Search found 3553 matches

by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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...
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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...
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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?
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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?
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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?
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
Tue Feb 20, 2024 1:25 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: payroll company, employer or my fault?
Replies: 47
Views: 2404

Re: payroll company, employer or my fault?

ler65 wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2024 1:18 pm
Then what was the point of filing a W-4 with my employer?
The point is that you are giving them the information you want them to use to figure your withholding.

Try the IRS W4 calculator worksheet and see what it suggests.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.
by Mike Scott
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.