Bogleheads.org

bottlecap

Purpose, please?

JT

bottlecap

My wife’s father, his siblings, and a few other relatives inherited more than $50,000 a piece of stock in a company from a relative that worked there for 35 years. All told it was nearly $800,000.00. Everyone but his spendthrift sister held onto the stock. One brother bought her out. She almost cert...

bottlecap

"God forbid you give it back in the form of a dividend," he said. "While it may not be the most tax efficient, at least with dividends you let the shareholder decide what to do with the money." This made me laugh-like the shareholder is somehow prevented from selling shares to achieve the same goal...

bottlecap

It seems like you can do it as long as you have a trust fund to use for school and/or fall back on when you retire. Given your incomes for the past twenty years, the amount saved, your location, and the amount of your fixed expenses, I’m guessing that it would be very difficult to live on less than ...

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I'm a fan of the sneaker and suit look, but it's hard to pull off with shoes like that (as nice as they are!). Converse or Adidas would be great, if you already own them. Check out these looks: https://www.dmarge.com/2018/04/sneakers-suit.html#gsi3 And note...not many of them are wearing ties, and ...

bottlecap

Interesting question. I guess I don’t anymore. Investing is not joyful or painful. I hope retirement will be joyful, though.

JT

bottlecap

It’s as good - or as bad - take your pick - a time as any to invest in Tesla.

JT

bottlecap

Odyssey is the standard.

Stow and go is nice if you don't use child car seats and want to use your $35k+ minivan as a pickup truck. And you can afford the time and money associated with the repairs that come due on a Chrysler.

JT

bottlecap

I think unless you are sure that you are the rare individual that could pull that look off, it will just look goofy. This is okay if a) you're 19 or b) everyone knows you intend to be goofy. What I think doesn't matter, however. What would the couple think? That's what's important. If they wouldn't ...

bottlecap

6-12 months worth of expenses in an emergency fund. Pick an Asset Allocation using two or three funds (Total Stock Market Index, Total Bond Market Index, perhaps some in Total International Stock Market Index). For someone who is 45, something like 50/20/30 TSM,TISM,TBM. Then rebalance once a year,...

bottlecap

Sounds like a manufacturer problem. I’d call them first.

JT

bottlecap

Another no. They don’t sell these to lose money. It’s a losing bet on an appliance that you can afford to fix yourself if anything goes wrong. Why make it? It’s anecdotal, but I’ve had a fairly good sample size and never seen anything go wrong with a dishwasher until maybe year 8, and that was only ...

bottlecap

Answer:

It’s not, but few people can buy a house without financing. You can invest small amounts regularly without financing.

JT

bottlecap

I've been hyper focused on paying off the mtgs and maximizing revenue and have been paying 0% attention to putting my cash to work for the last 15 years, which is why I have a bunch of CD's and money market accounts. Currently, with less to do, I am eager to get my hard earned cash working for me i...

bottlecap

It looks like $1,000 parts and labor for the intake manifold gasket replacement. That's a bit expensive, but not crazy. The remaining $400+ looks to be for other stuff. Assuming it needed doing, I don’t think you got ripped off. In my area, however, that's more like dealership pricing than independe...

bottlecap

Well, this certainly gives me something to look forward to in 20 years...

JT

bottlecap

No advantage whatsoever. You are just trying to pick the stocks in the index that have done well lately and overweight them.

If this worked most of the time, wouldn’t it be a part of the investing manual?

You have a good income. Don’t get fancy and screw things up.

JT

bottlecap

This ones on you, although I am surprised the insurance company didn’t send a letter notifying of the impending cancellation. I have never met with my agent and wouldn’t expect to. I call him and tell him my needs and his office sends me the information and pricing. The policy, and all billing, is d...

bottlecap

Have your brother contact a health insurance broker. Over the last few years health care insurance has become wildly expensive despite inflated deductibles and it has become impossibly complex. That’s why I would go to a broker in his situation. The bottom line is too retire early - before something...

bottlecap

I don’t know. Why not try it?

Costco isn’t just for people who buy in bulk, you know.

JT

bottlecap

At first blush, I tend to agree.

It contains an interesting, but obvious, point about Buffett that many ignore, too.

JT

bottlecap

And I don't know why non-lawyers are so quick to chime in with their thoughts / suggestions. Law isn't just for lawyers, it is for everyone. Some small claims courts don't even allow lawyers to represent clients in court. There is a difference between “the law”, which is for everyone, and giving le...

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Here’s my nonlegal advice. Make both the neighbor and the contractor aware. Tell neighbor you are trying to resolve through the contractor. Neighbor may even help. If contractor doesn’t make it right, then go to the neighbor for redress. Your friend has no relationship to keep with the contractor, b...

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Target date funds, really? Yup. Really. You’re missing the fact that most people that have lives to live will not rebalance regularly and, for fear of market conditions, may even hesitate to rebalance. Reality trumps theory. It is well worth a few extra basis points in a tax advantaged account to t...

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Yes. Of course it’s a fool's game. Everyone is capable of being a fool in this game. So don’t play it.

JT

bottlecap

A target retirement fund is one of the best options around.

We all think we can do better. Few do. And they are the lucky ones, not the smart ones.

Stay unsophisticated, my friend.

JT

bottlecap

Blind spot monitoring is nice. ABS is standard now. I presume ESC is as well. Unless you are buying used, of course. Automatic braking to avoid collisions is also nice as a failsafe, although in the short amount of time I’ve driven with it, it started to brake on a narrow winding road because of onc...

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Email does work really well. Don’t give them your phone number until you’ve got a price you like. Ask for out the door prices. You can get a good feel for what they will sell it for once you get 5or 6 responses. Some dealers will be way off, but a few will give you close to their lowest price. I thi...

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Honda no longer publishes a maintenance schedule in the manual. The work is based on the maintenance minder. However, if you search Honda forums or dealerships on the internet, they will give you a rough idea of when the maintence codes should appear. Oil, for instance, is about 7,500 miles, accordi...

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Impossible for any of us to say because we can’t properly evaluate the opportunity.

But you are basically more than set as it is. Of course, your present work may not be as stable as you think, but if it is, you have a lot to potentially lose.

Good luck,

JT

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My oldest is 7. I don’t think I’m going to teach her about investing. Stuff like saving is more digestible and important at this point. I also have a boy child. I don’t think that the yardstick will be different for him. I suspect that every child is different regardless of sex and I suspect that I ...

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I’m a little late, but the tire rotation is a good deal. The manual may say that your brake fluid needs to be changed based on time, but if it’s "dirty" you may have a problem. I doubt it’s dirty. I think you are getting taken advantage of on some of this stuff, but it could be worse. Don’t take it ...

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What business is it of yours or mine why someone would choose employer funded insurance, open market insurance, ACA subsidized insurance, healthcare sharing or nothing at all. If you are truly interested in understand the underlying issues, you might start with these Wikipedia articles: https://en....

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At least give any example of where it left someone high and dry. JT I googled it. My first hit gave seven. "There were dozens of reader comments left on the bottom of Parnell’s blog post, including six by people who said they were Medical Cost Sharing members and had nonpayment complaints similar t...

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Nate79 wrote: ↑
Fri Jul 06, 2018 10:06 am

bottlecap wrote: ↑
Fri Jul 06, 2018 9:46 am
I’d fire my broker.

You can always find a chart or fund that looks better than an index.

The thing is, you can only find it for sure in hindsight.

JT
So everyone should fire Vanguard for their research?

Sure.

bottlecap

You use the terms income with wealth interchangeably, so it’s hard to comment.

But in general, those in the different quartile a of income do fluctuate over the decades.

JT

bottlecap

I’d fire my broker.

You can always find a chart or fund that looks better than an index.

The thing is, you can only find it for sure in hindsight.

JT

bottlecap

Take it to someone who is not a dealer. Seems strange that 3 of 4 rims have been bent since your last tire rotation.

JT

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I invest like I do after thorough research into the subject, not on the advice of any one individual. And I certainly do not justify my conclusions with snippets from experts repeated without context. Even if it is Jack Bogle. If Jack Bogle ever truly decides to play valuations, it won’t make my con...

bottlecap

Haha. But I was hoping for a summer drink recipe or four...

JT

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Shouldn’t we not advocate for indexing too much due to the efficiency non-indexers bring to the market? Essentially I am benefiting from others paying brokerage fees to make the index market more efficient for me. If too many people index then the market becomes inefficient. This is posted about fr...

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But why can’t those same bright ones at least identify 25 dogs out of 500 large companies? Or 20? Or even 10? What exactly makes something like that so very difficult to accomplish? Well, because you have to intimately know the industry each company is in. You have to know what management of the co...

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If you are only planning on keeping it a few more years, I probably wouldn't sink $5k in it. I'd take the $2,500. Your mechanic will make some money on it, but if you can't do the work yourself, thems the breaks. I suppose you could pay the $5k, drive it for two years, and sell it for $5k, though. S...

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I don't reflexively say that you need health insurance like some folks. But you do have a lot to lose in your case. Plus, you have so much in assets, even paying $2,500 per month isn't going to crimp your style, even though it makes you wince. I would look into a catastrophic plan to the extent that...

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I'd just get it fixed unless it would crush you financially. That way you have air now and should you want to sell it, someone might want to buy it.

JT

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Record it if it’s legal where you live. That’s about the only way to "document" it without committing it to writing in some form.

JT

bottlecap

Boss: Sorry about not getting the promotion. I felt like I need to see more initiative out of you before that happens. You: Thanks for letting me know. I took the initiative on x, y, z things so far, but I’m always looking to improve. Are there any things you think I can start doing right now to tak...

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He’s wrong. His preferred endorsed providers don’t sell index funds, so he doesn’t beleive in them. I’m not a Dave Ramsey hater, but he's smart enough to figure this out. Therefore I have to conclude that he knows which side his bread is buttered and he will never advocate index funds because he rea...

bottlecap

Unless you need a bigger truck for hauling stuff, the Ridgeline sounds like a win. I imagine it gets better mileage and it’s easier to drive.

Chevy and even Ford can’t beat Honda reliability, either.

JT

bottlecap

Is there a way to identify the “bad” companies in the S&P 500 ahead of time?

GE was one of those bad companies. I guess it should never have been a part of the index.

JT

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