Search found 41 matches

by nathank
Wed May 21, 2008 10:35 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: TIPS at -.91!!!
Replies: 13
Views: 3877

Certainly does seem bizarre! Get home from work and see that big red number sitting there.
by nathank
Wed May 21, 2008 7:44 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: TIPS at -.91!!!
Replies: 13
Views: 3877

TIPS at -.91!!!

Bloomberg lists 5 year TIPS at -0.91 as of 8pm. A drop of 1.4% in just a few hours!! I guess the market didn't like the fed notes that came out today.
by nathank
Sun May 18, 2008 3:42 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Investing in Bonds
Replies: 16
Views: 4590

while recent years have seen a lowering of rates by the fed, if and when inflation starts up again, they will have to raise rates to control it. then your bond fund could be in the negative. This is probably the key point for the OP to consider. Basically, which is more important in a rising interest rate environment: higher yields or a safe principal? Are you looking for an income stream or a safe place for your investments? Do you want to take risks with your interest rate being low in a time of rising interest rates and possibly inflation risk at low interest rates but always get back your principle? Or do you want to take risks with your principal in exchange for the higher interest rates that the fund will capture and pay out more qui...
by nathank
Thu May 15, 2008 4:23 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Possible to be 100% free of Vanguard paper?
Replies: 4
Views: 1553

I still get those too, just got one yesterday. I guess I'll wait and see if they go away. I've had their paperless option since they began waiving fees if you went paperless. I don't remember how long ago that was, but it seems like it was longer than 6 months.
by nathank
Tue May 13, 2008 2:12 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: post-mortem instructions for spouse
Replies: 9
Views: 2317

daryll40 wrote:There are two issues here:

1. How to be sure those surviving actually GET your instructions and passwords, etc.

2. Being sure your survivors are capable of implementing those instructions. In my case the first one has instructions for who they are to hire to assure #2, because as you point out, my wife would not have the financial skills to know what to do or how to do it.
Yeah, that sounds like a reasonable alternative if you have someone you trust. Just hand it over to them to deal with it all. Definitely something worth looking into.
by nathank
Tue May 13, 2008 1:59 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: post-mortem instructions for spouse
Replies: 9
Views: 2317

Simplicity

After the prior thread on this topic, my solution was to have much more simplicity. Assuming my spouse did understand my instructions and could access my accounts, etc how likely would she be to maintain what I had set up. If it's too complex or confusing I doubt she would carry whatever I had set up forward. That would then leave her with the arduous task of redoing everything in a way that she can handle herself. That might involve moving money all over, opening and closing accounts, fixing all those "convenient" automatic transactions that have been set up, etc. I think the only real way to succesfully leave this stuff behind is to have it simple enough that a spouse could take it over. Otherwise you are creating quite a nightm...
by nathank
Sun May 11, 2008 12:47 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Exclusive online banking and getting cash
Replies: 19
Views: 4990

Thanks for the various suggestions. I contacted my bank and they will only raise my ATM/cash advance limit to a paltry $500, so that won't cut it. I was leaning towards the give a friend a check idea, until jcm55 pointed out these other situations I hadn't even considered. As much as I don't want to have an extra account just sitting around for security and complexity issues, it looks like it might come in handy on occasion. Thanks, nathank We've been all-online with E*Trade Bank for about 8 years now. We do keep a checking account with a local bricks & mortar bank, specifically for cash transactions or cashier's checks. I'd say I use that account about once per year. If I need to make a large cash withdrawal, I do an ACH transfer from ...
by nathank
Sat May 10, 2008 11:04 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Exclusive online banking and getting cash
Replies: 19
Views: 4990

Exclusive online banking and getting cash

For those of you out there with only online savings/checking accounts, how do you make large cash withdrawals if you ever had a need for more than the ATM will provide? I am all online and recently had the need for more cash than my ATM/debit limit would provide, even over a couple of days. Do you just cash a check and pay the non-account fee at a local bank? What solutions have you found to this problem?
by nathank
Fri May 09, 2008 8:14 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What do you use to clean your hard drive?
Replies: 25
Views: 7011

Try SCRUB. It was developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and attains government level cleaning

http://sourceforge.net/projects/diskscrub
by nathank
Wed May 07, 2008 1:31 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Umbrella insurance
Replies: 66
Views: 21526

It depends on a lot of things. 1 million from USAA is $19 a month in california.
by nathank
Tue May 06, 2008 4:31 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Help me overcome my fear of investing!!
Replies: 24
Views: 5803

What really got me over my fears of investing was INFLATION! Leaving all my money in a money market account was actually more risky than investing it in something like the stock market. Why? Because with every passing day, that money in the money market slowly loses value.

So you are not really maintaining your money in there, you are losing it a little at a time, day by day! I read about that in an investment book early on and it really helped me out. It helped me to realize that unless I DID take some additional risks, I would be broke by the time I needed to retire, even though I was saving a lot.

I would also suggest that you continue with some of the recomended books.
by nathank
Tue May 06, 2008 4:12 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: American Funds
Replies: 14
Views: 3031

Yeah, they have another fidelity fund at 1.8 but it has been perfoming well above the SP500 for the last few years and appears to be relatively OK otherwise.

Yeah, I don't know what's up with holding 2 such similar funds. The third he put them in is:

Fidelity Advisor New Insights C FNICX

Which is basically another similar largecap fund.

Thanks again.
by nathank
Tue May 06, 2008 4:00 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: American Funds
Replies: 14
Views: 3031

matt wrote:
They are also all underperforming the SP500 for the last 10 years and are only large cap funds.
The C shares haven't even been around for 10 years. If they had, however, they still would have beaten the S&P 500 even after the higher expenses.
I might be reading it wrong. It does look like it only goes back about 5 years on the M* data interpretter. But they certainly look like they have underperformed for all the years available (except last year). I don't think a 1% "advisor fee" is worth it if you underperform?
by nathank
Tue May 06, 2008 3:55 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: American Funds
Replies: 14
Views: 3031

Both of the funds appear to be quite poor according to M* reports. They appear to be underperforming in most measures.

American Funds Washington Mutual C WSHCX
American Funds American Mutual C AMFCX


Thanks so much for your help.
by nathank
Tue May 06, 2008 3:38 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: American Funds
Replies: 14
Views: 3031

Thanks! I have always stuck with VG and such (due to low fees), so making my way through all of those fee charts and share classes is a little overwhelming at short notice.

I can't see any reason for them to stick with these funds then, especially given the 12-b fees (among others) and their generally poor performance.

Thanks again.
by nathank
Tue May 06, 2008 3:08 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: American Funds
Replies: 14
Views: 3031

They are class C
by nathank
Tue May 06, 2008 2:51 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: American Funds
Replies: 14
Views: 3031

American Funds

I'm looking for some advice for my parents who have asked me to take a look at their retirement portfolio.

Unfortunately their "advisor" has stuck them in a couple of American Funds with 1.5 and 1.8 expense ratios after taking a 2% commision. These funds also have deffered sales fees of 1%. They are also all underperforming the SP500 for the last 10 years and are only large cap funds.

I can't find any funds at American that don't have tons of fees or huge loads.

ANY suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated.

Nathank
by nathank
Tue May 06, 2008 11:49 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Going Paperless and Computer Security
Replies: 18
Views: 4247

Wow, that's a tremendous amount to think about! Thanks! So many options. I was very interested in the discussion about heirs, etc being able to get to this info. After a recent close call this has been on my mind. Considering my level of expertise versus anyone else in my family, I would guess all would be lost if something happened to me plus maintaining it at any level of complexity later on in life would be very hard, as was suggested. The visual guide sounds like a good idea. Even if they do find my stuff, would they have the expertise to carry that information forward? Could they deal with all those files and pickup with where I left off to continue the system? What would my non computer capable family do with 10,000 pdf files of recor...
by nathank
Mon May 05, 2008 10:17 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Going Paperless and Computer Security
Replies: 18
Views: 4247

Thanks for all the great responses. I guess I'll give truecrypt a try. I like the IRON KEY deal, sounds cool but perhaps a little over the top for me.
by nathank
Mon May 05, 2008 9:43 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Going Paperless and Computer Security
Replies: 18
Views: 4247

Can I just make a copy of the truecrypt volume using something like rsync? Or does truecrypt have some kind of complicated backup process? Do you have to backup the ENTIRE volume to maintain the encryption at the new backed up location? Can you get into a truecrypt volume with SSH?


Sorry for the detailed questions, but I also noticed truecrypt as a possible solution and was curious about your experiences with it.

Thanks
by nathank
Mon May 05, 2008 9:30 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Going Paperless and Computer Security
Replies: 18
Views: 4247

That's all I had until recently too and I did the same thing, a one file encryption and it worked great. Then I had my turobtax files with all my personal info and now I'm starting to include PDF's of financial statements. I can't imagine what people with a decade of financial PDF's must be doing. How do you secure all that and still be able to have adequet backups, portablilty, and accesiblity?
by nathank
Mon May 05, 2008 9:05 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Going Paperless and Computer Security
Replies: 18
Views: 4247

Going Paperless and Computer Security

For you tech-savy bogleheads out there, how do you secure your data? I use a usb drive to move my data between work, home, and other locations so I need a portable security solution. I also go between windows,linux, and mac systems. I've read through the "paperless" threads and see lots of people with unencrypted CDs/DVDs full of vital information being used for backups, etc. If you have to move information around, how do you secure it and yet still have it available?

Thanks
by nathank
Mon May 05, 2008 2:18 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Which Online Bank
Replies: 37
Views: 9361

sscritic wrote:
ziggy29 wrote:
gkaplan wrote:The poll omits an option for those of us who still prefer a bricks and mortar institution.

Well, the question was about *online* banks. Presumably those who prefer B&M wouldn't vote.
No one has yet to answer my question of how you define an online bank. What can you do at your online bank that I can't do online at bankofamerica.com? Doesn't your online bank have an office somewhere in a physical building (B&M)?

I am not sure there is a distinction today when all banks have internet access for bill paying, opening accounts, transferring funds, etc.
Looks like the OP is interested in any bank with online access. Hence the poll listing at least 3 major national B&M banks.
by nathank
Mon May 05, 2008 1:46 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Which Online Bank
Replies: 37
Views: 9361

Bank of Internet:

3.05% on Checking with free bill pay

3.4% on MMA

No account fees and they reimburse ATM fees at any ATM


Been using them for over 3 years with no problems.
by nathank
Sun May 04, 2008 6:36 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Credit Freeze and Annualcreditreport.com
Replies: 8
Views: 4380

Thanks for the replies. It seemed wierd so I wanted to check. I will try out those solutions.

Thanks
by nathank
Sun May 04, 2008 8:04 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Credit Freeze and Annualcreditreport.com
Replies: 8
Views: 4380

Credit Freeze and Annualcreditreport.com

After getting a credit freeze (in California) I can no longer access my free credit report at annualcreditreport.com. I guess this makes sense because it keeps other people from viewing it, but how am I supposed to review my credit report for errors, etc. if even I am locked out of it?

Thanks,
NathanK
by nathank
Fri May 02, 2008 4:00 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: TIPS Funds and Principal Changes
Replies: 8
Views: 2147

Thanks, that makes sense. It just seems weird considering how actual TIPS work.
by nathank
Fri May 02, 2008 3:48 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: TIPS Funds and Principal Changes
Replies: 8
Views: 2147

Do they take money if the principal is ever readjusted downwards due to deflation at some point in time?
by nathank
Fri May 02, 2008 3:33 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: TIPS Funds and Principal Changes
Replies: 8
Views: 2147

So unlike a normal bond fund that sits at about the same NAV price forever (obviously other than typical price fluctuations), a TIPS fund NAV (if inflation continues for many years) would continually go up over time (again other than typical price fluctuations)? In otherwords, ongoing, long term inflation will likely cause the TIPS NAV to trend upwards over a long period of time?

Thanks
by nathank
Fri May 02, 2008 2:37 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: TIPS Funds and Principal Changes
Replies: 8
Views: 2147

TIPS Funds and Principal Changes

This seems simple, but I can't find an answer out there. When the principal is adjusted in the underlying tips bonds of a tips fund, what happens with the fund? Is the NAV increased/decreased by that amount? Do you get a payment (or reduction) of somekind when a bond matures? It just seems wierd.

Thanks
by nathank
Thu May 01, 2008 2:35 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: I Bond Fixed Rate is 0%!
Replies: 48
Views: 11514

oneleaf wrote:
nathank wrote: Really bad deal in the short term at this point. Looks like you have to hold them longer to get ANY value from them.
But even if you hold for the longterm, you still get negative real returns, since you have to pay taxes eventually.
I guess I was thinking of comparing them to other fixed investent options like CD's that earn <4% and don't have taxes deferred and you get taxed fully at state and federal. Either way you lose, but with Ibonds you lose less? :(
by nathank
Thu May 01, 2008 2:29 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: I Bond Fixed Rate is 0%!
Replies: 48
Views: 11514

Kevinaom wrote: I think because you are taking interest rate risk on with an i bond. You cannot touch it within 1 year and within 5 years, you pay back 3 months interest. Given that you cannot sell it on the secondary market so you have no capability at all to sell at a gain or to liquidate immediately if you need to, you should be compensated I think
I didn't even think of that. If you sell at 1 year you actually earn less than inflation due to the 3 month loss AND you even get taxed on the 9 months you did earn!

Really bad deal in the short term at this point. Looks like you have to hold them longer to get ANY value from them.
by nathank
Sun Apr 27, 2008 6:43 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Why I loathe the Total Stock Market Index, VTSMX
Replies: 207
Views: 53908

Any reason we can't email msci and ask their opinion? Might save us from more ongoing speculation.
by nathank
Sat Apr 26, 2008 1:26 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Why I loathe the Total Stock Market Index, VTSMX
Replies: 207
Views: 53908

Why not just rebalance into bonds to escape "the bubbles"? I imagine you can't rebalance ALL the bubble away if it is only one sector of the entire fund, but perhaps it's enough to make a significant difference? If most of the funds growth is from that bubble, then whatever money you move into bonds from that fund will essentially be money from the bubble.
by nathank
Sat Apr 26, 2008 8:30 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Why I loathe the Total Stock Market Index, VTSMX
Replies: 207
Views: 53908

Maybe a few of us could just pool our money and buy 50-100 shares of every stock out there. That way we can rebalance every single stock relative to every other stock to our hearts content. No more bubbles and no more losses from being unable to balance out of any possible rise in a given stock. :)
by nathank
Tue Apr 22, 2008 11:42 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: VG Brokerage, MMF, Treasuries, and Retirement Accounts
Replies: 2
Views: 1195

Wow, that looks a lot better. I wish it was spelled out that nicely on the vanguard site. The 403b has a $15 fee for each different fund so I was tacking that on. By the way, your blog about bonds vs bond funds really swayed me towards the individual bonds!

Thanks,
Nathan
by nathank
Tue Apr 22, 2008 10:26 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: VG Brokerage, MMF, Treasuries, and Retirement Accounts
Replies: 2
Views: 1195

VG Brokerage, MMF, Treasuries, and Retirement Accounts

I'm trying to decide whether to invest in individual bonds or whether to just go with a bond fund. It would be nice to choose my own bonds and to save on expense ratios by buying them individually. However, it would appear that these investments will get killed in several ways, at least in vanguard retirement accounts: 1. $30 yearly brokerage fee 2. $3000 dollars sitting in a MMF in a TAX-ADVANTAGED account wasting that space and providing poor returns relative to other options. 3. Possibly multiple retirement accounts (Roth IRA and 403b for both wife and myself are available) each requiring 1. and 2. above. 4. $15 account fee for each 403b MMF That seems like A LOT of opportunity costs to save .1 to .26 expense ratio points compared to a b...
by nathank
Sat Apr 19, 2008 9:38 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Simba's backtesting spreadsheet [a Bogleheads community project]
Replies: 1370
Views: 824060

This thing is AMAZING! Thanks
by nathank
Fri Apr 18, 2008 10:17 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Treasuries, State Taxes, and Retirement Account Withdrawls
Replies: 2
Views: 1025

Thanks, that makes sense. I looked everywhere to find an answer and appreciate the clarification.
by nathank
Fri Apr 18, 2008 9:31 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Treasuries, State Taxes, and Retirement Account Withdrawls
Replies: 2
Views: 1025

Treasuries, State Taxes, and Retirement Account Withdrawls

First off, this place is GREAT! I am amazed at the amount of useful feedback and information provided on the forum. Thanks!

I was wondering what happens to the tax advantages of treasuries if they are in a deferred retirement account (ie 401k). During withdrawals is the interest taxed at your normal state income tax rate or is the interest somehow separated out so that you still get the state tax advantage? I'm guessing it would be too good to be true (and a paperwork nightmare) to get both the tax deferral and the income tax advantage.

Thanks,
NathanK