And they don't tell you much about how much they get paid. Most "directors" are listed as directors for dozens of funds
Jeff DeMAso of Independent Vanguard Advisor says that Deana Mulligan got $1.5 million as a director in the six years she was on the Board
Not bad for what, a few hours work a month or so!

IOW, the usual once a decade (or more) unexpected shocks.
https://www.ft.com/content/5148cd1e-cf01-11e4-893d-00144feab7de
At least we made it to 36,000, also predicted in 1999.
https://www.amazon.com/Dow-36-000-Strategy-Profiting/dp/0812931459

The Glassman [Dow 36,000] thesis was that investors had somehow, for all of history, misunderstood how truly risk-free investing in stocks was, and that they would within a few years come to this realization.
...
No one could have, in 1999, perfectly anticipated that there would be a crash in tech stocks, the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, two major wars and a global financial crisis over the subsequent decade.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/03/08/the-author-of-the-spectacularly-wrong-dow-36000-has-some-new-thoughts-on-the-stock-market/

No net inflation for me other that insurance since I am getting 5% on my MM account.
Insurance industry is working together as monopoly even though they are regulated.
I am sure people who are employed are getting more money in salary.
Reason - cars are costing more so more cost to fix in the event of an accident.
Home - climate events are more frequent and fixing home is costly (I didn't make any claim in the last 20 years doesn't make it). My ins. is increasing by 70%. A minor weather event (Hail) in my neighborhood & I see few houses getting roof replacements - I am indirectly paying for them in increased ins.

We’ve had the Fidelity rewards VISA through Elan for several years with few problems. We use our credit card for almost all purchases, so the rewards add up — $1,245 over the past year. Our account has had false charges several times, which were immediately caught by Elan and refunded if applicable. In those cases, they’ve sent us new card right away.

Some great insights. The project’s funding (hopefully late summer) was already incorporated into my IRA withdrawal planning. I actually shifted some $$ Friday into cash as I noted on the “buy / sell” thread. If the Fido offer received yesterday by mail was indeed “free money” it would make more sense to leave the funds growing for another 12-15 months inside the 2 IRAs (Roth / Traditional)
But little is free in life. And there are the risks mentioned (mainly a possible hit to my insurance premiums) plus the unknown risk of assuming next year would be a better year to pull the IRA funds than this year. At 5% compounded, 15K would net something north of $750 over a year. Not a big deal in the whole scheme of things. Possibly, I might max the card out and pull the funds monthly to repay. When you’re mostly fully invested all the time as I tend to be, pulling money in stages is a bit easierl
Fortunately the project is 1-3 months away. No start date yet. Labor shortage here as has been for many years now.
Yuppers - As someone noted, some merchants (including one of my physicians) charge a fee for using credit cards. I’d be willing to bet that’s the case with this company. Just displaying credit card symbols on its webpage doesn’t mean they won’t charge a fee.
This “deal” is fast losing its luster. :)

Thanks, Yogi. Good idea.
@rforno, I called the transition team to get an ETA on the lot history so I do not check before that date and was told there is no pending work on it (i.e., no ETA) as they are not aware of any issues. (I had to disclose to the Rep what I did for a living so he takes me seriously and who he needs to go talk to.)

Good luck! (avoiding this kind of drama was exactly why I fled TD the week after they announced the merger -- I've gone thru enough retail brokerage mergers over the years and knew what I was in for. Though I held off moving everything for a while until my TD guy's pre-merger review took place, since I liked him and didn't want to ding him with noticeable AUM leaving his book as merger-mania was sweeping the company)

A problem with relying on a one year impact rule is that the institutions saying this almost always equivocate - "may" affect your score, "usually", etc.
Experian recently (2023) wrote: "While a hard inquiry will stay on your credit report for two years, it will usually only impact your credit for up to a year, and usually by less than five points."
Likewise, FICO writes: "In general, credit inquiries have a small impact on your FICO Scores. For most people, one additional credit inquiry will take less than five points off their FICO Scores."
That doesn't seem to match the experience you had. If Experian got the size of the impact wrong (or at least wrong for you), can one expect Experian's estimate of the duration of the impact to be any more reliable? All these "usually" statements from the industry seem designed more to calm critics than to provide actionable information.
There's a thread on MFO now about how fast insurance rates are going up. I'm disinclined to throw another variable (credit score) into the mix. As you wrote, it's a personal choice.
https://www.bankrate.com/insurance/car/rates-by-credit-score/

As Yogi alluded to, this is the first outsider to hold the Vanguard CEO position.
I'm somewhat surprised that Greg Davis, President and Chief Investment Officer,
will not assume the CEO position.
Mr. Ramji was most recently BlackRock's Global Head of iShares and Index Investments
where he was responsible for two-thirds of the firm's assets.
Prior to this, Mr. Ramji was Head of BlackRock's U.S. Wealth Advisory business.
In this role he implemented new portfolio technologies to reach thousands of advisors
and increased cohesion between the iShares / active teams around the mission of building better portfolios.
Will he ameliorate the many customer service issues which have plagued Vanguard for years?

Sure, it's a personal choice. Just to add my 2c: a CC application itself normally causes a hard pull on the credit report which can, indeed, 'stay' on your report for 2 years but 'affects' your score for 1 year. I did this offer last year - it cost me 12 points w one of the agencies (I did not track It did not go on the other two).

My experience is that the credit hits are at least that bad. When my current balance across all cards approaches 10% of my total credit limit across all cards (and not more than 25% on any given card), my credit scores take 20 point hits. I have a good enough credit rating that this doesn't worry me, but this is still crazy.
A hard pull can stay on your record for two years. Even if you abort an application before completing it. (I suppose one could contest that part of one's credit file, but what seems to matter is the fact that a credit inquiry was made, not so much whether it was justified.)
So I'm not too inclined to play the credit card application bonus game. If there's an offer on a card I wouldn't consider holding long term, I'll usually pass.

It was actually Elan (which I declined to name earlier) that has caused my angst. But honestly, I’ve been treated like royality by them for 15-20 years except for the recent change not allowing domestic travel notes. Sorry to hear people have said unkind things about them.
Everyone is moving more and more to automation. Humans are too expensive. I suspect that’s where this travel-notes change stems from. Carrying extra cash in your sock or wherever doesn’t work very well at 2:30 AM and you’re stranded somewhere ordering food online.
I carry 3 debit cards counting the Fidelity C/M card. Just one real CC.
My plan: Keep the current Elan for what I use it for. Call Fido to get a specific dollar offer before applying for their card. If it’s close to the 15K the planned infrastructure project will require, I’ll be glad to put that on their card, invest the money elsewhere, and pay them back a year later. (And maybe pocket the extra 2% as well).
And - Oh. Thanks for the help everyone.

Naw @Mike … I prefer generally to pay cash for most things. (Just sent the propane company a $420 check for a tank top-off.) But for airfare, hotels, rental cars etc. I rely on credit. I could make an exception and charge the home project if Fido really wants to lend me 10 or 15K interest free for a year. Doesnt’t take rocket science to know you can invest that amount for 5%.
I’d rather not name my current Visa provider. Been with the firm 20 years. Large well known financial services company. But they will no longer accept “travel notes” ahead of domestic travel. So … after ending up stranded out of state in the early AM hours in January due to a flight delay, they declined a purchase for food (as “suspicious”). And the food / delivery provider would only accept credit at that time of night.
I do have a debit card tied to my Fido cash management account. And, thankfully, they allow you to leave travel notes, as I would expect their signature credit card would.
Thanks for the thoughts folks. I was thinking maybe there’s a hidden fee with the Fido card? Or maybe they’ll low ball me by offering only a small initial credit limit? Won’t know until I apply. Offer’s good until some time in July.

@hank
I've had the Fidelity Rewards Visa Signature Card for several years.
It has no annual fee and it offers 2% cash back on all purchases.
Foreign transaction fees for international purchases were removed last year.
My current APR for purchases and balance transfers is 19.24%.
I pay off the monthly balance in full.

Hank, sounds similar to the Capital One card I got a couple years ago. Cap-1 also gave me $200 if you charged 'x' amount in 'y' amount of time. That limit wasn't hard to reach, so a free $200. I try to use this card as my primary means of paying. I think I've accumulated $5-600 cash back so far. I don't travel a lot, other than visiting the kids in Columbus and Pittsburgh. I don't remember any problems.
I used to be a primarily cash person also, but I now find it very handy and useful to have a record of purchases at your finger tips. I also have a MM with Capital One and use that transfer feature to pay off the card monthly, fwiw.
@hank, are you on Credit Karma? There are a bunch of options there for new cards based on your credit score, fwiw. Most with about the same benefits as the Fidelity card you describe. Many will give you a bonus as I described.

@sma3- Great article- thanks. One thing puzzled me- it shows CA as being profitable for the past four years, yet the insurance companies are running away like a bunch of cockroaches. No info given on that.

I you can read it and not behind paywall good article about the crisis in home insurance
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/05/13/climate/insurance-homes-climate-change-weather.html
Regarding car insurance, we had an old station wagon that got hit from behind. The repairs were far more than the Blue Book value but the car still ran and was safe to drive
I told the agent that I did not want to have to buy a new car, why couldn't I just take the check and keep the car
So I did. The title was marked "salvage" so I couldn't re-sell it, but I drove t for another two years then donated it to charity. We couldn't take the tax deduction but we got two years of transportation
I don't know if other insurance companies would do the same thing but it is worth asking.

would far prefer new money go to PRCHX . am deep into the risk-adjusted stage.
downside :
-not an ETF.
-unlikely that managers would utilize its nimble size to stray from their holdings elsewhere.
does anyone have handy the criteria for TRP Summit eligibility?
i x'frd my TRP holdings to vanguard brokerage a few years ago, and was at some preferred level prior.

Derf
I have owned BCX for several years and consider it a long term hold.

Thanks @bee. Ivancyn seldom provides interviews and this one is quite informative on Pimco’s strategies. PIMIX has done much better than typical core bond funds in the last several years.

@catch22 / Thanks for the comparison chart. My OP’s title wasn’t worded very well. Sounded like I was trying to decide which fund was better or running ahead of the other. That wasn’t it at all. What I was seeking was insight to the degree, if any, that each holds short equity positions (sells stocks short).
During the discussion it became clear M* doesn’t seem to understand that SPDN (1X short S&P 500) constitutes a short position and thus does not reflect this in its “portfolio” summary (top of page). Fortunately, as JD_co noted, it does list SPDN later on as among the fund’s top holdings. So readers can figure that out - if they realize SPDN is an inverse fund.
@Sven - Thanks for the insights. I wasn’t aware LCORX had lowered its short positioning since the Professor wrote of it. I had a sense they might have from Friday’s Bloomberg snippet I posted elsewhere in which one of LCORX’s managers is intoned (not quoted) to be bullish on the S&P thru year’s end.
As for fund performance, anything under 5 years would seem too soon to react to in terms of buying / selling. And, there are other factors besides past performance to take into account. As @MikeM mentioned, etfs are easier to trade.