dualstow, What happened to Machine Ghost? For a while he was a prolific poster on this forum, and lately seems to have vanished – like a ghost? I enjoyed his posts, but also sometimes found them a bit cryptic, as though I needed an explanatory preamble before diving into his more technical missals. ...

Jeffrey, I favor a shorter maturity—1 year or less—for your Treasury ladder. For the PP, a “barbell” of maturities has served investors in the PP well. In other words, try to keep your short term Treasurys short and your long term Treasurys long. A shorter maturity should also keep your Treasury bil...

Absolutely agree. I should have added that I really appreciate your posts in this thread. I do. I hope that 6-month treasury bills and, say, Vanguard's prime money market will catch up with inflation, which is what- 1.6-2% ? Not a lot of hope for banks. Thanks, dualstow. I guess I am using this for...

dear thisisallen, SHY is an exchange traded fund (ETF) that tracks an index of 1-3 year Treasury bills. If you exchange that with your own ladder of directly owned 2-year Treasury bills you will probably note little difference in yield, but you will be removing the small counteryparty risk that come...

Greg, Make sure that your mortgage provides, in writing, that your PMI can and will be dropped once your equity reaches the 20% level. Since you mentioned that you are a federal employee, I assume that you are eligible for the Thrift Savings Plan. The TSP G fund is a Treasury- issued security with ...

The current I bond rate is 1.96%. Max. $10,000 per SSN. Yield of I bond currently beats money market funds, 4 year CD, and 5 year Treasury. Less principal risk than FDIC - insured CDs or bank accounts. Yes, but you must hold I-bonds for 5 years minimum or face a penalty. So a more realistic compari...

Greg, 1. You said you were going with 5% down and a 30 year mortgage. Most mortgage lenders require private mortgage insurance if you put down less than 20%. Did you account for that ? 2. I second Desert's view on the importance of liquidity, especially for a first time homeowner. I did factor in P...

Started my annual rebalance. Sold stocks (FSTVX) from 28.7% of portfolio back to 25.0%. Seemed like a good day to do it.

Now I have to hold my nose and buy LTTs. I hope the yuck factor will turn out to be a good sign

Dear pugstuff, Like Harry Browne himself, I have lately come to the unfashionable conclusion that there is no substitute for US Treasury-backed securities—in cash as well as LTTs. I don’t blame the OP for chasing yield with short term cash. Like many people on this forum, I have done it myself. Lik...

Greg,

1. You said you were going with 5% down and a 30 year mortgage. Most mortgage lenders require private mortgage insurance if you put down less than 20%. Did you account for that ?

2. I second Desert's view on the importance of liquidity, especially for a first time homeowner.

Dear pugstuff, Like Harry Browne himself, I have lately come to the unfashionable conclusion that there is no substitute for US Treasury-backed securities—in cash as well as LTTs. I don’t blame the OP for chasing yield with short term cash. Like many people on this forum, I have done it myself. Like...

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The current I bond rate is 1.96%. Max. $10,000 per SSN. Yield of I bond currently beats money market funds, 4 year CD, and 5 year Treasury. Less principal risk than FDIC - insured CDs or bank accounts. Yes, but you must hold I-bonds for 5 years minimum or face a penalty. So a more realistic compari...

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The current I bond rate is 1.96%. Max. $10,000 per SSN.

Yield of I bond currently beats money market funds, 4 year CD, and 5 year Treasury.

Less principal risk than FDIC - insured CDs or bank accounts.

1. It seems more than coincidental that the IRS formulated the new “simplified” home office deduction in the midst of an ongoing boom in working from home. Also not coincidental is that our back-of-the-napkin calculations suggest that the “simplified” home office deduction will yield a significantly...

I take back what I said when I speculated that depreciation would probably account for the lion's share of the deduction. I blanked on the fact that WiseOne was in New York City and failed to appreciate how insane the real estate and tax situations have become there. Doesn't everybody live in a pai...

Our discussion of the home office deduction sent me rummaging through old tax returns. A couple of points: 1. Re-looking my schedule C’s, I noted that my home office deduction amounted to a rather small percentage of my overall roster of expenses. I had forgotten that in a number of years, other Sch...

1. A syllabus showing the dates of your weekly conference, subjects discussed, etc. should suffice to show regular use. You probably already do something like that anyway.. 2. Turbotax software can calculate both the standard and the more detailed office deduction. Maddy is right that the newer stan...

There has been talk of phasing out the 1,000 Swiss franc bank notes. The Swiss have the highest rate of bank note usage in the developed world. One claim is that circulation of large denomination notes is due to money laundering by foreign organized crime. Some Swiss economists claim that the Swiss ...

<snip> There is another simple option: Cash in the PP is for liquidity, only secondarily for interest. If I was in your shoes, I would not accept a negative yield on my cash or less than 1% to tie up my money for a year. I would take 25% of my portfolio in 100 euro notes and put them into a safe de...

I was a history professor until I retired last year and claimed the home office deduction for the past decade. I was never audited, and never worried about any "red flags." I think the key to the home office deduction is to make absolutely sure that your designated office area is both for ...

From what I've read here on the board, you can put your cash in ~1 year T-Bills according to the book(s). But lots of people also put them in CDs. Are there other options? Does it matter which one you pick? In my case, I'd either get Dutch 1 year bonds, which yield -0.74% at the moment. For a one y...

Lots of good non-IPA brews out there in the brewniverse . Unfortunately the shelves are full of this fad. Ha. Also, while I love beer, do you think people are getting a little carried away with hops these past several years? I do. No. Once you have had a good IPA, the rest of the stuff they call be...

1 year Treasury: 1.27% 6/30/2017 Fidelity min. $1,000 1 year CD: 1.40% 6/30/2017 synchrony min. $2,000 Current I-bond rate: 1.96% 5/01/2017 Treasury Direct min. $ 25 Previous I-bond rate: 2.76% 5/01/2017 Treasury Direct min. $ 25 Happy 4th of July to everyone!