Search found 3086 matches

by AerialWombat
Sat Mar 16, 2024 1:34 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Furniture prices... is this normal?
Replies: 60
Views: 9461

Re: Furniture prices... is this normal?

This thread made my eyes pop out of my head. I cannot fathom paying so much for a thing upon which to sit. Just another thing that reminds me how not “normal” I really am.

Paid $299 for my couch on Amazon a few years ago. That was the first piece of living room furniture I had ever purchased new in my life. Same couch is now $349. I would buy it agsin.
by AerialWombat
Thu Mar 14, 2024 11:24 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: How Much Cash Do You Keep In Your Home?
Replies: 207
Views: 14895

Re: How Much Cash Do You Keep In Your Home?

VanityPlate wrote: Wed Mar 13, 2024 3:08 pm I think the better topic would be: if you keep cash in your home, why?
I live near a town in which most merchants do not accept credit cards. If I want to eat or shop there, it’s cash or nothing. Thus, I keep cash on hand.
by AerialWombat
Thu Mar 14, 2024 10:06 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Election spam texts
Replies: 41
Views: 2465

Re: Election spam texts

I’ve used Google Voice as my only phone numbers since before it was Google Voice (GrandCentral). This is yet another of the many reasons I like it: They filter all this stuff out.

It also helps that I’m not a registered voter, and never donate to political organizations or candidates.

Actionable: Delete your voter registration and change your phone number. Easy as pie. Yes, I recognize the fact that nobody will actually follow this advice.
by AerialWombat
Thu Mar 14, 2024 9:56 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What's your primary credit card?
Replies: 117
Views: 10238

Re: What's your primary credit card?

rustlers wrote: Wed Mar 13, 2024 11:02 pm For eg. with my BofA Premium rewards card and platinum honors status, the cash back floor is now 2.625%, with more for dining and travel.
I’m unwilling to open a Merrill Lynch account and move assets into it in order to get the BofA Premium rewards level you’re referring to. I intentionally consolidated brokerage accounts all to Fidelity last year, and closed the one BofA credit card I did have. Simplification is my goal, not maximization of utility.
by AerialWombat
Wed Mar 13, 2024 10:37 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Where does your [investing] inspiration come from?
Replies: 31
Views: 2899

Re: Where does your inspiration come from?

My point of entry into the Boglesphere was Mr. Money Mustache. My first exposure to FIRE, and then index investing, was in the early years of his blog. Eventually led me here.
by AerialWombat
Wed Mar 13, 2024 1:17 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Dot.Com Era/AI Era?
Replies: 302
Views: 27340

Re: Dot.Com Era/AI Era?

As an angel investor, I see AI pitch after AI pitch. Everything that is merely an algorithm is being labeled as AI. I’ve reached the point where I’m quite curmudgeonly about it. I haven’t, and won’t, flat out say I won’t invest in AI startups, but I’m definitely the Luddite in the room about it. On rare occasion I’ll see something that genuinely impresses me, such as a recent protein synthesis thing for new drug development, but most of it is just “meh”. That’s my ten cents.
by AerialWombat
Tue Mar 12, 2024 9:01 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What's your primary credit card?
Replies: 117
Views: 10238

Re: What's your primary credit card?

vnatale wrote: Mon Mar 11, 2024 10:35 pm
AerialWombat wrote: Mon Mar 11, 2024 10:31 pm Fidelity 2% for everything on auto-pay, like utilities. Citi Double Cash for walking around. I used to play the points and bonuses game, but retired from all that jazz when I retired from work.
Intuitively that seems to be the opposite to what one might expect. After retiring from work it seems you'd have more time to play the game even harder.
After retirement, my spending dropped like a rock, because most of it was business and travel. Now I rarely leave a 25-mile radius of my house and have very few expenses. So meeting minimum spends for bonuses is hard, utility of points/miles is gone for me, etc.
by AerialWombat
Mon Mar 11, 2024 10:31 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What's your primary credit card?
Replies: 117
Views: 10238

Re: What's your primary credit card?

Fidelity 2% for everything on auto-pay, like utilities. Citi Double Cash for walking around. I used to play the points and bonuses game, but retired from all that jazz when I retired from work.
by AerialWombat
Wed Mar 06, 2024 7:57 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What would you do? Corporate Life vs. Business Ownership
Replies: 16
Views: 1392

Re: What would you do? Corporate Life vs. Business Ownership

Entrepreneurship allowed me to FIRE in my 40s.

I have run the numbers, and I would have been able to FIRE faster if I had just gone to college right after high school and taken the standard career path in my field. Plus, I would have never had to deal with bankruptcy and homelessness.

That said, my zany path was a lot more fun, and a better story at cocktail parties. :sharebeer
by AerialWombat
Sun Feb 25, 2024 9:33 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What got you out of poverty?
Replies: 111
Views: 12839

Re: What got you out of poverty?

I grew up in poverty. Was homeless off and on well into my early 30s. Finding a career that I could excel in and starting a series of small businesses in that field is what got me out of poverty. FIREd by early 40s after selling companies.

There was also a significant mindset shift that occurred along the journey, wherein I embraced the fact that money is artificial, can be created and destroyed, is not a zero sum game, etc. That mental shift was probably the most important thing.

For OP, look at an org called Financial Beginnings. They have curriculum you can download to look at, targeted at middle school, high school, young adult, etc. Might be of interest to you.
by AerialWombat
Fri Feb 23, 2024 2:34 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: The new "Bogleheads on Investing" podcast covers real estate and REITs
Replies: 9
Views: 1962

Re: The new "Bogleheads on Investing" podcast covers real estate and REITs

Just listened to this episode. Kudos to both host and guests for delivering a balanced discussion on the pros and cons of real estate investing. I especially appreciated Dr. Dahle's treatment (ba-dum-tss) of the continuum of real estate investing methodologies. As a buy-and-hold direct rental property investor, I am appreciative of the Bogle Center for giving some coverage to this asset class.
by AerialWombat
Sun Feb 18, 2024 12:07 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: ACH pull vs paper check from online bill pay?
Replies: 40
Views: 2274

Re: ACH pull vs paper check from online bill pay?

markfaix wrote: Sat Feb 17, 2024 10:08 pm
Yarlonkol12 wrote: Sat Feb 17, 2024 8:56 pm I pay my HOA dues with a credit card, is that not an option for you?
They charge 5-6% extra for a credit card.
Cost of convenience and security. I simply pay the surcharge, personally.
by AerialWombat
Sat Feb 17, 2024 12:38 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Supertrend Indicator - Should I use an upper band or lower band to identify the buy/sell signal
Replies: 7
Views: 788

Re: Supertrend Indicator - Should I use an upper band or lower band to identify the buy/sell signal

I see that you’re new here. This is not r/WSB. We don’t do trading. We buy, hold forever, then sell to fund retirement. We also don’t generally own individual stocks.

You might want to read through the wiki to learn about the Bogle tenets.
by AerialWombat
Thu Feb 15, 2024 8:31 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: What email address is "okay/acceptable" to use then?
Replies: 168
Views: 18026

Re: What email address is "okay/acceptable" to use then?

DoTheMath wrote: Thu Feb 15, 2024 4:12 pm
Halicar wrote: Thu Feb 15, 2024 1:49 pm An interesting question. I have acquaintances that have yahoo and hotmail email addresses and I have to admit they strike me as outdated, even though I'm pretty sure there's no real reason to think there's anything wrong with them. Gmail seems to be the standard now, but I suppose in another 10 or 15 years a gmail address will be seen as hopelessly passe.
Now's the time to snap up those yahoo, aol, and hotmail addresses! Someday they'll be retro, used by a trend-setter of the day, and the kids will clamor for them. Big profits! :-)
+1. All this thread is making me want to do is go sign up for an @compuserve.com address.
by AerialWombat
Tue Feb 06, 2024 12:20 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Career Advice
Replies: 15
Views: 1188

Re: Career Advice

jfromla wrote: Tue Feb 06, 2024 10:14 am start a career in real estate
Real estate is a very big field. What specific aspect are you interested in?

Residential brokerage and REIT finance, for example, are at polar opposite ends of the real estate industry spectrum.
by AerialWombat
Tue Feb 06, 2024 9:36 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: college decision: UIUC or UF for ECE?
Replies: 339
Views: 31711

Re: college decision: $63k UIUC ECE or full-ride UF ECE?

Threads like this are what remind me that this forum really is a weird, alternate universe. :oops:

In the normal world, there is no conundrum here: The kid goes to UF, period.

As others have said, source of the terminal degree is far more important. Spend the dough on an MSEE at GT, and take the free ride for undergraduate.

But what do I know; I’m the guy that prefers hiring software developers out of coding boot camps instead of university programs.
by AerialWombat
Mon Feb 05, 2024 12:14 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: How did you decide your comfortable annual expense?
Replies: 40
Views: 3603

Re: How did you decide your comfortable annual expense?

I used to just spend everything I made, and then some.

After bankruptcy, I stopped using credit cards (because no bank would give me one) and just spent everything I made.

As my income started to geometrically increase year over year, my spending stayed the same, so my savings rate skyrocketed.

In early retirement, I have allowed some lifestyle creep, but I still spend far below my means. I could afford to spend around $100k per year, but my lifestyle is closer to $40k. I will “allow” myself to go to $60k this year if I feel like it, for charitable donations and trips.

In short, my comfortable level of spending has always just been a lower-middle class level, and my income has simply changed around that.
by AerialWombat
Wed Jan 24, 2024 11:12 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: How much is owned real estate (primary/secondary homes) as a percent of your net worth?
Replies: 113
Views: 8869

Re: How much is owned real estate (primary/secondary homes) as a percent of your net worth?

watchnerd wrote: Wed Jan 24, 2024 7:57 am
AerialWombat wrote: Wed Jan 24, 2024 1:59 am I basically follow the Talmud portfolio. I’m 1/3 each real estate, VTI, and Treasuries+cash. Most of the real estate equity is rental properties. The house I live in is the cheapest house I own.
I thought the Talmud portfolio had gold in it.
My entire understanding of it comes from this one article on the Internet, which says “land, business, and cash”:

http://www.investorhome.com/talmud-portfolio.htm
by AerialWombat
Wed Jan 24, 2024 1:59 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: How much is owned real estate (primary/secondary homes) as a percent of your net worth?
Replies: 113
Views: 8869

Re: How much is owned real estate (primary/secondary homes) as a percent of your net worth?

I basically follow the Talmud portfolio. I’m 1/3 each real estate, VTI, and Treasuries+cash. Most of the real estate equity is rental properties. The house I live in is the cheapest house I own.
by AerialWombat
Fri Jan 19, 2024 12:07 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Career advice and retirement
Replies: 35
Views: 4338

Re: Career advice and retirement

You have more than enough to retire. The only real question is whether you have a hobby or a cause that you are passionate about to retire to.
by AerialWombat
Mon Jan 15, 2024 11:19 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Aren't you an above-average investor?
Replies: 169
Views: 17500

Re: Aren't you an above-average investor?

I was a slightly above average small business owner. I’m a very average real estate investor, and slightly below average angel investor. For publicly traded securities, my 50% VTI and 50% Treasuries portfolio is bland and boring at best, but surprisingly above average if compared to active traders.

Average is acceptable to me, financially. Median would not be. Couldn’t FIRE from being median. But average totally works.
by AerialWombat
Sun Jan 14, 2024 9:45 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Best password manager, for pc and Android?
Replies: 64
Views: 5108

Re: Best password manager, for pc and Android?

I use LastPass. Been using it for years. It’s a little clunky at times, but it works.
by AerialWombat
Sun Jan 14, 2024 12:23 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Morningstar article: Do Stocks Really Make Sense for the Long Run?
Replies: 180
Views: 26781

Re: Morningstar article: Do Stocks Really Make Sense for the Long Run?

watchnerd wrote: Sun Jan 14, 2024 10:40 am
AerialWombat wrote: Sun Jan 14, 2024 10:37 am I love seeing threads that confirm my own AA bias. :mrgreen:
Well now you have to tell us what your AA is.
50/50.
by AerialWombat
Sun Jan 14, 2024 10:28 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: How did you make your first $1M?
Replies: 148
Views: 33536

Re: How did you make your first $1M?

My first million (on paper) came from a combination of equity in two small businesses, rental properties, and a 70% savings rate during my highest income years.
by AerialWombat
Mon Jan 08, 2024 2:02 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Consolidate portfolio at one brokerage?
Replies: 10
Views: 1385

Re: Consolidate portfolio at one brokerage?

There are many past threads about this; I’ve read many of them and consternated over this extensively. In the end, I chose to consolidate last year. I now do the “Fidelity as a one stop shop thing”.

My desire to consolidate was mostly driven by a desire for simplicity, but secondarily by the acquisition of E-Trade and their transition of accounts.

While I do use most of the services and account types Fidelity offers, I do also have checking and HYSA at an online bank. I keep one year of expenses there. This is for some practical purposes, but it also serves to assuage concerns over getting locked out of Fidelity temporarily for some reason.
by AerialWombat
Sat Jan 06, 2024 9:37 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Amazon Rate increases - alternatives [Amazon Prime Video]
Replies: 151
Views: 22848

Re: Amazon Rate increases - alternatives [Amazon Prime Video]

vnatale wrote: Wed Jan 03, 2024 7:52 pm If you are spending $10,000 a year than then you'd be losing out on the extra 2% reward for not being an Amazon Prime Member. That gives you $200, more than enough to pay for the cost of Prime membership.
I probably should have written that differently. The $10k+ was a “used to”. Previously it was a lot of business purchases, and 2023 it was mainly because of buying some expensive stuff for a DIY solar project. For 2024, I’m doing a low-buy/austerity year, if you’re familiar with that, and Amazon is on my low-buy list.
by AerialWombat
Sat Jan 06, 2024 9:30 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: If you retired using the 4% rule and the market crashed 50% a week later?
Replies: 100
Views: 15951

Re: If you retired using the 4% rule and the market crashed 50% a week later?

David Jay wrote: Wed Jan 03, 2024 2:02 pm
AerialWombat wrote: Tue Jan 02, 2024 10:33 pm All of this is precisely why I chose to use a 4% constant withdrawal rate. Being the start of the year, I recently checked my liquid assets, multiplied by 0.04, and transferred that amount of cash to HYSA. That’s what I have to spend for the year.
Merriman's numbers suggest that 6% of current portfolio is good for 30 years, largely because percentage of current portfolio is self-adjusting.
Yes. Even Bengen’s recent numbers show 5.5% is probably fine. I stick to 4% because I’m in my 40s, so could potentially be looking at a 40-50 year retirement if I luck out.
by AerialWombat
Tue Jan 02, 2024 10:33 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: If you retired using the 4% rule and the market crashed 50% a week later?
Replies: 100
Views: 15951

Re: If you retired using the 4% rule and the market crashed 50% a week later?

All of this is precisely why I chose to use a 4% constant withdrawal rate. Being the start of the year, I recently checked my liquid assets, multiplied by 0.04, and transferred that amount of cash to HYSA. That’s what I have to spend for the year.
by AerialWombat
Sat Dec 30, 2023 6:10 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Alternatives to writing checks for gifts, bill payments, etc
Replies: 25
Views: 3051

Re: Alternatives to writing checks for gifts, bill payments, etc

bradinsky wrote: Sat Dec 30, 2023 5:41 pm
AerialWombat wrote: Sat Dec 30, 2023 10:30 am I choose not to participate in cultural gifting traditions, either giving or receiving, as part of practicing minimalism. For bills of various sorts, I believe that I’m down to writing only two checks per year. One is for my annual septic inspection, and one is for an annual membership to a local club. Neither accepts any other form of payment. I don’t even have a bank account with active online bill pay anymore (the kind that mails a check for you).
So you do the rest of your expenses with precious metals & diamonds?
Credit card and ACH. Most everything on autopay via one of those two.
by AerialWombat
Sat Dec 30, 2023 10:30 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Alternatives to writing checks for gifts, bill payments, etc
Replies: 25
Views: 3051

Re: Alternatives to writing checks for gifts, bill payments, etc

I choose not to participate in cultural gifting traditions, either giving or receiving, as part of practicing minimalism. For bills of various sorts, I believe that I’m down to writing only two checks per year. One is for my annual septic inspection, and one is for an annual membership to a local club. Neither accepts any other form of payment. I don’t even have a bank account with active online bill pay anymore (the kind that mails a check for you).
by AerialWombat
Sat Dec 30, 2023 10:14 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: How often do you redeem your credit card cash rewards?
Replies: 102
Views: 12425

Re: How often do you redeem your credit card cash rewards?

Fido is automatic. The others, whenever I think of it. Which turns out to be every 3-6 months, give or take 3-6 months.

I’m reaching for simplicity these days, and no longer play any games whatsoever in relation to optimization of points or redemptions. It’s like my 50/50 VTI/Treasuries portfolio — simplicity over all else.
by AerialWombat
Fri Dec 29, 2023 11:39 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Removing personal information from web
Replies: 39
Views: 6059

Re: Removing personal information from web

Earlier this year, after much research, I hired Kanary.com to remove my personal information from all those "people search" websites. Over the past six months, they've removed my details from over 100 such sites. There are several hundred more in the queue. I have manually verified the removal from about a dozen of them over the months, just as a spot check, and taking their word for it on the rest. So far I have been very pleased with the service and how it works. Price was somewhere around $150 for 12 months.
by AerialWombat
Fri Dec 29, 2023 11:03 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Should emergency fund be part of asset allocation?
Replies: 40
Views: 3953

Re: Should emergency fund be part of asset allocation?

Yes.

My entire fixed income allocation is cash and cash equivalents. Money is fungible. It’s all one big pot.
by AerialWombat
Fri Dec 29, 2023 10:55 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Amazon Rate increases - alternatives [Amazon Prime Video]
Replies: 151
Views: 22848

Re: Amazon Rate increases - alternatives [Amazon Prime Video]

Every time I read one of these threads I feel like I live in an alternate universe. My rules of the road for shopping on Amazon are fairly simple, only buy things that are shipped from Amazon and except in rare cases sold by Amazon. Also, every return or damage issue I have ever had has been resolved quickly and with minimal effort. I do use other online retailers like Chewy and occasionally Walmart but I can't imagine using Temu and the like. I guess I just don't understand all the animus towards the company. I think the conversation is the the value of the prime membership. If you order more than $35 you get free shipping even without prime. Not people saying the refuse to use amazon totally. You can still use it but the prime membership...
by AerialWombat
Thu Dec 28, 2023 9:22 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Amazon Rate increases - alternatives [Amazon Prime Video]
Replies: 151
Views: 22848

Re: Amazon Rate increases - alternatives [Amazon Prime Video]

I canceled Amazon Prime a few days ago. While I used to view a lot of Prime Video original shows, all my favorite series are now long ago concluded. I didn’t use any other Prime benefits.

I’m also on my last few days of Netflix. There are only two things left in my queue, and I’ll get through those tomorrow.

After that, my last remaining streaming subscription will be the Nebula + CuriosityStream bundle, which is only around $35 a year. I had cancelled Max, Disney, Hulu, and several others earlier this year.
by AerialWombat
Fri Dec 22, 2023 12:29 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Inheritance Financial/Moral Dilemma
Replies: 105
Views: 12908

Re: Inheritance Financial/Moral Dilemma

How about 1/3 each? That’s 1/3 for each child, and the rest to the John C. Bogle Center for Financial Literacy.

:sharebeer
by AerialWombat
Fri Dec 22, 2023 5:45 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Am I the only investor allocating more towards Bonds in 2024?
Replies: 149
Views: 30544

Re: Am I the only investor allocating more towards Bonds in 2024?

I went from 30% stocks to 50% stocks shortly after I retired. It took a lot to convince me to go to 50/50, but now that I’m there, it’s my AA for life. I don’t really pay attention to anything in finance or economics anymore, and I don’t have a calendar rebalancing schedule. I rebalance when I sell a rental property, which I probably won’t do again for at least five years.

So no, definitely not increasing allocation to bonds. Don’t know why anybody would, and I don’t need to know. As long as Treasuries do not default, I’m good to go.

(Insert a Taylor quote about simplicity here.)
by AerialWombat
Fri Dec 22, 2023 5:31 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: how much do you think you need to retire?
Replies: 279
Views: 56359

Re: how much do you think you need to retire?

I retired at 43 when my liquid assets hit 15X annual expenses, after selling one business. My second business was much harder to put a value on, so my total net worth at the time was difficult to calculate. After the second business was acquired, and now having sold two rental properties, I’m at about 35X liquid, and 50X total (including real estate equity).

It’s not about hard dollar amount. It’s about annual expense.
by AerialWombat
Mon Dec 18, 2023 8:10 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Rental house what would you do
Replies: 34
Views: 4377

Re: Rental house what would you do

Sell it.

This isn’t a math question; it’s a tolerance question.

You said you were picky about tenant financials, and it getting harder to find good tenants. Be sure you are keeping up with landlord-tenant law changes in your state, as new restrictions on financial analysis of applicants have been sweeping through state legislatures in recent years.

I have professional property managers for all my rentals, so I don’t have to deal with such headaches personally. But I still sold one last year, and recently sold another. Reason: Older homes with massive capital expenditures on the horizon. Opportunistically chose to sell them as-is while the market was “hot” and would absorb properties that needed work.

If you’re simply “over it”, then sell.
by AerialWombat
Mon Dec 18, 2023 12:02 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Winning the game and Dry Powder
Replies: 157
Views: 25963

Re: Winning the game and Dry Powder

TheTimeLord wrote: Sat Dec 16, 2023 10:31 am
Scubadude wrote: Sat Dec 16, 2023 10:25 am My “Winning” in life is greater than a balance sheet.
Okay, but my understanding is when we refer to "the game" we are referring to investing in risk assets and "winning" is accomplishing the goal of being able to securely fund our retirement. Nothing more than that.
I won, therefore I quit. If one has quit the game, there is no need for dry powder.

I did invest a small portion of my equity allocation into early stage startups. Those are my riskiest investments, but it was planned, as part of my AA. It’s not an ongoing thing with new money going in, and definitely no rebalancing into more angel syndicates as some of those companies fail.
by AerialWombat
Sun Dec 17, 2023 3:37 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: How would you define ‘cash’ ?
Replies: 60
Views: 7272

Re: How would you define ‘cash’ ?

“Cash” to me includes “near-cash” and “cash equivalents”. It’s anything highly liquid, not subject to market fluctuation of principal if held to maturity , and backstopped in some way or another by the US government. Currency, checking, savings, HYSA, government money market funds, CDs, and Treasuries up to 10 years all fit this definition to me. I also consider cash part and parcel to fixed income in a portfolio. I do not separate them. Whenever somebody on this forum expresses their AA and then says they also have X dollars in cash, I mentally recalculate their AA to include the cash. Money is fungible; your EF is part of your portfolio and overall AA. I personally choose to hold 100% of my fixed income allocation in cash, as defined abov...
by AerialWombat
Sat Dec 16, 2023 11:16 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: For Those Who Are Retired Do You Keep Cash Accounts
Replies: 57
Views: 12328

Re: For Those Who Are Retired Do You Keep Cash Accounts

I recently moved an amount of cash equal to my planned 2024 annual spending into HYSA. I also have several years of expenses in short-term Treasuries, which I consider cash equivalent. Then a decade of expenses in intermediate-term Treasuries, which also closely resembles cash to some of us.

My #1 financial goal in life is to never again be homeless. Thus, capital preservation is more important to me than growth. Cash and near-cash (Treasuries) form a security blanket that helps me sleep well at night.

My 50/50 portfolio is not necessarily one that I would recommend to other people.
by AerialWombat
Fri Dec 15, 2023 11:03 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Anyone Make a Major Career Change in Their Forties?
Replies: 95
Views: 23451

Re: Anyone Make a Major Career Change in Their Forties?

Accounting can provide a stable career, albeit without the salary ceiling seen in tech.There is huge demand now for accountants. Learn what the first few years of the grind are really like. Age isn’t an issue: People in their 50s and 60s are getting first-time internships in Big 4. Since you already have an MBA, consider an alternative track to education completion. Check out the University of North Alabama Accounting Career Completion Program, or the University of Maine Presque Isle YourPace program. You can complete the UMPI program for a second BS in accounting in less than a year and under $6,000. Check your state CPA requirements, then check other states. You can sit for the exam and obtain initial licensure in a state you don’t reside...
by AerialWombat
Tue Dec 12, 2023 2:19 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Bonds in Portfolio? Why...I am so confused
Replies: 388
Views: 88307

Re: Bonds in Portfolio? Why...I am so confused

When you withdraw money out of a 50/50% portfolio how does that work? ARe you taking it out of the bonds? Stocks? or both. I am confused on that If you want to maintain the same 50/50 allocation over time, you’d sell stocks when your stocks have drifted to be worth more than your bonds, and you’d sell bonds when the bonds are worth more (for example, during stock market crashes). This describes what most people do. Sell the asset class that has not dropped in value. In actual practice, everyone is going to do something slightly different due to their personal circumstances. OP appears to have a pension, so that obviously impacts drawdown choices. Personally, my “pension” is monthly income from rental properties, which covers about half my ...
by AerialWombat
Sat Dec 09, 2023 10:57 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Bonds in Portfolio? Why...I am so confused
Replies: 388
Views: 88307

Re: Bonds in Portfolio? Why...I am so confused

bg5 wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2023 10:48 am What I am starting to think about is as I get closer to retirement what role bonds will play as I am sure there will be a time I want 10-30% in bonds to keep my portfolio safe or at least thats what I was thinking. But after doing the research (and I know I am looking at a terrible time for bonds) it appears to me that bonds are anything but safe.
I’m retired, in my 40s. No pension. I can’t afford to lose half my portfolio in a stock crash if I want to stay retired. Thus, my portfolio is 50% Treasuries, representing the money I’ll live on for the next 15 years.

That’s why I hold bonds: Preservation of capital.
by AerialWombat
Fri Nov 24, 2023 7:49 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Metal “minimalist” wallets?
Replies: 42
Views: 6273

Re: Metal “minimalist” wallets?

Glockenspiel wrote: Mon Nov 20, 2023 11:07 am
AerialWombat wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2023 12:15 pm
I used rubber bands for over 10 years. Back when it was just a driver’s license, a little cash, and maybe one credit or debit card. It’s an adequate solution. Now I use a traditional leather wallet. In my town, I have to use cash at many local merchants.
Honest question, don't rubber bands get "stuck" inside your pants pocket? I hated when I had a phone case that was a grippy material. It wasn't slippery enough to slide easily out of my pocket.
Yes, but I personally consider that a feature, not a bug. :P
My phone case is one of those grippy types. I’m a bit paranoid about things falling out of my pockets, especially when I’m on a motorcycle.
by AerialWombat
Sun Nov 19, 2023 12:15 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Metal “minimalist” wallets?
Replies: 42
Views: 6273

Re: Metal “minimalist” wallets?

Jake514 wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2023 10:29 am
alpenglow wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2023 7:37 am
Tuxedo wrote: Sat Nov 18, 2023 9:26 pm A binder clip is the true metal minimalist wallet.
This guy checks out as a legit Boglehead!

How about a rubber band...and free when you buy a head of lettuce!
I used rubber bands for over 10 years. Back when it was just a driver’s license, a little cash, and maybe one credit or debit card. It’s an adequate solution. Now I use a traditional leather wallet. In my town, I have to use cash at many local merchants.