Bogleheads.org

Kenkat

NorCalHiker wrote: ↑Mon Apr 19, 2021 10:47 am Thanks for sharing! Nice job on the fence! How much do you charge?

I need some time for the memories to fade - at the moment, it’s in the “I’m never doing that again category”!

Kenkat

PS - Also, I am surprised to see so many with an aversion to shoe molding ... it is pretty ubiquitous with nearly any hard floor surface. Our custom build was done this way and I think it looks good overall. The drywall and baseboards went in first, then the hardwood flooring was done much later. I...

Kenkat

Active investing is foolish because it costs too much. That’s mostly it. It has nothing to do with setting prices which most studies indicate is a neutral - i.e., the average active manager is neither better than or worse than others at doing this.

Kenkat

watchnerd wrote: ↑Sun Apr 18, 2021 2:30 pm I have no mortgage.

Does that mean my home equity is a 'positive bond'?

If yes, what is the duration of my home equity?

Rent it out, live in your car and see if it generates any income. You know, like a bond would.

Duration is variable, somewhere between zero and infinity.

Kenkat

I put in three sections of 6 foot vinyl fencing (6ft. high) as a privacy screen. For the style I put in, I’d say you are easily looking at $35 a linear foot just for material by the time you add together the fence sections, posts and post caps. Of course it will depend a lot on the exact fencing you...

Kenkat

True but that changes nothing about my point. An investor is 60/40 and they buy a house, take out a mortgage and suddenly they are 100% equities? No. You don’t get to count the mortgage as part of the asset allocation, canceling out the bonds, without counting the house in the equation as well. If ...

Kenkat

I held Windsor II for a long time starting in 1998. At that time, the index that the Vanguard Large Value Index fund used was not particularly good in my opinion since it was based on the S&P 500. Over time, Vanguard has utilized much better indexes overall and I switched this fund out for Vangu...

Kenkat

yatesd wrote: ↑Sun Apr 18, 2021 12:20 pm What about a traditional carpenter's square?

This was going to be my answer as well.

Kenkat

But I has to ask you from what you have written above- if a person has an AA of 600k stocks 400k bonds, they have chosen that for a reason correct? That 400k in bonds is doing something for the investor correct other than just providing a nominal return. How does a 400k mortgage eliminate that some...

Kenkat

But I has to ask you from what you have written above- if a person has an AA of 600k stocks 400k bonds, they have chosen that for a reason correct? That 400k in bonds is doing something for the investor correct other than just providing a nominal return. How does a 400k mortgage eliminate that some...

Kenkat

I believe he would say “many bad, much bubble”.

Kenkat

Why not just use cash or a check? This. It's interesting here how many use Venmo. Venmo makes your activity public by default. Maybe I'm too old, but that's entirely undesirable. Given how Facebook and others in the "social" world have a habit of continually changing their security and pr...

Kenkat

It justs seems to me that if someone is uncomfortable putting hundreds of thousands of dollars into a home (particularly if that would be a large chunk of one's portfolio), and is also uncomfortable with holding 100% stocks, then diversifying into a bond fund in addition seems a perfectly sensible ...

Kenkat

It justs seems to me that if someone is uncomfortable putting hundreds of thousands of dollars into a home (particularly if that would be a large chunk of one's portfolio), and is also uncomfortable with holding 100% stocks, then diversifying into a bond fund in addition seems a perfectly sensible ...

Kenkat

I am not on Medicare yet but my big concern would be that there are no upper limits / out of pocket maximums as there are with private or ACA plans. If you have a major medical incident like cancer or a major heart issue, you are responsible for 20% of the cost, with no limit. So a $1,000,000 cance...

Kenkat

Joe has a $50,000 mortgage on his house. In addition Joe has an outstanding student loan of $100,000. Does Joe have $150,000 in negative bonds? Yes. Plus car loans and credit card debt. All debt can, and should be included in one’s balance sheet and asset allocation. Mortgages tend to be big. They ...

Kenkat

Imagine an investor with an investment portfolio of $1,000,000 invested 60/40. This investor has a mortgage of $200,000. This investor has three entries in their asset allocation: $600,000 in stocks, earning 6%. $400,000 in bonds, earning 1.3% $200,000 in debt, costing 3.5%. This produces a blended...

Kenkat

I have had hit and miss experience with replacing batteries in solar lights. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t - it seems that sometimes there are issues besides the batteries that are the root cause. Over times, I have noticed that the solar cells and collectors become cloudy and/or sun d...

Kenkat

Imagine an investor with an investment portfolio of $1,000,000 invested 60/40. This investor has a mortgage of $200,000. This investor has three entries in their asset allocation: $600,000 in stocks, earning 6%. $400,000 in bonds, earning 1.3% $200,000 in debt, costing 3.5%. This produces a blended...

Kenkat

I would also add that when you lease a vehicle, there is an interest cost built into the lease payment amount. You are effectively taking out a loan to lease the vehicle. The computed interest rate charged is not required to be disclosed but you can request it from the lease provider.

Kenkat

I am on the western side of Cincinnati and we’ve always gotten a massive emergence of Brood X every 17 years. If you haven’t experienced a 17 year emergence (or 13 in some locations), you would not believe the quantity of insects that emerge. They are everywhere. I’ve already purchased some netting ...

Kenkat

If you want to use Venmo but don’t want to link it to a bank account, you can have a trusted acquaintance send money to your Venmo account and reimburse them via check, cash, etc. A little cumbersome but it works.

Kenkat

If your AGI is $1000 per month, where will the money for the mortgage payment come from? From the 19k savings surplus I've been dumping into a 401k year after year. You won't be contributing to 401k or maybe much less and instead using that money to pay the mortgage? Does the lender know this? How ...

Kenkat

If your AGI is $1000 per month, where will the money for the mortgage payment come from?

Kenkat

I am not on Medicare yet but my big concern would be that there are no upper limits / out of pocket maximums as there are with private or ACA plans. If you have a major medical incident like cancer or a major heart issue, you are responsible for 20% of the cost, with no limit. So a $1,000,000 cancer...

Kenkat

I use Venmo to transfer money to/from people that I know. I consider it similar to handing someone cash; I am not aware of any chargeback capability with Venmo?

I use Paypal for eBay transactions or with small vendors online when I don’t want to create account and enter all the details.

Kenkat

$261/mo. for family coverage HDHP ($7500 family deductible/$2500 per person deductible). That is 20% of the total cost. Employer pays the other 80% plus $1500/yr. HSA contribution. Dental is another $44/mo.

Kenkat

A slight detour - what about the Medicare Part B deductible? Doctor bills something less than the deductible, then Medicare records that amount goes toward the deductible, medigap insurance does the same. Is it the responsibility of the doctor to now bill the patient for the unpaid deductible amoun...

Kenkat

Fired2020 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 13, 2021 7:09 am I inherited an IRA late last year, and took no distribution. So under this interpretation...I guess I'd be subject to an IRS penalty already??

WTH

Luckily the CARES Act waived the RMD requirement for 2020 so there will be time to get this sorted out.

Kenkat

A little ingenuity could easy turn the area under the clubhouse into a sandbox.

Kenkat

This happened this morning. I did not make any password reset attempts so apparently an attempted hack. The email appears legit and the number to call to unlock is the legitimate TSP service line. So what can I infer from this type of attempt? The password is complex. The username is not (me bad). ...

Kenkat

Call the Medicare Benefits Coordination & Recovery Center (BCRC) at 1-855-798-2627 to remove the old PPO coverage. Medicare will eventually get notified of the drop of coverage but it can take a few months. I just went through this same situation with my disabled son. I am a little unclear of wh...

Kenkat

Yes. I have targeted retirement in 2 years (@ 59) but tell people my retirement date is either Monday or five years from now, depending on the day. Reasons to retire now are that I have plenty of money according to most retirement planner software, work is tiring sometimes and I’m not getting any yo...

Kenkat

All of the local charity / thrift stores around us sell men’s suits - St. Vincent de Paul, Salvation Army, Goodwill

Kenkat

We're in Pennsylvania. Check out the Affordable Care Act. ACA plans are total trash. The best choice was $1.5k a month in premiums with an $18,000 annual deductible. What a joke. I doubt if you are taking into account the substantial subsidies they would receive at an income level of $50k. Premiums...

Kenkat

ACA is probably going to be the most affordable insurance option, but you can compare to Cobra. I would definitely look into Social Security Disability at his age and current medical issues. Qualification requirements tend to be less for older working adults who have paid into the system for many ye...

Kenkat

I am the Treasurer of a small neighborhood HOA. Whenever a property is sold in our neighborhood, the closing agent will contact me and ask me to provide a statement of account to indicate if any funds are due. This is a pre-close requirement; the closing is not in good order without this. Our HOA re...

Kenkat

Most financial institutions have implemented anti-fraud measures that will catch and stop wire of funds where the account owner does match - for example:

https://www.giact.com/

Kenkat

Do my brother and I both have to choose the same option when we transfer the accounts? Not sure I saw this question answered above, but once the accounts are split, you and your brother can follow different withdraw plans as each sees fit. You will each receive 50% of the proceeds in an IRA titled ...

Kenkat

What I found was that from 1900-2021 the real return of the S&P 500 is 6.77% while from 1921-2021 it's 7.71% after inflation. In my case all investments are Roth so taxes don't come into account, only inflation. My asset allocation is going to be 90/10 for the long run. Yup, it’s been a heck of...

Kenkat

At some point, your kid is probably going to fall off the top of that slide anyway, so I am not overly concerned with the bridge. One thing we did make a point of is to surround the entire swing set with wood “playground chips” 2-3 inches thick to cushion any falls that inevitably occur. You can als...

Kenkat

You can buy inline surge protectors - essentially a single plug surge protector and see if that makes a difference. They are only around $10 or less. I have all my major appliances run through these. While it is possible that the fan is bad, GFCI outlets can also go bad. If there is another one else...

Kenkat

I’d spend the $2000 so you know for sure what you are or are not dealing with going forward.

Kenkat

A good measure is an inch of water a week, either provided by nature or you. Water once a week if you didn’t get sufficient rain; watering deeply but less frequently is better for plants as it encourages deeper root growth. After they get established more, it becomes less important as they can bette...

Kenkat

Ignore if I am stating something that you already know, but if your disability payments are from a private policy that you paid for with after tax dollars, the payments are not taxable. If it is employer paid disability coverage, they are taxable.

Kenkat

I use the app. It shows you a week of history including current day. You can also check a box next to each mail piece to indicate if something wasn’t delivered. I can use the website for this I suppose but I like the convenience of the app personally. The same functionality exists on the website. I...

Kenkat

I use the app. It shows you a week of history including current day. You can also check a box next to each mail piece to indicate if something wasn’t delivered. I can use the website for this I suppose but I like the convenience of the app personally.

Kenkat

The cost to build can vary quite a bit depending on quality of construction. A common metric used is cost per square foot. Since you know the square footage, you (or the architect) can probably estimate a range of cost but the final cost will depend on the specifics of how the addition is built and ...

Kenkat

Thanks to all for such good advice. Sounds like I have a lot of work to do. My collection is from my grandmother and father. Both worked in retail for many years and would put aside coins, currency they found interesting. None of the collection is graded. Sounds like I have a project to mix in with...

Kenkat

You don’t really give any criteria for what you’d consider best beyond gas mileage or reliability, but general good choices would be Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla. If you really want to splurge, move up to an Accord or Camry.

Search found 7098 matches