Search found 293 matches
- Thu Feb 01, 2024 12:21 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Asset allocation strategy
- Replies: 37
- Views: 3757
Re: Asset allocation strategy
We retired and in our 70s and are 68/32. The fixed income is a combination of short term bond funds and CDs split approximately 50/50.
- Mon Dec 25, 2023 9:38 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: How many brokerage accounts do you have?
- Replies: 164
- Views: 16347
Re: How many brokerage accounts do you have?
Two brokerages.
Fidelity, Taxable and my and DW IRAs.
Vanguard, a Taxable and an inherited IRA.
Fidelity, Taxable and my and DW IRAs.
Vanguard, a Taxable and an inherited IRA.
- Tue Oct 31, 2023 10:57 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Question for Married Bogleheads - % to allocate to joint accounts
- Replies: 174
- Views: 13259
Re: Question for Married Bogleheads - % to allocate to joint accounts
We have been married for almost 52 years. Since the wedding all accounts except for the IRAs have been held jointly.
- Wed Oct 18, 2023 7:02 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Anyone using the Fidelity Rewards Visa card?
- Replies: 58
- Views: 11452
Re: Anyone using the Fidelity Rewards Visa card?
We’ve used it since Fidelity changed from Amex. It’s my goto card for Costco shopping since we have an Executive membership.
- Sat Oct 14, 2023 8:14 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: What ratio are you stocks/bonds and how old are you?
- Replies: 449
- Views: 95636
Re: What ratio are you stocks/bonds and how old are you?
73 and DW 72
62% equities
4% bonds
32% cash as MM or CDs
62% equities
4% bonds
32% cash as MM or CDs
- Tue Sep 19, 2023 10:14 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Pay Credit Card Electronically
- Replies: 50
- Views: 3585
Re: Pay Credit Card Electronically
For estimated quarterly taxes, I do still send a paper check by snail mail as I do for state or federal taxes. For refunds, I include my checking account information so the refund can ACH into my account. I have over a dozen active credit card accounts and another dozen I only use for specific reasons. All of them are auto paid by ACH, so they all have my checking account info. What about all the risks? I don't know. I never think about them. I push payments for credit cards. I was bribed $10/line by Verizon to allow them to pull their payment from my checking account through a debit card. I still write checks for estimate payments, but now drop the envelope in the box INSIDE the USPS post office. With the above post, maybe I will us the e...
- Tue Sep 12, 2023 2:50 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Does anyone here with net worths north of $1 mil use financial advisors?
- Replies: 454
- Views: 86827
Re: Does anyone here with net worths north of $1 mil use financial advisors?
When DW and I were younger we used a FA for about a year. Terrible experience. We fired him and moved to Fidelity. This forum has provided the backbone for our investing philosophy.
Thanks!
Thanks!
- Sat Sep 09, 2023 4:28 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: what kinds of careers do bogleheads like?
- Replies: 45
- Views: 4713
Re: what kinds of careers do bogleheads like?
STEM with a background in Chemistry. Owned and operated a regional analytical service for about thirty years.
- Sat Aug 19, 2023 4:15 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Couples. Did you retire at the same, or did you offset retirement years?
- Replies: 51
- Views: 4183
Re: Couples. Did you retire at the same, or did you offset retirement years?
My DW and I retired together once the sale of our business closed.
- Sun Aug 13, 2023 5:04 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Lessons from 2007 -2009
- Replies: 143
- Views: 18246
Re: Lessons from 2007 -2009
We were at the Weston on Kaanapali. The beach was deserted. DW and I rebalanced our AA back to 70/30.exigent wrote: ↑Sun Aug 13, 2023 4:48 pm We were on a Disney cruise with our young kids when the market bottomed in the spring of 2009. I was blissfully unaware b/c we had (and still have) a plan. We just leave it alone and let it do its thing. It probably wasn’t until a couple years later that I looked back and realized when the market hit bottom and what we were doing at that moment.
So, the lesson here is that we did exactly nothing… other than ignoring what was happening, and it was by far the best move we could have made.
- Tue Aug 08, 2023 4:29 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Paying Quarterly Estimated Taxes
- Replies: 8
- Views: 1948
Re: Paying Quarterly Estimated Taxes
We’ve used the EFTPS site for years both for our private C-Corp and our personal return. Once it is setup it is very easy to use. Bonus, before seeing the accountant we go the the site and print out a history of our estimated payments.
- Mon Jul 24, 2023 6:51 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Locked-out of Treasury Direct
- Replies: 50
- Views: 9453
Re: Locked-out of Treasury Direct
Same here, they were very easy to deal with. It was my mistake answering the security questions.mmmmbrisket wrote: ↑Sat Jul 22, 2023 12:43 pm I had this issue just this past week. I called and got right through. I had to answer the security questions on the phone and they reviewed the answers afterward and pointed out my mistake. They unlocked my account right away and was able to log back in while still on the phone
- Mon Jul 24, 2023 4:17 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Fidelity Requires POA for Elderly Father
- Replies: 27
- Views: 3110
Re: Fidelity Requires POA for Elderly Father
Isn’t Fidelity required to maintain an At Risk Team because of FINRA Rule 2165.
It seems the brokerage houses have to proactively search out potentially at risk clients.
It seems the brokerage houses have to proactively search out potentially at risk clients.
- Mon Jul 03, 2023 4:08 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Anyone still favor Vanguard?
- Replies: 359
- Views: 48429
Re: Anyone still favor Vanguard?
We use VG and Fidelity for equities and fixed income. The split is about 30/70. We have never had issues with either shop. DW doesn’t trust putting all our assets at one brokerage.
- Sun Jul 02, 2023 12:41 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: What are you up YTD? [Year To Date]
- Replies: 5249
- Views: 900180
Re: What are you up YTD? [Year To Date]
We’re retired with a 65/35 AA and after minor withdrawals the portfolio is up 7.1% YTD.
- Sun Jun 11, 2023 3:20 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Investments you wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole
- Replies: 242
- Views: 26578
Re: Investments you wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole
Social Security unlike privately sold annuities isn’t voluntary. No I do not have a pension. During most my fifty years of work I paid both sides of the FICA tax.Stinky wrote: ↑Sat Jun 10, 2023 7:14 amSo -
You wouldn’t consider a couple of kinds of annuities that many Bogleheads like - multi year guaranteed annuities (MYGAs) and single premium immediate annuities (SPIAs)?
And you don’t draw from Social Security or a defined benefit pension plan, both of which look like SPIAs?
- Sat Jun 10, 2023 7:02 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Investments you wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole
- Replies: 242
- Views: 26578
Re: Investments you wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole
Any annuity.
Any flavor of whole life insurance policy
Any high cost actively managed mutual fund
Any investment advisor
Any flavor of whole life insurance policy
Any high cost actively managed mutual fund
Any investment advisor
- Tue Apr 25, 2023 4:51 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: In a big investment hole
- Replies: 70
- Views: 9820
Re: In a big investment hole
That’s a Big Plus One.calmaniac wrote: ↑Mon Apr 24, 2023 4:17 pm Most of us have crashed and burned in the past. I was invested in all sorts of individual stocks during the 2000 tech bubble in my early forties and lost about half of our investments. Fast forward 23 years largely in index funds, and we are doing very, very well.
Time to move past the sunk cost fallacy and into investments for the long term.
- Tue May 31, 2022 6:22 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: New to investing in taxable account
- Replies: 15
- Views: 1809
- Fri Jan 07, 2022 6:52 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Unable to setup Vanguard RMD Service
- Replies: 8
- Views: 1168
Re: Unable to setup Vanguard RMD Service
Odd, I setup my RMD from an inherited IRA a few days ago. The total yearly RMD should be in our brokerage account next week.
- Mon Jun 28, 2021 8:58 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: substantial windfall - management questions
- Replies: 14
- Views: 3051
Re: substantial windfall - management questions
From AB609:
Last piece of advice is to keep your financial situation to yourself. That kind of money can make a lot of people jealous.
[/quote]
Excellent advice.
Last piece of advice is to keep your financial situation to yourself. That kind of money can make a lot of people jealous.
[/quote]
Excellent advice.
- Sun Jun 27, 2021 4:53 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: You ever have an investment actually go to zero?
- Replies: 126
- Views: 12613
Re: You ever have an investment actually go to zero?
WAMU. The only upside from that dog of an investment was it made me the indexer I am today.
- Fri Jun 18, 2021 8:47 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: What Is Your Longest-Held Investment?
- Replies: 147
- Views: 15509
Re: What Is Your Longest-Held Investment?
We bought Wellington in maybe 1990. Our next oldest holding is probably Disney which was purchased in 2002? At about $17.00 per share.
The Wellington is a single purchase into an IRA is showing a 1950% gain. There must be something to that “time in the market” claim!
The Wellington is a single purchase into an IRA is showing a 1950% gain. There must be something to that “time in the market” claim!
- Wed Apr 28, 2021 2:47 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Should we keep most of our $ at Vanguard or split across brokerages?
- Replies: 18
- Views: 2890
Re: Should we keep most of our $ at Vanguard or split across brokerages?
We split our accounts across VG and Fidelity not only as a protection from brokerage risk but also to avail ourselves of Fido’s excellent CC.
- Thu Sep 24, 2020 10:08 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Buckets in Retirement
- Replies: 97
- Views: 9707
Re: Buckets in Retirement
Nope, we worry more about our AA, asset location and maintaining a tax efficient withdrawal strategy.
- Wed Sep 02, 2020 9:50 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Be not afraid
- Replies: 9
- Views: 1938
Re: Be not afraid
It was one of the fastest recoveries in history - wait till you live through a downturn that lasts years . I’m in my seventies and have survived too many crashes. One of my friends who I gave emotional support to during the 2008-09 crash totally bailed out of this market late March. I’ve always maintained something close to a 60/40 AA but the Market violence of this year makes me reconsider the game plan. There was an interesting statistic that I saw recently - it was that the average investor was under-performing the funds they own by 2 to 3%. Which, on the surface, seems illogical, but makes sense when you realize there's a lot of investors making changes in up and down markets that are detrimental to their returns. Me. or I should say m...
- Wed Sep 02, 2020 9:02 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Be not afraid
- Replies: 9
- Views: 1938
Re: Be not afraid
I’m in my seventies and have survived too many crashes. One of my friends who I gave emotional support to during the 2008-09 crash totally bailed out of this market late March. I’ve always maintained something close to a 60/40 AA but the Market violence of this year makes me reconsider the game plan.burritoLover wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 7:43 pm It was one of the fastest recoveries in history - wait till you live through a downturn that lasts years.
- Wed Sep 02, 2020 6:44 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: What is your age and asset allocation ?
- Replies: 1156
- Views: 150814
Re: What is your age and asset allocation ?
I sent a private messageBestCoast123 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 3:16 pmI was probably unclear. Sorry. Meant to say "what are the RE Contracts?" Private mortgages?AllieTB1323 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 3:11 pmNope, we have no urge to dabble in additional RE Contracts. We sold our privately held C-Corp to a key employee. We also sold him our personally owned real estate the business uses.BestCoast123 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 01, 2020 1:42 pmWould you consider expanding on your RE Contracts? If all goes well, I should have $25k to $50k in K-1 Passive Income in the next year or two, which I will shovel into passive real estate investments to generate some depreciation to defer the taxes. Assuming the RE Contracts are direct mortgages?AllieTB1323 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:56 pm I'm 70, and DW is 68
Stocks: 54%
Bonds: 29%
Cash: 3%
RE Contracts: 14%
- Wed Sep 02, 2020 3:11 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: What is your age and asset allocation ?
- Replies: 1156
- Views: 150814
Re: What is your age and asset allocation ?
Nope, we have no urge to dabble in additional RE Contracts. We sold our privately held C-Corp to a key employee. We also sold him our personally owned real estate the business uses.BestCoast123 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 01, 2020 1:42 pmWould you consider expanding on your RE Contracts? If all goes well, I should have $25k to $50k in K-1 Passive Income in the next year or two, which I will shovel into passive real estate investments to generate some depreciation to defer the taxes. Assuming the RE Contracts are direct mortgages?AllieTB1323 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:56 pm I'm 70, and DW is 68
Stocks: 54%
Bonds: 29%
Cash: 3%
RE Contracts: 14%
- Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:56 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: What is your age and asset allocation ?
- Replies: 1156
- Views: 150814
Re: What is your age and asset allocation ?
I'm 70, and DW is 68
Stocks: 54%
Bonds: 29%
Cash: 3%
RE Contracts: 14%
Stocks: 54%
Bonds: 29%
Cash: 3%
RE Contracts: 14%
- Thu Aug 20, 2020 4:37 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Filed IRS taxes once, received two different refunds? [5% interest on refunds after April 15th]
- Replies: 18
- Views: 1000
- Mon Aug 03, 2020 2:30 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: I was looking at getting the 1% cash back discover card. How many of you use debit cards all the time?
- Replies: 79
- Views: 5506
Re: I was looking at getting the 1% cash back discover card. How many of you use debit cards all the time?
UpperNwGuy wrote: ↑Thu Jul 30, 2020 6:59 pm I never use debit cards. I only use credit cards. Two reasons: First, debit cards don't have the same protections as credit cards. Second, credit cards have better rewards. I pay my credit cards in full each month, so I never pay interest.
Same here. Our goto card is Fidelity’s 2% rewards card.
- Mon Aug 03, 2020 12:41 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Vanguard Money Market
- Replies: 13
- Views: 1603
Re: Vanguard Money Market
Be sure to stay below the FDIC limits. Spread the funds out. Beyond Ally and Cap One look at Marcus, AMEX etc. Most are in the same yield ballpark.
- Wed Jul 29, 2020 10:40 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Any suggestions for where to safely park money that will be needed in 1 year?
- Replies: 8
- Views: 899
Re: Any suggestions for where to safely park money that will be needed in 1 year?
Any of the online HYSAs, be it Ally, Amex and Marcus, etc. We use Amex and Marcus and both are linked to our local Credit Union.
- Sat Apr 25, 2020 9:21 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: IRS Get My Payment up and running
- Replies: 369
- Views: 32430
Re: IRS Get My Payment up and running
Yes. Finally and I almost didn't believe the screen after the never-ending error messages.mtmingus wrote: ↑Sat Apr 25, 2020 8:44 am Successfully entered my banking info today instead of having to wait in July:
You have successfully submitted your bank account information. Your payment will be direct deposited into your bank account using the information you provided.
Bank Account Type: Checking
Bank Account Number: ************xxxx
Bank Routing Number: ******xxx
Owed and filed 2019 Tax using TurboTax.
Direct Pay settled the owed amount before filing the tax so the tax owed on our 1040 was ZERO.
- Wed Apr 08, 2020 9:12 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Marcus or Ally
- Replies: 176
- Views: 24985
Re: Marcus or Ally
Have both Marcus and Amex and am happy with both. Marcus does offer a slightly higher interest rate than Amex.
- Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:39 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: EFTPS vs IRS DirectPay for making conversion tax payments?
- Replies: 8
- Views: 861
Re: EFTPS vs IRS DirectPay for making conversion tax payments?
Once you are enrolled EFTPS is simple to use. The ability to schedule a years worth of quarterly payments really simplifies record keeping.
- Tue Feb 04, 2020 6:54 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Why is VFORX down almost 4% today?
- Replies: 16
- Views: 1716
- Thu Jan 23, 2020 9:10 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: How do you deal with taxes?
- Replies: 40
- Views: 4452
Re: How do you deal with taxes?
We're retired with substantial 1099 MISC income and make quarterly IRS payments using https://www.eftps.gov website.
- Wed Dec 18, 2019 5:40 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Is there any fundamental difference between auto "reinvest dividends" and buying more as soon as you get a cash dist.?
- Replies: 14
- Views: 1696
Re: Is there any fundamental difference between auto "reinvest dividends" and buying more as soon as you get a cash dist
Perchance is this an IRA or another type of tax sheltered account, if so then then Fidelity would show reinvested dividends with a zero cost. There wouldn't be any TLH in the account.livesoft wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2019 5:22 pmI think you are mis-interpreting parts of the Fidelity account, so you may wish to work that out somehow.octreotide wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2019 10:56 pmWhat about cost basis? I noticed in my fidelity account for things that are bought by auto reinvest it says they have a cost basis of 0, which seems odd.
- Fri Dec 13, 2019 6:09 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Why did Fidelity Total Market Index fund drop -1.55% today?
- Replies: 77
- Views: 8535
Re: Why did Fidelity Total Market Index fund drop -1.55% today?
From their website: "A dividend of 1.383 per share, declared on 12/13/2019, will be posted to your account on 12/16/2019."
- Sun Oct 27, 2019 6:23 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Vanguard system problem: buy reversed
- Replies: 20
- Views: 2453
Re: Vanguard system problem: buy reversed
Seems the problem is wide spread. From the "Independent Advisor for Vanguard Investors" "And once again, I regrettably have a service issue to alert you all to. On Tuesday, one eagle-eyed subscriber noticed that Vanguard had initiated a withdrawal from his Schwab checking account into his Prime Money Market (VMMXX) account. This was apparently a duplicate of a transaction the subscriber made and completed earlier in the month. When he contacted Vanguard about the issue, he was told that they knew about it and were working on it but didn’t have an answer on when he would get his money back. (I hope it has been resolved since we spoke.) Vanguard said that this problem has affected a “small number” of clients and that they are i...
- Tue Jul 09, 2019 10:02 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: "Vanguard hits back at Fidelity's loss-leader strategy by courting higher-margin businesses, like China and private equi
- Replies: 19
- Views: 2385
Re: "Vanguard hits back at Fidelity's loss-leader strategy by courting higher-margin businesses, like China and private
This only reinforces what I have been saying for the last 10 - 12 years. People have been repeatedly extolling the virtues of the mutual ownership structure of Vanguard vs. the private ownership of competitors. I have always maintained that history has repeatedly demonstrated that the profit motive drives cost efficiencies that do not tend to occur in mutual ownership structures. There reaches a tipping point where economies of scale do not increase in mutual ownership structures and they hit a wall with cost containment. There really have been clear signs over the last five years that Vanguard has had a marketing strategy to increase higher margin business and not necessarily on its core focus of lowering costs championed by John Bogle. I...
- Tue Jul 09, 2019 9:28 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: "Vanguard hits back at Fidelity's loss-leader strategy by courting higher-margin businesses, like China and private equi
- Replies: 19
- Views: 2385
Re: "Vanguard hits back at Fidelity's loss-leader strategy by courting higher-margin businesses, like China and private
This only reinforces what I have been saying for the last 10 - 12 years. People have been repeatedly extolling the virtues of the mutual ownership structure of Vanguard vs. the private ownership of competitors. I have always maintained that history has repeatedly demonstrated that the profit motive drives cost efficiencies that do not tend to occur in mutual ownership structures. There reaches a tipping point where economies of scale do not increase in mutual ownership structures and they hit a wall with cost containment. There really have been clear signs over the last five years that Vanguard has had a marketing strategy to increase higher margin business and not necessarily on its core focus of lowering costs championed by John Bogle. I...
- Tue Jul 09, 2019 6:21 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: (Tall) Buyer Beware: Honda Accord.
- Replies: 77
- Views: 15481
- Sat Jun 22, 2019 10:19 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Fidelity Balanced Fund
- Replies: 20
- Views: 3181
Re: Fidelity Balanced Fund
Contrary to a earlier post, according to Fidelity's website VG Balanced Index fund has a $75.00 transaction fee. The $4.95 fee refers to equities and ETFs.
- Sat Jun 08, 2019 10:30 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Do you carry Umbrella Insurance?
- Replies: 142
- Views: 13653
Re: Do you carry Umbrella Insurance?
We carry 5M.
- Mon Jun 03, 2019 4:38 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: What percent of your assets do you have in investment property (excluding your personal residence)?
- Replies: 73
- Views: 4850
Re: What percent of your assets do you have in investment property (excluding your personal residence)?
None now. About four years ago I sold our personally held commercial property and the the privately held C-Corp that used it as an office. Being an ex-investment property owner allows us to sleep better.
- Sat Jun 01, 2019 11:45 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: How did you all do in the month of May, 2019
- Replies: 126
- Views: 13270
Re: How did you all do in the month of May, 2019
Considering the combined portfolio we dropped 5 basis points less than our benchmark which is VG Balanced Index Fund VBIAX.
- Mon May 13, 2019 2:42 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Email to my Edward Jones Rep
- Replies: 46
- Views: 5343
Re: Email to my Edward Jones Rep
+1, telling the EJ salesman how much you are netting on the sale isn't a good idea.
When I dumped the family RBC advisor I sent him a note saying "I was going in a different direction..." as Fidelity was pulling the funds.