Search found 126 matches

by jchris
Tue May 30, 2023 6:46 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: OPM Military Buyback Count = Retire Earlier?
Replies: 7
Views: 1379

Re: OPM Military Buyback Count = Retire Earlier?

The Office of Personnel Management is the authority on this subject, and they have published a retirement manual that makes it clear that military service that is bought back counts both for annuity eligibility and annuity computation. Here's the actual language from the retirement manual, with an OPM example that shows how military service counts for both. This is from Section 23B1.1-3 of the OPM manual (I've underlined the key phrase): A. Military Deposit A FERS employee may receive credit for post-1956 military service under FERS rules only if he or she deposits with the employing agency a sum equal to 3 percent of the military basic pay he or she earned during the period of military service, plus interest. A deposit is necessary to use ...
by jchris
Mon May 29, 2023 6:57 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: OPM Military Buyback Count = Retire Earlier?
Replies: 7
Views: 1379

Re: OPM Military Buyback Count = Retire Earlier?

Yes, military service time that is bought back is creditable towards retirement eligibility, and also towards your years of service for pension multiplier purposes. I am retiring under FERS on Wednesday, and have 8+ years of military service that I bought back about 10 or so years ago. It definitely counts toward meeting my eligibility for an immediate pension (in my case, MRA + 30 years). If it didn't count, I wouldn't be able to retire!

This is explained in detail in Chapter 23 of the OPM retirement manual, titled "Service Credit Payments for Post-1956 Military Service." You can find it on the OPM website.

Best of luck!
by jchris
Thu Dec 08, 2022 3:31 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Mild Work Ethical dilemma
Replies: 29
Views: 2649

Re: Mild Work Ethical dilemma

Since it is your direct manager who is asking for your opinion, I think you should give him or her the honest truth about what you know and not recuse yourself. This assumes you can talk openly with your manager with no worries about the conversation going beyond the two of you. I am involved in hiring for my organization, and I find the opinions of people that have actually worked with a candidate to be way more useful than an interview. Pretty much everyone knows how to look good in an interview it seems, so I often find them less valuable as an indicator of job success. I have seen too many times where a candidate nails the interview and then can't perform. In this case, my instincts would probably tell me to avoid a potentially toxic em...
by jchris
Mon Aug 29, 2022 6:27 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Considering using Ally Bank Savings for credit card AutoPay
Replies: 12
Views: 1431

Re: Considering using Ally Bank Savings for credit card AutoPay

I autopay one of my credit cards and a car loan from my Ally Savings account and have had zero problems.
by jchris
Sun May 01, 2022 7:28 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Experience buying a new car recently?
Replies: 122
Views: 19641

Re: Experience buying a new car recently?

I recently purchased a new Ford F-150 (Lariat). Factory order placed in October, took delivery in early January. Only reason i was willing to do it in this market was because I am eligible for Ford employee pricing (A/Z plan). The challenge was locating a dealer who was willing to do an A/Z plan transaction. Most were not because they know they can sell these trucks above MSRP. So I was lucky in that respect that I was able to find a nearby dealer who would do it. If you are eligible for any sort of discount program, maybe consider it.
by jchris
Fri Apr 22, 2022 7:56 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: College Decision
Replies: 225
Views: 20952

Re: College Decision

RPI seems like a good choice! I went there (EE) and had a blast. My roommate double majored in chemistry and biology, then went to medical school at...GW!
by jchris
Wed Feb 02, 2022 7:04 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Maximum years of X in Fixed Income
Replies: 254
Views: 20817

Re: Maximum years of X in Fixed Income

Interesting thread. I had never thought of it in these terms, but I guess if you believe that 25 times residual expenses is needed for a safe retirement, and you adopt a 60/40 AA portfolio, you would necessarily answer - at least 10 times expenses in fixed income/cash. I am just under one year from retirement and a couple of years ago started (and recently finished) moving to that AA. Based on our expenses, the numbers say that the 40% fixed/cash would cover at least 25 years expenses by itself. Mostly that's because we have pension income, rather than a giant portfolio. But I guess that just means its really time to retire.
by jchris
Thu Oct 14, 2021 11:34 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Tip amount for Golf Caddie?
Replies: 16
Views: 2275

Re: Tip amount for Golf Caddie?

One of my sons and his best friend caddied at a very exclusive private club in the DC area, up to a few years ago. This is a place with lots of wealthy and famous members - a former US president, various professional sports figures, TV personalities, etc. The standard tip that was considered acceptable was $40 per bag, although very experienced caddies that were name-requested by a member usually got a bit more (and wealthy patrons would often tip more but not always - some very wealthy members were considered by caddies to be cheapskates).
by jchris
Thu Oct 07, 2021 9:08 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Dreaming - where [should I] spend 1-2 months in the US?
Replies: 69
Views: 7694

Re: Dreaming - where would you spend 1-2 months in the US?

I am retiring at the end of next year and I have already booked my early-2023 vacation (retirement present to myself). I'll be spending the late winter/early spring in Florida, mostly in the Florida Keys, haunting the backwaters of the lower Keys.
by jchris
Mon Aug 09, 2021 7:43 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Sudden new job opportunity/interview
Replies: 50
Views: 8645

Re: Sudden new job opportunity/interview

OP - just wanted to say that I have a similar background to yours - spent 8 years as a naval officer (nuke subs), decided to get out when I got engaged, and went to work for Fed gov. I'm older than you and toward the end of my career. Could retire today, already made my number, etc., but am doing the one more year thing just because I have a pretty good situation right now. Anyway, I had similar outside job opportunities to yours on at least two occasions during my Fed career, and when I did the analysis - like you I concluded that the offer would have had to be significantly higher than my salary at the time. I think your $260K number is about right, particularly if there is uncompensated overtime in there anywhere. I just can't see them u...
by jchris
Wed Jul 14, 2021 6:02 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Should I finish my engineering degree?
Replies: 71
Views: 6332

Re: Should I finish my engineering degree?

I vote no, don't finish the 3rd masters. 3 is two too many. Even if your employer is paying for it, an engineering masters is a grind. One was enough for me.
by jchris
Sun Apr 18, 2021 6:42 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Does anyone hold Vanguard Windsor II or Wellington?
Replies: 30
Views: 5754

Re: Does anyone hold Vanguard Windsor II or Wellington?

I've held Windsor II since about 1989. I bought it when I was just first starting to learn about mutual fund investing and a buddy had recommended Vanguard funds, and I think I read an article about the success of the original Windsor fund. Anyway, I put several thousand in it back then and never contributed another cent because shortly thereafter I learned about index funds and realized I probably should be investing in those. I would not recommend investing in it today - expense ratio is too high and it spins off way too many dividends and cap gain distributions. Hurts at tax time. I still hold it because it is majority capital gains from those original few thousand invested and i would take a big tax hit to sell it. We are trying to keep...
by jchris
Thu Mar 04, 2021 7:14 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: 2021 Sunglasses Thread 😎
Replies: 61
Views: 6643

Re: 2021 Sunglasses Thread 😎

I like the Oakley Flak Jacket XLJ, but they are expensive and maybe not worth the money if you are hard on your sunglasses.

For a good balance between price/value and quality, I like the Tifosi Jet - I've had a pair of polarized jets for about 8-9 years and they have held up well - use them for running and active sports. Just bought another pair of the non-polarized version and I like them too.
by jchris
Thu Mar 04, 2021 11:54 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: 403b contribution mistake - possible to recharacterize?
Replies: 11
Views: 498

Re: 403b contribution mistake - possible to recharacterize?

Actually, now that I think of it, he does already have a Roth IRA (started that years ago from odd-job earnings during high school, etc.) So maybe we will roll it into the Roth IRA. Thanks again.
by jchris
Thu Mar 04, 2021 11:41 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: 403b contribution mistake - possible to recharacterize?
Replies: 11
Views: 498

Re: 403b contribution mistake - possible to recharacterize?

Celia - I completely agree that he needs to figure out how to do his own taxes, and in fact that's how it will go this year, except that I'll be staring over his shoulder as he does the entries in turbo-tax.

One question on your reply though - you are saying the after-tax contributions could be rolled into a Roth account?
by jchris
Thu Mar 04, 2021 11:39 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: 403b contribution mistake - possible to recharacterize?
Replies: 11
Views: 498

Re: 403b contribution mistake - possible to recharacterize?

lakpr - thank you for the reply. Yes my first reaction was slight panic but then I calmed down and thought about what you said - in the grand scheme of things, this mistake is not going to be a big deal. To answer your question about roth vs after-tax, yes I'm absolutely sure it was after-tax contributions (and by the way, I shouldn't have said he was contributing the max - it was actually less than the plan limit). When he first started the job, I had him make Roth 403b contributions, but then when I did some back of the envelope tax estimation I realized that his income was high enough that he would benefit by deferring as much as he could bear. So I advised him to switch future contributions to tax-deferred. On his 403b statement, it act...
by jchris
Thu Mar 04, 2021 11:13 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: 403b contribution mistake - possible to recharacterize?
Replies: 11
Views: 498

403b contribution mistake - possible to recharacterize?

My oldest son just completed his first year at his first (post college) job, and he asked for some help in preparing his tax return. I asked him to send me his 2020 W-2. As soon as I saw it, I knew there was a problem because the income listed in block 1 was too high and there was no indication of contribution to the deferred income plan in block 12. He had told me he was contributing the max to his tax-deferred 403b plan (he works for a university-affiliated research lab). So I asked him to send me the latest statement from the 403b plan showing his contributions, which he did. The statement showed that he had been making "employee after tax" contributions to the 403b plan, not tax-deferred contributions. :oops: He thought "...
by jchris
Tue Feb 09, 2021 7:33 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Roth vs. Traditional with 2x Fed Pensions
Replies: 37
Views: 3130

Re: Roth vs. Traditional with 2x Fed Pensions

RPM easily handles wages (section 4) and retirement contributions (section 6) from current employment - you don't have to be retired to use it.
by jchris
Tue Feb 09, 2021 6:51 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Roth vs. Traditional with 2x Fed Pensions
Replies: 37
Views: 3130

Re: Roth vs. Traditional with 2x Fed Pensions

OP - I recommend you check out the Retirement Portfolio Model (RPM) developed by forum member BigFoot48. It does exactly what you need - allowing you to see how much space you will have in each tax bracket each year, and modifying your withdrawal strategy to minimize RMDs if that is your goal. You might find that you have more room in the 22% bracket than you think, even with your pensions (of course tax rates could change in the future). Here's a link to the wiki entry for RPM: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Retiree_Portfolio_Model.
by jchris
Sun Jan 31, 2021 7:14 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: RPM tool suggests no Roth Conversion is better?
Replies: 16
Views: 1938

Re: RPM tool suggests no Roth Conversion is better?

Pretty sure I asked a similar question concerning RPM some time back and the answer was that the model does not consider the tax benefit of the roth conversion balance as compared to the TIRA balance. So a higher balance in the base case (without conversion) doesn't necessarily mean you should not convert. You need to factor in the tax benefit that the roth conversion account provides.
by jchris
Fri Jan 22, 2021 7:48 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Married couple nearing retirement – 15 year plan (Roth conversions, RMDs, QCDs, Tax Liability)
Replies: 22
Views: 2787

Re: Married couple nearing retirement – 15 year plan (Roth conversions, RMDs, QCDs, Tax Liability)

Interest/Dividends/Capital Gains should be counted as a portfolio withdrawal unless you are reinvesting them (assuming you aren't doing that, or you wouldn't have put them in the income section). Otherwise it looks good. I would recommend running your plan through the Retirement Portfolio Model (see wiki) and/or iORP.
by jchris
Thu Oct 22, 2020 5:56 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Winter Putting Practice
Replies: 7
Views: 690

Re: Winter Putting Practice

I work on putting during the winter on the carpet in my basement. Since it's a flat surface, you can't work on breaking putts, and the carpet tends to be slower than a real putting green, you can't work on calibrating speed too much. So what I work on are the basics - setup, alignment, routine, and always getting the putt started on the line that I want it to start on. When you have those 6-7 foot straight uphill or flat putts during a round, you have to know that you are going to get the ball started on your line without pulling or pushing it. So that's what I work on during the winter, and it definitely helps when spring comes. Also, try not to orient your putting line parallel to a wall or table - don't give your eyes any visual clues li...
by jchris
Thu Aug 13, 2020 7:36 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: What price range for Daughter's first car?
Replies: 122
Views: 6970

Re: What price range for Daughter's first car?

OP - we were recently in a similar situation to yours. Son graduated in December and is working his first job at around the same salary range as your daughter. He's been living at home still so basically banking his salary for last few months. He'd been driving one of our old cars but decided it was time to get his own. He wanted something with sufficient headroom (he's tall), so was thinking crossovers - Toyota RAV4, Nissan Rogue, Honda CRV, Hyundai Santa Fe, etc. We visited a couple of dealerships and test drove a bunch of cars. He really liked the Hyundai Santa Fe. One dealer had a 2017 model listed for 23K. He really liked it and the ride was great but wanted to think it over. Reading this forum, I had learned about the Hertz bankruptcy...
by jchris
Thu Feb 20, 2020 9:22 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Getting through to Equifax
Replies: 42
Views: 3946

Re: Getting through to Equifax

OP - I went through the exact same process with Equifax over the last month or so. Incredibly frustrating. The "myEquifax" customer service line eventually froze me out completely, so I called a different Equifax customer service line at this number: 1-866-640-2273. I was eventually able to speak with a person who was willing to help me unlock my account. They first asked a bunch of questions to verify my identity, but unlike the ridiculous questions asked by their automated identity verification system, they were questions that I could actually answer - for example, tell us the current monthly payment due on a couple of your credit cards, tell us the most recent purchase you made on this or that card, etc. The person on the other...
by jchris
Wed Feb 05, 2020 7:03 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Longest battery smart phone
Replies: 35
Views: 3149

Re: Longest battery smart phone

My wife and I both got new phones for Christmas - I got the Moto G7 Power and she got the Google Pixel 3a. I got the Moto specifically because of its advertised long battery life. It has definitely lived up to expectations there - I charge it maybe twice a week, sometimes only once. It's a great overall phone. My wife likes the Pixel 3a but the battery doesn't last as long as the Moto (no surprise, since it is a smaller battery). She has to charge it each day, but she uses her phone more heavily than I do.
by jchris
Sat Nov 30, 2019 2:00 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Do I need to recharacterize traditional IRA contribution?
Replies: 3
Views: 365

Re: Do I need to recharacterize traditional IRA contribution?

Thanks David and retiredjg for your answers - much appreciated.
by jchris
Sat Nov 30, 2019 8:30 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Do I need to recharacterize traditional IRA contribution?
Replies: 3
Views: 365

Do I need to recharacterize traditional IRA contribution?

Early this year, I made the annual contribution to my wife's traditional IRA. Up until this year, she had worked in a non-benefits capacity for the county public school system, and since she was not eligible for an employer-sponsored pension and didn't contribute to their 403b or 457 plans, she could contribute to her traditional IRA. This year, however, after I made her IRA contribution, she took a new job (with the same school system) that qualifies for the pension plan - they take mandatory pension deductions from her paycheck. So - a few questions for the experts: 1. Does this mean that we need to recharacterize her traditional IRA contribution to a Roth IRA contribution? 2. If so, how easy or difficult is it to do that? (She has both t...
by jchris
Thu Sep 26, 2019 7:17 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: College Student Internships
Replies: 45
Views: 3207

Re: College Student Internships

Our older son is a senior computer engineering major at Maryland, who just completed a summer internship at MathWorks in Natick, Mass (just outside of Boston). I am sure he would say that getting an internship for engineering and computer science is very important. He did have a couple of friends that got internships after sophomore or even freshman year, but they are most common after junior year. The process is pretty competitive - for CS internships, candidates need to be ready for a pretty high-stress coding interview, where they are asked to solve various coding challenges in real time. Sometimes there are multiple rounds of interviews. His internship was a very positive experience - the work was fun and challenging, the people were gr...
by jchris
Thu Feb 21, 2019 7:17 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Please Help how to claim AOT credit when used some 529 $ for Tuition/Fees
Replies: 49
Views: 1526

Re: Please Help how to claim AOT credit when used some 529 $ for Tuition/Fees

Looks like you have gotten good advice above - I agree that the amounts reported on Form 1098T don't always include all education expenses that the 529 can be used for. Room and board seem to be the culprits. Anyway, here is what I do: - University bill comes out, say in December and is posted to son's account. In his case, he gets a partial university scholarship which bill shows as already subtracted from the total amount billed for semester. (But the remaining balance is still well above $4K). - On January 1st, I write a personal check for $4000 to University and label it with Son's ID# and "Spring 2019 Tuition." - Then I call 529 plan administrator and have them mail a check directly to the University for the balance of the bi...
by jchris
Wed Jan 16, 2019 8:51 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Retiree Portfolio Model
Replies: 1806
Views: 543771

Re: Retiree Portfolio Model

The model calculates the difference between these two numbers, and if the Base case final portfolio balance is larger, produces a "don't convert" conclusion. But the balance in the Full case portfolio, which is mostly Roth funds, is actually worth significantly more than an equivalent final balance in the Base case portfolio, because Uncle Sam actually "owns" a chunk of those Base case funds. So it seems to me that if my Full case (Roth conversion) portfolio balance is less than but anywhere close to the Base case final balance, it still makes sense to convert. I just want to make sure that I am understanding what the model is doing here - there's no adjustment happening to account for the greater value of the Roth fund...
by jchris
Wed Jan 16, 2019 8:21 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Retiree Portfolio Model
Replies: 1806
Views: 543771

Re: Retiree Portfolio Model

Did a deep dive into this model for the first time over the last couple of weeks, and I wanted to say thanks to BigFoot48 for developing such a great planning tool. I'm learning a lot about how the whole retirement finance picture fits together using this model. I do have one question for you. My situation is probably not that unusual - where the initial retirement portfolio would consist mostly of a large traditional 401K/IRA, and relatively smaller Roth and taxable balances. I am using the model to examine the effects of using Roth conversions during retirement to avoid large RMDs and the consequent large tax bills. In the Roth Conversion Analysis section of the results tab, when the model compares the Base case (i.e., no Roth Conversions...
by jchris
Wed Jan 09, 2019 12:12 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: tIRA to TSP and Prorata rule
Replies: 20
Views: 1469

Re: tIRA to TSP and Prorata rule

I transferred the non-deductible contributions to my Roth first. I did this in order to prevent the situation where, when rolling the deductible contributions first, during the few days that the remaining non-deductible contributions are sitting in the TIRA, their value increases prior to rolling them to the Roth. Then I would have been left with a non-zero value in my TIRA after both transfers were done. I was not aware of the IRS instructions to do it the other way. Both stages occurred within several days, so hopefully this should not be any problem. That quote was from a blogger, not the IRS. The IRS has no instructions on how to accomplish backdoor Roth. OK - thanks. Given what you said above regarding the pro rata rule applying to th...
by jchris
Wed Jan 09, 2019 7:30 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: tIRA to TSP and Prorata rule
Replies: 20
Views: 1469

Re: tIRA to TSP and Prorata rule

You can definitely do this. I had this exact situation in 2016. Based on advice received here, I rolled the non-deductible basis portion of the IRA into my Roth, and then rolled the remaining deductible portion of the IRA into the TSP using Form TSP-60. Are you sure you did it in the above order? It seems like the pro rata rule would have come into play in the Roth conversion when you have deductible and non-deductible components. In this article (https://www.kitces.com/blog/the-impact-of-the-ira-aggregation-rule-on-after-tax-distributions-roth-conversions-60-day-rollovers-rmds-and-72t-payments/), the author says that one should transfer the deductible portion first and then do the Roth conversion. Notably, though, since the IRA aggregatio...
by jchris
Wed Jan 09, 2019 7:22 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: tIRA to TSP and Prorata rule
Replies: 20
Views: 1469

Re: tIRA to TSP and Prorata rule

You can definitely do this. I had this exact situation in 2016. Based on advice received here, I rolled the non-deductible basis portion of the IRA into my Roth, and then rolled the remaining deductible portion of the IRA into the TSP using Form TSP-60. Vanguard will not be able to certify to the TSP that your IRA contributions being rolled to TSP are pre-tax, but this is no problem. The TSP-60 form anticipates it. If Vanguard does not want to complete the certification portion of the form, the TSP will accept a letter from Vanguard on their letterhead simply confirming that the funds are being transferred from a qualified plan. My rollover went without a hitch. jchris, In looking at the TSP 60, I did not see where the form anticipates tha...
by jchris
Tue Jan 08, 2019 6:32 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: tIRA to TSP and Prorata rule
Replies: 20
Views: 1469

Re: tIRA to TSP and Prorata rule

You can definitely do this. I had this exact situation in 2016. Based on advice received here, I rolled the non-deductible basis portion of the IRA into my Roth, and then rolled the remaining deductible portion of the IRA into the TSP using Form TSP-60. Vanguard will not be able to certify to the TSP that your IRA contributions being rolled to TSP are pre-tax, but this is no problem. The TSP-60 form anticipates it. If Vanguard does not want to complete the certification portion of the form, the TSP will accept a letter from Vanguard on their letterhead simply confirming that the funds are being transferred from a qualified plan. My rollover went without a hitch.
by jchris
Tue Jul 10, 2018 1:24 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Refrigerator Issue (Cold Freezer-Warm Fridge)
Replies: 11
Views: 953

Re: Refrigerator Issue (Cold Freezer-Warm Fridge)

Very high likelihood that this is either your defrost timer, defrost thermostat, or defrost heating element needing replacement. If it was the circulation fan, the compressor would still turn off when the freezer went into defrost mode. On older GE model refrigerators,the defrost timer is like a $10-$15 dollar part, the thermostat can range up to about $35, and the heating element is about $15. You can get them on amazon or at one of the on-line appliance parts retailers. Easy do it yourself repairs. Just replace all three and you cover all bases. Youtube it to see various videos.
by jchris
Fri May 18, 2018 7:33 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Mitsubishi wall air conditioner
Replies: 34
Views: 3677

Re: Mitsubishi wall air conditioner

I have two of them in my house - they work great. We've had them for about 10 years now - had them installed when we renovated our main floor. When we opened up the space, we removed two walls, one of which contained the air supply ducts for two upstairs bedrooms. So the mini-split A/C units were the only feasible solution to cooling those rooms.
by jchris
Sat Jan 06, 2018 6:24 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: So ambitious w/ money but so risk-averse
Replies: 31
Views: 4013

Re: So ambitious w/ money but so risk-averse

AnalogKid22 wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2018 4:14 pm
jchris wrote: Fri Jan 05, 2018 6:34 pm
AnalogKid22 wrote: Fri Jan 05, 2018 5:17 pm No degree is useless. I have a BA in English, no masters, have made a six-figure salary the majority of my career and am almost a millionaire. It's about doing what you love, working your ass off at it, and, of course, investing.
English degree notwithstanding, given your location, shouldn't your user name be DigitalMan22??
Oh to reach a tropic isle of Avalon.
I saw them on that tour (Signals) - April 1983 at the Carrier Dome.
by jchris
Fri Jan 05, 2018 6:34 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: So ambitious w/ money but so risk-averse
Replies: 31
Views: 4013

Re: So ambitious w/ money but so risk-averse

AnalogKid22 wrote: Fri Jan 05, 2018 5:17 pm No degree is useless. I have a BA in English, no masters, have made a six-figure salary the majority of my career and am almost a millionaire. It's about doing what you love, working your ass off at it, and, of course, investing.
English degree notwithstanding, given your location, shouldn't your user name be DigitalMan22??
by jchris
Tue Jan 02, 2018 3:48 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: REGISTRATION FOR 2018 BOGLEHEAD CONTEST
Replies: 167
Views: 20000

Re: REGISTRATION FOR 2018 BOGLEHEAD CONTEST

2860.76 (also entered on spreadsheet)
by jchris
Tue Dec 19, 2017 8:47 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: opinions requested on student college decision / financial related
Replies: 87
Views: 7223

Re: opinions requested on student college decision / financial related

It seems to me that the ROI of a nursing degree is beside the point. Based purely on the ROI calculus, of course you don't need to go to a $65K per year school for a nursing degree. But I'm guessing it wouldn't matter whether she wanted to attend school for nursing, or education, engineering, art history, whatever. OP wants to give his daughter her dream college experience, and have no regrets about saying no to that dream. As the parent of college age kids myself, I get it. He can afford it, so it sounds like she is going to the dream school - good on her.
by jchris
Sat Nov 04, 2017 9:32 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: How much to spend for bathroom remodel with these features in LCOL area
Replies: 27
Views: 3649

Re: How much to spend for bathroom remodel with these features in LCOL area

For a "basic" remodel, I think 20K is on the high side, especially in a LCOL area. We live in a relatively HCOL area, and remodeled our guest bath about five years ago - it is approximately the same size as your bathroom. It was a complete tear down to studs (except ceiling). New fiberglass deep soaking tub (which required replumbing drain, new shower fixtures (more plumbing), new vanity with granite countertop, new toilet, drywall, new fan & lights, new subfloor, new tile floor & tile shower surround. Priming and painting. I did all of the tile work myself (underlayment, shower waterproofing, floor tile, shower wall tile, grout, trim), which saved a bunch of money. On everything other than the tile, we spent about 5-6K, a...
by jchris
Fri Oct 27, 2017 8:51 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: What is the best AA for me?
Replies: 24
Views: 2719

Re: What is the best AA for me?

I read your other thread and first I would say I agree with the majority that you are good to go for immediate retirement.

On this question, I think your AA should be weighted more toward stocks. You are young - you probably have 30+ years of retirement ahead of you, 100% of your expenses are covered by a COLA'd pension, and your healthcare situation seems solid. When SS kicks in, way more than 100% of expenses will be covered. So you will never have to eat cat food to survive. Given that, I think you should take a bit more risk in your AA and grow your nest egg a bit more. Maybe in a few years you can buy a bigger sailboat.

On the other hand I understand if you stick with it where it is. You've won the game, as they say...