Search found 751 matches

by mikenz
Sun Dec 30, 2012 11:27 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Bogleheads 2013 Hedgefund Contest
Replies: 151
Views: 23833

Re: Bogleheads 2013 Hedgefund Contest

Dyspepsia Fund

long
EAT
FAST

short
GET
GAS

** GET is in your Russel 3000 list but seems to have changed ticker symbol to RHP
by mikenz
Tue Mar 27, 2012 4:08 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Books on behavioral finance?
Replies: 20
Views: 2303

Re: Books on behavioral finance?

Mean Markets and Lizard Brains, Terry Burnham
by mikenz
Thu Oct 13, 2011 2:22 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: LASIK experiences
Replies: 19
Views: 2667

I had it in my late 30's. Now in my late 40's and eyesight is still near 20/20. Money well spent.
by mikenz
Tue Aug 02, 2011 8:30 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Best Places in the World to Travel
Replies: 38
Views: 6808

As mentioned before the New Zealand currency is near an all time high, so it will seem a lot more expensive than latin america. It's fairly warm, but not tropical warm. Great for photography and hiking, that's for sure. Veeeery long flight though, wouldn't recommend it for a 10 day vacation.

As an exotic option, the Galapagos maybe? Photography, some hiking, warm. Pretty rocky, so not sure about beaches. Probably expensive.
by mikenz
Mon Jun 13, 2011 5:30 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Lens Correction Software
Replies: 19
Views: 3008

Capture NX and Adobe Camera Raw (comes with Lightroom and Photoshop CS) all correct for vignetting and distortion of most Canon and Nikon lenses. It's important for architecture, but not that necessary for most general photography.
by mikenz
Tue Apr 19, 2011 2:47 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: New Digital SLR
Replies: 72
Views: 9610

You can't go wrong with Canon or Nikon, but at the moment I think the D7000 is the better body. Having said that, I stuck with Nikon all these years because I had Nikon lenses, so if you want to take advantage of your Canon lenses, go with a Canon body. You can't really go wrong. However in my case, I ended up not using most of those older Nikon lenses anyway because they were manual focus or developed problems, so you have to decide if you'd really make use of your existing Canon lenses or not. IS or VR certainly doesn't make your older lenses obsolete. If you shoot around 1/30 or 1/60 of a second it will make your keeper rate a lot higher. It's a very nice feature. But it doesn't make the lenses sharper or brighter - it just cuts down on ...
by mikenz
Thu Mar 31, 2011 8:51 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Lowballing a house offer.
Replies: 43
Views: 8764

It's not necessarily that you offend or upset them with a lowball offer. But they may assume you are only bottom feeding and aren't serious and they may decide it's a waste of time to counter offer.
by mikenz
Thu Mar 31, 2011 5:17 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: waking from sleep computer doesn't access router
Replies: 13
Views: 1945

I have never been successful using sleep or hibernate on any computer. Often have to restart them anyway because they don't wake up at all, or something isn't working. The first thing I do on new computers/laptops is change the settings to just shut them down completely instead of hibernate/sleep.
by mikenz
Thu Mar 31, 2011 2:17 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: waking from sleep computer doesn't access router
Replies: 13
Views: 1945

Go into Device Manager, find your network card, click properties and look under power management. I think you uncheck the box that says "allow the computer to turn off this device to save power". I had to do this to an old laptop that I no longer have, so not 100% sure.
by mikenz
Sat Mar 19, 2011 5:31 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: please recommend one book on asset allocation
Replies: 14
Views: 2875

Bernstein's Intelligent Asset Allocator is one of my all time favorite books. From memory though, I think Rick Ferri's book is an easier read (while covering the same ground) and probably more up to date.

I wrote brief reviews of both in the wiki:

http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Intellig ... _Allocator
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/All_Abou ... Allocation
by mikenz
Mon Mar 14, 2011 1:18 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Buy SPRNG [humor]
Replies: 7
Views: 1492

I'm a contrarian I guess. Maybe it's in part due to being in the southern hemisphere, but I've loaded up on FALL.
by mikenz
Thu Mar 10, 2011 10:59 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: online course
Replies: 4
Views: 1154

you could also try lynda.com
by mikenz
Thu Feb 17, 2011 1:24 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: In terms of income, how expensive is your primary residence?
Replies: 100
Views: 15335

1) 4.0
2) 3.0
3) 1997

I'm in NZ, in a city, so housing is relatively expensive compared to US and salaries are relatively low. Average house price here compared to average wage is probably closer to 10 to 1.
by mikenz
Thu Feb 17, 2011 1:20 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Do you have a written Investment Policy Statement?
Replies: 61
Views: 7302

I have an allocation spreadsheet, and have written down a "glide path" for bond % as I age, and other specifics on rebalancing bands, reinvesting dividends. Not a full blown IPS, but I voted yes as it's what I need to keep on track and remind me year to year what I'm doing.
by mikenz
Tue Feb 08, 2011 6:39 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Ferri All About AA pg 157
Replies: 19
Views: 3806

Sorry, didn't mean to put duration as a %, it is of course in years.
by mikenz
Mon Feb 07, 2011 9:13 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Ferri All About AA pg 157
Replies: 19
Views: 3806

If interest rates change by 1%, what is the change in the _value_ (ie the market price) of my holdings? As I said, a 1% change in interest rates would result in a 4.25% change in the fund's price. So if interest rates go up 1%, your fund value would go down to about 96% (95.75%). If interest rates go up 2.5%, your fund value would go down a bit over 10% ( 2.5 times 4.25% = 10.65%). Unless you're going to sell your bond holdings, it doesn't matter that much that they fund NAV goes down, you'll still be receiving the dividends, and when interest rates drop again the NAV will recover. Assuming you can only bear a 10% drop in your fund's value, and you think interest rates might go up as much as 3%, then you need a duration around 3.33% (since...
by mikenz
Mon Feb 07, 2011 12:02 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Ferri All About AA pg 157
Replies: 19
Views: 3806

Well if TBM has a duration of 5 years, and a ST bond fund has a duration of 2 years, then a 50/50 mix would have a duration of roughly 3.5 yrs. Or a 75/25 mix of TBM/ST would be about 4.25

( .75 * 5.0 ) + ( .25 * 2.0 ) = 4.25

I think the rule of thumb then is that if the duration is 4.25% then a 1% change in interest rates would result in a 4.25% change in the fund's price.
by mikenz
Wed Feb 02, 2011 3:25 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: frying pans/skillets?
Replies: 83
Views: 13519

We have titanium frypans. We used to go through the standard non-stick pans in a year or two. We've had these titanium ones for 10-12 years and they are like new. You can use metal utensils with them and they won't scratch. They are non-stick and indestructable. They can go into the oven. Will last a lifetime. Worth the extra $$ IMO
by mikenz
Sat Jan 15, 2011 4:33 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: In Which a Bond Market Timing Strategy is Entertained
Replies: 19
Views: 2892

Yes, these scenarios are not realistic. If you have a duration of 5 yrs then you should be investing for 5 years. If interest rates drop during that time, the NAV of the fund would drop accordingly, but by being in bonds longer you gain more dividends.

Your examples need to take into account that if interest rates drop the first year, that doesn't end the experiment, you still need to work the examples out to a fixed period, which I would say is 5 years. So work out the end numbers after 5 years.
by mikenz
Sat Jan 15, 2011 4:21 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Calling Australian mobile phones
Replies: 6
Views: 1385

Plenty of Skype users in NZ and Australia, I'd say that's your best bet.
by mikenz
Sat Jan 15, 2011 4:12 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: In Which a Bond Market Timing Strategy is Entertained
Replies: 19
Views: 2892

Now is Always the Best Time to Buy Bonds (Word Doc) This paper concludes (emphasis mine): • Bonds are part of a diversified market portfolio and should be held to some degree by all investors. • But many investors are hesitant to buy bonds when interest rates are low, fearing that when rates rise they will forgo future income or face capital losses. • The pure expectations theory states that the current yield curve is an unbiased predictor of future interest rates. In this case, we show that the total return from buying bonds now exactly equals the return expected from buying bonds later . • The liquidity premium theory states that the current yield curve includes not just expectations of future interest but also an additional return calle...
by mikenz
Wed Jan 12, 2011 5:14 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: 21% return from Vanguard Index fund?
Replies: 74
Views: 10201

If you have a decent rate of savings, and start early (at age 21), I wouldn't think you need a high rate of return to meet retirement goals. Do you even need to take on the extra risk in the first place?

Your first step should be to come up with a figure you want, in xx years' time, and then work out what rate of return you need. I would imagine 100% EM wouldn't be necessary.
by mikenz
Tue Jan 11, 2011 2:43 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: GORDO wins the 2010 Boglehead Contest!!!!
Replies: 32
Views: 5503

Oddly enough I used your strategy this year Gordo. I averaged out all the guesses to that point (I think I threw out a few outliers) and came up with 1258.50 and placed 3rd.

Congrats!
by mikenz
Fri Jan 07, 2011 1:16 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: 2011 BOGLEHEAD CONTEST REGISTRATION
Replies: 374
Views: 43993

1478
by mikenz
Thu Dec 23, 2010 7:30 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: What's Your Allocation to High Yield Bonds?
Replies: 80
Views: 11588

Sorry about the confusion, I forgot there was no HY in TBM. So I have 0%
by mikenz
Thu Dec 23, 2010 1:31 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: What's Your Allocation to High Yield Bonds?
Replies: 80
Views: 11588

I had 10% of my bonds in HY, but have simplified my portfolio, so now I have whatever % is in Total Bond, which makes up 50% of my bonds.
by mikenz
Wed Aug 18, 2010 5:44 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Photo Software
Replies: 20
Views: 2980

tdhg566 wrote: - Does lightroom allow you to create one photo out of several photos? I'm not sure what this is called, but a friend of a friend had a nice 8x10
What you are looking for is mosaic software.

I tried one awhile back and it was pretty neat. It was either freeware or trialware. Only used it the one time.

Try this article with links to (I think) free software.

http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/19/how- ... o-mosaics/
by mikenz
Wed Aug 18, 2010 5:42 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Photo Software
Replies: 20
Views: 2980

Why is it a bad idea to put 100,000+ photos in one folder?
On XP (possibly later OS's as well), Windows does not do very well with tens of thousands of files in a single folder. Open that folder in explorer and see the hourglass for a few minutes.

Also if you catalog them with Lightroom, but then decide to use other software down the road, unless you can transfer the catalog from Lightroom into the new program, you would be stuck with 100K photos in one folder and I think it would be better to have them at least by year and month.
by mikenz
Wed Aug 18, 2010 4:41 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Vanguard Australia
Replies: 2
Views: 969

The fund options (as you can see from the link) will be quite different, and will have higher expense ratios in general.

You would be able to set up wire transfers from one to the other, but while they are affiliated I think you'd have to consider them as separate entities. I'm sure she would have new accounts, different account numbers, under different tax ids etc.
by mikenz
Tue Aug 17, 2010 6:21 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: FutureAdvisor.com
Replies: 24
Views: 8457

FutureAdvisor.com

Anyone heard of FutureAdvisor? Looks like it intends to do for investing what Mint does for saving. Will track your investments, suggest alternate funds for better diversification or lower fees.

I am of course wary of handing over account information and passwords to enable them to do this. Looks like it could be a good tool though

Write-up here
by mikenz
Sun May 16, 2010 3:37 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: dollar cost average in Vanguard Index funds
Replies: 21
Views: 3433

This reminds me of Mark Twain's comment:

OCTOBER: This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February.
by mikenz
Fri May 14, 2010 11:10 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Ausflightz.net and Xoom.com: Legit? [no and yes]
Replies: 19
Views: 6287

Got an email reply from bestflights. They said it was a scam and action was being taken.
by mikenz
Fri May 14, 2010 6:10 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Ausflightz.net and Xoom.com: Legit? [no and yes]
Replies: 19
Views: 6287

bestflights.com.au is legitimate. I've emailed them asking about ausflightz. I would not give ausflightz any money. Their website and contacts appear to be in the USA. Their travel agent registration (IATA) number and Australian tax (ABN) number match bestflights.

I checked the ABN number and it is registered to bestflights

Almost certainly ausflightz is a scam. They seem to have copied some images and the registration numbers from bestflights.

You could contact the West Australia Dept of Commerce here:

http://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/Corporate ... ation.html. Email them, perhaps they've heard of ausflightz.
by mikenz
Thu May 13, 2010 7:43 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Ausflightz.net and Xoom.com: Legit? [no and yes]
Replies: 19
Views: 6287

The site (I think legitimate) that I was thinking of is ausflights.com.au.

ausflightz.net displays the same ABN (tax) number as bestflights.com.au.

bestflights website seems to be based in Australia, but ausflightz.net does not: http://whois.domaintools.com/ausflightz.net

Not sure if this is a scam, but I'd steer clear to be safe.
by mikenz
Wed May 12, 2010 5:17 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Ausflightz.net and Xoom.com: Legit? [no and yes]
Replies: 19
Views: 6287

Xoom is legit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xoom_Corporation

I've heard of ausflightz, but I can't vouch for it. My guess is it's legit, but looks very new and very small. Besides the broken links they spelled LAX as "Los Angelas" :oops:
by mikenz
Mon May 10, 2010 4:29 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Why no Direct Property in Boglehead AA ?
Replies: 46
Views: 6265

Our neighbors bought their house for about 150K 20 years ago. We bought 10 years ago and paid almost 300K. It's now worth about 600K. While that sounds pretty good, it's roughly doubled every 10 years, which using the rule of 70 means about 7% annualized gain. And that's in the last 20 years which has seen one of the biggest housing booms in history. Here in NZ I could have put 160K in a safe CD at 7% average over that 20 yr period and got the same gain (but of course with no leverage - that's the big difference, I was using the bank's money) In NZ, 75% of savings is in property. Most of the rest is in cash and bonds. What little is invested in stocks is mostly invested in high dividend stocks (despite high taxes on interest and dividends a...
by mikenz
Mon May 10, 2010 2:47 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: International tax rates?
Replies: 4
Views: 1265

Google : comparison of taxes between countries

Or try wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_rates_around_the_world
by mikenz
Sat May 08, 2010 6:12 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Happy Birthday Mr. Bogle
Replies: 39
Views: 5780

Happy Birthday Jack!
by mikenz
Fri May 07, 2010 1:38 am
Forum: Non-US Investing
Topic: Buying an apartment in Auckland New Zealand
Replies: 40
Views: 6622

I've visited. Generally a drier climate than most of the rest of the country, a bit like California I guess. Not as populated - Napier and Hastings are fairly small towns. Wine growing region.
by mikenz
Thu May 06, 2010 2:51 am
Forum: Non-US Investing
Topic: Buying an apartment in Auckland New Zealand
Replies: 40
Views: 6622

Once Were Warriors is a brutal movie, but is about alcoholism and domestic violence, not racial problems. I can't think of a country with fewer racial problems than NZ to be honest.

Auckland has mild weather year round and a lot of jobs. If you were not working, you'd probably prefer to be outside Auckland with better scenery.
by mikenz
Wed May 05, 2010 9:07 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Discerning Hawaii advice, please
Replies: 31
Views: 4713

I'd recommend Kauai
by mikenz
Wed May 05, 2010 9:01 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Relationship b/w Developed and Emerging Markets
Replies: 2
Views: 903

Most of the time, when the US markets are down, so will the other world markets. They do follow each other. If you glance at a chart the lines appear to wiggle up and down pretty much in synch. However, over the course of a year, there are many days where the US is up and Europe is down, or vice versa. Or they are both up/down, but by different amounts. Over time they will have different returns, even before you factor in currency exchange rates.

The same is true of growth and value stocks, or large and small caps. They may appear to go up and down in synch, yet one may go up 30% in a year and the other only 12%, despite appearing highly correlated glancing at a chart.
by mikenz
Wed May 05, 2010 12:06 am
Forum: Non-US Investing
Topic: Buying an apartment in Auckland New Zealand
Replies: 40
Views: 6622

NZ is highly dependent on exports: timber, wool/lamb, dairy and tourism. If there is a global meltdown of some sort, oil runs out or whatever, and the planes full of tourists stop flying in, and the exports dry up, we'll be feeling very remote indeed.

NZ and the US have a Tax Treaty.
by mikenz
Mon May 03, 2010 11:09 pm
Forum: Non-US Investing
Topic: Buying an apartment in Auckland New Zealand
Replies: 40
Views: 6622

Interest Rates

Exchange rates all over the place. High at the moment, but wouldn't count on it going lower anytime soon.

NZDUSD
by mikenz
Mon May 03, 2010 8:46 pm
Forum: Non-US Investing
Topic: Buying an apartment in Auckland New Zealand
Replies: 40
Views: 6622

Deleted! :)
by mikenz
Mon May 03, 2010 8:07 pm
Forum: Non-US Investing
Topic: Buying an apartment in Auckland New Zealand
Replies: 40
Views: 6622

We bought our home (in Mt Roskill, near Mt Eden) about 13 years ago and used Barfoot. All four I listed are large and well known. I couldn't recommend one over the other - it really depends on which individual agents are most successful in the neighborhoods you're looking at. Probably best to drive around and look at for sale signs and figure out who has the most listings. We don't have too many multiple listings here. Most properties are sold by exclusive listing, and most of those by auction. There is such a thing as a buyer's agent, but I think most people will contact a selling agent at an open home, or real estate office, and be shown that seller's properties, and I guess others that that firm has listed. As I said, unfortunately not s...
by mikenz
Mon May 03, 2010 1:20 am
Forum: Non-US Investing
Topic: Buying an apartment in Auckland New Zealand
Replies: 40
Views: 6622

Auckland Grammar is one of the top schools, and the suburbs of Epsom, Remuera and Mt Eden are some of the nicest suburbs. Further out are Orakei, Mission Bay, St Heliers, and across the harbour Devonport.
Parts of Greenlane and Mt Albert are nice. Basically, the closer to the city centre, the more expensive the property. There are very few apartment buildings, except downtown. Most everything is standalone homes and duplexes.

The top real estate agents that come to mind:

Barfoot & Thompson
Bayleys
Harcourts
Ray White

You can look up property valuations here:
Auckland City Council Property and Rates Information

And you can use Google street view to have a look at the neighborhoods