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I am at the point where my net worth is sufficient to meet all foreseeable needs for the rest of my life and to leave substantial assets to my children. I have made a number of changes to my asset allocation to make it more conservative. My intent is to guard against substantial losses even it...

I recently came across this article on Maturity Date Bond ETF's: A Guide to Maturity-Date Bond ETFs - Seeking Alpha I have never been a fan of bond mutual funds but this alternative sounds pretty attractive for the fixed income portion of my portfolio. Does anyone have any experience with...

Here's a situation my son and his family just encountered that sounds too outrageous to be true: Background - my son married a woman from Brazil 4 years ago while she was here in the US doing post doc research. She now has her green card and has lived in the US ever since. Just over a year...

This is not really retirement related but here goes: I help manage the finances and investments for our home owners association. We recently placed several jumbo CD's for 3 to 5 year terms ($225,000 each). The increased FDIC insurance limit of $250,000 is scheduled to expire after 2013. Does...

DW is scheduled for double hip replacement surgery in late January. Up until last spring she had not experienced any problems. Then while doing alot of walking on a tour of Europe she started having severe left hip pain. X-rays showed that the joint was bone-on-bone. At that time her right...

A lot of what I have been reading in the financial press talks about the slowing of economic growth. In light of the old adage that "trees don't grow to the sky" are we approaching the point where world economic growth simply can't continue? That is, are we getting to the point where we simply...

I have been living in a community governed by an HOA for 5 years. I was recently appointed chairman of the association's finance committee. I found myself wondering how many of the RE members reside in HOA's/Condo associations and whether a thread on association financial issues (e.g...

I am probably blowing the image of my avatar - with an ear to ear grin. Our first grandchild, Serena, was born at 11:15 pm last night! She is, of course, beautiful and her mom and dad are the greatest. Now, how much can I afford to put into Serena's 529 plan this year? Let the spoiling begin!

Our first grandchild is due in a few weeks. I have had, for many years, a small ($7K) 529 plan with my son as beneficiary in the Maryland plan. We now live in Virginia and I want to roll that over to one of the Va. plans and change the beneficiary to the grandchild as soon as she gets a social...

Among my dividend paying stocks I have long owned American States Water (AWR). On Wednesday the overall market was up but the shares of AWR were down nearly 8%. I have been unable to find any news on-line to explain this drastic drop in price. Does this sound like insider trading based on...

I am considering the following strategy - please offer any critiques: I have stocks with significant long term capital gains. If I sell them in 2010 the gains would be taxed at 15%. In 2011 that rate is due to rise to 20%. I can permanently shield those gains from that 5% increase by doing...

DW and I have been taking advantage of what D.C. has to offer lately. Two weeks ago we went with a group from our community to the Newseum. A very interesting place. My favorite exhibit was of all of the Pulitzer Prize winning photographs since the inception of the prize. It also included a...

Here is a link to the most recent pictures from the refurbished Hubble Space Telescope: NASA - Hubble ERO Images If you are up for a really long trip, pick one of these destinaitons.:laugh::laugh:

I have been listening to the CEO's of AIG and the big banks plead with the congress not to impose the 90% tax on executive retention bonuses. Their argument strikes me as fallacious. They say that they need to retain those employees who have the knowledge and experience needed to help unwind...

With today's bad news on US car sales, I got to wondering why car prices haven't fallen as much as house prices. There certainly seems to be a vast oversupply. Are the car makers reporting huge loses because they are unwilling to drop prices enough to boost sales? In some areas home prices...

Need advice from the tax guru's here: I inherited my mother's variable annuity when she died in 2002. At the time I decided to keep it because I was in a relatively high tax bracket, therefore it seemed attractive to permit continued tax deferred growth, and the investment choices were quite...

I would like to draw on the expertise of those on this board to identify the factors that I should consider in deciding if this scenario makes sense: We bought our new home for cash four years ago. Although prices have fallen, the house is still worth close to what we paid for it. We are both...

With the current talk of a bailout for the ailing US auto industry, I got to thinking... Wouldn't it be a better idea to provide a subsidy, lets say the gov't pays the first $10,000 of the MSRP, for auto buyers instead of a direct bailout of GM and Ford? At least with that approach consumers...

With the markets melting down I'm sure glad that the politicians didn't succeed in the scheme to privatize social security. Shifting the risks to individuals didn't look nearly as stupid then as now.

On Wed. night I had an overnight test for sleep apnea. My doctor ordered the test because I have been complaining of fatigue, morning headaches and waking tired after 8 or more hours of sleep. I snore enough that DW has been wearing ear plugs to bed for 25 years. The Dr's office called today...

Two years ago I started a thread on the subject of spending a significant amount on medical treatment for our cat, Pyewacket: I am facing a spending decision where my head is telling me one thing and my heart is telling me the opposite. Our pet cat, Pyewacket, is 13 years old and has been on...

My son is engaged to a woman from Brazil. She is in the US on a work visa doing post-doc research for NIH. They plan to be married in Brazil this fall. She will renew her visa in Brazil before the wedding. They will also get married in the US when they return. When we asked why they were...

Our son is getting married to a wonderful Brazilian woman in November 2008. The wedding will be held at the beach in Florianopolis (an island off the southern coast of Brazil). We hope to include a South American cruise after the wedding before we return to the US. I have read the many...

WSJ had an article today "Year End Bargains on Closed End Funds" that pointed out some unusually large discounts on closed end funds due to year end tax loss selling. Many of the funds they cited have discounts near 15% and dividend yields above 10%. That sounds pretty attractive to me for...

Well it looks like I have finally convinced DW to spend part of the winter in Florida. We have a rental lined up in Boynton Beach for Jan. thru mid-February. Now I am starting to worry about the logistics of taking our 15 year old cat, Pyewacket, with us. In the past he has only ridden in...