Bogleheads.org

You can. The trick is knowing when the market is irrationally fearful rather than rationally concerned. I'm not that smart, so I just stick to plain old boring total market funds.

Why on earth would you ignore price? I guess if you have a local AV specialist retailer that provides full support for selection, delivery, configuration, warranty service, etc that would work. The price could be pretty high. The add a lot of value vs the big box shops which leave you to figure it all out. Do they really add value? I tried going with well regarded local home theater expert and they started speccing things boutique amps with very questionable value propositions. What really soured me was when they tried to explain why their $75 HDMI cables were a better option than much cheaper cables. I concluded that, whoever you hire, you need to do your own research. And if you are going to do that, why pay the premium unless you want t...

I'd do it. When our kids were young, we lived in houses that were 2,400; 1,700; 3,000; and 3,300 sq ft. I much preferred having the extra space in the larger houses.

But it's not just that. A lot of people here will disagree, but we definitely saw a correlation in the quality of our neighbors improve with the cost of the houses in the neighborhood. And the quality of the schools.

I'd do it in a heartbeat if I were you. If not to that house, at least to something in the 2,500+ sq ft range in a nice neighborhood.

I just want to point out how pathetic it is that we went from easily swappable batteries on phones to systems that require days for battery replacement. It's pathetic and I think it is deliberately designed to discourage repairs.

I would consolidate. I have all of mine at one firm. There are still many different accounts. My wife and I each have IRA, Roth IRA, and HSA accounts plus 529 accounts for the kids, plus taxable accounts. I do keep a small amount at a bank as well to have liquidity in case there is a problem with my broker.

My family liked the Zaō Fox Village near Shiroishi.

Mine are reasonably simple. The only complexity is with college stuff.

I've found it useful, after doing everything in TurboTax, to go back through and figure out how every number on my 1040 gets calculated from my input documents. It helps me understand what is happening and what impact changes will have.

I hate them all, so I find it a question of what is the least bad option. I definitely agree with trying to do you final booking directly with the airline. I find that it is sometimes cheaper to book the legs separately. It is usually the opposite, but sometimes it is much cheaper to fly from here (Houston) to LA or SF and then book another flight to Tokyo. But I would only do this with a 1-2 day stay in between flights in case of delays. This generally only works if you have the time and interest to spend a day in the layover city. You can sometimes save a lot of money by flying from a nearby city. In can be infuriating when you see that you'll save $400/ticket by driving 3 hours to another airport and then flying back through your own air...

I usually always vote for selling. My main reason is that my financial fate was already closely tied to the success of my employer and I wanted to diversify from that. But the simplest measure is - if you had the cash, would you buy it? If no, then why keep it?

Jags4186 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 7:37 am IMO these are regional schools. Where does he intend to live after graduating? If he wants to be in the northeast he should consider SUNY, if he wants to be in the Midwest he should consider UMN, if he wants to be on the west coast he should consider ASU.

This. Most companies recruit regionally. People often fall in love in college and opt to live in the region of their true love.

I don't think this is likely to be a thing because of adverse selection. The people most interested in selling their mortgage would be the ones who intend prepay their mortgage because they are moving or refinancing. Those are the people whose mortgages the banks are least interested in buying.

alex_686 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 16, 2023 8:21 am

Chief_Engineer wrote: ↑Thu Mar 16, 2023 8:10 am

nisiprius wrote: ↑Thu Mar 16, 2023 6:33 am Indeed, one of the things I've wondered about is "whatever happened to the distinction between time deposits and demand deposits?" The high inflation and interest rates of circa 1980 led to a lot of changes, of course.

Before then, it was illegal to pay interest on a checking account.

Nowadays most people believe they have an absolute right to make early withdrawals from CDs.

As a millennial I have never heard of time or demand deposits.

Technical term. Demand is anything that can be pulled out at any time. Checking, savings, money markets.

Time has a time element. CDs are the most common retail type.

Savings accounts are a hybrid. Most have limits on the number (but not amount) of withdrawals in a month.

I only do things myself if they are easy, safe, and I don't mind doing them. For anything else, I ask my wife to do it.

We went to Japan pre-pandemic (2019), but we didn't use a travel agent, so I cannot recommend one. We had no problems despite not knowing almost any Japanese. Google Maps was sufficient for getting around. We just said where we wanted to go and it told us where to walk, what station to go to, what platform to get on, what train or bus to take, and at what stop we should get off. It was amazingly useful. A Japan Rail pass was great for traveling around the country. It eliminated the need to do a lot of detailed planning. All the major hotel reservation services and AirBnB worked great. It was no harder to find a place to stay in Japan than it is in the US. If you prefer tours and travel agents, I don't want to dissuade you, but don't feel li...

The problem with your analogy is Apple has many competitors and you’re assuming that the mass of those competitors will outperform Apple. In any given year I’m sure many many countries outperform the US stock market…so what? No one can guess which of those countries will outperform the US. But history has shown us that the totality of those countries have not outperformed the US over any substantial length of time in modern history in our lifetimes. You could use the same logic that since AAPL has had returns of 23% per year for 36 years (the entirety of its existence) that must mean we should expect the same going forward? Why should we bother investing in any of Apple's competitors - no one can guess which of those competitors will outpe...

All states tax their residents, generally by a combination of income, sales, and property taxes. If you're income is unusually high relative to your local spending and property ownership, your strategy might make some economic sense. But I wouldn't even think about it until looking at the estimated cost of all the taxes combined. You should also factor in cost of living differences. And personalize that. If you like to go skiing a lot, the CO income tax might seem much smaller compared to flying back and forth from Dallas for frequent ski trips. Also, given the cost of moving, you should risk weight the chances of an upcoming state income tax. Nobody knows the future, but I would imagine that the odds for some currently non-income tax state...

It's hard to lock out hotel staff or savvy invaders. The old style room key locks (the ones where you put your key in a slot) are known to be extremely easy to hack. The swing bars aren't any better. We tried to check into a room recently and couldn't get the door open because the swing bar was somehow already in place. Someone from the front desk came up with a tool and unlatched the swing bar in 2 seconds. I once returned to my hotel feeling sick and without my wallet or room key (both of which I had left in my room). It was easy to convince the desk staff to give me a key to my room. That was almost 20 years ago, but I'm sure that social engineering still works. I once had photography equipment stolen from inside a cabinet in the inner r...

Random Poster wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 10:08 pm Regarding International (sub) performance, perhaps someone can help me figure this math problem out:

...

As in, if VTSAX and VFWAX were two cars in a 500 mile race, is it possible that at lap 142, VFWAX is so far behind VTSAX that, barring a complete meltdown of VTSAX, VFWAX will never be able to beat VTSAX at the finish line?

That's a compelling argument for which of those I should invest in if I suddenly find myself back in 2007. I don't see how it is relevant to making a decision on which to invest in today. By the same logic, AMZN/AAPL/TSLA have so outperformed VTSAX that you would take ages to catch up investing in VTSAX, yet here I am eschewing those stocks for a broad market index.

Ours was parentally funded. We spent about $2,500, which would be a little over $5,000 now that 30 years have passed. I don't think my wife or I regret spending the money, but we would have been just as happy with something more modest. I'm glad that we had a ceremony and our friends and relatives were there.

Wait for someone who is living up there to make suggestions.

From my experience as a visitor, stuff up in the mountains this time of year (and it has been a snowy year) is typically in deep snow. There are probably a lot of hikes available in the foothills, but they could get covered in snow at any time, so it's hard to make plans.

Snowshoeing is fun, but adjust your mileage expectations down significantly. Between the altitude and the extra work, it isn't easy to go far.

If it were me, I'd set aside the hiking and going skiing or snowboarding instead.

How about giving her a stack of addressed and stamped envelopes. You don't have to use the ones they send. Put the dates on your calendar and each month send her a reminder to go online and get her balance.

Do you want to do only "boots on the ground" hiking or are you interested in snowshoeing?

C-CPI-W would be a better general measure of inflation than CPI-W, because it considers changes in purchasing behavior related to price changes. R-CPI-E is focused on in prices for a basket of goods consumed by people 62 and over, but it is not chained, so you should expect it to slightly overstate the rate of inflation.

Keep in mind that you could save $25 a year on Turbo Tax state filing fees if you moved to a state with no income tax.

Car and street parking break ins are one of the most common crimes in my suburb. Most are simple crimes of opportunity, with people testing for unlocked cars. Where they get more serious is with unlocked cars that have garage door openers in the car or built into the car. These are sometimes used to get access to the garage and even to the house itself.

In my case, I enjoyed my job and the money was nice. I retired because my company was sold and my new employer offered me an incentive to leave. If I could have kept the status quo and hadn't been tempted by the payout, I would have been happy staying where I was. I was only 54, but I didn't need the money anymore and I didn't want to start all over again. Plus, my wife was a SAHM and the last of our children was heading off to college. She was very ready for me to retire so we could travel. So far, it's going great. We walk every morning. We play a lot of disc golf. We do volunteer work that we enjoy. We travel. We pursue lots of hobbies. There are occasional times when I feel a little bored, but there are far more days when I feel like I'...

I don't think "equal" is always the same as "fair" and I don't think you should obsess too much over it. For example, my parents have helped some of my siblings when they had financial difficulties. I've had the good fortune of not having similar financial difficulties, so I haven't gotten the same help. I don't believe my parents have any intent to "true up" their gifts in their will or anything like that. It would feel awkward if they did given that I'm in a much better financial situation than some of my siblings. Another example is with travel. We did a lot more traveling than my siblings. Often, my parents would rent a place in a vacation spot and we would go visit them. Many years, some or all of my sibli...

Clarice wrote: ↑Tue Feb 21, 2023 1:33 pm

MarkBarb wrote: ↑Tue Feb 21, 2023 1:29 pm Are you certain that both current 401(k)s will accept the transfers in from an IRA?

No, actually. Assuming. If I’m Fidelity I want more money to manage, so I would have built that into plan. My thinking.

Please confirm it before you start taking actions. I worked at a company with a 401(k) that I think was at Fidelity and they would allow direct 401(k) to 401(k) transfers, but not transfers in from an IRA.

The plan documents vary from employer to employer. For example, some are set up to allow megabackdoor Roths and others aren't.

H-Town wrote: ↑Tue Feb 21, 2023 3:03 pm
Youtube video on HUD unit on a Genesis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RLQeoCIQVQ

Yep. That's it. You can see the blind spot warning come on in the HUD at around 0:51 in the video.

How do you like your Genesis? I find their styling sooooooo nice but I don't trust their reliability. Yes. Thus is purely bias on my part as I remember the 80s when Hyundai cars were horrible. I'm happy with it so far. We've had it for about 2 years and have put about 48,000 miles on it. It's very quiet and comfortable for highway cruising, which is why I bought it. I think their reliability has improved a lot. It's not Toyota level reliability, but I think Toyota does that by being really cautious with new tech. If I were buying something similar again, it would still be one of my top picks. I might go with the Acura MDX. I didn't like the Lexus RX, but they just updated it, so maybe. But I think I have another decade or two of aging befo...

Are you certain that both current 401(k)s will accept the transfers in from an IRA?

student wrote: ↑Sun Feb 19, 2023 6:36 pm "it shows the location of cars around me on the heads up display" wow. Do you have a Tesla? So high tech.

No. My car is almost entirely used as a long-trip vehicle, so I didn't think an EV made sense for that car. And, I don't really like the "everything is controlled from the touchscreen" interface of the Tesla's I've ridden in. Maybe I'm just old fashion, but I prefer things like volume knobs and latches on my glove box.

Starbase wrote: ↑Tue Feb 21, 2023 12:11 am Kia?

Close. Genesis. My assumption is that all Hyundai/Kia/Genesis vehicles with HUDs probably use the same tech.

My car has a blind spot monitor and it shows the location of cars around me on the heads up display. Also, when I turn on the turn signal, my dash shows me a video feed of that side of the car. You'd think all that stuff would be really useful, but I still look over my shoulder and then watch my mirror. I think I'm too old to learn new things. But my kids have blind spot monitoring lights in their cars and love them.

My wife and I took a 17 day dory trip through the canyon in October. We each brought a GoPro (10 Black and 9 Black) and our cell phones. A couple of people in the group brought DSLRs. For batteries, we brought a lot of extra GoPro batteries. Way too many. For the phones, we brought 26,000 mAh chargers. They were great. I much preferred that solution to bringing smaller chargers and using solar. If I had to do it again, I would have brought fewer GoPro batteries and relied on the chargers to recharge the batteries I did bring. For a phone, power management is the key. Stay in airplane mode so that you don't waste energy trying to communicate with cell towers you won't be able to reach anyway. Set your screen brightness relatively low. A mode...

I would expect TIPS to outperform nominal bonds when inflation is higher than expected. The opposite would be true whenever inflation was lower than expected. When inflation meets the market's expectations, there should be very little difference. It doesn't matter whether inflation is persistent. All that matters is how it differs from expectations. Assuming that you don't think you can predict inflation better than the market, which you choose depends on other factors like tax treatment and how inflation impacts you. For example, I worked in the oil industry, which usually outperforms during periods of high inflation, so I didn't have much fear of inflation. It made more sense for me to by nominal bonds rather than TIPS. You may work in an...

This appears to be the case that excess premiums are added to tax before the credits. This really isn’t something that can be rigged. For aca advanced credits you needed to agree to accurately report income, and they ask for verification. Misrepresenting income could lead to problems. In my case, I don't know how much my income will be. I get my income from selling investments in my taxable account. How much of that is taxable depends on how the market performs and what shares I decide to sell. It's a total swag. There is no way to accurately represent it a year in advance because I don't know it very far in advance. For working people, they face similar issues. My bonus used to vary by several multiples between years and I wouldn't know w...

This only applies to people getting ACA subsidies who also have a very low tax burden. I'm not sure if I'm reading the forms right, but it looks like underestimating (and possibly overestimating) your income on healthcare.gov impacts whether you get some non-refundable tax credits like the AOTC or the child tax credit. At the start of the year, I give Healthcare.gov an estimate of my anticipated income for the year. They use that information to determine a subsidy level for my ACA healthcare plan premiums. At the end of the year, I get a 1095-A. I use that information on Form 8962 to determine how much I received in "excess advance payment of the Premium Tax Credit." This amount then goes onto Schedule 2 and eventually makes its w...

Set your phone to not ring for numbers not in your address book. Run an ad blocker. Use temporary virtual credit cards for any merchant that seems dodgy or any that you suspect will make it hard to cancel your account. Why would you do business with a merchant who “seems dodgy” or one that “you suspect will make it hard to cancel?” Some companies provide a good subscription product, but they make it ridiculously difficult to cancel your subscription.I don't know if they've reformed or not, but I found SiriusXM and the Wall Street Journal to provide decent products, but they all made cancelling an extremely difficult task. If ever wanted to subscribe to any of their products, I guarantee you that I'd use a non-reusable credit card number so...

Set your phone to not ring for numbers not in your address book.

Run an ad blocker.

Use temporary virtual credit cards for any merchant that seems dodgy or any that you suspect will make it hard to cancel your account.

I agree with the others that the Lexus LC500 best matches your criteria. It's not nearly as boring as a typical Lexus and, aside from the tail light assembly, it's a really attractive car. Another option would be to buy an older sports car known for reliability that has fully depreciated. You'll probably spend much less on repairs than you'll lose in depreciation for something new. But it depends on what you're looking for. An older 911 isn't going to impress your neighbor. A Miata meets your convertible needs without the cost and hassle of an exotic. I once owned a Caterham 7. It was amazing and I loved it. But even if it wasn't one of the least safe and least comfortable cars on the road, I wouldn't daily drive it. It got too much attenti...

inv021 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 03, 2023 5:36 pm As part of a grandparent's estate we inherited a traditional IRA that we had to pay taxes on.

Not to nitpick, but inheriting a tIRA is not a taxable event. Withdrawing the money from it is the taxable part. If someone inherits an IRA, they can sit on it for almost 10 years, taking no money out and paying no taxes. By the end of year 10, it all has to be removed, but you are free to take it out whenever you want within that time frame.

I don't know anyone that uses OTA broadcast. Almost everyone I know gets their TV via cable, fiber, of streaming. Part of that is because I live in a heavily wooded neighborhood almost 30 miles from the broadcast towers for my city. I tried picking up a broadcast TV signal years ago and finally determined that I'd need a roof mounted antennae for it to work and I didn't want to fuss with that. I haven't see people use OTA TV in so long that I forgot that it was still a thing. But if I was going to use it, I wouldn't pay any attention to whether my TV had it built in. That's like worrying about what streaming services your TV supports. Your TV is a monitor. 3rd party devices virtually always work better. Will the TV have DVR capability? Woul...

I rarely wear a watch, but when I do it is a Garmin that I use to track data like heart rate and pace. I tried wearing a smart watch, but didn't like it. They seem useful, but I hate the bulk and feeling.

Fancy watches, like Rolexes, seem like an odd affectation these days. They remind me of the people that still wore pocket watches with their vests when I was a kid. The really fancy ones give off a decidedly negative "look at me, I'm special" vibe, like people with lots of chrome on their cars. But, I still like nice fountain pens, so I like my own impractical odd things, so I try not to be critical.

"Been in"? Yes, an airport stop counts. Imagine that you're sitting in DFW and someone calls you. They ask, "where are you? " You tell them, I'm in Texas at the DFW airport. Later, you're at a party with them and someone asks you if you've ever been to Texas. If you reply "No", your friend is going to think you are a liar. Of course you've "been in" Texas. You can still say you've never "stayed" in Texas. Maybe never "visited". But you have obviously "been in" the state. If I'm not mistaken, those people that try to visit as many countries as possible count it if they just set foot across the border. There is no minimum stay requirement or need to break bread with a nativ...

The only insurance I hold more than the minimum required is health insurance. I have yet to experience an event where insurance would have helped me compared to self-insuring. Umbrella insurance is popular with people of high net worth on this forum. I use vaguely similar logic with a very different approach. I don't insure the things for which the cost of a loss isn't a big deal - no extended warranties or stuff like that. I do insure the things for which a loss would be very painful, even though I could stomach it financially. In those cases, I usually get very high deductibles. So if my house takes several thousand dollars of damage, so be it. I'll write the check. If it takes tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage, I want s...

You can hire an attorney after things go wrong, but by that time it is too late to buy an umbrella policy.

I have a totally different mindset. When I was working and the market dropped, I tended to think "cool, stocks are on sale." Now that I'm retired, it is totally different.

I don't think you should view leasing as a good or bad option. It's just another option. I think it is usually a worse option, but you have to do the math to be sure. Car makers sometimes offer significant lease incentives to make it more attractive. They like leases because people tend to be willing to spend more on a leased car than a purchased car and because they know the person will be coming back in a few years. That said, I've never leased. I tend to own my cars for long periods of time and put lots of miles on them, both of which are usually better when doing an outright purchase. But when I bought my son his first car, we did a balloon payment loan because Hyundai gave the same $3,000 incentive that they were doing for leased cars....

I've found that the people that are happiest in retirement retire to do something rather than to get away from something. For my wife and I, some of our retirement pastimes include: 1) Walking every morning 2) Playing disc golf together and volunteering at tournaments 3) Volunteering at a local maker space 4) Creative hobbies - making stuff with a laser cutter, 3D printer, dye sub printer, CNC, etc 5) Travel - Big intl trips, cross country driving trips, local trips, camping trips, and whatever catches our fancy 6) Learning to fly and building an airplane 7) Taking much deeper dives into things that I did casually before 8) Reconnecting with old friends 9) Using Duolingo to "learn" new languages (Make those intl trips more interes...

• Monterey Peninsula (we prefer to stay in Pacific Grove)

• Dory trip through the Grand Canyon (outside motor season)

• Buffalo National River in Arkansas

• Colorado skiing (we like Winter Park, but there are soooo many good options)

• Western National Parks for hiking (Zion, Bryce, Rocky Mountain, Grand Tetons, Arches, Yellowstone)

• Disney World (haven't taken the family there since 2011 and what I've heard in the last few years makes me not very interested in going back)

• NYC (but only for <= 3 days; after that, I have to get out)

• Boundary Waters Canoe Area