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http://boards.fool.com/navigating-for-the-next-decade-30829203.aspx?sort=whole This is from the Motley Fool Berkshire board. The consensus on the board seems to be that the overall market is very overvalued, so if you hold a broad market mutual fund you may want to do some market timing...

My parents are struggling with their AA. They are in their 70s and their current AA is 66% equities and 32% bonds 1% cash. Individual stocks and and bonds mostly. Not many mutual funds. They have a financial advisor, and as individual bonds come due she is reinvesting them in more bonds...

As some of you may know, I quit the new car biz back in 2009 and retired for a couple of years. I thought I was done for good, but my plan for what to do in retirement was a little bit lacking to say the least, and with DW still working and kids still in school I got a little stir crazy. One of...

My wife's dad is 73 and currently lives about 3.5 hours from us. He has always been very independent, but lately he has been talking about moving to our small city to be closer to us and his grandchildren. My wife has been wanting me to put in a pool house but I've been putting that off because...

I'm lazy and pretty dumb when it comes to refinancing since I have never done one, so I figured I would run it past y'all and hopefully one of the resident gurus could pitch in with some advice. I can get a 4.375% 30 fixed loan to replace my 5.10% ARM that can adjust up to as high as 7.5% in...

I haven't posted much lately, so I figured I would give 'yall an update. For those of you who don't know, I owned a new car dealership for 20 years, and closed it down back in late 2008. We had hit our financial goal, the business was not fun any more, yadayadayada, so I hung it up. After a...

I was gifted a big box of "Omaha" steaks from the Omaha Steak Company back in December, and I thawed one out this morning and just ate it for lunch. And................. IT WAS TERRIBLE !! :yuk: Gristly, tough, and it had a real funky taste on one end of it. I'm not a picky eater at...

I have a significant portion of my portfolio in fixed (45%), and much of that is CD's, and ALL of if it is dollar denominated. I was recently called crazy for having it set up this way, and I replied that I was not comfortable making a big currency bet (or able). The person who called me crazy...

I am applying for a PenFed refi online, and at the end of the application they want my credit card number for this: They don't tell you on the website anywhere how much this may cost however, and I'm currently on hold trying to get an answer. Anyone run across this? There is a good chance...

I was eating lunch, listening to Ray, and messing around on the ER Forums when Ray said, "OK, weve got Rich in Tampa on the line now", and I almost choked on the leftover rib I was gnawing on. I could be wrong of course, but it sure sounded like it could have been Rich. Worked for a hospital...

Midpack started a thread that got me thinking about finding the perfect second job after ER, and I was wondering if anyone has had any success with this? As I explained on his thread, I'm having trouble finding the perfect "Second Act" after 20 years in a fairly specialized position...

Another thread got me thinking this morning about setting goals once you GET to retirement. I was a goal setter and planned obsessively to be able to RE, but I don't have any goals set up now that I'm in ER, other than the standard "get the kids through college, be a good husband and dad, don't...

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but after only one year in ER I'm getting bored and antsy. I've done every project I can think of, and now I'm running out of ideas of how to fill my day. Background: I'm 45. Closed down the business (car dealership) a year ago because I was totally burnt and it...

I posted up awhile back that I was considering a refi of my existing 5% ARM that is fixed for only another 6 years for a longer term fixed loan at 5% for 30 years. My possible problem is that I'm retired and have no W2 income-- just rentals and interest/dividend income and my wife's small W2...

I'm not an alchy or anything so don't get worried, it's just that lately I've felt like drinking. DW and I drank two "nice" $6 bottles of Chianti last night and I had fun distracting her from her silly TV show. What's happening to me? Maybe it's just that spring is in the air. ;D

I own a fairly expensive home with a 5% mortgage, but the rate is only fixed for 7 years. The reason I did not fix the loan for 30 years was because at the time (early 2009) I could not find anyone who would do it for me since I had no W2 income. In fact, I could barely find anyone to do the...

Just wondering what the percentage is...........Let's say semi-retired = retired if you work 2 hours per day or less, or a max of 10 hours per week.

I was playing around with the following government calculator and got a little bummed out. https://secure.ssa.gov/apps8z/ARPI/main.jsp I had some big w2 salaries the last few years and my max monthly benefit was always in the $3100 range on that benefits estimate they send every once and a...

I am thinking about doing a refi on my current mortgage (480K) to lock in a 30 year rate, but I’m a refi neophyte and need some advice from the refi masters. My current rate is 5.065, but it is only locked for 7 years. I was thinking I would just pay if off in 7 years, or possibly just sell...

I've been agonizing for months over getting the bond side of my AA set up in this uncertain environment. I'm worried that bond funds NAVs are due to fall as rates gradually increase sometime in the future. So, a huge part of my portfolio (35%) currently sits in cash earning about 1.75% pre tax...

I'm considering my liability exposure on my rental properties and thinking of purchasing a personal umbrella to sit over my homeowners policy, or possibly putting the deeds to my rentals into an LLC. Does anyone here to the LLC thing? Can it take the place of umbrella coverage? Do I need to do...

Does anyone here use umbrella liability insurance? I carried it when I had the car business, but didn't renew when I quit because I figured my exposure had dropped quite a bit since I just sit around the house cooking and drinking beer all day. :laugh: I do have 3 rental properties, one of...

I'm the guy with the wierd AA consisting of mostly Berkshire Hathaway stock-- 48% of the total portfolio. When I was working I never had a real AA plan-- I just plowed what I made into whatever stocks that looked cheap at the time (mostly Berkshire obviously). I was using the scary/dangerous...

I set up a simple spreadsheet tracking my monthly SWR, but I'm wondering if I'm double counting my cash pile. I have a budget set up, and then I enter all our actual expenses and then subtract our income (real estate rentals, DW income and return on cash) to come up with a net amount of cash...

We spent a month in the little surfing village of Nosara CR, in the Guadacanaste area of CR (Pacific side), considering whether we could live there full time with our two boys (10 and 12). We have freinds there with three kids and they really wanted us to move down, and we had a great time...