Bogleheads.org

huntertheory

Some of the replies indicate that this is a “junk bond fund,” which isn’t quite right. It’s definitely true that this fund invests in the debt of lower rated (often junky) companies, though there are two distinctions with a traditional junk bond fund: (1) it doesn’t invest in bonds at all, but inste...

huntertheory

The First National Bank of Dad is a good book on this subject. Our kids are just coming into the ages for this but we've started implementing this. (It's also just a short, well written book as the author is a professional writer/journalist.) There was a good EconTalk episode on this with the author...

huntertheory

We hit two milestones recently: (1) $1.5M in net worth, and, more importantly, (2) the two comma club ($1M+) in "financial assets," i.e., cash+investments. My wife and I are both 38, with two young kids, in a HCOL area. Other than growing those two numbers, our goals are to hit what I thin...

huntertheory

1) This is not an irrational thought; borrow cheap, and invest in riskier assets that pay a premium, and collect the spread. It's an extremely old trade, and as pointed above you don't even have to rely on backtests, as there are numerous closed end mutual funds that employ precisely this strategy (...

huntertheory

Has anyone had a peloton delivered during the COVID-19 pandemic? We understand they won't come into your home to install, and will instead assemble it basically outside. We were hoping to put one on our third floor -- anyone had any experience with having it delivered and then carrying it to another...

huntertheory

I look at the market conditions now, including versus where they were in March when most of everything was dropping, not as an opportunity for market timing but an opportunity to recalibrate your own risk tolerance: If you were freaking out in March, or more importantly the decline in equities and m...

huntertheory

Bailing out of a stock market as it declines is the classic "idiot" mistake in investing justified only if one has just realized being in stocks in the first place was a big mistake, and perhaps not even then. Opting for 100% bonds in the first place could be a perfectly reasonable asset ...

huntertheory

Bailing out of a stock market as it declines is the classic "idiot" mistake in investing justified only if one has just realized being in stocks in the first place was a big mistake, and perhaps not even then. Opting for 100% bonds in the first place could be a perfectly reasonable asset ...

huntertheory

Lots of good advice in this thread; as an aside I am curious if the Boglehead consensus on health/exercise is different than either the mainstream (as it is for investing) and if it has changed over the years, particularly around the value of strength training. 1) As others said, weight loss is esse...

huntertheory

Based on the description I’d be less worried about the “politics” and instead on the stability of the organization. And on that, I would recall the maxim: “Who are you going to believe? Me, or your lying eyes?”

huntertheory

Weird article and metric. Keep in mind that the majority of these are “pre-revenue” life sciences companies, ie biotech companies with drug products still in clinical development that do small ($50-$150 million) IPOs. These don’t move the needle on your index funds (many are not included), are unlik...

huntertheory

Hello everybody, how can i see the purchase prices of Warren Buffets Portfolio? I am very interested of the purchase Price of Kraft Heinz Foods... Thanks! As others have said, check public filings on sec.gov. Keep in mind that Buffett didn't just buy Kraft-Heinz shares on the open market, he first ...

huntertheory

Having a "comprehensive understanding of the law" would require, first, a comprehensive understanding of the vastness of human experience -- from admiralty to maritime to criminal law to constitutional theories to financial and banking regulation to securities and corporate governance t in...

huntertheory

I second the recommendation for Brad Feld books. I also thought his book on Startup Boards was useful, and it's something of an under analyzed topic. https://www.amazon.com/Startup-Boards-Getting-Board-Directors/dp/1118443667/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520703134&sr=8-1&keywords=startup+boar...

huntertheory

I'm new to stock options. First of all, am I understanding these correctly? 1. I've been granted options. 2. A portion vests after one year, and continue to vest up to a certain point, as specified in the contract. 3. Vesting means I can exercise my option, meaning I can write a check and buy my ve...

huntertheory

I think he's making a few points (which are not unassailable), and you have to read it in context with the rest of the letter (which he could do a better job of tying together). (1) Portfolio risk cannot be entirely measured by simple stock/bond allocations (true -- there are many factors at play an...

huntertheory

The cleanest thing for taxable accounts is to pick 3 funds (domestic, international and tax free bond) or 2 funds (total world stock and tax free bond), and rebalance with new contributions/dividends/distributions that sweep into a money market account. The stock indexes are very tax efficient and o...

huntertheory

There is a lockup clause that prevents those options or the shares obtained through exercise from being sold for a period of 6 months after the IPO. This is fairly standard in the industry. Yes, it's fairly standard for management, selling stockholders, directors and major shareholders. I t's a bit...

huntertheory

For a Delaware company that's being acquired for cash (in whole or in part), it's every deal. And the mechanics for it are in every proxy statement relating to a merger vote where cash forms a part of the consideration. The controlling law is Section 262 of the Delaware General Corporation Law. Typ...

huntertheory

I really enjoyed this article, which is nominally about a proposal from Greenlight Capital for GM to split up its current shares into separate classes of dividend and capital appreciation shares, but it's really about what is really the nature of common stock: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles...

huntertheory

No matter what you do, you need to be frugal and spend less than you make and "invest" the rest. The Boglehead and most straightforward way -- and the way that uses up the least time -- is to invest in low cost, diversified index funds. Whether you want to instead invest some of it in some...

huntertheory

A few thoughts: 1) You'll want to use the precise legal names, i.e., not just "Intercontinental Enterprises" but is it Intercontinental Enterprises ", Inc." or "Inc." or "Corp" or whatnot? Not necessarily here but as you run this down. 2) As mentioned above th...

huntertheory

One way to think about it is a lot of what this forum and retirement is about is you begin your working life generating income, with almost none of it falling in the category of "passive." By the time you retire, however, the goal is for all of your "income" (or proceeds, or howe...

huntertheory

The only ways to generate "passive" income are: (1) do a bunch of work to build/create something that then will throw off revenue streams in the future. The obvious examples for this are things like write a very popular book, create popular music, or some other work that results in intelle...

huntertheory

I'd keep some sort of policy considering you still have an 8 year old child and you plan to retire but have not yet (and thus don't know exactly how that will plan out). I know you said you have enough savings to last the child through college but if one (or both) of you and your wife pass away then...

huntertheory

There's not really a right or wrong answer. The rule of thumb is to make sure you are liquid enough to cover emergency events, either through an emergency fund (the usual answer) or if a sufficient amount of your financial assets are otherwise liquid (a common Boglehead answer for individuals with s...

huntertheory

As another poster said, it doesn't seem like you've thought this trough. You should read a book or five on real estate investing. You're absolutely right, and I usually do my homework very thoroughly before embarking on something new, but unfortunately, purchasing a house is time-sensitive for me (...

huntertheory

This is a fun book with some ideas (and discussion of what did and did not work, and if nothing else the author is an excellent writer): https://www.amazon.com/First-National-Bank-Dad-Foolproof/dp/1416534253 The upshot is the kids essentially deposited the money with him and he was the bank and offe...

huntertheory

The Essays of Warren Buffett is good, though it's simply an organized version of what can be found in his annual letters which you can get free. But I still found it helpful. I agree with livesoft to a point but I will say in his annual letters he is pretty specific about a number of topics, at leas...

huntertheory

I really think Buffett intended the index fund advice for the average joe, not the 90/10. (And who knows what sorts of caveats he intended with 90/10; maybe 90/10 was supposed to be after excluding a very large cash pile (as Buffett seems to have)). For what it's worth, his mentor Benjamin Graham re...

huntertheory

Trying to tie the two posts above together, before you can intelligently make "buy" or "sell" decisions it's recommended that you develop some sort of overall investment plan, a big part of this being your asset allocation. There's a wealth of information on the wiki of this site...

huntertheory

Never get in a land war in Asia Never bet with a Sicilian when death is on the line Never take financial advice from people on golf courses In all seriousness, read a little bit about asset allocation, lifecycle investing and, maybe most importantly, personal psychology and the ability to stay the c...

huntertheory

I would not do it as you still the correlation problem, but sticking with ST high yield minimizes the negative impact of the call risk which creates an asymmetric risk problem ---the bonds get called just when you need the high yields as rates have fallen and if they don't get called it's because t...

huntertheory

To invest in individual bonds like this -- especially long maturity bonds -- you have to really understand the full picture. For example, one reason the yield on AT&T bonds is high (on a relative basis) is because they just announced that they will be incurring up to around $40 billion dollars (...

huntertheory

I'd recommend getting a new all-purpose Trek bike for around $400-450 as it will last and meet all your needs and in the scheme of bicycles is very reasonable. If $150 is a gating price then you can shop for that sort of bike on Craigslist used. I would not buy any bike for $150 or less at a store m...

huntertheory

The product I've always been curious about is if someone created a low-cost ETF that simply took either the S&P 500 or preferably the Wilshire 5000/total market index and included only companies that pay regular dividends. No other analysis, no other factors, no other loadings. I'm not sure I'd ...

huntertheory

Question about corporate finance Given how much cash Microsoft has, why are they issuing bonds? Thank you QJ It's an excellent question -- in the last few years there have been cash rich companies like Apple and Microsoft (among many others) issuing a lot of debt. The basic answer is financial engi...

huntertheory

Hours often become a proxy for quality in part because having hours mean you have partners giving you a lot of work. Associates with a reputation for competence will be given lots of assignments. Also, hours = cash in the door for the firm. OK, that makes sense. It is not so much the number of hour...

huntertheory

As others have said, you should read the tax disclosure in the proxy: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/790070/000119312516613331/d59207dprer14a.htm#rom73946_109 I also think a Boglehead-ish approach might be that -- unless your basis in EMC shares is excessively low, and particularly if you'v...

huntertheory

Agree with what others said above. Would also point out that the bonus is a key contingent of compensation, and that is treated more variably. The top-tier NYC firms tend to pay associate bonuses regardless of how many hours worked, etc. Other firms tend to have various billing hour minimums, either...

huntertheory

Here is a good Planet Money episode on the chip cards: http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/04/13/474135422/episode-695-put-a-chip-on-it Yes it's safer, but it's not necessarily as safe given when we're finally getting them and also given the prevalence of online ordering and other ways to steal y...

huntertheory

1. I did not do this but my mortgage company (Citi) offered me a 30-year mortgage based on 20% down (which I did though we put 25% down) but also a HELOC that could be used for finance closing costs and up to 5% of the purchase price, plus some other cushion, without tripping PMI. I didn't end up do...

huntertheory

All those high yield savings accounts work. The important thing is not to put funds you need in the near term in something that is volatile, as the money you need might not be there when you need it, and it sounds like you've got the right approach. If you plan to save for a down deposit it's pretty...

huntertheory

I think most Bogleheads would agree about Rich Dad/Poor Dad. The first one has some OK messaging in terms of saving and investing being the vehicle to generate wealth but it's all rather confused and he's so focused on real estate, and then from everything I gather things really went off the rails w...

huntertheory

I have friends who have had a lot of luck with the Wifi extenders. The home we moved into less than a year ago has old, thick walls and so -- coupled with the fact that my cable company required me to use their router -- and the Wifi extender didn't work and I returned it, and the only real solution...

huntertheory

As a lawyer, I assume you've sat down and read ATVI's and EA's recent 10-Ks/annual reports, including all of the risk factors? They talk about most all of this, particularly the pressure on prices, the vast increase in competition from both the sophisticated sectors as well as the proverbial guy wit...

huntertheory

I am an employee of this company and can buy stocks at this price. I am just wondering if I should be risking the money? Basically I was interested in knowing if there are companies that are valued at over a billion dollars and never IPOs or the stock options of such companies remain under water? T...

huntertheory

Hello, I have the opportunity to purchase stock options of the company Medallia Inc. It is a solid company backed by Sequoia Capital and is valued at $1.5B and over $250 million of Sequoia Capital investment behind it. I will get the stock at $2. I am thinking this is a safe bet given that there is...

huntertheory

I don't know enough about American Funds, but the article does seem to reinforce one of Bogle's consistent themes, which is that, even for (or especially for?) active funds, cost matters.

huntertheory

In addition to all the other good advice in this thread, it's worth reiterating a commonly misunderstood point: even if you correctly anticipate some major industry shift, that in no way guarantees that your investment returns will proportionally benefit from those shifts and changes. Valuations, st...

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