Craig, as I recall from some time ago, you were doing lots of hiking in NZ. I'm starting planning a Thru tramp of the Te Araroa. Have you hiked much of it? I'm currently out on a thru-hike here in the states on the AT. Do you have any logistical advice to offer? I think I want to SOBO starting aroun...

It's unfortunate that your 403(b) is not very flexible. Do they typically offer a brokerage window? Maybe you can ask your employer for better options (maybe through your union if you have one). I guess I'm lucky in that my 401(k) options are excellent. I can directly purchase and sell bonds commiss...

What is the heart of the question? If you're trying to compare the PP to another portfolio then what you really want to know is if the PP is more or less tax efficient than another strategy. In some ways, it's probably slightly less efficient. Gold would be at 28% (if not a PFIC) and cash and bond y...

In regards to the first question, there have been a few threads on this forum about whether a "Rebalancing Bonus" exists. There are camps on both sides of that thought. I tend to think there may be a small one, but in either case, it's difficult to quantify. If your annual accumulation is ...

I don't remember the Sharpe ratio being on there, but this might help:

http://mebfaber.com/2013/07/31/asset-al ... ategies-2/

I was looking over my current rates of spending vs. saving and I should be able to retire long before a traditional retirement age (65+). I mean retire in the financially independent way. I currently have about a 50/50 mix of tax advantaged contributions vs taxable accounts in my planned savings, bu...

My employer is now offering options that allow us to use HSAs so I've been reading up on them. They have a nice advantage of being completely tax free on all ends. It's unlikely I'll need the max contribution in any year. Other forums discuss using these as an additional retirement vehicle. The prob...

If you're unhappy with your bank I would change. Most of the impacts on your score are very short-term. The only exception I can see is if the previous account was open for a very long time. I believe the FICO scoring model accounts for the average duration of all open credit accounts. If you leave ...

For the 10k-25k range, you probably want to look at VFIAX instead. It is the "Admiral" class of the same fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.05 instead of 0.17. The minimum holdings is 10k. ETFs may include trading fees that buying the fund directly won't have. You'll have to balance those ...

With the apocalypse coming today, I started to wonder how my T-Bill ladder is going to be processed. I have it set up directly with TreasuryDirect as a ladder with 4 week bills. Does anyone know what will happen if (when) we hit the debt ceiling? Will it just cancel the ladder and hold it in CofI? W...

I'm about to start a PP and in the process of learning the actual implementation details to avoid any expensive mistakes. My first questions are about gold. Has anyone done backtesting about how the ETFs track with the spot price of gold? I'm curious how the increased liquidity affects the price. Se...