Search found 76 matches
- Fri Apr 22, 2022 8:57 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: KF's Retirement Spending Plan [KlangFool's]
- Replies: 123
- Views: 15248
Re: KF's Retirement Spending Plan
Folks, .... So, the bottom line is I have enough money to retire at any time. The problem is I need a safet way to convince myself to allocate more money to be spent in retirement. .... If you haven't already, perhaps give a quick read of chapter 9 "Invest Like an Economist - Control your Living-Standard Trajectories" in the book "Money Magic An Economist's Secrets to More Money, Less Risk, and a Better Life" by Laurence Kotlikoff. He has a suggestion on how one can increase one's standard of living and keep it through retirement. It's worth a read even if you don't agree with process. ajjulee, I would not run out of money. The issue is more psychological trick to entice me to spend more. KlangFool The discussion in tha...
- Fri Apr 22, 2022 8:33 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: KF's Retirement Spending Plan [KlangFool's]
- Replies: 123
- Views: 15248
Re: KF's Retirement Spending Plan
If you haven't already, perhaps give a quick read of chapter 9 "Invest Like an Economist - Control your Living-Standard Trajectories" in the book "Money Magic An Economist's Secrets to More Money, Less Risk, and a Better Life" by Laurence Kotlikoff. He has a suggestion on how one can increase one's standard of living and keep it through retirement. It's worth a read even if you don't agree with process.
- Fri Dec 31, 2021 8:33 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: California - aside from housing how expensive is it really?
- Replies: 215
- Views: 19174
Re: California - aside from housing how expensive is it really?
I guess all that's needed to get a multi-page thread is to mention the word "California" in a positive or negative way. I started a thread on the myth of high middle class taxation in California but it was locked as being too general. I cited various studies and articles that debunked that myth as well. My wife and I lived in central CA for 66 years, and I worked all over the state, as well as many others, so my perspective isn't from an outsider repeating things they've heard or read that may or may not be accurate. I looked at 4 years of our income immediately prior to taking SS, 2012 through 2015. This was in response to someone in my current state of residence, SC, saying that CA taxes are outrageous. I don't know how he coul...
- Mon Mar 15, 2021 9:06 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Long Term Care Insurance
- Replies: 492
- Views: 40444
Re: Long Term Care Insurance
A short claim (6 to 9 months) is usually all it takes to re-coup everything you paid in premium. The best quote my 49 year-old self and my 53 year-old wife have received is a monthly premium that equals 10% of the monthly benefit. 3% inflation rider and 90-day elimination period. A 9 month claim, the top of your range, would require 12 months of LTC. So we would "re-coup everything (we) paid in premium" if we need 12 months of LTC in roughly 90 months, when I'm 56 and my wife is 60? (or maybe, what, just a year or two later when adjusting for PV and the 3% inflation rider?) Is that "usual" to you? Such a policy makes no financial sense to me, especially if you have a sizable investment portfolio that could be used to co...
- Sun Mar 14, 2021 10:30 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Long Term Care Insurance
- Replies: 492
- Views: 40444
Re: Long Term Care Insurance
A short claim (6 to 9 months) is usually all it takes to re-coup everything you paid in premium. The best quote my 49 year-old self and my 53 year-old wife have received is a monthly premium that equals 10% of the monthly benefit. 3% inflation rider and 90-day elimination period. A 9 month claim, the top of your range, would require 12 months of LTC. So we would "re-coup everything (we) paid in premium" if we need 12 months of LTC in roughly 90 months, when I'm 56 and my wife is 60? (or maybe, what, just a year or two later when adjusting for PV and the 3% inflation rider?) Is that "usual" to you? Such a policy makes no financial sense to me, especially if you have a sizable investment portfolio that could be used to co...
- Sun Feb 28, 2021 10:36 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Pay off our house or invest?
- Replies: 37
- Views: 3743
Re: Pay off our house or invest?
I know this question has been asked here many times, but of course every situation has subtle nuances, so I thought I’d ask about our specific situation. My husband and I live in South Florida, and bought our first house in October. We were pretty late to do so, as I was 39 and he was 42. However, we were in an apartment for 10 years that was very cheap and allows us to save a lot of money. But we now have a 3-year-old daughter and wanted a larger place in a better school district. We are very happy with the house we bought. Barring unforeseen circumstances, we plan on staying here at least 20 years, and maybe the rest of our lives. The house was $440k, and we put $100k down on a 30 year fixed mortgage. We paid for points to get the intere...
- Sun Dec 27, 2020 10:34 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Best Way to Collect Rent Electronically?
- Replies: 89
- Views: 6232
Re: Best Way to Collect Rent Electronically?
I know of one such application but the OP doesn't like to use it. Tellus lets landlords disallow partial rent payments. As of now, Tellus is smartphone only App and free to use. Rent payment goes to Tellus and then is transferred to landlord's bank account (usually takes about three or four days). Tenants won't have access to landlords bank account information.niceguy7376 wrote: ↑Sat Dec 26, 2020 9:46 pm I dont think there is any method where you can limit what is sent to you OP. You mention that you dont want to receive anything less than the full rent. I do not remember any method (including checks) where you can make a decision to accept the payment or not.
- Thu Jul 16, 2020 11:54 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: When do you consider your children to be successfully launched?
- Replies: 31
- Views: 2197
Re: When do you consider your children to be successfully launched?
When you cease to be their parents?
- Sun Apr 19, 2020 7:25 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Best Way to Watch British Mystery Shows
- Replies: 111
- Views: 13702
Re: Best Way to Watch British Mystery Shows
I can recommend A Touch of Frost, Blue Murder and the 4 Sherlock Holmes series starring Jeremy Brett. Brett is just brilliant as Holmes. I second "A Touch of Frost", David Jason as Frost is superb. I watched them all on Netflix disc rental about 15 years ago. Not sure how to watch them now. Dave All seasons of ‘A Touch of Frost’ are available on Britbox. You can get 7 days free trial. I enjoyed seeing them all - saw a couple of times. Morse, in my opinion, is perhaps the best as far as writing is concerned. Endeavor has the gloss but no depth - characters suddenly behave out of character for story conceit. In general, I enjoyed the writing/characters of older series, specially those based on books. There is more scrutiny for stor...
- Thu Apr 16, 2020 9:22 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Best Way to Watch British Mystery Shows
- Replies: 111
- Views: 13702
Re: Best Way to Watch British Mystery Shows
I'd vote for Britbox.
Acorn, though good, has 55 mysteries (some of them European & Australian series)
Britbox has 75 British mysteries (Entirely British)
Acorn, though good, has 55 mysteries (some of them European & Australian series)
Britbox has 75 British mysteries (Entirely British)
- Mon Nov 11, 2019 5:12 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Homebuying in Los Angeles - Advice Needed
- Replies: 77
- Views: 9758
Re: Homebuying in Los Angeles - Advice Needed
WWID? If I feel confident that the field I’m in has longevity of at least 15 years and salaries will stay within my current number: I’d buy a least expensive house that’s in a really good neighborhood - probably a fixer upper. My per sft cost of renovation has always been lower than price. You have a child and probably don’t want the hassle of fixing it up at this time. I’d buy a house that has the potential for expansion. Larger lot but smaller house. Even if it means temporary inconvenience - 2B/2Bath on a typical 3B/2B house lot etc., I will expand the house at some point and take advantage of sft cost of renovation & price differential. I will also make the house per my requirement at that time. If you were to sell it at a later dat...
- Wed Jul 17, 2019 6:57 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Having second thoughts about Personal Capital
- Replies: 30
- Views: 5250
Re: Having second thoughts about Personal Capital
From Vanguards terms of service.(my red coloring) https://about.vanguard.com/terms-conditions.html You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of any account information, user names, logins, passwords , and security questions and answers that you use to access any page or feature on this Site, and for logging off of your account and any protected areas of the Site. Further, you are fully responsible for all activities occurring under your accounts, user names, logins, passwords, and security questions and answers that result from your negligence, carelessness, misconduct, or failure to use or maintain appropriate security measures. If you become aware of any suspicious or unauthorized conduct concerning your accounts, user name...
- Mon Jul 01, 2019 4:22 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Misbehaviour of markets and the Black Swan
- Replies: 87
- Views: 11002
Re: Misbehaviour of markets and the Black Swan
So, let me modestly take the other side. When it comes to standard deviations, I am a "glass half full" type of guy - or to be precise, 95% full. It provides a robust framework, independent of asset time and time horizon. It is simple and robust. And it is good out to 2 to 3 standard deviations. And the defects and shortcomings are well known. I like Mandelbrot. However it adds lots of complexity and sophistication for very little gain. Plus you loss a lot of universality. I dislike Nassim. His criticism are valid but were widely known. The problem is that he does not offer much in the way of solutions. i think it is unfair to criticize taleb for "not providing solutions." if i understand him correctly, one of his main ...
- Wed Oct 17, 2018 10:38 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: What do you consider 'enough'?
- Replies: 96
- Views: 13070
Re: What do you consider 'enough'?
Great film! Great writing!Tdubs wrote: ↑Tue Oct 16, 2018 7:49 pm Gittes: How much are you worth?
Cross: I've no idea. How much do you want?
Gittes: I just want to know what you're worth. Over ten million?
Cross: Oh my, yes!
Gittes: Why are you doing it? How much better can you eat? What can you buy that you can't already afford?
Cross: The future, Mr. Gittes - the future!
- Tue Oct 16, 2018 9:49 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Relocation to California
- Replies: 49
- Views: 5491
Re: Relocation to California
Until quite recently lived in Lost Angeles for over 30 years. I think I know a thing or two about it. I'd characterize it as a living hell. Driving of any kind hellacious. When I told people I had finally gotten my i'm moving get out of jail free card every conversation centered around how impossible it was to get anywhere. Plan on commutes in the valley well being over an hour. Heaven forbid you live in the valley and work on the other side of the hill. Forget it. Many surface street boulevards can resemble parking lots at times. Not a single freeway is jam free. Not a one. At any hour of the day (ok, maybe 3:32 in the morning, and even then you can run into traffic). The public transit system is marching on and will be acceptable by arou...
- Thu Feb 01, 2018 7:26 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: "Index funds will, by their very definition, return the benchmark and be the median return."
- Replies: 22
- Views: 3146
Re: "Index funds will, by their very definition, return the benchmark and be the median return."
Thanks again for the information and discussion - specially to Pajamas, nisiprius. Forwarded the information.
From his emails it's clear that the manager will do nothing. However, there were other people involved in this discussion and hopefully they are presented an alternate view point.
Regards
From his emails it's clear that the manager will do nothing. However, there were other people involved in this discussion and hopefully they are presented an alternate view point.
Regards
- Wed Jan 31, 2018 2:57 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: "Index funds will, by their very definition, return the benchmark and be the median return."
- Replies: 22
- Views: 3146
Re: "Index funds will, by their very definition, return the benchmark and be the median return."
All the active funds in the fund mix have expense ratios above 1.0 Hence the request to add a low cost S&P index fund. There was certain bias against index funds in his communications. Also, I think what he meant by 'median return' (that I could glean from his emails) was that about 50% of the actively managed funds do better than index funds. Otherwise it doesn't make sense.
Thanks for the references. I gave a quick read; the details and the numbers should be interesting for the open minded.
Thanks for the references. I gave a quick read; the details and the numbers should be interesting for the open minded.
- Wed Jan 31, 2018 2:29 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: "Index funds will, by their very definition, return the benchmark and be the median return."
- Replies: 22
- Views: 3146
Re: "Index funds will, by their very definition, return the benchmark and be the median return."
Thanks for the responses. Perhaps my OP could have been clearer. I'm in agreement with the thesis that 80% of active funds/managers lag behind index funds. This is from my memory of reading a few papers many years ago. The work done by Philip E. Tetlock is more about stock picking - the famous money/chimp who beat many stock pickers. But I'm looking for research papers that actually show index funds beating 80+% actively managed funds.
- Wed Jan 31, 2018 2:06 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: "Index funds will, by their very definition, return the benchmark and be the median return."
- Replies: 22
- Views: 3146
"Index funds will, by their very definition, return the benchmark and be the median return."
Dear BHs, The above statement was made by someone (wall street person) who manages and controls retirement plan assets for a company, expressing the idea that there is no clear winner between Active Funds and Passive Funds when one of the employees asked index funds to be added to the fund mix. I don't want to get into an argument with the wall street guy whether passive funds are better than active funds but I'd like to respond to the "median return" in the above statement with factual data. I remember reading research papers stating that more than 80% of the actively managed funds lagged behind S&P index. But, unfortunately, I can't find those papers at the moment. I'll continue looking for the references but if anyone among...
- Wed Nov 15, 2017 3:49 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Fair way to split expenses?
- Replies: 105
- Views: 8988
Re: Fair way to split expenses?
We echo what others said about sharing 50/50. However one of us got a huge raise a few years after the marriage. So, we came up with a few rules. For joint expenses such as mortgage, utilities - we share the cost. For individual expenses such as a nose job, it comes out of individual savings. We do not share continuing education cost. We are on our own: In one year, he studied architecture, food, female form, landscapes in Italy, France, Germany, Russia. That education ended up costing me too much. We also decided charging each other for avoidable chores. If someone spills milk after the other person cleaned the kitchen, milk spiller depots $100 into cleaners bank account. If he uses words ‘potato’, ‘yes, it does make you look fat’, ‘moron’...
- Wed Nov 01, 2017 9:51 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Warning Buffet Indicator?!?
- Replies: 31
- Views: 3897
Re: Warning Buffet Indicator?!?
Do you eat at establishments that feature a buffet? A buffet is a place where food is presented in separately pans and dishes for one to self-serve themselves. I know of cafeterias, Indian, Middle-eastern, Mexican, Chinese, and barbecue buffet places. How do you know if the food is not contaminated before eating it? Do you go by reputation of the place or past experience? I eat at Indian buffets mostly because that seems to be the way all the Indian restaurants around me serve lunch. I don't eat food from other buffets because there are alternatives. I guess Chipotle is kind of a buffet, but you don't serve yourself. They had some problems in the past. Are there any good indicators warning one away from buffets? I do look at how much effor...
- Thu Sep 07, 2017 8:42 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: REIT versus Rental properties
- Replies: 15
- Views: 3888
Re: REIT versus Rental properties
A couple of quick points about UPREITs:Stormbringer wrote: ↑Tue Sep 05, 2017 6:43 pmIf you do this, you might want to look into Umbrella Partnership REITs (UPREIT). Because of the way they are structured, you can do a 1031 tax deferred exchange. Otherwise, cashing out and buying a normal REIT is likely to be a taxable event.
Once a 1031 exchange is done into UPREIT security, one cannot do another 1031 exchange out of it into real estate.
Depending on which states UPREIT conducts business and earns portion of it's income, one may have to file taxes in each of those states.
- Tue Aug 29, 2017 6:19 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: hybrid ltc plan - is it worth it?
- Replies: 8
- Views: 2047
Re: hybrid ltc plan - is it worth it?
Here is a blog that seems to answer a lot of specific questions from various people regarding ltc in it's comments section. Time frame for the questions is from 5 years ago to a month ago - so some of the information maybe outdated. Hope it helps.
http://longtermcareinsurancepartner.com ... gINWfD_BwE
http://longtermcareinsurancepartner.com ... gINWfD_BwE
- Fri Aug 25, 2017 3:08 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Passive investing is a Ponzi scheme
- Replies: 77
- Views: 9790
Re: Passive investing is a Ponzi scheme
For what it's worth, I'd like to thank nedsaid and jbolden1517 for a good discussion on this topic. I'm sure there will be more discussions on this subject in near future - a civil discourse of different and opposing ideas is much appreciated.
- Wed Aug 16, 2017 12:58 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI
- Replies: 7638
- Views: 1713142
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI
"A Generation of Sociopaths" - How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America
By Bruce Cannon Gibney - A venture capitalist & writer - early investor in PayPal, Facebook, Spotify, Palantir Technologies, SpaceX, Airbnb, Lyft and other start-ups.
I've a sneaking suspicion that we are going to hell in a hand basket...
By Bruce Cannon Gibney - A venture capitalist & writer - early investor in PayPal, Facebook, Spotify, Palantir Technologies, SpaceX, Airbnb, Lyft and other start-ups.
I've a sneaking suspicion that we are going to hell in a hand basket...
- Wed Aug 02, 2017 8:50 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Framed pictures--where to buy?
- Replies: 14
- Views: 1428
Re: Framed pictures--where to buy?
I bought a few (two from each allposters.com & art.com) prints to evaluate but was very disappointed with the quality of the print. Artists were Sargent, Ilya Repin, and Sorolla etc., I was so disappointed with the prints that, not only could I not put them up on my walls, but also could not, in good conscience, regift them. They went into recycling bin. Interesting. Were they giclee prints? How about the framing (if you bought them framed)? We received a few art posters unframed and they seemed fine. They look good and are on thick paper. Also got a giclee on wood mount that looks good, although I don't like the backing they used (too thick so the print sticks out from the wall) - I wouldn't do any more wood mounts from them. I was wo...
- Wed Aug 02, 2017 7:25 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Framed pictures--where to buy?
- Replies: 14
- Views: 1428
Re: Framed pictures--where to buy?
I bought a few (two from each allposters.com & art.com) prints to evaluate but was very disappointed with the quality of the print. Artists were Sargent, Ilya Repin, and Sorolla etc., I was so disappointed with the prints that, not only could I not put them up on my walls, but also could not, in good conscience, regift them. They went into recycling bin. Finding original art that appeals to your taste may take some effort. There is no dearth of talent out there. I'm inspired, awed, delighted (sometimes depressed) by so much talent all over the world. If you have time and are open to using tools like Instagram etc. you should keep searching. You will find something that appeals to you and supporting contemporary artists can be good for t...
- Sat Jun 17, 2017 12:29 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Medicaid Planning
- Replies: 32
- Views: 4298
Re: Medicaid Planning
I want to address several comments related to shifting assets . For the record, discussions of dishonest behavior or bypassing the law are totally unacceptable. The intent is to understand how to do this within the existing legal framework; in which case this discussion can continue. Everything is a matter of degree. The choice of using a tax deferred account, e.g. IRA, to avoid taxes during some period of time is one extreme, managing assets to qualify for Medicaid is the other. Gifting assets to avoid taxes is somewhere in the middle. The bottom line is to work within the legal framework. Ethics is the ever present elephant in the room. The approach is to educate members on how to do things legally. State your points in a factual manner....
- Fri May 19, 2017 6:21 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Anyone else agree with my logic on silicon valley housing?
- Replies: 84
- Views: 11562
Re: Anyone else agree with my logic on silicon valley housing?
We moved out of NY to Texas for the same reason about 8 years ago. Our lives couldn't be better. Thanks. All the replies here are great and super helpful, but they seem to be confirming the conclusion I came to originally. You can spin the math about housing anyway you want based on future career prospects, etc. and so you really have to get to the bottom of who you are as a person and what you want out of life. SV is a very high octane, busy, crowded lifestyle, and if you are drawn to that, you can definitely make enough money as an engineer to own something here. I am not drawn to the lifestyle here at all. If it was cheaper to live here I think I could look past some of my disagreements with the bay area, but why would you bury yourself...
- Fri May 19, 2017 5:52 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Milestone and not peeking. . .
- Replies: 66
- Views: 11529
Re: Milestone and not peeking. . .
Congratulations on you crossing the milestone! Wish you many more in the future.
- Fri May 19, 2017 5:47 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Justification for holding Emerging Markets?
- Replies: 69
- Views: 8619
Re: Justification for holding Emerging Markets?
...People who cite the long-term performance of U.S. stocks dating back to the 19th Century and then question why anyone would invest in emerging markets today seem to have rather self-contradictory views, since the U.S. is really the ultimate EM success story... Since the term "emerging markets" was not coined until the 1980s, and the first emerging markets index, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, was not created until 1998, saying that the United States was an "emerging market" in the 1800s is an exercise in spin. It's a very iffy business trying to backdate definitions and apply them to times before the concept existed. (It's no worse than talking about "the S&P 500 back to 1870" but I hate that, too.) J...
- Sun May 14, 2017 10:55 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Regret early retirement/downsizing
- Replies: 260
- Views: 68760
Re: Regret early retirement/downsizing
I'm impressed by the force of your conviction!kathyauburn wrote:In fact, I disdain such people. (And I certainly don't think that the world's smartest people are found there.) I never met anyone in my years working in an office that I respected much at all. What a waste of life, I thought. If I have a regret, it's that I spent any time at all in such places. "
- Fri Apr 21, 2017 9:43 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: TV show recommendations?
- Replies: 606
- Views: 247683
Re: TV show recommendations?
Have been binging on Britbox - a new subscription based app for BBC and ITV content. Amazing library. Morse, Inspector Lynley(spelling?), Frost, Faulty Towers etc., among many programs.
AL
AL
- Wed Mar 01, 2017 10:05 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Possibly Financially Independent and Feeling Miserable
- Replies: 154
- Views: 25964
Re: Possibly Financially Independent and Feeling Miserable
Does your spending amount include healthcare expense for both of you? $1000 per month per person isn't unheard of expense for healthcare coverage if there is no employer paying for it.Random Poster wrote:
Our rolling 5-year historical yearly spending amount is around $51,000. That seems like a low number to me, although the math doesn't lie, so to be safe I increase it by roughly 15% and calculate that we "need" $60,000 year.
Congratulations if it includes healthcare expense! Regarding you feelings of misery - someone else on another post pointed out about "existential angst" after having reached his/her "number".
- Mon Feb 20, 2017 9:05 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Deleted
- Replies: 47
- Views: 7510
Re: economics of landlording
As a novice in this field, I'm still trying to get my head around the idea that a property can be a better investment when it's mortgaged, a worse investment when it's paid for, and paying off the loan at some future date can have the effect of making an otherwise good investment into a bad one. It's not because you're a novice, it's because you have common sense. This is another area where many real estate investors and I part company. Leverage is a way to amplify your returns in real estate the same way borrowing on your home to invest in VTSAX would be a way to amplify your returns in stocks. It may be a mathematically good play but you'd better have a very high risk tolerance. I do borrow to invest in real estate (although I'm not near...
- Thu Feb 16, 2017 7:30 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Progress Made - What Now? (Pay off cheap mtg or invest)
- Replies: 31
- Views: 4959
Re: Progress Made - What Now? (Pay off cheap mtg or invest)
Hi Bogleheads! My husband and I made a lot of progress de-levering in 2016, and we are on track to rebuild cash pretty quickly due to some RSUs vesting and other bonuses. Once personal reserves are back over $50K (plus rental reserves of $25K), we are on the fence about what to do with our excess cash flow. Here's our situation: ASSETS Emergency funds: $28K (4 months living expenses) Rental Reserves: $17K (2 months total expenses if all 9 units were vacant) Taxable Brokerage: $11K Retirement: $660K ($150K accessible Roth contributions) Illiquid Taxable Investments (RSUs, private equity, etc.): $300K Real Estate: $600K homestead, $1.2M rentals (4 duplexes, one condo; one is paid off and net annual cash flow is $25K) DEBTS Auto Loan - $29K -...
- Tue Feb 14, 2017 8:49 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Faith in Vanguard shaken after seeing wrong name on my 1099 & Statements
- Replies: 28
- Views: 6452
Re: Faith in Vanguard shaken after seeing wrong name on my 1099 & Statements
Well, I just checked our account, and the account is titled correctly (as it always has been). However, I just downloaded our 1099 for our brokerage account, and Vanguard seems to have made two rather significant errors that unless corrected will cost me a lot of money. They show the proceeds from the maturity and redemption of a $29,000 CD as a sale with no basis, plus they did not include the basis for the same of 250 shares of STI last year. The combined error indicates that I had over $45,000 in capital gains last year, when the correct figure is closer to $4,600. Ouch!! Write the IRS a letter and attach it to your tax return. There is no reason under the sun for you to pay taxes you don't owe. If it comes to that, that's exactly what ...
- Tue Jan 10, 2017 3:28 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Best Financial Moves You've Made
- Replies: 158
- Views: 27720
Re: Best Financial Moves You've Made
Pretty much what everyone else has said so far. But the most important thing for me was - I always chose work/employment that I really loved, paying no attention to salary/remuneration etc., It paid to be good at my work.
- Sat Jan 07, 2017 2:45 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Disadvantage of Tax loss harvesting
- Replies: 65
- Views: 6375
Re: Disadvantage of Tax loss harvesting
Hmm… or maybe ‘very few’ people were undertaking a very critical analysis in March 2009 or ‘ lots of people were undertaking a very ‘uncritical’ analysis in March 2009. (or maybe you meant it as a joke)livesoft wrote:I'm sure lots of people were undertaking a very critical analysis in March 2009.gwrvmd wrote:If I had accumulated $150k tax loss credits, I would undertake a very critical analysis of my purchasing criteria.........Gordon
How often a typical BH investor who DCA’s portion of their salary into investments can manufactures hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses? And Is it a good thing if one never *needed* to tax loss harvest ‘hundreds of thousands’ of dollars’?
- Sat Dec 24, 2016 3:58 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Why is actual raw sugar hard to find?
- Replies: 34
- Views: 5145
Re: Why is actual raw sugar hard to find?
It's also worth checking health benefits of Jaggery( or Jaggry?) vs. refined sugar. Seems unlikely to me. What do you think the percentage of sucrose in panela or jaggery is? "Brown sugar" is something like 90%-96% sucrose. Whatever possible health effects the other stuff has, it can't amount to much. It's still sugar. Relatively speaking, jaggery is better than refined sugar. It's still sugar, however. Below are some numbers according to http://www.authoritynutrition.com. Exact numbers are dependent on many things. I have no way of verifying these numbers but looks like this article is based on research paper " Review on Recent Advances in Value Addition of Jaggery based Product " at Journal of Food Processing & Te...
- Sat Dec 24, 2016 9:38 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Why is actual raw sugar hard to find?
- Replies: 34
- Views: 5145
Re: Why is actual raw sugar hard to find?
It's also worth checking health benefits of Jaggery( or Jaggry?) vs. refined sugar.
- Wed Dec 21, 2016 9:49 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Moved to the USA one year ago, how to build credit?
- Replies: 12
- Views: 1533
Re: Moved to the USA one year ago, how to build credit?
I don’t think this was mentioned above - assuming you are renting, you can now include your rent payment in your credit history. Check out PayLease, PayYourRent, RentTrack etc., I don’t have personal experience with any them. You can google for more info.
I believe RentTrack is the simplest, You can set that up yourself. And It reports your rent payment to all three credit agencies. You may need co-operation of your landlord and I'm not sure if there are any fees.
Hope it helps.
I believe RentTrack is the simplest, You can set that up yourself. And It reports your rent payment to all three credit agencies. You may need co-operation of your landlord and I'm not sure if there are any fees.
Hope it helps.
- Wed Nov 23, 2016 6:29 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Retreat to cash
- Replies: 375
- Views: 90838
Re: Retreat to cash
The Conventional Wisdom (as used by Kenneth Galbraith, most often pejoratively) diktats such as ‘There is always uncertainty’, ‘Markets are efficient or All information is priced in the market’, ‘Market Timing never works’, 'this time it’s never different’, etc are only true and useful given certain context or qualifiers. Markets are efficient? Sometimes. All information is priced in? Maybe it’s more accurate to say ‘All available’ information is priced in. Then what about the information unavailable? Who decides what constitutes the available information? Whoever was in charge of available information, didn’t include information that Michael Burry was collecting pre 2008 crash. I saw in real time the market pricing in all available informa...
- Mon Nov 21, 2016 2:23 pm
- Forum: Non-US Investing
- Topic: Is it a good idea to save $500 every month in NRE account if we plan to go back to India?
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1542
Re: Is it a good idea to save $500 every month in NRE account if we plan to go back to India?
Indian rupee has never appreciated against the dollar in the medium or long tem. I don't have any advice regarding Indian banks or investments but - Many years ago I was at a presentation where a young film maker from India was discussing the ‘Making of’ of film ‘7 days in Slow-Motion’. One of the slides shows US $ and Indian Rupee conversion chart. After the presentation, I asked for this slide (I liked the drawing though my interest in this was purely financial) and he emailed it to me. Dollar, for a short duration, did slide against the Rupee. Short term fluctuations are quite common. Right. It was a one year long dollar slide against the rupee. It took the dollar almost two years to catch up to Sep 06 rate against the rupee - which for...
- Mon Nov 21, 2016 7:51 am
- Forum: Non-US Investing
- Topic: Is it a good idea to save $500 every month in NRE account if we plan to go back to India?
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1542
Re: Is it a good idea to save $500 every month in NRE account if we plan to go back to India?
I don't have any advice regarding Indian banks or investments but -cholan wrote: Indian rupee has never appreciated against the dollar in the medium or long tem.
Many years ago I was at a presentation where a young film maker from India was discussing the ‘Making of’ of film ‘7 days in Slow-Motion’. One of the slides shows US $ and Indian Rupee conversion chart. After the presentation, I asked for this slide (I liked the drawing though my interest in this was purely financial) and he emailed it to me. Dollar, for a short duration, did slide against the Rupee.
- Wed Nov 02, 2016 10:57 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Considering Buying Condo in NYC
- Replies: 18
- Views: 5985
Re: Considering Buying Condo in NYC
I've been tossing around the idea of purchasing a condo in NYC in Fall 2017 (when my current rental lease expires), and would love to get the thoughts of the folks on this board about whether this would be a sound financial decision for someone in my position. Some background on my personal circumstances: 27 years old, single Annual income: $190K Debt: $0 Savings: $44K (16k in 401k, 6k in IRA, 20k in Vanguard taxable account) My budget would be $650-750k for a 1 bedroom condo in Brooklyn. I would have to save $55k over the next 12 months in order to put down a $75k down payment. Through my law firm, I have access to private banking that offers mortgages at competitive rates with no PMI with a 10% down payment. Here's one wrinkle: in order ...
- Fri Sep 30, 2016 8:36 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Should I take mortgage loan of under 3% and invest the money?
- Replies: 39
- Views: 6754
Re: Should I take mortgage loan of under 3% and invest the money?
Thanks everyone... I think I will leave the loan paid off then. I really appreciate all the input. I was in a situation not that different from yours (well… a bit different in income and number of rentals but a similar dilemma) a few years ago where the rental income was being taxed at a very high percentage and I made the opposite choice. I kept my ARM loan at 3% interest on my rental and invested the loan amount with 75% Intermediate tax exempt muni funds and 25% Total Stock/International allocation. This was a fairly conservative allocation but I was trying to protect my ‘loan’ amount. Through appreciation and dividend reinvestment ( twice every year in lump sum back into equities) the allocation has shifted to more like 60% muni bonds ...
- Tue Sep 20, 2016 3:30 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Fun Vacations v. Time with Family
- Replies: 38
- Views: 5587
Re: Fun Vacations v. Time with Family
To those folks who think international travel is over-rated: have you ever wondered why the North Koreans think that their country is the best? This is a silly statement. OK, how about "the frog in the well thinks that his/her well is the best"? ;-) I understood an_asker's statement to mean what was said, quoted below, by another bloke: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” Prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness are fairly universal - witnessed in pretty much every country I travelled and lived. Some countrie...
- Tue Sep 06, 2016 12:30 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Convincing spouse to sell losing investment
- Replies: 58
- Views: 7116
Re: Convincing spouse to sell losing investment
pennywise » Tue Sep 06, 2016 11:41 am I find this a fascinating discussion in part because it truly peels the band aid off the 'everything is one pot' faction's philosophical underpinnings along with the contingent that strongly advocates having a SAH wife. Above we have someone trying to split the financial baby by acknowledging that it's tough for the guy earning all the bread while SAH wife is staying home doing whatever....but it's tough for SAH wife to give up her pot of money that was given to her alone, not them or him. But then we have this: science guy >> But fundamentally I agree that depending on your "logic factor," keeping a very substantial portion of our future security in six individual sector-focused stocks would...
- Thu Aug 18, 2016 10:34 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Is there a such thing as a blue collar Boglehead?
- Replies: 289
- Views: 58755
Re: Is there a such thing as a blue collar Boglehead?
Do you think the factors/reasons that cause wealthy to become poor are a subset of the factors/reasons that cause the poor to stay poor? The documentary mentioned in my previous post says this better than I. As for making this actionable, I agree with what you said in your last paragraph.IlliniDave wrote:And I think there are parallels to the behavior of the "poor" who attain modest wealth and the rich who get richer; and between the "poor" who stay "poor" and the wealthy who become "poor".
So I agree that those of us on the lower half of the scale have a bigger job in front of us. We just have to do it