Different Perspectives on Home Ownership
The question of whether to buy or rent a home is of enormous economic significance for most families. Home equity represents the vast majority of American families’ net worth (see chart below). In a post in mid-2011, I discussed some of the major...
How Much Do You Need to Save for Retirement?
In the financial advisory business, one of the most pressing and controversial topics is how much money people need to save during their working years in order to provide for long-term retirement income. The research on this topic has evolved quite a lot in...
Estimating the Real Costs of Investing
One of the least-understood aspects of investing among individual investors is the total costs associated with building and maintaining a portfolio. In comparison to the huge rises and falls that we see in the market, the expenses associated with mutual funds or...
A ‘New Era’ for Bonds?
The Wall Street Journal recently published an article titled How You Can Survive a New Era in the Bond Market. The article suggests that investors adjust their bond allocations to tilt more towards high-yield (aka junk) bonds (both corporate and municipal)...
It’s Different This Time for Tech Stock Valuation
Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist, remains best-known for his work on the creation of Netscape, one of the earliest and best web browsers. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, he states that those who are concerned about a new...
The Inflation Paradox at the End of 2013
The latest inflation numbers are out from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and they show that consumer prices barely increased over the past twelve months. The most commonly-cited measure of consumer prices is the CPI-U, the Consumer Price...
Living Wages and the Service Economy
One of the stories that seems to be dominating the news in recent months is the plight of low-paid workers in the service industry. Most recently, a story about Wal-Mart workers organizing a food drive for other employees so that they could have a...
Low Interest Rates Through 2014 and Beyond
Ben Bernanke, in a speech on November 19th, made it very clear that the Fed is likely to hold interest rates low for an extended period of time. This comes on the heels of similar comments by his likely successor at the Fed, Janet Yellen, during...
Handcuff Volunteers and the Rally of 2013
The S&P500 is up by 26% for the year-to-date, despite the fact that employment growth is anemic, the labor participation rate is at its lowest point in thirty five years, and inflation-adjusted GDP growth is experiencing a long-term slowing...
60-Second Retirement Savings and Income Checkup
I think that the American public has largely tuned out the myriad studies showing that most households are woefully under-saving for retirement. Even if we’d prefer not to think about this issue, however, it is crucial to regularly check on how...
Impacts of the U.S. Budget Freeze
With the U.S. government failing to reach agreement on budgetary issues and on raising the debt ceiling, there is considerable discussion of what this would really mean. From what I have read, the issues are quite straightforward. If the U.S. government...
Planning for College Costs, Part II
In part 1 of this article, I explored how you can estimate how much college will cost and how much you need to save, going forward, to accumulate enough savings to cover the amount that you plan to contribute towards your child’s college costs. One of the...
Planning for College Costs, Part I
As we enter autumn, the leaves start to change and students arrive at college campuses across the country. For parents, as well as for students, the start of the academic year raises the specter of some of the largest costs that a family incurs. Hopefully,...
Is It Worth Betting on the ‘September Swoon’?
People have an understandable interest in patterns in stock market returns. As we head into September, we can expect the inevitable articles about the so-called ‘September swoon.’ If you look at the period since 1926, the average return in...
*Very* Sobering
Guest post by Contributing Editor, Robert P. Seawright, Chief Investment and Information Officer for Madison Avenue Securities. New York magazine has a fascinating article (from last month) examining the truly terrifying economic analysis of...
Real Household Incomes: How Goes the Recovery?
Doug Short has written a great article on median U.S. household income through time. He shows that the median household income in the U.S., adjusted for inflation, has fallen by 7.2% since 2000 and is 7.9% below the peak reached near the start of 2008,...
The X-factor for Unemployment Rates
by Geoff Considine With unemployment staying fairly high and steady, despite massive economic stimulus, many are wondering what it will take to create more good jobs in America. One explanation is simply that the fastest growing and most innovative American...
More Unconventional Failure
by Folio Investing Guest post by Richard (Rick) A. Ferri, CFA, founder of Portfolio Solutions. Unconventional success from an investment strategy leads to failure for most investors. The excess gains earned by the early adopters of a new investment idea...
Parsing the Drop in the Japanese Stock Market
by Geoff Considine One of the most interesting market stories in the last week is the big drop in the Japanese stock market. Japan is the third-largest economy in the world, ranked by GDP. The values of the Japanese stock market, as measured...
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Bogleheads Latest Posts
- Re: Former employer (small Maryland city) refusing to provide retirement statement February 6, 2023Perhaps you might simply explain the information you are looking for. You worked for the city from 1983 to 1999. When you separated, you received an estimate of your retirement benefits. You'd like to receive an updated copy, is that possible? Also, you may find the information you are looking for in the plan documents […]galawdawg
- Re: Vanguard dividends February 6, 2023This year my 1099 consolidated doesn't agree with my year end information on Vanguard's website. It's off by about $3,000 or so. I messaged Vanguard and asked about it, but no one has responded. I believe it might have to do with my transition to a brokerage account in 2022. My consolidated 1099 seems to […]johnz1001
- Re: opening a Roth IRA from abroad as an expat February 6, 2023Technically, if you’re doing the work while overseas, that income would still fall under the FEIE. If you entered on your 2555 that you were in the USA two weeks here, three weeks there, etc., you could possibly fly under the radar by appearing to have done the work while in the USA.plats
- Re: Green Card Retiree leaving US - tax fallout? February 6, 2023including the execrable form 8854 for the US's soviet-style exit tax, and from then on never file another US tax return, but instead breath the sweet, sweet fresh air of freedom from the IRS. Oh yes. Best words I’ve read here! I’ve been through the expatriation nightmare myself recently, after 30 years as an expat […]Vogatrice
- Re: I’m the nouveau riche February 6, 2023snack attack wrote: ↑Sun Feb 05, 2023 5:36 pm First world problem here, but I’m looking for feedback from new money folks. I don’t know how to be rich. I came up very blue collar, no frills, first generation educated. As a kid there were countless lessons on frugality, but investing was a foreign concept. […]bltn