Recent content by RAchip

The easiest thing is just to do what Buffet said: 90% in Vanguard S&P 500 Index fund, 10% in US Treasuries Bond Fund. If 90/10 makes you too nervous, you can do 80/20 or 70/30. Historically, just putting your money in an S&P 500 index fund would have put you in a small crowd of the most...

I mostly agree with Senator. 40% or so of the "debt" is owed to the government (its like inter-company debt) so it really doesn't count; it isn't technically "debt."

One justification for buybacks I hear is that buybacks increase EPS and since buyers often base what they are willing to pay for stock on a multiple of EPS, then buybacks should increase stock price. If this is true, then dividends are "free money." If stock prices are really determined...

The article linked by Markola says: "Whether a company distributes cash as a dividend or a stock buyback, remaining shareholders get the same benefit. A dividend causes a price drop in exchange for cash. A buyback doesn’t cause a price drop, but there is no cash income. Net-net, they’re the...

But when a company buys back shares cash is LEAVING the company so shouldn't that decrease the value of the company? If a company has $1 million dollars and 1 million shares outstanding presumably each share is worth $1 and the market cap is $1 million. If the company buys back 500,000 shares...

"they can borrow against the increased value" You want people to have to borrow to pay "income" taxes? That, to me, is patently ridiculous. The idea of taxing unrealized paper gains is just more socialist/communist wealth confiscation talk.

As mentioned above, this would be a form of asset tax. It would not be an income tax because you have no income if you simply own an asset and don't sell it. This is absolutely crazy and would do unbelievable damage to the economic system in our country by causing people to sell appreciated...

Yes, I keep well over $5mm in cash now that rates are going up so much.

"Why do you want to have so much cash?" I keep A LOT of cash (in MM mostly). Cash now produces interest of 2.16% for admiral shares at VGPMM. I know some people say cash is bad. I disagree. Especially now when you get a reasonable return while having near instant liquidity. Cash is king...

I agree with this line of thinking. If you own real estate, including your primary residence, it can be sold and you can transition to a different living situation if necessary (renting, smaller home, assisted living, etc etc). So I also look at it as a type of insurance or bonus asset.

We have a place on Longboat Key. We are planning to move there full time when I'm completely retired in a few years. We love SW Florida and the Sarasota area in particular. For a retirement lifestyle, I think the west coast is much better than the east coast, but I have retired friends who...

Is "the beach" for you Longboat Key?

We would like to find friends in their late 40s early 50s like us (still with fairly young kids) that are FI and are either semi or totally retired. Its basically impossible. Most people are broke and even the ones that appear to have money and live like us need their large paychecks every two...

I like cash back. I also like to keep it simple. 5% Amazon cash back card used exclusively for Amazon purchases. Citi double cash back (2% cash back on everything) for all other CC purchases The Citi card is great. The app for it is super user friendly and easy. I pay it off monthly through...

I think that before anyone takes any cholesterol medication you should have a scan to see if how much plaque you have. I have very low cholesterol (total cholesterol of 130) but I have plaque.