Just wait.  Housing prices are starting to take off again, and in Manhattan bidding wars for coop apartments are once again commonplace.  Housing prices were never as depressed here as they were elsewhere, but prices have now surpassed the 2006 peak and I bet the same will soon be true in many othe...

Most of the time I don't worry about but whenever I read about it, I get nervous. Any ideas? IMHO, the gold ETF counter-party risk is real but it is small enough that one should not lose sleep nor make any rash financial decisions to run from them.  It sounds like your reading list may be the bigge...

Hah, everybody thinks he's Morgan Freeman! He is actually a Morgan, but not that Morgan: http://sidmeiersalphacentauri.wikia.com/wiki/Morgan_Industries I wasn't sure who that was, but never pictured a video game character.  I have a new level of geeky respect. When I started with the PP I still ins...

As for my patients who were bored and who created convoluted difficulties for themselves to disguise that fact, I came to the conclusion that the world seemed dull and slow moving to them by comparison with videos, films, shows, and television. The greatest cause of boredom in the modern world is e...

I guess it doesn't surprise me that a bond trader would fully support keeping the mortgage. It's like asking a pharmacist if pills are the best solution to your headache. Actually, according to what I read in Liar's poker you have it backwards. The bond trader prefers that you pay it off early. Tha...

I guess it doesn't surprise me that a bond trader would fully support keeping the mortgage. It's like asking a pharmacist if pills are the best solution to your headache. I totally understand the arguments for buying stocks with a mortgage balance, especially with low rates and long duration. Mathem...

Excluding a few minor gigs as a kid (mowing the neighbor's lawn, walking dogs, distributing flyers for a friend of my parents), my first real-ish job was at a screen-printing shop when I was about 16.  It was owned by the parents of a friend of mine, and paid around $4-5 per hour although I remember...

Tyler, Thought the painter brother was going to actually endorse the PP directly but I guess that is why it's a "parable." Not a bad analogy. Thanks. Well, in the screenplay the scene ends with the camera panning back to the painting on the hillside.  Only it turns out the hill is really ...

Parable of the Two Farmers Two brothers inherited parcels of land from their father.  The land was vast and diverse, and the weather was unpredictable.  One season bountiful rain would shower one end of the fields and the other would be in drought. While the next season the conditions would sometim...

Although I am 100% PP myself, I really like VWINX as a fund and recommend it to friends.  That said, it is not a substitute for PP cash.  You're just chasing yield with more stocks and bonds.  This is perfectly fine as a VP, but be aware of how it changes your risk profile.  I absolutely see my chec...

I have the same feeling after reading PS's post that I did after I first watched 300 -- I'm ready to kick ass and take names.  He can add inspirational speaker to the ERE skill list. To build on his points, change for the sake of change sometimes has a honeymoon period that makes you feel better but...

Yeah, that's a bit different.  The PP is still more tax efficient than many other options, but with that level of income I personally think a tax professional would be well worth the investment.

I would take out 4% of the value of my entire portfolio from the cash position each year, and then rebalance when cash goes below 15%, right? Yep.  The good thing about withdrawing from cash is that the taxes in most years will be very low.  At current interest rates much of the bond interest is of...

Yes, it is possible today and people have done it.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthesi ... ous_metals

However, the cost required to do so vastly outpaces the value of the gold produced, so it's more science project than business plan.

As a rookie, start slow. 

Kahlua and hot chocolate (my friends call it a "chocoholic") is pretty tasty. 

I don't think it is easy to have a part time job after ERE. Competion is increasing every day... you have to do it all day again... ??? Job competition and employment volatility are risks for all jobs.  From my perspective, ERE provides healthy risk mitigation. Also, financial independence favors t...

NOTE: I deleted this post with the intention to edit it, but Libertarian666 quoted it.  No worries.  I've reposted it (out of order) to help the conversation make sense. Thanks Kshartle.  Despite the apparent angst, I don't feel bad about what I do and if I had the chance to do it all over again I'd...

@ns3 -- I'd definitely read that book!  Just my two-cents: One can proudly accept the responsibility of working hard to provide for self and family, but still reject the traditional paths encouraged by modern society.  Jesus was a carpenter and a teacher, building things of lasting value both physic...

Reminds me of the parable of the rich fool in the Bible ...... I'm acutely aware of that parable.  The very day I reached a big financial milestone last year, I also received post-surgery test results that finally proved (after 7 months of worry) I did not have cancer.  Guess which news I celebrate...

I feel like retirement is a worse-case scenario. It's kind of like saying "I never found a way to make money that I really enjoyed so I saved enough to stop". ... I think the happiest and most incredible people never retire until they are pysically incapable of continuing their work. I he...

When I first retired, my first priority was to learn how to do "nothing" and be OK with that.  I retired from a job I loved and traveled over half the time and when I was home I was frequently doing some kind of "work".  I was concerned that I would have trouble going from full ...

Tyler, that's great.  Do you feel like sharing the magnitude of your annual expenses?  For us, a family of three plus a cat and a dog (I'll report on our new dog in the other thread), $50K per year is pretty comfortable.  We could live on less if we needed to, and we're certainly capable of spendin...

While I see no good coming from military intervention against Russia, the fact that the US apparently had an agreement with the Ukraine (back from the Clinton days) to defend them against Russia in exchange for giving up their nuclear weapons certainly complicates matters.  At the very least, inacti...

My wife and I have been actively taking steps the last few years to retire very early -- sustainably slashing spending, moving to a less expensive city, etc -- and are now on target to retire late this year at the age of 37.  We've been saving over 80% of our net income the past few years, and based...

I agree the proposal, on the surface, is a great foundation for productive tax reform that many voters can get on board with. 

However, simplifying the tax code reduces the opportunities for graft and political favoritism.  Which is why it never happens.