Bogleheads.org

A-Commoner

The Beardstown ladies counted their contributions as part of their returns, thereby inflating the latter.

A-Commoner

We have a pool, it was a feature we were looking for when we bought our house last year, and we made the right choice. We live in SoCal so the pool is totally worth it.

A-Commoner

I remember the lost decade of 2000-2010. My asset allocation the whole time was set at 70:30 (stock:bond). My net worth at the top of the dot com bubble was $100k. Then we had the popping of the bubble, recession, the terrorist attacks of 911, the Iraq war, the real estate bubble, the global financi...

A-Commoner

It's just a number. While it may be a goal worth noting, it's a bit like driving across the border from Ohio to Indiana...the landscape will not have changed much--financially or otherwise. You really aren't much better off than you were at $990,000. I agree, and I have never driven between Ohio an...

A-Commoner

Having an education is not a disadvantage in pursuing entrepreneurship. Neither is an English degree a disadvantage when writing a book.

A-Commoner

Getting a W2 job isn’t the only desirable utilitarian outcome of an education. Self-employment/entrepreneurship is another utilitarian outcome. An English degree doesn’t stop anyone from pursuing self-employment. Writing books is one such avenue.

A-Commoner

Someone with an English degree from an Ivy and an MA from Oxford could potentially use those degrees to write and sell books. Novels, non fiction, whatever her area of interest and competence may be......if the person is a half decent writer with something unique and important to say, that education...

A-Commoner

Since no one is stopping smart kids from attending so called non-elite schools (or even community colleges), then there really is no problem.

A-Commoner

Math fact: the average student will get a merit scholarship in a school where most students are below average.

A-Commoner

So you mean my sister with an IVY undergrad and graduate degrees from Oxford and NYU, who makes less than all her siblings (including the two who didn't graduate high school), didn't get a good ROI even though apparently she was taught by a far better faculty? I think you may have misunderstood my ...

A-Commoner

As a physician myself, I think the area in medicine where tech can potentially make a positive impact is in automation/robotics. Perhaps this is the field you should look into. Medical informatics is already somewhat mature, with the industry consolidating into a few big players (Epic, Cerner). Once...

A-Commoner

What is an average student? The average ACT score in the nation is 20. Is this the type of student the OP is talking about? Does someone with an ACT of 20 get merit scholarships? My understanding of a merit scholarship is it is based on merit. Hence you must be above average. The premise of the OPs ...

A-Commoner

Life Fitness, Precor. I have a Life Fitness, bought new 6 years ago for 2000 dollars since it was a floor display model (original price around 3500). Has a 10 year warranty. This thing is built like a tank. It just won’t break. I use It 4 days a week, my wife uses it about the same amount. Not a par...

A-Commoner

Really? Have you attended one before? What did you like about it that you think has been missing lately? BTW, Coachella 2018 had good reviews.

A-Commoner

We missed this year’s concert but will try to go next year. Would like to hear input from those of you who have attended this. When is the best time to buy tickets; where did you stay; how many days were you there for etc. basically, your observations on your experience, what to do and not do. Music...

A-Commoner

The best way to know how much Kaiser pays is to ask Kaiser.
Ask Kaiser how much it will pay you.

A-Commoner

Another angle to consider is the possibility of financing your lifestyle on one income rather than 2. Can you still afford this house if only one of you worked? While physicians have stable jobs, losing the ability to work because you have been disciplined by the medical board and stripped of your l...

A-Commoner

OP, do you already have jobs in the Bay Area? You said you wanted to be close to your parents which is fine. Have you considered living and practicing in Sacramento? Sacramento is 81 miles from the Bay Area - not that close, but not that far. Just about right IMO. We almost relocated to Sacramento. ...

A-Commoner

If I were the OP, I would do option 2 (go to CA) instead of option 1 (rural area). The reason is that OP already has a positive net worth of $520k. With compounding and additional savings, OP could realistically hit $1million in 3 years. So even if he is denied partnership after working 3 years in t...

A-Commoner

The choice depends on how much money you already have saved. If you have a lot of student debt and a negative net worth coming out of training, you may have to bite the bullet and go with the higher paying rural practice. You don’t have to stay there forever. A 1-2 year stint may be enough to improv...

A-Commoner

I did option 1 for 20 years (high income in a rural area). Made partner, then sold our practice to the hospital for a tidy sum. Worked as hospital employee for several years. Then finally got sick of snow, am now doing option 2 in sunny Los Angeles. Both options have their pros and cons. The money w...

A-Commoner

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/04/califor ... onomy.html

Just when people talk about fleeing CA, it becomes the 5th largest economy in the world, surpassing the U.K.

A-Commoner

OP, We moved from Chicagoland to LA last year with the intention of living the rest of our lives here. LA is definitely more expensive than Chicagolandia, but we are a 2-physician household and have already been saving for a while. So we came to LA with a lot of "ammo" in our arsenal, so to speak. ...

A-Commoner

OP, We moved from Chicagoland to LA last year with the intention of living the rest of our lives here. LA is definitely more expensive than Chicagolandia, but we are a 2-physician household and have already been saving for a while. So we came to LA with a lot of "ammo" in our arsenal, so to speak. ...

A-Commoner

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2015/07/01/the-top-10-metropolitan-port-complexes-in-the-u-s/amp/ The article above from Brookings may (or may not) answer the OP’s question about the long term financial viability of living in LA. Not knowing more about the OP’s financi...

A-Commoner

My stock portfolio is a legacy of funds from before I adopted indexing. It is now mostly weighted according to the total world index but I have some active funds that I can’t sell due to being long term winners that have huge cap gains (eg VHCOX). So no it is not overweight or underweight Asia.

A-Commoner

OP, We moved from Chicagoland to LA last year with the intention of living the rest of our lives here. LA is definitely more expensive than Chicagolandia, but we are a 2-physician household and have already been saving for a while. So we came to LA with a lot of "ammo" in our arsenal, so to speak. W...

A-Commoner

Thanks for the input. My inclination is to go conservative as well and in fact, that’s what half of the money is in. Half of the 650k (roughly 300k) is in a 529 age based portfolio which at this stage has the money mostly in cash. The other 350k is in various taxable stock and bond funds. My concern...

A-Commoner

How would you invest a college/med school fund of about $650k today when the student is only a freshman in college? From what I’ve seen, $650k should be enough to pay for the next 7 years of undergrad and med school, even at full pay private school rates. The assumption here is that the student will...

A-Commoner

Princeton doesn’t have a med school.

A-Commoner

My friend’s daughter got word today of being accepted at Stanford...after having been rejected by USC, Pomona, Grinnell. Her only other acceptance was UIUC which she was resigned to attending. Then Stanford came calling. What a day. Yes, the process is interesting, if only for it's real or perceive...

A-Commoner

My friend’s daughter got word today of being accepted at Stanford...after having been rejected by USC, Pomona, Grinnell. Her only other acceptance was UIUC which she was resigned to attending. Then Stanford came calling. What a day.

A-Commoner

This depends on how much money you already have saved. If I was starting out of training with lots of student loans to pay off, I would say grin and bear it. If you are beyond that stage and have already built up a sizable investment portfolio, I would say it's not worth it. Last year, our portfolio...

A-Commoner

One reason I bought FB shares years ago (the only individual stock I own, the rest are index funds in a BH portfolio) is because I thought that if I was putting my personal information on it, I may as well benefit from the stock appreciation of FB in exchange for my personal info exposure. Don’t kno...

A-Commoner

Would applying early decision to MIT have made a difference? Based on some elite schools’ admissions stats that have been released so far, it looks like going ED would have improved your son’s odds of acceptance. Well, maybe not for MIT, but Northwestern for instance had an RD acceptance rate of 10...

A-Commoner

Would applying early decision to MIT have made a difference? Based on some elite schools’ admissions stats that have been released so far, it looks like going ED would have improved your son’s odds of acceptance. Well, maybe not for MIT, but Northwestern for instance had an RD acceptance rate of 10%...

A-Commoner

Anecdote: my parents house in Los Angeles has appreciated about 5% annualized over a 24 year period. This is a sample size of 1. Since there was a mortgage on that house, the returns have been higher.

A-Commoner

We got a doctor loan from BoA for a 30 yr fixed 5 months ago. The house, which we got for $1 million, is in a Los Angeles suburb as well. We put 20% down. The rate was 3.6% with no points. Looking back, I feel vindicated for getting the mortgage at such an attractive rate instead of paying outright ...

A-Commoner

When we started investing in 1996, we decided on a 70:30 stock:bond allocation. I decided to use 5% as a rebalancing band. However, due to our busy careers (physicians) and family life, we never got around to do any rebalancing in response to market moves in either direction. Our portfolio plowed th...

A-Commoner

I’m in the camp of not rebalancing. Not rebalancing puts a floor on losses. If you have a 60:40 stock-bond portfolio, and stocks dropped to zero and you never rebalanced by selling bonds to buy stocks, you actually get to preserve your bonds. Your maximum loss is 60% of your original portfolio. If y...

A-Commoner

We had a strict budget when we started out our careers after residency training. After we established our spending patterns (which took 2 years to be at equilibrium) we didn’t look too strictly at the budget anymore. I already had an intuitive sense of what our budget was. What I still do now is che...

A-Commoner

I’d buy a $2m house only if I knew I could pay it off in cash today. Sounds crazy, but that was my thinking process when I bought a house 4 months ago, albeit at a different price point. We bought a $1 million house in a nice suburb of Los Angeles. We didn’t pay cash since we got a 3.6% 30 yr fixed ...

A-Commoner

I have no fear of state schools; I went to my state's flagship university for undergrad. My point is not to say that state schools are inferior to small private schools or vice versa. My point is that for graduate school admissions purposes , schools with higher grade inflation are going to give ap...

A-Commoner

Another intangible to consider is that the college years are a critical time in a young person’s life in the sense that the social connections and friendships made in college will likely last a lifetime. It may even be where your child will find his/her significant other. Networking that may help ad...

A-Commoner

UC used to prefer in-state students, and OOS students needed higher grades and test scores, but with all the budget problems, the reverse is now true. OOS students are being accepted with lower grades and test scores. Let's see how long that effect lasts, but in the mean time, if you're OOS, your c...

A-Commoner

We just went through this process last year with my daughter. I can tell you how it happened. My daughter applied to 11 schools. 6 schools were Tier 1 (reach schools), 3 were Tier 2 (match schools), and 2 were Tier 3 (safety schools). She got accepted by all her Tier 3 schools (safeties), accepted b...

A-Commoner

Facile as this may sound, but it boils down to what your child wants to be when she grows up, and whether the resources (i.e her personal aptitude/skills and the family's financial resources) are realistically available to get her to goal. Once you have that figured out, you then need to approach th...

A-Commoner

True that. I recall 2008 when our earned incomes were negated by our portfolio losses. Ironically our incomes in 2008 were among the highest we ever earned in our careers. I remember our practice was flooded with patients. Most of them were probably aware of impending job losses and wanted to see th...

A-Commoner

[Thread merged into here, see below. --admin LadyGeek] While gathering our documents to file our 2017 tax returns, I was pleasantly surprised to see our portfolio returns exceeded our earned income for the whole year. We are a 2 physician household, so our incomes from our jobs are not insignifican...

A-Commoner

We moved from a very LCOL area in the midwest (our house there is worth $250K, barely appreciated in value from 20 years ago) to a very HCOL area in Los Angeles 6 months ago (we bought our house in LA for $1 million). We benefited from living in the LCOL area for 20 years - saving a big chunk of our...

Search found 153 matches