Bogleheads.org

Greenberry

For the OP, your options are broader than sit in a MM for 30 days or switch to another EAFE fund. You could move to something like a total international fund tracking a different index (world ex-us instead of developed markets) that would likely behave mostly similarly to your current fund, but be d...

Greenberry

Sorry I don't have time for a long reply, but a reasonable answer is that FTSE is more tax-efficient than Euro + Pac + EM held separately. It gives off a greater percentage of qualified dividends, gets the full FTC, and is less likely to distribute capital gains (especially if/when countries migrate...

Greenberry

Where I've noticed this is in the 1% fees, for not remaining in a particular fund for 60 days, 90 days or one year. A 1% fee is irrelevant in this market. (note: I saw this when I TLH into other funds) Linda-room42 Wow, I just don't know where to start with this thread, so I picked Linda's at rando...

Greenberry

Note that 1 roundtrip between VTI and VV costs you more in spread than you save in 1-2 years of ER difference between etf and investor shares. For $100k+, the admiral class is better than etfs for those funds for just this reason.

Greenberry

I don't think this will work. From what I recall about the rule that allows you to undo the Roth contribution, taking advantage of it prevents you from making any further contributions this year. That's a recent tax law change due to this loophole. I don't have a citation, though, and could easily b...

Greenberry

This is one possible way to arrange those funds amoung the accounts. The TSM is in the taxable account because it is very tax efficient. It would be a core holding. The other funds should be in tax protected accounts because they are less tax efficient. I'm sorry, but the quote above is incorrect. ...

Greenberry

Big problem with WIP (and all foreign bonds) is that you care about after-tax returns. If you hold them in taxable, you can recapture foreign taxes paid, but are stuck paying ordinary income rates each year on the income. If you hold them in US tax-advantaged, then you lose all of the foreign taxes ...

Greenberry

For $50, Vanguard will exchange your TM international fund for the VEU share class, which would allow you to avoid the redemption fee.

Greenberry

If the former estimate of a 40% gain is close to accurate, you're likely best off keeping it in NAESX. However, you can direct future taxable contributions to more efficient funds for a taxable account (like FTSE all-world ex-US or TSM). Furthermore, you can have any future distributions from NAESX ...

Greenberry

Either convert to a Roth, or if your 401k plan allows, you might be able to transfer it into your 401k.

Greenberry

I think you should reconsider your aversion to savings bonds and would suggest one other option. 1. Savings Bonds "mature" in 30 years. However, that does not mean you can not redeem them earlier. In Treasury speak "mature"ing means they cease earning interest. Savings bonds may...

Greenberry

I guess that I should restate the premise. If you would like to fit bonds, reits and small value into your portfolio, and you have only limited tax free space, then you should fill the tax free space with reits and small value. The idea here is is that you can always own bonds in a taxable account ...

Greenberry

Hello SpringMan, Thanks for the post. I am not from the old school, I am from the old country, meaning I came over from Europe and never had much of a mind on money – more on intellect, philosophy and ideology, so I have a lot to learn. The reason I was thinking about Schwab (before I read all the ...

Greenberry

Greenberry, I assume that you get more bang for the buck filling your IRA and 401K's with reits and/or small value. After all, munis offer the perfect way to avoid cluttering your tax advantaged accounts with bonds. You wind up with the same yield after taxes when all is said and done. I'm not sure...

Greenberry

If you ignore the fund for the moment, and consider how much you'd have to pay for an individual bond that will distribute $100 in interest tomorrow, you'd find that that individual bond would be worth $100 more the day before it distributed the dividend vs. the day afterwards (ignoring the small am...

Greenberry

Also, note that there's a 0.25% purchase fee on All-world ex-US as a fund, and Total International has a 2% short-term redemption fee if you hold the shares less than 60 days. Make sure your "substantial loss" is large enough that you don't lose more in costs to do the switches than you ga...

Greenberry

Grok's suggestion looks reasonable to me. If you want to simplify it even further, you could easily use Vanguard's Target Retirement Income fund in each of your accounts.

Greenberry

Depending on how desperate you are to avoid income, you or she could take an unpaid leave of absence, which would definitely reduce your MAGI for Roth purposes.

Greenberry

Personally, I find it a lot easier to think of things as after-tax yields, which are what you actually earn, rather than "tax-equivalent" yields, which you split with the IRS. It's also very easy to calculate after-tax yields: just multiply by the after-tax rate. In the case of the muni fu...

Greenberry

Maybe I've also been biased because I file separately from my wife, and according to the Investopedia article on the subject, I'm only eligible for a maximum of $1500 off, not $3000. If the answer isn't too personal, why do you file separately? Have you done the math to see how tax you'd pay filing...

Greenberry

As an aside, the bid-ask spreads that you pay when harvesting losses on an ETF may be a good reason to stick to regular Vanguard funds in a taxable account (at least for VTI/VV) -- at least until you have enough gains that future TLH events are unlikely, after which you could pay $50 to convert to a...

Greenberry

I thought that transferring money from EEM to VWO within Vanguard was not a taxable event. I would like somebody to confirm this . It is very much a taxable event in a taxable account. EEM is an ETF sold by iShares -- perhaps you thought EEM referred to Vanguard's Emerging Markets Index Fund? Even ...

Greenberry

As mentioned, you're really paying that advisor ~20% of your yearly spending rate and are likely much better off in something like Vanguard's Target Retirement 2010 or Target Retirement Income fund.

Greenberry

Right, long term I will have VTI, VEA, and VWO (Emerging Markets) as my core holdings in taxable. But, for the short term I will likely be putting some of VTI and/or VEA in my tax deferred ... Hence the hypothetical question I posed. In the end, I suppose either way will probably end up with a simi...

Greenberry

Is the tax argument valid ? If it is why not keep a mortage and offset it with bonds. In short, no. However, mortgage debt is better than other debt, such as car loans or credit card debt, from a tax perspective. Keep in mind that someone has to be willing to loan you money for the mortgage -- and ...

Greenberry

And just so you don't think everyone here is a slicer, I'd vote you simplify the portfolio. You're having a tough time making decisions and are splitting the difference, which is just giving you needless complexity. You don't need both short and intermediate term treasury funds -- pick one. Likewise...

Greenberry

Is the AMA checking service (statements, copies, etc) to the same level as 4 star checking? There are some differences, but I think it's better overall. You get monthly statements in the mail, unless you ask for electronic versions. You don't get your actual checks back, but I don't think 4 star do...

Greenberry

I think I'll stick with the 4-star checking, though. I push any "extra" cash to my Vanguard Money Market, so I don't think any additional interest on my checking account would be worth the hassle factor. The point is that the AMA account earns about the same interest as Vanguard's Prime, ...

Greenberry

AMA account can be effectively used as a checking account even if technically it's a brokerage account. Interest rate varies depending on the sweep account you choose, but if you put it in the FDIC insured money market it's usually about 0.1 to 0.2% less than VG Prime. April was 2.15%, if I recall. ...

Greenberry

Call your bank, tell them to raise the daily ATM withdrawal limit.

Greenberry

You need to consider the entire cost, not just the management expense ratio. The problem with international REITs is that in addition to the 0.48% ER, you have the location issue: big dividends, so tax inefficient if held in taxable, but if you hold them in tax-deferred, you lose about 15% of the yi...

Greenberry

As Laura said, you want to consider the allocations within the context of your portfolio. However, all of the options you've given are within a few percentage points of Total Stock Market Index in terms of allocations, so I don't see what you're hoping to gain by splitting them up like this? You're ...

Greenberry

There's no way I'd pay 1.13% for EXHAX, even if it "has done better" than Vanguard's fund because while there's no guarantee about whether it will do better in the future, there is a guarantee that they will charge you a whole lot more going forward. Why don't you post all of the options a...

Greenberry

Sorry I don't have time for a long reply, but briefly: There are lots of types of annuities and broadly, only the SPIA is worthwhile but the others are generally to be avoided. Many research studies have suggested that SPIAs are an "optimum" investment for many, and they're the default req...

Greenberry

The best analogy I've read, with apologies for not remembering a source to cite: It's possible to find a $20 bill on the street, but that does not mean it's worth my time to go out and walk the streets of NYC in search of $20 bills lying on the street. The analogy to EMH is left as an exercise for t...

Greenberry

Everyone talks about spending needs, but in reality most people can adapt, so it's not really "what income do you need in retirement?" Instead, I'd suggest considering what amount of spending would allow you to survive, even if it's distasteful. That's your true need. Then consider how muc...

Greenberry

Given your past different approaches to money, in your situation I wouldn't combine portfolios with my fiance and would treat them separately -- at least until after I'd been married for a few years and convinced that money issues were not a problem in the marriage. I would also likely look into pur...

Greenberry

[quote="Wagnerjb].... However, if I had to pay 0.45% to Parametrics to implement this for me, the index fund route would clearly make more sense. As I explained in my note to Pete on "expected return", my portfolio has the same expected return as the large cap market.[/quote] Hi Andy,...

Greenberry

And for the foreign country name, you can enter "various"

Greenberry

I like Piperwarrior's suggestions, but I think with only 15k of capital gains on a "mid 6 figure portfolio" with 20+% in taxable that the lower ER and potentially greater tax efficiency of Vanguard funds would make up for the capital gains taxes that you would pay in just a few years. If I...

Greenberry

I see little-to-no reason to hold an S&P 500 index fund when you could hold Total Stock Market instead to avoid the front-running aspect as well as tax-efficiently holding small cap stocks, so the whole front-running aspect is moot. To me, the big cost that Andy is paying is that he's holding do...

Greenberry

You can use t-mobile prepaid wherever you get service (in the US) without additional long-distance or roaming charges -- it only uses up the minutes you've purchased.

Greenberry

I actually prefer having separate funds for US and international -- not because of rebalancing issues that ddb mentioned -- but because the tax implications are different between domestic and foreign investments when held in IRAs/401ks. It makes sense to hold as much of your foreign equity in taxab...

Greenberry

Also, FTSE has a higher percentage of qualified dividend income, worth depending on bracket about 0.05% a year. Its biggest advantage over total international is that it won't distribute large CG when countries migrate from emerging to developed markets. That in a taxable account is worth the purcha...

Greenberry

If you want REIT and small value, piperwarrior's suggestion makes sense. If not, your original portfolio is great. One small change would be to use Total International Index inside the Roth instead of FTSE -- slightly less expensive without a purchase fee.

Greenberry

larmewar, you do have control over the purchases in the IRA because you enabled dividend reinvestment. In the future, you might want to turn that off for 30 days after you tax loss harvest, or avoid TLH for the 30 days before distributions occur. kent, if you're talking solely about taxable accounts...

Greenberry

The recommendations presented here are excellent and appropriate. My question is what do you do if you have already invested a large amount in actively managed funds in a taxable account, and these funds have appreciated significantly, thus liquidating to place in a tax deferred account would trigg...

Greenberry

I actually prefer having separate funds for US and international -- not because of rebalancing issues that ddb mentioned -- but because the tax implications are different between domestic and foreign investments when held in IRAs/401ks. It makes sense to hold as much of your foreign equity in taxabl...

Greenberry

How about filling every account with Target Retirement 2020? It has 29.4% in bonds. Don't be misled by 2020. You do not have to retire around 2020. You just have to pick a Target Retirement fund that matches your asset allocation. For some reason, I also have an aversion to those "Target"...

Greenberry

If you don't have a taxable investing account and have access to Vanguard's Target Retirement funds in each of your other accounts, then absolutely going with Target Retirement in all of your accounts would make a lot of sense. Simple and low-cost -- great option.

Bogleheads.org

Search found 557 matches

Re: More TLH questions

Re: Portfolio help - wanting to move out of Target Retiremen

Re: Don't discount IBonds/TIPS for kids

Re: Need strategy for new retirees

Re: EEM to VWO transfer

Re: Blank slate portfolio - suggestions?