Bogleheads.org

How long do you think Vanguard CD rates will take to update to the hike increase? Any experience from the past?

CS CEO sent out a memo last Friday telling investors not confuse the poor price performance of the stock with the bank's capital and liquidity position. Reddit took this to mean that CS was on the verge of insolvency and pointed to widening spreads on CS credit default swaps to claim that the bank is on the brink of collapse. Really just scaremongering from the Reddit / Wall Streets Bets crowd So it sounds like it's pretty much a chicken little, "the sky is falling" deal? For the most part, yes. CS certainly isn't a pristine financial institution by any means, they've been plagued by a number of scandals and high profile losses over the past couple years (Archeagos hedge fund blow up, Greensill capital collapse, multibillion doll...

25% in pre-tax until I reach $50k in a post-tax account. I don't own a home or anything else and have a few people to take care of besides myself. I had to borrow against that amount from my retirement account in the past due to major medical expenses and it was lifesaving. It sucks to lose on growth long-term but borrowing against yourself is still better.

If you are prone to kidney stones, specifically calcium oxalate stones, coffee is a better choice that can be had daily. Black tea, especially sweet tea (especially if with regular sugar) is a great way to inch your way into kidney stones, especially if you also eat a diet with more sodium and higher oxalates (nuts, spinach, chard, whole grains, rhubarb, cocoa, etc). Plenty of people can handle the extra oxalate ok, but if you have a predisposition or other lifestyle/diet factors that contribute, this simple choice you make daily may really add up over the year to a nice little kidney stone that you will not enjoy...

I do a lot of spending in Europe, and I am trying to find a way to deal with currency fluctuation since my earnings come from the US. I have a borderless Euro account on Wise and try to hold some spending money there when the exchange is good. The $1.05 range per 1 euro is a miracle, so I put a bunch of money away last year to pay for expenses and for the financial support of my family there. The euro is getting stronger, and I am worried we might get into the $1.15 territory soon. Obviously, nobody can predict the future, but wondering if I could buy a currency ETF in Vanguard (betting against the Euro) that equals the amount I may put in Wise in Euros to offset the loss.

Ideas and critique on this very half-baked idea?

I woke up to a bank alert that I got my refund direct deposit which was a nice surprise. Went straight into my credit card payment!

I got locked out of Treasury direct last week and wait times to call and reset my account were in the hours long due to demand so decided to try buying some treasuries and to build a ladder. I am still reading on all the details but if it can pay a bit more than my cap one 360 where I keep emergency cash, I think my next tier semi-liquid money pot to fill may be this. It does not have the tax advantage of iBonds but it is not a bad place to place some money. I am always nervous to keep too much money in any single place or two or three. Have lived through too many disasters including capital controls. I wish my money was not all over but I seem to have inherited my grandmother's divide and conquer strategy. She had money stashed at every ba...

I find these type of threads quite comical. Paying for airfare,lodging and meals all to get lower cost dental treatment than found in the US. The math just doesn’t add up. Let alone the liability issue if there are post op problems All I ever keep reading in many posts is BHer’s with investment portfolios valued 2M and up. What gives? In my case, I travel abraod every year anyway, so I combine it with dental treatment. In general, a characteristic of Bogleheads is thrift, not overpaying (even if you can afford to overpay) for mediocre service. I've had dental care in about eight different countries over the years. Quality of US dental care would be at the bottom. I do the same. I have a regular dentist abroad who charges me $50 for a clean...

If you look at your portfolio daily and regret being in the market, you should not be in the market. Many look into the market daily, and they regret being in the market (on down days). Fortunately, the market is up more than it is down. 8-) (no, I don't know if the market is actually up a higher number of days than it drops, but you know what I mean) Regret implies fomo. One can be sad by consequences but if you have regret perhaps it is not coming from the right place. This is a philosophical stance so I have no expectation that my stance is the the correct one but I know I am not a minority opinion. Regret? Sad? Philosophical? Those are generally foreign concepts to the left brain. Right brained folks may need a FA to hold their hands. ...

FreddieFIRE wrote: ↑Thu Sep 29, 2022 4:16 pm

notoriousMG wrote: ↑Thu Sep 29, 2022 3:34 pm If you look at your portfolio daily and regret being in the market, you should not be in the market.

Many look into the market daily, and they regret being in the market (on down days). Fortunately, the market is up more than it is down.

(no, I don't know if the market is actually up a higher number of days than it drops, but you know what I mean)

Regret implies fomo. One can be sad by consequences but if you have regret perhaps it is not coming from the right place. This is a philosophical stance so I have no expectation that my stance is the the correct one but I know I am not a minority opinion.

The last year has been brutal for anyone following the "Stay the course" mantra, especially so for recent retirees. This recession must have been the most widely predicted and easily anticipated event in my 30 year investing career, and I'm kicking myself for not realizing that and selling everything a year ago. Sure I'll get the usual responses of "nobody knows nuthin" and "your risk tolerance was too high" and, and "how do you know when to get back in", and graphs showing that the market "always" goes up over a long enough timeframe, but this is of little comfort when you're down $k several hundred. Even being overweight bonds has not helped, as they have been crushed too, so asset alloca...

All the good brands have hiked up prices to the moon. I can get a decade out of my bras with washing them in delicates in cold water in a mesh bag and hang dry.

My favorite brand is Understatement which is Scandinavian and the bras range from 30 to 70 with regular sales. Oysho is also pretty decent. Going on 5 years with some. They ship to US.

A few years ago I got a Chase product whose name I don't remember that issued a debit card without an account attached to it. I forget if it was preloaded but I basically needed something to give to my father to charge expenses to without having to wire him money into his account every time he needed something. Two visa cards I got from Chase were compromised before they were even activated. As soon as we activated them, fraudulent charges were made on it at some gas station at some far away state. The second card was the replacement for the first. I gave up and started using wise.com instead.

Stinky wrote: ↑Thu Aug 04, 2022 12:23 pm

notoriousMG wrote: ↑Thu Aug 04, 2022 12:07 pm tempting to move emergency saving funds into this.......

Why would you not make that move?

I do not know! Am I missing anything?

tempting to move emergency saving funds into this.......

When I filed a report with https://www.identitytheft.gov/ I was also informed that I could be part of the Equifax extended settlement. I looked up my name and SS and I was affected so I filed a claim which may reimburse me $25 per hour plus expenses (lifelock software perhaps). Worth trying and perhaps one more way that someone could have socially engineered a password reset with Chase by calling them with my info.

You can check to see if you are affected here: https://eligibility.equifaxbreachsettle ... ligibility. The link is from FTC https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/refunds ... settlement and you can follow the link from their site if you prefer.

Up to 4 years ago, I never had more than $1k worth of emergency funds. I borrowed $25k from my retirement account for medical bills and would float other unexpected expenses on balance transfers. Being debt-free and building savings is a tremendous feeling and a great privilege. The past year and a half, I used $15k from my emergency fund for medical expenses and unexpected home expenses. I can sleep better at night knowing that I can provide coverage for myself and my family when needed without borrowing away from my future. I really shudder at how much poverty I had to endure and how much other people have to endure. It is very expensive to be poor.

I have around $5k in my post-tax brokerage account parked on VFTAX which is 50 cents from breaking even in terms of gains/losses, and it is of little value to me in there. I don't want to add more money into my primary emergency account and have been thinking of sticking it into more I-Bonds. I have only bought $1500 worth this year. I opened the brokerage primarily to condition myself to buy and hold, but it has no other place in my investment strategy. I don't trade individual stocks. If I wanted to do more conditioning on myself, I could perhaps set a mental goal of future gains, e.g., $800, and then sell it and buy iBonds to make up the year it has been sitting in there losing money to inflation. This of course would be market timing bu...

the_wiki wrote: ↑Fri Jul 29, 2022 11:30 am Well there is not much value in arguing about how it happened at this point. But I will still reiterate that enabling 2 factor on your bank account is a very good idea. It would have very likely stopped this attack, unless they also took over your email or phone number at the same time.

I enabled two-factor the first day it happened.

IMO you were probably phished and didn't realize it. That is the most likely scenario. This is where you were tricked into logging into a fake chase site where they captured your login and password. Often via an email link or browser malware, but it can be more sophisticated like a DNS hijack. I work IT and there is no way they brute forced your password because it's not going to allow more than 5-10 tries. If they did social engineering, customer service would have sent a reset code to your existing email and you would have seen it and your old password would not work anymore. The fact that they have the password and your old one still works, means they stole it from you. Anyway, Ally is a pretty good bank. I recommend turning on 2 factor...

JBTX wrote: ↑Wed Jul 27, 2022 5:51 pm

notoriousMG wrote: ↑Mon Jul 18, 2022 10:07 am

MGBMartin wrote: ↑Mon Jul 18, 2022 9:46 am +1 on this

“- Use a dedicate computer just for financial transactions. Do not use it for email, web surfing, streaming, shopping, etc.”

Something I’ve done for years.

Despite this being for sure the most secure thing to do, I travel too much to carry two computers or wait until coming home for financial transactions.

To be fair, in my 25 years of online banking, my account has never been hacked before. Card numbers stolen sure. Some even before they were activated

When you travel do you ever use public wifi? It is pretty easy for fraudsters to set up a fake public wifi and once you log in they may be able to access certain data on your PC.

Almost never. I use my phone hotspot. And if I use public wifi, I use a VPN.

Can you explain after you get some sleep? A bit over a week later, here is what I know and do not know and what I have done. * Two-factor added to the account, username changed and all that. * Froze credit, Chex, and utilities. * Scanned laptop and found nothing wrong. * Security word added to Chase on the phone. * Applied to Ally for a new bank account to segregate some of my funds. * Received my replacement credit cards. * Reset Chase Ultimate Rewards mess. The fraudster moved points into my Sapphire and tried to redeem for an iPhone and an Apple Watch. They moved half the points to my other Chase card that I do not use and tried the same. This flagged things as fraudulent and we fixed it all, but there was a point balance left in my sel...

carolinaman wrote: ↑Tue Jul 19, 2022 9:02 am You can establish online accounts with all 3 major credit bureaus and freeze/unfreeze your credit with them online.

done

I think they brute-forced it. It was not an easy password and it was unique only on Chase. Any other weird things I should be on the lookout for? Brute force? How is that done when just 3 strikes (logon failures) and you are out. Social Engineering to the call center to get your password reset? Possible but rare. Most places send a validation code to a known contact number/email. Or your device used to logon to Chase has been compromised and is sending your credentials to a bad guy. Not saying this happen to you, but several weeks ago, DD got a call purportedly from her bank about suspicious Credit Card charges. They initially verified the last 4 of her card number, last 4 of her SS, went over the suspicious charges, then told her as one l...

+1 on this “- Use a dedicate computer just for financial transactions. Do not use it for email, web surfing, streaming, shopping, etc.” Something I’ve done for years. Despite this being for sure the most secure thing to do, I travel too much to carry two computers or wait until coming home for financial transactions. To be fair, in my 25 years of online banking, my account has never been hacked before. Card numbers stolen sure. Some even before they were activated :) I've never died but I still wear my seat belt and don't get behind the wheel if I have had a drink. My guess is that someone talked their way in - possibly via the credit card. That happened to a friend of mine who banks with USAA. He didn't have 2FA activated either and he kn...

MGBMartin wrote: ↑Mon Jul 18, 2022 9:46 am +1 on this

“- Use a dedicate computer just for financial transactions. Do not use it for email, web surfing, streaming, shopping, etc.”

Something I’ve done for years.

Despite this being for sure the most secure thing to do, I travel too much to carry two computers or wait until coming home for financial transactions.

To be fair, in my 25 years of online banking, my account has never been hacked before. Card numbers stolen sure. Some even before they were activated

Do a full scan for malware on your computer. Did you happen to access the account from another computer (such as at a library or hotel business center)? It could have been years ago. Brute-force against a specific account can't be done at a bank like Chase. The account will lock if someone tries even 10-20 password attempts let alone millions of passwords against your user name. I have a mac and malware software real-time. Running another check now. Will do the same on the phone. I don't check my bank from anything but my laptop or phone. Chase did not tell me how they got it. I wonder if they had the credit card number and used it to call in. I am so curious. I don't trust that any passwords are safe anywhere once they are stored. I was a...

quietseas wrote: ↑Mon Jul 18, 2022 9:00 am

burritoLover wrote: ↑Mon Jul 18, 2022 8:52 am Do you use a unique password (not used anywhere else) for the Chase account that is long and not easy to guess and contains symbols and numbers?

Did your password look something like:
Rc^ff_g43_^fvS#KSRkpfr(JvrP

And was it only used at that one site (sounds like it was Chase)?

If you had the password written down next to your computer at home, did anyone else have access to it?

The password was unique and complex but not extremely long--not as hard as the Google suggested ones. I did not have it written anywhere else or used it anywhere else.

jebmke wrote: ↑Mon Jul 18, 2022 8:48 am Do you have any theories on how the hacker got in?

I'm also curious about Ally vs. Chase. Do you have reason to believe Ally is better than Chase at security? I don't use either so I have no view one way or another.

I think they brute-forced it. It was not an easy password and it was unique only on Chase. I have been with Chase for 20+ years and did not have this happen on the account before.

I would move to another bank possibly just to have a new bank...

My online bank account was compromised yesterday. I did not have text message verification on--VERY foolish--I know. I have it on now and had it on everything else. The hacker changed my password, my primary email, mailing address, set up a new wire recipient to a fintech bank, made two fraudulent transactions on my credit card, moved points from another account into my credit card, and tried to redeem them. Chase sent me alerts thankfully and I got in before they got too far but now I have to pain of getting a new card, new bank account, freezing credit and all that jazz. I have credit lock on transunion but have to call the other bureaus they do not seem to have managed to apply for any new accounts. I am using this opportunity to switch ...

For Greece, Amex is used only in big retail and big hotels. Visa is best. I use my Chase Sapphire, which has no foreign transaction fee. Some cash is good in some places where you can get a slight discount for paying cash instead of a card. Taking money out of an ATM can be very expensive with bank charges, so paying with a no-fee card is best. It is good to have a backup card in case you lose your card, or an ATM eats it. My backup plan is a euro account from wise.com, which can also give you a debit card to use for which 200 euros is without a fee to pull out per month, and a 3000 euro balance does not incur any fees.

rate of returns (TIIA Your personal rate of return is the amount gained or lost divided by cash flow, which includes your contributions or withdrawals.)

-10.60% on employer retirement plan

28.40% annuities
47.01% equities (VIIX)
5.58% fixed income (PRRX)
19.37% money market

On my brokerage account, they make it impossible to read easily. It contains solo 401k (VHYAX), Roth (VFTAX/VTSAX), and some other post-tax money that is my sandbox (VFTAX/VSGX). With my $6k contribution that went in April to the Roth, I am upside down 6.75%, so around 19% in reality...

I am either 5 years away from disability or 11 years away from early retirement, whichever comes first. Hence the annuities and cash...

I have 15k or so of PPRIX (inflation-protected bonds) in my 403b which I have been holding onto begrudgingly for maybe five years. It is down 12% this year. At this point, I will ignore it for another 5 years...

Many years of psychotherapy.
My father's open-heart surgery.
Every vacation with my partner.
An AliveCor ECG device.
A Kia.

Sticking to my investment goal is what I learned. I sold all my stocks in January 2020 and was in cash until I knew my job was secure and slowly moved into the market again. I am definitely upside down a lot at the moment, but since I feel better about having my job and put some money in savings, I am holding onto my stocks and buying monthly from my salary despite the "crash". I watch the drop daily and clench my teeth and remember the goal. I cannot predict everything so I try to practice self-compassion. While I feel bad for any people here who are near retirement and held too much stock, I have always felt that if your average return over 30 years is 4% it is somewhat of a miracle. My family has been through three bankruptcies...

I mean heck, international has been a loser for me for what seems like forever and I’m sticking with it because hey, someday that diversification is supposed to pay off.

You are my spirit animal...

I am always buying!

deleted

It looks a lot worse in your later years. Imagine a few percent dip wipes out gains more than your entire years contributions. Last month was 6 figures for a lot of people close to retirement. Pretty nerve racking Ι empathize as I see myself always possibly 5 years from retirement at all times due to ill health. But if I could predict my own future, I certainly could predict the stock market too...My 401k/403b that I have had for 19 years has averaged 4% which is not very impressive because I invest like a grandmother I have been told. I put my money mostly in cash on Jan 2020 or so and did not put it back in for a year because I did not if I would have a job and did not have savings. Now that I have some savings plus this extra account, I...

I trained myself to buy and hold after a year of logging in almost every day, staring at numbers, and walking away. This week, in order to further convince me of the merit of this exercise, I mapped my (non-401k/403b) portfolio onto google finance and it looks VERY boring this year (the bumps were my contributions). Thus all those daily ups and downs amount to noise but it feels like a dagger if you look at it daily. https://i.ibb.co/Nt6JvdX/Screen-Shot-2022-04-28-at-00-10-53.png" This money is in 3 accounts: post-tax brokerage, Roth, and solo i401k. I know --- I know I should have split them in the chart but it does not matter. For me psychologically, I see it as one big buy-and-hold exercise. The most I was up this year was $3500 and...

A great year for buyers...

Wise has introduced a daily accrued fee of 0.07% for balances in Euro accounts over 3,000 and I am steaming in resentment because the Euro to Dollar ratio is finally more equal and I spend a lot in Europe, sending money to my family and dealing with personal expenses. I will open a local account in my second country (dual citizen and FATCA compliant) but I am wondering if you have suggestions for other borderless accounts or European banks for non-EU residents who do not charge for balances.

I still have not sold mine. It is not a lot of money, but I don't like selling low. It is upside down 4.5% since I bought it so not tragic. I should probably ignore it until I break even and then dump it. That's a classic behavioral mistake. If you had the money in cash, would you buy VSGX? If not, sell it, get the cash, and buy what you want. If you sell it at a loss in a taxable account, you get a tax break too. I am not sure what the mistake is quite yet. There was no way of knowing when I bought it if it would go up or down within a year. I made a decision to hold it for at least one year. If I were making a decision right now about buying, I would probably do the exact same thing. I am not a short-term trader. I make some moves a coup...

I still have not sold mine. It is not a lot of money, but I don't like selling low. It is upside down 4.5% since I bought it so not tragic. I should probably ignore it until I break even and then dump it.

I buy comfort and upgrade to business with miles and cash for flights over 8 hours. I fly 2-3 times per year west coast to Europe and back and usually have 2 stops so I upgrade the long one. I have flown since I was a baby but gone are the days I could fall asleep seated without pain. Last month, I paid business class for a full round trip after surgery because I needed to be FLAT. As we get older, if health issues accumulate, savings on the ticket will get paid in suffering and translate to money lost one way or another. There sure were some cheap ticket deals during the pandemic...

"When the curve inverts, “there has been a better than two-thirds chance of a recession at some point in the next year and a greater than 98% chance of a recession at some point in the next two years,” according to Bespoke.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/31/2-year- ... ssion.html

We can't see the future, but plenty of people seem to pretend they can...

My portfolio is about to break even with where it was a year ago when I moved back into stocks from all the tumbling of the last few months. I have conditioned myself to not freak out finally and have balanced everything to where I think it should be based on goals and assets. The only thing I have some regret over is VSGX which was an experiment of around $5k that I placed in my post-tax brokerage play money. Wondering if I should just dump it on its soon-to-come anniversary and get something else in there that is more boring that makes a little more than my high yield savings. The other half in there is VTSAX which is as much excitement as I can handle. I mean sure the international upset can end tomorrow and markets could be soaaaaaaring...

Did you end up dumping it? I am really close to dumping mine also. I don't think it is useful in my post-tax brokerage in a medium-term investment strategy.

I don't mind the dip in my TIAA retirement account but I lament not selling things at some reasonable high point in my brokerage account and Roth/solo 401k. I need to make a mental note of what I think is reasonable gains with tax, even if short-term. Last year was my first foray into Vanguard with some money. I put in $10k in brokerage (VFTAX/VSGX 45/55%), had some in Roth and now have $10k in there (VFTAX/VTSAX 40/60%) and opened a solo 401k and added another $10k (VHYAX 100%). I hit a peak of $3770 in Dec 2021 in cumulative returns and now of course I am down to $200. Ooof...I think if I sold even at $1500, which was July, I would be content but none of us have a crystal ball do we? what should I do now besides sit on all of it, I have n...

those TIAA annuities are starting to look really good all of a sudden...