Bogleheads.org

UpperNwGuy

Like your mother, I have only taxable accounts, no retirement accounts, and I hold bonds in those accounts. It's not the end of the world. As long as she is in the 20% tax bracket, she's fine with her present holdings. If she somehow ends up in the 24% tax bracket, she may want to consider municipa...

UpperNwGuy

I've never used a tax preparer, only TurboTax. I just bite the bullet and pay my taxes.

UpperNwGuy

I'm back with the standard screed. 1. Asset values are completely ridiculous. Returns have been dragged forward to the detriment of early accumulators. If you think these values are remotely reasonable you are completely blind. https://www.multpl.com/s-p-500-pe-ratio 2. What are your best strategie...

UpperNwGuy

I worked for 40 years and slightly eased up on the accelerator during my final nine months. During those months I worked mostly 8 hour days instead of my usual 10 hour days, stopped coming to work on weekends, and only took one business trip instead of my usual 10-12. On the other hand, I was in th...

UpperNwGuy

Like your mother, I have only taxable accounts, no retirement accounts, and I hold bonds in those accounts. It's not the end of the world. As long as she is in the 20% tax bracket, she's fine with her present holdings. If she somehow ends up in the 24% tax bracket, she may want to consider municipa...

UpperNwGuy

Learn to delegate. Even delegate those tasks that fall into your personal area of expertise. Even delegate those tasks that your boss asks you to do personally. Use your admin support. Let them keep your calendar and make your appointments and your travel arrangements. Stop doing that stuff yourself...

UpperNwGuy

For me, the problem with dividends can be summarized in one word: taxes.

UpperNwGuy

I worked for 40 years and slightly eased up on the accelerator during my final nine months. During those months I worked mostly 8 hour days instead of my usual 10 hour days, stopped coming to work on weekends, and only took one business trip instead of my usual 10-12. On the other hand, I was in th...

UpperNwGuy

Why are you folk so reluctant to let the dealer do a hard pull? Because if I am not borrowing money from the dealer or its affiliates, then the private information in my credit file is none of their business? Because it's none of my creditors' business (who monitor and review your report for new in...

UpperNwGuy

AGG is safe.

UpperNwGuy

Why are you folk so reluctant to let the dealer do a hard pull?

UpperNwGuy

burritoLover wrote: ↑Wed Apr 14, 2021 4:02 pm Has there ever been any 30-year period you DCA'd into the S&P 500 that returned less than 3%?

Nope.

UpperNwGuy

Obviously office REIT's are depressed still and does not look like a good buy for awhile. That's exactly why it is a good time for a long term investor to buy. And what if commercial office real estate never comes back? What if working from home becomes the permanent new normal. Office buildings wi...

UpperNwGuy

Obviously office REIT's are depressed still and does not look like a good buy for awhile. That's exactly why it is a good time for a long term investor to buy. And what if commercial office real estate never comes back? What if working from home becomes the permanent new normal. Office buildings wi...

UpperNwGuy

Unlike many bogleheads, I like mortgages. I think they're a good way to buy a house without hindering the growth of your investment portfolio. For me, housing is an expense, not an investment.

UpperNwGuy

I have all the REIT I need in VTSAX — market weight — so I will never have to add any REIT. I also don't have an advisor, so I don't have to deal with this kind of suggestion.

UpperNwGuy

calliecake47 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 13, 2021 9:24 pm Now that we are recently retired we are more sensitive to the accounts going down in value.

Are your accounts going down in value, or just this one fund? You should be managing your portfolio as a whole, not each fund separately.

UpperNwGuy

mrpotatoheadsays wrote: ↑Tue Apr 13, 2021 12:09 pm - with YTD total return of -3.12%. - Morningstar

and a five year average annual return of 3.07%.

UpperNwGuy

If you dont mind sharing: how was the transition from working to retirement for you going from the usual brisk clip on the final day to then being retired the very next day with all the time on your hands? You didn't ask me, but in my case it was wonderful. Suddenly I could do all my weekly errands...

UpperNwGuy

I worked for 40 years and slightly eased up on the accelerator during my final nine months. During those months I worked mostly 8 hour days instead of my usual 10 hour days, stopped coming to work on weekends, and only took one business trip instead of my usual 10-12. On the other hand, I was in the...

UpperNwGuy

Like your mother, I have only taxable accounts, no retirement accounts, and I hold bonds in those accounts. It's not the end of the world. As long as she is in the 20% tax bracket, she's fine with her present holdings. If she somehow ends up in the 24% tax bracket, she may want to consider municipal...

UpperNwGuy

Why should this be important to me? My IPS says to stay the course, not only through market crashes, high valuations, low interest rates, but also through changes to the rate of inflation.

UpperNwGuy

When you submit the paperwork for the background investigation leading to a government security clearance, they ask you to give them permission to check your credit reports.

UpperNwGuy

hi_there wrote: ↑Tue Apr 13, 2021 4:54 pm I would just throw it into the taxable account based on your current asset allocation. This $10k is 1% of your wealth.

+1

UpperNwGuy

You don't need an alternative to Total Bond. Rather you need to better understand how Total Bond will help you over the course of its duration.

UpperNwGuy

I retired with six months of cash, and I really didn't need most of that. I don't know why anyone would want multiple years of cash at retirement. In reading some of the responses to your questions, I think some folk are simply expressing a preference for going heavy on cash in the fixed income side...

UpperNwGuy

sport wrote: ↑Tue Apr 13, 2021 1:09 pm The solution is to transfer your Admiral Federal Cash Reserve Fund to the Federal MM fund or Treasury MM fund. These funds allow check writing.

This sound like an easy solution to me. What's all the fuss about?

UpperNwGuy

I was born, raised, studied, worked, and retired in DC, VA, NC, and MD. I suspect I'll live the rest of my life in one of those four states. I'm not fond of the hot, humid summers, and the winters sometimes get rough, but not so much in recent years. The springs and falls are lovely.

UpperNwGuy

Rules of thumb are often helpful to real estate investors. Also, someone with an $800,000 pretax income and only half a million invested in their portfolio is abyssal. OP, can you speak to why your retirement accounts seem to be low relative to your income? OP is probably younger and probably came ...

UpperNwGuy

watchnerd wrote: ↑Mon Apr 12, 2021 8:04 pm
UpperNwGuy wrote: ↑Mon Apr 12, 2021 7:53 pm
watchnerd wrote: ↑Mon Apr 12, 2021 3:06 pm Bah, I couldn't get my full limit order filled.

Even though I was offering the closing price.
Why didn't you use a market order?
See upthread

Because it would take the fun out of it?

UpperNwGuy

I would always go to my local jeweler.

UpperNwGuy

watchnerd wrote: ↑Mon Apr 12, 2021 3:06 pm Bah, I couldn't get my full limit order filled.

Even though I was offering the closing price.

Why didn't you use a market order?

UpperNwGuy

Conventional wisdom does have you shift assets into bonds at a higher proportion as you get older. I was 100% equities at your age and am now comfortable at 30% in bonds. I still have difficulty with moving towards a lower stock allocation. Therefore, I frequently review Jack Bogle’s “Common Sense ...

UpperNwGuy

Conventional wisdom does have you shift assets into bonds at a higher proportion as you get older. I was 100% equities at your age and am now comfortable at 30% in bonds. I still have difficulty with moving towards a lower stock allocation. Therefore, I frequently review Jack Bogle’s “Common Sense ...

UpperNwGuy

This morning, I read a Tweet I found depressing: "In 13 years as a financial advisor, I've never seen anyone actually turn their life around with a budget. They either earn their way out of their spending habits, or they are in debt forever." Do you agree? I was deeply in debt for many ye...

UpperNwGuy

I discovered I am holding quite a bit of International bonds! I did not realize Total Bond and Intermediate-term Bond funds have a significant share of Internat'l Bonds. I feel like they forcing me into investing in the Interna'tl. Total Bond has 3.1% foreign, and Intermediate Bond has 3.6% foreign...

UpperNwGuy

I'm fine with car loans. If you don't have a home mortgage, it provides a boost to your credit score. I think putting $10,000 or more down on the car and borrowing the rest can be good for credit scores without the problems caused by depreciation. That’s what they want you to think. Pay your bills ...

UpperNwGuy

Has anyone heard of HNDL? It's an EDF of EDFs and pays a distribution (not dividend) every month. Right now its paying 7% while the investment has gone unchanged. Here's an article that explains it. https://www.investopedia.com/investing/etf-designed-retirees/?utm_campaign=quote-yahoo&utm_sourc...

UpperNwGuy

When people recommend allocating a certain % of a portfolio into international fuds; let's say 10%. Id this 10% of the ENTIRE portfolio, or of stock allocation? SO if my portfolio is 90% stocks, 10% would be International and 80% (of the total stock allocation) would be domestic, is this correct? I...

UpperNwGuy

grabiner wrote: ↑Sat Apr 10, 2021 3:59 pm The important personal finance issue is that too many people take out a loan or a lease in order to buy more expensive cars than they should.

No danger of that happening to me. I've always owned low-end cars.

UpperNwGuy

I'm fine with car loans. If you don't have a home mortgage, it provides a boost to your credit score. I think putting $10,000 or more down on the car and borrowing the rest can be good for credit scores without the problems caused by depreciation. But if you have no mortgage and can buy a car in ca...

UpperNwGuy

I'm fine with car loans. If you don't have a home mortgage, it provides a boost to your credit score. I think putting $10,000 or more down on the car and borrowing the rest can be good for credit scores without the problems caused by depreciation.

UpperNwGuy

I've never understood people who have 3-4 or more accounts scattered all over the place, and they don't really know what their overall AA is without doing a lot of math. With spreadsheets you only have to do the math once — to create the spreadsheet formulas. After that, the spreadsheet takes over....

UpperNwGuy

Most responses in this thread have to do with hitting numbers. My experience was different. When I turned 50, I ran some numbers and decided I could retire at age 64. By my late 50s I realized that job stress was affecting my health/stamina, and I was losing patience with the games people play in la...

UpperNwGuy

livesoft wrote: ↑Sat Apr 10, 2021 6:06 am Are you saying then that on average one has a higher allocation to equities than one wants as stated in one's Asset Allocation plan?

I have found your statement to be true in my own investing life.

UpperNwGuy

My entire portfolio is in VSMGX (Vanguard LifeStrategy Moderate Growth). If I switch to 70% VT (Vanguard Total World Stock) and 30% Cash the expected return and risk are similar. Since I am planning to retire early next year, I am also protected against SOR with a hefty cash amount. Anything wrong ...

UpperNwGuy

I know that there are alot of variables such as cost of living but I am curious what people spend annually in retirement. My gut tells me that $50,000 annually would be living "high on the hog" assuming all debts are paid off. That's crazy talk! $50,000 is nothing in a high cost of living...

UpperNwGuy

Vanguard has no idea when you last logged on. I've never found their "last logged in" info to be correct.

UpperNwGuy

Yes, Fidelity has a better website, but Vanguard has better funds. Which do you consider to be more important?

UpperNwGuy

The current value with the 60 day penalty is $5,022. I have had 5 CDs mature over the past 9 weeks and all those monies went to the Intermediate-Term Tax-Exempt Fund. This is not a lot of money, it is that I think the money can be in a better place vs staying where it is for 7 1/2 months. You have ...

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