To put the cherry on top of this whole fiasco, it now looks like some or all of the people who helped lead the police to Dorner may not get paid any reward money due to a loophole in the language of the reward notices. Specifically, Dorner was never "apprehended": Ah...  So perhaps the gu...

Discussing the PP with others lately, I've come to appreciate just how much psychology affects investing satisfaction.  No matter what facts you can present to support the PP performance, if an individual has any inclination whatsoever that they have the ability or inside info to predict market baha...

The amount of police arrogance and ineptitude displayed in this whole incident is astounding.  In a situation where they should be heroes, somehow they succeeded in making a mass murderer come across as more collected and in control than the police "protecting" us.    Acting clearly out of...

I think everyone needs to keep global warming in mind.  In another 10-20 years, these already hot, desert areas will get even hotter. Meh.  Global warming (natural or manmade) happens over very long timescales.  Even the IPCC acknowledges in its most recent draft report in December that global temp...

I can understand government intervention in situations of clear animal cruelty. Like where the cats are dying of malnutrition or someone is "raising" (more like strategically neglecting) pitbulls for fighting purposes.  Cases of neighborhood "blight" are a bit of a gray area, whe...

BTW - if cost is no object, San Diego has the most perfect weather in the US, IMO. Warm and sunny year round with few storms. You would still have to deal with CA politics, but on a local level my impression is that SD is less liberal than the other major CA cities. The large military presence affec...

Tuscon and Austin are very Liberal parts of otherwise Conservative/Free states. I recently moved to Austin from San Francisco (born and raised in Dallas).  It's true that Austin is liberal in general.  But it's no California by a long shot (it's still part of Texas after all), and actually one of t...

What part of China are you living in? I've travelled to China pretty extensively for work. I agree that the major metropolitan cities feel very safe in general - people are more likely to approach you with a smile to practice their English than they are to appear threatening in any way. But get out ...

Interesting that the 60/40 split is so sacrosanct that they'd recommend leverage on the bonds rather than just changing the percentage to get the balance they want.

I'd post more, but I'm busy gathering all my money and rushing to the pet store.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/ja ... ck-picking

Sigh.

Whose deep pockets can we empty next for the "public good"?

(After my 60% legal fees, of course.).

I think most of what you're missing is live sports, which is admittedly a tough nut to crack. An OTA antenna will get you all of the live sports on the network channels you'd like in beautiful HD. In addition, you can stream all of the major sports on web-connected devices (for a fee) - Sunday Tick...

I reject the concept that working has to be slave labor.  Both of you guys are smart enough that if you put your focus  and efforts into finding a way to make money, doing what you love (or at least doing something that creates an automated cash flow system-- like a web business) you could be free ...

Just cut the cable myself and don't regret it for a second.

I bought a Tivo Premiere and an HD antenna.  The Tivo charges $15 a month, but it's a great DVR and I can set a series recording for all of the network shows you'd get on Hulu (as well as the sports that aren't on Hulu).

The rent vs. buy decision is always an interesting argument.  It largely comes down to where you live and to some extent your personality. For ER purposes, I prefer minimizing the known monthly expenses.  Having no rent or mortgage payment is far more valuable for cashflow security than a little mor...

I'm also on the ER path, planning to retire from a full time job in the next few years before I'm 40.  I agree that your (reasonable) investment style really doesn't matter so much for the ER type in the accumulation phase compared to your savings rate.  But I can't think of a better portfolio than ...

Interesting question. I'm a pro-life libertarian, but I am also Christian so religion does influence my beliefs. (EDIT: RuralEngineer makes a good point below, and I'd still be pro-life even if I wasn't religious.) I offer this link with the disclosure that I searched for this only after reading you...

This one is easy.

When you make money, it's clearly skill. When you lose money, it's bad luck.

One of the things new PP investors should get comfortable with right off the bat is the idea that one or more of their assets probably WILL decline in value after it is purchased, and that is okay . Yep -- that took me a little while, but eventually I came to accept that if every investment is goin...

My first reaction is perhaps  this will mean freedom from liberal brainwashing.  I wonder what long term consequences that will result in. Not so fast.  If anything, this will consolidate education into the hands of a small handful of famous professors at prestigious colleges.  Those few will have ...

It always amazes me how quickly distracted people get in their natural instinct to "fix the problem" when something terrible happens.  Unfortunately, there are no quick legal fixes for the fundamental problem that there is evil in the world and occasionally mentally deranged murderers lose...

I love Penn & Teller's knack for making controversial topics entertaining.


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dhXOuuHcjbs

Here's where I don't claim to be an expert -- I'm mainly falling back on forum knowledge here.  Perhaps I'm wrong. My impression is that EDV is a bit too volatile, and VGLT holds up to 20% non-treasuries.  I've read here before that many really only recommend TLT as a LTT ETF option for the PP. But ...

Honest question:  In what way is IAU less appealing than other gold ETF alternatives for taxable accounts? IMHO, the only downside with IAU over the other gold ETFs is that it's a BlackRock fund, and for those who like to diversify among fund companies, it's easier to diversify with the gold compon...

Mortgages are not inherently evil.  Like any financial decision, you just have to be smart and work through your alternatives to find what makes most sense. I bought a modest house on a 15-year fixed mortgage recently, and chose that over paying cash for a myriad of reasons based on our financial si...