”Let's ask the obvious easy question: if you held just the SP500 for your stock portion (based on Bogle+Buffet) have you done well YTD + in the last 3-5-10-15 years?”

The S&P 500 lost approximately 56.8% of its value between October 2007 and March 2009, according to the historical performance data. This significant decline was a result of the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession. (Credit: Brave Search AI summarizer)
Hey big guy - Every dollar you held in your S&P 500 index fund in October 2007 was worth 43 cents 16 months later. Sound like fun?

Based on (https://stockcharts.com/freecharts/sectorsummary.html) ...
Everything was up, but technology lagged, the less you own tech, the better your portfolio made for one day.
Rates were down = most bond funds made money.
Let's ask the obvious easy question: if you held just the SP500 for your stock portion (based on Bogle+Buffet) have you done well YTD + in the last 3-5-10-15 years?

I am sort of going the other way. As my CDs mature, I am redeeming them. The last one will mature in about 2 months. Putting the cash in our MM fund for right now. It is paying a fraction over 5.25%, but plan to later go with a I-T Bond Fund.
I do like CDs, but always having to search for the best rate to reinvest as they mature is something my wife would not want to do when I am gone. No, that is not true, it is something she would not do, so I'm going with I-T Bonds with the dividends reinvested.
I am 86, she 85, so we don't think in long terms any more.

hondo, I wish you nothing but the best, and you know what is best for you and your wife.
A big part of my decision to use CDs, besides their attractive yields recently, is my wife understands CDs. We use to invest in CDs extensively about 20 years ago, but then the market crashed, banks started closing, and CD rates started dropping like a rock. During that period, my wife became the elderly caretaker of her mother, and worked closely with me to select CDs paying in the 5% range--they were all over the place at local banks and she use to go with me to various banks to buy a CD. My wife fully understands the basics of Bank CDs, interest rates, redemption fees, reinvesting dividends or capturing dividends, etc.
When CDs started to resurface as a viable investing option about 2 years ago, she and I discussed what we should do with our Schwab Brokerage Accounts (her IRA, my IRA, and a Joint Taxable Account). We had cashed out of the market, and had investing options to talk about. She was very excited about the option of using the CDs available at Schwab, and she has learned the differences between a Bank CD and a Brokerage CD. Because of my wife's understanding of CDs, her comfort with CDs, and my desire to feel good about my wife knowing how to work with the Schwab Brokerage office close to where we live, I continue to such all of the returns out of CDs, as long as I can. My wife and I talk about every CD I purchase and for the first time in many many years, my wife is involved again in our investing decisions--that is of huge importance to me!

We have about 5% international. Most of that ( 60%) is in individual stocks run by the manager we use for about 20% of our total portfolios.
He has done a super job in the last two years with just about 6 foreign stocks. They are up 75%, a lot better than his domestic picks.
We also have about 2% in Emerging markets
We own MOWNX CVISX EWJV BISAX SIGIX GQGPX and KGIIX and a smattering of some Chinese ETFs

Initiated a new stake in GPQFX today. Adding to LCR (thanks @David Snowball).
Bought 2yr Treasury at auction on Tuesday. Next Monday I will buy more 1 yr Treasury to extend the duration on the treasury ladder.
Correction: June 6th is when one year treasury will be announced. So it the the following Monday, June 11th when the purchase takes place.
@Derf, For now 2 years T notes is the longest I like the ladder to be. But I won’t say never as I see other managers run a barbell ladder of treasuries. This year my investment grade bonds (mostly short to intermediate duration) have not done well. Ironically short term junk bonds carry the bulk of advancement. Cash cannot yield over 5% for long. So longer treasuries make perfect sense for now as it did well when the Fed hikes rate aggressively.

I share your enthusiasm, but my CD ladders extend out 5 years. I also include Treasuries in my ladders for shorter term holdings. CD yields have been on of the bright spots in the inflation dilemma.

We’ve got about 15% of total assets in our IRAs invested in foreign stock funds. Largest and longest term holding is ARTKX, which is closed to new investors. Other foreign funds are FTIEX, FVIFX and FMIJX, all relatively new holdings with good long term returns. We also have substantial holdings in FLPSX, which is essentially a global fund. All of our foreign funds have performed well over the past year, a welcome development after dismal returns for many years.

I have a very large percentage of my Schwab CDs maturing. I was very pleased to see the rates that are being offered-5.4% for very short term periods, 5.35% for 1 year, 5.2% for 18 months, and 5% for 2 years. As a 76 year old retiree, these CDs are very compelling as a safe investment, for a large part of my portfolio. I continue to maintain an 18-month CD-ladder. I just added two 18 month CDs, one from Wells Fargo and one from Bank of America, paying 5.2%. Tomorrow, I plan on adding a 1-year CD, paying 5.3%. Will likely do more CD shopping next week. For more liquid options, Schwab is still offering MMs, paying over 5%, but MM rates have been dropping in the past couple of months. As long as CDs stay at these higher levels, I am a willing investor, but I am skeptical that they will stay at these levels much longer, but who really knows for sure?

@stillers @hank @balubalu thanks very much for the feedback. Yes Stillers you were the one who steered me to GSIYX …. Thank you for suggesting I take a look. And you’re right I haven’t found another diversified international fund that has consistently outperformed over last 10 years. One interesting fund that @Benwp suggested is BISAX. It has outperformed since 2021 and is way up this year but had a pretty significant MAXDD in 2022.

Hi @mikeW, I hope we can have a column for you in the coming month's MFO on International Equities allocation as Part I. Will try and write about funds next month.

That would be wonderful Devo! Thank you. Would be very interested in hearing your thoughts on the case for investing internationally…. They haven’t matched US performance for 15 years or more

What is the outlook for dollar?
Dollar bottomed in 2008-11 around 72. Now it is 104.66, so +45.36% of the cumulative US fund outperformance in the last dozen years is just due to the currency factor.
Many diversified funds (including TDFs) may have substantial exposure to foreign markets, but not enough for them to be labeled global.

Two years, must be an ACATS transfer, and the offer is only for taxable accounts.
https://cdn.robinhood.com/assets/robinhood/legal/Robinhood_ACATS_Bonus_Offer_Terms_and_Conditions.pdf

Rosenberg is a known bear...and bears are usually wrong.
01/2019 (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/wall-street-bear-david-rosenberg-125800678.html) "growth will turn negative in 2019 as the stock market flounders". SPY made over 31%
01/2024 (https://themarket.ch/interview/now-is-a-good-time-to-take-profits-and-thank-your-lucky-stars-ld.10391) "Good time to take profit" SPY made over 11%.
Mr G, used to be the bond king, but he has been naked for years.
FEB 2022([www.cnbc.com/2022/02/11/jeffrey-gundlach-says-the-fed-is-obviously-behind-the-curve-will-raise-rates-more-than-expected.html)
"Gundlach sees the 10-year Treasury yield...to exceed 2.5% this year. He also said, “It’s possible the 10-year takes a peek at 3%.”
Reality: the 10 year peeked at 4.2%
====================
MAR 16 2022 (www.cnbc.com/video/2022/03/16/the-fed-is-way-behind-says-doubleline-ceo.html)
G: stocks will go higher from here
Reality: The SP500 fell about 17% by 07/2022.
==================
August 26, 2021(www.nasdaq.com/articles/bond-king-sees-gold-pushing-higher-from-its-current-price-2021-08-26) "The dollar going down"
Reality: the Dollar went up from 08/2021 to 09/2022 by about 25%, which is a huge move.
==================
Gundlach predictions for 2019 (www.fa-mag.com/news/how-jeffrey-gundlach-s-predictions-for-2019-turned-out-53478.html)
EM should out perform. Reality: they under performed
Stocks are value trap. Reality: 2019 was a great year for stocks, the SP500 made over 31%.
The dollar would probably weaken. It was flat
==================
Gundlach, the king (without cloths) of bonds, predicted in 2016 that the 10 year treasury to be 6% by 2021, see (www.barrons.com/articles/gundlach-bond-yields-could-hit-6-in-five-years-1478929496) and again in 2018(www.cnbc.com/2018/09/20/doublelines-gundlach-warns-us-treasury-yields-are-headed-higher.html).
Reality: On 12-31-2021 it was at about 1.5%.

@BaluBalu- I'm a little confused by "if there is no fees being charged, then you know for sure it is a new issue", because I frequently buy secondary Treasury issues at Schwab which show "No Fee" on the trade ticket. That would seem to suggest different rules for Treasuries vs Agencies?

You have to read the sentence you quoted in the context it was written. You might also find my previous post from earlier today useful.
To specifically answer your question, “Yes.” See the Schwab pricing link in my post
I have always found Fidelity site easier to buy bonds. Also, more dealers seem to list their inventory on the Fidelity platform. Just to have at least two good brokerages for these products, I have shared many of Fidelity features with Schwab but Schwab are slow to them. Having said that I did buy some secondary Treasuries at Schwab.
In advocating for term limits for political offices, I have always claimed that it should not take more than two years to be good at one’s job if one has aptitude for it but I am starting to question my judgement as I discover brokerage Reps with more than five years fixed income experience guessing answers to my questions.

I'm away now until 12 June. Enjoy, everyone. 5 years since I've been "off the Rock." Of course, everything is in the crapper today. And somehow, the TS div. date has a new published day: 29th now, not 22nd, as previously published. And how does THAT s*** happen, eh? Adios.

Indeed. They've been on a spending spree lately, for better or worse.
I'm sure a lot of people who were Kelcy'd years ago are watching things (and their distributions!) very closely....

i've been 70 in july, too -- the 24th. so you're going to set it up now, to go into effect when?

Oh, heavens, no. Not yet. But I've been following some decent advice without realizing it, for a few years, already: Take a small chunk from the T-IRA to reduce the raw dollar amount in that IRA, in order to at least slightly reduce the amount of the RMD, when the time comes. We've been growing the taxable account, since we don't owe federal 1040 tax, anyhow.

I've been taking RMDs since 2007. Tax withholding has always been a question I think about each year. Since starting RMDs, I have used the Electronic Tax Payment System,(EFTPO), to make automatic quarterly payments. After filing our tax return for the previous year, generally in March, I set up the quarterly payments for the current year.
I see that many of you have the brokerage firm withhold tax from the RMD. Is that an easier way to handle it? You would still have to contact the brokerage firm each year to change the amount, would you not?

" . . . to change the amount . . . "
The RMD for the year? Schwab calculates it automatically. The percent of tax you want taken out for Fed and state will stay the same unless you change it.
I always round my monthly RMD up to some sort of even number, so then the annual amount is also an even number and will be few hundred more than I actually need - just to be on the safe side.
Being self-employed, I paid quarterly tax estimates for 36 years. Now I had the choice of monthly payments so I took that route, it's less shocking than writing out those big checks. I actually got a tax refund this year, first time since 1981. I am going to tweak the percent taken out to get that as close to zero as is reasonable.

Five years out for us. Plenty of time for them to change the rules again.

Yield to call on bonds trading under par will always be higher, because it adds the percentage difference between purchase price and call price to the “yield” of the bond itself.
Bonds trading above par can have a yield to call less than coupon yield (unless first call is SEVERAL years out).

Thanks. This late in the rate cycle, if I need education on these basics, I need to be committed! I have not seen a single new Agency issued in the past year for anything other than par. I was asking for specifics related to the specific bond that makes Mike come up with those differences. See the request for CUSIP!