Bogleheads.org

jsprag

I'm a fairly new federal employee and I'm looking for a good resource to understand the ins and outs of the federal Thrift Savings Plan, or TSP. The Bogleheads TSP Wiki has some great information (https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Thrift_Savings_Plan), but I'm seeking more. There are a lot of rules a...

jsprag

If you don't mind sharing, what are some of your other favorite forums? WhiteCoatInvestor forum Cadillac forum Nasty Z28 forum MX-5 Miata forum [sarcasm]As you can tell, I have a wide variety of interests...[/sarcasm] Although I haven't been much on the car forums lately. I've been on quite the fin...

jsprag

She is willing to rent/buy along with one of her friends but obviously has no savings right now so most of it will have to go on the mortgage. "Buy a first home with a friend" is one of the classic blunders 1 Rent for a year. This allows her to: Build capital Become familiar with city and preferred...

jsprag

Agreed! I'm in the fortunate position of also not being subject to host country taxes, so on the far side of the confusion and complexity there is some great opportunity. Not subject because of the particular country or because of employer tax-equalization? It's the tax-equalization, which gets US_...

jsprag

Emergency fund. Finish getting the match. Roth IRA. OP: retiredjg is right on target based on the information you presented. If you have consumer debt (credit cards, personal loans, etc...) that you haven't mentioned, then I'd supplement his advice with: Emergency fund. Pay off consumer debt. Finis...

jsprag

Cubicle wrote: ↑
Sun Jan 12, 2020 1:42 am
I'm a geek who enjoys finance. This forum (one of multiple) feeds me knowledge about finance, & other stuff as well.

If you don't mind sharing, what are some of your other favorite forums?

jsprag

I recently began working overseas for US employer and have been struggling to find definitive answers to many of the same questions. I'm far from an expert, but from what I've been able to learn... Am I making a big mistake contributing to this traditional 401K? It might not have been optimal, but p...

jsprag

The final, definitive, canonical, unassailable, unanimous, and irrefutable answer to the question of “How much international?” could appear any day now.

You wouldn’t want to miss that.

jsprag

I discarded the concept of an emergency fund years ago in favor of a plan to fund emergencies.

I get paid monthly and keep 1.2 x upcoming month expenses in cash. The remainder is transferred to brokerage and invested according to my AA.

jsprag

Per this Vanguard page, the S&P 500 is about 82% of US market cap.

Anything around 80% will be close enough.

jsprag

Why stop there? Let’s also declare that betting on which market (domestic, intl. developed, emerging) will outperform is also speculating. Yes. Everyone who isn't buying Vanguard Total World Stock or who doesn't have a 55/45 US/international allocation today is totally speculating aswell. Two thoug...

jsprag

Most Bogleheads understand that investing in individual stocks is speculating (betting which stock will outperform). Many of us do not understand that investing in individual mutual fund styles is also speculating (betting which style will outperform). Why stop there? Let’s also declare that bettin...

jsprag

Since past performance is no guarantee of future results, how do people utilize the data from the Monte Carlo simulation in portfolio visualizer. Thanks. You can select the "forecasted" or "parameterized" models and enter your own estimates for future performance and asset class correlation. Of cou...

jsprag

Recent discussion of preferred cost basis methods here.

My recommendation: Always track lot cost basis with specific ID. I've never had an issue with it at Vanguard or Fidelity.

jsprag

Future backdoor Roth is one additional reason to not completely exit TSP. If you ever think you might exceed MAGI limits for Roth contribution and want to do a backdoor Roth, then future you will thank present you for maintaining an active account with TSP. Take a look at the wiki and specifically t...

jsprag

If so, what advice can you offer me? Know what goals or issues are important to you. Research recipients thoroughly. Understand what they can/will/might spend the money on, and make sure it aligns with #1. Be ready to surrender control. Once you've made the donation it's not your money anymore. Let...

jsprag

my advice is to revamp your resume (don't be afraid if its 4-5 pages long via resume builder), make it unique for every job you apply for, making sure you focus on the key requirements the agency is looking for... That's my recommendation as well. There's no extra credit for brevity in a federal re...

jsprag

thelateinvestor43 wrote: ↑
Thu Dec 26, 2019 2:53 pm
I have $6k lump. Is it better to DCA it though at say $500 month over the coming year?

Might be better, but we won' t know for sure until December 2020.

jsprag

I'm a retired manager, and I used to disapprove such requests. When one can't measure performance, one measures attendence instead. Of course, one might measure performance and attendance. Having done so, they might find--for a particular combination of industry, workforce, and corporate culture--t...

jsprag

I approve maybe one out of every five remote work (RW) requests I receive. I think I've only had eight requests for permanent, full-time remote work from home. Five were disapproved outright One began as a temporary (medical) request for full-time RW before becoming permanent and continuing to this ...

jsprag

Taylor Larimore wrote: ↑
Sun Dec 22, 2019 6:08 pm
I retired in June of 1982 at the age of 57. We had about a $1 million dollar portfolio to last us the rest of our lives.

$1M in 1982? That is roughly equivalent to $2.65 million today.

jsprag

I'm wondering how many Bogleheads are near or in retirement with only six figures in savings. If so, how conservative or aggressive are you? Why? (this is the actionable part of the post). For myself, I am way, way beyond "six figures". I am 100% invested in either VFIAX or VTSAX - for my beneficia...

jsprag

You haven’t provided sufficient information to answer conclusively IF you are eligible to make Roth contributions, THEN you may make those contributions from any funds you have available (including taxable account dividends), up to the limit of your eligibility. Your eligibility to make any Roth con...

jsprag

TSP has a process to handle this. See page 4 of this pamphlet.

jsprag

I worked up some samples in Excel for both mutual fund and ETF portfolios and posted to Github - Mutual fund tab fully invests available funds and takes advantage of fractional shares. - ETF assumes that shares are available only in whole (non-fractional) amounts, so likely will not fully invest ava...

jsprag

I think this makes sense, but their calculator (http://optimalrebalancing.tk/index.html) is a bit difficult to use, and I already track my investments in an Google spreadsheet, so it would be nice to re-implement this in excel/sheets formulas. I'm a programmer, so I could code this algorithm, but I...

jsprag

The prorate rule applies when you have IRA basis (non-deductible contributions made to IRA). If you have no IRA basis, there is no prorata issue. So in the case of the 40k in the tira, if that was to be coverted to Roth, it would be subject to prorata? As outlined by HomeStretch, only if any portio...

jsprag

Assume for a moment that immediately after you bought the land your friend asked to buy, from you, an option to purchase the land in x years at the same price you paid for it. How would you price that option? I’d suggest no less than 2-3% per year of the “option period” (i.e., the time since you bou...

jsprag

Bogleheads, Looking for any feedback on contributing to Roth 401k with income excluded under the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE) Spouse and I are starting overseas jobs with a US employer in January, and have (I think) worked through most of the tax challenges and opportunities. Nearly all of...

jsprag

That leaves 80/20 and 60/40. You likely recognize this already, but it's trivially easy to get any allocation in between by holding some of each. Want 72% equity overall? That's 3/5 in LS Growth and 2/5 in LS Moderate Growth. Is the very slight increase in cognitive load worth being able to dial AA...

jsprag

Considering the amount at risk if you make the wrong decision, this is something that warrants more effort than polling strangers on the internet. Taxes are often complex, and always personal. You have a lot of factors with ordinary income, realized gains on the rental property, potential rental inc...

jsprag

This math is applicable only so long as we can choose to put any given dollar in a tIRA vs. Roth. In other words, up until the first one hits the annual contribution limit. T hey both have the same annual limit ($6,000 for most people) , but since tIRA is pre-tax it "fills faster" from the same amo...

jsprag

Forester wrote: ↑
Mon Dec 09, 2019 3:32 am
Japan had the largest stock market bubble in history, you suggest Japan's poor subsequent returns were bad luck.

I'm curious - by what measure was Japan the largest stock market bubble in history?

jsprag

If your tax-rate in retirement is the same as your marginal rate on the earnings used to contribute to the IRA, the only difference between this asset in a tIRA and a Roth is the potential RMD in the future. $1 in a Roth is worth more than $1 in a tIRA so it isn't a 1:1 comparison. Let's assume you...

jsprag

Hello all, Since selling the L2030 Fund in my TSP account to get my AA to 50/50 across all accounts, I'm now faced with only having a little more than 3% of my AA in international (VTIAX). I don't want to move into VTIAX because it's at 2019 peak right now. I've read an article that has suggested t...

jsprag

Personally I didn't transition to 2-funds trying to chase performance but primarily for simplicity reasons. I'm retired and want my wife to be able to handle our portfolio should I pre-decease her (which I probably will) and for as long as I can while I'm still alive (and my mental acuity declines)...

jsprag

I was just watching a video from the channel Our Rich Journey. In it they mention that they do not hold any bonds, and that's even after achieving FIRE. Their reasoning is that in lieu of that, they have a large emergency savings to cover 1.5 years of expenses to ride out volatility vs the traditio...

jsprag

So in the report, they make multiple references to "new economy" vs "old economy". What's the distinction? Page 24: "The old economy is based on state- owned enterprises; low-end and heavy manufacturing industries such as textile, coal, steel, and concrete production; and real estate. The new, cons...

jsprag

So in the report, they make multiple references to "new economy" vs "old economy". What's the distinction? Page 24: "The old economy is based on state- owned enterprises; low-end and heavy manufacturing industries such as textile, coal, steel, and concrete production; and real estate. The new, cons...

jsprag

That NW quadrant is...interesting. I'll add one more element to the excellent graphic from nisiprius: https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1QT7j1knt6z1kMyIzydcWy5Stl0S1tXud It's indeed rare for MSCI EAFE to be up when the US is down for the year. It has been quite common, however, for som...

jsprag

One reason I prefer total market is that its definition changes less. Can you elaborate? - Do you mean that the basket of TSM securities changes less severely and/or less frequently than S&P 500? What benefits to your portfolio do you see from this? Thanks, jsprag I meant that the TSM will always b...

jsprag

pdavi21 wrote: ↑
Fri Dec 06, 2019 1:48 pm
One reason I prefer total market is that its definition changes less.

Can you elaborate? - Do you mean that the basket of TSM securities changes less severely and/or less frequently than S&P 500?

What benefits to your portfolio do you see from this?

Thanks,
jsprag

jsprag

For those who invest in both a US total stock market fund and an International fund, what are the main reasons for holding both? Because it's the cheapest way to live a life of international adventure :beer Truly, it's because I find that the arguments for a U.S.-only portfolio rely too heavily on ...

jsprag

1. Trying to figure out what to do with my 401k and roth 401k. Should I roll it into my new employers 403(b) plan, roll into already open rollover IRA? I don’t think I want to leave it with current employer because it will be another account to keep track of. I generally recommend rolling into an I...

jsprag

Amgen (AMGN) Circa 2000, my wife (a dialysis nurse at the time) raved about a drug changing the lives of patients at her clinic. After looking into the company, the products, the patent protections, etc... I made a modest stock purchase. Now, almost 20 years later the growth of that initial investme...

jsprag

Stocks go up and stocks go down. To get some perspective, there's 290 pages spanning more than eight years on two threads devoted to U.S. stocks either soaring or collapsing. Sometimes, like yesterday, there's a mildly amusing juxtaposition when these topics are adjacent in the feed. https://drive....

jsprag

Aaabbbccc wrote: ↑
Fri Nov 29, 2019 6:24 pm
I do not have an IRA because I have always been above the income limits.

What limits you from establishing and contributing to a traditional IRA?

jsprag

I was curious how quickly index tracking error diminishes as the amount available to invest increases, so I worked up a quick model to look at replicating the S&P 500. Assumptions : 1. Evaluates S&P 500 index only. 2. Shares are available in integer quantities only. 3. Weighting and share price as o...

jsprag

No. Use the closest L fund as a starting point for your portfolio. If you never do anything else you're still more likely to do better in the long run than a TSP advisor service. If/when you become more aware of your risk attitudes then you can change to another L fund that more closely matches your...

jsprag

You generally won't hear that here. I hear it here all the time, it's just in code. Let's stipulate that "the market" is the global cap-weighted investable universe. There are near-daily threads of people eschewing international [debt or equities] or tilting towards small+value because of their his...

Search found 170 matches