Bogleheads.org

For us it was always easier driving than flying. Door to door drive with everything thrown in the trunk of the car and being able to pull over at any time anywhere is truly a blessing. We generally start adjusting kids at 6 weeks of age to trips several hours per day. By the time they are 2 they usually know 6 hours per day is expected.

Lawrence of Suburbia wrote: ↑Sat Sep 24, 2022 2:37 am I don't get why Vanguard (or Schwab, or Fidelity, or ...) doesn't introduce a single fund emulating the 3-Fund Portfolio, in a 60/40 A.A. and maybe a 40/60 one for retirees.

They want you to use their robot service. This goes for Schwab, Fidelity, E-trade, etc...

i don't, but may I ask what the range of percentages of international you've been seeing? Is it closer to 30% or 20% international? I wouldn't imagine Vanguard would want people overweighting to international (i.e., >40%) but could be if following Merriman's long held advice of 50/50 US/Int. Significantly lower than 40% international. could it be because Jack Bogle advocated for anywhere from 0%-20%? After all of these years, Vanguard is finally taking Jack's advice on some PAS accounts but not others such as target date funds? point well taken. I assume it's the wishes of the account holders rather than a PAS recommendation, but I suppose we'll have to wait to see what you discover. Keep us posted if/when your article comes out after you ...

Vanguard PAS doesn’t discuss any foreign or international allocations nor do they discuss any duration of their bonds. They simply put you in 60% US and 40% international. When asked whether one can deviate from this they will generally agree going down to 30% but no less.

It really comes down to Schwab vs E*Trade.

Schwab:
- doesn't have as good cash management options
- mutual funds are expensive to buy
- has foreign ATM and debit transactions refunds
- excellent customer service

E*Trade
- has pretty good cash management
- a lot mutual funds are free to buy and sell
- does not have debit card that refunds foreign transactions and ATMs.
- customer service not as top notch as Schwab

WinstonTeracina wrote: ↑Fri Mar 17, 2023 10:34 am One solution would be to switch to M1 finance: https://m1.com/

I am surprised the larger brokerages don’t seem to offer something similar.

They want you to use their robot services.

Yes on our videographer. We hired guy with 5 star reviews on Yelp/google. The pictures and video quality ended up being worst than iPhone at that time. I think the guy was drunk and forgot to turn on camera stabilization. Entire video was ruined.

If they didn't contact you via US mail then it doesn't count.

Dottie57 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 3:53 pm

Blue456 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 6:56 pm

Dottie57 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 10:34 am

Blue456 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 12, 2023 8:00 pm Whatever you do don't get a beagle.

Why? Neighbors had a beagle my whole family loved. He was Funny , intelligent, opinionated. If there is a heaven and I end up there I hope to find him there.

One of my neighbors had one and it would never stop barking and howling. So many sleepless nights...

The dog should have been inside. Blame the owners not the dog. Plus the dog needed to be exercised enough to be tired at night and ready to sleep.

It usually is the owners, they don't know better how to socialize a dog. However some breeds are easier to raise than others.

Dottie57 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 10:34 am

Blue456 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 12, 2023 8:00 pm Whatever you do don't get a beagle.

Why? Neighbors had a beagle my whole family loved. He was Funny , intelligent, opinionated. If there is a heaven and I end up there I hope to find him there.

One of my neighbors had one and it would never stop barking and howling. So many sleepless nights...

placeholder wrote: ↑Sun Mar 12, 2023 10:30 pm

Blue456 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 10, 2023 5:19 am Keep in mind that 401k has protections from creditors that taxable account doesn't. If you are in any profession at risk of getting sued then you may want to consider highest growth assets in creditor protected accounts such as 401k, IRA, 529, HSA.

I think this is poor advice because if you are concerned about being sued you should get adequate insurance to cover the situation not warp your investments.

For some professions insurance is handled by the employer and is unaffordable and or would hugely exceed any tax cost savings.

Whatever you do don't get a beagle.

Faisal wrote: ↑Sun Mar 12, 2023 8:12 am Socialism at its best. The government bails out a bank due to bad decisions. I do appreciate the timing of the government decision. Whoever decided to take over SVB on Friday was experienced. The fact that they have the weekend to stop the contagion from spreading is responsible and effective. It ensures that everyone gets breathing space. Kudos to him/her/they/them.

The bank didn’t get bail out. The FDIC insurances kicked in to protect the bank customers up to $250,000. Kind of like your car insurance will kick in if you rear end a Lamborghini. If something, this is capitalism at its best. A bank that did poor risk management went under.

Charles Joseph wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 4:18 pm Well, I'm 100% US with 2.5 years to go until retirement. I've been US forever, initially due to ignorance, and most recently deliberately. I'm finally 100% indexed - the two-fund portfolio. At this stage of the game, do I take the next step and add international, or just stay the course?

Perhaps the diversification maybe more important during retirement as less human capital is available to make up for 10 or 15 years of underperformance.

quantAndHold wrote: ↑Sat Mar 11, 2023 12:48 pm

Blue456 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 10, 2023 8:49 pm

mega317 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 10, 2023 1:11 pm Less stressful--have a moving company do everything including pack for you.

Yeah if you wanna pay someone $15,000 to move you. We did it for $3,000 by getting our own movers and renting our own U-haul.

We did it for $4000, by paring down what we had. $15,000 is what it costs if someone else is paying the bill so you don’t care what it costs.

That's cheap. The only quotes I was able to get moving from Midwest to NY was $15,000 or more using uhaul website.
for 15k you get someone coming in, loading the truck, driving it, and unloading it. Essentially they were charging at least $10,000 just for driving uHaul truck.

Bud wrote: ↑Wed Mar 08, 2023 7:22 pm

https://www.afrugaldoctor.com/home/japa ... nikkei-225

Really good article, thank you for sharing.

mega317 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 10, 2023 1:11 pm Less stressful--have a moving company do everything including pack for you.

Yeah if you wanna pay someone $15,000 to move you. We did it for $3,000 by getting our own movers and renting our own U-haul.

Keep in mind that 401k has protections from creditors that taxable account doesn't. If you are in any profession at risk of getting sued then you may want to consider highest growth assets in creditor protected accounts such as 401k, IRA, 529, HSA.

8foot7 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 07, 2023 2:29 pm Send them a bill for $150 for "administrative issues and resolution time. When they don't pay, send the bill to collections. I'm joking, but not entirely.

You could essentially take them to court and if court rules in your favor you can show up with sheriff department and a uhaul truck to confiscate their assets.

This guy did it to their local Bank of America branch:

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Business/ban ... d=13775638

Hello all. I am at a bit of a loss about this topic and hoping those familiar with Federal government employment benefits can assist. My wife worked as a federal employee for just under 10 years but left the government about 9 years ago. I know that she has paid into and has vested a pension under the FERS employment designation. She has kept her Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) account open and left the funds in there, but nowhere does she ever see any information related to her pension. I was somewhat hopeful that there would be a way to keep tabs on it, or at least confirm the amount she will be paid upon reaching retirement age. She has called once or twice and not really reached anyone who could provide clear guidance. With 10 years of servi...

If she doesn't trust online banks you can try set her up with one of the local banks with high yield savings. For example TD bank will give you wife 3% interest on anything over $250,000. There are some large credit unions that may have local branches and offer something similar (for example PenFed).

I just wanted to thank everybody for all of the feedback on this question. There are a lot of valuable and varying perspectives on this topic. It is good to know that this is not uncommon in the medical field. We agree that the reciprocity is a good thing although we're not in a position where that matters to us as much. It is interesting that there is no termination date. I wonder if when the tide would turn and they're not hungry for people if they could change policy and terminate the agreement. A question but not a big factor in the decision. The biggest question remains what they could do to enforce the 90 days since it is not stated in the agreement. We don't think that 90 days notice is unreasonable but we can also think of scenario...

There maybe a lot of emotional attachment since the money came from her mom. There are 3-4% high yield savings accounts that she could put the money into and do relatively fair relative to inflation. Probably down the road I would talk to her if she wanted to use the proceeds to pay off the mortgage. This would be a very safe investment and it would also provide an actual material object that she could be thankful to her mom.

aristotelian wrote: ↑Sun Mar 05, 2023 3:50 pm One thing that might be easier for her to accept psychologically would be to keep the 300k in a money market fund but then change your Roth accounts to 100% stock.

+1.

Aguilar wrote: ↑Sun Feb 26, 2023 7:12 pm My EF has been in a Capital One 360 savings for a few years. Currently has a 3.4% APY. I like the liquidity but considering my EF is enough for 1 year of expenses, I don’t really need all of it to be immediately liquid. Should I take a portion of my EF and invest in a CD ladder? How would you approach this?

As for the size of my EF, I prefer to hold a year’s expenses bc my industry is volatile and I’ve been laid off before. One time it took over 6m to find a new job.

I just buy the one year CDs and will break them in an emergency as needed. You could also spread your fund between 12 CDs and put them on auto renew.

MathWizard wrote: ↑Fri Mar 03, 2023 8:59 am 3. I don't want to deplete my savings, or

This is a very valid reason. Delaying social security you are essentially buying an annuity. It is inflation indexed and maybe the best annuity you purchase but it is still an annuity. You give up certain amount of money to have life time payments.

He may want to have equal income throughout entire retirement. If his social security starts at 70 wouldn't it make sense to bridge the 13 years out of TSP? Currently highest social security at 70 is 4555 per month, 54660 per year or 710,580 over 13 years. With his 800,000 in TSP he would essentially purchase an inflation adjusted pension at the age of 70. He would be able to have same amount of income at 57 and 70. This maybe important for someone who wants to travel right after retirement instead of waiting until later age. Another aspect to think about is the spouse. Is it easier for the spouse to get monthly ~4500 paycheck or manage TSP/IRA accounts? I maybe with similar predicament when I retire at 57. And while saying good bye to $80...

Emptying your TSP in 13 years because you can? Seems odd, but maybe I'm missing something. Wouldn't be the first time!? He may want to have equal income throughout entire retirement. If his social security starts at 70 wouldn't it make sense to bridge the 13 years out of TSP? Currently highest social security at 70 is 4555 per month, 54660 per year or 710,580 over 13 years. With his 800,000 in TSP he would essentially purchase an inflation adjusted pension at the age of 70. He would be able to have same amount of income at 57 and 70. This maybe important for someone who wants to travel right after retirement instead of waiting until later age. Another aspect to think about is the spouse. Is it easier for the spouse to get monthly ~4500 pay...

This is just a personal anecdote, and our situations are different, but FWIW... I retired with only 5.5 years of govt service, having worked elsewhere for 35 years before I became a fed. So I was also not looking at a huge payout from FERS, but what I do get covers what I paid in after only four years, and then it's "gravy" for the rest of my life (plus a survivor benefit). And that's not even taking into account COLA. That is a great return, in my book, and it looks like your payback period would be about the same. Here's that link.... Side question: Do you also get access to FEHB (healthcare) since you stayed over five years and technically retired as a Fed? That would be a really good deal for putting in five years of civil se...

Credit cards need to be utilized to maintain credit history. I recommend at a bank at which you already have checking account. That way every time you check your balance you can see how much you owe to the credit card company and how much money you have on your debit card. You can also make immediate payments to keep credit cards balance at $0 or $1.

Title of this thread is a little bit misleading until vanguard app can be restricted.

He maybe consolidating assets.

I would be suspicious of any rankings that put NYC and San Francisco at the bottom... "Crime & Safety" and "Affordability" are two of the 9 factors used in making the rankings. My guess is these two factors drag down NYC and SF. Regards, Affordability yes, but crime, no. because crime per capita is pretty good. NYC is #37 out of 151 on crime metric And somehow NYC is dead last for commute time, when it’s one of the few places in America where you can walk, bike, or take a subway/train to work for almost no cost compared to owning a car and sitting in traffic NYC is not a safe place to bike. Subway is unsafe not to mention unreliable and it takes hours to get anywhere around. Honestly I would rather be stuck in LA tr...

I would be suspicious of any rankings that put NYC and San Francisco at the bottom... "Crime & Safety" and "Affordability" are two of the 9 factors used in making the rankings. My guess is these two factors drag down NYC and SF. Regards, Affordability yes, but crime, no. because crime per capita is pretty good. NYC is #37 out of 151 on crime metric And somehow NYC is dead last for commute time, when it’s one of the few places in America where you can walk, bike, or take a subway/train to work for almost no cost compared to owning a car and sitting in traffic NYC is not a safe place to bike. Subway is unsafe not to mention unreliable and it takes hours to get anywhere around. Honestly I would rather be stuck in LA tr...

tev9876 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 22, 2023 1:05 pm
In the end shaming them on social media got it resolved within 48 hours. I posted a review for that location on Google maps. The corporate account picked it up and contacted me for details. I sent the same documentation I had sent to the credit card and they took care of it right away.

Bing. We got the winner here. This is how we solved our dispute with Nissan. It was our last recourse after extensive phone calls, emails, letters to the executive board.

Happy wife happy life. We were in similar situation with wife not feeling fulfilled working as full time physician with excessive taxes and income adjusted child care costs. Money is not worth your wife's happiness. Um, trying to keep the wife happy sort of got them in this mess in the first place. True but finding happiness is a process. Let the house be an expensive lesson on good finances. Being good with money I also think is a process. Hopefully from now both OP and his wife will strike a better balance. The OP scenario is kind of what happened to us minus too big of a house. I wanted to rent because I thought it was a better investment for my money. Wife wanted a house and I had her promise that she is committing herself to working f...

Happy wife happy life. We were in similar situation with wife not feeling fulfilled working as full time physician with excessive taxes and income adjusted child care costs. Money is not worth your wife's happiness.

Google keep and apple notes both work really well and are free. No way I am paying for Evernote.

Funny as some banks limit transfers to 2500 per day both incoming and outgoing. Many have 5000 limits. So in essence these banks give you no choice but to split your 20 or 30k transfer into multiple.

Personally when transferring money I do not care much about how much I transfer and into how many transactions I split it into. I do for me whatever is most convenient and it is up to the bank to report whatever the law requires them to report.

placeholder wrote: ↑Tue Feb 14, 2023 1:25 pm

Blue456 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 14, 2023 5:20 am The one time I transferred assets to E-trade my cost basis didn't transfer. Good thing I check... They didn't catch it on their own either. I messaged them in a chat and they promptly fixed the issue.

I don't know the details of your experience but it can take some time for cost basis to catch up with an acats transfer and I haven't had any trouble with lot information transferring to etrade.

I waited 4 weeks before contacting them.

I use alliant credit union.

cbox wrote: ↑Tue Feb 14, 2023 5:46 am When you're older, simplifying your financial life is one of the best things you can do for your heirs. If Treasury Direct represents account number 3, 4, or 5, I'd think twice. Is the (possible) extra yield worth the hassle of having another account?

+1.

We are much younger but decided to close our I-bonds out of having simplicity.

The one time I transferred assets to E-trade my cost basis didn't transfer. Good thing I check... They didn't catch it on their own either. I messaged them in a chat and they promptly fixed the issue. It did leave a poor initial impression so after getting done with the bonus I transferred money out. Their UI is really oriented towards trading and they will flash at you losses or gains in both their iPhone app and online. In the end I consolidated at Vanguard but it's nice to have E-trade as a back up to Vanguard mutual funds.

Try E*Trade.

I only buy All Clad and had them for several years. I have 3 frying pans, two pots and they are well worth the price. Please make sure that whatever you buy is stainless steal.

legalwriter1 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 11, 2023 3:00 pm I like my I-bonds. With 4 children, I also like the tuition exclusion with I-bonds. I-bonds serve as a great place to park my emergency fund after the 1 year hold. I like to keep around 12 months of living expenses in my efund. The tax deferral is nice too.

One thing to keep in mind is that tuition exclusion is income dependent.

I lived in South West, South East, Midwest and now in the North East. By far the South West despite high temperatures is most tolerable year round due to low humidity.

IRouteIP wrote: ↑Thu Feb 09, 2023 7:20 pm As the title says, I received an email from Ally today saying they eliminated the $9.95 fee for mutual funds.

Of course, this is 3 days after I opened an taxable brokerage account at Vanguard to move my emergency fund to a money market fund paying 1% more than my Ally Savings. I could have bought it through Ally had I waited a few days!

I have used Ally Invest years ago for individual stocks (got out of that game) and fund it clunky. But, for just holding VUSXX as part of my emergency fund, it may be worth it to keep it all in one place.

This is great news. Unfortunately unlike etrade, Ally does not have secure 2FA.

whodidntante wrote: ↑Thu Feb 09, 2023 11:24 pm Vanguard's Commodore 64 is not going to handle this.

Didn’t we go to the moon on one of those?

Congratulations to you guys! Not a lot of families can afford stay home wife. Your wife will be very happy to have more time with the kids.

We have kids similar ages. My wife did the same, after increased taxes, day care costs adjusted to income, she found working as full time physician not worth the time lost away from kids.

See if you wife can find a side geek from home to make up even a little income.

Keep in mind that the specialist likely spent double the time reviewing your chart. This sometimes can take even more time in the current day and age of dysfunctional medical records. You are charged for that time.