Let us not assume that the fact he is in the office will preclude Kshartle from watching the game. He is clever that way. He'll at the very least have a ESPN online gamecast on.

Thanks for that, FB. Right now the US is at +1 in goal differential and Ghana is at -1. Seems not quite right that Ghana could move on having lost their match to the US, but I'm guessing the idea behind the goal differential tie breaker is to encourage more aggressive play (and maybe to keep more te...

Yeah, I think Der Mannschaft plays for the win. They are gunning to win the whole shebang, not just to advance. I think the best teams want to get through the tournament unbeaten and untied. That being said, I like all four teams in el grupo de la muerte. Seems like there were a few weak groups in t...

Germany beats the US but the US advances to the knockout round because Ghana rises up and defeats Portugal. At least I think that gets the US in. Both Ghana and the US would have four points but the US already beat Ghana which I think is the first tiebreaker, no? My sports forecasting is on par with...

Portart, you wild man! Magneto, you too are out of control!  :) I've only been invested in the PP for about five months and all the components are doing fine. We'll see how I feel when there are big gains or losses in one of the assets. I actually expect stocks to do well just because I feel these l...

Medium Tex, his investment was only 130,000,000 ounces.  ;) Just found this chart which is pretty damn impressive: http://www.businessinsider.com/berkshire-hathaway-fails-five-year-test-2014-1 Of course if you have all the connections in the world, it becomes easier to get information that can lead ...

whatchamacallit, just thought a real-world experience with these EE bonds might be of value to you. I have some that I bought between 1997 and 1999 and the doubling time on those is 17 years (the rules change every few years on these bonds). Eight of my bonds will hit their double date on 11/1/14. T...

Savings bonds have the additional benefit of deferring the interest income for up to 30 years, effectively increasing the size of your tax-deferred space... Thanks for the reminder, Sophie. I forgot to mention that. More honestly, I had just plain forgotten that benefit. Sometimes it's good to just...

As I alluded to above, Desert, I have a bunch of EE and I Bonds as a big percentage of my PP cash. When I get to the stage where I am withdrawing from the PP for living expenses, it will have a lot more of the cash allocation as T-Bills and a lot less in savings bonds. The savings bonds also have th...

Not only do the humans on the radio & TV news shows have biases but so do their advertisers. I think it's impossible to avoid bias but it's very possible (though not easy!) to change the channel and listen to points of view that do not align with our own. I do this as an exercise from time to ti...

It's OK, K. I am 55 but trapped in the body of a 52-year-old. Robust to the point where the girls who work at the local gym even notice my existence from time to time (the guys who work there will only say goodbye to me if I am with my wife or daughter). Interestingly, I have only run a rough simula...

I wouldn't count on it, PS, but you never know. From reading a bunch of your posts, it's clear you have evolved over time. One of the biggest challenges/responsibilities we face with our daughter is to get her to think for herself. With issues like politics and religion, it's really hard not to try ...

Sam, check out Tyler's excellent post on the role of cash in a PP on 4/27/14 under the topic "Safe Withdrawal Rate." In short, having that cash position ups your SWR considerably. That being said, I also fall into Kshartle's "much older investors" category. I am 55 and want to ha...

It's pretty clear in general that discussions on the Internet can quickly sink to a level of mutual disrespect that people would be unlikely in face-to-face conversations. That's too bad but it just seems to be human nature. Let's hope we can evolve as a species to be more tolerant when there are pe...

I only finished one year of college but am thinking that could make a good gag placard.... "in recognition of some college experience..." I say go for it. If you don't like it after a while, take them down and spackle over the holes.

Others will flesh this out but basically you want the LTTs there in the PP because they will give you a strong return in a deflationary environment. No other asset can be counted on to do that. Everyone has been predicting higher interest rates (and therefore lower bond yields) for years but these l...

Maybe I'm the world's shallowest human but I like any asset that's going up.

Clacy, what are state tax rates like in Missouri versus Kansas? My initial thought when I read the article was that I pay so much more in federal and real estate taxes than I do in state taxes that I would really have to be looking to live in a state for a long time in order to take the state tax ra...

buddtholomew, are you not pleased when gold is up because you are young and want to buy it cheaply? Or do you just mean that it's good to see the rise in gold offsetting the drop in the long bond?

Yeah, I just kinda realized that I don't really have a variable portfolio either. I was wondering why that section of the forum was never very captivating for me. So 0% of 0.

Obviously not all S&P 500 companies are created equal, but it seems easy to identify overvalued junk in hindsight.

On my dad's side it's since 1789 when four German brothers came over. Many generations on my mom's side too and that was from England and Ireland. My wife and daughter were both born in China so they are total newbies except that they are about 95% Americanized.

TPG, I have the book but it's taking me longer to read it than it probably took Kahneman to write it. Definitely good stuff though and I'll tackle it again when I clear out some mental space. I find his writing too academic for my taste but, yes, the two systems of thought ring true for me.

This is a tough question to answer but I am wondering if anyone on here has enough personal data on their expenses over the last several years to be able to calculate the impact of inflation on their own lives. I guess the question boils down to "What is your personal rate of inflation?" W...

I think if I were POTUS I'd rather push for immediate trials for every inmate held at GITMO instead of giving sole discretion to the prison admin. I'm sure there's a few in there that deserve a hangman's noose, and some that may very well deserve freedom. Either way, I'd give them all their day in ...