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I'm 40 and in the highest tax bracket. Not rich (it's more likely that I'll wind up in the $250K area). I have a 401(k) from my last employer, and in the past I pretty reflexively dumped old 401(k)s into my Roth IRA and took the up-front tax hit. This one's a little bigger (about 50% of my...

Thanks. I was guessing "advanced" :P

My 401(k) is discontinuing the emerging markets fund I'm in now, and I have to make all future contributions to another. I don't know if I have to sell out of the current fund, but I will, and dump it into the new fund. My three choices are: American Funds EuroPacific Growth R4 Fund - their...

How about, offer an opt-out to those of us who are working? They can keep every dime they've taken from me so far, but they don't collect another nickle. I get an instant 12% raise, and that's my "social security". Hey, a guy can dream, right?

I hadn't. Thanks for the suggestion!

My employer uses Principal for our 401(k) program. Their little online "quiz" suggested an allocation of 50% in Large US Equity funds, 25% in Small/Mid US Equity, and 25% in International Equity. My fund choices are: Large U.S. Equity: 50.00% of your contributions to match the Profile...

Before Socialist inSecurity, everyone knew they had to save and prepare for their own retirements. After, we have millions and millions of people who choose not to save... why should they, when Big Brother is going to be there to catch them and care for them? Same with welfare... it started as...

With every paycheck, I use direct deposit to: 1) contribute the employer match max to my 401(k) 2) contribute 1/26th of the yearly max to my Roth IRA 3) deposit a certain amount to a mutual fund money market The result is that I wind up living well below my means. I just have to live on...

...except spending never goes down. "Spending cuts" mean spending doesn't increase quite as much as it was projected or planned to. We simply keep borrowing and printing money, even while debt service and current financial obligations mount.

Much of our present debt, and almost all of our future debt, is for entitlement spending. There is zero return from writing checks to a bunch of people in the future. We would need well over $50 trillion "in the bank" today to pay all of the Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid promises we;ve...

None of our money is "backed" by anything in Fort Knox. The only thing that makes our fiat money "worth" anything is the belief that it can be exchanged for other valuable goods and services in the future.

I found out that my GF (45 yo) has her IRA (traditional) 100% in EACFX There are all sorts of alarms going off for me... 100% in one fund, it's rated as "Low" risk yet has posted gains of around 11%... What's more, it's through a company (I think Wachovia?) that charges here each time she even...

Not really. I would say "you get what you pay for", but that isn't exactly true in this case... you (all of us, actually) pay far, far too much for public education, and the result that we get is a sad joke. Sending your kids to public indoctrination centers is far too likely to leave them...

Income taxes are stupid. Why would you want to penalize success, profit, initiative, and wealth creation? I believe in a flat consumption tax, but there's simply no way to have one that's "revenue neutral"... a 23% sales tax would simply create an enormous black market. What we really need is...

That's also to keep them from establishing residency, and suddenly the hotel has to go through a months-long eviction process if for whatever reason they no longer desire the presence of their "guest".

I love my FSA. I need new contacts each year. I'm having a lot of dental work done right now. I'm considering getting snipped next year. I might want corrective eye surgery at some point. I use the card to pay for aspirin, contact lens solution... anything health-related. You just need to...

1) Savings =! investments 2) Inflation destroys the purchasing power of your dollars... you have the same number of dollars, but they buy less.

It's on my to-read list :)

$4 million is my punch-out number right now, and I'm 36 :D I would imagine that it would be very easy to, once you've reached your "goal", to start to worry... what if I didn't figure things right? What if I get some weird cancer that needs $3 million in treatments? What if the economy goes...

The money is "gone" in the sense that it's been spent. Sure, it's been replaced with these Treasury instruments that are (and must be) payable on demand. But where does the money to redeem them come from? The government does not generate wealth. It does not turn a profit. There are two...

Because fiscal responsibility and Socialism simply cannot exist at the same time. No other country has "fixed" a wealth transfer problem, except by getting rid of it. Europe is in worse shape than we are, but in a deeper state of denial... they have a lot more invested in Socialism, and it's...

+1 Another book I strongly recommend is The Richest Man in Babylon. Also The Millionaire Next Door Both emphasize "paying yourself first", frugality, thrift, saving, etc.

Good for you! Congratulations! :) You're way to young to be in bonds. I have a mutual fund money market account that's nearly 100% liquid and pays around 5% Get a few months worth of living expenses in something like that and then get other money into something like a no-load S&P500 index...

This would be a terrible time for a 76 year old to get into anything that has to do with the stock market. And one $100K CD + two "smaller" ones... let's say $200K. With CDs, she'd be living on $10K per year, roughly. Ouch. Is that really all she has? How is it possible that she isn't...