News is about suspension of strike until 1/15/25, the date to which the current contract is being extended with agreement on wages only. The rest of the issues will have to be negotiated by 1/15/2025.
Wage increases will be as follows:
Current base wage $39/hr
Increase of +$4/hr for each of the nexr 6 years.
So, wages will go like $39/hr, $43/hr, $47/hr, $51/hr, $55/hr, $59/hr, $63/hr (6th year).
Rational cited is that shipping companies made lot of money when rates skyrocketed during & after pandemic and due to other geopolitical factors.
So, those shipping rates aren't ever going back to what they were in view of this temporary contract extension.
Many ask will prices rollback when inflation is 0% - NO, they will just stay at higher levels.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/03/business/port-strike-union-deal/index.html

Bought a new GMC pickup 20 years ago. Still drive it. $16,000 price tag. I hear they’ve gotten more expensive.
:)

My simple answer is that if QQMNX underperforms at some point, I will just sell it. Just as I would sell any other underperforming fund. There are no guarantees in this business, and I am certainly not a buy-and-hold type of investor.
My problem (which I recognize is a me problem) is I hate taking a loss. Those great slow and steady performers like this appears (though not that slow, granted) can take a very long time to dig out from say an 18% drawdown (the funds max in last 10 years) if you happen to invest at the wrong time (another me problem). That being said, I think I may take a chance on this one.

If Derf is looking at this the same way that I do he just means that if he were twenty years younger he'd be in the market, but as an older person it may not be a good choice at this time.

If I was 20 years younger, we'ld be scraping money together for the mortgage and daycare.

If Derf is looking at this the same way that I do he just means that if he were twenty years younger he'd be in the market, but as an older person it may not be a good choice at this time.

Wade Pfau, David Blanchett and others have recently studied the effects of adding annuities (immediate or deferred) to withdrawal studies. TIAA Institute has also done articles on this. But as the Price/TROW piece mentions, SECURE provided additional push by allowing annuitization option within the corporate 401k TDF framework.
These options have existed for many years within the 403b at government and nonprofit institutions.

Over the years, I have chosen varying ways of taking my RMDs, at differing ways. When I was heavily using a Bond OEF strategy, I chose to take my RMDs on a monthly basis, from the monthly and predictable PIMIX monthly dividends. A few years ago, PIMIX started having some problems in their dividend distribution predictability, so I switched to other dividend paying bond oefs, such as SEMMX, and essentially took RMDs, later in the calendar year from "accumulated" dividends that I had reinvested. Unfortunately, I abandoned these risky nontraditional bond oefs, when they started showing major drops in market corrections. For the past several years, I have been a CD investor in a rising interest rate environment, and I would base my RMD harvesting on specific CDs maturation date during the year, preferably late in the calendar year. Now, I am faced with a falling interest rate environment, and faced with some tough choices on how to reinvest maturing CDs. For now, I am just placing maturing CDs into higher paying money market funds, paying close to 5%--I will likely harvest RMDs from money market funds very late in the calendar year from accumulated interest earnings. I will have to re-examine my options starting in 2025, based on what I choose to invest in going forward. So my short answer to harvesting RMDs, is that I choose to be very flexible, change as I need to, in conjunction with my changing investing choices.

"Back me up 20 years & I'd still buy the market." Not sure I follow. Do you mean you want it to be 2004 to buy into equities / bonds?

Mr. Market at all time highs ! I'll stick with CD's & T-Bills. Back me up 20 years & I'd still buy the market.

"A reminder, just 4 years ago the Middle East was calm and 4 Arabic countries signed a peace agreement, first time since Israel became a country. All you got to do is connect the dots."
Oh yes, I'm quite certain that if Trump were president Hamas would never have thought of attacking Israel. And, of course, all that has followed from that would never have happened. Surely must be sheer incompetence on the part of the present administration.
@FD1000: Evidently you have some sort of problem with reality, as you seem to prefer fake realities.

This thread should be about Iran, it's proxies, Israel, the Middle East, and the US. You have to discuss history because it's all part of the complex.
Was this a new escalation? Yes
Is Israel going to attack? Yes
If Mexico and its proxies will send thousands of missiles on southern CA claiming they want it back? What is the US going to do?
Remember, The Jews lived in Israel thousands of years ago and always were there.
The Hezbollah sent thousands of missiles on Northern Israel for a year. When Israel finally was able to get back some of its forces and attack back, the world is calling for a cease fire? How hypocritical is that?

Thanks you both for your replies. Did the alternative allocation come from (reducing) your historic equity or historic fixed income allocation percentage?

I don't think I ever had a "historic" equity or fixed income portfolio allocation. It was always a function of my age and the current economic/market environment.
Thus, in the recent 5%+ interest rate environment, I was almost exclusively invested in CDs and Treasury bonds. As these instruments mature, I am now moving into bond and allocation funds, like ICMUX, RCTIX, BINC, PRCFX, etc.
I used to have JHQAX in my portfolio but sold it in 2022. I guess you could say that QQMNX has had a better risk/reward profile over the past 3 years and has replaced JHQAX.

A reminder, just 4 years ago the Middle East was calm and 4 Arabic countries signed a peace agreement, first time since Israel became a country. All you got to do is connect the dots.

I connected the dots.
Trump University
Trump Foundation
Trump SoHo
Trump's businesses have filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy 6 times
Trump is a gonif.

A war with Iran maybe bad, but doing nothing is worse IMO.
Israel is in its second independence war.
A reminder, just 4 years ago the Middle East was calm and 4 Arabic countries signed a peace agreement, first time since Israel became a country. All you got to do is connect the dots.
I hope Israel will hit Iran significantly, such as the oil rigs or water or electricity. The usual, most Iranians are great but their leadership is extreme.
Anyone who thinks that they can be calm, I suggest they try living with thousands of missiles coming from another country.

FWIW, I asked Google, "are bonds in Nordic areas a good investment"
Answer:

It found that in the 20 years through 2022, Nordic companies “have outperformed their global peers on value creation, delivering an average annual total shareholder return of 11.6%, surpassing the global average of 9.4%.”Aug 4, 2024

Not sure a firm managing 25% less assets than it did 10 years ago is where I'd want to be, but to each their own.

I like to torture their robobot personal assistants!

I like that. :)
FWIW - ”Generally, most taxpayers will avoid this penalty if they either owe less than $1,000 in tax after subtracting their withholding and refundable credits, or if they paid withholding and estimated tax of at least 90% of the tax for the current year or 100% of the tax shown on the return for the prior year, whichever is smaller.”
Source / IRS
I first heard of this about 20 years ago. And it has worked over the years for me without problems. I’d prefer to owe the IRS some money in April rather than wait for a refund. Note: Not intended as tax advice.

Thanks folks. If I needed a large chunk I’d pool the funds earlier in a cash equivalent as gman57 suggests. With most markets near record highs - good advice. But that’s not the case for now anyway. One reason is the “interest-free” (til 12/25) Fido Visa account I opened last summer. Recently put a big infrastructure project on it. Can pull funds gradually during ‘25 instead of all at once. (Appreciated all the earlier comments re that on a different thread.)
Also … age has pushed me towards a pretty conservative portfolio. So, big market moves don’t affect it as much today as say 5 or 10 years ago. Mainly, I just don’t want Fido to throw a “Hissy Fit” thinking I’ve forgotten.

Earlier in the year you might require a higher quarterly estimated tax payment so waiting until late might save be better unless you are paying 100% of last years taxes

I always pull RMD's in Dec. Why not let it grow tax free as long as possible. Your RMD should have been moved to ultra short term bonds or preferably MM much earlier in the year. That way you don't worry about the market going down. I usually have 2 years of RMD in safe MM or bonds and another 3 years in other bonds.. That way I could care less if the market tanks and takes a year or five to recover.