Bogleheads.org

For the urbanites Bogleheads among us, I’d appreciate your thoughts on when and under what circumstances and net worth levels it makes sense to use a personal security person and driver for routine shorter and longer day trips. How about “never”? At least for regular folks who deal with everyday concerns and lead ordinary lives in relative obscurity. Not to make light of crime, but everyone faces risks, yet exceptionally few people feel the need to hire a body guard, even if they can afford it. So if one does, I think it says more about them rather than their environment. If I felt scared to leave my home, I would move to somewhere I’m more comfortable or learn to deal with my anxiety before I hire protection. By the way, if your wealth ma...

Every few months I used to drive 1-2 hours each way to get to one of several places in a neighboring state. Most of these were for checkups with specialists in dense urban areas where driving was terrible due to high speed traffic, etc. A year or so ago I switched to hiring a driver, so now I just sit back and no worries. Also, I am ancient so it is much better to know if there is car trouble or snow, etc. I am not dealing with it myself. My family is mostly out of state. The guy who does this runs a concierge service and I have hired him for various things for years, so I don't need to check him out. The most recent trip took about 4 hours and he billed $250. This is just for driving, there is no crime/security aspect. For trips within my...

Basically my thought was, a driver is very convenient if one is avoiding public transportation and one who is also a former uniformed professional is a nice added touch given higher crime rates lately. Recent experience of drivers who happened to be recently retired firefighters and police officers in their 50s gave me the idea.

I don’t think I’m a particular target more than anyone else, but I and my family can’t avoid going to higher crime areas since the areas where we all live and work have now become much higher crime, so why not go with a vetted and professional driver than some ad hoc uber, Lyft or cab driver.

Also it’s a nice way to give back to deserving retirees who still want to be active and earn some extra money.

I briefly got into a Starbucks phase recently and then got shamed into tipping at Starbucks so … I stopped going. Easy peasy! Prefer black coffee homemade anyway sipped out of porcelain rather than on bleached recycled paper with plastic lining.

This morning I listened to the music from the breakfast in bed scene of The Untouchables, the 1980s movie with Kevin Costner as Elliott Ness.

For the urbanites Bogleheads among us, I’d appreciate your thoughts on when and under what circumstances and net worth levels it makes sense to use a personal security person and driver for routine shorter and longer day trips. It appears anecdotally that with the retirement wave among police officers, there are a lot of very capable people offering personal security / driver services on a part time basis. In the past, this would have been mainly for people who were famous, ultra high net worth or under some sort of threat, but these days as my family is more widely dispersed over a broader geographic area (various large cities), advancing in age where driving is becoming riskier, and crime is more prominent in the news, I am wondering when...

I see the hubris now in myself as I was similarly market timing last year and still have an outstanding GTC order in for VTI at $179 that has been sitting there for four or five months now, locking up money in SPAXX. I wanted to win, I wanted to be smarter, I wanted the excitement and charge of snagging the deal. I had a few “successes” but the true success is just put your money in and let it work for you while you live your life (focusing on earning). The benefit is you get the dividends (irrelevant or not), appreciation over time, capital gains, you make it a habit, and you learn to be passive and consistent. It’s like trawling for fish with a big net rather than fishing off a pier for the big one. But I had to try my method out first to...

A different perspective: since as you say everything changed in the last two weeks, resolve to stick it out for a month or two more at least while setting boundaries and looking for a better position internally and externally. Maybe the company is positioning itself for sale and the new owners would be more to your liking or give you other stock incentives. At least wait until you can exercise your RSUs.

If this is the case then meaningful financial success might be harmful. I know a lot of people here disagree but I think for multiple reasons increased financial success slowly becomes isolating for many. This is so glaringly true, in terms of one’s social life! For those of us who are stringently frugal and somewhat financially successful, the result is isolation. We don’t normally associate with people in comparable financial position. If we do level with our coworkers or friends, they’re going to shun us, as nasty rich people who are untethered from the common man. Whenever the stock market falls, I feel rotten, and would love to confide in my acquaintances, to commiserate and to seek solace as a group. Sadly, this isn’t possible. They ...

I had this issue and I did option 1- moved the excess to another account that I already had open at another bank. Simple enough. That high interest CD sounds good.

Normchad wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 8:19 pm

AnnetteLouisan wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 8:00 pm

YERER01 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 7:52 pm Came to ask for JoeRetire but some other people have asked this before.

He posted 4 hours ago on Reddit/Personal finance as GeorgeRetire. Same avatar and same direct comments. So cheer up!

Great. I feel better now. I’m gonna go look for him!

Me too, I was worried. He was the first one to excoriate me when I joined for not having a big enough net worth at my income.

It worked! It was the tough love I needed.

YERER01 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 7:52 pm Came to ask for JoeRetire but some other people have asked this before.

He posted 4 hours ago on Reddit/Personal finance as GeorgeRetire. Same avatar and same direct comments. So cheer up!

AnnetteLouisan wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2023 5:56 pm “Realtor… (1) it’s a profession (2) not just a trade…,”

Anyone know that literary reference?

I used one when I rented my apartment. After some trial and error, I gave one very specific parameters and they managed to find me something I was very satisfied with.

One of you must know where the above quote is from. Nicolas?

You’re Unbelievable, by EMF

Gosh this is depressing!

OP, my guess is that your toddler will compare favorably to some others.

I was on a plane with a toddler in my row who had one of those tube shaped super loud noisemakers one sees at concerts. For about 3 hours he twirled it with gusto and enthusiasm (woo woo woo! for hours) and no one said a word in the packed coach cabin. Then suddenly he dropped it into the aisle under the passing dining cart. The flight attendant bent down to pick it up for him so I subtly shook my head, no need.

Just don’t bring one of those noisemaker tubes and you’ll be fine.

Trailer for Phoenix, with Nina Hoess.

OP is 35 now and just crossed $1 mil. Still worrying though.

Enya, Only Time
Diana Krall, Let’s Fall in Love
Diana Krall, I’ve Got You Under My Skin
Dido, Hunter
Dido, No Angel
Dido, Thank You
Sade, Paradise
Windmills of Your Mind (theme song to The Thomas Crown Affair)
Theme Song to A Man and A Woman
Sade, Keep Looking
Ella Fitzgerald, What A Difference A Day Makes

Barking up the wrong tree with this in my opinion. There’s so much more to be afraid of with travel than this.

1. Takeoff and landing
2. Taxi rides
3. Food poisoning
4. Lack of rights to habeas corpus in the jurisdiction
5. Hijacking
6. Dark streets
7. Mistaken identity
8. Mugging
9. false arrest
10. Detention by a foreign authority
11. That charming stranger
12. Misplacing your money
13. Lost or expired passport
14. Civil disturbances
15. Becoming ill without medical access in your language

Really, door security I’ve never given a thought to and I’ve traveled widely and am a woman last I checked. My solution is fly on good airlines, stay in good hotels and don’t flash your wealth, don’t drink to excess and keep alert.

“Realtor… (1) it’s a profession (2) not just a trade…,”

Anyone know that literary reference?

I used one when I rented my apartment. After some trial and error, I gave one very specific parameters and they managed to find me something I was very satisfied with.

The strange positive thing about misfortune is it helps give you other priorities. So don’t worry, something will go wrong and teach wonderful lessons. Then you may wake up every day feeling grateful.

That said, 29/30 is definitely a year where most people take stock and chart the course ahead. Much like 50. Also, success tends to be gradual. Two steps forward, one step back. Ya just gotta keep going.

I’d love to see a similar scenario for a single person. It’s very common among Gen X and Millennials. A lot of us need to understand how that could play out. With the same savings it's obviously worse. Though, kids cost a boat load IME. There should be some trade off where non-parents can save more at a given lifestyle otherwise. "Boatload" somewhat understates it. However, there is no particular reason why a single person can't also be a parent, or that a married person must be a parent. And, as noted somewhere else in this thread, a married couple with no (or predeceased) children is likely to end up with one person in a solo-retirement situation also. There are some posters here who specifically bring up the issues with solo-r...

I had a similar experience w H&R Block with my backdoor Roth conversion. I’ll just send in an amendment once I figure it out. There was a good thread in this last March.

Wife and I were both age 35 when net worth crossed over into $1m. Oddly, we do not feel very financially secure and worry about saving and investing a lot. I am always looking for new ways to improve and make more / save more / invest more. $1 million isn't much of a milestone for us. Interesting book on why the affluent sometimes feel less secure and more anxious financially than the middle class and even the near poor in some cases. It’s called Cut Adrift. It profiles households at vastly different income levels and how they build security for themselves in different ways in unpredictable times. One takeaway is that having more money allows the affluent to think longer term and thus include more worries in their day to day thinking. Anot...

For overseas travel, I found the State Department’s STEP program helpful. You sign up for text alerts about strikes, disturbances etc in the country to which you are traveling. That can really save you time if something happens (knowing it’s not near you, for example). Also it lets the State Department know you are in the country, which can also be helpful if they need to evacuate you or otherwise assist.

I’ve utilized money market deposit accounts when I wanted higher interest on insured funds but didn’t want to commit to a CD. I’ve utilized them a lot since the 1990s and I still have some.

I only use money market mutual funds as a core fund in taxable awaiting investment, which is to say I only started recently since historically I wasn’t willing to accept the risk of a decline below $1 net asset value per share.

You mean like selling? No.

Is SPAXX ok?

They were intended for small lower income savers originally I thought. That’s why the annual amount is limited.

Read The Gift of Fear by Lundy Bancroft. It’s about situational awareness.

All Frontline has a documentary "the age of easy money" it is expected EST at 9:00PM tonight 3/14/2023 I am sure it will repeat or be available at your local area. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/age-of-easy-money/ "Around the country and across the world, the threat of a recession is looming and economic uncertainty is rising as markets, businesses and individuals adjust to a new reality: the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates and pulling back on its epic monetary experiment that started with the Great Financial Crisis. From the award-winning team behind The Facebook Dilemma and Amazon Empire, the two-hour documentary Age of Easy Money investigates how the Fed’s experiment has changed the American econ...

Maybe it can write a retirement speech script for the class of 2023.

abuss368 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 7:34 pm

AnnetteLouisan wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 7:31 pm

abuss368 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 7:26 pm

AnnetteLouisan wrote: ↑Tue Feb 21, 2023 5:26 pm

McDougal wrote: ↑Tue Feb 21, 2023 5:22 pm Been missing JoeRetire, and his George avatar! I always glean something from his posts.

Same here. He’s mentioned being unwell - hope he’s ok.

If I heard correctly, I believe JoeRetire finally made the leap and started a Podcast show. It is available on Apple or something. He talked about it before and must have made the leap. I wish Hugh well!

Joe posted recently. He’s ok.

Podcast or forum?

Forum.

abuss368 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 7:26 pm

AnnetteLouisan wrote: ↑Tue Feb 21, 2023 5:26 pm

McDougal wrote: ↑Tue Feb 21, 2023 5:22 pm Been missing JoeRetire, and his George avatar! I always glean something from his posts.

Same here. He’s mentioned being unwell - hope he’s ok.

If I heard correctly, I believe JoeRetire finally made the leap and started a Podcast show. It is available on Apple or something. He talked about it before and must have made the leap. I wish Hugh well!

Joe posted recently. He’s ok.

You’re saving $2150 as I see it (counting pension contributions and 529). Plus the amount you are saving for a car.

Is the life insurance term life, I assume?

I think it looks fine and I wouldn’t cut the cleaner.

325/mo on gifts/Christmas and charity seems too high for someone with 3 kids, and a variable income who got a late start.

$620/mo for utilities? (Counting gas & electric)

I read in the news that over 1000 companies had deposits with SVB. I’d think those companies and their shareholders lose too if not covered.

Drew31 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 12, 2023 8:10 pm "Wall Street — not taxpayers — will pay for the SVB and Signature deposit relief plans" - CNBC

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/13/wall-st ... lans-.html

Same as last time, but people didn’t understand that then… all the debt got paid back and then some. It was just govt guarantees.

What industry?

Good that you've provided some details, but not enough IMO to give you a well informed answer. Does increasing your housing costs now cause a delay to your retirement date? Would you prefer to be retired? If the option is "retire sooner by keeping current housing costs low" or "retire later but live in a more luxurious house now", I would and did choose the former, but I never liked my job. I love my job, not really eager to retire, but will depending on health and the like. I believe I can retire on my planned timetable whether or not I do this. My portfolio is conservative. This is the thing. You need to decide - firmly - about retirement, first. One thing at a time. Your decisions on the rest will begin to fall into ...

My gross income is $340k... ...... Can I Afford $85k a year housing costs? You could spend $85K a year on beanie babies if that is what turns your crank and still live the lifestyle of someone who "only" makes around $250K a year. :oops: Of course you can afford it, at least while you are still working. The only real problem would be if you also wanted to also buy a Lamborghini, a yacht, etc. but that does not seem to be a problem. If I understand your situation now; 1) You already own a place. 2) You are thinking of renting or buying(it was not clear) a more expensive place. 3) You are planning to move in about five years when you retire. 4) You are thinking about renting your current place if you move out of it. To me selling y...

l8_apex wrote: ↑Sun Mar 12, 2023 11:12 am Good that you've provided some details, but not enough IMO to give you a well informed answer. Does increasing your housing costs now cause a delay to your retirement date? Would you prefer to be retired?

If the option is "retire sooner by keeping current housing costs low" or "retire later but live in a more luxurious house now", I would and did choose the former, but I never liked my job.

I love my job, not really eager to retire, but will depending on health and the like. I believe I can retire on my planned timetable whether or not I do this. My portfolio is conservative.

Personally, I wouldn’t inflate your lifestyle before retiring bc I would want to get there “sooner.” From an income perspective yes 25% is reasonable but is it necessary / improve your quality of life? For someone earning 100k per year or less 25% might be barely enough to get by - have 3x that amount and spending it might not improve your QOL by a degree that is worth it. You also make no mention of your net worth and how staying the course or spending more will impact that. 1. Personally mortgage rates and home prices in my area do not make purchasing a prudent option. Ymmv based on where you are. 2. 24k per year in living expenses leaves more room to spend elsewhere than 70k. 3. I would - but this depends on your net Perth and retiremen...

Beagles are the best of course but they keep making cutting remarks and crashing their planes fighting the Red Baron.

My gross income is $340k from all sources (mostly salary). 25 percent of that is about $85k. Or about $7200/mo. I’ve never paid more than $2750/mo for housing (rent or co-op maintenance). My net income is 265k. I live on 45k including housing right now, so I have a lot of wiggle room in the budget. With more working from home, being older and more sedate, and valuing amenities more like laundry service and an on-site gym and pool, I’m thinking of going closer to that number at a more luxury type suburban complex, but it’s hard to imagine I can afford that. If I were to retire within the next five years (as I expect to), my gross income will drop to $70-90k, consisting of pension, retirement withdrawals, rental income and interest/dividends)...

Similarly if I have some treasuries at Schwab or comparable brokerage, plus some FSKAX in an IRA and some VTI (total under 300k) and my brokerage goes under,

1. are my investments safe (other than loss of value), and

2. are these 3 investments different degrees of safe because one is held in an IRA, two in taxable and of those, some are treasuries?

Shiba Inu. Not super small but cute and calm.

I received a Dropbox scam email. It used the name of a friend who had sent me a link. It asks you for your email and PW to access. I contacted the friend and he hadn’t sent it. In fact another friend of his contacted him about it too.

I listened to the well tempered clavier last weekend. It had been a while. It endures.

I just saw a poster say that SVB isn't under the OCC's control. I didn't know that! Well shoot....then piss on SVB, it's a glorified finance company in my book. ha. I've never even heard of SVB until Thursday so I know nothing about them but they sure as hell don't play in the traditional corporate/commercial lending business that I know of, and I don't think they're have a meaningful retail business, but this is weird....if feels like the market's acting like a large commercial bank just went down. I'm feeling better about that $55k I put in that mega bank yesterday than I did after reading this thread this morning. :D I just read an article in the Wall Street journal today that says that the Federal Reserve is the primary federal regulat...