Search found 368 matches
- Wed Nov 03, 2021 11:31 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: wrist/watch display for a chest strap heart rate monitor
- Replies: 16
- Views: 1176
Re: wrist/watch display for a chest strap heart rate monitor
My first running watch was a garmin forerunner 110. Obviously this is a GPS watch, but it would meet your needs I think...it paired easily with chest strap and seems to be running under $30 used on ebay. I wouldn't necessarily recommend something that old, but my point is you shouldn't need to spend anywhere near $300 to get a watch simply capable enough to display chest sensor readings.
- Thu Apr 01, 2021 8:10 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Which is more forward-looking? Solar panels or Roth investment?
- Replies: 60
- Views: 4828
Re: Which is more forward-looking? Solar panels or Roth investment?
I have always leaned towards Roth, but a lot of that is because our house is not optimally oriented for solar and our electric supply costs are generally cheap in the mid-atlantic, even trending downward over the past decade (currently a little over 7 cents/kwh). I actually try pretty hard to justify the solar investment financially, but never really get close.
- Wed Mar 03, 2021 2:26 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Creating IRS Account - Unlock Credit Freeze?
- Replies: 11
- Views: 1496
Re: Creating IRS Account - Unlock Credit Freeze?
I just created an IRS account a month or so ago to get a tax transcript. I didn't have to unlock any of my frozen credit files, but did need to wait for a verification number to be snail mailed. It took a few weeks, but was pretty painless.
- Thu Oct 31, 2019 12:12 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Credit Card Fraud Question:
- Replies: 16
- Views: 1860
Re: Credit Card Fraud Question:
Many places let you purchase via credit card thru Paypal as a guest, so you don't necessarily have a fraudulent Paypal account to worry about. But you might.
- Thu Aug 30, 2018 2:56 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Gardening 2018
- Replies: 70
- Views: 9712
Re: Gardening 2018
FWIW that looks a lot like what I get from my "Mr. Stripey" plant that I tried this year. Of course that's assuming the plant I bought was labeled correctly.Earl Lemongrab wrote: ↑Wed Aug 22, 2018 11:26 pm I've had a pretty good tomato harvest this year. Like a lot of the country, summer got an early start. The bad thing was that it knocked out the snow peas early. I have put in an attempt at a fall crop for those.
Interestingly, one of my tomato plants wasn't what I bought. Here's an attempt by me to get some info:
https://www.houzz.com/discussions/54140 ... t#comments
A few candidates have turned up, either there or through searches.
- Thu Aug 30, 2018 12:51 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Chipotle question
- Replies: 73
- Views: 5947
Re: Chipotle question
If you are only getting 700 calories per order at chipotle, you are simply choosing not to maximize your order's potential and that is why you aren't getting more than one meal out of it. Yes and no. I love Chipotle and have little doubt that if I stretched my bowl to 1300+ calories I would still be eating it in one sitting. So my 700 calorie bowl is actually a health-based rather than a finance-based choice. :happy You are also assuming they are giving you portions that match up with those used in their nutritional calculator. I know someone who worked in HR for them and participated in the hiring and training of employees for new locations. Needless to say, the pictures she would send me of the "correct" portions they teach dur...
- Sat Nov 25, 2017 5:33 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: The Wolf of Wall Street
- Replies: 33
- Views: 6016
Re: The Wolf of Wall Street
I read both and liked the second book better because it had more financial details, so I might be weird. Neither of them made a lasting impression though.
- Fri Aug 25, 2017 11:00 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Funny/frustrating FedEx situation
- Replies: 19
- Views: 3937
Re: Funny/frustrating FedEx situation
Not related to FedEx, but if you are going from a micro sim to a nano sim you can find templates on the internet and cut the card down to size.
- Tue Dec 20, 2016 9:42 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Donation question
- Replies: 22
- Views: 3425
Re: Donation question
FYI, Maryland has a similar tax credit program. It's called the Community Investment Tax Credit program here, and it only applies to a very specific list of projects from specific charities.
- Thu Nov 03, 2016 10:07 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: How to retire early (in your 30s or 40s)?
- Replies: 173
- Views: 36716
Re: How to retire early (in your 30s or 40s)?
Not fully locked up. Google 72t distributions.awizard wrote:I get what you are saying. However, all the funds in tax advantage are "locked up" until 59 1/2. The only solution I see is to have a savings rate that is gigantic.
- Wed Sep 14, 2016 11:19 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Denied Term Life Insurance/A Reminder to Get Your House in Order
- Replies: 40
- Views: 6397
Re: Denied Term Life Insurance/A Reminder to Get Your House in Order
Another recommendation to find out how much SS survivor benefits your kid(s) and wife would receive. It can be quite a bit and might set your mind at ease. And make sure you are maxing out your group coverage.flyingbison wrote:
No. Your wife is employable and you more than enough to cover a few years of living expenses already. Also, check to see how much SS your minor child would receive if you die.
- Fri Apr 22, 2016 1:04 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Using Roth IRA for Home Down Payment.
- Replies: 23
- Views: 3403
Re: Using Roth IRA for Home Down Payment.
Re-check your PMI numbers, something seems off. FWIW, I pay about $75/month on a similar size loan and there were no PMI-related costs at closing.
- Tue Mar 01, 2016 12:22 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Do mortgage lenders underestimate taxes to make the closing payment more attractive (and entice borrowers)?
- Replies: 13
- Views: 3019
Re: Do mortgage lenders underestimate taxes to make the closing payment more attractive (and entice borrowers)?
I wouldn't worry about it except to make sure they know that their payment will increase after an escrow analysis to the higher, correct monthly escrow rate plus an additional amount (one-time or monthly) to make up for the shortage from this year.
- Mon Feb 29, 2016 11:14 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: I am presenting on Vanguard vs. AXA, can you help?
- Replies: 54
- Views: 7822
Re: I am presenting on Vanguard vs. AXA, can you help?
"An Investor who pays the average .74% fee for a mutual fund and invests $500 a month for 30 years (with a 6% gain) will pay more than $33,615 more than an investor in a low-cost index fund that charges .05%." I agree with this approach. Keep specific funds out of it and you will eliminate a potential counter attack of apples-to-oranges comparisons and cherry-picking time frames. I would just present the total cost of a generic fund over 30 yrs at say 5bp and 100bp. Then show whatever the latest "85% of active funds lose to index funds over 10 yrs"-type research shows. If the investor thinks the expensive funds will overcome their cost disadvantage, despite the data, they have the existing fund lineup. You could argue t...
- Thu Feb 04, 2016 11:46 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Prosper.com Update Total Return
- Replies: 39
- Views: 7019
Re: Prosper.com Update Total Return
They made some large changes in 2009. Whether the better performance of loans after that point was due to the changes or the strengthening economy you will have to decide.JonFromDimensionC137 wrote:
I just checked their website and the returns that they display begin in 2009. I'll have to see if I can find data from during the financial crisis to see if the current returns being generated are worth it. It seems pretty misleading of them to not include this, especially when marketing their product to average joe investors.
Default data here. Not sure of its accuracy, but seems about what I remembered at the time.
https://www.nsrplatform.com/#!/
http://www.lendstats.com/
- Thu Feb 04, 2016 9:50 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Prosper.com Update Total Return
- Replies: 39
- Views: 7019
Re: Prosper.com Update Total Return
I think it is extremely difficult to evaluate p2p lending as an investment until it is seen how it performs during an economic downturn. My intuition is that the currently available returns don't justify the downside risk. Haven't run any numbers to back this up, but I'd imagine default rates would skyrocket in a 2008 sort of environment. It will be interesting to see how it plays out next time such a recession happens. +1. I invested a small amount at Prosper starting 2007. I only chose high quality loans and consider myself lucky to have gotten out down 12%. They say they have since tightened their borrower qualification process, but I'm not going to try again. On the plus side I have been getting small checks from class action lawsuits ...
- Fri Dec 11, 2015 10:09 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Quick Chromecast question
- Replies: 8
- Views: 1495
Re: Quick Chromecast question
Once the chromecast stream starts you can do whatever you want with the controlling device, including turning it off, and the stream will continue. The data is flowing between chromecast and router at that point. Your tablet/computer/phone is only a remote control.
It's probably different if you are streaming from a tab in chrome browser, but I don't do that, so I'm not sure.
It's probably different if you are streaming from a tab in chrome browser, but I don't do that, so I'm not sure.
- Thu Sep 03, 2015 2:49 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: New commute car for longish commute tall commuter
- Replies: 14
- Views: 1930
Re: New commute car for longish commute tall commuter
I have an '06 civic with ~230k miles on it. Similar height and commute time as your husband. Car has been great and actually feels more spacious to me as driver than my wife's Santa Fe SUV, in which I bump the roof with my head occasionally.
However, I currently have 2 backless booster seats in the back and I am not sure an additional car seat would fit comfortably. You would really have to test that out.
However, I currently have 2 backless booster seats in the back and I am not sure an additional car seat would fit comfortably. You would really have to test that out.
- Thu Jul 23, 2015 12:14 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: 401k loan for down payment?
- Replies: 4
- Views: 857
Re: 401k loan for down payment?
Maybe. Maybe not. Details of the specific plan matter.Liberty1100 wrote:The risks there is that if he looses his job during the repayment period, you would have to instantly pay back the 401k loan.
- Fri Jun 12, 2015 1:35 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Thoughts on 401k loan for home purchase?
- Replies: 29
- Views: 11216
Re: Thoughts on 401k loan for home purchase?
I would say it depends on the rules of your particular 401k plan. I used a 401k loan as a bridge between 2 houses and it worked out ok. I still contributed in the time I had the loan, I still got the company match and contrary to what just about everyone here thinks, I would not have had to repay the entire loan within 5 seconds of leaving the company. The rules of my plan were a major factor in my decision.
- Fri Mar 27, 2015 2:21 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Completed taxes, need to file new Fed & State W4
- Replies: 10
- Views: 1358
Re: Completed taxes, need to file new Fed & State W4
IMO, you are overthinking this. You have a good idea how much less you want withheld since you know your refund amount. Just bump up exemptions a few, wait a few paycycles for things to stabilize and re-check. Repeat as necessary.
Not sure if it applies to your situation, but my wife and I make reasonable close and consistent salariers, within 25% or so or each other. She always witholds at Married, 0 exemptions for state and federal. I make any necessary withholdings adjustmets up or down on my paychecks. Just one less variable to worry about.
Not sure if it applies to your situation, but my wife and I make reasonable close and consistent salariers, within 25% or so or each other. She always witholds at Married, 0 exemptions for state and federal. I make any necessary withholdings adjustmets up or down on my paychecks. Just one less variable to worry about.
- Fri Feb 06, 2015 1:28 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Health Insurer, Anthem, Hacked
- Replies: 100
- Views: 17794
Re: Health Insurer, Anthem, Hacked
I don't know of any work-arounds for this. I think frozen means frozen for everything. Temporarily thawing is pretty quick online, but unfortunately will probably cost a few bucks and I have not had much luck with employees knowing which credit bureau their pull will be from, requiring all 3 to be thawed.john94549 wrote:Disconcerting to me, at least, is the apparent necessity to have "unfrozen" credit reports to buy CDs, open savings accounts, and the like (known as "hard pulls"). I noted this above, and have yet to see any solution posted herein (i.e., how can I "freeze" credit reports for thieves who want to borrow money with my ID information while leaving it "unfrozen" for other purposes).
- Fri Feb 06, 2015 9:05 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Health Insurer, Anthem, Hacked
- Replies: 100
- Views: 17794
Re: Health Insurer, Anthem, Hacked
Maryland passed a law within the past few years that allows parents to lock credit of their children. Good intentions. The problem is that in the vast majority of cases, children will not have a credit file to lock, unless their SSN has already been comprimised and used. I suppose it would help stop any further fraudulent activity that has already started.CABob wrote:I doubt it, but, you could occasionally check for availability of a credit report for a child. If there is a credit report it might indicate a problem.jriding wrote:Since this hack also includes my kids personal data, should I be doing something to protect their identities/credit? Is it even possible to freeze credit activity for children?
- Tue Dec 16, 2014 1:09 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Tablet recommendations: Asus Memo Pad 7?
- Replies: 7
- Views: 1380
Re: Tablet recommendations: Asus Memo Pad 7?
We got one for my son so my wife could reclaim her ipad. He is only 7, so he really only uses it for netflix and minecraft, but it seems to work just fine. The main drawback I have noticed in my limited time with it is that the screen resolution is not the greatest. Overall though, it is certainly better than I was expecting for $80.
Edit: I didn't even realize there were different versions available. I most certainly got the cheapest one. Maybe that explains the screen issues I noticed.
Edit: I didn't even realize there were different versions available. I most certainly got the cheapest one. Maybe that explains the screen issues I noticed.
- Fri Nov 14, 2014 2:40 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: 36 y.o. New at investing, am I in too much debt?
- Replies: 63
- Views: 9927
Re: 36 y.o. New at investing, am I in too much debt?
I think you will be fine. It seems most of your expense/debt issues come from compressing what most people do over the course of 10-15 years after getting out of school (get married, buy house, have kids) down to about a 5 year plan. Your debt "hole" will possibly be deeper and hopefully narrower (due to nice income for quick repayment) than average.
- Fri Nov 14, 2014 11:24 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Consider freezing your credit
- Replies: 66
- Views: 12100
Re: Consider freezing your credit
If you set up credit karma before freezing your files it will continue to update and work after a freeze. That is what I did.bs010101 wrote:It looks like putting on a security freeze prevents you from getting a copy of your credit report or using services like Credit Karma to monitor your score. If so it seems like the freeze has to be instead of self-monitoring, not in addition. Am I understanding it correctly?
- Fri Sep 19, 2014 10:34 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Consumer Cellular with 4G-LTE android smartphone
- Replies: 51
- Views: 15501
Re: Consumer Cellular with 4G-LTE android smartphone
My wife and I have CC so I can answer these. Yes, minutes, texts and data shared between phones with no charge other than the $10/month to add the second line. We get LTE coverage.anakinskywalker wrote: I checked out the rates and it seems you can get 600 minutes for $20 per month, plus $10 per month per line added. And then $20 per month for 5000 texts and 1GB data. Are the texts are data shared between the two phones, without any additional charges for sharing on the second line? If yes that comes to $50 plus tax... Are you getting 3G data or LTE data?
- Wed Sep 17, 2014 1:14 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Buying First Home Questions
- Replies: 29
- Views: 2617
Re: Buying First Home Questions
Yes, that's what i meant. I suppose my italics didn't convey what I had hoped.placeholder wrote:I think the 28% after getting married was the point of contention and I agree that seems unlikely.investor1 wrote:It seems right to me after 401k contributions.sjb19 wrote:Off topic, but I can't imagine this is true, given the salaries you listed.jtayl71 wrote:...
His Income: 75k
Her Income: 75k
Tax %: 25% bracket (once married most likely 28% due to small raises at beginning of year)
- Wed Sep 17, 2014 12:25 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Buying First Home Questions
- Replies: 29
- Views: 2617
Re: Buying First Home Questions
Off topic, but I can't imagine this is true, given the salaries you listed.jtayl71 wrote:...
His Income: 75k
Her Income: 75k
Tax %: 25% bracket (once married most likely 28% due to small raises at beginning of year)
And I agree with the general sentiment to save until you have 20% down and also give yourselves at least a few months after the wedding to consolidate your financial lives before house hunting.
- Wed Sep 17, 2014 9:26 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Betterment Explanation on Investment Returns
- Replies: 14
- Views: 3182
Re: Betterment Explanation on Investment Returns
The explanation provided isn't the best, but I agree with the general point in that time-weighted returns are of more interest to me in gauging my portfolio performance than are dollar-weighted returns. It is not hand waving. If you are so inclined, play around with the xirr() function in excel to help your understanding of time-weighed returns.
- Fri Sep 12, 2014 9:34 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Is there a "catch" in this Xfinity offer ?
- Replies: 23
- Views: 2598
Re: Is there a "catch" in this Xfinity offer ?
Seems like a reasonable price, so I doubt there is any catch other than maybe some early termination fee within the year contract. I have switched around tv/internet/cell phone providers so much that I have largely lost interest. I only do it now if I get both better service and a better price, so in your case I wouldn't bother. And I agree it is not likely you need 50 Mbps.
- Wed Sep 10, 2014 10:07 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: What are the benefits of a good credit score?
- Replies: 16
- Views: 1909
Re: What are the benefits of a good credit score?
Score can impact security deposits required on leased equipment from Directv, verizon, etc.
- Wed Sep 10, 2014 9:43 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Has anyone used Zander Insurance ID theft protection?
- Replies: 5
- Views: 2218
Re: Has anyone used Zander Insurance ID theft protection?
Why not just freeze your credit files? Very cheap or free. Much easier to prevent ID theft in the first place than to clean it up, even with the help of one of those businesses.
- Wed Sep 03, 2014 9:48 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Offered Promotion, but longer commute
- Replies: 37
- Views: 5831
Re: Offered Promotion, but longer commute
I didn't know "against traffic" existed in DC/MD/VA. I have a similar commute and don't particularly mind it, but I realize I am in the very small minority. It was a more stressful ride when contending with fixed time limits though, like daycare closing or dr appointments. I would probably explain your change in circumstances and keep the current position.DHolliday wrote:It is 90 miles roundtrip on freeways against traffic.
- Thu Aug 28, 2014 12:08 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Help wanted: After 20+ years finally looking at expenses
- Replies: 13
- Views: 2455
Re: Help wanted: After 20+ years finally looking at expenses
Seems overly complicated to me. Starting from scratch you could probably design a similar, much simpler portfolio for less than 1/10 of your newly lowered fee. But, you are not starting from scratch and there will be other considerations, some financial, some not. Good luck.
- Fri Aug 15, 2014 2:22 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Tangible vs Intangibles when choosing an investment company
- Replies: 18
- Views: 1444
Re: Tangible vs Intangibles when choosing an investment comp
Interesting perspective. I agree with you that basing decisions solely on intangibles can be foolish. In fact, the first investment account I ever created was at TD Ameritrade and I chose them for no other reason besides that's where my dad invested. I lost a lot of money very quickly. That being said, a lot of brokers out there advertise that they offer investment choices with expenses lower than an equivalent Vanguard product. You can save a couple basis points by going to a place like Fidelity or Schwab sometimes in expense ratios. A lot of times these options are "loss-leaders" for them. But a lot of people choose to stick with Vanguard simply because they trust the institution more, due to its "quasi-non-profit" st...
- Thu Aug 14, 2014 9:50 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Grade Vanguard's performance: is 77% an A?
- Replies: 10
- Views: 1212
Re: Grade Vanguard's performance: is 77% an A?
I think you might be expecting too much if you are disappointed by these numbers. They seem pretty consistent with past comparisons I have seen.
- Fri Jul 11, 2014 1:01 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Child Care Tax Credit vs FSA Savings
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1275
Re: Child Care Tax Credit vs FSA Savings
Yes, this too. You can combine savings if you have multiple kids and you are careful. Max the FSA at 5k and claim the 1k leftover as a $200 credit.happymob wrote:1) make sure you account for state taxes as well.
2) The Child Tax credit is capped at $3000 for 1 child or $6000 for multiple children. If you spend more than that on child care, it can make sense to mix the two.
- Fri Jul 11, 2014 12:57 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Child Care Tax Credit vs FSA Savings
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1275
Re: Child Care Tax Credit vs FSA Savings
Tax savings are at your marginal rate, not your effective rate. FSA also comes out of your check pre-FICA taxes.
- Thu Jun 26, 2014 12:27 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Would you take a tax free loan on investments?
- Replies: 15
- Views: 1486
Re: Would you take a tax free loan on investments?
FWIW, the monthly payment on the 401k loan I used as a bridge loan was not considered in calculating my debt-to-income ratios for the new mortgage. I guess that policy may be lender-specific though.
- Fri Jun 20, 2014 9:56 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Consumer Cellular with 4G-LTE android smartphone
- Replies: 51
- Views: 15501
Re: Consumer Cellular with 4G-LTE android smartphone
There must not be much consistency in training of the service reps. I had my wife's LTE up and running on a Nexus 5 within 1 call, albeit after a 45 minute wait on hold. The rep seemed quite knowledgeable of what needed to be done.Browser wrote:I never did get the correct APN from Consumer Cellular for 4G-LTE. The rep I talked to didn't even know they had 4G-LTE. I ferreted out the setting via a google search.
- Thu Jun 12, 2014 12:50 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: engineers - please help with engineering school selection
- Replies: 185
- Views: 21451
Re: engineers - please help with engineering school selectio
Get great grades at a quality school and he will be fine. And many non-engineers do not realize how common it is for employers to pay employee's grad school costs. He would probably have to take the classes part-time, but it would get him into the workforce sooner and if he plans well, his experiences at work could make his coursework easier and what he learns in class could help him progress faster at work.
- Tue Jun 10, 2014 2:11 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: How To Encourage A Young (Sensitive) Child In Sports
- Replies: 115
- Views: 14380
Re: How To Encourage A Young (Sensitive) Child In Sports
My son is almost 7 and I can relate, fortunately without the father/coach dynamic that is definitely complicating your situation. They start soccer young around here, so I have a few years of experience watching him. His first year he was a ball of energy and very aggressive to the ball after a brief period of trepidation about playing with strangers. His next year he seemed much more timid, almost to the point of looking like he was avoiding the ball, but he swore he still loved playing. This year, he moved up in age group and played with a few kids with travel team experience (ridiculous at this age, I know). It was immediately clear he wasn't actually regressing the previous year, he was just the only one listening to his coach about spa...
- Thu May 29, 2014 9:48 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: BoA - Paying extra on mortgage principal
- Replies: 26
- Views: 11774
Re: BoA - Paying extra on mortgage principal
BoA serviced our loan for a while before we refi'd a few years ago. For whatever reason I couldn't setup automatic payments with them so each month I had to go online and schedule an ACH pull from my external checking acct. One of the fields in that form was to add additional principal. I did that often and it was always applied correctly. Maybe discontinuing your auto-pay would make that available. Or maybe they have changed their procedures since then.
- Fri May 23, 2014 7:25 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: declining job due to travel
- Replies: 92
- Views: 38808
Re: declining job due to travel
If you want to pursue this, I would try very hard to make sure it really is one week per 3 months. My "one or two days per month" travel assignemnt pretty quickly became 2-3 times a month for 3-4 days at a time. At the time I was single and unattached and the work was very cool and only about a 2 hour flight away, so I didn't mind. If it happened like that now it would be a much different story.
You also might want to try to determine how much lead time will generally be provided for your trips. Having sufficient time to plan would make things much less stressful for you and family.
You also might want to try to determine how much lead time will generally be provided for your trips. Having sufficient time to plan would make things much less stressful for you and family.
- Tue May 06, 2014 1:23 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Why Have I Not Rebalanced?
- Replies: 9
- Views: 1965
Re: Why Have I Not Rebalanced?
Looks like you are doing things right to me. Keep in mind that at smaller account values the behavior of your account is dominated by your periodic contributions, that is, things can't get too out of whack because every 2 weeks a meaningful amount (relative to the total account value) of appropriately-balanced money is coming in. As the values grow larger and larger you will find things are more direclty impacted by market performance.
- Wed Apr 30, 2014 1:59 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Privately Held Company Stock
- Replies: 8
- Views: 868
Re: Privately Held Company Stock
I'm in a similar situation (assuming you cannot sell the stock until leaving) and I ignore it completely since I have no control over selling or buying for rebalancing purposes. Also, until somewhat recently the company stock would have represented well over half of my retirement assets, and as what would be considered a micro-cap company, including its value in my portfolio would have done wacky things to just about everything else. I will treat it as found money and invest according to plan if it has value when I leave.
- Thu Apr 10, 2014 3:19 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: How to read currency breakdown of a global bond fund
- Replies: 2
- Views: 983
Re: How to read currency breakdown of a global bond fund
I don't own the fund, but your question interested me. Yes, it is short the currencies with the negative %s. See pages 5&6 of most recent annual report for more detail.
- Tue Apr 08, 2014 12:06 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: FDIC insurance (for "cash" in brokerage account)
- Replies: 6
- Views: 1261
Re: FDIC insurance (for "cash" in brokerage account)
My Ameritrade account seems to have 2 cash sweep options. One is covered by FDIC, the other by SIPC.
- Tue Apr 08, 2014 11:55 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Interest rates will rise, so flee REITS and Bonds?
- Replies: 17
- Views: 8178
Re: Interest rates will rise, so flee REITS and Bonds?
I admit minimal expertise here, but I was always under the impression that REITs were more influenced by longer-term real rates. It looks like the real 10-yr rate was pretty steady in the high 1's to low 2's percent range most of that time period you quoted. Perhaps the increasing leverage of the period accounted for the a share of the returns.
I agree with your general point though and have set up my portfolio so I don't worry too much about interest rates.
I agree with your general point though and have set up my portfolio so I don't worry too much about interest rates.