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Sphinx

I don't mind paying out of pocket (even non-negotiated rates) for medical expenses, everything up to a catastrophic event, say $40K+ in a year. Here's the cost of different treatments I've seen in my circles over the years: Stage 4 breast cancer - $1.5 million Heart surgery - $400,000 Heart attack,...

Sphinx

I was an early adopter of Jungle Disk, so I got grandfathered into a base premium of $1/month + $0.15/GB. Until this week, I've been paying ~$3.30/month to back up just under 16GB to Jungle Disk. It's been a reliable backup service. When my hard drive died a few years ago, I successfully recovered e...

Sphinx

I've been 60/40 for some time, but I made one tiny change earlier this week: I put my IRAs on autopilot. My Roth and SEP-IRAs are now 100% LifeStrategy Moderate Growth. This should remove the risk of human emotions from the IRA portion of my portfolio. I'm still responsible for rebalancing my 401(k)...

Sphinx

I'm going to do the quickest of quick reality checks, making a pack of dubious assumptions... Thank you so much for this! I appreciate you taking the time to figure out the potential influence of TIPS under a high inflation scenario. This reassures me that I will not regret switching over my remain...

Sphinx

Oblivious Investor wrote a sensible post where he noted that in portfolios with high amounts of stocks (ex: 70/30) the volatility of stocks overwhelm the bond portion of the portfolio, whether it be TIPS or nominal. "...I don’t think it’s a bad idea at all to include TIPS (rather than just nomi...

Sphinx

I have been following One Piece manga for a while. The anime is no good, but the manga is the best form of entertainment (movie, tv show, book, etc.) I've come across. Great character development, hilarious, emotionally heart wrenching, plenty of action, and all around really fun. The main thing ho...

Sphinx

Bogleheads, Based on the hugely popular threads: "What Book Are You currently Reading" and "What Movie Have You Recently Watched", I wanted to start a (most-likely not so popular) manga thread. Is anyone childish like me (for my age) and enjoys reading these? If so... What Manga...

Sphinx

I have a CrunchyRoll premium subscription, which offers dozens of titles. At the top of my list is Attack on Titan , followed closely by The Seven Deadly Sins and UQ Holder . The latter two have superior art, but the first one has the most gripping story. I should probably make a second attempt to r...

Sphinx

Personally, I like the Vanguard Balance Index Fund. Simply because it is a representation of a classic, traditional 60/40 portfolio. Also, it is an index fund with no manual rebalancing. And lastly, though Vanguard has changed the benchmarks (for better of for worse). They don't keep adding or remo...

Sphinx

Shares of VW have gone down 20 percent , on top of a 5 percent fall Friday. I guess Mr. Market takes the allegations seriously. https://www.google.com/finance?q=OTCMKTS%3AVLKAY&ei=ZhcAVpOyM4LksAGYo52QAg For those who think the allegations are overblown or inaccurate, you can buy VW Stock and ge...

Sphinx

Many thanks for sharing these books.

Sphinx

Thank you for posting this. I switched from Scott Burns' "Margarita Portfolio" to mostly LifeStrategy a few years ago for the same reasons outlined in this article. I do appreciate the mindlessness of it. I have not had to rebalance for a few years now, and I can focus on my savings rate. ...

Sphinx

But what good is knowing the theory when you have no money to invest? I finished university in 2009 and had exactly $37 to my name. Managed to get a job paying $9.50/hour and barely scraped by. Missed the ensuing stock market run-up. University degree was worthless and went back to school in 2013 a...

Sphinx

The 401k has both pre-tax and Roth contributions. I have a Roth IRA already open. Would I need to open a new IRA and a new Roth IRA or could the Roth funds go into my existing account? The Roth funds should be able to go to your existing account. The IRS has a chart of what rollovers are allowed, a...

Sphinx

joe8d wrote:This make me think of all the Mickey Mantle baseball cards I slid into the wall of my childhood home in the 50"s

Don't fret. Your childhood actions helped increase the value of the surviving Mickey Mantle cards.

Sphinx

I work in the Los Angeles entertainment industry. Most years I fall into the "middle class" range on the above calculator. Sometimes I'm above, and sometimes I'm below.

I'm in the same boat as surfstar, though. I am not comfortable with buying a house right now.

Sphinx

William Bernstein also cautioned in The Investor's Manifesto that emerging markets are not as well-regulated as the U.S. securities market, so investors may not get their fair share of returns from emerging-market stocks. Lastly, international investing costs more than domestic, though not too much...

Sphinx

I missed the webcast today (argh!), but I have been wondering about how much international I need, if any. When I first learned about investing, I followed the "Margarita Portfolio" recipe from Scott Burns. He made a good argument for 50% international. Later, I read Bogle's Common Sense o...

Sphinx

I've read frugal living books and blogs before, such as The Tightwad Gazette and The Simple Dollar . However, Poorcraft may be the first time I've read frugal living advice in comics format. This could be a good series for kids old enough to play Warcraft and Minecraft . Both books use the framework...

Sphinx

A friend and her husband owned at least two hearses in beautiful condition in the 90's. They used a fuel-efficient car as their daily driver, but they would frequently drive a hearse to haul heavy luggage and other weighty items to and from conventions. They enjoyed their hearses for the same reason...

Sphinx

39 for me. I was introduced to the concept of "early retirement" over and over again for decades. I got interested in personal finance and investing in 2007. However, I did not consider early financial independence for myself until I hit these three milestones in succession: A sustained pe...

Sphinx

One can only save for retirement within a retirement account like an IRA or a 401(k).

Income limits apply to a Traditional IRA if your employer does not offer a retirement plan.

Sphinx

toto238 wrote:What one sentence of information would make the biggest impact in your opinion?

"Save more."

Sphinx

I must be in the rare minority as I never liked his book. Too much selection bias in aggregating his data. I will say something like this always causes pause and reflection of the point of saving and investing. Save too much and don't get to enjoy it if you die young or save too little and die poor...

Sphinx

And what about the severence pay, and the unemployment coming? I think we have different needs. In my industry (animation and visual effects), benefits like severance pay are rare outside of union studios. If I did a long enough stretch of freelance work, I don't think I'd qualify for unemployment ...

Sphinx

I agree that Mr. Bogle's contributions to the investment world should be recognized. However, I find the article a little insulting as having more money is not how I would define freedom. Maybe it depends on one's perspective. In 1961, Harlan Ellison wrote a novel called Rockabilly , later retitled...

Sphinx

And there's an obvious corollary, as well: if Vanguard can't stay the course in target and lifestrategy funds, then how can the investor possibly stay his/her course in these funds? Lev Depends on how finely-tuned one's "course" is. If someone's "course" is no more than this: Sa...

Sphinx

I am not Warren Buffett, and I have not recommended the Vanguard S&P 500 index fund for my spouse should I perish. I have, instead, recommended one of the LifeStrategy funds. They have always offered a "one stop shop" for diversification in stocks and bonds, and this move does nothing...

Sphinx

Can anyone help me out and tell me how the heck to even start this entire investing thing? The goal of investing is to preserve the long-term purchasing power of your savings. Checking accounts are good for money you plan to spend in the short-term (next month's rent, car repair, groceries, etc), b...

Sphinx

It seems that employees like myself fall into a disadvantaged spot in the tax code. People with 401K's get a combined total of $23,500 of tax deferred space, while I only get $5500. This is especially painful, since I have extra income I'd live to save above and beyond IRA limits. If it cheers you ...

Sphinx

I'm just coming to the conclusion that it is just better to put the money in a Balanced Fund at Vanguard and change it to what I want when it reaches the minimum I need for the four core portfolio. This seems like a reasonable way to go. When my husband started his Roth IRA at Vanguard seven years ...

Sphinx

Here's where I cut costs this year: Moved from a $30/month AT&T GoPhone plan to a $10/month Airvoice Wireless plan. Replaced separate $50/month landline and $35/month DSL services with a combined service that costs $55/month and offers faster Internet speeds. Got a Target debit card for 5% off e...

Sphinx

sscritic wrote:
Sphinx wrote:My husband likes the strict anti-smoking laws, because he's allergic to smoke.
We can't even smoke e-cigarettes, which will help all those allergic to electricity.

For the record, my husband disagrees with the recent anti-vaping developments.

Sphinx

For IT related professionals, I understand that CA is the best state to work in. For outdoor enthusiasts, CA is nice. But is there any other cities/states with similarly nice weather all year round? For those who are neither IT related professionals nor outdoor enthusiasts, why do you live in CA? D...

Sphinx

...what people would consider their best financial move? For me, it was increasing my retirement savings rate. I did not have a 401(k) at work for most of my career, and it did not occur to me that it was "okay" to save for retirement outside of retirement accounts. For a long time, I wou...

Sphinx

The more conservative Target Retirement/Income funds also include TIPS as part of their bond allocations.

Sphinx

I realize that greed is a basic component of the human psyche, but it would seem to me that after a point you just can't use more money, but these guys have to have more and more. For individual investors, William Bernstein wrote an essay warning how the pursuit of money for money's sake can destro...

Sphinx

I am new and looking to learn. Thank you in advance for your feedback. I have a $10,000 taxable investment account. Currently it mirrors my Roth IRA account, which is 1/3 Vanguard Total Stock, 1/3 Vanguard Total International and 1/3 Total Bond Market. I thought I saw somewhere that someone said th...

Sphinx

Very true and only time will tell. I am a huge fan of making health care affordable for everyone, in fact I am in favor of single payer. Having said that what scares me about the ACA is how big it is. I have a feeling it is becasue that is the only way they were able to pass it, but I hope it works...

Sphinx

How many Bogleheads invest in only one bond fund in total or in each account (i.e. Total Bond in tax advantaged and Tax Exempt in taxable - due to space limitations or other considerations)? Right now I invest in only one bond fund in my retirement accounts -- VIPSX (Vanguard Inflation Protected Se...

Sphinx

and there are also HSA providers which offer brokerage accounts that allow you to buy any fund or ETF you want. That is precisely what I want to know about. I am having trouble finding even one example of this on the internet. Do you know of one? Whoops -- I just saw this. If you have enough money ...

Sphinx

Where is the best place to open a Health Savings Account? I started with HSA Bank, but I left them because I did not like their fees. I moved my HSA to Alliant Credit Union . No fees, and they offer a competitive interest rate. If you intend to use your HSA for medical expenses, I strongly recommen...

Sphinx

Texas' rate of health care spending has increased more than the rate of states without Tort reform. :idea: Great link. The reason spending may have increased might be increased access to care. It's hard to argue that people actually getting the care they need is bad. It would be wonderful if tort r...

Sphinx

Interesting no mention of any TORT reform yet. There is for sure millions if not billions in waste because providers practice defensive medicine... Texas implemented tort reform in 2003 , but it did not reduce health care costs for Texans. Texas health care spending has increased since 2003. But di...

Sphinx

DAK wrote:Interesting no mention of any TORT reform yet. There is for sure millions if not billions in waste because providers practice defensive medicine...

Texas implemented tort reform in 2003, but it did not reduce health care costs for Texans. Texas health care spending has increased since 2003.

Sphinx

I think HSAs are great if you live in a state with guaranteed-issue individual coverage where (I hope) rescission's illegal. I think they're also great if offered as part of a group plan option. An HSA did not fit my specific situation, though. But it did. You had the HDHP and contributed to a HSA ...

Sphinx

Hello, ChgoBob. Welcome to Bogleheads. :D ...nothing gives individuals more control over their medical care...than HSAs. This may be true. However, I didn't feel like I had control over my financial security with an individual HSA-compatible plan. I'm 34 years old, and I don't need any health care p...

Sphinx

I'm not sure I understand why, but my wife and I have absolutely found that deposits presented in person on over the counter are consistently faster to appear as "available" (rather than just "ledger balance") than deposits made through the ATM machine that is physically located...

Sphinx

I must agree with Valuethinker here. The only people that got "bailed out" were folks who: Owned any Money Market fund 'cause they were ALL about to seize up. ... I keep my emergency fund money in Vanguard's Treasury Money Market fund (VMPXX), so I have a newbie question. By "money m...

Sphinx

I must agree with Valuethinker here. The only people that got "bailed out" were folks who: Owned any Money Market fund 'cause they were ALL about to seize up. ... I keep my emergency fund money in Vanguard's Treasury Money Market fund (VMPXX), so I have a newbie question. By "money m...

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