Search found 99 matches

by Scamp
Mon Dec 05, 2022 10:08 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Is Berkshire an ideal UTMA investment? thoughts?
Replies: 35
Views: 3011

Re: Is Berkshire an ideal UTMA investment? thoughts?

This post is fairly off the rails now and it is clear many have not read the thread. To set some some folks straight - I “retired” at 42 more than a declare ago - I’m no longer “accumulating” - I already have mid 8 figures so I AM trying to move it out of my umbrella into my kids. I’m not worried about my future. Yes I was very lucky but worked hard to put myself there. I’m now in a different phase trying how to best use this wealth. - I’m solidly in the index fund camp. I’ve been to three conferences and feel honored to have met Jack. - I think many people in my situation would not even go through this soul searching about how to give their kids money (and trying to make it a learning opportunity) they would just set up a trust fund for 10...
by Scamp
Mon Dec 05, 2022 9:09 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Is Berkshire an ideal UTMA investment? thoughts?
Replies: 35
Views: 3011

Re: Is Berkshire an ideal UTMA investment? thoughts?

Thanks every for chiming in. I decided to take an easy middle path and open the UTMA and purchase VTI. It will take 2-3years for the income to become a trigger. At that point I could bleed off money into another holding to go for growth over income. Also maybe by then I can make my son do his taxes! Some notes to specific objections above - There are always people who chime in to say “do your own taxes” but they have no idea exactly how complex they can become. It tends to go hand in hand with becoming successful. I pay over 5k a year to my CPA. I haven’t seen a w-2 since 2006. This is the family my son finds himself in so it is what it is. - the drug problem. Yep that’s a big one that all parent’s worry about. I don’t think I can solve or ...
by Scamp
Wed Nov 30, 2022 5:45 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Is Berkshire an ideal UTMA investment? thoughts?
Replies: 35
Views: 3011

Re: Is Berkshire an ideal UTMA investment? thoughts?

Thanks @retire2022 that's really interesting and could fit the bill. I only had time for a quick look before dinner but both of those funds report an SEC yield of 1.4-1.46%. Am I'm I missing something? I can dig in and read more about them later tonight. Op You need an asset which does not distribute dividends and capital gains. Have you looked into Vanguard Tax Managed funds? 90% VTCLX & VTMSX gets you close to VTI https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-funds/profile/vtclx#performance-fees https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-funds/profile/vtmsx Here is a wiki on this: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Tax-managed_fund_comparison Warren Buffett may not be around in the future, best not to place too m...
by Scamp
Wed Nov 30, 2022 5:24 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Is Berkshire an ideal UTMA investment? thoughts?
Replies: 35
Views: 3011

Re: Is Berkshire an ideal UTMA investment? thoughts?

@LFS1234 - I'm mentally over the problem of what an 19 year old "could" do wrong with $300k. Yep he sure could. It's meant to be part educational and part money for the 20's when a leg up can be so so helpful, not to mention start getting it slowly out of our estate. If he blows it, he still has time to learn from that and get on a better track, if he buys a house or starts a company that's great too. If he gets married then divorced and loses half, well there is a lesson too. I'm no Buffet acolyte and have never read his books, but I heard his kids got 90k of Berkshire stock when they were young and had to make their own way in the world. Apparently that would be worth 60mm or something now, so I'm not in that category. One of tw...
by Scamp
Wed Nov 30, 2022 5:07 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Is Berkshire an ideal UTMA investment? thoughts?
Replies: 35
Views: 3011

Re: Is Berkshire an ideal UTMA investment? thoughts?

Thanks brad.clarkston but you missed my point a little bit. I don't want the complexity of having to worry about which part of his income is taxed at his rate and which is at mine (top bracket). I don't want to have to file state and fed returns for him. Can you tell I hate dealing with taxes? - Up to $1,050 in earnings tax-free. -The next $1,050 is taxable at the child's tax rate. - Any earnings over $2,100 are taxed at the parent's rate. If we add 32k/yr (plus whatever they increase it by) we will cross the first threshold in two years and he'll need tax returns. Another year or so and we'll be into kiddie tax on my returns. The Berkshire was meant to make all that go away. At $319/B class share we won't have too much problem buying 90 or...
by Scamp
Wed Nov 30, 2022 4:12 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Is Berkshire an ideal UTMA investment? thoughts?
Replies: 35
Views: 3011

Re: Is Berkshire an ideal UTMA investment? thoughts?

I see you point retired@50, but he and I have covered that discussion and will continue to. I'll be upfront with him about the tax reason I chose it. Plus I look at Berkshire as a bit like an actively managed index fund but based around sound business management and not market timing. So there is a lesson there too. If we ever do pass on an inheritance rather than give it all away, he'll see that it's all in passive index funds. Any thoughts or better ideas? My concern with using Berkshire Hathaway stock (or any single company) is that you'll be teaching your kid that using an individual stock is an appropriate investment strategy, when there are virtually mountains of evidence suggesting that using an index fund approach is more appropriat...
by Scamp
Wed Nov 30, 2022 3:55 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Is Berkshire an ideal UTMA investment? thoughts?
Replies: 35
Views: 3011

Is Berkshire an ideal UTMA investment? thoughts?

I have a 12 year old and I'm finally getting around to setting up a UTMA account for them. We plan to fund it with 16k from each married parent for 32k/yr for next 6 years. This is not college funding which is covered. We view this as an inheritance. It's his to learn from or make mistakes with but at least we're both likely to be around for some soft guidance. We're not keen on leaving him a big inheritance at passing. I don't want a kiddie tax headache. I'd rather it hopefully grow but kick off no income. My idea is to invest the UTMA in something like Berkshire Hathaway that won't kick off any dividends. Of course I considered an index fund but over time I think it could kick off more than 2200/yr in dividends. Plus I don't want to track...
by Scamp
Thu Oct 05, 2017 12:03 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Got a Question for the Experts Panel at the Bogleheads Conference?
Replies: 37
Views: 13319

Re: Got a Question for the Experts Panel at the Bogleheads Conference?

Seconding thoughts by OZAR(Taxable Ted question) and Grt2bOutdoors(TIPS in taxable question)

Any panelist -

For investors with little tax advantaged space and high tax brackets what recommendations can be made for asset allocation? Specifically how much is too much allocation for Munis if half your total net worth is in bonds or equivalents? Are TIPS practical in taxable? Should you just hold Total Bond in taxable?

Thanks and see you all there for my first conference.
Scott
by Scamp
Fri Mar 10, 2017 12:07 pm
Forum: US Chapters
Topic: [New] metro Denver Bogleheads Local Chapter Coordinator]
Replies: 107
Views: 37657

Re: metro Denver Bogleheads?

I live in Boulder but would most likely come where ever.
by Scamp
Fri Mar 10, 2017 11:15 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Asset Placement Turned Upside Down, Bonds in Taxable?
Replies: 51
Views: 6067

Re: Asset Placement Turned Upside Down, Bonds in Taxable?

I'll put this edge case up here from anyone else like myself. Due to a windfall from the sale of a business I have only 1.8% of my entire net worth tucked into tax advantaged space. I've stopped working for earned income so that percentage isn't going to change except down as hopefully the taxable portion grows into the future. The question becomes what to do with my very little tax advantaged space. At first I followed traditional wisdom and kept some bonds in the small protected space but it doesn't come close to holding my 50% fixed income allocation. I later decided that I would dedicate that tax advantaged space to REITs since they kick off income taxed as ordinary income. I also have a very small percentage I add to every year in a HS...
by Scamp
Mon Jan 16, 2017 10:38 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Landlord for first time - tips and things to know?
Replies: 44
Views: 7139

Re: Landlord for first time - tips and things to know?

I second cozy.co. It has been fantastic. Way better than the services I used to pay for to collect rent.
by Scamp
Tue Sep 13, 2016 5:58 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Any SoFi Mortgages? Offering me 3.25% on 2nd home.
Replies: 1
Views: 1060

Any SoFi Mortgages? Offering me 3.25% on 2nd home.

Anyone with experience on Sofi mortgage lending? I've read all the SoFi threads I can find here and mostly they are about student loans (generally positive) and about inquiring about mortgage rates and getting a look rate from SoFi. Well they have offered me 3.25% with 40% down on a second home. The best my regular mortgage Citiwide guy could get me is 3.625% with 35% down.

I just want to make sure they come through on closing day, but the rate is very compelling and they have no lender or loan origination fees.

I have my ducks in a row on proving my finances though my income is a little unconventional (passive business income). Their agent says will all go smoothly but I'm uncertain.

Thoughts? Thanks.
by Scamp
Thu Aug 18, 2016 10:32 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Little-used second home: sell at a loss or rent?
Replies: 26
Views: 3522

Re: Little-used second home: sell at a loss or rent?

You could at least investigate what other properties are renting for of Airbnb, VRBO and Flipkey. We use Airbnb and Flipkey to earn about 20-25k/year on a property costing about that much. Vacation goers tend to value the nicer kitchens and bath more than the buying market might. It depends a lot on how robust the vacation rental market is.
by Scamp
Thu Aug 18, 2016 10:14 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Should I hire a wealth management company to manage my money?
Replies: 16
Views: 2955

Re: Should I hire a wealth management company to manage my money?

Hi jsong1972,' I was in exactly the same situation 5 years ago. I moved money to an advisor that made several poor and expensive decisions. I met with serveral other advisors and considered moving to them in the end I decided to do it myself and it was the best thing I ever did. Here are a few thoughts 1) since I like you held on to a portion of my company this had an impact on how I look at my total financial picture. This remaining stake was the most speculative and risky thing I held, therefore I didn't need to seek lots of additional risk. You could estimate the value of your remaining position and view this in the picture of your net worth and your total asset allocation. As a simple example if you sold 5mm and your remaining stake is ...
by Scamp
Tue Aug 16, 2016 10:23 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Moving 4M from Goldman. retired and needs 200K/Y
Replies: 55
Views: 12433

Re: Moving 4M from Goldman. retired and needs 200K/Y

Having the bonds gives you bucket to pull from rather than equities when they are beat up in share price. You might need to pull from them for expenses but you can also rebalance back your chosen AA and actually buy more stocks when they are on sale.

If next year there is a major correction bringing your portfolio to 2mm for three years and you're also pulling 200k out each of those years you make never have time to sufficiently recover. Of course I could be way too conservative and I'm leaving 8mm on the table. :oops:
by Scamp
Tue Aug 16, 2016 9:43 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Refinance - Best Online marketplace / vendor
Replies: 9
Views: 1467

Re: Refinance - Best Online marketplace / vendor

I just recently found that my 835 score translated to 767 when run for the purpose of refinancing. I enquired why the difference and told that the algorithm they use for mortgage worthiness is calculated differently than for consumer credit.
by Scamp
Tue Aug 16, 2016 11:22 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Moving 4M from Goldman. retired and needs 200K/Y
Replies: 55
Views: 12433

Re: Moving 4M from Goldman. retired and needs 200K/Y

Does the $200,000 expenses include your income taxes? If not, you are going to need to withdraw signficantly more, even if you are paying taxes at the capital gains rate. Maybe, maybe not. I just went through the exercise last month to figure out all basis of all my various investments and properties. I found that my situation the 83% of my portfolio is principal versus appreciation.The OP could be in a very different situation but it's worth knowing how much of a withdrawal is likely to be taxed. If I were in your shoes, I would ask vanguard for a quote for an immediate annuity. That might be the only way to generate the level of income required without running out of money due to bad sequence of returns. This is a good idea too. If you a...
by Scamp
Tue Aug 16, 2016 10:34 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Moving 4M from Goldman. retired and needs 200K/Y
Replies: 55
Views: 12433

Re: Moving 4M from Goldman. retired and needs 200K/Y

You know you can't avoid death and taxes. I would add to that list 1.5% of Assets Under Management. The AUM will bleed you dry and add insult to injury in an inevitable downturn. I left Morgan Stanley for Vanguard with a similar amount of money a few years ago after learning about the Bogelhead principles. It was the best thing I ever did. Possibly like you they let me hold ideas about what kind of return I could expect. It's all too easy to think that 6-7% can be sustained with perceived low risk because you the market ups and downs have AVERAGED that over decades. Either be prepared for big swings up and down using 80/20 or pick something a little saner and smoother (I ultimately went 50% stocks/25% Fixed Income /25% real estate). I don't...
by Scamp
Tue Aug 16, 2016 10:04 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Refinance - Best Online marketplace / vendor
Replies: 9
Views: 1467

Re: Refinance - Best Online marketplace / vendor

I just went through all this on Zillow. The best rate was through a broker quoting a Prividient loan. The rate was better than I was finding elsewhere. In the middle of the process I finally learned the lenders named and looked them up on google. OMG the scathing reviews hovered around one star, basically zero. The we're so many stories of shenanigans in closing, in late posting payments and late fees. I decided I didn't need the head ache.

I just read yesterday here of others being satisfied with Providient so who knows. My current mortgage was sold to as it turns out my own bank. It runs so smoothly I didn't want new troubles and decided to just double down pay it off sooner.

Good luck and let us know what you learn.
by Scamp
Tue Aug 16, 2016 9:56 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Fixed income strategy
Replies: 17
Views: 2917

Re: Fixed income strategy

Here is another possibility. You like me are short on tax advantaged space and maybe the advisor was suggesting reserving some of that space for your REITs. REITs kick off income that is taxed at your full tax rate so you really want them sheltered just like bonds even though they shouldn't be treated in your asset allocation as bonds. I treat my REITs as part of my equities rather than real estate because of how they behave.
by Scamp
Mon Aug 15, 2016 10:43 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Self-made Millionaires: how did hitting 7 figures change you?
Replies: 304
Views: 63028

Re: Self-made Millionaires: how did hitting 7 figures change you?

I have been fascinated with the word "millionaire" for a while. Look it up on wikipedia it's pretty interesting. It's been in use since the 1800's. Think of how much wealth it meant back then. In 1900 it was worth about 25,000,000 in 2015 dollars. How many other words have carried this import for 200 years? We don't still use tycoon or Brahmin on a regular basis anymore, but millionaire still rings true. How long before it just fails to carry any wait. My guess around 2030. We haven't celebrated the million milestone or any of the others since because my wife just doesn't think that way. We crossed a substantial one this year in my opinion about 18 months sooner than I guessed we would. I excitedly shared the news and she said &qu...
by Scamp
Mon Aug 15, 2016 10:02 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: "The Minority of Investors" ... Billionaires
Replies: 35
Views: 6268

Re: "The Minority of Investors" ... Billionaires

I delved into angel investing when I first early retired. I hoped I could take a portion of my portfolio and seek out companies I believed in for a higher risk higher return. Well finding the higher risk was easy enough but the returns have been negative. I found that starting a business, growing it and selling it was apparently easier for me than picking other companies capable of doing the same thing. I learned from other successful angel investors that it's best to look at this like an expensive, intellectual hobby. One guy who is well respected and believed to be a pretty successful angel all in all shared with me that with his losses and occasional home runs he has averaged guess how much? About 7% annually! If he had just one less hom...
by Scamp
Fri Aug 05, 2016 12:36 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Moving out of Morgan Stanley and into... Vanguard? (Plus next steps?)
Replies: 24
Views: 5746

Re: (31, single) Moving $2M out of Morgan Stanley and into... Vanguard? (Plus next steps?)

Plenty of good specific advice but I can tell you personally that ditching Morgan Stanley for Vanguard was the best financial decision I ever made. Oh and I moved the same magnitude of funds as well and went 50/50. I've been happy with lack luster returns and nice stability when I just look at the big picture.

Rip the bandaid off quickly.
by Scamp
Wed Aug 03, 2016 4:49 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: major remodel: regrets or things you'd do again
Replies: 68
Views: 13181

Re: major remodel: regrets or things you'd do again

In no particular order - if you have the time to spend you can source everything waaaayyyyyyy cheaper than the GC or designer will. They want fast and easy for them. They want to feed sales to relationships that aren't necessarily your best choices. It takes time so hopefully you have some to invest but you can find quality products (cabinets, tile, wood floors) at way lower prices if you hunt for deals and make very small compromises. I initially got bids for 40-60k for our kitchen but was able to get everything I wanted for 25k. I just found cheaper sources and put a bit of of work in. I bought HomeCrest cabinets with all the tricks like dovetails and soft close. They are semi custom but cost like half what fully custom would just and I l...
by Scamp
Wed Aug 03, 2016 4:23 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Should I flip my neighbor's house to save the neighborhood?
Replies: 72
Views: 11313

Re: Should I flip my neighbor's house to save the neighborhood?

curmudgeon and Hayden might have a point.

I will now tell you funny story that in no way should be construed as an alternative to your situation

I used to live near Telluride where things get called "historic" and once they are they can't be knocked down, moved, etc. There was a restaurant in town that wanted to expend with a back deck but there was an old mining era coal shed that was nearly fallen down but it was deemed historic so there was nothing they could do.

Well one night it mysteriously burned down and in the morning people found a pair of ruby red slippers sticking out from underneath. Later that summer the deck was built.

:sharebeer
by Scamp
Wed Aug 03, 2016 1:38 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Should I flip my neighbor's house to save the neighborhood?
Replies: 72
Views: 11313

Re: Should I flip my neighbor's house to save the neighborhood?

If I were to pursue this, what kind of arrangement would be fair/typical with the contractor? Who would pay for materials for the remodel? How should the profit (if any) be split? You didn't seem to be getting much in the way of suggestions for arrangements, so here are some I've done. I have flipped one foreclosed house myself (huge track record :happy ) but I also have long term rental and a vacation rental I have put lots of remodeling into. It's always harder and more expensive than you think but if you plan to hold it for a while or are building it to enjoy it's easier to make it work out satisfactorily. I have also loaned money from the FI portion of my portfolio seeking a better return than bonds/cds. I have done three deal like tha...
by Scamp
Mon Aug 01, 2016 7:01 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Buying out owner of privately held company
Replies: 10
Views: 1118

Re: Buying out owner of privately held company

Minority shareholders get no say in management decisions. You will be putting a bunch of your assets into a vehicle over which you have no say. Proceed with great caution. I would say it really has a lot to do with the current ownership structure. If votes are pro-rata to percentage stake AND their are serval voting members with similar stakes AND the controls on what must be voted on AND and history of bringing things to a vote it can all work out fine. However if the remaining old guard members are used to just doing things the way they want with out votes or they percentage of vote too easily overrules the minority partners then I totally agree - Watch Out! The OP might consider structuring the sale with some sort of escape clause. The ...
by Scamp
Mon Aug 01, 2016 6:26 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Buying out owner of privately held company
Replies: 10
Views: 1118

Re: Buying out owner of privately held company

I'm also a software guy and sold my interest to a non-working partner looking to increase his stake when I wanted to make a move to early retirement. You didn't mention the business entity but we were an LLC which has Member roles (owner) and Manager roles (workers). Our LLC is treated as a pass-thru partnership so their are no business taxes and all profits and losses are passed along to member pro-rata with a k-1. During our sale I transferred member units (shares) to the other member for an agreed cost (actually different costs based on a formula over 3 year period). I was the seller so I incurred capital gains taxes and net investment income taxes on the proceeds. The buyer did not incur taxes. I think you should dig in and understand t...
by Scamp
Mon Aug 01, 2016 5:44 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Mini retirement- RV around country
Replies: 21
Views: 3422

Re: Mini retirement- RV around country

We did basically the same thing. We did one trip to Alaska up and back by two wonderful routes over about three months when our son was just two. He could point all the big game through the window before the trip was over. We have also done a couple other 6-8 week trips, besides lots and lots of smaller trips. We have also done multi-month trips to other countries without the RV all before our son turned 4. Everyone's right the kids won't remember the locations but you will remember being there with them. It's wonderful family time and creates a bond. When they are young they are sponges soaking up every site, sound, and experience and it all goes in those little brains and broadens them I think. From a practical perspective you're going to...
by Scamp
Mon Aug 01, 2016 10:19 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Advice on Real Estate Deal
Replies: 22
Views: 2060

Re: Advice on Real Estate Deal

I own a vacation/rental home and I'm looking at upgrading to a bigger one constantly. I now have three years of watching every property in my price range in that area go on the market, how long to sell and final price. I'm also more familiar with the intricacies of the different neighborhoods. There are always subtleties to every neighborhood that affect their worth or quality of life. The closer this property is to "Main Street" the less concern but if it's out from town not all resort properties in an area are the same. If I were you I would try to spend a bunch of hours on a local MLS site. Those are often better than Zillow because they tap into real transaction history instead of doing it vicariously through tax records. Zill...
by Scamp
Sat Jul 23, 2016 12:07 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Appropriate tip amount for river rafting guides?
Replies: 50
Views: 10315

Re: Appropriate tip amount for river rafting guides?

Nice job Chip! I have my first Grand trip as a private boater next spring. I better tip myself.
by Scamp
Sat Jul 23, 2016 12:05 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: REIT , bubble and timing the market
Replies: 11
Views: 2462

Re: REIT , bubble and timing the market

Aren't REITs doing well in part due to higher rents? Mortgages are harder to get approved for and so more people need to rent and rents have been driven higher
by Scamp
Sat Jul 23, 2016 12:01 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Reverse Mortgage Line of Credit
Replies: 44
Views: 6142

Re: Reverse Mortgage Line of Credit

I think the core idea of extracting a portion of equity from a property while being able to live in the home as long as you need is a great idea. It's the fees that make it totally untenable. If I had more time I'd like to work out the effective interest rate with the fees built in. I did a private reverse mortgage for my mother and just reviewed all the numbers over the last four years earlier this week. I think it's working out well for both of us. I charged no fees, placed a lean on the house and wrote a promissory note with the terms including rate, amount of draw down, etc. She got to tap the equity with no fees, in a timely manner and she is still able to earn income from renting a portion of the house. I got a significantly better ra...
by Scamp
Sat Jul 23, 2016 11:35 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Appropriate tip amount for river rafting guides?
Replies: 50
Views: 10315

Re: Appropriate tip amount for river rafting guides?

I was a part time guide for fun not money, but I will tell you that these folks only earl $70-100/day based on seniority BEFORE taxes and expenses like their personal river gear. They get up about 5am in the morning to get breakfast going and work on keeping guests happy until guests go to bed, usually about 9pm. Their only personal time is from maybe 9-11pm or so when the have a drink and shoot the bull with the other guides. They have to be stage telling stories, jokes, and being personable for 16 hours a day besides all the river guiding, setting up camp, cooking, cleaning etc. sure it's fun and rewarding but you should know the quality of the guides make or break a trip so if they make it really fun for your family please consider how m...
by Scamp
Fri Jul 22, 2016 11:04 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Cinque terre in September....
Replies: 18
Views: 2420

Re: Cinque terre in September....

I was there in September 2002 and the weather and place was great. Please report back I hope it still is great. My fondest memory was when after order a couple of grappa shots at a bar the owner brought out her own homemade and drank the bottle with me.
by Scamp
Fri Jul 22, 2016 10:46 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Where were you financially when you were at 30?
Replies: 226
Views: 50481

Re: Where were you financially when you were at 30?

Single, Colorado ski bum with a negative networth.
by Scamp
Fri Jul 22, 2016 10:44 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Orlando Disney Parks
Replies: 41
Views: 5445

Re: Orlando Disney Parks

Sorry if I cover some ground others have covered but here are my thoughts. We've been 4 times to a Disney park in the last 2 years rather through happenstance. Once on purpose for our kids birthday, one because we got a free beach house with friends, once because of a Canceled flight in LA and once because of company party, so I've gotten kind of good at it. 1) buy the tix from Disney that make it smooth and easy shipping you wrist bands and signing up for FP etc. It's a good experience like apple product. FP is easy unless you try to coordinate with people outside your purchase group like NIsi said. 2) Pay for a TouringPlans account. It's like $20 and gave me way more value. There are established paths that the herds tend to follow in a gi...
by Scamp
Fri Jul 22, 2016 10:13 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Early retirees, how much did you leave on the table?
Replies: 355
Views: 40144

Re: Early retirees, how much did you leave on the table?

I'm curious TheTime Lord why do you ask? I left tons of money on the table by selling most of my company stake to my partners. I retired at 42 in upper middle class fashion while my partners are now in top 1/10th of 1%er territory. I left a lot on the table - 80 hour work weeks, stress, uncertainty, risk, and lot and lots of bs. I don't miss it at all.

Good luck.
by Scamp
Tue Jun 28, 2016 8:29 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Will - Remarried with Troubled Kids
Replies: 37
Views: 6470

Re: Will - Remarried with Troubled Kids

I got a lot out of this book without any of the issues you mentioned and you might get even more.

Beyond the Grave, Revised and Updated Edition: The Right Way and the Wrong Way of Leaving Money to Your Children (and Others) by Jeffery L. Condon

It's full of problematic scenarios and multiple ways of dealing with them.

Hope it helps. Good luck.
by Scamp
Sat Jun 11, 2016 10:56 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Is it worth it for us to purchase an umbrella policy?
Replies: 47
Views: 10429

Re: Is it worth it for us to purchase an umbrella policy?

One thing I encountered that I never saw mentioned when rates for umbrellas are tossed about, is that if you have a speeding ticket or two in the last three years then the umbrella policy cost is close to double. I'm about to do a total insurance shop around soon so I'll see if things have changed.
by Scamp
Wed Feb 10, 2016 10:02 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: TLH: Just down lots or all? Does it matter?
Replies: 14
Views: 1883

Re: TLH: Just down lots or all? Does it matter?

grabiner wrote:If you are interested in getting rid of a fund, selling your entire holding for a small gain makes sense, particularly when you have losses that more than offset the gain. The simplicity may be worth more than the trivial tax cost.
This is exactly what I was thinking but it seems most of the advice is leaning the other way.

Thanks
by Scamp
Mon Feb 08, 2016 6:13 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: TLH: Just down lots or all? Does it matter?
Replies: 14
Views: 1883

Re: TLH: Just down lots or all? Does it matter?

Thanks everyone. I think Livesoft said it best. I'm just going to have to get used to have a few funds representing an asset class. So much for simplicity...

I'm not too concerned about current year's taxes because I have enough losses to keep deducting $3k for the next 57 years! I was simply considering using some of my cumulative $170k losses to offset some gains and sell all the VTSAX thereby keeping a cleaner portfolio while reseting to a single easy track basis. Seems like everyone thinks this is a bad idea.

By the way FinanceGeek the last time I did a TLH and sat out for 31 days the fund (and all similar) shot back up. I won't do that again. That mistake cost me over $20k, ouch.

Thanks again!
by Scamp
Mon Feb 08, 2016 10:56 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: TLH: Just down lots or all? Does it matter?
Replies: 14
Views: 1883

TLH: Just down lots or all? Does it matter?

I know, I know another Tax Loss Harvesting question… when will it end. So I TLH all my Total International VTAIX during the Aug 2015 drop and switched to FTSE All-World VFWAX. Total booked loss about $100k. Now I’m looking carefully at my Total Stock (VTSAX). If I just exchanged lots with losses I could reap $47k loss, or I could exchange ALL my shares for $1k long term gain (easily offset). I’m considering the 81/19% VFINX/VEXMX mix from the wiki ( http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Approximating_total_stock_market ) as a substitute for the VTSAX. I’m also likely to switch my FTSE back to VTAIX reaping another $67k loss. By the way I'm in the 39% tax bracket. Questions: 1) Should I exchange just the Total Stock lots with losses (-47k) or sell ...
by Scamp
Wed Feb 03, 2016 1:53 pm
Forum: Forum Issues and Administration
Topic: BOGLEHEADS.COM AND BOGLEHEADS.NET
Replies: 54
Views: 14989

Re: BOGLEHEADS.COM AND BOGLEHEADS.NET

Another thank you Serge.
by Scamp
Mon Nov 16, 2015 11:21 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: High Earner Careers?
Replies: 305
Views: 53407

Re: High Earner Careers?

EmergDoc, the further down the page I read the more I keep finding to quoting you on. I agree there are lots of people not willing to work hard! The knowledge of how they should work hard is also a major factor. There are lots of entrepreneurial pursuits that can be bootstrapped. For example, starting my website cost $50 (for the first year) and a whole lot of time. I think the key to getting started is to have the employee job provide the initial capital (by living way below your means) and doing the entrepreneurial job in addition (evenings, weekends etc) until you're making enough money to drop the employee job. I think it usually takes working absolutely ridiculously hard to succeed at entrepreneurial endeavors. And I second the idea of...
by Scamp
Mon Nov 16, 2015 10:52 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: High Earner Careers?
Replies: 305
Views: 53407

Re: High Earner Careers?

EmergDoc wrote:
ctraveler wrote:If you want a high income, start a business you're passionate enough about that you'll be willing to work on it every day until after midnight and you wake up wanting to do nothing more than to work on it.
Ditto, worked for me, though I'll be the first to admit there are components of both luck and aptitude that need to come into play.
by Scamp
Fri Nov 13, 2015 4:29 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Are financial aggregators (e.g., Mint) a risk? And to whom?
Replies: 10
Views: 2865

Re: Are financial aggregators (e.g., Mint) a risk? And to whom?

quantAndHold wrote:But if I were shopping for a "big bank," I'd choose one that used read-only access keys for the aggregators, not one that told me that using an aggregator was a bad idea. Customers are going to use aggregators. Banks have to figure out how to deal with that in a secure way.
I have wishes all my financial services would offer read only access keys for a long time. Are there any banks or others that provide this? Or are you just hoping for it like me?
by Scamp
Thu Nov 05, 2015 9:13 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Amex Platinum $450/yr annual fee but 100,000 points
Replies: 57
Views: 16986

Re: Amex Platinum $450/yr annual fee but 100,000 points

Here is our experience with the Amex Platinum 100,000 miles offer. My wife got targeted and we went for it because the web consensus seemed to be it's a no brainer. Now I'm slightly less enthused but it's ok. I have learned some things. 1) We set up United as the preferred airline and purchased 4x $50 gift cards. Research suggested $50 cards look more like baggage fees but other have said that $100 gift cards work fine. We got reimbursed immediately so thats good. We did this 11 months apart so we ended up with 8x $50 cards. We later came to find out you can only one card per flight purchase transaction. So to get them used up we did some complex booking of 6 multiple individual one way flights. PIA. 2) Research suggested you only get one G...
by Scamp
Mon Oct 26, 2015 12:57 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Tax efficiency for high income non sheltered indivudual
Replies: 17
Views: 2649

Re: Tax efficiency for high income non sheltered indivudual

I'm in the same boat more or less with 98% of my savings in taxable accounts. After the sale of a business I have no access to tax deferred accounts and the money has to be put to work somewhere, so taxable investing it is. This post may go to places that you didn't specifically ask about, but hopefully it's useful. Some thoughts... 1) Definitely set up a rainy day, lose your job, FU money, emergency fund. Put that in a high interest savings account. CIT bank with 1.05% has been working well for me and use them for CDs as well. I also sweep money into this account after every paycheck to put it to work immediately prior to attributing it to my AA. I used to go months with way too much money in my checking account. 2) Settle on an asset allo...
by Scamp
Sun Oct 25, 2015 10:46 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What are your 2 retirement numbers?
Replies: 260
Views: 42656

Re: What are your 2 retirement numbers?

That's so funny that you would say this because I do think about a lot. I'm pseudo retired. Income still rolls in from a business interest but all my time is free. I'm not sure when I'll have to switch from accumulating to de-accumulating. I also have a 5 year old and he thinks daddy's "work" is sitting around reading Bogleheads, while we globe trot. At some point he'll figure out this isn't what most daddies do. I'm waiting for that question, but for now being in 40's with freedom and enough money to lead a middle class lifestyle is good. Does this stay fun for the next 50 years, I'm not sure. Does it provide a positive role model on the benefits of diligence, training, hard work, and entrepreneurship? Or am I that slacker dad a...