Bogleheads.org

Bud

Just checked Aimloan today... quotes down to 2.5% for a 15 yr loan. My current rate is 3.375. Closing costs rise for lower interest rate loans, but they are worth if you plan to stay put for a few years.

Bud

Used GEICO for several years ... then I got a quote from Kentucky Farm Bureau which was way lower. Now I have car and hone owners thru KFB and save a couple thousand/ yr.

When I checked recently, GEICO was close and other companies were not competitively priced.

Bud

As mentioned above, VBILX consistently outperforms VBTLX because of the slightly longer duration. It varies, but it is about 7 yrs vs 5 yrs. VBTLX also has a greater variety of bonds. Practically speaking, no bond mutual fund holder knows what types of bonds they hold in their mutual fund, for the m...

Bud

I received a Citizen Ecodrive Atomic Watch as a gift. Found out it was bought on sale for $220. Once it is set, it will always keep the correct time. It stopped once because it was in a dark drawer out of sunlight but I put it in the sun for about 3 hours and it reset itself to the correct time. It ...

Bud

Pay off the loan...

The reason for this is that you are posting for your relative which probably means they don't know much about investing although I could be wrong. The safe bet is to pay of the loan.

All the best...

Bud

35-40%.

Direct ownership of real estate can provide high returns when done correctly, but it isn't for every one.

Bud

Installed tankless in two on my homes - they work great! Mine are electric and they seem to reduce the electric bill so far. Make sure your electrical panel can handle them. Also you may want to install a water filter in line to help preserve the tankless heater if you have lots of sentiment or mine...

Bud

I spent quite a bit of time checking into refinancing over the last year. Here is what I found out. For the borrower, the best solution is to add to your current payments to pay down your loan as quickly as possible. Virtually every scenario I ran showed this as the best solution for reducing debt. ...

Bud

Yes, that is one way to consider it. Like most things, there are various ways to consider the benefits and drawbacks. For mortgage payoff evaluation, I like to think concretely. "Would I borrow X (The payoff amount of your mortgage) at 2.75% today to invest in my MM account?" Make your adjustments b...

Bud

Long time listener, first time caller. I would like to add REITs to our retirement portfolio and I would appreciate your advice on: - What % should I add in? - What should my new AA be? (currently I’m at 80/20 stock/bond — details below) - Which Vanguard REIT fund(s) do you recommend? The reason I'...

Bud

yep, pay off the mortgage or at least pay half of it. I just had a 5% mortgage I paid off and now I wonder why I waited so long. I pulled my money from my Intermediate Bond Index Fund which was yielding 2.89%.

Bud

for the first 40 years of life I had no credit card, then for the next 10 years I had one credit card.... only in the last five years have I had multiple cards and my credit was always fine. If you don't use credit, you don't need a credit card :). Some would consider the concerns associated with ha...

Bud

John Bogle "Reversion to the mean is the iron rule of financial markets". Here are some articles to help understand why he thought this was an important concept for investing, even for those doing index investing. https://vanguard.com/bogle_site/lib/sp19980129.html https://vanguard.com/bogle_site/sp...

Bud

another perspective from the sunk cost viewpoint - knowing what you know now, would you but that property for $85k in your current situation? If the answer is no, then sell. If the answer is yes, continue to hold.

Bud

As a landlord, make your application stand out. The best financial ways are to offer to pay in advance or demonstrate that you have long term security in a well paying job. A good non-financial way to make your application stand out - if you are involved in volunteer work for non-profits or serve on...

Bud

Tomorrow I will pay off a remaining $73k mortgage. My interest rate is 5% and so the decision was easier. One way to think about the question of paying off a mortgage is to ask yourself if you would borrow money at x% to invest in the market. Home or investment property loans are also a different ty...

Bud

Not much to add, but my story is... Income mostly in the 60's-70's, three decades working in the non-profit sector, four kids, one wife :). No debt except mortgage - no school loans, no car loans Figure what you need first, then add what you want simplicity pays dividends Frugal - why buy name brand...

Bud

https://www.creditcards.com/no-credit/ Do a google search for 'credit cards for no credit history' or other similar searches. I recently moved to the States after living overseas for many years and faced a similar situation. shop around but you probably won't need to move you account if you are happ...

Bud

for cards that offer 3% on groceries for spending up to $6000 and then 1% rebates after be aware that if you spend more than $12,000 annually for groceries, a flat 2% card will provide a better rebate so some families will benefit from the flat 2% rebate of Citi MC because of that fact. Simplicity h...

Bud

I am not sure what other lending companies do, but when I make an electronic transfer of funds to my mortgage company, it is applied immediately to pay down the principle of the loan. Maybe this is because I am ahead on my monthly payments. In my situation, I can make an epayment of $10 or $1000 and...

Bud

USA GDP Real Growth (inflation adjusted) - DJIA 1930 $ 0.967 trillion - 244.2 1950 $ 2.184 trillion - 200.52 1970 $ 4.722 trillion - 800.20 1990 $ 8.955 trillion - 2810.15 2010 $14.784 trillion - 10428.05 2017 $17.096 trillion - 24719.22 The US market has tracked GDP but very irregularly. The DJIA h...

Bud

There is no bad time to invest in this fund - And I think you mean the Intermediate Term Bond Index.

Bud

This is what Transparency International measured to achieve their data and determine 'corruption'. "The CPI draws upon 13 data sources which capture the assessment of experts and business executives on a number of corrupt behaviours in the public sector, including:  Bribery  Diversion of public fu...

Bud

Often paying points for lower interest rates isn't worth it, especially if as a good boglehead, you decide to prepay your mortgage :). I just had this option earlier this month and decided to forego it. To benefit from the 69 months that you mention, you also assume (make a $8800 bet) that interest ...

Bud

Corrections are a great opportunity to buy low...

Bud

if it's your first time, don't be intimidated. Shop for a mortgage like you shop for anything. Really there is no 'service' aspect of a mortgage so just find the best price and go with it. I called three or four and gave then basic info so I wouldn't need to fill out all the paper work just to get a...

Bud

Four Pillars of Investing
Coffee House Investor
John Bogle's various papers and articles
https://www.vanguard.com/bogle_site/bogle_lib.html
http://johncbogle.com/wordpress/academic-articles/

Bud

Taxes are country specific. You may need to claim the income in the country which it originates or you may have the option of deciding which country you claim it. Does the USA have a reciprocal tax agreement with the originating country? If the laws require you to file a tax return in that country, ...

Bud

If you have a good closing attorney and get an accurate price, you're pretty well protected IMO. This is my experience. In the situation that you describe, there is little value that a realtor would add (which is mostly to connect buyers and sellers). It takes a bit more work on your end, but on a ...

Bud

I actually enjoyed the cold and jogged in weather that was down to -10 F. It just depends on layers and pace. I would rather go out in zero degree weather than 40 F and rain

Bud

i have done several transfers through the years and will initiate another in a few weeks - never had any issues.

Bud

I rebalance with new money. Right now some of my categories are outside of the band but then nothing says you have to rebalance annually. While no one can predict the future, a 15-20% correction sometime this year would not surprise me. Also if you are concerned the market is too high, you can use i...

Bud

The decision to pay down the mortgage can be viewed as diversification rather than comparing expected rates of return. When thought about this way, extra income could be used to pay down the mortgage to increase diversification. However a 2.75% mortgage is a great deal - at the end of the day the "o...

Bud

I recently showed my wife our portfolio and explained to her that if anything happens to me, she can withdrawal 4% per year and the money should last forever. Her response? "Well, that's a pretty good amount of money!" a piece of advice - Keep a simple portfolio and make sure your spouse understands...

Bud

John Bogle talked about reversion to the mean (RTM) in some of his speeches. If you accept this theory for an asset class, then diversification makes sense and is something that can be utilized for greater returns. This works best for people who regularly invest and would work by allocating more new...

Bud

Family of six We budget $800/ month for groceries and household supplies (tp, soap, etc)... we don't pass this number We budget $200/ month for eating out... we don't pass this number either... so about $150-$160/month/ person We shop at Aldi's, Sam's Club, Kroger's, Save-a-Lot, always the sales, no...

Bud

As a bubble, bitcoin will pop... the question is when. In 1998, everyone was buy stock that anything to do even remotely with the internet, including my friends and family who had no idea how these companies would produce revenue and some of those companies never produced revenue... the bubble only ...

Bud

Long story short - open a Vanguard account which shouldn't be any problem as a US citizen, use a US address for mail, do all transactions online, get an all in one fund, and start investing regularly. DO NOT touch the money - it will serve as your personal IRA. The problem with Vanguard is that the...

Bud

Thank you so much for your kind words of encouragement and advice, everyone! You were correct about my situation, LadyGeek! Thank you for retitling the thread! Yes, I know it’s complicated being involved with two countries! To tell the truth, that is why I have always put it off (like an ostrich pu...

Bud

You need to be a prime member to have access to the free download...

Bud

Congratulations from a fellow blue collar, two comma club couple

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BTW, one of Stanley's other books, The Millionaire Mind, is $0.99 on kindle thru Amazon.

All best going forward!

Bud

I have used SRWare Iron for 10 years. It is an opensource browser that uses Google Chrome code with the data tracking removed. It will work with any Chrome add-on. If you still use Google as your search engine, that will be tracked accordingly. duckduckgo works well as a search engine that does not ...

Bud

Just a few thoughts from having owned real estate, small businesses, REITs, and stocks for a few decades... It is difficult to compare REITs and individual property ownership just as it is difficult to compare a TSM index and individual business ownership. They are different beasts - do you own sing...

Bud

I am mostly a lurker because life is busy with family, work, and learning. And after awhile, it seems that the same topics are repeated in various ways over and over again. But, the information is invaluable and I enjoy it all. So here are a few ramblings that hopefully can help someone here... I co...

Bud

In my experience, the real estate market is not as efficient as the financial markets. That means that if you are willing to do the work, you can find real estate of all types that will produce higher returns. One reason for this is that there are any number of opinions about what a property is wort...

Bud

Um, REITs aren't overvalued at all. Their price to book ratio is LOWER than their ten year average and their FFO valuation is just barely above the average level. If anything, REITs are in way better shape fundamentally than the broad market. https://ibb.co/dQviXa https://ibb.co/gktsQv This... REIT...

Bud

My 5 yr REIT mutual fund investment (XIRR) is 9.3%, 10 year, which includes the correction of 2008-2009, is 6.3%. My research on crowdfunding shows that it is difficult to surpass those results over the long term and thus, it is better to us REITs rather than crowd funding.

Bud

I have used SRWare Iron for years. It is google chrome with the tracking scripts removed. Any chrome extension will work with it. I am concerned with google tracking my browsing, which I see as an invasion of privacy. I am not familiar with Pale Moon, but it sounds like a similar idea based off of M...

Bud

By comparison, my family of six spends about $800/ month on groceries and $100-150 on eating out.

Grocery shopping is a skill - it takes practice and interest to do it well.

Bud

Currently, the best I can find is $200 for checking + $150 for savings = $350. Is the $500 available via a special link?

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