Search found 3553 matches
- Sat Mar 16, 2024 9:43 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Am I Only One Who Hates Having Left Over Pennies
- Replies: 53
- Views: 4124
Re: Am I Only One Who Hates Having Left Over Pennies
I have far more important concerns to spend my time and attention on than a penny sitting in random places.
- Fri Mar 15, 2024 2:34 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Great news! No more [fixed real estate] agent commission
- Replies: 163
- Views: 15055
Re: Great news! No more agent commission
There will be new fees which will somehow add up to about 6% but probably in a less transparent way.
- Tue Mar 12, 2024 6:08 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Overcontributed to HSA in 2023 - Easiest Path Forward
- Replies: 2
- Views: 240
Re: Overcontributed to HSA in 2023 - Easiest Path Forward
Just remove the excess.
- Sat Mar 09, 2024 7:16 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Have any of you Frugal Zebras Changed Your (Spending) Stripes?
- Replies: 129
- Views: 10620
Re: Have any of you Frugal Zebras Changed Your (Spending) Stripes?
I expect our spending level will stay about the same in retirement as it is now. That's just how the budget works in the long view.
- Fri Mar 08, 2024 10:58 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Option to elect for 22 vs 26 pay periods: thoguhts?
- Replies: 16
- Views: 1465
Re: Option to elect for 22 vs 26 pay periods: thoguhts?
I have variable income. If I could, I would choose an even distribution over a 12 month basis just to make basic budgeting easier.
- Thu Mar 07, 2024 2:49 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Vanguard brokerage account – Any warnings?
- Replies: 21
- Views: 3162
Re: Vanguard brokerage account – Any warnings?
Just use a money market fund and ditch the CPA.
- Thu Mar 07, 2024 9:32 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Retirement Planning - Target Date Funds
- Replies: 18
- Views: 1848
Re: Retirement Planning - Target Date Funds
You should always pick the AA you desire and ignore the name/year of the fund. The composition is what is important. You might also look at balanced funds which stay at the same AA over time and do not "glide" like the target date funds.
- Tue Mar 05, 2024 9:06 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Vanguard just won't stop sending me paper mail
- Replies: 36
- Views: 3798
Re: Vanguard keeps mailing prospectuses
Vanguard does not but Schwab keeps sending me random bits of paper mail.
- Tue Mar 05, 2024 12:57 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: What if you can't access your money?
- Replies: 45
- Views: 4213
Re: What if you can't access your money?
We are generally prepared for a few days power outage or flooding and both have happened in the last few years. We could probably manage 30 days if necessary. We generally keep a small amount of cash on hand but in a genuine emergency, most things will wait or are not available. Money is almost never the problem. $200k in cash or gold seems extreme. If things are really that bad, food, water and guns are probably more relevant unless you are creating an option for trying to get out of the country. It's fairly easy to plan for minor and predictable emergencies. Black swans are hard to plan for because you don't know what they are going to be or when they might happen. For me, lack of access to medications is the real concern in any ongoing e...
- Sun Mar 03, 2024 11:31 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Why is 60/40 the benchmark?
- Replies: 25
- Views: 3364
Re: Why is 60/40 the benchmark?
50/50 has been suggested by many including Benjamin Graham as the "agnostic" view in investing while moving to 60/40 is a tilt toward a higher expectation from stocks. 60/40 may not be the optimal portfolio but it is far from being the worst. It seems more like a seat of the pants rule but then all of the published discussions around it gives many comparisons for an investor to mimic and may increase their confidence.
- Sun Mar 03, 2024 11:02 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Retirement Withdrawal Strategy for Preserving Principal and Growing It for Inflation
- Replies: 17
- Views: 1793
Re: Retirement Withdrawal Strategy for Preserving Principal and Growing It for Inflation
Read up on perpetual withdrawal rates.
- Sun Mar 03, 2024 10:49 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Is Splitting Your Investments Between Value and Growth a Good Diversification/Hedge Strategy?
- Replies: 6
- Views: 513
Re: Is Splitting Your Investments Between Value and Growth a Good Diversification/Hedge Strategy?
It is considered a tax efficiency strategy with taxable accounts.
- Sun Mar 03, 2024 9:49 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Pre-retirement: the "hurry up and wait" phase
- Replies: 17
- Views: 1841
Re: Pre-retirement: the "hurry up and wait" phase
I did a fair amount of reading and financial assessment for a couple of years coming up to my full pension eligibility date last year plus things were not going well in work environment. It was a really good exercise. The ultimate decision was to not retire yet for several different reasons and that has turned out to be the right choice. But I can retire if/when I change my mind.
- Sat Mar 02, 2024 8:40 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Getting new car
- Replies: 53
- Views: 6233
Re: Getting new car
You could buy a new car from any dealer and have it ready to pick up when you get there.
You could rent a car for a couple of weeks while you get settled and figure things out.
You could rent a car for a couple of weeks while you get settled and figure things out.
- Sat Mar 02, 2024 11:15 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: 24 year old- money problems
- Replies: 50
- Views: 6387
Re: 24 year old- money problems
You are doing fine. Starting out is hard. What is the cost to break the lease? It may make sense to pay a penalty to get out of it. I would try to pay down the car loan before the student loan. I would also suggest spending time on developing your career prospects before taking on random part time jobs.
- Sat Mar 02, 2024 10:28 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: A confident Boglehead in his 60s pondering managing a portfolio in their 80s and beyond?
- Replies: 42
- Views: 5532
Re: A confident Boglehead in his 60s pondering managing a portfolio in their 80s and beyond?
The general plan is to consolidate accounts where possible after retirement and deplete some smaller ones first to reduce the number to a minimum. I can wind down the many credit card account and bank accounts as well. Most of the investment accounts are in balanced funds already except for taxable. Everything is documented. There are general suggestions for future withdrawal strategies but things do change. Spouse does not currently do anything with these accounts but is generally familiar with them. Souse does far more complex financial management at work as well as having taken over her parents financial management the last couple of years. I'm confident they can manage it when needed and probably even better than me. I don't know for su...
- Sat Mar 02, 2024 10:16 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Real Stories of College Savings: what was your plan, and what happened?
- Replies: 98
- Views: 7338
Re: Real Stories of College Savings: what was your plan, and what happened?
Our kids all had very modest "college savings accounts". Anyway, that is what we called them even though they were just savings accounts. As it turned out, all three went to college with full ride scholarships and continued to work part time. All three graduated plus one graduate degree with more savings than they started with. Two of them are now well established in careers in their degree area and one has chosen to switch to a different career path. They are all more financially stable than I was at their ages.
- Sat Mar 02, 2024 9:57 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Has anyone quantified the tax inefficiency of the one-fund portfolio in taxable accounts?
- Replies: 13
- Views: 1300
Re: Has anyone quantified the tax inefficiency of the one-fund portfolio in taxable accounts?
You can do the calculations yourself based on the history of dividend and capital gains distributions from specific funds using your own marginal tax brackets. You can look for tax managed funds as well but there are not as many of them. I do use balanced funds but not in taxable accounts.
- Sat Mar 02, 2024 9:40 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Does healthcare remain a significant concern for retirement before 65, even with a well-planned budget?
- Replies: 66
- Views: 6323
Re: Even with a well-planned budget, does healthcare remain a significant concern for retirement before 65?
It's not a major concern if you have enough money in your budget. You also need to estimate future Medicare based costs. Based on my personal health circumstances, total max out of pocket costs would be roughly similar for our current employer plans, ACA or Medicare. I don't expect my health care needs and costs to decrease until I am dead. It's just part of funding a long term budget.
- Thu Feb 29, 2024 6:11 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: What good is tax deferred?
- Replies: 122
- Views: 15316
Re: What good is tax deferred?
I have an expectation of paying very little if any tax on money in our tax deferred accounts.
- Thu Feb 29, 2024 6:04 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Why Wellington?
- Replies: 13
- Views: 3153
Re: Why Wellington?
Wellington is a good fund but it's best held in a tax advantaged account. We happen to have it in one of our TIRAs and plan to keep it.
- Tue Feb 27, 2024 5:34 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Can I make this retirement work?
- Replies: 32
- Views: 6853
Re: Can I make this retirement work?
Not with that house payment/insurance/upkeep. Can you move somewhere with cheaper housing? Or find a less expensive house?
- Mon Feb 26, 2024 8:51 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: When did your Net Worth surpass your lifetime earnings?
- Replies: 93
- Views: 11639
Re: When did your Net Worth surpass your lifetime earnings?
Other than feeling good/bad, what do you do with this?
I think hitting a Financial Independence point would be a much more useful personal statistic.
I think hitting a Financial Independence point would be a much more useful personal statistic.
- Sun Feb 25, 2024 7:43 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Questions about Whole Life
- Replies: 128
- Views: 9626
Re: Questions about Whole Life
Do your parents need a life insurance payout to survive financially if you died or are they already self sufficient?
- Sun Feb 25, 2024 7:36 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Questions about Whole Life
- Replies: 128
- Views: 9626
Re: Questions about Whole Life
Buy term life insurance when you get married and have kids. Invest the "payments" for now.
- Sun Feb 25, 2024 7:23 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: From stunned, to appalled and terrorized. [Looking for financial advisor]
- Replies: 23
- Views: 4742
Re: From stunned, to appalled and terrorized. [Looking for financial advisor]
The first step is to gather all of your documentation. Whoever you work with will need it and it may help you understand what you have better. Most of the discussion here is about doing it yourself without an advisor although Vanguard PAS is often mentioned as the most cost effective advising choice.
- Sun Feb 25, 2024 7:16 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: HSA Post Retirement
- Replies: 4
- Views: 604
Re: HSA Post Retirement
You can transfer the HSAs to Fidelity to avoid the cash balance requirement. I think you need to reread the HSA inheritance rules and consider spending down the balances. HSAs are great until they are left as non spouse inheritance.
- Sun Feb 25, 2024 5:41 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: How do people go bankrupt?
- Replies: 39
- Views: 3162
Re: How do people go bankrupt?
In addition to poor choices and chance, there can be strategic use of bankruptcy as a business model.
- Sun Feb 25, 2024 5:21 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: HSA Contribution
- Replies: 13
- Views: 1675
Re: HSA Contribution
Do you have a qualifying health insurance plan?
- Sun Feb 25, 2024 5:16 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Dealing with minor accident situation
- Replies: 28
- Views: 3086
Re: Dealing with minor accident situation
For $1000, just fix it and move on. There are a lot of things you could do and try to do but you will still probably end up paying for this one and be out all the hassle along the way.
- Sun Feb 25, 2024 11:29 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Why Emergency Fund?
- Replies: 80
- Views: 8435
Re: Why Emergency Fund?
When income and resources are small, keeping a small cash buffer is really, really important. It's better to have $500 than nothing. One month's expenses is better than none etc. As our resources have increased, we no longer keep a specific emergency fund but rather have a series of accounts we can draw from. Ultimately, everything we own is available as an emergency fund.
- Sun Feb 25, 2024 11:18 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: [Withdraw from high performing assets or dividends?] IRA distrubutions
- Replies: 12
- Views: 817
Re: [Withdraw from high performing assets or dividends?] IRA distrubutions
Our traditional tax deferred accounts have a single balanced fund in each with auto reinvest. Future withdrawals will come directly from the balanced funds when they are needed and the accounts will continue to be balanced. If you are making individual withdrawals you can use the withdrawals to maintain balance or you can rebalance inside the account at any time.
- Sun Feb 25, 2024 10:36 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: What got you out of poverty?
- Replies: 111
- Views: 12845
Re: What got you out of poverty?
Had to be willing to leave "home" and do something different along with family encouragement. It started with going to college but there are other paths as well.
- Sun Feb 25, 2024 10:17 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Pay off mortgage or not
- Replies: 15
- Views: 1592
Re: Pay off mortgage or not
You can pay it off if you don't want the debt or you can save/invest the money at a rate that is higher than the mortgage rate. One choice is based on feelings and the other is based on numbers. I'm choosing to not pay off my low rate mortgage.
- Sat Feb 24, 2024 12:06 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Investment Strategy when approaching Retirement.
- Replies: 32
- Views: 3039
Re: Investment Strategy when approaching Retirement.
If you must use an advisor, do the Vanguard PAS service for 0.3% or find a fee only advisor to help you decide what to do with your accounts.
There is a Boglehead Retirement Book that is a little older than the 3 fund book. The 3 fund portfolio will carry you through retirement just as well or you could look at some of the balanced funds and just do that.
There is a Boglehead Retirement Book that is a little older than the 3 fund book. The 3 fund portfolio will carry you through retirement just as well or you could look at some of the balanced funds and just do that.
- Sat Feb 24, 2024 11:58 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Paying off credit card debt
- Replies: 31
- Views: 3055
Re: Paying off credit card debt
If they can get the card and can do the complete payoff in the time allowed, the 0% card is the better route. If they don't get enough credit limit to cover the entire amount, they may need to combine the 0% card payments with a debt snowball on the difference. Any extra income or budget savings they can come up with along the way will help. They need to be committed to doing this before anything else until the CC debt is gone.
- Thu Feb 22, 2024 9:01 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Purchase one year of prior service for $36k to increase annual pension benefit by $4.3k?
- Replies: 28
- Views: 3567
Re: Purchase one year of prior service for $36k to increase annual pension benefit by $4.3k?
You need to consider long term opportunity cost along with the break even 14 years out from now. You may still decide it is worthwhile but it is not the no brainer that it is for some of these deals.
- Thu Feb 22, 2024 6:50 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Purchase one year of prior service for $36k to increase annual pension benefit by $4.3k?
- Replies: 28
- Views: 3567
Re: Purchase one year of prior service for $36k to increase annual pension benefit by $4.3k?
Buying pension credit is often a good idea but this one sounds a little marginal.
- Wed Feb 21, 2024 9:45 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Vanguard Digital Advisor has "A proven track record with active"
- Replies: 16
- Views: 2237
Re: Vanguard Digital Advisor has "A proven track record with active"
They are putting out a product into a very competitive market space at a modest fee. Read the disclaimers and use it or don't use it as you like.
- Tue Feb 20, 2024 1:25 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: payroll company, employer or my fault?
- Replies: 47
- Views: 2404
- Tue Feb 20, 2024 1:11 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: payroll company, employer or my fault?
- Replies: 47
- Views: 2404
Re: payroll company, employer or my fault?
You are responsible for filling out the W4s. The employer/payroll system only implements the choices you make on your W4s. They don't/can't know your total tax responsibility.
- Sun Feb 18, 2024 11:16 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: the psychological value of "paycheck replacement." Any role for annuities or TIPS ladders?
- Replies: 54
- Views: 6394
Re: the psychological value of "paycheck replacement." Any role for annuities or TIPS ladders?
You can do the same thing by setting up monthly or annual auto withdrawals for the "paycheck". When you get to RMD age, they may cover your "paycheck" and more. You have planned stages that you can budget around... now, + pension, +SS, +RMDs. You may want to do different things for each of these stages.
- Sun Feb 18, 2024 10:39 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: What's the best non-Vanguard brokerage to hold Vanguard ETFs, a Roth and a Solo-401k?
- Replies: 14
- Views: 1438
Re: What's the best non-Vanguard brokerage to hold Vanguard ETFs, a Roth and a Solo-401k?
If I had to consolidate, Fidelity would be the only one offering all of the types of accounts we hold. I prefer Vanguard and some of their mutual funds. Schwab is good enough but I don't do much with that account.
- Sun Feb 18, 2024 10:33 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: HVAC fan on constant Recirc with high ceilings?
- Replies: 15
- Views: 1177
Re: HVAC fan on constant Recirc with high ceilings?
We keep a ceiling fan running 24/7 on low to move/mix air. A small portable fan in that space will probably use less electricity than running your whole house blower.
- Sun Feb 18, 2024 10:27 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Moving 4.5% savings account to Vanguard money market?
- Replies: 9
- Views: 1069
Re: Moving 4.5% savings account to Vanguard money market?
We moved our cash to VMFXX while the rates are up. Will move it back when rates drop.
- Sun Feb 18, 2024 9:33 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Recommendations for Vehicle with One Young Child
- Replies: 25
- Views: 1597
Re: Recommendations for Vehicle with One Young Child
With one child / car seat, almost any car will work. It is nice to have easy access to the car seat but any four door or minivan will give you that. Whatever else you do with the car will be more important factors.
- Sat Feb 17, 2024 9:35 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Is anyone using cash for a discount on everyday items?
- Replies: 83
- Views: 6088
Re: Is anyone using cash for a discount on everyday items?
I have not really seen any change locally. Almost everyone accepts cards. The "cash" gas stations don't usually last for long. Our dentist office has had a cash discount forever. One of the old feed and hardware shops is cash only.
I'm not a fan of surcharges. I would rather businesses figure their costs and put it into a single price.
I'm not a fan of surcharges. I would rather businesses figure their costs and put it into a single price.
- Fri Feb 16, 2024 10:17 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Clumping Charitable Giving - where to park the cash?
- Replies: 7
- Views: 514
Re: Clumping Charitable Giving - where to park the cash?
Just autoinvest into your usual accounts at your usual AA. Then identify what you want to pull for the donation when you get to that point.
- Fri Feb 16, 2024 9:47 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: VWENX in taxable account?
- Replies: 14
- Views: 1008
Re: VWENX in taxable account?
If you do charitable giving, donate shares of this instead of cash and invest the cash into VTSAX.
- Thu Feb 15, 2024 8:50 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Maxing out HSA contribution
- Replies: 1
- Views: 306
Re: Maxing out HSA contribution
You can put it in the Fidelity account.