Bogleheads.org

MossySF

I can already tell my kids don't have anywhere close to the same talent/ambition/focus I had at their ages so it's a good thing we live way beneath our means. Just curious: how can you tell? At my son's current age (13), I had already: * learned computer programming on my own from looking at source...

MossySF

The numbers are fine .. although the comparison of $100K income to $200K house would be inaccurate since you pay far more taxes -- maybe more like $70K income to $200K with that factored in. I'd be more worried about the neighborhood and kids not getting the wrong lessons (keeping up with the Jones)...

MossySF

My experience -- when you get a bigger house, you buy more junk to fill it up. And then the bigger house feels cramped again.

MossySF

Haha... I hope this isn't a troll topic.

The causal relationship is flipped.

Higher net worth people have enough money to buy homes.

MossySF

Intel CPU lines are totally vague. Just the label Celeron/Pentium/I3/I5/I7 does not give enough info to tell you what is faster. You need to know the following: * Architecture -- new architectures may or may not be faster than older ones * Physical Cores -- 1 extra physical core is good general purp...

MossySF

SF and NYC also are magnets for new immigrants due to all the ethnic communities. Surely you don't think these new immigrants are earning anything close to high incomes, right? So if they can live there, a higher earner could in theory meet them halfway in the living expenses department. Now redo th...

MossySF

You will be in the same boat as your fellow retirees competing for the same resources. So whether there's a long decline or long boom, you end up in roughly the same boat -- the relative amount you save compared to your fellow retirees determines what you can afford in retirement. If like the majori...

MossySF

What a great idea. Imagine how much less spam we'd get if email was priced by each email sent. Imagine your clean inbox.

MossySF

The problem with the "work 5 more years" advice is in 5 more years, the same advice here will be "work another 5 more years". (This forum is totally ludicrous in this regard -- 2% SWR is like the only safe number for a Boglehead.) If the median household only earns $50K, you can ...

MossySF

Browsers update all the time -- usually automatically now by default. When that happens, cookies often get invalidated.

Cookies also have a limited lifespan. When that happens, you have to revalidate your computer again.

MossySF

Post-tax (w/ pre-tax contributions added back in) makes more mathematical sense in that you can only save what you have access to. But how many people even know what their post-tax is except at tax filing time? You'd need a complex spreadsheet to keep track of this. So it's much easier to guestimate...

MossySF

Option 2 ... stay out of the stock market.

All you need to do is bump up your savings rate and you can get by with only relatively safe intermediate bonds.

MossySF

Lexus 350 -> Audi A6 step-up? It's 1 lower-luxury mid-size sedan over another. What's the point? It would be one thing if you switched to something different ... convertible, Tesla, top-end-luxury, whatever -- you could then say "this really stirs my soul". $50K to get 6 months of the new ...

MossySF

My parents had nothing and I received nothing from them, which worked in my favor for financial aid. After grants, scholarships, and work study, I actually think a CC would have been a more expensive option. Here's the problem. "Poor" helps you get financial aid. Majority of parents who c...

MossySF

I did this route at City College of San Francisco. Not every course I took there transferred over. They were $45 a class (back then) -- so I took a few extra just in case X credit transferred for this university system but Y credit was needed for that one. Work hard & get good grades -- and you'...

MossySF

pretty much everyone has referenced the equity risk premium, but this isn't the answer. if anything, the equity premium puzzle is the question . also, saying that investors "demand" a higher return is a posteriori hogwash. look, i'm an investor, and i say, here and now before all and sund...

MossySF

No we aren't betting just on the U.S. Economy. We're also betting on the fact that in capitalism, money flows to the capital owners ( see Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century ) . So it doesn't matter if there's no growth or even negative growth ... it only matters that your proportio...

MossySF

The fund is big enough where it can use pension-like accounting so returns are smoothed over multiple years to give the appearance of consistent high returns without losses. If there was a crisis, the Malaysian government "probably" would step in and backstop it. So if I was Malaysian, I'd...

MossySF

If you don't have a no-free international ATM card, the best place for USD money exchange is Chung King Mansion -- right outside Tsim Sha Shui metro station.

MossySF

@ 40 1/2
HCOL
family + kids
1 income, no windfalls

how: 1st generation immigrant that gets self satisfaction from learning/doing stuff instead of buying stuff

MossySF

25 years ago, a Edward Jones rep would have put you in 10+ different funds. And woo! 10% of your portfolio outperformed -- too bad about the other 90%. Although to be honest, who cares? It's only a score game. If you ended up with 2M instead of 3M, that meant the Edward Jones rep got that money and ...

MossySF

Shrug ... $200K income buying $800K house is about par for Bay Area lifestyle. You'll feel like everything is super tight but pretty much everybody does this other than the lucky few who make it big. Many end up building out semi-legal inlaw units in the garage -- renting it out -- and parking their...

MossySF

Some of my hints -- I'm self-taught in all strokes through experimentation and watching Youtube videos -- so I know all the good & bad techniques. Breast stroke -- aim down with a deep lungful of air -- and the air in the lungs becomes a bouyant force pushing you up. So you end up with a rhythm ...

MossySF

Fair?

Hahah

MossySF

When we were growing up, we (4 kids) had to take public transportation the entire time.

MossySF

What sort of income is "decent" for HK? If "decent" means an expat lifestyle, San Francisco/Manhattan white collar incomes would be decent for Hong Kong also. A decent Konger lifestyle -- small apartments, taking the metro, eating out where the staff only speaks Chinese, etc. --...

MossySF

If you want a sports car, earn more money in order to afford it.

MossySF

Looks like I can't invest in VWIUX as I'm with Fidelity. They let me pick VWTUX. The ER is higher for that one and a high commission. Not the end of the world though. For all those talking about diversification, why can't I get diversification in a 100k bond portfolio. With that amount one could re...

MossySF

States can issue bonds .. and due to the Constitution's separation of powers, the federal government cannot tax interest generated by state muni bonds. Likewise, the state governments cannot tax interest from federal Treasury bonds. Now states can tax other states' muni bonds -- and they usually opt...

MossySF

The problem with the words loss/gain are the anchor point. The value of your portfolio dropped 5% these past 3 months -- but it went up 250% the past 5 years. Do you have a loss -- even if you sell -- because you didn't get the absolutely maximum gain? That's why I just go with fluctuated market val...

MossySF

I don't call them neither losses nor gains.

I say the contribution/distribution-adjusted nominal value of my portfolio has increased or decreased compared to X point in time.

MossySF

Wouldn’t the compound yield (as opposed to SEC yield) on the fund page be closer in comparison to a banks stated APY? The hover over on Vanguard's page says 7-days for SEC yield and just a generic "past periods" for compound yield. 7-day period is probably a more accurate indicator on the...

MossySF

I made another big mistake. I should have taken some gains earlier this year when I had the chance. It seems to me that 10 months of great growth for 2018 has been wiped out in the past few weeks. If you wanted to buy Fund A but you clicked on Fund B, you made a mistake. If you knew the market was ...

MossySF

What are the conditions where people on this site become concerned? Everyone can talk about staying the course etc, but even the most diehard buy and hold must have some loss limit or set of conditions (stocks and bonds fall together) where they become a little concerned. To be honest, I'm not agai...

MossySF

I’ve been advised to use Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund however according to the Performance page it’s earning under 2% annually - less than I earn from the bank. Can someone shed some light on this? Performance page shows past performance. Does your bank tell you past interest rate or what you w...

MossySF

Staying the course is a horrible option.

It's unfortunately the best of even worse options.

MossySF

If you feel this was true, what's then the action plan based on Greenspan's comments? Sell off 50% of your stock and then buy back into the market on a 18-month DCA schedule starting 6 months from now? (Although it would have been nicer to have this forecast in Jan-Aug when you could have sold at hi...

MossySF

Put it in a Vanguard money market fund right now.

Make a 2 year DCA schedule to transfer from MMF to your target stock funds every 3 months.

MossySF

I'm using 全民K歌 to sing Karaoke songs in foreign languages.

* kg.qq.com

MossySF

Push down prices. LOL!

MossySF

It's not a rare scenario as the initial capital could be big compared to ongoing contributions, initial amount being new money brought to the market... happens all the time. Using the backtest calc. say you had an initial balance of $350k in 2000, then had ongoing contributions of $500/month all th...

MossySF

people are afraid of crashes because it can potentially cause financial ruin even if you stay the course... 2000-2013 was flat inflation adjusted, that is 13 whole years with nothing to show for it while taking substantial capital risk. If one would've sinply put their money in a risk free CD they ...

MossySF

Seems like this question is for HNW Bogleheads who continue to spend as if they only had a LNW or MNW.

Most HNW individuals -- no longer in their earnings peak -- need a semi-consistent portfolio to fund their HNW lifestyles.

MossySF

In some countries, passing piano exams will give you school credits.

Music conservatories will want to see piano exams.

Beyond that, it's just paying money for your kids to learn how to play under a different type of pressure.

MossySF

Diversification down is not the only important issue. Diversification up also is. When things rebound, not all stock classes rebound in the same magnitude. After 2002, international rebounded more -- especially EM which went up 90% in 2003. After 2008, US rebounded more -- especially REITs. Getting ...

MossySF

In the short term, there is no explanation.

In the long term (30+ years), you can explain what went on after the fact.

MossySF

I find it's easier to be open with your financial numbers if you are a small business owner. Americans worship at the myth of the independent frontier trailblazer and being a small business owner is the closest thing we can do in modern life. There's none of the envy or requests because you can alwa...

MossySF

Everybody has their own explanations for ups & downs from their view points. But since we all only see a tiny tiny tiny slice from our biased viewpoints, it can't explain anything. But you then aggregate it all together into the wisdom of the crowd, it can explain everything. Except there is no ...

MossySF

I have both the Acer Flip 11 and Acer Spin 15.

The Acer Spin 15 is really nice ... but man it's gigantic.

MossySF

Hehe, this is BH. Anybody not coming here with a 2% SWR will be told they need more money. My 1st thoughts -- 1M+ portfolio plus a year's salary as separate bonus? Take the early retirement bonus. My 2nd thought -- download a Social Security bend point calculator. If your husband has already passed ...

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