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Bammerman

I've had the same asset allocation, with only slight changes, for at least 10 years. According to Financial Engines, that allocation is: Cash and Short Term Bonds (in my case, this is almost entirely made up of the TSP G-Fund): 58% Bonds: 11% U.S. Large Cap Stocks: 21% U.S. Mid/Small Cap Stocks: 3% ...

Bammerman

+1 for homeowners and umbrella liability insurance. Also check into your homeowners policy to see about your replacement coverage in case of total catastrophe to your home. May also be wise to have a written list with pictures of all of your possessions that are in your home and have this stored in...

Bammerman

The Delta Electronics VFB25ACH Breez 80 CFM Humidity Sensor Exhaust Fan can be set to operate in either of two modes--humidity sensor or full speed. A pair of blue and amber LED lights indicate which mode is active. This actually is the fan we have. I chose it when we had the bathroom renovated two...

Bammerman

This question has been nagging at me for a while and I hope someone here has enough of a science background to answer it: The question arose when I noticed that the exhaust fan in my bathroom, which turns on automatically when it detects high humidity [e.g. after I shower] seems to run more slowly i...

Bammerman

Better to spend the time PLAYING with your daughter!

Bammerman

You do not mention the effect, if any, of the proposed changes on your state income taxes (again, if any). I mention this because in at least one state, North Carolina, TSP payouts are exempt from state income tax (for certain qualified federal annuitants). Just a caution to be sure you are aware of...

Bammerman

Broken Man, could you please explain/amplify your comment, “You can't replace the Roth space you would give up.”? Especially “replace” and “Roth space”?

Bammerman

Greetings all, and Happy New Year, as best as possible in this sad era. We have now received the final bill for all our finished renovations/repairs, etc., and of course, with various "additions" which we requested, we're going to need more money, about $10,000. The question is whether to ...

Bammerman

My wife and I have been walking a lot more since Covid. I used to go to the Y at least five days a week to work out, but not since last March. With the approach of winter (and icy sidewalks, etc.) I began to think about buying a treadmill -- a used one (I am a Boglehead, after all). I lucked out and...

Bammerman

As I said in another post, I believe there will be a huge surge -- in travel from the US to international locations, as well as in tourism (and business travel) from abroad to the US. I think there's an enormous pent-up demand just waiting for safer conditions to be released.

Bammerman

...Just be sure to research your state's tax implications, if any, of "fiddling" with your TSP. In my state (NC) there's a state supreme court ruling (the Bailey rule) that affects (eliminates) state income tax obligations for pensions of certain retired federal employees. This includes pa...

Bammerman

Do you want a pen that is for "show" or for "go"? In my experience it usually comes down to a choice between the two. My best "go" pens are Pelikan and Waterman Phileas. Okay, as soon as I typed that, I realized I had forgotten my sterling silver Parker 75 (s) ! Sorry a...

Bammerman

To me, the "actionable item" is to remember that we're human beings, not just money machines.

Bammerman

"So you think that there will be a real resurgence of Europeans, Indians, Japanese, South Americans, Australians and so forth visiting the US?"

Of course.

Bammerman

I believe that in just a year or two, or three or four -- once the vaccine is really out-and-about in the world -- there will be a huge resurgence in international travel (travel, tourism, dining, shopping, and related activities) as all the pent-up demand is released. If I assume that to be a truis...

Bammerman

Every day (my biggest stake is in the TSP's L funds, which rebalance daily).

Bammerman

I'm trying to figure out our (self, age 69 + wife, 68) current asset allocation. According to Financial Engines, all our various retirement funds add up to this allocation: Cash and Short Term Bonds: 58% Bonds: 11% U.S. Large Cap Stocks: 20% U.S. Mid/Small Cap Stocks: 3% International Stocks: 7% Oth...

Bammerman

[Thread merged into here, see below (next page). --admin LadyGeek] I've been re-reading some of Munchkin Man's posts. I miss the MM! MM, where are you when we really need you? I can't believe it's been 13 years since his first post on Bogleheads. Entertaining, friendly, unusual, good-spirited. And ...

Bammerman

Since there's been so much interest in this thread ( :D ) I thought I'd close the circle: I decided to take the funds required to pay for the repairs from my TSP. What really worked out nicely here is that, purely by chance (I wish I could claim brilliant clairvoyance, but it just ain't so), my TSP ...

Bammerman

While I am now working with a mortgage broker regarding a refinance, I don't plan to do a cash-out refinance, so that will be irrelevant to my need for additional cash in a few weeks to pay for these house repair projects. I will need to sell approximately $10,000 worth of assets in one of the funds...

Bammerman

So $310 is the current daily benefit, after prior inflation adjustments have been applied? Yes. Is the inflation adjustment a cap based on CPI or an automatic adjustment? I don't know. I can't find anything responsive to this question on JH's very laconic website. You haven’t given us any informati...

Bammerman

I was a census enumerator -- pardon me if someone else already provided this: About 10% of census respondents are selected for quality-control phone calls or personal contacts to check on my work and that of other enumerators -- to make sure we got it right and didn't just make it up, etc. As to you...

Bammerman

I don't really understand the logic behind a cash-out refi to pay for these home projects. After factoring in the cost of the refinance, even if there's a lower interest rate than I'm currently paying (4.25%), it seems to me that the total cost of the refi would still be higher than the rate(s) that...

Bammerman

At this point I'm not refinancing, although I'm still watching the numbers. I've recently picked up a few odd jobs including some census work, but that only amounts to a few thousand dollars. So we plan to pay for most of the work from our credit union money market account. That will take care of ab...

Bammerman

Current/past annual premium: $1,690.21. New annual premium (if I don't take any of the other options): $2,286.53. Yes, thank goodness, my net worth has increased in the last 13 or so years since I bought this policy. But I'd like to ensure that no matter what, there's something left for my wife* and...

Bammerman

I have a LTC policy with John Hancock. Some years ago they gave me a choice between a premium increase or reducing my annual inflation rate from 5% to 3.9% compound, and I chose the latter. The daily benefit on the policy is $310. Now again they plan to increase the premium, and are giving me the ch...

Bammerman

I have experience with this. Our most popular, most used room in our house gets direct sun from the West and from the South. It gets HOT in the summer. It is the sole room in the house with a flat "membrane" roof. It's over a garage. When we moved into the house the roof was black. I waite...

Bammerman

Our house needs a new roof (no leaks we are aware of, but it's 17 years old and showing its age -- and I don't want to wait until we do discover water damage), a new deck, and repainting. The bill for all three projects would be $56,000. The question is, should we cash in some of our investments to ...

Bammerman

I forwarded the email to my kids and other family members whom I knew had or had had these phones. I know $25 isn't much these days but every little bit counts (especially for Bogleheads!).

Bammerman

Today I received an email regarding a settlement in a lawsuit concerning Apple and "diminished performance" in certain iPhones. To quote an excerpt, "Apple will provide a cash payment per eligible device to each Class Member who submits a timely and valid Claim Form including a serial...

Bammerman

I have tried to research this but have not found the answer. Maybe one of you can help. Situation: I have an LG OLED smart tv from 2017 that I'm very happy with, however, it did not come with a version of Google Assistant built in, as I believe later years' LG models did. I use the tv's built-in app...

Bammerman

Not that hard when you only work part time and/or rarely, but my post wasn't about me personally, but about the very large number of people who'll be working much less in 2020 and therefore making much smaller IRA investments, or none at all, this year.

Bammerman

I just finished making the last of my 2019 Roth contributions, and filed my federal tax return. I doubt that either my wife or I wi'll have any earned income in 2020, thanks to Covid-19 job losses, and therefore I expect that we won't be eligible to make any IRA contributions this year. I presume th...

Bammerman

This is a timely thread for me. My deck is only about 10 years old, but was built, I now understand, rather poorly, with mediocre, at least, materials. I'm thinking strongly of having it re-planked with a composite such as Trex. That will be expensive, in part because additional headers will need to...

Bammerman

I did it -- put in GFCI in five ungrounded outlets, including two 20-amp receptacles (of course using 20-amp GFCI in those two) and labeling them appropriately. Not at all difficult. Wasted the most time trying to figure out which circuit breakers controlled the various locations. I'm glad I did it ...

Bammerman

I had a horrible thought a few moments ago: what if I were to die unexpectedly and, as a result, all the thousands of old family photos that I've digitized over the years are lost/become inaccessible to my children and grandchildren? These are pictures not only of my youth and that of my wife and ou...

Bammerman

I'm going the GFCI route, and put on my mask and bought a set of three at Lowes this afternoon. I'll start installing them tomorrow morning while it's still cool. (in the course of all this I found a three-hole receptacle behind my dresser, and was really excited, until I plugged the tester in and i...

Bammerman

Thanks to everybody for this extremely useful information. My three portable indoor AC units all have big plugs that incorporate "reset" and "test" buttons, which make them look, at least to my uneducated eye, like GFCI. Is that what they are? Also, I was trying to "check fo...

Bammerman

[thread title edited for clarity - moderator prudent] The "cheater" I'm talking about is the little gizmo that lets you plug a 3-prong, grounded plug into an old 2-hole, ungrounded electrical receptacle. If you have an older home you know what I'm talking about, if perhaps you use a diffe...

Bammerman

Life is a mystery. Isn't it great?

Bammerman

To give my answer to the OP's question, "at what moment does retirement begin": I used to think -- mistakenly -- that I would "retire" when I stopped working for the USG and began collecting my pension. I had based my investing strategies on the idea that this is when "retir...

Bammerman

Good news, I just read this from MacRumors: "Apple's ‌iPhone 11 Pro‌ also fared the best in a bend test, bending at 251 pounds of pressure. The ‌iPhone 11‌ bent at 240 pounds of pressure, while the ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ cracked at 232 pounds." This means, given my current weight, that I can ...

Bammerman

I knew I wouldn't be disappointed in the quality of responses on a Boglehead forum!

I meant back pocket. I normally carry my phone in my front pants pocket, screen towards my body. If anything happens to the phone there, I have worse things to worry about than the health of my phone.

Bammerman

I've seen even dumber questions posted here, so I'm not going to be too embarrassed to ask this: with its stainless steel frame and super-gorilla-glass screen, would it be safe for a 160-lb. man to carry his iPhone 11 Pro in his hip pocket? I'm sure there are lots of people who would like to share t...

Bammerman

I'm revising/updating my financial advice letter to my spouse in case I predecease her, and I have a question about one part of it -- the order in which to spend down assets. Note, this paragraph does not address other income streams such as my pension, which would continue (at a reduced rate) and h...

Bammerman

Admittedly it has been quite a while since I read through the Bailey Rule, but I'm pretty sure I remember explicit mention that proceeds from a Bailey-eligible federal retiree's TSP investments are not subject to NC income tax, but that moving the funds out of the TSP would render any subsequent pro...

Bammerman

I'm sure this has been discussed in the forum a million times or more. But I'm still perplexed about why so many people recommend keeping a collection of funds of different, and separate, asset types -- as opposed to balanced funds. Because it seems to me that the only important day -- as regards th...

Bammerman

So I guess the question really is, whether my tax rate is likely to go up in future years, in which a Roth IRA investment (for 2019, still permitted under recent emergency tax changes) would be more advantageous, or down, in which case a traditional IRA investment would be better. But that's hard to...

Bammerman

Thanks for these hints and clarifications. I had looked for, but had not found, the method to add a fund to my existing Roth IRA account. Now I've gone back and found how to do it, thanks to the aforementioned posts, and have purchased the highly adventurous and speculative VTTVX fund. Initially I t...

Bammerman

I am trying to ask, must I now open a brokerage account at Vanguard in order to purchase mutual fund shares?

I don't want a brokerage account.

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