Search found 16 matches

by jimbob56
Mon Aug 30, 2021 2:29 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: The psychology of frugality when you no longer need to be frugal
Replies: 152
Views: 28801

The psychology of frugality when you no longer need to be frugal

I hesitate to bring this up, because I know most people would probably kill to have this 'problem' and there's a risk it comes across as a humble brag of sorts. I assure you it's not and instead it comes from a place of deep introspection... So brief history here: I'm in my mid-forties. I grew up what I'd consider to be middle class. Father worked for state government, mother stayed at home. We had few if any luxury items, but bills were always paid and there was always food on the table. Parents were mostly clueless about investing, but mother instilled good saving habits as she grew up relatively poor and wanted to make sure we knew the importance of saving what we could. Fast forward to today. I'm wealthy beyond my wildest dreams due to ...
by jimbob56
Sun Apr 27, 2014 3:17 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Convince me to lump sum into the market
Replies: 59
Views: 14117

Convince me to lump sum into the market

A month or so after a recent seven figure windfall, I'm getting ready to execute my portfolio plan which calls for a reasonable equities allocation. I'm not one to normally time the market, but I'm really not feeling very confident about getting into the market at this level. That's why I'm thinking of dollar cost averaging into TSM over 12 months with an acceleration plan as follows: On the first of each month for the next 12 months, I will put 8.33% of my planned equity allocation into TSM. I will immediately accelerate the above plan by 20% of my intended equities allocation for each 5% VTSAX drops below $46.98 (closing price Apr26). In other words, if the market drops 25%, I'm all in immediately. I know this is not a Boglehead-y way to ...
by jimbob56
Wed Apr 09, 2014 3:49 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Help with asset allocation post-windfall
Replies: 6
Views: 1006

Re: Help with asset allocation post-windfall

Ok, so given that 90% of the overall portfolio will have to be in a taxable account, converting all tax deferred account space to fixed would still leave me with 30% fixed to put in a taxable account... What would you suggest for that 30%?
by jimbob56
Wed Apr 09, 2014 12:59 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Help with asset allocation post-windfall
Replies: 6
Views: 1006

Re: Help with asset allocation post-windfall

Ok, so maybe I'm over-thinking the whole thing, but how else should I set asset allocation for a chunk of funds I didn't have a month ago, but which will be with me going forward? Clearly, the short-term stuff gets put in ultra-safe investments (taxes, car, house downpayment). College and retirement funds are fairly straight forward too as I already have well defined glide paths for each. How else would I come up with a reasonable asset allocation for the rest of it? Do I just bundle it all up, call it medium-term and shoot for say 60/40 and leave it at that?
by jimbob56
Tue Apr 08, 2014 8:21 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Help with asset allocation post-windfall
Replies: 6
Views: 1006

Help with asset allocation post-windfall

Our family (we're both 39, married with 2 young kids) just had a windfall that multiplied our net worth by about 7x (after 2014 federal and California taxes are paid off). I already read the windfall section of the wiki, so we're already pretty much in tune with most of the recommendations there... Pre-windfall Financial Situation * Rent a house and own two cars outright. * Have zero revolving debt of any kind, just credit cards that are paid off every month. * Have around 6 months of emergency reserve in money mkt account. * Have been saving for purchasing a home. Prior to windfall, had about 3/4 of necessary 20% down-payment already saved up. * Have a 529 account already on pace to cover bulk of college costs for oldest kid (currently 3 y...
by jimbob56
Tue Dec 24, 2013 11:55 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: How do Bogleheads sell a concentrated position in an IPO?
Replies: 11
Views: 2144

Re: How do Bogleheads sell a concentrated position in an IPO

Wow. I can't imagine why they wouldn't have managed that better (not that that is very helpful). Seriously, though, bankers are supposed to help companies manage this. So far as I can tell, this so-called 'low float' IPO strategy has become sort of in vogue for recent IPOs: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303936704576399821664370538 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xklol8_is-the-low-float-ipo-a-good-strategy_news Whether it pays off or not long-term for the company or insiders is hard to say. In reality, it seems that most of us insiders are stuck with shares until the flood gates finally open, so the question is whether any beneficial psychological effect from the IPO scramble extends six months later... I can't say wh...
by jimbob56
Tue Dec 24, 2013 10:36 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: How do Bogleheads sell a concentrated position in an IPO?
Replies: 11
Views: 2144

Re: How do Bogleheads sell a concentrated position in an IPO

Valuethinker wrote:Because OP is no longer with the firm, he may have been missed re the grapevine. Is there anyone he can contact at the company to ask?
It's a good point... I have a couple contacts and will make a point of asking if they've heard anything.
by jimbob56
Mon Dec 23, 2013 9:49 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: How do Bogleheads sell a concentrated position in an IPO?
Replies: 11
Views: 2144

Re: How do Bogleheads sell a concentrated position in an IPO

I'd be curious how many shares are going to be unlocked at the same time yours are, and how that compares to the average daily volume and the float. That could inform better advice here. In general, I'd be inclined to get out of the position with all deliberate speed but without moving the market. So if there was a wall of stock coming available on that day, it might make sense to wait, or 'DCA it out', if you will. A huge number of shares unlock. I don't know exactly, since officers in the company who own more than 1% may have other restrictions, but in theory, if all remaining shares were to unlock, it would be somewhere on the order of 5x as many shares as have been floated so far. In other words, only about 1/6 of the total number of s...
by jimbob56
Mon Dec 23, 2013 9:40 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: How do Bogleheads sell a concentrated position in an IPO?
Replies: 11
Views: 2144

Re: How do Bogleheads sell a concentrated position in an IPO

Rainier wrote:Are you allowed to trade the options (puts/calls) if they even exist yet?

Could do something creative there to at least partially lock in the gains.
Yeah, one of my first thoughts was to create a zero-cost collar with options to lock in the price. Technically, I could do it, but I'd be in breach of a contract I signed saying I wouldn't do any of those shenanigans prior to lock-up expiration (the underwriters have thought of all that stuff). Who knows, in retrospect maybe I could have refused to sign the agreement and gone and done just that, but I didn't feel like getting into such a complex situation at my first rodeo, especially when the company's and underwriter's interests would have been counter to my own.
by jimbob56
Mon Dec 23, 2013 12:49 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: How do Bogleheads sell a concentrated position in an IPO?
Replies: 11
Views: 2144

How do Bogleheads sell a concentrated position in an IPO?

The company I used to work for is having its post-IPO lockup expiration soon. I was a very early employee many years ago and managed to leave with vested shares that may net me seven figures after taxes. A few points, followed by a question: 1. One thing is clear: the stock I own needs to be sold. It needs to be sold because what amounts to around 80% of my net worth will be all of a sudden represented by a single company’s stock on the day of lockup expiration. I’ve also heard and am trying to heed the old ‘when your options become liquid you should consider the event equivalent to a cash bonus’ adage. Furthermore, the speculative nature of IPO trading has in my (perhaps naïve?) opinion made the company grossly overvalued by most tradition...
by jimbob56
Thu Dec 12, 2013 1:46 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: What's a safe place to put $1M for a year?
Replies: 6
Views: 1671

What's a safe place to put $1M for a year?

Expecting a windfall next year and need a relatively safe place to put $1M+ much of which may be needed to cover taxes the year after. VFSUX (Short-Term Investment-Grade Admiral) seems to be all I could come up with that actually yields anything, but not even sure that's sufficiently safe as looking at the 10-year trend, there's a pretty significant dip in 2008. Is money market the only legit way to go? VMMXX (Prime Money Market) looks to be on par with stuffing it under the mattress to be honest ($2 gain on a $10k investment over the past year!) I assume regular CDs and savings accounts are out since I'm well beyond the FDIC limits, unless I go spreading them across several banks (which seems like a pain to execute and track).
by jimbob56
Fri Feb 01, 2013 3:08 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: How would you deal with a serious offer for pre-IPO shares?
Replies: 14
Views: 2788

Re: How would you deal with a serious offer for pre-IPO shar

I don't understand. You write you have been contacted multiple times and only followed up on one of them to get an offer. Then you write you would be more comfortable if you had other offers to compare it to. So get the other offers. Well, I haven't had a lot of contacts, just four so far and three of them came before the recent VC round. One was a lowball and the others I simply told to go away because I assumed at the time that they would also be lowballs. I'll see if I can dig them up. Now that the latest VC round has been closed, it seems to have put a floor on the price, so I suspect offers will be more serious going forward. I want to be in a position of power as I consider those offers, but I'm not confident that I can read the valu...
by jimbob56
Fri Feb 01, 2013 1:17 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: How would you deal with a serious offer for pre-IPO shares?
Replies: 14
Views: 2788

Re: How would you deal with a serious offer for pre-IPO shar

DualIncomeNoDebt wrote:If you are a shareholder, you may be, and likely are, entitled to the financials, and probably can make a books and records request as well. Depends on state law and state of incorporation.
Interesting, I never considered that. They're a Delaware Corp.

I left the company 4 years ago and sort of assumed I am not an insider any longer, and would be able to sell shares immediately upon IPO. If I make this request, does that have any impact on that status? I suppose not, since the information would become public prior to IPO?
by jimbob56
Fri Feb 01, 2013 1:14 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: How would you deal with a serious offer for pre-IPO shares?
Replies: 14
Views: 2788

Re: How would you deal with a serious offer for pre-IPO shar

I've actually checked SecondMarket before, but there doesn't seem to be any way to gauge share prices for my company (though it is listed there). It seems as if the company itself needs to sign up and allow SecondMarket to broker trades, which it hasn't done. Even then, it looks like the company still needs to ok each transaction and there is no 'last share trade price' publicly available so far as I can tell...
by jimbob56
Thu Jan 31, 2013 10:49 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: How would you deal with a serious offer for pre-IPO shares?
Replies: 14
Views: 2788

How would you deal with a serious offer for pre-IPO shares?

I was an early employee for a company I left about four years ago. I was able to negotiate a reasonable options package which I exercised long ago for only a few thousand dollars. Up until a couple years ago, i had assumed the 'lottery ticket' would never pay out. Well, as it turns out, it looks like the company will IPO later this year or early next (as in the CEO has stated openly that this is the plan). Anyway, brokers, middlemen and private investors have started contacting me via LinkedIn, as they can see that I used to work for this company. I've mostly ignored them up until now, but I was sort of curious what a serious offer might look like, so I responded to one recently. They forwarded an offer (via email, nothing Legal or binding)...
by jimbob56
Sat Sep 29, 2012 3:04 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Anyone understand share conversion during IPO?
Replies: 0
Views: 199

Anyone understand share conversion during IPO?

The company that I used to work for is *possibly* going to IPO in 2013. Ok, I know what you're all thinking: stop counting your chickens before they're hatched.... I worked at this company up until 3 years ago and vested and exercised all of my options while I worked there (I was a very early employee and bought shares for pennies a piece.) The company looked dead up until about 2 years ago when things started to really take off and earnings hit the black for the first time. They're now at 600 employees (when I left it was about 40) and growing revenue and earnings at a high multiple. I'm mostly just curious how the IPO process would work. I'm certainly not relying on this "investment" as anything other than the lottery ticket tha...