recently crossed the $10 million level and we both work (me full-time, wife part-time) and have no plans to stop. We're both young (31) and like what we do, so that certainly helps. 1. In terms of spending, our spending has gradually ramped up to match our rise in income, but we've done it on a sort of lag basis (we only increased our spending after a few years of our increased incomes). We still LBYM by a good margin which isn't terribly difficult on a high income. I don't really track spending that closely, but my guess is we spend somewhere between 400k-500k per year. 2. We probably couldn't live forever on our current assets at our current rate of spending, but could easily pare down our expenses to do so if needed. 3. Our...
- Mon Sep 25, 2017 2:37 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: fat-finger trades
- Replies: 12
- Views: 1914
Re: fat-finger trades
There is a process for overturning clearly erroneous trades. It's not exact, but there are some guidelines that the exchanges use to determine whether trades are going to be reversed (they look at the price history surrounding the time in question, the liquidity of the order book, time of day, price of the erroneous trades, etc.).
In terms of practical steps to take to ensure you're not the victim of a fat finger trade, avoid market orders in illiquid securities and you should be fine.
In terms of practical steps to take to ensure you're not the victim of a fat finger trade, avoid market orders in illiquid securities and you should be fine.
- Fri Sep 22, 2017 4:24 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: IOS 11: Anybody using it yet?
- Replies: 48
- Views: 6338
Re: IOS 11: Anybody using it yet?
I’m using it now, everything feels faster and more responsive. I can’t remember such a noticeable performance boost in any prior updates. I’m very pleased.
- Sun Sep 03, 2017 3:14 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Financial reading website with regular updates
- Replies: 19
- Views: 5824
Re: Financial reading website with regular updates
Besides the aforementioned Matt Levine, Abnormal Returnswww.abnormalreturns.com is an excellent daily linkfest of mostly finance-related content.
- Fri Aug 18, 2017 9:49 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Anyone have a personal chef?
- Replies: 48
- Views: 7076
Re: Anyone have a personal chef?
We had a personal chef for a while that cooked 3-4 dinners at a time at her kitchen and would then drop off the food for us and we would just reheat it when ready. We found her through Thumbtack, which is a site that allows service providers to basically bid on jobs you post. We posted what we were looking for, got quotes from 3-5 chefs, and selected the one we liked the best.
Overall, we found it to be too expensive for what we were getting. We much prefer using a site like Freshly which delivers precooked healthy meals to your house than a personal chef or a site like Blue Apron which doesn't save you as much time as you still have to cook the food.
Overall, we found it to be too expensive for what we were getting. We much prefer using a site like Freshly which delivers precooked healthy meals to your house than a personal chef or a site like Blue Apron which doesn't save you as much time as you still have to cook the food.
- Fri Aug 18, 2017 9:41 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones
- Replies: 77
- Views: 10745
Re: Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones
I've used noise-canceling headphones for the past several years for 8-10 hours per day at work. First, if you've never used noise-canceling headphones before, they make trains/airplanes far more tolerable. Ambient environmental/transportation noise never really bothered me before, but after using noise-canceling headphones, there's no going back.
In terms of what type to get, I can highly recommend the Bose Quiet Comfort line. Best-in-class noise canceling, and the new wireless QC 35 are the most comfortable pair of headphones I've ever worn. Again, I wear mine for the entire workday and on my commute both ways and they are just wonderful. This is one of those items where it pays to splurge.
In terms of what type to get, I can highly recommend the Bose Quiet Comfort line. Best-in-class noise canceling, and the new wireless QC 35 are the most comfortable pair of headphones I've ever worn. Again, I wear mine for the entire workday and on my commute both ways and they are just wonderful. This is one of those items where it pays to splurge.
- Mon Jun 26, 2017 8:24 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Thoughts about tilting away from the sector you work in?
- Replies: 32
- Views: 5265
Re: Thoughts about tilting away from the sector you work in?
I think tilting away from the sector you work in is an interesting thought experiment but not especially practical or wise. You run into the following options: 1. You work in such a large and well-defined sector of the economy (tech, finance, etc.) that any sector recession surely spills over into the rest of the market (tech meltdown of 2001, real estate collapse of 2008, etc.) making your tilt away moot. 2. You work in such a small and isolated sector of the economy that there aren't many public companies that capture your area of the economy making a tilt away expensive and imprecise. I think the much more actionable question is the value of your primary residence if you work in your area's predominant industry or employer. Let's say you...
- Mon Jun 19, 2017 8:23 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: California Vacation - Bay Area, So Cal, or Both (with coastal drive)?
- Replies: 23
- Views: 3587
Re: California Vacation - Bay Area, So Cal, or both (with coastal drive)?
I agree with the others who say it's probably too much to do both Southern California and the Bay Area in one weeklong trip. Given the ages of your kids, I think LA and the surrounding areas make for a great vacation. Be sure to go to at least 1 TV taping while there as that's an experience that's not easy to get anywhere else. Make a day out of a theme park, make a day out of going to the beach, go on a homes of the stars tour, etc.
- Tue May 16, 2017 10:03 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Best argument you've heard against passive/for active?
- Replies: 49
- Views: 7090
Re: Best argument you've heard against passive/for active?
I think the best argument against passive investing isn't about the past or present where the evidence shows that passive is clearly the superior choice, but rather about the future prospects given the results of the shift we're seeing as people pile into passive strategies and abandon their under-performing active managers. The history of the performance of strategies that experience a surge of inflows like Vanguard and other passive managers are now has not been pretty. The active management industry is currently way too bloated and has been charging money for an inferior product. The shift we're seeing now away from active managers makes sense is both causing the active management industry to contract and putting pressure on the remainin...
- Mon May 15, 2017 5:55 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Please assess our financial situation; grateful for any advice :)
- Replies: 18
- Views: 3519
Re: Please assess our financial situation; grateful for any advice :)
I think you're on a good path. I think you're in an interesting position compared to most people at your age and income level because the typical savings goal for the late-20s crowd is a house, but given your uncertainty about where you want to settle and the crazy Bay Area real estate market, that doesn't seem like a relevant or motivating goal for you (which is why you seem to feel a bit unsure about the rationale to keep saving money). Also, I'd like to chime in my two cents on that possible luxury car purchase. For reference, I drive a brand-new $80k European sedan. I love it. But cars in general these days are so good, if I ever felt the need to cut costs, I would cut my luxury car before almost anything else. This is the first time in...
- Sun Apr 23, 2017 8:13 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Please Help a 36 Yr Old With $7m+ Portfolio
- Replies: 83
- Views: 17737
Re: Please Help a 36 Yr Old With $7m+ Portfolio
Congratulations on your success. You and I are in a somewhat similar financial position, but I think you need to divorce yourself from trying to predict where the market is going to go based on your fears. It really doesn't matter given your level of assets and your timeframe for this money. For hundreds of years now the best time to invest has been and always will be "30 years ago" and the second best time to invest is today. If you're that scared, spread out your investing over a period of time, with the realization that that strategy statistically underperforms lump-sum investing (due to the point above about the best time to invest being today).
- Sun Apr 23, 2017 4:39 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Time savers - life on automation
- Replies: 57
- Views: 10651
Re: Time savers - life on automation
I'm genuinely impressed that you've been able to outsource so much. What does all of this cost on a monthly run rate basis? I don't know the exact number that would encapsulate all of the costs involved, but the services obviously range from the free/nearly-free (Amazon Prime, car service delivery/pickup, etc.) to the expensive (nanny, personal trainer). I've found the best way to approach these things is to test and experiment with something that you think might be helpful for a trial period and understand that you don't have to commit to anything long-term. Some things that I was skeptical of I ended up loving (personal trainer being the big example) and some that I thought I would love I didn't like at all (personal chef was too expensi...
- Sat Apr 22, 2017 8:35 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Time savers - life on automation
- Replies: 57
- Views: 10651
Re: Time savers - life on automation
What a great idea for a thread. I've spent a lot of time thinking about and setting up systems for myself to make my life easier and to save me time. Here are the ones I've found most helpful: 1. Amazon Prime/Prime Now: Having the ability to shop for nearly anything and have it delivered either same-day or next-day is incredible. 2. Instacart/Grocery delivery: We get our groceries delivered via Instacart around two times per week. The service isn't foolproof and we still have to go to the store occasionally, but it still saves us quite a bit of time. 3. Weekly cleaning service: We're naturally messy and don't like to clean, so this is key for us. 4. Doggie daycare/dog walker: We send our dog to doggie daycare a few times per week so he can ...
- Thu Apr 13, 2017 4:10 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: million dollar condo?
- Replies: 33
- Views: 5641
Re: million dollar condo?
I agree with everyone else about this being more a suitability question as opposed to a financial one.
If you are positive you want to have kids in the next few years, you should be absolutely sure that you want to raise them in a condo as opposed to a house. Keep in mind that you'll be guessing here as to what you want, but FWIW my friends who thought the same now seem to be all looking for single-family homes now that they have kids.
Another thing to keep in mind is the possibility of less-than-ideal neighbors for young kids. We used to live in a high-rise, and it definitely attracted a younger crowd. There were very few kids in the entire building.
If you are positive you want to have kids in the next few years, you should be absolutely sure that you want to raise them in a condo as opposed to a house. Keep in mind that you'll be guessing here as to what you want, but FWIW my friends who thought the same now seem to be all looking for single-family homes now that they have kids.
Another thing to keep in mind is the possibility of less-than-ideal neighbors for young kids. We used to live in a high-rise, and it definitely attracted a younger crowd. There were very few kids in the entire building.
- Thu Aug 18, 2016 10:52 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: High Net Worth Life Insurance Questions
- Replies: 42
- Views: 5868
Re: High Net Worth Life Insurance Questions
Just make sure you understand exactly what you're buying and why you are buying it. There is so much buyer's remorse around whole life and universal life by those who do not. If you understand its downsides before buying, you're much more likely to avoid that. If you need a definite amount at death, whenever that may be, a guaranteed universal life policy is the least expensive way to get that. If you need that amount to rise over the years, look at a whole life policy, but realize the premiums may be twice as high and if you die soon, you don't get much more than with the GUL. I'm just hesitant of committing to paying premiums in the tens of thousands of dollars for the rest of my life as it definitely reduces my flexibility should someth...
- Thu Aug 18, 2016 10:45 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Self-made Millionaires: how did hitting 7 figures change you?
- Replies: 304
- Views: 62895
Re: Self-made Millionaires: how did hitting 7 figures change you?
For me, it was less of an event to celebrate (although I do remember feeling proud and telling my wife) and more of a process of realizing the abundance of choices that were opening up for me. For most people, the limiting constraint on their lives is money. They go to a job they may not love and make choices about where to go, eat, shop, etc. that they may not be thrilled with due to financial limitations. Once those limitations started to disappear for me, I thought I expected to feel markedly happier. After all, I now had all these choices that most people didn't have! The reality is that I started to become overwhelmed by all these new options presented before me, and I began to feel guilty anytime I wasn't happy given how much I have t...
- Thu Aug 18, 2016 10:20 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: High Net Worth Life Insurance Questions
- Replies: 42
- Views: 5868
Re: High Net Worth Life Insurance Questions
I just want to thank everyone for their helpful replies. I think my plan going forward is to get set up with an insurance agent via a referral from my estate planning attorney. It seems the consensus here is to go with a term policy for the income replacement component of my needs, and then we can run some numbers and see if it makes sense to use a universal life policy to pay off the estate tax for my heirs. I'll keep everyone posted what I ultimately decide on.
- Wed Aug 17, 2016 1:58 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: High Net Worth Life Insurance Questions
- Replies: 42
- Views: 5868
Re: High Net Worth Life Insurance Questions
To give you an example, let's assume you and spouse are both in great health and qualify for the best health rating on your life insurance. A $10M second-to-die policy guaranteed for life would be around $23,000 per year in premiums. If you both live for 50 years, you've paid a little over $1M in premiums for a $10M benefit. Even if you both lived to age 100, you'd have paid about $1.5M in premiums for a $10M benefit. Would you rather have your kids give up $10M from your estate to pay the tax, or pay $23k per year to have the insurance company give up that money for you and leave the $10M with your kids for their benefit and your grandchildren's benefit and so on? BruDude, I cannot help but wonder why would any insurance company be intere...
- Wed Aug 17, 2016 1:53 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: High Net Worth Life Insurance Questions
- Replies: 42
- Views: 5868
Re: High Net Worth Life Insurance Questions
If the estate is liquid, there is ZERO need for the cash generated from the death benefit of an ILIT. Simple example, $10m taxable estate with liquid assets, $4m estate tax bill. $4m ILIT outside of the estate. Why do you need the $4m in cash from the ILIT when you could sell $4m in securities from the estate? You don't. That $4m ILIT was not needed for liquidity, and could be worth quite a bit more if the premiums paid were diverted to higher return assets over a long horizon in a irrevocable trust outside of the estate. This was my initial reaction as well, but I figured that there were benefits to using a UL policy to pay off the estate tax bill that I overlooked. I'd obviously prefer to put the money I'd be paying in premiums to work b...
- Wed Aug 17, 2016 1:21 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: How to dominate Sharpe ratios
- Replies: 10
- Views: 1457
Re: How to dominate Sharpe ratios
You're right in that the Sharpe ratio doesn't distinguish between volatility to the upside versus volatility to the downside. The obvious defense of that fact would be that upside volatility can quite easily turn into downside volatility (except in con-flipping hypotheticals ).
The Sortino ratio is just a modified Sharpe ratio that only penalizes downside volatility. I think the industry as a whole has wised up to the fact that no ratio/measure can perfectly encapsulate a fund/manager. Certain strategies will always have great ratios until they blow up (short volatility options-selling and relative-value come to mind).
The Sortino ratio is just a modified Sharpe ratio that only penalizes downside volatility. I think the industry as a whole has wised up to the fact that no ratio/measure can perfectly encapsulate a fund/manager. Certain strategies will always have great ratios until they blow up (short volatility options-selling and relative-value come to mind).
- Wed Aug 17, 2016 11:17 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Why is Soros betting against the market (shorting SPY)?
- Replies: 33
- Views: 7170
Re: Why is Soros betting against the market (shorting SPY)?
The golden rule to remember any time you hear any fund manager talk about a position is this: the amount of time spent talking about the position is inversely correlated with the success of that position.
There's no reason to convince people of a trade that is already working out. Conversely, if a trade isn't panning out, a fund manager will go to great lengths to convince the world he is right! See Bill Ackman's crusade against Herbalife to see this rule in action.
There's no reason to convince people of a trade that is already working out. Conversely, if a trade isn't panning out, a fund manager will go to great lengths to convince the world he is right! See Bill Ackman's crusade against Herbalife to see this rule in action.
- Wed Aug 17, 2016 11:03 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: High Net Worth Life Insurance Questions
- Replies: 42
- Views: 5868
Re: High Net Worth Life Insurance Questions
Apologies if this question is wildly off base, but as one unfamiliar with high net worth issues, are you sure you need life insurance? Personally, I look forward to the day I have enough saved that I can do away with life insurance without fear my family will go hungry / homeless / uneducated / lowered standard of living. It seems like you are likely already well past that point? To me, any life insurance beyond this level is simply making an actuarial losing bet with an insurance company. With a 2M+ income and several million in the bank, I'd think that disability insurance would be much bigger priority. Not off base at all. You are right in that in all likelihood, my family would be fine in the event of my death with our current spending...
- Wed Aug 17, 2016 10:28 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: High Net Worth Life Insurance Questions
- Replies: 42
- Views: 5868
Re: High Net Worth Life Insurance Questions
I just want to thank everyone for their helpful replies. I'm still learning about both life insurance and estate planning, and it's valuable to hear the thoughts of people without a financial incentive to sell me things! Many of you mentioned the need to consider a separate life insurance policy for the estate itself, which I assume would be a second-to-die policy which would kick in after my wife and I both die (is this correct?). This is something I hadn't considered. Would the purpose of this policy just be to pay whatever estate tax liability our heirs would be responsible for? I guess my assumption would be that our heirs would sell off whatever portions of the estate are needed to meet the estate tax liability. Does it make a differen...
- Tue Aug 16, 2016 8:31 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: How to replace the pre-Boglehead trading interest/time investment
- Replies: 12
- Views: 1813
Re: How to replace the pre-Boglehead trading interest/time investment
I don't think being a Boglehead precludes you from being interested in markets or the economy more broadly. If you truly enjoy reading up on companies/sectors, continue to do so and instead reframe that interest as a way to learn about important developments and trends for your own career/business.
Instead of reading up on a sector in the context of a possible investment, read about it in hopes of learning what lessons you can apply to your own sector. You'll come out with a way higher ROI that way, and may even come up with a great business idea or two.
Just remember it's the active trading that Bogleheads caution against - I doubt anyone here frowns upon learning more about different businesses.
Instead of reading up on a sector in the context of a possible investment, read about it in hopes of learning what lessons you can apply to your own sector. You'll come out with a way higher ROI that way, and may even come up with a great business idea or two.
Just remember it's the active trading that Bogleheads caution against - I doubt anyone here frowns upon learning more about different businesses.
- Tue Aug 16, 2016 2:22 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: High Net Worth Life Insurance Questions
- Replies: 42
- Views: 5868
High Net Worth Life Insurance Questions
Hi, I'm a long-time lurker who has gotten a ton of value from the forum, so thanks! My wife and I are expecting our first child and have a unique financial situation, so I was hoping for some guidance as I begin looking for life insurance (I currently have none). My wife and I are both 30. My wife currently works part-time, and will cut down further after the baby comes. My income varies, but has been in the $2-$5 million range for a while and I expect this range to continue for the foreseeable future. Our net worth is currently around $8 million, and our only debt is a mortgage balance of approximately $2.4 million. Given our situation, I have the following questions: 1. My initial thought for an amount of life insurance to get was somewhe...