Bogleheads.org

+1 to Ublock Origin. It makes for more pleasant browsing most of the time.

You're doing great! The biggest factors you control in determining your lifetime portfolio value: -Amount of risk (you're on this forum so probably already have a good asset allocation) -Amount of time in the market (you're starting young) -Savings rate (looks like you're doing great on this one as a % of income. In terms of total income, you've got tremendous upside potential. Position yourself for increasing your earning potential over the years) A random few things to consider: 1) Check out the retirement savings contribution credit. You might qualify or be able to qualify. (https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-savings-contributions-savers-credit). 2) Consider adding additional dollars to 401K before ...

Your options are basically: 1) Pay off mortgage slowly. Keep holding funds in equities. 2) Pay off mortgage slowly. Convert equities into a lower risk asset. 3) Pay off mortgage quickly. Convert equities into home equity. I encourage you to think about this in steps: A) Would you rather have an extra $1 in cash or reduce your mortgage by $1? -Cash right now can earn 4.75% interest in a CD, while your mortgage is 3.3% -There are liquidity and tax advantages to keeping the cash on hand compared to paying down home equity -There are peace-of-mind advantages to lowering one's mortgage B) If you pay off mortgage slowly, how much risk would you want on each $1 in hand? -Right now you're holding funds in index funds, which are risky over of modera...

Ally Bank meet your criteria and I recommend them.

In his book Dollars and Sense, Dan Ariely cites research that people spend more with credit cards than cash. Credit cards delay the pain of paying until later, and our present selves discount pain that will be incurred upon our future selves.

Reading about this convinced me that I'd probably spend less going all cash, but reducing my household's consumption isn't enough of a priority for me to do it.

I would never use it for anything important without verifying the information. You would think BUT..... I have people... - Using it to write up their annual goals - Talking points in leadership presentations - Wiki pages for various things - Likely for things I have not noticed - I shudder to think ... and I live in a part of IT where people ought to know better.... but it's faster and looks to pass muster on a glance. :oops: I cannot imagine what this looks like in universities (and yeah I know there are tools to spot it's output but they will fall behind if they have not already). If you blindly rely on ChatGPT's output without reviewing it, you're setting yourself up for failure. However, if you use it as a tool to generate suggestions ...

If I were in your shoes, I'd buy the non-oem on Ebay. I'd give it a 90%+ chance of working just fine, and $20 is a low amount to risk.

Almost went with Redfin last house sale and wish we had. Their IT platform automates a bunch of stuff that stand-alone agents either do inefficiently/unreliably or simply don't do because it is a hassle. Their process give you superior visibility into the process. And their rates are better.

I looked closely at IRS Publication 523 https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p523.pdf and it seems pretty explicit that I don't need to report the home sale because we don't have any taxable gain. Am I missing something? I quoted the relevant section below: Reporting Your Home Sale This section tells you how to report taxable gain, take deductions relating to your home sale, and report income other than the gain that you may have received from your home sale. This section also covers special circumstances that apply to some home sellers. What records to keep. Any time you buy real estate, you should keep records to document the property's adjusted basis. In general, keep these records until 3 years after the due date for your tax return for the ...

The more time each dollar has in the market, the higher you're likely return.
I think of investing as placing bets on dice that are slightly weighted in your favor. The more "rolls" the better.

Some quick ideas:

• Begin folding your emergency fund into ibonds. Ibonds will keep pace with inflation better than HYSA.
• Live off of the money you're currently planning to put into taxable for living expenses so you can put a larger % of your paycheck into 401k. Push back if my math is off on this, but I think it is preferable to have $ in 401k than $ in taxable.
• Going 90/10 equities to bonds would get you a more efficient trade-off between risk and reward.
• Keep maxing that Roth IRA!

I haven't read the previous posts so this might be redundant with other people's advice.

It is amazing how many problems currently solved with software can be solved 10x better with AI.
For the software developer, tapping into this tech is easy.
Buckle up. This is a bigger sea-change than the invention of the smartphone.

[looks in a hazy crystal ball] I'm particularly bullish on small cap stocks over the next 5y due to how cheap it has suddenly become to build software solutions that are superior to current tools.
No, I'm not going to actually put money behind that prediction. Staying the course.

A friend of mine paid the $1000, got some training and never used it.
There are great publicly available resources for things like meditation (Headspace app, books, etc).
I personally shy away from groups that claim to have religious truth behind a hefty paywall.

I'm interested in retiring early, but I'm also interested in generating surplus wealth to fund good things in the world. I'm a ways out from retirement so I'll see how my feelings evolve as I get older.

Your child should consider starting a podcast where they interview clinicians about their work

• Demonstrates a thrilling level of initiative
• Builds skills such as scheduling, interviewing, empathy, storytelling, audio recording, audio editing, web publishing, and a bit of graphic design
• Builds your child's knowledge of the medical field while establishing professional contacts and building a personal brand
• Makes a darn good story for admissions

If I needed to spin up a side hustle, I'd run a bunch of experiments with https://www.fiverr.com/ until I found some things that (a) people wanted to pay for, and (b) I wanted to do.

The numbers add up to me, based upon your assumptions. I’d suggest kicking the tires a bit $1200/mo living expenses. Like, what about kids, etc.

I wish I'd become a home owner earlier, only because prices appreciated a lot in my area and I would have gotten good returns buying a place with a lot of leverage. But we can't know what the future will hold. The financially conservative moves I made when I was younger were the right call, given the info available at the time. In terms of lifestyle, I really benefitted from and enjoyed the freedom of being a renter. If you want the lifestyle of home ownership, go for it! You've got the income where you could swing buying sooner than later if you really wanted to (401K loan, Roth withdrawal, or simply do 10% down). It would probably be even more prudent to save a bit more so you're making a 20% down conventional loan offer and don't have to...

I vote for fully funding the Roth as soon as you can.

• Timing the market is a fools errand
• Maximizing "time in market" is a good bet

Thanks for all of the wise advice!

I have an aging parent who is struggling to stay up on paperwork / bills / etc. They have a hard time discerning what mail is important vs not, and then acting on the important stuff. This has never been a strong point for them, but has gotten worse with a spouse death and cognitive decline. My sibling and I are their medical power of attorney and will soon be their financial power of attorney. We live far away from our parent. We trust one another, our parent trusts us, and all support is provided with consent and mutual transparency. We do lots of remote support, like: * Doing calls three way calls between one of us, the parent, and the cell phone company. * Going into the parents' inbox to help them find a message that they're having tro...

JasonHutt wrote: ↑Thu Jan 12, 2023 9:52 am

CommitmentDevice wrote: ↑Mon Jan 02, 2023 2:01 pm 12/31/19 $58K (Age 37)
12/31/20 $148K (Age 38)
12/31/21 $333K (Age 39)
12/31/22 $365K (Age 40)

Household maxed our retirement contributions for the first time this year! Might get student-debt free in 2023. Stay the course.

54% ESGV, 36% VSGX, 10% EAGG

I thought being up excluded cost basis.

You're right. I confused "up YTD" with "net worth progression." Wrong thread.

I highly value simplicity. It reduces effort and errors on my part, and reduces complexity for spouse / heirs should I become incapacitated.

Financial accounts proliferate. Occasional weeding is good gardening.

My family decided to sell our old house and roll (most) of the equity into our new place. I'm very glad we did it: Significant peace of mind to no longer have to worry about maintaining the property. This is before even adding in the additional concerns of a landlord (is tenant taking care of the place, does tenant keep paying, etc) or stressing about fluctuations in home value. The capital gains exemption on the sale of a primary residence is extremely generous. Our current mortgage is much lower than it would have been if we'd needed to take on a larger loan. Since you asked about the timing of selling and buying, here is what we did: Closed on our new place with 5% down. A few days later, closed the sale on our old place. Applied proceed...

12/31/19 $58K (Age 37)
12/31/20 $148K (Age 38)
12/31/21 $333K (Age 39)
12/31/22 $365K (Age 40)

Household maxed our retirement contributions for the first time this year! Might get student-debt free in 2023. Stay the course.

54% ESGV, 36% VSGX, 10% EAGG

I recently listened through The Big Short. The subprime lending crisis was an economic doomsday machine that would trigger as soon as housing prices stopped increasing and teaser mortgage rates expired. I don't think that particular doomsday machine is still operational.

ruralavalon wrote: ↑Wed Dec 07, 2022 1:56 pm

CommitmentDevice wrote: ↑Wed Dec 07, 2022 12:07 pm Met our goal of maxing retirement account contributions for this first time this year!

Congratulations .

Establishing a high rate of contributions is the most important investing decision you can make.

Thanks @ruralavalon! We're saving 35% of our income this year (if you include reductions in principal from mortgage / student loan payments). Truly proud and grateful to be able to put that much away!

Met our goal of maxing retirement account contributions for this first time this year!

I follow the asset allocation of Vanguard's 2045 target date retirement fund.
https://investor.vanguard.com/investmen ... tivx#price

It is currently at 34% international.

Reason = nobody knows in advance what asset allocation will actually prove optimal over my investment horizon. Vanguard's best guess makes sense to me and seems like as good a source of trust as anyone else's opinion.

The latest MacBook Air is a superb machine for most users.

Assumptions about you:

• You're not a professional video editor or a serious gamer
• You don't need hundreds of Gigs of storage
• You're willing to go through the learning curve of transitioning to the Mac operating system (which overall has a more intuitive user experience)

I'd definitely switch machines if your old computer is more than 3yo. Investing in keeping an older machine running is generally not worth it, in my opinion.

Welcome to the forum!
My quick gut is to stop putting into taxable and instead fund retirement accounts. Roth IRAs would be particularly attractive, given your low tax rate. A Roth IRA at Vanguard/Schwab/Fidelity/M1 would allow you to produce the 3-fund portfolio.

I'm a big fan of Cold Turkey Blocker for locking down my laptop from distracting websites.

BashDash wrote: ↑Wed Nov 16, 2022 7:39 am I'm intrigued on that Iphone SE for 130$.....I have a moto x4 and don't like the size and the storage....i am considering buying a storage card for like 50$ but at 130$ for the new phone I think the phone might be purchased....Can this SE be trusted as new coming from Hong Kong....seems like 130$ is too good to be true.

I'm using that exact phone from that seller right now. Works great. Arrived brand new and unlocked.

Downsides:
* The delivery time is 2-4 weeks
* Higher chance of cracking if dropped, as the glass has gotten stronger in recent years
* Screen is small (which I like)
* The latest phones are better for photography and gaming, neither of which I care about

The original iPhone SE came out in 2016 and sells new on Ebay, unlocked, for $130
https://www.ebay.com/itm/304432246867

My pet theory - inflation has businesses looking for creative ways to raise prices.

My opinion on the practice of charging customers a credit card processing fee - it is up to each business to figure out of if the +/- are worth it.

If I had my own business - I'd try to go into an industry with generous enough profit margins that I could absorb the credit card processing fee without worrying about it.

arcticpineapplecorp. wrote: ↑Mon Nov 14, 2022 2:09 pm ublock origin.

love it.

I agree.

Staying the course. Couldn't be bothered to try and figure out an alternative. Not (at all) confident the alternative I came up with would do better.

The Getting Started page (https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting_started) covers the Bogleheads Philosophy and links to the personal finance planning startup kit (https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Boglehe ... art-up_kit), both of which I think you'll find useful.

The best investment you can make right now is in your knowledge about personal finance.

Welcome to the forum!
This article does a good job of walking through prioritizing investments. https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Priorit ... nvestments. I've pasted the key image below.

I personally wouldn't buy waterfront property at sea level if I anticipated owning it over a long time horizon.

Do what you want to do. If that means working, then great.
Don't increase consumption in areas where it doesn't increase happiness.
Invest in meaningful, enduring relationships.
Put yourself in spaces where you're regularly interacting with brilliant people doing amazing things.
Be good to your body.

Most people don't appreciate how bad gas is for indoor air quality. There is value in positioning yourself for going all electric.

That is very uncommon practice, I assure you. Folks just starting their career or in the midst of it, raising kids, buying a house (or perhaps a bigger house), paying for college, child support, alimony, etc., have other things planned for those tax dollars saved by investing pre-tax. A case of theoretical vs. the real world. Therefore, the practical analysis doesn't usually take into consideration reinvesting tax savings elsewhere. samsoes, Average American saves less than 5% of their gross income. Anyone that saves more than that is not normal at all. Much less folks believe that they over invested in the 401K. My daughter max her 401K and Roth IRA since she started working. I know that she is not normal. KlangFool Good for her. To do th...

If they're interested in electronics, generally, I recommend Snap Circuits https://www.elenco.com/snap-circuits-2/. They're fantastic for learning how circuits work, including advanced circuits. The experiments manual is very well scaffolded for self-learning.

After that, the next step up is a breadboard kit by SparkFun https://www.sparkfun.com/, perhaps with a digital interface for programming.

Only after the above steps does it make sense to break out the solder gun.

Here is the exclusion criteria for Vanguard's ESG stocks fund: Excludes companies that*: Derive any revenue from involvement in controversial weapons, civilian firearms, (I want a responsibly well-armed population) nuclear power (most efficient source of clean energy) , or fossil fuels (I don't believe they are destroying the planet) . Derive any revenue from the production of tobacco, cannabis (personal choices people should be free to make) , or conventional military weapons (some amount necessary for the security of a nation) , or greater than 5% revenue from supplying or retailing these products. Derive greater than 5% revenue from the production of alcohol, gambling, or adult entertainment (all personal choices people should be free t...

This is my 3-fund ESG portfolio:

• Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock (ETF), ESGV, .12%
• Vanguard ESG International Stock (ETF), VSGX, .15%
• iShares ESG U.S. Aggregate Bond (ETF), EAGG, .10%

I don't expect to beat the market. I'll probably underperform it in what for me is an immaterial way.
I don't expect my investments will materially change markets or the world. I suspect Engine no. 1's model of shareholder activism is more impactful.
This portfolio feels like the right ethical compromise for me right now... between, diversification / fees / returns / simplicity and my moral compass.

You don't say what type of accounts the funds are in but your concern for taxes seems to imply they are tax-deferred accounts. Frankly, I would leave them alone and let your children inherit them at the appropriate time. All the funds are with Fidelity, 3 accounts (two individual and one joint) and all in cash, as of last January. I have no idea if they are tax-deferred. If they are not in tax deferred accounts (IRA or Roth) then you will have to pay tax (at the capital gains rates, not the income rate) on the amount of capital gains in the funds when you sold them to get to cash. Only one of the thrr accounts is an IRA, so i take it to mean that we will have to pay capital gains tax on the other two. Question - We took the funds out of th...

I suggest deciding upon an asset allocation for funds. Holding cash means your funds are decreasing in value due to inflation.

For example:

• $1M in very conservative investments to fund you through the rest of your life (That'd cover $100,000/yr for 10 years). Perhaps t-bills, money market fund, bonds, cds or VASIX.
• $0.5M in very conservative investments to fund your gifting through the rest of your life (That'd cover $20K per kid per yr for 10 years). Perhaps t-bills, money market fund, bonds, cds or VASIX.
• $1.5M in moderately conservative investments, under the assumption that they'll remain invested for more than 5 years before inherited by your heirs. Perhaps VSCGX.

We negotiated our realtor down to a commission that they accepted but were resentful about. When it came to evaluating offers, they clearly were representing their interests to close the deal instead of our interests to get top dollar. That incentive misalignment is always there, but it felt extra alive because the realtor perceived that they were operating on tight margins. It worked out fine for us, but if I could do it again I'd just go with Redfin. A lot of the work that a traditional realtor invests time into is automated by Redfin's technology, which is (I suspect) a large part of how they're able to operate on smaller commissions.

Amazing - thanks for the great advice, everyone!