Bogleheads.org

drummerboy

I'm assuming that you opened a Merrill Edge account (not a full service Merrill Lynch account). Anyway, any ETFs trade for free on their platform. So if you are looking for a Total Stock Market fund, consider any one of these 3: VTI (Vanguard), ITOT (iShares), SCHB (Schwab). All work just fine in a...

drummerboy

Should you worry? Especially if you are holding Total Bond for longer than it's duration?
No, you shouldn't worry.

Jason Zwieg wrote a great article about this years ago:
Five Myths of Bond Investing

drummerboy

I'm assuming that you opened a Merrill Edge account (not a full service Merrill Lynch account). Anyway, any ETFs trade for free on their platform. So if you are looking for a Total Stock Market fund, consider any one of these 3: VTI (Vanguard), ITOT (iShares), SCHB (Schwab). All work just fine in a ...

drummerboy

Obviously many Bogleheads principles are perfect: Low Fees, 3 or 4 Index Funds, Live below your means, start early, time in market, etc. I have two that have helped me a lot: Diversify out of company stock grants. I did this in the late 90s (just before the tech bubble burst) and diversified. Yes, I...

drummerboy

Schwab as a one stop shop is a great choice. Low fees, great customer service, fantastic checking account. The Amex Platinum perk is great too once your assets grow. Getting $100 to $200 off a year makes this card very affordable with a lot of perks for traveling. The only thing Schwab doesn't have ...

drummerboy

You can push ACH to Ally just fine. I push from Schwab and Marcus into Ally and see credit the next day.

drummerboy

My portfolio expense ratio is .06%

Quite a change from a decade ago when I used one of those big firm financial advisors paying 1-1.1%

drummerboy

Bogle7 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 26, 2021 5:43 pm Miele Marin C3 Complete.
$1100
Worth it.
Sucks. Quiet. Lightweight. HEPA filter.

+1

Our Miele canister vacuum is great. The HEPA filter makes the air feel cleaner after vacuuming.

drummerboy

The February meeting will be Tuesday, February 9th: During this session we will be: Answering any questions of the members that join Share ideas regarding emergency kit, sharing information with spouse, etc Reviewing the list of upcoming meeting topics Updating our Distribution List! The Zoom meetin...

drummerboy

Every “perk” for Chase Sapphire Banking seems to be included in Schwab Bank Checking: No foreign transaction fee on ATM card All ATM fees reimbursed No fees for wires, bank checks, etc I was hoping that Sapphire Banking would add certain perks to their credit cards (e.g. make a Sapphire card earn 1 ...

drummerboy

Fastmail is fantastic. I've been using them for 15 years. It supports many great features. Such as: Secure 2-Factor Access including hardware keys such as Yubikey. Keeping your email account secure is the most important thing you can do to prevent other accounts from being compromised. Fast mobile a...

drummerboy

I had YouTube TV, only thing of value was live sports. I decided that even that wasn’t worth it. I now use the Channels DVR and Channels App on our AppleTV. I use an OTA antenna, and I get the 4 major networks recorded on my “home made” DVR (a Synology NAS / an old PC or MacMini would work great too...

drummerboy

I am open minded about these things. So here's a question about 1Password - suppose I choose to use it, having already established passwords for about 50 websites. Do I have to let 1Password know about those passwords or does it generate a new password for each of the sites when visited? When you s...

drummerboy

No, that is not a possibility. 1Password simply does not have the keys to your password vault . Would it be more accurate to say that 1Password is not supposed to have the keys to your password vault? What happens if the owner of the password vault made their master key "1234" or "pa...

drummerboy

Your email getting hacked is more problematic. There is probably a lot more personal data than you realize in your email. There is also the risk that with many of these mail providers that once you are locked out by a hacker, there is virtually no customer support available to help you get control ...

drummerboy

1Password is much safer than trying to manage encryption yourself. End users are notorious for screwing that up. You are far more likely to mess up the encryption of your USB drive—or use a drive with flawed encryption to begin with—than 1Password is to be compromised. Rolling your own DIY security...

drummerboy

I apologize for the 1 week delay for our January meeting. The January meeting will be next Tuesday: During this session we will be: Answering any questions of the members that join Share ideas regarding emergency kit, sharing information with spouse, etc Reviewing the list of upcoming meeting topics...

drummerboy

Some links for the articles we discussed tonight: Mega Backdoor Roth: https://www.madfientist.com/after-tax-contributions/ Bond Tent prior to Retirement: https://www.kitces.com/blog/managing-portfolio-size-effect-with-bond-tent-in-retirement-red-zone/ 0% Capital Gains Rate: https://www.kitces.com/bl...

drummerboy

See all of you Atlanta folks tonight on Zoom for the meeting

drummerboy

Eero mesh lets you commingle wired and wireless backhaul. I have one room that has no Ethernet pull, and putting it in would be a PITA; wireless unit there works fine. Eero doesn’t have a built-in switch as such, but there are two Ethernet jacks; one for the backhaul and one for other devices (in s...

drummerboy

At the start of this there was a game ,world of cubes,that we could not delete.It would take over 100 pct of the screen like the mail,and it would always show on the side of the screen if we were on a different page. Sorry if this is confusing. It seemed to all start with this game. It sounds like ...

drummerboy

I always buy Apple Certified Refurbished. Apple hides it a bit on their store (you have to scroll to the very bottom of every page). You can buy an iMac for just over $1k there....

https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished/mac/imac

drummerboy

We are going to have the next meeting in November. This will be the Tuesday evening following election day. During this session we will be: Answering any questions of the members that join Sharing my lessons learned in preparation for retirement Reviewing the list of upcoming meeting topics The Zoom...

drummerboy

We are going to have the next meeting in October. We are going to try a new day of week / time to hopefully allow more of the members to join. During this session we will be: Answering any questions of the members that join Gathering topic suggestions for future meetings Reviewing some great resour...

drummerboy

We are going to have the next meeting in October. We are going to try a new day of week / time to hopefully allow more of the members to join. During this session we will be: Answering any questions of the members that join Gathering topic suggestions for future meetings Reviewing some great resourc...

drummerboy

I didn't realize News+ includes the WaPo and WSJ, that greatly increases the appeal to me. I was incorrect. Here’s what is included in Apple News+ : “ Along with more than 300 magazines, Apple News+ includes paywalled subscription content from the following newspapers: The Wall Street Journal, Los ...

drummerboy

It's hard to understand what you have until you sample something else. I've worked at MegaCorps, a federal contractor, startups, and (now) for myself. Each have their advantages and disadvantages: I didn't understand the value of working for and with people I like until I worked for and with people...

drummerboy

Flood insurance is a must for the locations near the ocean. Humility101 Please can you explain, whether we do need to purchase the flood insurance or I read somewhere there is no flood insurance, so we are on our own if there is a flood ? Researching this topic. Here's some helpful information rega...

drummerboy

Other friends suggest north of Orlando such as Lake Mary as well... Florida is a big state. What do you like to do? What are you wanting to fill your days with during your (early) retirement? That will dictate where you should look. Lake Mary compared to St. Petersburg compared to Delray Beach are ...

drummerboy

I lived in Tampa for 20 years. It's a nice area. YES, you should consider Flood Insurance. Some locations it is either expensive or doesn't cover much of what you need. Do your homework. Hurricanes are a very real thing. Expect one a year that is too close for comfort. Tampa hasn't been hit by a dir...

drummerboy

I dropped YouTube TV. The AppleOne bundle makes sense (with Fitness) for my family. I'm already paying for the 2TB storage tier and AppleMusic Family. Apple News+ does not have the New York Times, but it does have the Washington Post and the WSJ. We now use the Channels app on our AppleTV and iPad. ...

drummerboy

1Password. Easy to use. Share with each other through their secure cloud.

drummerboy

LastPass does far better on the paid side is there password checkups, that's the one big knock I have on 1Password is it doesn't have anything like that. Once you start using the password checkup tools it's an eye opener just how bad your various passwords are. 1Password does have a feature like th...

drummerboy

Many hacks occur because many people use the same id and password for different sites. So, assume Target or Sports Illustrated get hacked and thousands of id/password pairs get taken. The hackers then run those id/password pairs against, for instance, a thousand known major sites - e.g. banks, brok...

drummerboy

I used to pay attention to the Dow. I don't anymore. Now that I own a broad-based market-cap weighted fund, I just let it ride and don't worry if I'm missing something.

drummerboy

I think I'll replace it with an Amex Gold. That's what I ended up doing (plus Bank of America Preferred Rewards). Amex Gold - Groceries and Dining 4% (but that uplifts when I typically transfer to Delta and get 1.3 to 1.7 per point in value) BofA Cash Rewards - 5.25% on specific categories (Online ...

drummerboy

I wish the CSR would keep the 5% on Groceries forever. That would change my mind. I agree. The CSR only had the 5% on groceries for May and June. The CSR's 5% categories for the third quarter are not useful to me. More groceries would have been better. We won't know the fourth quarter until late Se...

drummerboy

Downgrading ours to a Freedom card when it comes up for renewal in November. BofA Premium Rewards is turning out to be much more lucrative.

I wish the CSR would keep the 5% on Groceries forever. That would change my mind.

drummerboy

If I had to rank them: Schwab has the cleanest account interface. Their menu structure is a bit confusing to find what you want to research, but it is clean and easy to read, find cost basis, etc. Nice Mobile App too. Fidelity. A bit busy, but overall it works. NetBenefits (for 401k) is another stor...

drummerboy

I think it depends upon your definition of "retirement". You want to be close to the water, why? Do you like the beach, boating? Warm weather? Here in the south it gets warm and very humid (especially in Charleston, Savannah and all of Florida). If you want more life and vibrancy, consider...

drummerboy

Looking forward to the next online Atlanta meeting!

drummerboy

You should consider YNAB.

Use YNAB for budgeting. Use a spreadsheet for Investment tracking (like Google Sheets, you can even add formulas to automatically pull the latest ETF/Fund prices)

YNAB excels at actually helping you control your spending, not just track and categorize it.

drummerboy

2 to 3 years. The question is liquidity. If it's for a house, I'd say park it at Ally or Marcus in a CD. If you want flexibility, buy 3 or 4 CDs, so if you have to withdraw funds early for a portion, you keep the rest intact. It's a very different thing if you are looking to park cash until you incr...

drummerboy

Fidelity could offer a similar product, or use banks to do so, through cash management accounts. Fidelity does offer something (where they have partnered with other banks to provide the deposit accounts). Unfortunately, the yields are not good. Schwab and others pull it off. No reason Fidelity coul...

drummerboy

Marcus Savings is now 1.30% Ally Savings is now 1.25% I have accounts at both. My CDs are at Marcus. Not a big difference between the two. Marcus is typically .05% higher, but that is fairly insignificant unless we are talking really big balances. Marcus does same day transfers. Your money is rarely...

drummerboy

Yes. iPads are worth it. The least expensive ones are great just as a media viewer (movies, reading, surfing the web). The iPad Pro comes really close to a full laptop replacement. It's become my primary computer. I use a keyboard and a mouse with it when I need to really type for a long period of t...

drummerboy

Does this make annuities (SPIA or Deferred) more attractive given the low rate environment?

Since your bonds aren’t earning anything, they can still serve as ballast to the portfolio, but not income.

drummerboy

Regarding SPIA taxation (Non-Qualified)... If I've purchased an SPIA using after-tax dollars, when I start to receive income distributions I'm only taxed on the earnings "the exclusion ratio". Is this income considered ordinary income or a capital gain? Just curious how it could potentiall...

drummerboy

FWIW, a 55 year old male, that has about 30 years on a life expectancy table, can buy a SPIA right now paying just shy of $48,000 (effectively a 4.4% withdrawal rate) fixed/nominal for as long as he lives. A portfolio would need to earn a little more than 2.5% a year to amortize out making those pa...

drummerboy

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