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I'm fully aware that the military does not offer the option of gradually tailing off (except that some military retirees move on to civilian jobs with DoD). But practically every military retiree is sufficiently young and fit that they are capable of continuing to earn money (and thereby support...

I agree with that statement absolutely. That is why I criticize the established paractice of working like crazy for some number of years -- whether it is 50 or 62 or whatever -- and then abruptly "dropping out." It isn't good for most individuals, it isn't good for the overall economy, and...

I won't waste my time trying to refute the Marxist attacks on all people who have inherited wealth. That issue has practically nothing to do with the matter of early retirement, since that is just one of an infinite number of things that people can "buy" when they have sufficient assets...

Heck no. I certainly enjoy discussions with people who have different opinions, as long as they don't become belligerent about it. And I certainly defer to you on matters involving fly fishing. 8)

I figured that my last post would draw negative responses from the saurheads on this forum.   >:( :( >:( If the gimmee cap fits, wear it.

Thanks for the kind words. It shouldn't be too surprising that I've been somewhat involved in politics throughout my adult life, and as I have said before, the national political leader that I most admire is John McCain. An interesting thing that I have observed about politics at the local...

I've been out of town recently and didn't have the chance to respond to the various posts "knocking" me for having the audacity to say what I have said starting with my very first post in this forum. But I would like to respond to bongo2. I recognize that it is people's right to retire early...

Re:  Thanks, Roger and, uh, Ted. Probably about 250 of my posts have addressed this.  I don't care to repeat them.  My observations are based on an understanding of economics, and if you want to join the others in "dissing" this, that's your business. Another of Yogi Berra's quotes is that...

Where publicly funded institutions are concerned, my opinion as a taxpayer and voter is that fairness should be a consideration in setting prices. I agree that private universities have a right to set their prices any way they want. But if they are simply going to set them in a way that...

Re:  Thanks, Roger and, uh, Ted. Benjamin Franklin is an excellent example of a highly productive person who most certainly did not drop out, for all of the reasons that you cite. If you will take the trouble to read my various other posts, I have advocated exactly that sort of commitment to...

Well, there are a couple of ways at looking at "cost." The "cost" that you refer to above is actually the "marginal cost." In the context of a college (where there are typically large fixed costs for facilities) the marginal cost tends to be much lower than the average cost, which is the total...

And I'll bet that you are proud of making the "sacrifice" of eating the meals that your wife cooks for you. Perhaps you should consider taking a course in economics, because your idea that people are doing a favor to society by consuming rather than producing is absolute economic idiocy. I...

I have a basic problem with that too -- especially with people who are trying to figure out ways to retire by the time they are 35 or some such ridiculously young age. I believe that people should have the right to retire whenever they want, but as I have said in a number of posts, it is...

My attitude towards the owners of sports teams is pretty much neutral -- like my attitude towards business owners in general.  In the first place, they aren't all "billionaires."  They certainly are very wealthy, and most approach team ownership pretty much as a "hobby," like owning a race...

I find it amazing how liberals can complain about "billionaire owners" while completely overlooking the fact that most of the cost that people pay to watch professional sports is attributable to player salaries, and not profit to the owners.  As with most liberal economic ideas, they are still...

This discussion brings up an issue that should be of concern to all Americans as we face the prospect of having to make our economy more efficient in the future, to maintain our standard of living with a workforce that will be declining as a fraction of the overall population. I am willing to...

If you folks really want to make this exercise complicated, you can also investigate Vanguard's other "balanced" funds, such as the STAR fund and all of the Life Strategy funds. Intuitively, I believe that the (1) the differences in the return/risk ratio will be small and that (2) even if these...

We are in the process of doing the same idiotic thing here in St. Louis for the Cardinals. We are about to tear down a beautiful stadium that was built in 1965, and replace it with a new stadium that has the "retro" look that is currently in vogue. The seating capacity will be slightly less, but...

Rebalancing continuously would really be taking a good thing to an extreme that would generate huge trading costs for any individual who tried to do it, and for the overall financial system if it became common practice. In theory, rebalancing may either increase returns or decrease them...

FIRECalc resets the asset allocation to whatever the user inputs, at the end of every historical year. This simulates rebalancing. If a person is doing it with no-load mutual funds, it is essentially cost-free, although there may be some taxes to be paid. But when you are retired, this doesn't...

From the various academic studies that I have read, I have come to the belief that the "value premium" is attributable to value stocks having a higher "beta." Thus, it really isn't a premium at all. I also believe, however (based on data by Ibbotson Associates) that there is a "size premium" --...

Re: SWR, terminal values, TIPS, I-bnds & comm pape That is true -- I was hiking in the mountains and did not get into any large cities. I went there because I had heard that Switzerland is called the "Colorado of Europe" ;) But the large cities of Europe that I have seen (Paris, Vienna...

Re: SWR, terminal values, TIPS, I-bnds & comm pape Sure, most stores do. But you pay a fee for shipping and handling. There is a tradeoff between having the time and travel cost of driving to a large centralized "discount" store and buying goods cheap once you get there, and having a "mom...

To me, it doesn't make sense to be allocating one part of your assets yourself, while you are leaving the allocation of another part to the active managers of a balanced fund. If you want to maintain control of your overall asset allocation, you need to consider what the active managers are...

The problem with some people who make a hobby out of moving money around is that they actually believe that they are improving their investment returns, when typically the opposite is true. One thing that increases my level of interest is to invest relatively small amounts in managed small cap...