Bogleheads.org

biasion

Fellow Bogleheads; Should the tax laws change for next year, I will not be able to write off the first 3% of itemized deductions. Well 3% of my AGI is more than my itemized deductions despite being active in 501(c)3's that I support and legally donate. I am aware that a corporation or small business...

biasion

Mostly it is. Get the full fat stuff, anything low fat is a scam. Fat is not bad for you. You either eat carbs or fat, and the carbs will raise your sugar, which will trigger you to make insulin, which in short order signals the liver and muscles to store the carbs as fat. So that low fat, fruit on ...

biasion

Given that the capital city of the State of RI is on the verge of bankruptcy, they have started to publish some of their facts. One of these facts is a list of the 30 highest pensions the city pays out. Please notice the enormous discrepancy between what they were paid when working, and what they ar...

biasion

Spotting bubbles could be potentially easy, but you can profit the best by ignoring them. You have to be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful. (it's called rebalancing) Basically, what will keep you in line is an asset allocation with uncorrelated assets. Allocations of...

biasion

Most Highly financially informed gentlemen, I have a question regarding the process for deducting books and toys that are related to the business ends for which they are created. For example, I have some financial books, actually a lot of financial books. Some were very expensive. Some were bought i...

biasion

We are actually in the process of getting health insurance and I will say this: spending money on health insurance is better than saving it or paying it in salaries because health insurance is pre-tax . If you make like 20k a year in a low/no tax state OK, but once you're in a high federal bracket, ...

biasion

Here is a link that describes the quiet and conservative end of life way that most physicians choose when they know their cards are up. http://zocalopublicsquare.org/thepublicsquare/2011/11/30/how-doctors-die/read/nexus/ Article is self explanatory. I still have nightmares from residency and doing C...

biasion

I am a big fan of historic naval ships and history. I have met a lot of the people through my walk of life and have a deep respect for our veterans, even having had the pleasure to care for them. I have also had the good luck to explore many museum ships in a capacity greater than what is "safe" and...

biasion

I honestly don't know why an SUV ever sold. Oh, yea Corporate Average Fuel Economy exemptions. You could get a monstrously sized vehicle with a big huge V8 and get by the laws. But the problem is this: due to the design, they are poorly space efficient, unsave, heavy and the "big V8" power is held b...

biasion

I just posted about getting a new 401k as I have branched off from my former shell company. My work place will be the same, but our legal entity will be different. Our old 401k was Fidelity and now I see why they wanted to steer us in the expensive, active funds. Vanguard is cheap. It's 3475 dollars...

biasion

1. Keep an asset allocation, and make sure you have about 5-7.5% in PCRIX which is the commodity fund that will help you step out on the yield curve and pocket the term premium. 2. Use treasury funds for liquidity, but either savings bonds or FDIC insured CD's from the weakest banks possible with th...

biasion

Renting vs buying over the long term is a zero sum game. Neither is more financially advantageous because real estate is expensive to own, and has many associated repairs, costs, taxes, upkeep. Rent insulates you somewhat (but not totally) from that. The biggest reason to own is so you can fix it up...

biasion

In order to "pay yourself with options", the stock price has to appreciate. If you are privately held, how to you magically make the stock price appreciate? OK, so pretty much what is being said is that for a privately and not publically held company this is not an option. Regarding qualified divid...

biasion

I was reading about Buffett and all this "guilt" that America's most wealthy pay themselves with stock options and legally dodge the 35% bracket so that they pay only 15% capital gains. Regardless of whether one things it should be done or whether they agree with it, this seems like an attractive pr...

biasion

Nice work getting the ETFs unitized, they are better than the fee funds for VWO and VSS. I would still add Total Bond, and maybe a Small or Value fund for those wanting more mild tilts and/or simpler pieces. Who's your TPA and about how much is this costing you? Feel free to PM if you'd prefer. We ...

biasion

Excellent. I'd gladly put all my money into this plan. Thank you! I designed it to minimize expenses and excitement, and with uncorrelated investments that allow someone to diversify and rebalance things that make people fearful or greedy at the most opportune times to lock in the highest returns. ...

biasion

Intermediate treasury is not indexed either. Just look at all the MBS they currently have in the holdings...Fido treasury funds are indexed. One last reply, I looked up the VG intermediate treasury fund and it has 15% MBS. This is more than I would want, but not as bad as Total Bond Market. If say ...

biasion

Congratulations Biasion- that does look like an awesome 401k. It actually aligns almost exactly with my own investing biases- i.e. the way i like to invest. But....(and you knew that was coming didn't you)....I have the following concerns/comments: 1) US Stock funds: Having only two Total Stock Mar...

biasion

empb wrote:Hiring?

For the most part we are not actually looking to hire as of this time. What is is that you do for work?

biasion

that's great for you! and your employees should be thankful. How does one use an ETF in a 401k? Does your 401k allow a brokerage account to be created? They will never appreciate any of the "nice" treatment we give them. And even the other partner besides all the people in my family who are also in...

biasion

Medicine is not that grueling. The hours aren't too bad any more, I did my residency just after they started with the 80 hours part. It sounds like she might have irritable bowel, which in a way is bad. Hospitals, particularly a lot of these teaching departments, are very toxic and attract toxic peo...

biasion

Yes, you heard that right Bogleheads! As part of breaking off the current shell group in which I have worked as ostensibly, but not truly self employed, and now truly being my own boss in every sense of the word, since I like finance I was delegated the role of getting a 401k. Our previous 401k was ...

biasion

some still choose to live in certain high tax states for the quality of life. There are ways around it. If you have kids in school or working full time it's not feasible to "move out" because your state will find out pronto unless you live near the border of a low tax state or you're in an area whe...

biasion

Thanks for the replies. I inquired further and Vanguard finally deluged me with emails and callbacks. Their 401k guy was on vacation. I have made a lot of inroads. Of note Fidelity isn't bad , but they want around 16,500 dollars a year. They did a tag-team conference call urging me to buy into their...

biasion

I have been partially self employed, working under a shell company that was taking way more money than it was worth. While we could mostly determine our fate, we didn't get along with them in the ways we couldn't. Now we're free to administer everything, which is a very, very good thing because of h...

biasion

One last thing, the market is not perfectly efficient. It's pretty efficient in that under most normal circumstances, except for the FDIC insured low quality banks trying to raise capital w/ higher CD rates and savings bonds, to get a higher return, you have to take higher risk, be it liquidity, vol...

biasion

The problem with GNMA's is the uncertainty that they introduce. Simplicity is also good, but even during the warm and fuzzy bond bull market of the last 30 years when you combine stocks with GNMA's the performance of the portfolio decreases and the risk increases, therefore GNMA's risks don't mix we...

biasion

The problem with MBS is that you cannot know what the risks truly are. The last 30 years have not been that great for MBS either due to refinancing risk, but they were "decent", in other words, the Vanguard fund was "rock steady" because rates kept dropping. What should have happened is that the fun...

biasion

Interesting how the duration changes. Looking at the composition of the Total Bond Index it shows "Government Mortgage-Backed 28.1%". I'm assuming a lot of the are GNMA's. This is the danger of all callable bonds. A yield alone is not a return. I know a lot of people favor Bogle's "total" approach,...

biasion

Here is an old but very interesting article written in what seems like about 10-15 years ago on why people under-estimate the risks of GNMA's, assuming the backing of the US Government is enough to make them "conservative" investments when in fact they are far riskier than anyone can possibly know b...

biasion

I would not consider the Eurozone a good deal, and most of the crises are expected to be inflationary. The Euro doubled prices overnight for many countries except Germany as soon as it was instilled, and the subsequent time frame had the usual double digit inflation of the last decade just like here...

biasion

If you want something fun to drive, why not an Impreza WRX? It's a similar price, has AWD, but is much more rewarding to drive if you like "good handling". It gives you much more of a kick in the pants too!

biasion

September 8th, 2011. Did nothing, per Bogle, Common Sense on Mutual Funds, p. 42, 'Stay the course.'" September 9th, 2011. Did nothing, per Bogle, Common Sense on Mutual Funds, p. 42, 'Stay the course.'" September 11th, 2011. Did nothing, per Bogle, Common Sense on Mutual Funds, p. 42, 'Stay the co...

biasion

A used paperback copy of the Bogleheads guide for 5 dollars is a drop in the bucket, but other books can be expensive, and I have bought a large number of them. I still have the receipts available. I am really, really interested in the nuts and bolts of what these books have to offer and to me I wou...

biasion

CD's are a different kind of fixed income. They can be good, but not that great if you're in a high tax bracket. It depends on the nature of the CD. Brokered CD's are very, very bond like. You buy a CD for X date, it pays crappy interest. It redeems, you re-invest. You can redeem it and "sell" it pr...

biasion

I do not agree with biasion that every American citizen wants to leave, but once Medicare shuts down, most older American citizens will certainly want to leave. Taxes have little to do with it; they are high in all the developed world, but elsewhere, unlike in this country, they pay for health care...

biasion

All good advice given. I would make one critique to say that Vanguard (or any) total Bond Market is not that good investment. This is because despite the higher yields, corporates and GNMA's do not compensate you for the extra risk. Historically speaking, Vanguard total bond market fund has had lowe...

biasion

I think we've all seen first hand how that can have a very negative impact on a mixed bond fund like TBM in the last big market crash in 2008 compared to a bond fund that held almost entirely US treasuries of intermediate maturities. Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund gained +5.05% in 2008. From...

biasion

I bonds are great for emergency money if you have another source that you can tap for up to 1 year after you but the I bond. After that is gravy. It's tax deferred, and right now offers one of the highest yields fixed income will give you around, especially after you consider the yield is given to y...

biasion

I think we've all seen first hand how that can have a very negative impact on a mixed bond fund like TBM in the last big market crash in 2008 compared to a bond fund that held almost entirely US treasuries of intermediate maturities. Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund gained +5.05% in 2008. From...

biasion

I think we've all seen first hand how that can have a very negative impact on a mixed bond fund like TBM in the last big market crash in 2008 compared to a bond fund that held almost entirely US treasuries of intermediate maturities. Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund gained +5.05% in 2008. Inde...

biasion

I think we've all seen first hand how that can have a very negative impact on a mixed bond fund like TBM in the last big market crash in 2008 compared to a bond fund that held almost entirely US treasuries of intermediate maturities. Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund gained +5.05% in 2008. From...

biasion

Hi biasion: Taylor, this is very misleading. I love you, I read your book(s), I respect you, I love and respect you, too. You wrote a very good counter-point. But 40-50% of those 85 and up will have some cognitive impairment. I am 87. Perhaps this explains my apparent lack of knowledge and experien...

biasion

Also the G fund is excellent because you get the 5 year treasury yield for that week, but no risk to principal, like a treasury insured money market that pays the 5y yield, a kind of "gift" if you will to government employees. First of all, the G fund isn't pegged to the five-year rate or any other...

biasion

The problem with high net worth/high income people is that your tax rate will never be lower. The way you get such a high net worth in the first place is that you own your own business and have multiple streams of income from different places which then makes it unlikely your rate will ever be lower...

biasion

Hi MB: Corporate bonds: best or worst of both worlds? The bond world is extremely efficient. Higher yield nearly always means higher risk. Taylor, I partially agree except for the fact that investors in lower quality fixed income or GNMA's, corporates etc have not been adequately compensated for th...

biasion

...corporates don't compensate you for your risk... Well, over the last dozen years stocks have not done so either :!: So, perhaps, with these corporate bonds, as with corporate stocks, the price paid is important. Maybe even as important as historical returns, volatility, and correlations :?: No, ...

biasion

Why is there an assumption that if one owns a corporate bond fund, the entire portfolio must consist of corporate bonds and stocks? It is possible to hold both stocks and corporate bonds and also to have "something very safe". You are correct, but because corporates don't compensate you for your ri...

biasion

The TSP is probably your best bet, I have read somewhere that it might be offered in Roth version soon. It has the best index funds around by virtue of the lowest possible expense ratios. Also the G fund is excellent because you get the 5 year treasury yield for that week, but no risk to principal, ...

biasion

There seems to be a meme that corporate bonds are as risky as stocks. It has not been the case, so where does the idea come from? Maybe because some writers use the term equity-like risk, everyone extrapolates that to mean they have the same risk as equities. Spending two seconds on morningstar (cl...

Bogleheads.org

Search found 1405 matches

Donating to 501(c)3's out of Small Business

Re: Greek Yogurt: Worth the Money, Yay or Nay?

What is wrong with Municipal Pensions

Re: The Extraordinary Popular Delusion of Bubble Spotting

Timing of deducting Books and Items

Re: health insurance reimbursement vs. higher salary

How to Die

Re: Remembering Pearl Harbor, 70 Years Later

Re: The Term "SUV"

Re: At a glance, can you spot an expensive 401(k) plan?

Re: Bond allocation for age and rising rates

Re: Why Rent?

Re: Paying oneself w/ Stock Options Instead of Income?

Paying oneself w/ Stock Options Instead of Income?

Re: I created the best 401k of all time

Re: I created the best 401k of all time

Re: I created the best 401k of all time

Re: I created the best 401k of all time

Re: I created the best 401k of all time

Re: I created the best 401k of all time

Re: How grueling is Medical Residency?

I created the best 401k of all time

Re: State Taxes Drag on Portfolios

Re: Newly Truly Self Employed, 401k Questions

Newly Truly Self Employed, 401k Questions

Re: Why GNMA's are a bad deal

Re: Why GNMA's are a bad deal

Re: Why GNMA's are a bad deal

Re: Why GNMA's are a bad deal

Why GNMA's are a bad deal

Can I deduct books as an investment expense???

Re: TBM in 2008 stock market crash.

Re: TBM in 2008 stock market crash.

Re: TBM in 2008 stock market crash.

Re: TBM in 2008 stock market crash.

Re: Love and respect.

Re: Total Bond Market Index Fund