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A-Commoner

I remember in 1992 when most of the pundits were talking how overvalued the stock market was. From 1992 to 1999, the 500 index compounded at 19% per year. A $1M portfolio would had become a $4M portfolio during that time. As someone who graduated college and started working in the year 2000 this su...

A-Commoner

From 2000-2009 I beleive they call this the lost decade. Someone that holds the 3 fund portfolio how do they protect themselves form 10 years of negative returns. Someone with 20-30% international and only 10% bonds. I mention these numbers for someone like my son that has the target dated fund. Or...

A-Commoner

Would like to rebalance out of stocks, but to where? Bonds are just as expensive. The best that I could come up with is to prepay my mortgage, beyond maxing all of my tax advantaged accounts. Also, do you own foreign equities? If not, maybe do that. Foreign stocks are 40% of my portfolio. The forei...

A-Commoner

Would like to rebalance out of stocks, but to where? Bonds are just as expensive.

A-Commoner

Our return tracks Vanguard Life Strategy Moderate. More interestingly, the gross amount of the gain exceeds our annual household income (2 physician household). Had I known this In January 2019, I should have taken the whole year off of work. LOL...

A-Commoner

Assets are meant to pay for liabilities (eg, housing, food, health care etc) until death. Do we then not count those assets for net worth calculation? So by this logic, only the assets that will never be consumed and that will remain at death as a legacy will be included in net worth. Is this the ri...

A-Commoner

Do you include 529 accounts in net worth calculation? I do not include the 529 accounts as they are allocation for college and will be zero at some point and not considered for retirement purposes. Same here. However, our total investment portfolio (including our 529 account for our child) is an am...

A-Commoner

Do you include 529 accounts in net worth calculation?

A-Commoner

Apple Card. No fees (application, annual, foreign transaction, or late payment fees), 3% cash back for Apple store purchases and other select companies (includes Walgreens for those who spend a lot on meds). 2% for other purchases when used with Apple Pay. If you already have an iPhone, might as wel...

A-Commoner

Which part of LA are you looking to buy a house at? LA is a big city. The good public schools are in the South Bay, Cerritos, the affluent sections of San Gabriel valley, La Canada Flintridge, Porter Ranch/Granada Hills, Santa Clarita. $1,25 M will buy nice homes in these areas which are family orie...

A-Commoner

One simple trick that helps in beating time limits on timed tests is to read the question first. What exactly is being asked? Then you go back to the body of the case and look for clues to the answer. That way you skip over irrelevant material and save time. As a 50 something physician, I’ve taken m...

A-Commoner

You don’t need to spend much. In fact, you can spend 0 if you want to. My daughter got a 34 in the ACT (first and only take). This was in 2017. The best prep she did was doing practice tests using previously released actual ACT exams that you can download for free from the internet. Familiarizing wi...

A-Commoner

Thanks for all of your input. The draft contract she showed us stated that all purchases by her will be approved by me before she buys them. My concern is if she has my CC info, someone can hack into her files and get my info. But then again, how is this different from our CC info getting hacked whe...

A-Commoner

An interior decorator we interviewed and whose work we like wants to keep our credit card info so she can do shopping on our behalf. Her rationale is she can pass on trade discounts to us if she does the buying herself. She says we can buy the items she recommends ourselves but we won’t be able to a...

A-Commoner

Let your son apply to Canadian and US universities. Wait for the results. Then choose among the schools that accepted him the one that is the best academic and financial fit. There’s no point worrying about should son apply to Cornell or not. Cornell has a 10% acceptance rate. Just because your son ...

A-Commoner

HCOL coastal cities like LA, SF, NY etc have geographic features that can’t be replicated by LCOL cities in the interior. Coastal cities are major shipping ports of entry and exit. They are critical nodes of global trade. The LA-Long beach port alone is the busiest and highest volume port in North A...

A-Commoner

We have an in ground pool with attached spa and it is worth it to us. It is heated so we use it year round. But we also live in Los Angeles in a so-called affluent suburb where most houses have pools. This summer alone we had several really fun parties. On warm nights, soaking in your spa with the p...

A-Commoner

Santa Barbara, CA. Newport Beach, CA.

A-Commoner

Anecdotes from strangers on the internet won’t get you the most sound evidenced-based answer you would want to hear. For example, I can tell you my anecdote. I’m not sure if this will really help you. My daughter in 2017 got accepted to 3 so-called elite universities (UChicago, Notre Dame, UCLA), an...

A-Commoner

You bought your home at extreme low in 2010, otherwise you’d be commuting from Manteca to Silicon Valley. There is an element of good fortune that is enabling your ability to live in tri-Valley Bay Area. This The real estate crash in 2008 to 2010 that allowed the OP to buy at a low price was not so...

A-Commoner

You bought your home at extreme low in 2010, otherwise you’d be commuting from Manteca to Silicon Valley. There is an element of good fortune that is enabling your ability to live in tri-Valley Bay Area. This The real estate crash in 2008 to 2010 that allowed the OP to buy at a low price was not so...

A-Commoner

I consider my child’s college expenses to be part of our total portfolio. I don’t create a separate bucket for it. The annual spending on college has come out to less than 1% of total portfolio, and this will only be for 4 years. If med school happens later, the spending may increase to a little ove...

A-Commoner

The property taxes seem high while the house insurance premium is low. If your house is worth $2 million, then the property taxes are about right, but then you should have a higher premium to insure that much house. These numbers seem discordant.

A-Commoner

We moved from Illinois to California in 2017. In March of that year, my daughter who was graduating from high school received her list of acceptances (and rejections) from the colleges she had applied to. The school acceptance that appealed to her the most was from UCLA. From the moment she received...

A-Commoner

My daughter went through this in 2017. She got accepted to 3 of USNWR's top 20 schools (UChicago, Notre Dame, and UCLA). She/we were sick of living in the Midwest for too long, so UCLA it was, and we all moved to Los Angeles. She is now a junior, doing well as a pre-med student. She managed to survi...

A-Commoner

Santa Barbara, CA.

A-Commoner

My wife and I are physicians. We practiced for 20 years in a LCOL area (rural IL). As mentioned upstream, doctors’ pay is much higher in LCOL areas, enabling you to save more. I recall our savings rate was 30-40%, dumping all that into Vanguard funds. We built up a 7 figure portfolio in our 20 years...

A-Commoner

Kailua beach! Beautiful, not crowded. Powdery soft white sand, clear water, waves not too rough. This is the Obama’s vacation haunt.

A-Commoner

Perhaps the question should be rephrased: if you lost your main source of income (eg your and your spouse’s jobs), do you have alternative income streams that can support you? My wife’s and my Vanguard investment portfolio is our alternative income stream. Last year, our dividends from it came out t...

A-Commoner

Get the new Supra for $50k.

A-Commoner

Maybe slightly off topic but has anyone considered a move triggered by a kid going to college? Our only son will graduate and is considering colleges in CO next year (might be subliminal suggestions from DW, she fell in love with CO). I have lived in Minneapolis all my adult life and love it here b...

A-Commoner

She has no earned income since she is a full time student.

A-Commoner

Good question. I told her to think of it as seed money for retirement that she should leave untouched for the next 40 years. Her living expenses for the next 6 years will be paid for by us, her parents, while she is a student until she hopefully gets into and graduates from med school. After that, s...

A-Commoner

Hi Bogleheads: Seeking your collective wisdom on this situation. My 20 year old daughter will open a taxable account with Vanguard. She asked me for a recommendation on where to put the money. She is a busy college student and has no time to research or manage the account and wants a “set it and lea...

A-Commoner

The OP can afford the $1 million house as long as her job and income are sustainable. Also, as long as she is still able to save for retirement despite the hefty mortgage, she should be okay.

A-Commoner

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bloomberg.com/amp/opinion/articles/2019-04-05/los-angeles-economic-boom-outpaces-u-s-cities Speaking of “gold rush”, LA’s economy is booming. Anyone who wants a job can get one. In healthcare, there are just too many patients here that any physician who wants to prac...

A-Commoner

Come to Los Angeles. Lots of tech jobs here....also has lower cost of living, cheaper homes (relative to Silicon Valley), nicer beaches warm enough you can actually swim in while taking a break from your tech job (aka Silicon beach), sunnier skies. There are areas with good schools (Granada Hills/P...

A-Commoner

Come to Los Angeles. Lots of tech jobs here....also has lower cost of living, cheaper homes (relative to Silicon Valley), nicer beaches warm enough you can actually swim in while taking a break from your tech job (aka Silicon beach), sunnier skies. There are areas with good schools (Granada Hills/Po...

A-Commoner

Also went to UM - but for Chemistry - really great campus and great college life. My SIL went to both UCLA undergrad and USC for law school. I would put UCLA different than most big city universities. There were not a lot of commuters due to the location (it is far north LA bordering on Pasadena) a...

A-Commoner

The link below is I think a useful guide to answering your question. You can change input data such as the location of your residence and the size of your family, and the calculator gives you an estimated budget and corresponding income to support the budget for a modest lifestyle, given the paramet...

A-Commoner

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A-Commoner

As far as the end-of-civilization thing goes, I keep envisioning a scenario where you’re looking to buy your way out of the area and offer someone an American Eagle at a “checkpoint” for example. Most people have no idea what they look like compared to, say, a quarter. So they’ll question its valid...

A-Commoner

I’ve never had an emergency that used up all my e-fund (I keep 1 year’s worth of expenses in cash and short term bonds). The most expensive emergency that I’ve ever had was equivalent to 1 month’s worth of regular expenses which was dealt with using a credit card which was then paid off in full at t...

A-Commoner

Should gold be considered part of your emergency fund? For example, if you have a 6 month e-fund, keep 4 months worth of cash or short term bonds and 2 months worth of gold?

A-Commoner

We bought a house in an affluent area of LA county 2 years ago. Except for the high cost of housing, the rest of our expenditures aren’t any higher than what we were paying in IL. Food is about the same or less. Our electric bills are higher but gas and water bills are less, so utility costs are a w...

A-Commoner

Yes it’s worth it to me. Wife and I lived in LCOL Midwest for 25 years. Moved to Los Angeles in 2017. We’re much happier here. Maybe we have seasonal affective disorder and didn’t realize it until we made the move. Life is short. We’ve had enough of slushy wet gray frigid winters. The caveat is we’v...

A-Commoner

Including home equity, we hit 1m at 39. Excluding home equity, got there at 44. Dual physician household, graduated with no student loans. Lived in VLCOL. The biggest event that brought us into 7 figure territory was the sale of our practice to the local hospital. Investing in stocks also helped. Lo...

A-Commoner

Hi. I’d appreciate it if anyone who has done this can chime in. Say you have 300k cash. That’s on top of other savings such as retirement accounts, taxable funds, and college funds for kids which are adequately funded and will continue to be adequately funded. You want to buy a house. You could pay ...

A-Commoner

Being Bogleheads (before we realized we were one), my wife and I bought our house in a very LCOL area in flyover country 20 years ago for 200k. 20 years later, we sold it for 200k. Ouch. No price appreciation for 20 years...factoring in inflation, we lost money on that one. Still, we had equity when...

A-Commoner

Japan is often cited here as an example of what can happen if your stock market remains flat for 30 or more years. Yet Japan today is still one of the wealthiest and most productive countries in the world. Not only that, it's second to only the US in terms of number of millionaires. https://www.bus...

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