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Assuming you're taking over a sole proprietorship, one of your first tasks is going to be evaluating the cash flows of your newly-acquired business and ensuring that you have an appropriate emergency fund on hand to cover whatever contingencies may arise.

Don't jeopardize the success of your business by holding just enough cash to scrape by with when times are good, and having to borrow during lean times.

This may take some time to figure out. You are NOT ready to invest again until you do...and, besides, you have until April 15, 2024 to make your 2023 IRA contributions.

Myself, I've set up an automatic Schwab MoneyLink transfer from an external account into my cash sweeps account a day before I have the Automatic Investment Plan transfer it into mutual funds. That way, incoming funds only sit in cash sweeps for, at most, four days due to markets being closed on the Monday or Friday immediately following the MoneyLink transfer.

As you've probably noted by now, most "China" funds actually cover mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, and even the leading index funds (IFX, MCHI, GXC) have relatively high expense ratios.

You might be better served by an Emerging Markets Index fund such as Schwab's SCHE, which holds about 43% of its assets in these three regions.

With an annual income of $340K, you'd have to own a LOT of rentals just to have the chance of clearing enough profit to make a meaningful difference in your lifestyle versus just using other investment vehicles.

Can you acquire enough rental property to make a difference with $120K to put down? Not likely.

Glad to be of assistance!

Your portfolio details suggest that you've been buying $20,000 of Series I Savings Bonds yearly. If you rebalance to your target AA as suggested above and will be buying another $20,000 in I Bonds next year, that would require the following change to Her 403b new money contributions to maintain your target AA:

36% S&P 500 Index
34% Total International Equity Index
30% Total Bond Index

Contributions to both Roth IRAs would remain unchanged at 100% IVV.

Note that the I Bond purchase slashes your 403b Total Bond new money contributions from 65% to 30%, giving you more room to rebalance into Total Bond in tax-advantaged 403b space in the future.

retiredjg wrote: ↑Tue Dec 06, 2022 4:30 pm I actually like the idea of putting international in the taxable account - where it can get the foreign tax credit.

However, since apparently there is no new money going into taxable, then new international will have to be bought somewhere else. That might be in Her 403b or it might end up being in a Roth IRA (which would be fine).

in the proposal above, new International equity contributions go into the 403b.

Did a little further analysis. Without creating a taxable event in your Taxable account, you could simplify your portfolio and meet your target asset allocation by making the following moves: 1. In Taxable, transfer your 13% Money Market position into an International index fund, preferably one that doesn't track the same index as the Vanguard International Index fund available in Her 403b. IXUS (not VXUS) would be a possible candidate. That would afford you the opportunity to tax-loss harvest without possible wash sale issues. 2. Move all of the existing funds in His 401k into Vanguard Total Bond. 3. Reallocate all of the existing funds in Her 403b as follows: 76% Vanguard Total Bond Index 24% Vanguard S&P 500 Index 4. Move all of the ...

MHP2Y wrote: ↑Mon Dec 05, 2022 8:43 pm

lakpr wrote: ↑Mon Dec 05, 2022 12:46 pm Why $0 to His 401(k)? With your tax bracket and the DC tax rate, you benefit a lot from putting money into your 401(k) and buying bonds there. The Bond Index Fund at 0.035% sounds super-excellent!

This 401(k) is with a former employer, so I can move $ around but can't contribute.

Thanks for clarifying that.

Other than Her 403(b), there isn't a great place to put new money into bonds. To get up to 45% and then maintain it as your equity positions grow, you're going to have to use Roth space or Taxable.

Assuming "Lifepath 2030" is the BlackRock LifePath Index 2030 fund (LINKX), your asset allocation breaks down as 58% equities/42% fixed income, with 17% of your equities exposure in International.

Even without a match, contributing to His 401(k)'s Bond Index fund seems like the most sensible way to bring the fixed-income allocation back up to 45%.

Directing new money in Taxable into VXUS could likewise be used to bring your International allocation back up to your desired 30% of equities.

At "buy 3, get 1 with many strings attached" it would be hard for me to get excited about this unless my research and due diligence indicated it was a perfect fit for my portfolio of individual stocks.

The volatility and past performance of this stock (SMMNY) doesn't make a compelling case for this being a slam-dunk opportunity at buy 3, get 1.

julesmakr wrote: ↑Wed Nov 30, 2022 11:04 amI had asked about ETF funds. He said he could do an ETF but it would be a $150/year commission.

That is an option I'd investigate further. $150 a year is the sales charge on $2608.70 of Class A shares with a 5.75% load; if you have more than $2608.70 going in annually, you'd come out ahead with the $150 fee.

The reduced expense ratios of Boglehead-favorite ETFs would push the break-even point down even lower than that.

Your current mix of mutual funds holds an 85% allocation to equities, with 24% of that in International, along with 9% in bonds and a whopping 6% in cash. Without changing providers-- and only if you can reallocate without incurring sales charges --you could simplify into a 60/40 portfolio with ~20% of equities in International by reallocating to: His Taxable: 9.65% VTI; 2% VXUS Her Taxable: Everything (5.69%) in VXUS His Simple IRA: Everything (24.46%) in ABNDX His Rollover IRA: Everything (46.27%) in AGTHX Her Rollover IRA: Everything (10.23%) in ABNDX Changing to a low-cost provider for the rollover IRAs, things would look like this: His Taxable: Everything (11.35%) in VXUS Her Taxable: Everything (5.69%) in VTI His Simple IRA: Everythin...

...Using any amount of emotion instead of cold, hard logical analysis to select (or divest) individual securities--or any investment, for that matter--invites failure... ...To be able to invest successfully in individual securities, you have to have the iron-willed self-discipline to set your emotions aside and unfailingly work a plan based on precisely-defined rules of acquisition and divestiture. Buying just one stock "to hold, not trade", no matter what, isn't a cogent plan. And, finally, by giving one security, you're teaching the worst lesson of all--that it's OK to not be concerned about diversification Didn’t you just perfectly describe what a total stock market index fund does? Precisely. I manage my basket of individual ...

I hold the same basket of 10 equally-weighted individual defensive stocks in both my Taxable and Roth IRA accounts.

I expect to eventually hit my IPS AA cap on individual stocks; once that happens, new money will go into SCHB (Schwab Broad Market Index) or VTI.

As someone who invests successfully in a basket of individual stocks, I think this is a terrible idea. Using any amount of emotion instead of cold, hard logical analysis to select (or divest) individual securities--or any investment, for that matter--invites failure. Taking recommendations for individual securities from a forum like this, instead of doing your due diligence and carefully researching prospective securities for acquisition, also invites failure. Right off the bat, you're going to make stock ownership an emotional experience by making it a gift associated with yourself. You'll probably select a famous company, such as Apple, that the recipient may feel enthusiastic about. The recipient may feel obligated to hold the security f...

Staying the course and rebalancing as per my IPS.

I'm 10 years away from retirement. It occurs to me that the new money/reinvested dividends periodically going into my bond fund is lowering my average cost per share...and raising the potential for realized gains when the time finally comes to divest.

I'm reluctant to use a lubricant on my razor because I don't want oil mixing with the whiskers and skin cells, forming a goo which gums up the blades and has to be cleaned with an alcohol bath. At one point I tried using a pre-shave lotion (a generic version of Lectric Shave). Aside from nearly passing out from the fumes, the blades of my Norelco soon became heavily clogged with debris which I had to clean out. In my 30+ years of using Remington Shaver Saver, I've never had a problem with it gunking up a shaver. The official Philishave/Norelco oil didn't cause issues, either. Williams Lectric Shave, and generic copies of it, most certainly does clog a shaver. Some Remington shaver manuals specifically recommend against using it. Ligthly du...

I have finally made peace with my Norelco shaver. It shaves exceedingly well, better than the assortment of foil shavers I've tried, BUT there is one caveat. The blades must be kept absolutely CLEAN. The blades will accumulate a mixture of whiskers, skin cells and oil which will gum up the shaver if not periodically cleaned out. This requires dismantling the blade assembly. The good news is that this is not hard to do. Once dismantled you just sweep out the debris with a little brush (don't lose the little brush that comes with it) and possibly a toothpick. Once cleaned out the shaver performs quite well. If not kept clean, the motor will not run at full speed and it won't give a good shave. This is your cue to give the blades a thorough c...

Eh, I use an OpenOffice spreadsheet to: Monthly: When new money goes into my Roth IRA, it goes into a basket of defensive stocks held at equal weighting--my own personal "index fund". I simply enter my total balance and current share prices, and the spreadsheet calculates how many shares I should own in each position. It takes about 10 minutes a month to update the spreadsheet and make the few trades needed to keep it balanced. I also track this basket using Yahoo! Finance. Yearly: At the end of the year, I enter my 401(k) and brokerage positions into another spreadsheet, and rebalance the entire portfolio on January 2nd. A 30 minute job at most. I have a 401(k) at at Merrill Lynch subsidiary and all my other investments at Schwab...

One more thing: Lodging is much more plentiful and affordable around Escanaba and Iron Mountain than in most of the rest of the UP, with Marquette generally being the most expensive place to stay--if you can even find a room.

Lodging in St. Ignace can be very affordable during off-peak times of the year, which may include October. Call ahead and check.

Having grown up near Escanaba in the U.P., I'd have to give a thumbs-up to all the suggestions above, and add one of my own: You could spend a few days exploring and photographing the waterfalls in Alger County, which I've done many a time. The Iron Mountain Iron Mine is a fun and interesting tour, and runs through October 15th. October weather can be wildly variable with daytime high temperatures ranging from the 30s to the 80s, so bring attire for both warm and chilly weather. Skip the chain restaurants and treat yourself to something memorable at my favorite places to dine: Escanaba: The Swedish Pantry Sault Sainte Marie: The Lockview (Best whitefish anywhere) Marquette: Vango's (Greek and Italian), Casa Calabria (Upscale Italian) Ishpem...

goldfinger22 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 22, 2022 9:04 am

anon_investor wrote: ↑Wed Jun 22, 2022 8:50 am

goldfinger22 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 22, 2022 8:32 am I have a MM account with 500k in it
They have a 1 yr cd offer of 1.75 percent
Should I wait to see if they go higher ?

1 year Treasury Bills are paying 2.92% and are exempt from state/local income tax.

Don’t those rates fluctuate ?

If you buy a 1-year T-BIll at 2.92%, you're locked in at 2.92%.

OP, This is a bad idea. It makes your emergency fund too small to protect you in the coming recession. Why are you taking this risk for so little return? KlangFool The OP could always liquidate the T-bills on the secondary market if they get in a real bind. With that in mind...why not instead purchase a ladder of TIPS on the secondary market and help yourself to some higher returns in the short term? Versus not having enough money when you need it? The return does not justify the risk. "why not instead purchase a ladder of TIPS on the secondary market and help yourself to some higher returns in the short term?" At an even higher risk of not having enough when you need it? Why? KlangFool The OP's situation suggests to me that thei...

KlangFool wrote: ↑Sat Jun 18, 2022 6:29 am OP,

This is a bad idea. It makes your emergency fund too small to protect you in the coming recession. Why are you taking this risk for so little return?

KlangFool

The OP could always liquidate the T-bills on the secondary market if they get in a real bind. With that in mind...why not instead purchase a ladder of TIPS on the secondary market and help yourself to some higher returns in the short term?

I've found success in individual stocks using the methodology in the book Stock Investing for Dummies , and would suggest that as a guidebook for a beginning individual stock investor. Unlike most of the Dummies books, this one really needs to be read cover-to-cover and then reviewed before deploying its guidance. Using the methodology within, the OP's son will realize what a time-consuming grind it is to constantly evaluate the financial strength of the companies he has a position or an interest in. If he runs stock screeners as directed in the book, he'll quickly discover that most of the value to be found out there is in companies that he and his buddies have never heard of before. He'll be the "odd duck" when it comes to water...

FWIW, I am a musician and my "charity" is buying up good pre-owned musical instruments and expensive-to-buy-new accessories when I encounter them at bargain prices, then giving them directly to young musicians who need them. Sometimes I'll provide them with complimentary lessons.

I've also provided computers and computer service to elderly folks in need. But, since smartphones have taken over the role of personal computers in most households, I rarely get calls for that anymore.

Fruit and vegetable juices have been in limited supply here in northern Michigan since last Autumn. Two juices I normally buy (no-salt-added tomato; 100% red grape) have been generally unavailable for the last 9 months or so.

Curiously, prune juice supplies have been unaffected. It makes me chuckle to see ample supplies of prune juice when everything else is mostly wiped out.

If you're considering using mutual funds at Vanguard, be aware of the $3,000 per-fund minimum.

With a 70/30 equities/fixed income allocation, you'd have to start with at least $10,000 to meet the $3,000 minimum for your bond allocation. And if you're going to hold 30% of your equities position in International, you'd have to start with at least $14,285 to meet the $3,000 minimum for your International fund selection.

With Schwab, the minimum is just $1 per fund. With a 70/30 AA with 30% of the equities in International, you could start with just $100: $49 in SWTSX, $21 in SWISX, and $30 in SWAGX.

I saw that portfolio model a couple of weeks ago and investigated it.

I feel that It's too complex for what it claims to do. A 2% allocation to VIOV--really?

Historically, a 10% VOO/45% BSV/45% VTIP portfolio has maintained similar volatility and max drawdown along with superior returns.

Eventually, as newly-issued, higher-paying bonds are added to the Fund's portfolio, dividends will rise. The NAV of the Fund may decrease with rising interest rates, however.

Canadian cents remain legal tender in Canada, up to 25 cents' worth per transaction.

Only the 1942-1996 Canadian cents are 98% copper.

Regarding USA cents and nickels: Both currently cost more than face value to produce. The US Treasury absorbs the loss to facilitate commerce, not as a free subsidy to scrap metal hoarders and dealers--that's why melting them down is illegal.

By all means, keep any collectible cents and nickels that you might find. But, please consider that keeping non-collectible coins out of circulation needlessly costs taxpayer money to issue replacement coins that otherwise wouldn't be needed.

I'll dissent here and say I wouldn't sell the American Funds if there are a lot of taxes. You could do worse than those for managed funds. I wouldn't buy anymore mind you, but I wouldn't rush to sell them either. Thanks and I am definitely looking at keeping a few of the top performing American Funds/ If you happen to hold American's International fund offerings, many of them have more than held their own versus Vanguard's VGTSX/VXUS. I'd do a very careful analysis before electing to divest. You may find more value in maintaining the position. Personally, while I absolutely agree with the passive, broad-market index approach to investing in bonds and domestic equities with a focus on minimizing costs, I find that the evidence just isn't th...

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You could always add Schwab's SFENX fund to your portfolio for Emerging Markets exposure.

Very well, if you must know...

60% Cash (Chequing, savings, and SWVXX Schwab Money Market)
9.6% SCHG Schwab US Large Cap Growth ETF (0.04%)
2.4% EFG iShares MSCI EAFE Growth ETF (0.39%)
8.4% SCHZ Schwab Aggregate Bond ETF (0.04%)
8.4% IAGG iShares International Bond Aggregate ETF (0.08%)
5.6% SCHP Schwab US TIPS ETF (0.05%)
5.6% ANGL Van Eck Fallen Angel High Yield Bond ETF (0.5%)

The positions outside of cash represent a prototype 30/70 portfolio that I may end up using as my general investment strategy come retirement, perhaps 11 years from now. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully, lower ER alternatives to EFG and ANGL will eventually come to market.

In my locale in western Michigan, red grape juice along with most Zatarain's and Tony Chachere's rice entrees have been nowhere to be found for most of the past year.

Last week, I was surprised to find the shelves bare of most fruit and vegetable juices along with "Limit 1 per customer" signage. There was plenty of prune juice, but that was all. Ended up buying fresh apple cider in the produce aisle. No complaints there

I am helping a family member with their Vanguard accounts. They want to move about half to Edward Jones - they want to "help" an in-law who is a new Financial Advisor there. They think they can do this without costs, it would be a Taxable account and Roth IRAs with VG ETFs in them that they would not trade at all. Is this true? No costs or fees at all? As a former EJ client, I can assure you that there WILL be custodial fees on the Roth IRA even if no trading takes place. Candidly, with at least four family members involved here--you, the investor, their spouse, and the new EJ representative--I would think long and hard about possible negative consequences to your familial relationships before offering any guidance whatsoever. Yo...

In the summer, I use a safety razor along with a good shaving brush and soap. In the autumn and winter, when the air is drier, I actually get a superior shave with my Philishave (Philips Norelco) plug-in rotary shaver, which I've used for over 15 years. Mine takes the HQ55 heads. I only buy replacement head/cutter assemblies when one of the comb sections "loses a tooth". I've noted no performance improvement with brand new heads/cutters versus old ones that have just been cleaned, soaked in alcohol, and lubed with Remington Shaver Saver spray. The main thing to remember about the Philips shavers: If stray sideburn hairs get drawn into the heads, they will invariably get wrapped around the little spindle in the comb assembly, and y...

When I started investing 28 years ago at age 24, the conventional wisdom was "your age in bonds", so that's what I did, but with a twist: I held 10% of my AA in high-yield bond funds until joining Bogleheads this past March.

By age 40, I'd experienced the '00-'02 dot.com bear market at 70/30 and the 2008 crash at 65/35...and I reaped some impressive returns by simply staying the course. At age 40, I decided that there was no need to get any more conservative than 60/40 and I've been at that AA since, with no worries and no regrets.

David Jay wrote: ↑Thu Jul 29, 2021 3:52 pm

Bear906 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 29, 2021 1:30 pmI do set aside all the non-zinc American and Canadian 1-cent coins that come my way, though.

You do know that Canada no longer uses the penny, right?

Yes. I am a Canadian, residing in Michigan, and still receive occasional Canadian cents in change from American retailers. Obviously, this wouldn't happen at home in Ontario.

I don’t own physical gold, but I do have a bit of physical silver. I bought it during the most unsure period of early COVID, not as an investment but in case I needed it for swap/barter. It still sits in my safe. I was without electricity and running water for a week, and nobody was bartering with precious metals. People were desperately seeking gasoline, generators, drinking water, food and firewood. But not metals. Even if the situation had gone on for months, I'm sure that metals would still have been of little trade value. This. I do set aside all the non-zinc American and Canadian 1-cent coins that come my way, though. If a total social and economic collapse lasts long enough to render fiat currency worthless and we're all in complete...

I have held gold ETFs in my portfolio during mid 2019 to early 2021 for the sole purpose of managing portfolio volatility. Holding the gold position during that particular timeframe accomplished that goal to my complete satisfaction.

I liquidated the position upon moving to the Bogleheads 3-fund model. I embrace volatility now--volatility creates opportunities for profit via rebalancing, and the 3-fund model makes it easy.

That said, if we someday have another global economic challenge akin to the 2020 response to the pandemic, I might re-establish a 10% allocation to gold in an effort to manage portfolio volatility.

I usually buy my workout shirts at epicsports.com.

I'm a big guy, and work out in football and hockey jerseys. Just got four blank Russell Athletic XXL football jerseys for $6.99 each at epicsports plus about $11 to ship the lot. Such a deal!

838 credit score here. I've been with TracFone since 2001 or so, and I get everything I need for about $140 a year. The gotcha with Tracfone--and many other low-cost providers--is that the Android smartphones TracFone offers are one or two Android generations behind the current Android OS release. This means you will get caught in a sneaky-expensive cycle of having to buy a replacement phone every 12-24 months when your favorite apps stop working with the outdated Android OS on your otherwise nearly-new phone. I've moved away from using Tracfone-branded phones to getting a more-current (and nicer) unlocked phone and the 99-cent TracFone SIM kit. The SIM kit comes with cards for using the Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile networks, so if your ...

There's a very friendly and helpful online stamp collecting forum that I belong to, https://www.stampcommunity.org/, whose members would be glad to take a quick look at your collection.

Go to the Have You Inherited Some Stamps? Start Here link, post some pics of your collection, and we'll have your collection evaluated in a day or two.

Stamp collecting is not a dead hobby, and stamps that are not common will always have a market. Just as with sports cards, it's the plethora of ultra-common material out there that lacks value and attracts little collector interest.

If you work in the finance or finance-related industry, or if you may do so someday, the only correct response is forever. I work in an finance-related industry that does extensive background checks annually, and is required to thoroughly investigate one's complete employment, tax return, and banking history before they can make a hire. If they call up a former employer or financial institution and they can't or won't verify my history there, the burden of proof is on ME to produce the information they require. So, I have to maintain tax, employment, and banking records FOREVER. I keep paper copies of my all my tax returns, as well as the first and last pay cheque stub on hand for every job that I've ever had. I have scanned copies of every...

As mentioned above, if you want VT, just buy VT. But, if you want to do auto-investing with index mutual funds available at Schwab, the least convoluted way to approximate VT is 56% SWTSX/44% BDOAX, which has a combined ER of 0.20%.

That tandem performs very similarly to VT, gets you exposure to EM and Canada, but only scant exposure to international small-caps.

Note that there's a short-term redemption fee on BDOAX, which could be a nuisance if you need to rebalance, change your AA, or liquidate your position.

To work around that using only Schwab funds, you'd have to buy SWTSX, SWISX, SFENX, and SFILX.

With a nod to Mr. Bogle, 20% of my equities position is currently in International. I've always held an International allocation since my investing career began in 1993. Reviewing some of my old 401(k) statements tonight, my sole International holding, JNOSX (Janus Overseas Fund), handily outperformed my S&P 500 index fund in '96, '99, '03-'07, and '09-'10, including spectacular gains of 86.07% in '99 and 78.12% in '09. Things go in cycles. Remembering the great run I had with International in 1996-2010--albeit, with an actively-managed fund--makes it easy to stay the course. That 78% outperformance was followed by a 14% drop over the 2011-2021 decade though, or a 25.54% drop from 2007-2021. You might want to consider a passive fund, o...

With a nod to Mr. Bogle, 20% of my equities position is currently in International.

I've always held an International allocation since my investing career began in 1993.
Reviewing some of my old 401(k) statements tonight, my sole International holding, JNOSX (Janus Overseas Fund), handily outperformed my S&P 500 index fund in '96, '99, '03-'07, and '09-'10, including spectacular gains of 86.07% in '99 and 78.12% in '09.

Things go in cycles. Remembering the great run I had with International in 1996-2010--albeit, with an actively-managed fund--makes it easy to stay the course.