retiredjg wrote:
Suggestion: Change:
- Total of All Accounts Together (not each account individually) equals 100%
to
Total of All Accounts Together (not each account individually) should equal 100%.
Good idea, anything you can do to emphasize this will help.
retiredjg wrote:I may or may not have a problem with the tables. For illustration purposes, it is very nice. In practice...I'm not sure yet. If the poster does a copy and paste, I'm not sure what will happen. If the tables transfer over that could make things more difficult for people who are posting suggestions.
I was concerned about that too, but I found that if you copy and paste the rendered version on a web page (i.e. not the textual source with the formatting tags) and paste, then the tags are stripped out.
I think Barry's formatting enhancements are good because they help the viewer visualize the different sections more clearly, and thankfully the formatting tags disappear when pasted into a new topic box.
Switching gears, I think it's ok to hyperlink a couple of terms to the wiki, but not overdoing it. I agree with the original intent of the post and suggested format to keep it simple and not have too many footnotes, asterisks and rambling explanations that will just overwhelm, intimidate or confuse the people who even bother to read them all. I agree with Taylor that the original post strikes a very good balance and has stood the test of time, and that any changes should be make carefully and avoid over complicating it.
I feel like we should add to the original only when we find that people are chronically making the same mistakes or omissions. To that point, I doubt people are chronically putting their expense ratios in incorrectly, but I thought it was still important to note because it wouldn't surprise me if people are entering them wrong and no one even realizes it. To me, that is such an important mistake that you want to go out of your way to help people avoid making that mistake.
Finally, I like this and would suggest adding the part in red as well:
ruralavalon wrote:I suggest adding before the illustration of accounts, for greater emphasis and more prominence --
Providing the split of your assets and contributions between taxable and tax-advantaged accounts is also helpful. Please include all investment and retirement accounts, including spouse/partner if applicable, as it's important to look at the portfolio as a unified whole rather than look at accounts in isolation. Also include the available funds in your employer provided retirement plans.