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$400k isn't remotely enough to talk about different investment strategies. Suppose he follows your calculation and ends up with $600k 30 years from today and buys an annuity that doesn't adjust for inflation. First, $600k in 30 years given 3% inflation is $286,500 in today's dollars (which is...

The "set it and forget it" option should be a Vanguard Target Date Retirement Fund. You don't have to use the money for retirement, but what it does is progressively take on less risk over time. That's a pretty good option if you think you want to use it to supplement future income -- and in the...

There was no negotiation, just surrender. Top Five Theater Circuits Drop After Sony Hack - The Hollywood Reporter

I'm distressed that pollution and abuse of workers' rights is somehow seen as being "capitalistic." Capitalism, or market-based economies, in fact are all about upholding private contractual agreements and protecting private property rights. That includes paying people for their labor. It's also...

Woah, I missed that entirely... it's not even GDP, it's GNI adjusted for PPP that has exceeded that in the US. That's largely a worthless measure for comparing economies: it includes income earned by Chinese from investments abroad (e.g. in the US), then multiplies it by some factor to account...

They also have more than 3x the population... of course they should be the largest economy. They are, however, still rather poor on a per capita basis. The idea that China doing poorly is good for the US would be pretty bizarre. There's no prize for being the largest economy, whereas the...

Sent a request to join the guild -- and a bunch of friends invite to anyone in the guild who has recently logged on.

Nuclear energy works because it is massively subsidized by the government. The insurance provision alone is insane: no private company would provide catastrophic insurance for a plant. On top of that, governments are responsible for nuclear waste. Don't get me wrong: nuclear power beats coal...

Even if it did affect yourcreditscore, that's no reason to pass up "free" money. Unless you're buying a house in the next few weeks, there's really nowhere a small difference increditscores would make any difference at all.

If you invest in the Target Date Fund and other funds, you may just want to dump everything into the Target Date Fund. That's a single investment that diversifies already and will become less risky as you get closer to retirement. If you want a slightly more aggressive investment portfolio, just...

I had that one and it kept falling out of the outlet... I'm not sure it's the sturdiest of constructions. Alas, I might give it another shot.

That's smart, so at least there's no risk due to the timing. I'm still confused by the idea of tax loss harvesting, though...

I'm somewhat baffled by their value proposition. They're all about index investing, which is good, but why pay extra and not just go with a Vanguard Target Date fund? Are they actually providing value, or are they good at making it seem like they provide value? Take, for example, the...

Does anyone have a recommendation for an all-in-one travel adapters (for grounded plugs)? I've picked up a couple that have all failed me, often because they either can't hold the US plug or because they fall out of the outlet. I don't know why this is so hard to get right... am I really stuck...

Maybe one of them is rolling re-financing fees into the loan and adding that to principal? Or it includes escrow payments for taxes? However, there's something off more generally. A $219k loan over 5 years at 2.750% is $3,910 per month. edit: yet another explanation could be a teaser...

I suspect they make money on spread. e.g. you pay $16.93 for a share that they buy for $16.90 or somewhere around that. It's neat in that it's cheaper for small purchases than a flat fee, but problematic in that you don't know what the actual market price is...

If you're arguing that the vast majority of people invest in stocks without having any desire to exercise a controlling influence over the company, then I agree. I still agree. This doesn't follow. The underlying asset that is being traded (the company itself)doeshave value. It owns, if nothing...

So does the federal government. 401(k) withdrawals are taxable; those from a Roth 401(k) are not.

How is this different from tax deductions? A) You get taxed $1,000 but get a $100 deduction if you buy health insurance B) You get taxed $900 but get hit with a $100 penalty tax if you don't buy health insurance Same damn thing. (A) is what every tax deduction available exists for.

Did you understand what he said? Healthinsuranceworks by definition such that healthy people pay more than they get out of it, and sick people get more in benefits than they pay in. How else do you think health insurance works? Not just that provided by the government, but every insurance...

Seems to be quite common a misconception, so I'm glad we got to clear it up! I'd make extra payments toward that loan if you can, because 5% risk free (i.e. guaranteed) is impossible to beat. The stock market returns about 9% on average, but in any given year it can drop a lot (as much as 50%)...

I googled this and it looks like it's actually a common misconception of how fixed-payment loans work. The monthly payment (principal + interest) is fixed. So in the first year, you pay interest on $10,000 debt, whereas as you make payments, your principal decreases and with it the interest...

What do you mean by loans being interest front loaded? How long you have been paying on a loan is completely immaterial when the question is whether to make larger payments toward it. The only thing to make sure is that if you send an extra payment (i.e. the same amount as usual, but with a...

Sure they do. They want fractional ownership of the potential upside, which is both current revenue and future expected revenue. Does that answer your question?

I've been pretty good about following inbox zero and moving tasks into gqueues (task manager). Also using a snooze script (here) to make email disappear until the day I need it. I'm using that to script move some longer/unimportant things to the weekend. I set the script to update at 1am, so...

I think there's a good chance the black character is based on this guy:Ralph Gardner, chemist and scientist on the atomic bomb | African American Registry He was a chemist that had to transfer programs because the school he was in couldn't place him even as a busboy or kitchen staff -- much...

I wonder whether there just wasn't much to improve on the N5 at that price point? Going from N4 to N5 added LTE, which is a pretty big deal if you're in an area that gets LTE signal. But on that screen size, do I really care about whether the resolution is 1080p or something higher? Heck, I...

Yeah, I don't get the strategy behind the N6. There are plenty of expensive flagship phones on the market already. The nice thing about the Nexus line was that it had pretty good specs at an affordable price. I'll stick with my N5, thanks. I also don't get the 4:3 aspect ratio. I returned the...

No proof of purchase required -- you can still get your $10 or $15 worth of Red Bull stuff to give it a shot! (Actually less than $10, because the maximum amount of the settlement surely already ran out.)

I got a moto360 on launch and while the features are somewhat limit in terms of what it can do, the extra screen really is an amazing convenience. I can get a quick glance at what an incoming email is about during a meeting and whether it's important enough to read directly -- either on the...

I'm really, really enjoying the show so far. They've managed to create a great setting and the story builds up pretty quickly 2-3 episodes in. Binged pretty much the whole season up to the 11th episode (12 episode season ending on Sunday) and it's been a while since I've been hooked on a show...

Is the house underwater? Fannie Mae has some ongoing programs that basically help people who are behind on their repayments, some of which includes giving people massive amounts of cash and/or refinancing at better rates. The foreclosure process is costly and reselling a house at a loss is not...

From what I've seen, the max is usually framed in terms of the employee's contributions (because that makes it look like more), but it may differ in this case. Definitely worth double-checking! Upside of working for a family business: you may have influence about who runs the 401(k) plan...

If you invest 6% and only get 50% matching on the first 3%, that leaves you with 7.5%. I think it'll be worth looking at what funds you have available in your 401(k) and what, if any, matching and fund choices your wife has. Depending on what your respective employers offer, it may make more...

No issues here. I use Chica NZB for indexing and Tweaknews as server. Had a lot of issues with incompletes before switching to Tweaknews... might be harder to pull down content from EU providers?

Good memory; my dad's in finance. Although I now advise him on his savings... the student has become the master. How old is your daughter? It may be a good idea to consider a 529 college savings plan with at least parts of the funds. In Pennsylvania you can deduct $28k per year from your state...

I'd use Python over Ruby because the former is used in a lot of tools (e.g. just about everything that Google does). I also find Python much easier to read than that: Or: All you have to make students aware of is that the last number is non-inclusive (and that indexing starts at 0).

I took from the OP that the credit cards will be paid off with money other than the inheritance? If that's the case, it's fine to invest. But if this money is used to pay off CC debt, then definitely do not invest in anything other than a CD or an online savings account -- see bankrate.com to...

This is actually pretty risky market timing, as you're speculating on currency exchange rates -- which is a great way to lose a lot of money. I'd think of it this way: you may take a relative hit in exchanging JPY into USD, but you get a discount on buying international stocks. Also keep in mind...

It probably matters less what programming language you teach as long as it's a "real" programming language. Having to think about how to set up a problem and translate it into a logical set of instructions is super-valuable -- syntax can always be learned. So while it's ostensibly a course in a...