* Acronyms, abbreviations and Slang Frequently Used on the Forum *

[BVH]

IIRC - If I remember correctly

[BigMoneyJim]

DFA : Dimensional Fund Advisors. Usually referring to one of their mutual funds. Some slice-and-dice members like these guys for their generous selection of sector play funds, but you have to use one of their advisors to be able to buy into their funds.

BTW (or unclemick's BTY I think) : By The Way

DH or DW : Dear Hubby or Dear Wife

REHP : Retire Early Home Page. May refer to the website, its attached forums or a board by the same name at The Motley Fool website. Many board members found their way here from one of those before this place became Google- and press-worthy.

Not sure if DCM belongs in the list. A Google search shows the term appearing in two threads, and the person who would use or inspire that term no longer posts here. IMHO

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I'm a proud DCM.

Dont Care Much.

[mickeyd]

BOHICA- Bend over, Here it Comes Again

[TromboneAl]

nm = Never Mind

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sheryl Here's one I don't know, from a post by Uncle Mick today: "At 12 years into ER - more concerned with asset allocation to get my Norwegian widow cut along with proper asset balance to run the slot between reasonible inflation effects and damping SD enough so I don't scare myself enough to pee my pants - 2002 dip was thus normal market fluctuation." SD?

SD = Standard Deviation = volatility?

More challenging is trying to understand the rest of Mick's sentence .

[unclemick]

Short answer -* what Vanguard came out with in the Target Retirement Series changing asset mix gradually as you age. Old rule of thumb - 110 minus your age in stocks or variations of the theme.

Norwegian widow cut = current yield of an overall portfolio.

SD = hand calculated total portfolio standard deviation based on SD's for each asset class and it's percent in a total portfolio - courtesy a T Rowe Price guest Phd at a New Orleans Chapter AAII meeting (??circa late 80's early 90's??). Didn't know about MPT or correlations, let alone rolling correlations among asset classes in those days.

The older you get - the less you want the portfolio to swing up and down in market value - so you can take more as you approach the end game - die with your last dollar so to speak.
But as you throttle back on stocks you are losing expected growth for that asset class versus anticipated inflation versus a shortening span time(life expectancy) - running the slot as the length of slide shortens. As a side insurance - current yield of the portfolio is what you take if you really have to batten down the hatches.

Since I often don't explain myself to myself well - perhaps some other posters can take a shot at it.

heh heh heh heh - I'm assuming everyone understands the pee your pants part. Right?

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Got it, Mick. Thanks.

What scares me most is that it makes perfect sense to me. I been hanging around here too long .

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Quote:

Originally Posted by unclemick2 heh heh heh heh - I'm assuming everyone understands the pee your pants part. Right?

[Meadbh]

Standard deviation! It's a measure of volatility.

[Martha]

"Hairball":* A block to rational decision making.* They're complex intellectual, emotional...and/or sometimes physical claptraps, the origin of which probably cant be determined.
http://early-retirement.org/forums/i...7507#msg157507

[Martha]

"Avocado" and "Harvest Gold":* http://early-retirement.org/forums/i...6291#msg126291 (see small print).

[Martha]

"Ted":* 1.* A former poster, very knowledgeable about the market and investments, but who did not suffer self satisfied ERs gladly, and who left after saying:* "So if you don't like my negative comments about people who want to drop out of the workforce, maximize their social security benefits and reduce their taxes, and then claim that they are doing the rest of the country some sort of favor, screw you."
* * * * * * *2.* CFB's dog.*

[Martha]

"Day of the Jennifer":* February 27, 2006.

Symbol of the day:*

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I'd like my dog moved up to #1 in the definition, please.

I also wouldnt define hairball as a block to rational decision making. Its more a construction that produces a particular decision with very limited actual logical decision making or factual consideration. Sometimes those 'decisions' are perfectly rational. Much of the time they're the only decisions the hairball owner is going to find acceptable.

Consider the packrat. They'll never use all that stuff they keep. They dont even know where any particular item is. But getting rid of it is stopped by a hairball that tells them that the item has value and keeping it around might be useful some day. There are probably 50-100 incidents and experiences that constructed that hairball.

Now if you want some real fun, wrap a hairball around a serious compulsion...you get serial killers, shopaholics, people with 100 cats and the folks living among 6' tall stacks of newspapers. Oh yeah, and politicians.

We're all joined by the lack of a common hairball...the one where our personal value is tied up in a job or what we do. We missed building that one or were able to overcome it.

Like I said...liberating, wasnt it?

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cute Fuzzy Bunny I also wouldnt define hairball as a block to rational decision making.* Its more a construction that produces a particular decision with very limited actual logical decision making or factual consideration.

heu·ris·tic
Pronunciation: hyu-'ris-tik
Function: adjective
Etymology: German heuristisch, from New Latin heuristicus, from Greek heuriskein to discover; akin to Old Irish fo-fúair he found
: involving or serving as an aid to learning, discovery, or problem-solving by experimental and especially trial-and-error methods <heuristic techniques> <a heuristic assumption>; also : of or relating to exploratory problem-solving techniques that utilize self-educating techniques (as the evaluation of feedback) to improve performance <a heuristic computer program>

[Martha]

"Semantics": The difference between Martha's Hairball definition and CFB's, i.e.,
"block to rational decision making" versus "construction that produces a particular decision with very limited actual logical decision making or factual consideration."

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Nope, not semantics at all. A hairball does not block rational decision making, it simply determines what the reaction to a particular stimulus is and may prevent the mind from receiving and interpreting new data.

Thus the hairball effected person may produce a perfectly rational decision. Its just that the decision may have had nothing to do with the facts and data presented, and no actual decision making process may have occurred.

[Martha]

I understand what you are saying, but I still think it's semantics. Though it's your word so you get to decide the definition.

Rational to me means reasoned, logical, and based on fact. If you have a hairball, it acts to block decision making based on reason, logic and evidence. So I don't think the hairball effected person can produce a perfectly rational decision.

http://www.webster.com/cgi-bin/thesa...tional&x=0&y=0

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

In re:

Quote:

"Day of the Jennifer"

Ma Gawd, Marfa!

Woody Allen had a skit on this 'subject' (?) in his movie, "Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask" [yeah, he bought the movie rights--and only used the title...HOWEVER...]. The disgraced veterinarian winds up in the gutter, drinking a bottle of Woolite. One of the all-time classics.

(Now back to our regularly-scheduled madness.)

El Gitano