“Swedish Death Cleaning”, or dostadning.
Maybe this belongs in the bag-a-day thread, but it is probably relevant to many of us in this thread.
http://nypost.com/2017/10/05/swedish-death-cleaning-is-the-morbid-new-way-to-de-clutter-your-life/
It’s already made its way onto Bag A Day. 
It has been discussed in that thread.
But I agree - it is also relevant here. We have cleaned up very well when moving. I even got rid of a couple of pairs of shoes. 
Kidding aside, I don’t want our offspring doing what we just did - hauling stuff to the dump. The two truckloads were quite enlightening. .88 ton of mostly leftover building materials.
As far as “death cleaning,” I mentioned that I do not like the term. I prefer “joy maximization.” 
HA! Is it passive aggressive if I post it to my facebook and know my folks will see it?
My wife has been a death cleaner since I first met her. She totally hates clutter of any kind. Gets it from her mother who comes to our house every couple of months and cleans out several closets, pantry, etc.
I feel like empty nesting (I have two out and one left) is sort of a trial run for retirement - I hope to take some time in the next few years to discover what I want to do in retirement (besides burn through all my funds traveling!)
With the market run-up of late, anybody doing realignments of their portfolios? Rethinking their balance?
I think Mr. B completely reshuffled the stock mix in his 401(k). I am on autopilot with Fidelity… retirement age target of 82 for me.
I think about it, but inertia is a powerful force.
With bonds essentially paying nothing, and since the value will be going down if/when interest rates go up, I’ve been debating moving into dividend stocks as a way to generate income. It’s a lot of research which I don’t have patience for right now, though.
“I think about it, but inertia is a powerful force.”
Too true!
I’ve had a decent chunk of dividend stocks for awhile because I haven’t liked bonds for awhile (probably too ahead of the game on that one).
Looking at pulling a little more out even if it sits in cash. I’ve enjoyed and benefitted from the market activity of late but try to keep in mind the bull, bear, pig saying.
I’ve been thinking about rebalancing my portfolio after the recent run-up in stock prices. But I haven’t quite been able to pull the trigger because it feels like I’d just be leaving money on the table. I need to work myself into the mindset that now is a good time for a little profit-taking, shifting some of the gains into less volatile investments.
What do you consider to be “less volatile”?
When you rebalance how much do you do it at one time? 1%? 5%? or do you do it by the amount?
I don’t understand that question. ^^^
When you rebalance, you look at your target allocation – let’s say it’s 50 stocks and 50 fixed income – and compare it to where your portfolio actually is. In today’s environment, let’s say it’s now 55% stocks and 45% fixed income. So you sell some stock, thereby locking in your gains, and move those profits into the fixed income portion so that you’re back to 50/50.
The whole logic of it is that you sell high and buy low, while maintaining your target asset allocation.
Do you relbalance when it is out of the target by 1%? Or do you wait until it is off more than that? Or do you balance it when it is a tradable amount whatever that may be in your case? It could be by $10K or 50K or whatever the threshold you set to trade.
@Iglooo, good questions. I don’t know that answer to that question. I’ll have to ask how things are getting done.
I have been keeping some powder dry for a real estate purchase the next time things drop meaningfully (purchase rather than rent my West Coast place). But, I’m giving some thought to whether we really should have two places. If we had one, ShawWife would like it on the East Coast (we looked at some smaller houses on a pond or river today) and I’d like it on the West Coast.
You should plan to re-balance not according to your assets but according to the calendar – say, every three months. That way, you leave emotion out of it, you’re not trying to time the market, and you’ll be more successful. You have to stay disciplined.
Sounds like an excellent reason for two places 
Can you set them up to AirBnB/VRBO the unused one so it is both emotionally and financially justifiable? Though it would be a real hassle putting away and taking out your special personal stuff each transition.
Anyone else is getting a banner ad for Depends when you open this thread? who do they think we are?!
Re: two homes. Our insurance will not write a policy for a second/vacation home, so make sure you have some options to insure your rental.