Sure, but that’s why as you get closer, weight more heavily towards bonds. Just look at how a Bond Index Fund did in 2008 compared to the Stock Index Fund. The Stock Index lost like 50% between 2008 and 2009. The Bond Index lost about 10%.

A 3 to 5 year time horizon for investments isn’t really that risky. Just go for blue chips and not aggressive growth funds. If you’re closer to 3 years, just weight the portfolio a bit heavier in bonds. When you start to get near to your goal, maybe within a year, pull it out and put it in a CD or money market since…

Glad to help. If you do end up contacting SoFi, feel free to use this referral link since I’m not above getting $300 for a referral, you’ll apparently also get $100.

You probably can do that, but it’s likely not a good idea. You need to have at least that amount of equity in your home, which, if you have high student loans, probably won’t happen. Further, banks usually won’t let you pull out all the equity in your home.

I have a credit score around 810 and my wife is around 775. She had about $175,000 in student loan debt, I have none, and we both had mortgage debt (our house) of about $200,000. Both of us are professionals (wife is a resident neurologist, I’m a tax attorney), and our salaries are fairly good, but by no means are we…

I highly recommend them (not a paid sponsor, just really like their product). They seem like a really good company to work with and I have no complaints about them so far (we’ve had the loan with them for maybe 3 months or so).

My wife and I are in the same boat. Her med school loan interest rate was at 6.8% for $175,000. Under Navient’s repayment program, we had a 20 year loan, and the interest would have been around $100,000. Now, we have a 10 year variable (since I knew our time horizon would be less than 5 years, and the 5 year interest…

Absolutely. My firm’s health plan is a high deductible. My firm sets up HSAs for each attorney and puts the deductible plus $100 in the account. Plus, not only do we get 401(k) matching up to 6%, but we also get a pension plan where the firm puts in 4.5% to 8.5% (depending on time at firm) each year, no employee…

I’ve interviewed for jobs in NYC and Boston and all packages offered were always up for negotiation. Now, there can be a take it or leave it aspect because, like in NYC, there’s about a 1000 lawyers applying for a single position and you really have to justify why they should pay you more.

I don’t necessarily think that’s wrong, if you feel like your salary was appropriate. When I took my job at my current firm, I didn’t negotiate. I had a number in my head for what mid-sized firms in the market paid. Unfortunately, there was just no data on mid-sized firms in my market. So, after talking with some…

That’s actually not true. If you’re a good candidate with a strong background they absolutely will negotiate. Nothing is lockstep in the legal field unless you’re in government employment within the GS systems.

Totally agree. My parents instilled in me the value of conserving money and never spending more than I have. To this day, I’ve never charged money on a credit card that I didn’t have sitting in the bank. I just look at a credit card as a device that allows me to not carry thousands of dollars of cash on my person, not…

Ah ad hominem, the last resort of a desperate ideologue. You literally haven’t given one fact that isn’t easily rebuttable.

Yeah, unfortunately 35% of Americans are in debt collection and the average US household credit card debt is $15,609.

Take your ball and go home son. You have to put on your daddy’s pants to be in this conversation. Present a factual argument as to why it’s more convenient than charcoal, without being able to be rebutted in a fraction of a second, and I’ll buy it. You’ve presented no reason to use gas over charcoal.

You realize just saying that doesn’t make it true, right?

Nope, really not. Just don’t understand when people say gas is convenient. I mean, if life is so busy that an extra minute or two is inconvenient, that really sucks and I’m sorry.

Your analysis is off. When you withdrew from your IRA at retirement the principal would be taxed at your income tax rate and your capital gains would be taxed at 15-20%, depending on your bracket. Whereas, your ROTH would only be taxed on capital gains.

Where do you buy charcoal that it’s $5 for enough to cook 2 steaks. That should be about $.30 worth. I get 18 lbs of charcoal for $9 at the grocery store (store brand). The amount to cook 2 steaks to medium rare would be maybe 10 to 15 briquettes, which would be about a 1/20 of the 18 lbs, or .9 lbs, which would be,…

So 5 minutes instead of 8-10? Yeah, I’m not seeing that convenience factor. And, why do you have to wait for the coals to cool down? I just leave them in the grill. The next time I use the grill I just move the bottom dampener back and forth to sweep the ash into the collection thing, it takes about 5-10 seconds.