Bogleheads.org

I read all of Taleb's books, and have become a convert to the survival mode of portfolio positioning...and it helps now that cash is above 4% yield. it all depends on your life situation and investing objectives, no % is right for everyone

many of you are aware of this, but for those who are not, if you keep a significant amount of cash in Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund (now yielding 4.46%) the interest is fully taxable by NY/Ca. (or 37% taxable by other states ) while all interest in VUSXX (now yielding 4.4%) is free from state taxation. the state tax effect makes holding money in Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund in excess of your trading liquidity needs highly tax inefficient. over the last 10 years or so, the tax inefficiency was negligible since the interest yield was negligible. for this taxable year of course, this difference can be important. I was sleeping on this until recently You sure it's not "37% exempt from taxes in other states" :oops: yes you ...

many of you are aware of this, but for those who are not, if you keep a significant amount of cash in Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund (now yielding 4.46%) the interest is fully taxable by NY/Ca. (or 37% taxable by other states) while all interest in VUSXX (now yielding 4.4%) is free from state taxation. the state tax effect makes holding money in Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund in excess of your trading liquidity needs highly tax inefficient.

over the last 10 years or so, the tax inefficiency was negligible since the interest yield was negligible. for this taxable year of course, this difference can be important. I was sleeping on this until recently

I have plenty of experience with contracts, but not house building contracts. but the main issues that you care about are likely money, principally timing of payments, and timing of performance (penalties for delay), right? materials quality and design issues should be all be specified by architect, right? are there differences between his contract and the AIA contract in the important issues (money/time)? IMO, yes, the main issues are payments (how much is due and when, is listed, but nothing in regard to retaining any money if things not done), also inspections/oversight, insurances, warranties and liens. The above issues seem to be addressed pretty well in the AIA contract but just superficially, like 1-2 sentences, in his contract in r...

ScubaHogg wrote: ↑Thu Feb 09, 2023 4:00 am I’d love to watch the public outrage that would certainly occur if the IRS started going after weddings

agree. but just be sure to pay for the expenses directly, and not transfer money to your daughter beforehand so that she can pay the expenses. shouldn't matter either way, but the latter smells more like a gift

wife and i had an analogous situation. we owned a family country house for 15 years that was high maintenance but which we enjoyed, but once our kids started their own families, they came by less and so the question was what to do with it (we are a bit younger than you). my wife said to me, after we go, the kids will sell it, and they will look at it as a burden that we left for them to deal with. so we should sell it now rather than make them do it then. my wife is very sensible, so that is what we did.

I have plenty of experience with contracts, but not house building contracts. but the main issues that you care about are likely money, principally timing of payments, and timing of performance (penalties for delay), right? materials quality and design issues should be all be specified by architect, right? are there differences between his contract and the AIA contract in the important issues (money/time)?

just ask Marie Kondo, she knows....whatever sparks joy for you.

my iPhone is my watch. what am I missing?

if you live in the US, do yourself a favor and go to some place like Buenos Aires for a nice vacation, and walk the streets there. then come back to the US and realize that you dont need a mask for air pollution in the US

you didnt say if income will let you pay down/off personal loan (where did you get an unsecured personal loan for 6%?) and CC. if so, then hold onto the stock.

do you do double entry accounting? we defeased future obligations well into our 40s...meaning, funded 529 accounts and retirement accounts to the max. also maxed out our home buy so that it would suit our family for decades, which it has.

so $1MM in assets minus $1MM in future college education/retirement funding liabilities left us at the starting place.

I dont want to get into giving specific investment advice, but buying into a CCC portfolio of junk bonds as we are about to enter into a downturn is not a good idea imo.

if you want yield it might make sense to look at BDCs...look for ones with a long and successful operating history, like Ares. ARCC. more exposure to the entire capital stack rather than just the junior unsecured layer, and much better underwriting with a large BDC than with some junk bond jockey. all imo

I have most of equity portfolio in SPY, with some in the equal weighted S&P500 RSP. RSP is a little less volatile, implying more of a value orientation than the cap weighted SPY, which is more large tech weighted. their returns are very close over time, and RSP has a higher expense ratio. all things considered, there are many other things worth worrying about...

borscht (Slava Ukraine)

chicken broth
beef on the bone
potatoes
beets (get the pre-cooked vacuum sealed)
cabbage
onion
carrots
canned San Marzano tomatoes (maybe some tomato paste)

there is a staging process. for example, the cabbage should be shredded and put in late
you could add a little vinegar. S/P
dont be shy with the bones. gives broth deep flavor. fish them out before serving

serve hot. dollop of sour cream optional

check out the VW Tiguan and Taos. basically comparable to the Audi/Lexus if you get the SEL version, but less cost.

kudos to your son. now tell him he needs to get an on-campus job. and suggest to him that this has financial and educational benefit

I read this thread with interest and learned that I dont want ANY annuities (other than perhaps from Powerball). I will keep my money in my accounts and make my own returns. simplicity and optionality

retired and 68. I say that I am in training. when people ask me what I am in training for, I say old age.

I started going to gym 2hours per day every other day, and doing long walks the other days. listen to a lot of podcast when exercising. exercise is a great "hobby".

talk to your neighbor and say you want the tree trimmed that is over your property, and you will pay for it. if neighbor says no, talk to your town office and say that you want to eliminate the hazard to your property. the village 'should" say yes, or at least shrug shoulders. then cut the offending limbs. the best solution if tree is dead is for you and nabe to split cost of total removal, but that may not be to nabe's liking

"As to the house, the OP may want to check the property title record and the divorce decree first. The house may have been, and may still be, titled to his mother and father as JTWROS, divorce notwithstanding."

brillant!

there are examples that I know anecdotally of heirs/family finding out that there is more there than you might think. so do some due diligence and you might handsomely surprise yourself

The Deadpod podcast.

[Link formatted by admin LadyGeek]

I bought a TIGR (long term treasury income strip) in 1982 and made >30% pa return when rates went down. that was once in a lifetime. I dont expect long term rates now at 3+ to go down that much over next 10 years...could be wrong. so why would you want a long term bond if the proposition for cap gain is iffy? to defease a future obligation. if you want to know that 20-30 years from now, sure as sh*t there will be money that you can count on for some obligation then, like feeding your old self, then fine. but from a perspective of cap appreciation, how the F knows?

over your 30 year investing horizon, low cost funds will save you plenty. also over a 30 year horizon, diversified 100% equity is the way to go imo. you can research the number of 10 year periods were the dow index did not appreciate over 10 year, and there are few. '68-'82 was an especially brutal 14 year period, and then there is investing in 1929. if you think the next 10 year may be such a period, and I wouldn't quibble with you if you do, then some allocation to bonds makes sense...but only if you think USA will take something like 10 year to sort itself out. then dont trade...why is your trading decision better than your initial allocation decision. did you get "smarter"? well, if there is a nuclear war in Eastern Europe, th...

top gun maverick was a sequel well done. not easy to do. if you liked first, you will love second

the other thing about Schwab v V is that I have a Schwab retail office 5 blocks from where I live, and I can do things more easily there, face to face with a schwabie than I can do with a V rep online or over the phone.

I had a 30 year old water heater in country house when I bought it and I sold the house 15 years later with a 45 year old water heater.

what's to break? the tank? no that is just a tank

the fuel injection/burning piece? well, I had it maintained every year, cleaned out jets etc. now, if you want to go to a high tech system, fine, you may save some bucks long term. but there is not much to break if you do maintenance

all depends on your life situation and life objectives. we are 68 with some income while in retirement, and we have over 30 years of the amount of the annual excess of our costs over income in cash...because we dont want to work again and we want to leave a legacy for our adult kids. first set your life objectives, then adopt a scheme

"In some states it is illegal for them to ask. Google is your friend."

do we not still live in America?

I also have money in V fed money market and I am pleased to see its rate rise with fed funds rate. at the point where the fed stops raising rate, I intend to buy 2-5 year treasuries, depending on yield curve at time. but liquidity is your friend right now until the market drops another 10%

I have Schwab and V, and MUCH prefer service from Schwab than V. yet I like the V funds (low cost). if move to Schwab, remember that Schwab doesnt provide default sweeps to a MM fund like V does, you have to manually trade money from cash into MM

like any other trait/skill that you want to develop, engage in what I call continuous improvement process. make a checklist (added to frequently) of little things that will help you engage with other people, like looking someone in the eyes, listening carefully and in a way that the other person sees you are listening carefully, asking more questions than providing answers etc. then after each engagement, grade yourself mentally, did I do these things with these people. soon enough, this will become second nature and you can put the checklist in your desk drawer

my advice: have kids. will change your mind about retiring early, and you will actually find that family life beats early retirement life

we had a second home in New Lebanon NY for 15 years. very nice community with proximity to many cultural offerings in Berkshires and Hudson valley. strong community sense (farmers market etc) no crime and reasonably good schools. but as a place without much housing density, and plenty of farms getting ag exemptions from RE taxes, I thought the RE taxes were very high, especially in view of the county services offered.

own when you want psychological permanence, rent when you want psychological freedom. it is not a purely financial analysis, much more a life situation analysis. if you want a home base, own. if you want a not-yet home base, rent.

strength training is important enough to do more than 40 minutes a week...plus I would add some stretching time before and even after that strength work. I do one hour of bike/treadmill and one hour of weights 3X/week, preceded by 20 minutes of stretching with a stretching rope. a simple rule of thumb is to devote as much time to weights as you do to aerobics.

my suggestion would be to have DD write down the most important activities in her life at the moment. be very present, not try to speculate about the future. My "gap" year was actually my senior year of college, when I had enough credits with AP credits to graduate in 3.5 years. so I did two things the summer between junior and senior year and the fall of senior year: I travelled to a National Parks intern job as a summer ranger in the Grand Canyon at the bottom at the bright angel campground, and then came back home to work on an old Land Rover with my pops during what would be fall of senior year. I now >40 years later treasure that time and decision. did it prepare me for my career as a lawyer? nope. it just taught me that I co...

in addition to "Consumer Staples (which I understand to be things you buy in a supermarket), Healthcare and Utilities" for defensive equity positioning now, I think you have to add energy/oil. especially royalty trusts and pipeline companies, which have the current income stream aspect but also should preserve their yields even as we go into recession (yes commodity prices generally will come down as we move from inflation to deflation, but the demand for energy should not decrease substantially because there is no substitution effect available). it is an interesting paradox, which Buffett clearly understands, that as the developing nations move to more green energy as a policy goal, hydrocarbon energy becomes more enticing as an ...

"So rebalancing between stocks and bonds rarely leads to these particularly efficient portfolios, as earnings yields on each don't tend to diverge greatly."

generally yes, and certainly this year...but not so re stocks and cash this year. I have a portfolio of cash and equities, and have been waiting for rates to rise for what seems forever, as I have diversified with cash rather than bonds. I found that my portfolio return was acceptable during the past bull market notwithstanding the sizable allocation to cash, and now I am getting a substantial cushioning effect by my cash allocation, whose return rate appears to be on the rise to above 3%....at which point I may apportion some cash to 2-3 year treasuries.

question for this thread, from a Form 1116 hater: we get a partnership K-1 that allocates a foreign tax paid on our behalf of $X. no backup or worksheet, just a statement that the partnership paid foreign taxes and your share is $X.

how can I best put this on my 1040 without getting into the BS of Form 1116? (Use turboTax)

if you are approaching retirement, you may want to either write a will, or update your current will...and that gets you right into the sorts of questions you should be entertaining with an advisor. I would recommend a RIA/fiduciary who has some estate planning expertise. you are seeing more one stop shopping financial advisors/generational planning advisors. this is not something some Vanguard guy can do at the other end of a telephone. most RIAs are more than willing to use Vanguard funds

do you want to leave your kids (and grandkids) a monetary legacy? if so you may want to increase your number

we enrolled our kids in a private school pre-K through high school program, and they profited from the rigor and continuity that provided. one of our kids did opt to go to a great boarding school in high school, which made sense for her but not my son...and she was well prepared for the challenging boarding school because we bit the bullet on private school education from pre-K for her.
long story short, the best gift you can give your kids is your love and the best education that your money can afford

I have insured my 1850 home with State Farm that has stated replacement value > FMV, but even at this inflated amount, I seriously doubt I could rebuild a like quality home today at quoted replacement value. if there is a total fire loss, won't I be able to negotiate with insurer to have them cut me a check and release me from their policy obligations. anyone have experience with this? psychologically, after a major loss, I would want to start afresh with something somewhere else than try to recreate what is essentially irreplaceable in any event

AAPL and AMZN are two great businesses, and are very likely to continue to remain great businesses. if you have a longish investment holding period, they should be very good investments. if you have a short horizon, market fluctuations can whipsaw you...but the better the business, the longer your investment horizon should be.

no lifestyle changes, but made certain purchases (some for me, some for others) that made me happy, and which I would not have "allowed" myself. allow yourself (and loved ones) a few things that are not wholesale lifestyle changes, but are special.