Bogleheads.org

dbr

You could look and see what VPW would do in case of a stock return of -50% in a year: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Variabl ... withdrawal.

Between Nov of '07 and Feb of '09 my portfolio had declined by about 30% but we didn't make any withdrawal changes hovering around 3%-4% withdrawal.

dbr

A consideration is to be aware of the difference between all season tires and all weather tires (which have a winter snow rating). The difference would matter if you are concerned about snow but don't intend to put actual winter snow tires on for the winter season. I don't know which of your list is...

dbr

Unless you are skilled and knowledgeable at painting slapping a coat of paint on things is probably not a good idea unless that is already the standard that has been applied to the house. I'm still cursing the people who painted over old wallpaper in my house, though most of it is off now. I'm a lit...

dbr

Check out anything that needs to be brought up to code.

dbr

Thanks for everyone’s comments about how they are using the cash and the reasons for stockpiling. However, I’m really looking at how people actually accumulated that cash? Was it slowly over time, selling bonds/equities right before retirement, foregoing other investments the final X years to fund ...

dbr

To me, the best use of TIPS is for long-term holdings. Short-term, with nominal bonds, investors will demand enough interest to compensate for expected inflation. Over the short term, serious unexpected inflation doesn't have much time to show up and bite deeply, so I wouldn't expect the difference...

dbr

The reason I did not invest in an intermediate term TIPS fund like SCHP is because the difference in real yield between it and the short term TIPS fund is so very minimal. I looked at STIP vs TIP and the real yield delta is only about 0.3%. Given that and the big duration difference, it seemed to m...

dbr

A fund like Wellesley could certainly be used to hold some of the stocks and some of the bonds. It is certainly not a 1-1 replacement for a bond fund because it is not a 100% bond fund, and, of course, arithmetic tells you that 60 is not the same number as 100. Naturally one could configure the allo...

dbr

Yes, in principle but . . . I own an older house and if wanting a new door there is a local door and window/millworks company that I would take over a big box operation without hesitation. I wouldn't even walk in the door of Home Depot or the likes for something like this. You will also pay for what...

dbr

Admittedly, I don't understand how to read Price/Performance data very well. I am reviewing the following: https://www.morningstar.com/funds/xnas/vbtlx/performance https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-funds/profile/performance/vbtlx/cumulative-returns Using the 2020 Total Return of 7.72%, does that...

dbr

I think Vanguard total stock VTSAX/VTI would be suitable. There is no such fund property as "good performance." All funds offer a chance of returns and a chance one will or won't get that return. The performance of VTSAX will be that of the total United States stock market and cost will be...

dbr

Given our age group and somewhat high risk tolerance, are we diversified enough with Real Estate equity without bonds? It isn't a question of diversification. It is a question of how much return to expect and how much uncertainty you will get that return that you can tolerate. Return, of course, ca...

dbr

I got bored with Total Bond some time ago and now have a smorgasbord of bond funds: equal parts intermediate-term bond and intermediate-term treasury--along with a good amount of TIPS, I bonds, and a small amount of the emerging markets bond fund (only about 1%). Oh, and an intermediate-term munici...

dbr

What are you paying for these bond ladder investments? You should know both the ER and any loads. For example EALTX has an expense ratio of 0.65% and a maximum front end load of 4.75%. That includes a 12b-1 of .25% I don't know if you have that fund and just looked for an example. Also, do you pay a...

dbr

In Portfolio Visualizer when you have annual cashflows, at what point in the year do they occur? I always assumed it was on Jan 1 of the year, however it seems like it happens at the end of the year looking at the cashflows. If so does it occur on Dec 31 after the return for that date is taken into...

dbr

I would like some clarification on how dividends are equivalent to selling shares. When you receive a dividend, the number of shares you hold remains the same. If you sell, then you're decreasing your number of shares. If you continue selling, eventually your shares will be depleted. On the other h...

dbr

Remember FireCalc is built to help people decide if they can retire. So taxes for them will not be such a huge proportion of expenses as the OP's example and FireCalc is a good tool to help those folks see what happens if historical risks apply. But when the portfolio increases greatly as it is lik...

dbr

My questions are: 1. Is “earning your nut” in portfolio gains worth thinking about and if so what action would you take? 2. Ignore this “earning your nut” concept and just rebalance the portfolio back to AA when required. That's nonsense. You retirement plan is not normally based on withdrawing wha...

dbr

What would be your inputs into FIRE Calc? I'd enter $9,000,000 for the portfolio value, then click to the Investigate tab and have it tell me what amount of spending is "safe" It says $363,000. Then I'd usey understanding of the tax system to decide if $363,000 pre-tax would be enough to ...

dbr

The problem when people object to dividend schemes is not usually that there is anything wrong with dividends as to suggest that there is nothing especially helpful either. Sometimes someone goes so far as to think dividends are free money on top of ordinarily expected returns, and that is just wron...

dbr

have recently been told I have family money It might be helpful to describe the circumstances or context in which you were told this. I was letting someone know of the annual gift allowance my wife's grandfather has given to his grandkids as contributions to their Roths since they were old enough t...

dbr

I am also trying to learn more about how bond funds perform in different interest rate environments, and how to compare them. Maybe this would be helpful for the OP as well. I understand rising interest rates tend to lower a given fund price but also increase the fund's interest income. What is the...

dbr

I am not familiar with tax estimators and just run dummy tax returns so I can see, as you have done, exactly what is happening. I don't think I would want to just plug and chug in an app I don't understand. In fact I use TurboTax every year to create an estimate for what is going to happen next year...

dbr

There was a thread here from someone who claimed that Vanguard was telling him they had no money for him on the grounds that he did not exist. Well, maybe a bit garbled but you might find the thread somehow and see if there was an outcome. It was something about no one with that name being anywhere ...

dbr

+1 to above. Even an old warhorse like FireCalc allows entry of income and expense circumstances and all assets in general format. An interesting divide in methodology is between using Monte-Carlo methods or using methods based on actual historical data as in FireCalc, CFireSim, the Otar planner and...

dbr

You have questions in detail. It would probably be a good idea to format more information according to the guidelines for asking questions here:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6212

dbr

Are there any fees to use it? You have to check your plan documents or ask the plan administrator. Any surprise gotchas that I should be aware of? I'm not sure what would be a gotcha. You might have to pay commissions for some things or not. When I eventually want to rollover the 401k to a Rollover...

dbr

I appreciate all the feedback. Now that we are recently retired we are more sensitive to the accounts going down in value. We're planning to start Roth conversions this year and over the next 5 or so. Whatever hasn't been converted by that point we will pull for expenses. Retirement accounts going ...

dbr

You are not off base because the advice is for situations that are different from yours. But all tax management is detailed and specific. For you it starts with a matter of fact that there are bonds in a taxable account and that the amount of income is at a middling level so far as tax costs. Things...

dbr

2. At least one feasible alternative is 50% intermediate Treasury/50% intermediate TIPS.* *Disclaimer: 2. is what I have held for a few decades now. dbr, I am also mulling over what the composition of my FI should be. One thing I am considering is just what you are doing, 50% intermediate Treasury/...

dbr

Thank you for the response, and you're correct in that I have multiple investment vehicles (401K, Roth IRA, and a taxable brokerage account). After reading what you said about the international allocation within the TR funds, I have to agree that I have no interest in having international bonds in ...

dbr

I started retirement with $400k in cash and am glad I did. We’re using these funds for aggressive Roth conversions over the next few years (living expense and taxes). In hindsight I wish I’d set aside even more in taxable for this purpose. This is an example of a special case use of money where one...

dbr

Typically you would withdraw so that you maintain the same AA before and after. The target fund helps you do this without any rebalancing required. If you withdraw only bonds then your AA will drift more stock heavy, thus defeating the point of the target funds. Are you trying to move toward an AA ...

dbr

Really having family money means one is in a different world from anything having to do with Boglehead investing. It is possible that MacKenzie Bezos has "family" money and so does/will Mrs. Warren Buffett. Other people with family money are, or used to be, named things like Astor or Rocke...

dbr

1. You are wasting time and worry trying to find "better" bond funds. Bond funds fluctuate in value. But it doesn't matter. The properties to attend to are the possible return and uncertainty of return of your whole portfolio. That is more of each with more stocks and less of each with mor...

dbr

Associated Core Bond Fund (no code) 0.01% ER? It is highly likely this is a suitable fund. The word "core" tends to be a giveaway to being "total bond" like. Surely there is a description of the holdings of the fund or a statement of fund objective or even an index that you can ...

dbr

I think to be family money it is more than just inherited or expected to be passed down but also that the accounts are owned in trusts or entities that are joint to a number of individuals. This implies that no single person can just do something with all the money. There is an implication that this...

dbr

I never had a cash position before, at, or through retirement. Now retired 14 years. But there can also be confusion about emergency fund, whatever. It is inevitable that cash exists in various accounts because cash management is not that precise. It isn't worth the effort to make it precise. There ...

dbr

Bonds aren't really supposed to generate income. Only in declining rate scenario would bonds have positive real return. When yields are higher, inflation is higher. AGG and BND are investment grade and excellent choices but more for wealth preservation and reducing volatility than to generate incom...

dbr

Reason I'm asking is that I'm a relatively young retiree. I try and follow Bill Bernstein's advice to have 25X expenses in "safe" instruments, but if "safe" means short term T-bills and the like, then that 25X in T-bills doesn't generate enough income to live on. AGG has a signi...

dbr

I just retired and have company 401k with Fidelity in target date fund. Want to rollover to IRA following Boglehead three fund portfolio. I thought it would be easier to stay with Fidelity, so I identified Fidelity Total Market Index Fund, Fidelity Total International Index Fund, Fidelity U.S. Bond...

dbr

Two suggestions: 1. Call your plan administrator and ask why you don't see separate accountings. It is possible you haven't drilled down into your online account far enough or it may be something they sent you is just a short summary letter. My 401k has some odd classes of contributions such as pre ...

dbr

How much of these investments, if any, are simply about more risk? Would one do just as well funneling as much cash into VTWAX as possible with cheap leverage? Or do these kinds of investments tend to do better for investors because they're closer to the investment, higher priority on any payouts, ...

dbr

ok so cost basis looks accurate, based on the document EJ gave me. How is it handled if a stock is lower now than on cost basis date? If the cost basis is accurate for your interest in the assets, then you can sell at a loss and the loss can be used in a complicated way to offset income on your tax...

dbr

if LTTs (VGLT for example) are more negatively correlated to Stocks than BND, but with a potential to have lower draw downs and higher return, why not choose VGLT all the time over BND? Well, that is exactly an argument people do make, or a preference that people choose. The other side of that is t...

dbr

1. I used the Morningstar X-ray to see assess my small and mid cap tilt. What do you think is the most effective small and mid cap tilt. Value vs Core vs Growth. That depends on what you mean by effective. Theory says that the higher the allocation to small and value the higher the expected return....

dbr

As a generalization the best diversifier for a stock holding is long term Treasuries. This is well known. Note that when you do that the risk and return will be a higher selection than, for example, a high bond portfolio, but you get a good trade off of return for risk. The portfolio theory to suppo...

dbr

Total bond funds are "relatively safe." You have also learned that CDs are not safe because the interest paid can't be counted on. From the definition that investment risk is measured by the standard deviation of annual returns the risk in CDs is around +/-2% which is how much the return c...

dbr

It certainly depends on your specific tax situation, meaning your income or your proposed income, whether you are filing single or married, what exemptions, deductions, and credits you have, including possible tax losses and so on. Even sort of obvious advice not to take distributions from tax defer...

dbr

The missing information is how much they want to spend. A general model for planning for this sort of thing, one of several of the same nature, is www.firecalc.com I suggest working your way through that sort of model to get a feel for what their situation is. The model accepts their assets, planned...

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