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animule

T. Rowe Price Science and Technology Fund a year or two before the tech bubble burst, way before I found Bogleheads.

Bought it to sock away college money for the kids.

Ended up getting an expensive education on sector funds.

Avoid them at all costs.

animule

Thanks for the replies. My concern is not necessarily about the quality of investments with the new 401k company. I am more concerned about their record keeping, or perceived lack of it. I inquired about beneficiary forms with the new company and they answered me as if I was from Mars or something. ...

animule

Wise Bogleheads, The UK-based company I work for is changing their 401k plan. We have had the plan for maybe two years; the new plan looks okay, but the funds are not an exact match with what I have now. Current fund is 100% in Vanguard Wellington fund which I like. I am 55 years of age, if that mat...

animule

The mere existence of this thread and the relatively large number of comments in a short time suggest that an imminent drop in the market that many perceive to be possible (otherwise why would so many be "hitting the sell button") may not be so imminent. Markets climb a "wall of worry" and it looks ...

animule

Thanks, guys. We have a chance in the county I live in in New York State to pre-pay the county tax, which I will do since I will lose out on the deduction in 2018 since it is capped at $10k. A lot of the reporting on these changes implies the $10k cap only applies to property taxes; I did not realiz...

animule

Dumb question; apologies if answered earlier. I do not understand the $10k limit on state and local tax deductions. I looked at my 2016 return and deducted around $10k in New York State income tax, and another $6,000 for property taxes. I am not clear if the $10k limit is for just property taxes, or...

animule

Average annual insurance for this car is around $1,600.

http://blog.credit.com/2017/02/are-fast ... re-166373/

I'd pass.

animule

munemaker- Looks like LAIAX (class A) shares are payable 12/18. The range of the cap gains distributions is 5.49%-5.81% of NAV for class A shares. I would think (though I don't know) that it would be the same for institutional shares. https://www.columbiathreadneedleus.com/content/columbia/pdf/2017...

animule

Interesting thread. What the original poster does is up to him, but what I did after I "won the game" in my mid-50s was bring my stock allocation way down. It currently stands between 35% and 40%. I am just looking for enough in stocks to beat inflation. The remainder is in bonds, municipal bonds, I...

animule

I am surprised that nobody seems to have mentioned Solar City in this thread. Solar City is a mess, and it seems to be getting worse. http://buffalonews.com/2017/06/23/750-million-question-solar-panel-jobs/ Then SolarCity, which had built a dominant market share as the nation's largest installer of ...

animule

The most obvious risk is default risk. It hasn't happened in a long, long time, but perhaps Connecticut will put an end to that streak at some point.

animule

To add to the post above, here is a "dead mall" located in the area where I live. When this mall debuted in the 1990s, it was the prettiest mall in the area. http://www.deadmalls.com/malls/irondequoit_mall.html There are three other major malls in the surrounding area, and two of them have lost grou...

animule

I am an ex-customer of Frontier, based in a city that was the original home of Frontier. I would not touch Frontier bonds with a ten foot pole. The company has chronically under-invested in its core technology and is milking the cash cow until the cow comes up dry. After being without Frontier DSL s...

animule

The S&P 600 is a superior index for small caps, mainly because of the earnings requirement (four consecutive quarters of positive earnings) which screened out a lot of internet startups trading at huge valuations with no profits around 2000, just before they cratered and cost investors tons of money...

animule

Wow. I thought I was the only one. I have a prescription with them where I split pills and take the split pill every other day, which means you cannot do the "auto refill." I have told them a bunch of times to stop doing it, and I still get texts and phone calls pestering me to refill it. It seems l...

animule

Thanks, Livesoft. Looking forward to seeing you go over 50k posts soon.

animule

Apologies for the re-post, but I should have rephrased the original post as a question. Is there anything materially wrong with the plan to tax loss harvest from the NY long-term municipal bond fund and re-invest back into the fund after the 30 day period expires in early January? Last purchase in t...

animule

I have never tax loss harvested a municipal bond fund before, and want to make sure i have my ducks in a row before I pull the trigger on this. Here are the facts as of December 1st. - NY long-term muni fund is down 6% since October 3rd. - Interest rate has risen from 1.65% on October 3rd to 2.33% a...

animule

Bought an iPhone 5s at Target for Tracfone a couple of months ago. Was around $200 with a "free" 60 minutes card. Phone was a new unit.

animule

Heard from someone who traveled there in past year - bring toilet paper - especially outside of your hotel.

animule

I have a 529 plan account for one of our kids and have invested $16k in the fund for 2016 without realizing that the gift tax limit is $14k. Is there anything I can do about the $2k overage? I have another child's 529 that has funding room for 2016, but I'm not sure if any of the $16k can be shifted...

animule

Thanks for all of the responses, Bogleheads. Owning individual municipal bonds sounds like running your own mutual fund - something I have no interest in ever doing. I'll invest the "full call" bond money into Vanguard municipal bond funds and leave it at that.

animule

Hi Bogleheads, I have a portfolio of New York state municipal bonds that seems to be self-liquidating. In just the past week, I have received "full calls" for bonds in the portfolio totaling about 8% of the portfolio's total value. The bonds were acquired as part of an inheritance and generally pay ...

animule

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I will suggest that she freeze her credit. This may help stem some of the damage.

animule

Wise Bogleheads, Looking for some advice on how to handle a situation with my mother-in-law that cropped up earlier today. She apparently got an email from Apple that said her account would be cancelled unless she updated her details. One of those details was her Social Security number. She gave the...

animule

Thanks for the responses. I assume this means that the "amortized bond premium" for tax-exempt bonds should NOT be listed as an investment expense on my taxes. Correct?

animule

I inherited a portfolio of municipal bonds about a year ago, and have a question about what to make of line 13 in my 1099-INT form for the portfolio which goes under the heading "bond premium on tax-exempt bond." It isn't clear to me if the number here is just for information purposes for a tax exem...

animule

This is a shark attack - all the way. You go to a person that sells insurance for a living in search of investment advice and - surprise, surprise - he recommends you buy all kinds of insurance. This is like going to a barber and asking if you need a haircut, or going to an automobile dealer and ask...

animule

You are neglecting one factor that is likely to kick energy stocks in the gut at exactly the wrong time - dividends. Exxon Mobil has a dividend yield that is pushing 4%. Other oil companies have even higher dividend yields as stock prices in the sector have cratered. I don't think these companies ca...

animule

The reason that the Vanguard Mid Cap fund did better than most in the 1999 to early 2000's period was because it tracked the S&P Mid Cap 400 index which required companies to post consecutive periods of earnings before gaining inclusion into the index. This is the same requirement that helped the S&...

animule

Oppenheimer has been pulling this garbage for a while now. Forbes documented it in 2013. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jakezamansky/2013/10/28/the-puerto-rican-bond-plot-thickens/ Puerto Rico has a struggling economy and is facing a staggering burden of unfunded pension liabilities. But some municipal...

animule

Great thread. I thought I was the only one that used the Vanguard Tax-Managed Small-Cap Fund in a tax advantaged account, but I guess not. I bought the fund specifically because it tracks the S&P Small Cap 600. After the tech crash, I looked at what worked and what didn't, and it was clear at that t...

animule

Good answers so far. I really don't have much in international mid/small. Investment there is some in GWX ETF and some in ACINX mutual fund. I had a fairly large investment in US small caps that I have let drift down as I have invested more in other areas, but the drift down is low enough that I nee...

animule

For my stock portfolio, I try to maintain some balance between large, mid- and small cap stocks. This is easy to do for US stocks, but there seems to be a dearth of good offerings in the international mid-cap space since I want to maintain a US/international split across all three capitalization ban...

animule

It depends on the length of the trip. My daughter attends college about 8 hours away. I use the "regular" car for the fall drop-off and end of year pick-up where I need to haul a lot of stuff there and back, but rent cars otherwise. There's a variety of reasons for this that may be unique to my expe...

animule

Hi Everyone, I'm looking to invest a modest amount of new money in the worst performing stock asset class since the financial crisis of 2008 (within the confines of my asset allocation). I'm just not sure what that might be. It may be emerging markets, based on the chart below, but I am looking for ...

animule

Excellent thread. I have been tracking small cap stocks for a long time, and one thing that seems to be taking place is a big separation in performance between U.S. small caps, and international small caps. Check out the performance for Vanguard's VTMSX (tax managed small cap - tracks the S&P Smallc...

animule

Also be aware that a student in her graduation year may have a marginal tax rate on LTCG as high as 41% if she happens to be in the Lifetime Learning Credit phaseout and NY, so the timing of a sale should be considered carefully. The account is for my daughter and she did graduate from college this...

animule

Thanks, Livesoft. Yes, taxes have been paid on dividends and prior distributions - that went on my daughter's tax return. The sale amounts were low enough not to trigger the kiddie tax. I just thought a fund needed a Roth or IRA wrapper to ensure a "transfer" without any tax consequences. When I hea...

animule

Hi Everyone, I have a UGMA account for my daughter where I am the custodian. My daughter is over the age of 21 and there is some money left over in the fund after paying college expenses. I'd like to remove my name from the account since she is no longer a minor. I called Vanguard and they sent me s...

animule

Small cap has over-performed for the past half-decade or longer, so this recent under-performance barely chips away at those earlier gains. To put this into perspective, I am aiming for an asset allocation with about 12% of total retirement funds dedicated to small cap in a 66% stock, 34% bond portf...

animule

Update - "Pension Funds Eye Reducing Hedge-Fund Investments." http://online.wsj.com/articles/pension-funds-eye-reducing-hedge-fund-investments-1413762698 Can universities be far behind? Pension-fund managers across the U.S. are rethinking their investments in hedge funds in the wake of a retreat by ...

animule

Another point on EE bonds that may not have been mentioned here. They provide better protection during deflation than I-bonds would. True, I-bonds would not lose purchasing power, but they would gain almost nothing. Deflation is something that few people seem to be worried about; maybe more should. ...

animule

New York Times article adds additional quantification to growing bubble in automobile loans. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/07/19/in-a-subprime-bubble-for-used-cars-unfit-borrowers-pay-sky-high-rates/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0 Auto loans to people with tarnished credit have risen more than 130 pe...

animule

Thought I would update my experience with using credit cards in Portugal, just having gotten back from a trip there. I didn't have to use the chip credit card at all, but did have to use a PIN number for the non-chip credit card. This was required every time I used the card, at every place. I'm not ...

animule

I am not sure if anyone mentioned another big advantage with EE bonds versus I-bonds. They are certain to double in 20 years, and make a great "guaranteed" pension if you ladder them so that you can cash some in every year. For the growing percentage of the population that does not have a pension (i...

animule

If they compare the stats against 2008, then I am not worried. But if the stats are similar to 2006's, then I might be worried. I wonder why the reporter didn't show the stats before 2007. The credit card article may have been missing this information. But today, The Wall Street Journal updated the...

animule

Saw this in the news over the past few days and wonder if this is another sign that credit is becoming too "easy," planting the seeds for the next recession. http://online.wsj.com/articles/credit-card-lenders-pursue-riskier-borrowers-1403807505 Cards Issued to Subprime Borrowers Rose 39% in First Qu...

animule

A couple of other points to note here. Stretching out the term for new car loans means, by definition, that the market is attracting a more marginal and financially stressed buyer. This is almost the same scenario we saw for subprime mortgages. The last couple of years of the subprime mortgage boom ...

animule

Car loans + student loans = two loan bubbles.

Yes, it's easy to repo a car. But if easy credit disappears, how much collateral do you actually have?

It's hard to repossess a college class, or a college education.

It would be interesting to see the numbers on these two loan areas, combined.

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