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I remember being sent to kindergarten with GORP for my snack (good old raisins and peanuts). It was, and remains just a bit too bland for me. Nowadays the salted nut mixes are just a bit too salty, and the unsalted ones are just too bland, and I don't like almonds. There are some good trail...

In another thread a poster wrote a good question, and that thread got me thinking more broadly. I've gathered up some thoughts to share, but here's the initial question: "DCA allows you to buy more on dips and less on peaks, it makes volatility your friend during accumulation. Can't the...

As I read much of the enthusiasm on I-bonds, I went back and looked at the historical rates on the USG 30 year bonds (rate peaked around 15%) when inflation was high in the 80s. If it really does take raising the federal funds rate to above the rate of inflation, won't the long bond be a great...

Since treasury direct requires a medallion signature on their bank change request form, how have you done that with an online bank (USAA in our case)? Would a local bank be able to provide the signature for a fee? The original account was linked over a decade ago before this requirement.

Anyone here have experience with a natural gas saltwater hot tub? We're just starting to look for a small 2-3 person size and would love to hear stories, good and/or bad. We have natural gas already piped to the back of the house where it currently feeds the grill. We're not willing to run...

We're about to make a big commitment, and start SEPP withdrawals from my TSP, beginning in 2022. The main reason is to level our income stream over the retirement years, and second to access the funds for hobbies and interests while we're more mobile than we'll likely be in the future. A while...

RunningBum linked to this article in another thread, asking if it needs it's own thread. I think it does, so here it is. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3860359 I found the following quote very informative (the base case is converting $100k at age 65 for a MFJ couple)...

DD's money matters class has gone away due to covid rescheduling at school. I'm looking for a recommendation on a current book for her to read about money. I'd prefer something that leans more toward index investing than stock picking. Something with more of a behavioral finance tilt would be...

This is just my curiosity. It seems people know what their tax refund or bill is. They also probably know what tax bracket they are in. But it takes a tiny bit of arithmetic to figure your effective tax rate = Total tax (line 24) / Total income (line 9). Mine is 5.74%. Computing it as...

Anyone here do a portfolio of defensive sector stocks for the majority of their holdings. I'm thinking Kimberly-Clark, Clorox, Walgreens, Waste Management, etc. those things we all still have to use when the market tanks. I'm curious about your stock selection strategy, and overall...

I have been a long time USAA customer. The key advantage has been to have banking, insurance, and brokerage all in one place. I'm sure I could have shopped around and found a better deal here or there, but the convenience has been great, and the customer service has been outstanding...

I would love to get an email notification when a new thread is started in a particular category, say “young dreamers”. But not get a notification for every subsequent post in the thread. How could I do that, or what is the next best way to get a similar effect? TIA

Hi there, So DW retired at 45 from being a nurse. She often gets the question, "Why aren't you still working as a nurse?" and it's quite annoying to her. I know there isn't much to be done about it. For any others out there that get comments like this, especially if you worked in a...

WA state's 529 plan is basically prepaid tuition, but only tuition up to the highest cost state school, and we're all paid up for five years of school. For other expenses I have a coverdell education savings account with about 21k of VOO (Vanguard S&P 500 ETF) which has done nicely so far...

I really don't want it, but DW asks about it every several months. I tried to tell her that the camper with 4x4 pickup truck is our earthquake insurance... but you can guess how far that gets me. My hang up is the 15% deductible ($75,000 on a $500,000 house). The home is relatively new (3...

As a newish early retiree I thought I'd post my take on how to do it. I think this is mostly common knowledge, so for the aspiring early retiree the hard part is probably the self discipline. How are you going to keep yourself on track? I would start with things in this general order. 1...

Hello, The wife and I each have a military pension, plus significant TSP deposits (about 700k combined), plus Roth IRAs of about 100k each. It has finally occurred to me that we are at a low for our marginal tax rate (looking at the rate for about 80k of taxable income) over the history of...