Bogleheads.org

TA_Lurker

There are collectible things you can purchase which may appreciate like an investment but I'm not sure you can get into that market for $15,000.

I don't own a home but I imagine $15,000 worth of energy efficiency improvements might return a tidy investment over a long enough period

TA_Lurker

While this seems like a pretty simple addition I am concerned for a number of reasons that the present design of the house does not readily avail it to being added on to. I am actually having a difficult time invisioning the best way to accomplish this. Our most prudent course of action may be sell...

TA_Lurker

I would sell the place. Your children have neither the cash flow, the time, nor the experience to manage this asset. Yes, given the market and the cash flow this asset could potentially be very valuable in the long run. But it could also potentially cause a lot of problems. Taking the cash now and m...

TA_Lurker

TA_Lurker , I've read Livesoft's threads, but I think our marginal rate is highly likely to exceed 15% even if our effective rate is lower. I certainly wouldn't fill the Roth 401k in the 25% bracket, but it seems like a pretty good deal to me to pay 22% now for growth starting at age 25/24. The fli...

TA_Lurker

I believe Roth 401k is a good choice for us for now because we're likely to cross into the 25% marginal rate at some point and hopefully remain there in retirement. Reconsider your choice of Roth 401k. You've identified cashflow as your problem. Switching to a Traditional 401k will improve your cas...

TA_Lurker

We have 7,500 pictures, movies too, and a small amount of documents. We are on a Windows machine and just purchased the first iPad. Has anyone used Microsoft's Sky Drive? I understand you get 7 GB free and can purchase an additional 20 GB for $10 a year? I'm guessing your pictures, movies, and docu...

TA_Lurker

I have two methods. Really important stuff is stored in a small TrueCrypt file that sits inside my Google Sync folder. I backup my media once a month via an external hard drive and a free program called SyncBack. The external hard drive sits a few feet from the notebook so I'm really only combating ...

TA_Lurker

I can think of two things: 1) Tax treatment. Taxable assets invested in a Target Retirement fund may result in a higher tax bill than the same dollars held in a slice-and-dice portfolio because you are essentially holding a bond fund inside a Target Retirement fund inside a taxable account. This isn...

TA_Lurker

How did this all work before 2001?

TA_Lurker

If you've never been to his website check out www.cgmfunds.com. It's bizzarely simple and charmingly antiquated. Just two pages, one table, and one form.

TA_Lurker

Interesting comments thus far. I think a lot of these comment are full of biasm to what position the commenter is living their own lives. The father age folks are giving the "butt out outsider that is my daughter" and the younger crowd is giving the "that is my future spouse and I ha...

TA_Lurker

Interesting comments thus far. I think a lot of these comment are full of biasm to what position the commenter is living their own lives. The father age folks are giving the "butt out outsider that is my daughter" and the younger crowd is giving the "that is my future spouse and I ha...

TA_Lurker

OP you need to realize this isn't a financial issue, it's a relationship issue. Two things: 1) Don't argue with her father. Odds are you aren't going to change his mind. Market Timing is like addiction, the person in question has to be willing to accept help before help will be effective. So don't a...

TA_Lurker

As long as time is kept on your side, you can eliminate short term market volatility and hopefully come out ahead. At this point, the forum has completely squashed the idea and it become more theoretical view of the numbers, or a "what if". Thank you for your posts. As long as time, *chea...

TA_Lurker

Even I had stacks of $100 bills in a shoe box to pay FMV (say $500,000), the question would still remain, do you buy rental property, land, cars, condos, boats outright... or do you take a low interest loan (say 3%) out and reinvest your cash and hope/risk for a higher rate of return (say 8%)? refe...

TA_Lurker

A 4% loan on $400,000 is ~$2425/month. Can you and your wife live on the other $11,000/month that you net?

Enjoy your new house!

TA_Lurker

Even I had stacks of $100 bills in a shoe box to pay FMV (say $500,000), the question would still remain, do you buy rental property, land, cars, condos, boats outright... or do you take a low interest loan (say 3%) out and reinvest your cash and hope/risk for a higher rate of return (say 8%)? refe...

TA_Lurker

I don't tip. I don't believe in it. How does that work for you in practice? I once had a waiter chase after me because he thought I didn't tip and although the mistake was his (I did tip, he just had a major brainfart/was really bad at counting) I've never returned to that restaurant. I can only im...

TA_Lurker

It's actually rather decent. I get 3% interest from my credit union NEFCU on my checkings up to $25,000. The difference between the simplest scenario (you paying off the loan immediately) vs. the optimal scenario (maximizing the period of interest loan deferment) is $120 (3% on $4,000). What's $120...

TA_Lurker

Instead of keeping one document in sync across multiple machines (thus creating severeal copies) one not establish one machine as a central repository, share it on your network, and store all documents there? ^^^ because a sync would be easier and I'm lazy :) There would be some other benefits to h...

TA_Lurker

Instead of keeping one document in sync across multiple machines (thus creating severeal copies) one not establish one machine as a central repository, share it on your network, and store all documents there?

TA_Lurker

I'd like to thank all those who contributed their personal emergency fund story. I'm young enough (I had a coworker tell me recently he never heard of the OJ bronco chase -- that's when I realized I was no longer young) and while I think I'm doing OK I have two financially insecure parents, one of w...

TA_Lurker

wilked wrote:Sounds like you just need to marry well to solve that problem

I'm open to referrals.

TA_Lurker

You can use an assumption of 5% real, and it's not unthinkable, but I wouldn't do all of my planning based upon that number. I perform thought experiments based upon 4% real, but I also recognize that I may not earn that and save accordingly. It's much easier to save more than you need to early on,...

TA_Lurker

I don't think you properly accounted for time-value of money in your calculations... You are assessing your retirement dollars relative to today's expenses. You might also want to re-run those calculations for 4% and 3% return on your money. Honestly, my thought was that you are not saving enough, ...

TA_Lurker

I'm working under the assumption of 5% real return. Is that really unrealistic? Hasn't the market historically produced real returns north of 7% over 30 year periods in the past?

TA_Lurker

Emergency fund = Fully Funded Debt: No debt. Credit card paid off every month. Tax Filing Status: Single Tax Rate: 25% Federal marginal (barely -- see below) 5.3% State (MA) Age: 31 Desired Asset allocation: 80% stocks 20% bonds International allocation: 25% of stocks Current portfolio has reached s...

TA_Lurker

I understand the part about paying for your condo in cash but not the part about paying yourself back plus charging interest. If you're the kind of person who managed to save the six figure some necessary to to purchase a condo outright why do you also need to play the mental game of pretending that...

TA_Lurker

A car repair that came in below my deductible

TA_Lurker

I don't think pork bellies are traded any more... Maybe invest in the US Open next weekend. = )

http://m.npr.org/story/138517906?url=/b ... rk-bellies

TA_Lurker

What's to stop the sister from selling the annuity for cash after all is said and done?

TA_Lurker

Hi Boston Nannny, a few suggestions: 1) Do you have a budget? I find budgeting very useful, as it allows me to decide what my money will do before I spend it. If you want to fool around with budgeting and like to do stuff online check out Mint.com. I use Mint to track my spending in a few basic cate...

TA_Lurker

Taxes.

Bonds throw off interest payments that are taxed as income at your marginal tax rate if they are held in a taxable account. A stock index fund throws off much less dividend and capital gains income that may be taxed at your marginal tax rate.

TA_Lurker

Now my wedding was, apparently, one of the biggest events in the social calendar of Italians in the South End of Boston. **snip** Also, my mom suddenly passed away a short time after the wedding, and that was the last time I saw her. I'm glad to remember her in that setting: the mom of the groom at...

TA_Lurker

Check the TOS first. I don't have a link but essentially your uploaded content becomes Google's property. Excuse me for being naive but what exactly does this objection mean? Does it mean that Google can take a screenshot of my budget spreadsheet with all my personal details and use it in a commerc...

TA_Lurker

I really wish I had this problem.

TA_Lurker

If you're the kind of person who can sleep on anything I would defer to her judgement on a mattress. Sleep is too important to ask her to compromise. Assuming you can afford the $3300 of course.

TA_Lurker

You mentioned siblings. How are they doing? You may want to keep this investment in something more conservative and liquid than you would otherwise consider for yourself in case they too start looking for their share of these funds. Your parents may decide they would like to see their children spend...

TA_Lurker

For 2011 I paid $550.00 in fees. I started with a 28,209.66 balance and ended the year with 27628.65... Hmmm, you lost $581. Are you confusing market losses with fees? No. Right on my statement there is an line item call fees. The fees are $125.00 per qtr and $50 annual fee for 2011. You're paying ...

TA_Lurker

When dealing with corporate internet resources anything you do to undermine the infrastructure put in place by the IT staff will be judged guilty until proven otherwise. And I'm glad that's the case. Time to join the rest of us checking our smartphones in the commode. Check out Virgin Mobile - they ...

TA_Lurker

Hi bogleheads, Age: 24 EF: $3,600 (about 4 months) Debt: Car - $13,400 @ 3.9% Roth IRA through Fidelity: $4,400 1.1% Cash Reserves, $50 28.72% Low Priced Stock (FLPSX) - 0.83% 62.22% New Markets Income (FNMIX) - 0.87% 7.59% Annaly Management REIT (NLY) 403(b) through Fidelity: < $10,000 20.79% Cont...

TA_Lurker

Difference between dividend and a CD: Your employer pays taxes on its profits. Those profits are then paid to a shareholder as a dividend. The shareholder then pays tax again on the dividend. On the other hand your employer does not pay taxes on the revenue it pays to you, the employee, via a W2. It...

TA_Lurker

Im not sure if Im doing my calculations correctly but I think I'm somewhere around 18%. I havve to agree with MachAF. How can you live so frugally? I have to say im envious of my friend who is really cheap/frugal. Im a spender and new to the Boglehead site. I also imagine my lifestyle is drasticall...

TA_Lurker

Maybe the answer is to create valuable IP. How does the stress vs. reward ratio look for the person that created Angry Birds?

TA_Lurker

although they require some schooling, i don't think these health-related fields are as high-stress as some others but pay pretty decently: Pharmacist I know several Pharmacists and they are some of the most stressed people I know. Too much time spent taking abuse from junkies and the elderly. They ...

TA_Lurker

Hi Bogleheads, I'm getting married soon! :D I now live in a paid-off condo and have liquid assets. My fiancée has significantly higher income but no net worth and currently rents. Given our work situations, I believe it makes sense to buy a house together. However, we probably won't co-mingle our m...

TA_Lurker

I don't have any insider information to share but I don't think the two products will be merged anytime in the near future. They seem to be aimed at vastly different markets.

TA_Lurker

Check out NPR's This American Life. It's a weekly hour long podcast covering every topic imaginable. You might have to pay a small fee to access their archives but in your condition it will be money well spent. Two of my favorite episodes from last year was their show on Amusement Parks and the one ...

TA_Lurker

**deleted inaccurate info. Teaches me not to reply from my mobile. Thx everyone for the updates.**

TA_Lurker

Thank you, one other question I just thought of. My entire Roth balance as of today is conversions from SEP. Can anybody verify the information below is correct? I just want to make sure this is right and that the $5k regular contribution would be the first thing I take out (don't want to pay a pen...

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