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S&P 500 index is what is usually available in good 401K plans. So I have a lot in it, and not much in total market.

For 20+ years of accumulation, has worked out more than fine.

OSU. And I’m from Michigan too!

Columbus is not a bad place to be either. Booming smaller city with lots to do.

Here’s how I know we have “made it”: If I had to pay off my mortgage tomorrow I could. It’s only 10% of our NW. We live in a place we like. I sometimes have a hard time imagining a better place to live within reason. (I.e. not counting million+ vacation house type of scenarios, which would be great but aren’t in our cards). We have great health insurance and access to top hospitals. I eat and drink whatever I want, again within reason. My kids will go to one of the best high schools in the country. We go on the vacations we want. Not White Lotus stuff at all, but special for us. If we both lost our jobs tomorrow, I have the confidence we could find work to pay the bills. Our family and friends love each other. Yes we are in the two comma cl...

For long term investment performance, a diverse stock portfolio will outperform the overall RE market 11 times out of 10. Will it do so where you live? No one knows. Your house is an expense not an investment. Make sure you are putting away enough young enough that it can grow into a nice sun when you are older. Then you can buy a house if you want to. But always make investments the first priority.

here's what we did in the small master in our 3-bath home. There's a regular tub in the basement bath so we still have one. Removed the old small whirlpool tub - what a silly thing to have installed in the first place (not by us). White pre-molded but nice shower pan, glass long wall/door, porcelain marble-look subway tile on three sides, inset shelf in rear short wall. White cabinets, dark floor tile, one-piece low toilet. Two large beveled mirrors, one over each sink. Two 1930s-looking light fixtures, one over each mirror. Nice chrome over solid brass towel bars. Grohe fixtures throughout. Do not skimp on hardware - cheap lights and faucets look cheap from the start and get worse. We ordered all the hardware ourselves online as neither of...

I do think there are other waterproof/breathable standards worth paying for besides Gore-Tex. Patagonia has its own that works well. It really depends on the specific application rather than the brand of the fabric. I'd be looking at the lightest weight 3-layer, meaning no separate lining that can get wet and stick to your skin, rain jacket available from Patagonia, probably around $200. They used to call it Torrentshell. +1 on Arc'Teryx. You'll look like every other well-off office worker as these brands are ubiquitous now, but that's OK cause they are still very high quality.

Been in your shoes. Our savings rate plummeted when the kids were born and one year even went negative (not proud). Maxing out traditional 401(k) is the best tax and retirement savings step you can take right now - those are 24% tax rate dollars you are eliminating when you contribute more to a 401(K). And it will give you much more certainty in retirement. You shouldn't have any trouble doing this given your incomes and location. I wouldn't worry much about 529s until you max 401(k) and HSA, and even then I'd pursue backdoor (or regular, if you can) Roth space before 529 UNLESS Iowa gives you a really good deal on state tax savings. You can get hedging benefits by doing Roth outside of your employer-sponsored plan. Roth contributions can b...

I am older and a relatively recent entrant into the bond world. Someone else said in a recent post - there is a LOT of noise about bonds on this forum right now. Try not to get sucked in. FM Nisprius has done the most excellent posts on bond fundamentals, seek them out. Pay attention to the wiki, really make sure you understand the instrument and concepts like duration, maturity, yield, interest rate risk, etc. before you buy. Lots of people are also talking about buying individual bonds or building their own bond ladders. To me, the former seems risky and the latter seems like pointless work. Bond funds are ready-made diverse ladders, why not use them. The main thing is to match the underlying bond type within a fund to your specific need....

Why would you do this?

Not if you hope to realize any significant benefit from compounding.

100% of portfolio in long-term Treasuries=highly unlikely to beat equities or even keep up with inflation, unless you go 100% TIPS, and then you are just treading water

100% in short-term Treasuries=market timing. Look at short-term rates from 2009 - 2022 and see what you think. You would have lost a ton to inflation.

Long-term average return of 70/30 portfolio is around 7% real.

Long-term average of SP500 is a little under 7% real

Call me when the 10-year treasury breaks 10% and maybe there's something to talk about. Though I hope that never happens again because we'd all have bigger fish to fry in that case.

Just knowing names and addresses gives you a lot of power to investigate if you want to spend the time to do so. Real estate transactions are public record, as are mortgages. Rental listings with availability calendars are easy to find. You could pretty quickly put together a picture of this person’s real estate activities, uncover any LLCs, if you wanted to. I’d probably do that and as much other investigation anonymously before making a decision about raising the topic with family.

I do understand your suspicion and it is warranted. However, consenting adults and all that…a dumb deal is very different from something criminal.

Don't rush. Pay off the car. It's a psychological burden to pay for something every month that loses value every day, regardless of the interest rate. Do not pay off that sweet mortgage. At the most, spend ten years investing and then see where you stand. If you feel like paying it off then, you can. In a low-interest rate environment, Ramsey is just wrong on this. IF you think it would have value for you, do one nice thing (or two nice things - one for each of you and your spouse) with the first slug of money. I mean like $5K nice, not $50K nice, to be clear. Do not change your lifestyle otherwise. Then invest every other penny in equity index funds and keep living your life. I'd by 100% equities at your age for the next 10-15 years, espec...

Kenkat wrote: ↑Tue Mar 07, 2023 8:45 am

nisiprius wrote: ↑Tue Mar 07, 2023 7:20 am For comparison, I will add stock market fund to the same chart:

No one was complaining about bonds in 2009 when the 15 year return of bonds exceeded equities. That’s 15 years. Since 1994.

Love this post. Lesson - in the long run, you will make money, you just don't know which account will be up most when it's time to sell.

Like others, I started shifting my allocation to include bonds in the last five years from 100% equities and here we are, for better or worse. Fortunately I won't be touching those bonds for another 10 years. Meanwhile, have been buying equity index funds several times a month while the bonds do their thing. It will all work out in the end.

I like the Willard and Hay Adams too! Pretty spendy though. Great bar in the basement of the Hay Adams. I used to spend a lot of time in DC. An off the beaten path option is the River Inn. I've spent many nights there but haven't been since Covid so probably worth reading some recent reviews. It's an apartment hotel in Foggy Bottom, on a residential street. Stone quiet. Rooms, at least most of them, are enormous 1-bedroom suites with efficiency kitchens. Not luxury but updated and certainly clean, and you cannot beat the space and kitchen access when traveling with a family. Some rooms overlook the Potomac. About a 2 minute walk to the Metro, and maybe a mile west of the White House so not in the central tourist area. Of course if money is ...

Regardless of where you are sitting, suggest finding a friendly looking usher/bouncer down low early in the evening and chatting them up about your kids experience and asking about court access after the game. My nephew had good luck with this and was able to get down there (not at Pacers). In my experience major league ushers generally want to help kids have a special experience as long as the parents are respectful and it doesn't get them in trouble with the job.

The short version is: the people make the funeral. For me, "good" funerals are ones where lots of family members ("Family" can be blood or friends) that I used to see often but haven't in a while show up and hang out. They sort of transition into celebrations naturally. Hopefully your BIL has a network like this from his life that will show up at the event. Some of this depends on the culture of the folks gathering, but here's one model that I enjoyed: find a place that everyone can stay overnight and be comfortable. Reserve a floor/wing of the hotel or whatever it is. Do the religious service and then basically treat the rest of the time like a wedding rather than a funeral. Make it about creating a good time for your g...

OP we're roughly in the same boat and I fret about this all the time. No idea what my kids will end up doing. My close friends and I went to and met at what I'd consider a middling private college. Lots of merit aid, traditional campus, typical liberal arts and science education. Almost all of us ended up in six-figure careers of our choosing, some multiple six figures. One went to what you might consider an "elite" graduate school (surprise! not the highest earner). Others did graduate/professional work but not at elite institutions. Others not at all. Why this turned out this way for a group of people who happened to have an affinity for each other at school, I don't really know. But the older I get, the more I lean toward the t...

Like others have said, your scenario is not that far off of our own situation at that age, though like others we put more down. Like others, I'd want more liquid cash in hand.

Debt-to-income and monthly fixed costs are only part of this equation. Before you buy, think long and hard about whether you really want to live in this house in this neighborhood for at least ten years. I know it's tough to predict the future, but the longer you stay in a house you've bought on leverage, the more insulated you'll be from price drops and transaction costs. Buying and then selling within a few years is an easy way to lose a LOT of money quickly.

Good for you for being concerned about their well being. It's a difficult time of life to start to face down with one's parents.

Have they asked you for help with this?

Do they have a will or estate plan?

Have they given you power of attorney?

I'd be more focused on them documenting their intent for their assets and having them provide power of attorney under conditions of their choosing before worrying about portfolio management.

Without knowing what funds they are in, they are probably getting taken for high fees by their advisors and also a 3% withdrawal is probably sustainable in perpetuity. But again, that's secondary to the questions above. Your parents sound fortunate and that they have managed their money quite well.

Mold is an only an issue if you have sustained humidity above 60-70%. One episode of wetting, even with visible water, followed by a draining and a dry spell is unlikely to cause mold but if the moisture has nowhere to go, it could. We see humidity spikes in part of our basement that is not finished. There are multi-layer old brick walls that hold a lot of moisture and take forever to dry out. But it's highly correlated to outside humidity and rainfall, which rarely lasts for more than a few days before starting to dry out again. Totally location dependent I am sure.

Like the above poster, If I were you I'd measure the humidity behind the drywall every so often to see how things are progressing before I started ripping anything out.

WhiteMaxima wrote: ↑Mon Feb 20, 2023 12:05 pm For budget, Bosch. If you want the best, Miele.

Only on Bogleheads!

Bosch 800 all the way. Wouldn't call it it "budget" though

I have two career psychologist friends. One landed a job in an addiction treatment nonprofit/contracting firm, and was able to manage getting a masters at a local school while working and eventually got into the company administration. It's worked out well for them but more on the management side and less on counseling. There are only so many of these types of jobs though. The other works for the VA and has a private practice. Does pretty well now, but that's after a couple decades of grind, a Ph.D. and still paying off debt. You really have to have a passion for this, be a subject matter expert AND have some business sense to make this path work. It's not a common combination. Not trying to scare her off, my best advice is to calibrate the...

I would say you can cut back on 529 contributions as those balances should grow to over $300k over the next 10-13 years without even touching it. +1. In fact I'd say you should stop contributing immediately. That's a large amount of money committed to education that is going to happen a looong time from now, and 529s are the least flexible tax advantaged account. Focus on other forms of tax advantage, especially Roth since you can now MBD. I love this forum but folks here are conservative to a fault. I've been investing through 3 downturns (dot com, Great Recession and Covid). Yes things could be flat for the next 20 years. Likely? No. And if they are you'll have plenty of company trying to figure things out. You are so far ahead of your p...

Question was answered almost immediately. Do whatever gets you the lowest total upfront cost. Then pay off the loan immediately if you took one. Enjoy your car and save as much as possible, and try not to buy a car very often. OP - I never understood making a distinction between "saving" and "investing." People use the word "saving" to mean putting money in a bank account, and i'm guessing that's what you mean here. That money is invested regardless of whether it's being held in cash, equities, bonds or real estate. If it's cash that's earning no interest, it's an investment with a negative return based on the rate of inflation. Don't be fooled thinking cash is safe. For instance, my cash is currently earning 4...

stocknoob4111 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 19, 2023 8:03 am Reaching $1M wasn't too hard, thanks to the incredible market of the last few years, but now with the crash of 2022 and the next 10 years projected to be flat getting to $2M, let alone $3M is going to be challenging.

History says the opposite - “the first million is the hardest”. the long run works in your favor. It has worked well in ours and for family members before us. Keep up the good work.

I am not a huge fan of Dave Ramsey but one of the cliches he spouts is true- you make money on real estate when you buy, not when you sell. Buying a nice townhome in a great school district for 700k and having one tenant rent it out is not a formula for a profitable real estate business.

Strictly from a financial standpoint, it’s way too much risk for modest or even negative returns AND cash flow. There are far easier ways to make money investing.

The All-Clad 12" stainless skillet with lid is my only item of All-Clad. It's a tremendous value at $120 and should last forever.

If I could afford it I'd have a 2.5 mm copper fry pan and saute pan, but...priorities

I would only buy boots online if I already knew that manufacturer was a good fit for all of my foot dimensions. Ski boots are not just about the length. If you have a mismatch between the boot and your foot shape and volume, it's going to be difficult to ever get the boot to feel right.

It will cost more to buy a boot fitted to you at a brick-and-mortar shop but in my experience it's worthwhile. Skis and bindings are much less important to your experience and I wouldn't hesitate to buy them online.

I don't have a Forester so someone may already know the answer, but check how much front seat room there is with a rear-facing seat installed in the back. That was a deal-breaker for one of our vehicles back when we had kids.

I can't see why you'd need/want something bigger than a wagon or sedan for your use. We own an old three-row SUV and yes it was nice to be able to pile other people's kids and relatives in with all of us from time to time. Now everyone's too big for that to be an option. With only one child I never would have considered a vehicle that size. Now we're just driving it because it's long paid for and works, not because we really need all the space.

About 4% in true no-risk cash, which to me means checking, money market and CD accounts. Bond holdings are not cash.

So if you were me, and you wanted an ultra-safe place to store money over the long term, and you just wanted to achieve 'market rate' on these deposits, would you hold VGSH or would SGOV (with its much shorter duration bonds be better) or something with much longer duration? I realise a big part of the answer depends upon whether interest rates have peaked, and how quickly they might reduce. I'd assume they have likely peaked and will probably start a slow and gradual glide back down either later this year or next year. Treasuries are def "ultra safe" but that does not mean they cannot lose value sharply in the short term. It sounds like these funds are a long-term hold for you, but that their value is what determines your option...

It’s always the right day to lump sum.

It’s all about knowing your duration need and matching it to the underlying bonds. Learn this now and you’ll be happier down the line.

FWIW Vangaurd’s settlement fund mimics VMFXX and is yielding about the same as VGSH right now. Like SGOV it has a much shorter duration so I’d expect that yield to fluctuate more quickly than VGSH. VMFXX maintains share price at $1 so all the yield comes in monthly dividend payments.

I know to many it feels like not having mortgage payments should make that safer, but actually usually having a mortgage at a competitive rate plus a lot more in savings typically makes that safer. This is good advice and mirrors the path we have chosen. You can certainly afford the house with your current income level. If I were you I'd be focused on saving and getting that portfolio above $2MM as a top priority, then worry about paying down a mortgage faster. I sleep much better with 5x-10x my mortgage value in investments, rather than having a paid off house. Either way, a downshift in five years may or may not be possible depending on the market. You are pretty young. Don't get so focused on that that you are disappointed in five years...

I have more money than I ever thought I would, enough that I have been exposed to the type of people you describe for a while, though I'm not in that group. What I'll call "real wealth" - where $2K hotel rooms, season tickets, 6-figure cars, first class travel, etc. are just rounding errors, without a second thought. And then just a few who have "real real wealth" - access to private planes, multiple multi-million dollar homes, moving around the world based on season. I don't have that kind of money nor do I aspire to it. I do look forward to paying for business class once I no longer have to pay for my whole family! But one piece of advice I can offer is to avoid a life where wealth is the main gatekeeper. Cause if it i...

Somewhere between 2-2.5K in 2021 for 50 gal with power vent, basement install, HCOL. Like others, I was told the unit was difficult to source and would have been hundreds of dollars cheaper pre-pandemic.

With that much time, a day trip to Oxford is an easy must. Try to find the Turf pub and take a Harry Potter walking tour, which allows you to access some of the college buildings that are ordinarily closed to outsiders. Still never been to Cambridge for some reason, I'm sure it's likewise great. Just take some time to walk in London. From Kensington Palace through Hyde Park past Buckingham Palace, down to Big Ben and Parliament, up Whitehall and then cross over to the south bank of the Thames and walk down to Tower Bridge. This is about 6 miles and gives a wonderful perspective on the scale of the place, and you pass many major sites along the way. See Shakespeare at the "new" Globe Theater on the Thames! Go to Brick Lane and have...

I would. Like other posters, my AA has stayed close to target in the past year due to the rate shock on bond prices. EZ for me, do nothing.

There have to be hundreds of brands with thousands of labels under those brands. It's daunting if you don't know anything about it. I find $8-10 per to be about the minimum for getting something worth your time. Some more expensive ones can be worth it but many of them are also not. Generally - wrappers like Connecticut, Corojo and Rosado will be used on milder, lower-nicotine cigars. Wrappers like Habano and any Maduro (maduro is a wrapper style, not a specific plant) will be used on stronger and spicier cigars. That's a huge generalization by the way. One company that has a good lineup of moderately priced, mild-to-medium cigars so you could compare them is CLE. Try one from each of their base lines and see what you like. I enjoy the CLE ...

Makes sense ? Not really. You may have a psychological preference to see the dividend payments come in, but whether you are selling stocks or getting dividend checks, the money is coming from the same place and is a partial reflection of total value to the shareholder. Dividend-paying stocks are no more likely to recover from a downturn than non-dividend-paying stocks. Linking your retirement spending to assumed future dividend revenue seems pretty risky to me. Ask anyone who relied on GE dividends as a source of long-term income how that went over the last 15 years. What's stopping you from just calculating multiple of annual expenses in your portfolio? Not relying on one or two dividend paying companies but dividend paying ETFs with hund...

I don't find the "price as multiple of annual income" measure helpful at all when buying a home. Debt to income, and more importantly debt to assets, are the real ratios of concerns for buyers with larger down payments and sizable portfolios. And in HCOL areas, expensive homes may have much lower maintenance costs than in LCOL areas since they are much smaller. Main question: what do you do if you have to service the mortgage but lose job #2 for a year? For five years? Until the end of the mortgage? Does it work with your other spending to make payments from a combination of reduced income and assets? Personally I like to know I could pay off my mortgage tomorrow if I had to. It would definitely impact our retirement age, but we c...

skor99 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 30, 2023 1:34 pm Makes sense ?

Not really. You may have a psychological preference to see the dividend payments come in, but whether you are selling stocks or getting dividend checks, the money is coming from the same place and is a partial reflection of total value to the shareholder. Dividend-paying stocks are no more likely to recover from a downturn than non-dividend-paying stocks. Linking your retirement spending to assumed future dividend revenue seems pretty risky to me.

Ask anyone who relied on GE dividends as a source of long-term income how that went over the last 15 years.

What's stopping you from just calculating multiple of annual expenses in your portfolio?

It's not hard to come up with estimates of repair costs that you will someday have to deal with. I find having such a list is more helpful than the standard % of value advice because it helps one get comfortable with the reality you will inevitably face one day. For example, assign a number and estimated lifespan to each of the following big tickets, such as: Replace all HVAC at once Replace roof Tuckpoint/paint/side exterior of home Dig new sewer or water main Window replacement New drain system for basement Refinish/replace flooring Interior painting List major appliances and assign number to each Then you've got all the smaller things. I've spent about 1% of value each of the last few years, and that only includes major appliance replace...

wife and i bought our house in december 2020. the home was asking $789 and we bought for $738. the interest rate we got we'll never see again; 2.65%. at any rate the home has likely appreciate into the $875 range (based on comps). our rationale for moving is that we now have 2 kids and the street we're on is much busier than we originally thought. we don't feel comfortable allowing the kids to play in the front yard and we're constantly worried about the cars speeding past. now for the financials. current house down payment: 10% unpaid principal: $634K improvements: $50K my finances current savings: 150K 401K: $230K other, less liquid assets: ~$75K kids accounts: $14K salary: $140K bonus: ~$20K wife brings in another $100K/year. obviously ...

it isn't easy to get into a good college. It isn't easy to succeed at a trade. It isn't easy to land a prestigious job. If you go into business, you will find that success in business isn't easy. There is competition everywhere, if there is something out there good that you want, there are other people who want the same thing. As I said earlier, it really pays to know people. This is fantastic advice and doesn't get said enough around here. In the grand scheme of things, there are not a lot of careers that pay big money. This board is heavily tilted toward higher-income earners. I am lucky in all sorts of ways, including compensation, but my career position has also made me hyper-aware of how many people strive for the top but don't get th...

I was 100% in stock when the 2008 crash happened. I stopped looking at my 401K balances but kept investing every month, left everything alone, and it turned out ok. Nobody can promise you positive returns in the market over longer periods but that's been the story so far. If you can invest and just leave it alone the odds are you'll be happy you did. +1. It has worked out very well. the "bottom" you speak of is irrelevant on a two or three decade time horizon. Personally, I would be 100% SP500 at your age, or add in some ex-US equity index if that was important to me. And then I would sit tight for 10-15 years before looking at my allocation again. I will allow that the long-term average CAGR of a 75/25 portfolio is not hugely lo...

I am well into retirement. I am comfortable with my AA at 40% equities/ 60% bonds all in Vanguard total indexed funds (four fund portfolio). I am not planning on anything other than “staying the course “ but was wondering what the effects of a real recession would likely be on a portfolio like mine (just curious)? Somewhat more likely, you might see a 50% decline in the equity portion of your portfolio that lasts 10 years, with 5% inflation over that same time. This would cut the real purchasing power of your portfolio in half, ignoring I-bonds, TIPS, or other inflation hedges you might hold. I think that's a reasonable "worst-case" scenario to plan for. The equity statistic is roughly what happened from 1999-2009, which would ha...

Bosch 800 with Finish tabs (just the basic ones) - cleans like a dream and dead quiet. Going on two years.

Family of four, w/ teenagers. Last year looks like about $700/mo average + too much restaurant food. Does not include alcohol, paper, detergent, or any other consumables, which I track separately.

What have I learned? We spend way too much on other consumables but I'm generally OK with our grocery bill. Tracking has been worthwhile to see exactly what we can get under control. Grocery food choices are not the main issue.

For restaurants there is a huge value difference - some meals are carryout, family-style and we can get 2-3 meals over a couple days. Others are "one-and-done" where you get the meal that night, and that's it. Those are the real budget killers.

We keep about 5% of the portfolio in cash and high yielding MM. our portfolio is large enough that we don’t really think of this as an emergency fund anymore.

Most important is that your define what you mean by emergency fund. To me, that’s money that we could spend if we had no income coming in to support basic expenses without selling investments. A home repair or car fund is different.

Um I hope the no saddle post is meant in jest.

I’m a Brooks person and have done multi day tours on one, and never thought about it which is the sign of a good saddle and fit. You will need to learn how to maintain it if you go Brooks or another suspended saddle.

I find getting the interface between your sit bones and a supportive saddle right is way more important than shorts and padding. Get the fit right and the job of the shorts is to prevent chafing not pad your bones.