Bogleheads.org

winterescape

A very sad day, he was so generous with his time, involvement, and sharing of his wisdom with the Bogleheads, and through his many books and interviews everyone.

rest in peace, you have done so much for us all Jack...

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Curious does Vanguard offer brokerage options in its 401ks like Fidelity does? I think the best way to do things is to only include only a few funds in the main plan but give access to a brokerage account for those that want specialized things like long treasuries, small value, international small,...

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Thanks everyone for the feedback! WRT fewer options is better, I too believe that, and might have even posted some articles about studies that showed higher 401k participation with fewer choices way back. Practically speaking for our 401k, we have the simple target retirement funds, and we also have...

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We are likely moving our small company 401k plan to Vanguard. They have suggested offering the following funds in the plan. I see everything I want in this list except for one. What do fellow Bogleheads see missing from the proposed list of funds offered? Thanks in advance for any list refinement su...

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We are very happy with Republic Wireless, it is however billed monthly, but it ranks very high in consumer reports for prepaid cell service
https://republicwireless.com/

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Spirit Rider,
Thanks much for your clarification, citation, and suggestions, even if it was not the answer I was hoping for...

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Well 2 + years later and I am revisiting the same question. This year Vanguard suggested that I acquire an EIN just for myself, and that each partner do the same, and then we each open a plan that way. As I read the description for what type of EIN I want none appear to exactly describe my employmen...

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Bob,
I recommend Republic wireless, consumer cellular, Wal-Mart total wireless, tracfone or Google project Fi.

Check consumer reports, for carrier ratings.

Android is 85% of the market, Apple IOS is 14%,

We chose Republic wireless and have not been disappointed, we both came from VZW.

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Republic wireless or project Fi, we personally switched from VZW to Republic wireless 2 years ago, total bill for both phones now $30/ month.

Next month Republic supports 7 new phones, I would wait until July.

Project Fi is very similar but not yet as mature

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Sadly I received this in my e-mail today from Vanguard. The days of subsidized or free TurboTax software appear to be over... "Year End Tax information from Vanguard" .... "Update for TurboTax users Vanguard will continue to offer access to TurboTax® products to clients on our website, but we're dis...

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what I did was to log into Vanguard, follow the link to the turbotax site, select the download version, and the "checkout page" showed a zero cost for premier. I downloaded it and deleted my old version. I had not yet installed deluxe so no experience with "upgrading" but to be safe I would recommen...

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Your provider probably won't tell you this but assuming you have all HCE's, in your case - all owners own greater than 5%, there's no compliance testing to be done. You would still need to make sure all participants receive contributions according to the plan document, and that no one exceeds relev...

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You are correct, the terms Solo 401k, Individual 401k, etc... are marketing terms and misnomers for what the plans actually are. There is no such thing as a Solo 401k plan in the U.S. Code or IRS regulations. Even the IRS muddies the water by referring to one-participant 401k plans. They are not se...

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I thought I read on here somewhere that you can have a solo(k) for each partner but I can't find the thread. However, another solution to your situation is to adopt a standard 401(k) plan. Assuming all partners are equal owners, all participants are HCEs so there is no nondiscrimination testing to ...

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AAA insurance ( The auto club) underwritten by ACA insurance company Oakland CA

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I would NOT recommend Republic Wireless at all. They are attached to Sprint, which has one of the poorest network coverage in the US. For example, I could not any data in many areas between Cleveland and Akron (hardly rural areas), a good amount of the Tucson area, and the like. In addition, WiFi c...

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The full saga of the changes and the price adjustments can be read about here ---> http://www.forbes.com/sites/janetnovack ... ubstitute/

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My understanding is that individual 401k's are limited to businesses with only one employee (plus their spouse): http://www.irs.gov/Retirement-Plans/One-Participant-401%28k%29-Plans this is the type of plan I am looking at https://investor.vanguard.com/what-we-offer/small-business/individual-401k "...

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After a concerted search effort I have been unable to locate answers to our individual 401k questions. Any links to sources that definitively address the following 2 questions is appreciated. We have a partnership with 10 partners, organized as an LLC with no employees, only partners and 1099 contra...

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Check out republic wireless, we have the $10/ month plan, also please see the December issue of Consumer Reports for independent ratings of Cell service providers. Ting and Republic wireless come out on top.

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A personal conversation I had with Jack about Index VS active funds and the apparent dichotomy within Vanguard (Wellington, STAR, etc…) he indicated that given the same asset allocation (stock, bond) and holdings (value, growth, small cap, large cap, etc) that the ER was the driving factor in predic...

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I could have written your post a few weeks ago! After fixing our 25 Year old washer, I said (Insert wife’s name here) it is time for a new washer! I also do as Taylor suggested and look art CR. Unfortunately, what I discovered is that high rated expensive washers have a bimodal distribution. Folks l...

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About 2 1/2 years ago, at age 24, my finances were in poor shape. Not in shambles, but certainly not in a good position. I was paying down student debt sporadically and putting a meager amount (couple hundred monthly) in a savings account earning 0.1 % APY. I knew I needed a change but had no idea ...

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Bogleheads: This is an update of a post I made last year : YEAR .. INFLATION .. TBM .... GNMA .... TIPS 1996......3.3%.....3.6%.....5.2% 1997......1.7%.....9.4%.....9.5% 1998......1.6%.....8.6%.....7.1% 1999......2.7%....-0.8%.....0.8% 2000......3.4%....11.4%...11.2% 2001......2.8%.....8.4%.....7.9...

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Vanguard Total Bond Market Admiral (VBTLX) and Vanguard Intermediate Term Treasury Investor Shares (VFITX) currently have almost identical durations: VBTLX = 5.2 years vs. VFITX = 5.3 years. A naive investor might think they would have similar returns. But here's what happened to these two funds du...

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12.9% with 55/45 stock/bond. Average duration of the majority of our bond funds is 3.2Y, most stock is VTSAX, light on International allocation

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JDaniels wrote:Some friends and I were discussing this topic.

Our top three were:
1) The Who
2) Rush
3) Boston

All great bands that never got the credit they deserved.

What are yours?

+1 for Boston

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I'd put $50 into a few books from the reading list and then read them. Maybe you already have though. If so, what did you learn from the books? Bill, Welcome. You might consider FDIC insured CD’s, the interest rate is better than the MM funds, but not by a lot. I would agree with livesoft that some...

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My Stable Value fund took a number of months to liquidate and all investors that stayed in the fund received a fairly nice bonus after the final trading day. It appears to me that the market/book ratio was modestly above 1.00 and the fraction above 1.00 was paid out on the last day. Good point, our...

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yes, Stable Value fund went away in our 401k replaced by short term bond fund

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3. If your rich uncle died and left you $1Million dollars today...or $5Million...and you were a Boglehead...would you have the guts to invest 40% of that in intermediate bonds paying 2 to 3 percent? 1) He did 2. I am 3. I did Only because I don't know any better :happy 1) I I don’t have one, but if...

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FrugalInvestor wrote:I have none. I tax loss harvested once during the big downturn and am hoping to never have the opportunity again.

+1

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Interesting. I had used google myself and got that link, and saw the whole article, but when I click on your link (with identical address), I only get a portion. It see like anyone wanting to read it needs to google the title themselves. I have two tabs open with exactly the same address, one with ...

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State-specific funds are typically a bad deal. Do the math. They return less after state tax than the national funds. Notable exception is California. this can help... https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/tools/taxequivalentyield How? This is a federal tax calculator. No, this is a Taxable-equiva...

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State-specific funds are typically a bad deal. Do the math. They return less after state tax than the national funds. Notable exception is California. this can help... https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/tools/taxequivalentyield How? This is a federal tax calculator. No, this is a Taxable-equiva...

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Bob's not my name wrote:State-specific funds are typically a bad deal. Do the math. They return less after state tax than the national funds. Notable exception is California.

this can help...
https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/ ... alentyield

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Actually I was agnostic between TBM and GNMA until 2008. Take a look at this five year comparison chart, check out in particular 2008. You may call it past performance, I might call it a “real world test during extreme market conditions” http://quote.morningstar.com/fund/chart.aspx?t=VFIJX®ion=US...

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Do you think you've found a case of extra return without extra risk? Nisiprius, Please quantify the “increased risk” of GNMA Credit risk: GNMA =“backed by the full faith and credit of the US government” TBM= Diversification, with 70% of the holdings backed by the US government Interest rate risk: A...

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Yes, yet another GNMA “discussion” 1) Prepayment risk: When interest rates fall people refinance to capture a portion of this benefit. However, the cost to refinance limits this activity. Also people move all the time, I believe that 30 year mortgages are held on average for 12 years. All this is in...

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You did not state if this was taxable. I would be more inclined to select a single intermediate term fund, Vanguard GNMA or Total bond, and just stick with it.

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Thanks TFB. Could you direct me to a document that details this? So the expense of a 1.0% 401k match is reduced by the % of the tax bracket of the employer, up to 25% of payroll? 26 USC 404(a)(3) (3) Stock bonus and profit-sharing trusts (A) Limits on deductible contributions (i) In general In the ...

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Thanks TFB. Could you direct me to a document that details this? So the expense of a 1.0% 401k match is reduced by the % of the tax bracket of the employer, up to 25% of payroll? Livesoft, I understand the comparison when employees are evaluating two potential jobs but if you already had a job witho...

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In an effort to encourage my employer to start a 401k matching, or employer contribution to our 401k, I am trying to understand the tax implications to the employer of contributing or funding employee 401k’s. How is the employer expense of contributing to a 401k treated under the tax code? This is a...

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I generally agree with your logic however some 401K plans are bad (No match, very high expenses) and some 529 plans, like nysaves.org, are run by vanguard and offer very low expenses, great investments, and a tax deduction in NY state for contributions… Sooo... it is hard to have one size fits all a...

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Hi Winterescape: I used your figures to edit shares in the chart to " investor shares." Thank you. You may find this Conversation interesting: GNMA behavior in a sharply rising environment Best wishes. Taylor Taylor, Thanks for the link to that thread, I had not read it. What I fail to see mentione...

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Thanks Taylor for the historic chart. It helps me keep perspective. The Vanguard site shows Vanguard GNMA Fund Admiral Shares 7.80% Vanguard Total Bond Mkt Index Admiral 7.69% Vanguard GNMA Fund Investor Shares 7.69% Vanguard Total Bond Mkt Index Inv 7.56% so are you comparing the Total Bond Mkt Ind...

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I updated the crossover point on my home heating system. Instead of running the heatpump down to 10 degrees outside temp it now switches to the gas furnace at 30 degrees.

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If you search I seem to remember a thread where someone argued that a S&P index fund at one fund family was not equal to a S&P index fund at another family, let me know if this holds up in an audit… Although this has never been tested in court either, the conventional wisdom is that two index funds...

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Setting up the ladder gives certainty but adds complexity to managing your reserves. If you are O.K. with that, fine. If you want simplicity you could consider a short duration bond fund. The Vanguard short-term bond index currently has a duration of 2.7 years I even like the Vanguard GNMA, but plea...

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I did this too a number of years back and I called the IRS. They advised me to attach a letter of explanation to my return which said much what you just posted. Never heard anything more about it. I do remember that I was very pleasantly surprised by the short hold time on the phone with the IRS and...

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