FYI: A decade after target-date funds were damaged during the financial crisis, they have re-emerged bigger than ever as retirement investments. But they still have vulnerabilities.
Regards,
Ted

CURTAINS??
In financial stuff??
Who knew?? :(

Call and Liquidity Risk
Municipal issuers often exercise the call option on their high-coupon paying outstanding debt in a low interest rate environment; which essentially means that they can retire their outstanding bonds before maturity by either buying back or refunding it with lower coupon debt.
This poses a significant risk for investors whose debt has been retired by the issuer.

My take on this risk is almost exactly the opposite.
If I buy a bond at a high premium (i.e. richly priced because its coupon is well above market rates), I buy it expecting it to be called. (Regardless, one should always look at yield to worst, not yield to maturity, when buying bonds.) Because the coupon is well above market rate, my expectation that it will be called is reasonable. Even if rates rise a bit by the time the bond is callable, it should still be trading at a premium. That makes it close to certain that the bond will be called.
The risk is not that the bond will be called - that's anticipated - but that it won't. That can happen for at least a couple of reasons. One is that the issuer's financial situation has deteriorated so much that it can't issue new bonds to raise the cash to retire the old bonds. Which means my bonds have become more likely to default.
Another reason the bond might not get called is that we hit a period of high inflation, so even the high coupon I'm getting isn't enough to compensate. In that case, I'm stuck with this longer term fixed income bond in a high inflation environment. Again, not good.

10 Safe Investments to Protect Your Money
Don't think article posted
-All safe investments come with a catch. They, alone, will never make you Bezos billions. They can, however, earn a little while serving another purpose such as being fairly liquid or balancing a portfolio. This roundup of safe investments explains their pros and cons to help you determine which investments best fit your needs. For even more detailed information, you may want to consult a financial advisor.-
https://smartasset.com/investing/safe-investments
Cd
Saving accts
Tips
Good grade bonds
Good grades munis
Bonds funds or etf

" the Advisor does not anticipate that the NextShares Fund will experience meaningful growth in the foreseeable future."
Hardly surprising. From WSJ, July 13, 2016:
"some analysts had suggested that it faced a major hurdle in getting any large broker-dealer on board because NextShares' unusual trading mechanism will require changes to trading platforms and entail some costs."
As I wrote before, NextShares are (were) a solution in search of a problem. A complex mechanism that seemed (to me) to serve no useful purpose.
https://mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/26290/nextshares-new-product-combines-a

In May, we launched our 13-step financial life planner, which also attracted a slew of readers. But it seems many folks went straight to the end of the story, because the most visited page was step 13, which is devoted to generating retirement income.
I can understand & will read again.
Derf

I thought RPHYX was open on a limited basis?
From the 1/28/19 summary prospectus,
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1494928/000139834419001751/fp0038745_497k.htm
The Fund is currently available for sale on a limited basis. The following groups will be permitted to purchase Fund shares:
1.Shareholders of record of the Fund as of April 5, 2017 (although if a shareholder closes all accounts in the Fund, additional investment in the Fund from that shareholder may not be accepted) may continue to purchase additional shares in their existing Fund accounts either directly from the Fund or through a financial intermediary and may continue to reinvest dividends or capital gains distributions from shares owned in the Fund;
2.New shareholders may open Fund accounts and purchase directly from the Fund (i.e. not through a financial intermediary); and
3.Members of the Board of Trustees of RiverPark Funds Trust, persons affiliated with RiverPark Advisors, LLC or Cohanzick Management, LLC and their immediate families will be able to purchase shares of the Fund and establish new accounts.
The Fund may from time to time, in its sole discretion, limit the types of investors permitted to open new accounts, limit new purchases or otherwise modify the above policy at any time on a case-by-case basis.
I do not want to discourage/disappoint prospective investors who want to invest in the fund.
Also, you may want to look at Crossingbridge Funds. They have a similar type of fund,
CrossingBridge Low Duration High Yield Fund. Investor class is available for $2,500 initial investment. The Fund is managed by Portfolio Managers, David Sherman and Michael De Kler.
From the Crossingbridge Funds website for the Low Duration High Yield Fund:
The strategy focuses on purchasing high yield debt with an expected effective maturity of 3 years or less and a weighted average investment horizon of 0.75-2 years. Our goal is to limit credit risk and interest rate risk.

Good advice, though you could argue they are one and the same depending on venue.

2 investing lessons you can learn:
• Ignore financial porn
• Ignore posting porn

2 investing lessons you can learn:
• Ignore financial porn
• Ignore posting porn

FYI: Heading into 2019, one of the biggest fears among investors was the idea of an “earnings recession,” a situation where corporate profits decline for two quarters or more in a row. A few months later, those concerns are starting to fade.
The latest figures from FactSet suggest that first quarter earnings for S&P 500 firms will be down 0.5% from a year ago, much less than the 3.9% decline analysts were expecting at the end of March.
Moreover, with 76% of companies beating estimates by an average of 5.5%, there is a good chance that when the earnings reporting season is officially over, first quarter profit growth will end up in positive territory. About 10% of S&P 500 companies have yet to report.
Flat earnings for the first quarter is a much better situation than investors had feared only weeks ago, and raises hopes that full-year 2019 earnings can grow by 3.3% or more, as analysts currently expect.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.etf.com/sections/features-and-news/consumer-financial-sector-etfs-lead-way

(The Closing Bell will be updated sometime after 4:00 PM CDST to include the latest updates from IBD and Bloomberg Evening Briefing.)
FYI: The S&P 500 fell Tuesday, as the dimming likelihood of an imminent trade deal upended earlier gains and sent investors seeking less risky assets like U.S. government bonds.
The broad index was recently down 0.4%, giving up an earlier advance of as much as half a percentage point to put the S&P 500 on pace for another tough week. Losses widened among shares of consumer staples, utilities and energy companies throughout the session, more than offsetting gains from communication stocks.
The S&P 500 fell 0.84%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 237 points, or 0.93%, to 255347. The Nasdaq Composite also reversed an earlier lead, falling 0.39% in recent trading.
Investors, meanwhile, appeared to be taking on less-risky assets, such as U.S. government bonds, pushing the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury down to a fresh 19-month low.
Consumer staples shed 1.2% to lead the S&P 500 lower. Food companies notched some of the biggest losses, with Kraft Heinz sliding 6.3%. Kraft, which said last week it wasn’t in compliance with Nasdaq’s financial disclosure rules, has fallen 32% this year due to a regulatory probe into its procurement practices.
Utilities also struggled, shedding 0.9% in recent trading, while energy companies fell 0.7%.
Meanwhile, communication stocks were the only S&P 500 sector to still be in the green in late-afternoon trading. Shares of some media companies were helping to support the sector, along with videogame makers after a Goldman Sachs analyst said Activision is on the cusp of an earnings inflection, upgrading the stock to a buy.
Shares of Activision were up 2.6% in recent trading.
Overseas, the Stoxx Europe 600 fell 0.2, snapping a two-session winning streak, while stocks in Asia mostly gained. The Shanghai Composite added 0.6%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up 0.4% and Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.4%.
Regards,
Ted
Bloomberg Evening Briefing:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-28/your-evening-briefing
MarketWatch:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/stock-index-futures-edge-lower-as-trade-worries-hang-over-market-2019-05-28/print
WSJ:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/investors-grow-jittery-over-italy-11559053435
Bloomberg:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-27/asia-stocks-set-for-muted-open-dollar-edges-up-markets-wrap?srnd=premium
IBD:
https://www.investors.com/market-trend/stock-market-today/stocks-fade-sp-500-today-ends-lower/
CNBC:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/28/stock-markets-wall-street-in-focus-amid-lingering-trade-worries.html
Reuters:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks/tech-gains-keep-wall-street-afloat-idUSKCN1SY15F
U.K:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/ftse-100-miners-capitalise-on-iron-ore-surge-galliford-jumps-idUKKCN1SY0L2
Europe:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-stocks/european-shares-retreat-led-by-banks-on-italian-budget-woes-idUSKCN1SY0SE
Asia:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/asian-shares-up-in-muted-trading-after-trump-visit-to-japan-2019-05-28/print
Bonds:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/28/us-bonds-wall-street-set-to-monitor-economic-data-treasury-auctions.html
Currencies:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/28/forex-market-eu-elections-trumps-japan-visit-in-focus.html
Oil:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/28/oil-market-chinese-economy-opec-supply-cuts-in-focus.html
Gold
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/28/gold-market-dollar-moves-eu-elections-in-focus.html
WSJ: Markets At A Glance:
https://markets.wsj.com/us
Major ETFs % Change:
https://www.barchart.com/etfs-funds/etf-monitor
SPDR's Sector Tracker:
http://www.sectorspdr.com/sectorspdr/tools/sector-tracker
SPDR's Bloomberg Sector Performance Pie Chart:
https://www.bloomberg.com/markets/sectors
Current Futures:
https://finviz.com/futures.ashx

FYI: There were two recurring themes at the annual InvestmentNews​ Retirement Income Summit in Chicago earlier this month: the economic impact of increased longevity and the need for guaranteed income in retirement.
Retirement has traditionally been described as a long-term investment goal. That's true for the accumulation phase. But as clients near the retirement-distribution phase, financial planning needs to shift to risk management and capital preservation.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=OcrrXLLfOszGsAWW2om4Aw&q=How+to+battle+sequence-of-returns+risk&oq=How+to+battle+sequence-of-returns+risk&gs_l=psy-ab.12..33i22i29i30.3194.3194..8730...0.0..0.347.440.1j3-1......0....2j1..gws-wiz.....0.mCqDITIbkQ8

Economic injustice is rampant, perhaps worse than in the Gilded Age. Yet, the monetary, financial ignorance out there is huge. Teens AND most adults never have had the most basic lessons in how NOT to go "from paycheck to paycheck."

The dividing line is between those who could come up with $400, including using a CC and paying it off completely, and those who have to beg, borrow, or steal to cover an emergency.
I agree with @sfnative, that figures like these help remind us that so many people live paycheck to paycheck.
There will always be those who try to slough off such statistics. Cato tries to do this by pointing out that one of the questions asked people whether they would (not were able to) pay the $400 bill "out of savings (or checking) if they wanted to."
https://www.cato.org/blog/it-true-40-americans-cant-handle-400-emergency-expense-0
But Cato makes two errors. The minor one is that it cites last year's survey results, not the current results, dated May 2019.
The more serious error is that, unlike the Fed, it ignores the fact that "Even without an unexpected expense, 17 percent of adults expected to forgo payment on some of their bill in the month of the survey." Add to that the fact that "Another 12 percent of adults would be unable to pay their current month's bills if they also had an unexpected $400 expense that they had to pay. Altogether, 3 in 10 adults are either unable to pay their bills or are one modest financial setback away from hardship."
https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/2018-report-economic-well-being-us-households-201905.pdf (p. 21, pdf p. 29)
Think about that. Not that people wouldn't pay their bills, but that they couldn't. Even with borrowing.
There's a lot of interesting data in the Fed's report people's economic well being that goes well beyond whether people can handle an unexpected $400 expense.

FYI: Many U.S. households find themselves in a fragile position financially, even in an economy with an unemployment rate near a 50-year low, according to a Federal Reserve survey.
The Fed’s 2018 report on the economic well-being of households, published Thursday, indicated “most measures” of well-being and financial resilience “were similar to, or slightly better than, those in 2017.” The slight improvement coincided with a decline in the average unemployment rate to 3.9% last year, from 4.3% in 2017.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.fa-mag.com/news/almost-40--of-americans-would-struggle-to-cover-a--400-emergency-45065.html?print

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1040612/000104061219000058/madisonsmallcapprospsupple.htm
Madison Funds
Supplement dated May 22, 2019
This Supplement amends the Prospectus of the Madison Funds and the Summary Prospectus
for the Madison Small Cap Fund dated February 28, 2019
Small Cap Fund
Madison Asset Management, LLC (“Madison”), the investment adviser (the “Adviser”) to the Madison Funds (the “Funds”), has entered into an asset purchase agreement with Broadview Advisors, LLC (“Broadview”) pursuant to which Madison has agreed to purchase certain assets relating to Broadview’s advisory business (the “Transaction”). As part of the Transaction, Madison will assume the assets of the Broadview Opportunity Fund (the “Broadview Fund”), the sole series of Broadview Funds Trust, by reorganizing it with and into the Madison Small Cap Fund (the “Small Cap Fund”), a series of the Madison Funds (the “Reorganization”).
On May 8, 2019, the Board of Trustees of the Madison Funds, including a majority of the independent trustees, approved the Reorganization and determined that the Reorganization was in the best interests of the Small Cap Fund and its shareholders and that the interests of shareholders would not be diluted as a result thereof. The Board of Trustees of the Broadview Fund approved the Reorganization on May 13, 2019.
The Reorganization shall be effective as soon as practicable following notice to Broadview Fund shareholders pursuant to a combined information statement/prospectus, currently anticipated July 26, 2019 (the “Effective Date”). Shareholder approval is not required to effect the Reorganization, and shareholder approval is not being sought.
In connection with the Effective Date of the Reorganization, the Board of Trustees of the Funds approved the following:
1. Madison will continue to manage the Small Cap Fund, which is currently subadvised by Wellington Capital Management LLP (“Wellington”). Wellington will cease to be the sub-adviser as of the Effective Date. Three of the four existing portfolio managers of the Broadview Fund, Rick Lane, Faraz Farzam and Aaron Garcia, will become employees of Madison and will manage the Small Cap Fund. Rick Whiting, the remaining portfolio manager of the Broadview Fund has elected to retire and will not be joining Madison. Biographical information regarding the portfolio managers is provided below.
•Mr. Richard E. Lane, CFA, currently serves as the President and a Member of Broadview, which he founded in 2001. He has served as a portfolio manager to the Broadview Fund since November 29, 2013, and to the FMI Focus Fund (the Broadview Fund “Predecessor Fund”) from October 1, 1997 until its reorganization into the Broadview Fund on November 29, 2013 (the “Reorganization”). Mr. Lane has worked in the financial services industry since 1982 and has a BA in Economics and an MS in Finance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
•Mr. Faraz Farzam, CFA, has been with the Broadview since 2001 and is currently a Portfolio Manager and a Member of Broadview. Mr. Farzam has served as a portfolio manager to the Broadview Fund since November 29, 2013, and to the Predecessor Fund from January 2010 until the Reorganization. Mr. Farzam has worked in the financial services industry since 1999 and has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• Mr. Aaron J. Garcia, CFA, has been with Broadview since 2003 and is currently a Portfolio Manager and a Member of Broadview. Mr. Garcia has served as a portfolio manager to the Broadview Fund since November 29, 2013, and to the Predecessor Fund from January 2010 until the Reorganization. Mr. Garcia has worked in the financial services industry since 2002 and has a BA from Rice University.
2. An amendment to the Services Agreement between the Adviser and Madison Funds to reduce the service fee with respect to the Small Cap Fund from an annual rate of 0.25% to 0.21%, and cap total annual operating expenses for a two-year period to 1.21% for Class Y (which is the current expense ratio of the Broadview Fund share class, excluding acquired fund fees and expenses), and to 1.46% and 2.21% for Class A and Class B, respectively (excluding acquired fund fees and expenses).
3. The legal survivor of the Reorganization will be the Madison Small Cap Fund, however, the accounting survivor will be the Broadview Fund therefore its performance and financial history will survive the Reorganization.
Please keep this Supplement with your records.

@Ted, Your author would have us delve into the childhood of our fund managers before investing? That raises a whole lot of other “pertinent” issues: Did they have behavior problems in third grade, suffer from bed-wetting or perhaps have a Pa who was drunk a lot of the time?
Nice going. Financial porn at its finest.

It's good to see a financial academic whose grades and intellect were too poor for him to make it in the real sciences figured out a way to pay his bills.

I agree in theory that someone just out of high school would be best served by investing long term in pure equity. But I also remember starting out and being spooked by the idea of investing, period. You mean I could lose money?
While pure equity is better, a hybrid fund might be a reasonable compromise, especially for someone watching his first investment going up and down.
I like the idea of going global. So no "total" stock market where "total" means US. Rather something like VTWAX/VT. In the 50-70% allocation arena, davfor and hank mentioned RPGAX which seems like a good choice. Vanguard Star VGSTX would seem to be a good candidate as well, especially given the interest in a low minimum balance. It would take $1K to start, but then one can add $1/investment.
If this would be a joint account, it couldn't be an IRA. Still, taxes would likely not be a consideration for some time. Further, it might make sense to sell before earning "real" money, to recognize the gains with no taxes and reset the basis. Contributions to an IRA would be limited to compensation. Though the money could come from someone else as a gift.
(Financial institutions are funny in the ways they accept money. I recently lent a friend cash for a couple of days which she repaid by depositing a check to my Fidelity account. No problems. On the other hand, to bootstrap a BofA checking account I deposited $100 cash which I took directly from their ATM to their teller. I was required to show two forms of ID. Perhaps they thought the bills they were handing out were counterfeit?)
@catch22 I've never seen Fidelity (or most brokerages) offer to sell fractional shares of ETFs or stocks. (There are a few brokerages that offer "curated" baskets of securities where you can own fractional shares.) At Fidelity, when I go to buy a security like ITOT, there's a "calculate quantity" button. When I use that and input $100, it calculates 1 share; it doesn't offer me the option of buying 1.3 shares, give or take. Are you talking about buying fractional shares or reinvesting divs?

FYI: Avoiding disastrous mistakes in retirement with award-winning financial planner Mark Cortazzo..
Regards,
Ted
https://wealthtrack.com/avoiding-disastrous-mistakes-the-danger-of-portfolio-volatility-in-retirement/