Bogleheads.org

Wow thanks for the replies everyone - I’m actually kind of shocked by the overwhelming responses that favor the PP. Maybe my hesitancy was that I view this as the high risk/high reward option, but in reality you are all right - if it doesn’t work out then the hospital affiliated jobs will always be ...

Hey Bogleheads! I am completing my fellowship training and am coming to the end of my job hunt. I have narrowed it down to two jobs and was hoping for people's opinions (obviously acknowledging that I am the only one who can truly get a "feel" for what will be right for me). Background: - ...

Oh good question. So they are actually after-tax contributions (I had made a mistake of selecting this for a few months instead of pre-tax), not Roth 401k contributions. Actually now that you mention that, I'm not sure I understood the difference between Roth 401k and aftertax 401k contributions...

Hey Bogleheads, DW recently switched jobs, and now I am trying to figure out the best plan of action for the 401K (at Fidelity) at the job she left. The part I am having trouble with is that the old 401K has both pre-tax and post-tax contributions inside of it. Specific questions below. 1. Is there ...

My best guess is that it has to do with contributing to a Roth IRA means that you are below the income limits to do so, while performing a backdoor Roth IRA means you are above the income limits to simply just contribute to the Roth. So if you are a high income earner (e.g are above the income limit...

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I know the BH opinion on whole life insurance - and have no intention of purchasing it at this time. My only thought process, which seems to be in line with some of the people who responded here was that the convertible option becomes valuable in the case where my h...

Hey Bogleheads, I am actively applying for term life insurance, and my agent is recommending purchasing a "convertible" policy. From what I am reading, this would allow me to convert my term policy to a whole life policy at any time. Of course, this comes at a higher monthly premium. I was...

The only one with evidence for screening in the absence of symptoms is the HCV antibody, and that's only indicated if you are born between 1945-65. Otherwise none are indicated for general screening tests. This of course depends on your medical history and any new or chronic symptoms. You should spe...

Hey Bogleheads, DW has a 401k through fidelity, and I am realizing that two of the funds I am invested in are "Vanguard Institutional 500 Index Trust" ER 0.014 and "Vanguard Institutional Total Bond Market Index Trust" ER 0.035 They don't have ticker symbols, so I can't track the...

If you just do a conversion the day after the tIRA contribution, there's no income to worry about. So a backdoor approach still is the simplest with no real downside (assuming you won't withdraw contributions within five years). I have the impression that the person who wrote the opening post would...

Basically the same, except with the conversion there's a 5-year rule on withdrawing contributions penalty free. If that's not a concern, I'd just do the backdoor. If you do direct Roth and find you're over, you can recharacterize to traditional, the convert back to Roth, but that's more work than j...

flamesabers wrote:Do you currently have any traditional IRAs? If so, that can complicate a backdoor Roth.

Nope, I only have my 403b and Roth IRA accounts at this time.

Hey Bogleheads, This may be a pretty naive question, but I figured it would be pretty easy for many of you to answer. This year, my household income is going to be very close to the Roth IRA income cut-off. There are a few things (bonuses and moonlighting) that are unclear at this time, so I am not ...

[ First, don't pay too much attention to TREA's ER. TREA owns properties directly, so the ER includes some costs normally attributable to "property management" like evaluating new properties for acquisition. The ER of a REIT fund doesn't include those costs - they're buried in the interna...

One thing you COULD consider is viewing your loans as your "bond" allocation for now: aka your investments are 100% stocks and the money you are allocating to bond funds goes into student loan payments. 3.5% is pretty good for medical school loans, but bond returns are pretty similar if n...

The US stock funds are all SP500 funds, which is ok, but you could additionally use: Vanguard Extended Market Index Fund Institutional ER 0.07% with the S&P500 holding for market completion (80/20 ratio). You also could just throw everything in all the accounts into target retirement/lifecycle ...

Tax deferred is great in that you don't pay the taxes today (unless we're talking roth) and it compounds without the overhead of taxes. It's really great if your tax rate is high today and lower in retirement. The great thing about your situation is that you could avoid carrying a mortgage for very...

Are you both really at for-profit institutions for residency with 401k's? For your fellowship and her new job, will you be at non-profits with 403b's? 457's? Or are you staying at the same institution (and therefore unable to roll your money out into IRA's)? Whoops, I made a mistake. She does in fa...

Do you have a Roth 401(k) option available to either of you? Unfortunately no Roth 401k option for either one of us. When my wife starts her attending job, I will certainly look into her new 401k plan to determine if 1. they offer one and 2. if it's still worth it to contribute to Roth vs. Traditio...

Thanks for the amazing feedback everyone! @randomwalker77 I appreciate your take on the 80/20 ratio. I agree it may prove to be a tad too aggressive since my need to take risk will be relatively low given my high income. I will definitely re-address when the larger salary begins in a few years. And ...

Hey Bogleheads! Over the last few months I have begun to get my finances in order, and discovered this website and its rich source of information. I have spent a good deal of time reading different posts and the wiki, and finally feel like I am starting to understand a lot of the basics. I wanted to...