@BenWP. After two years of Covid, starting with horrific images from NYC and Italy, now we have the horrors in Ukraine. Yes indeed, a good dose of humor goes a long way these days.
@Old_Joe. Good one!

Deferred income annuities (DIAs) can be used for any purpose, LTC included. DIA from IRA, 401k/403b are called QLAC - there used to be a thorny RMD issue for DIAs from deferred accounts and laws were streamlined a few years ago to eliminate those complications (but their amounts are limited).
True, deferred annuity is just an accumulation annuity with tax deferral. So, the subject line of the OP doesn't reflect the point of the linked article.

I suggest you change the title. Deferred income annuities (DIAs) are essentially immediate annuities where the payments are deferred, in contrast to SPDAs, where annuitization is deferred.
FINRA: "Think of DIAs as immediate annuities with a delayed payout phase."
IMHO the deferred income annuities make sense for LTC, deferred annuities may not.
It's important to read LTC statistics very closely. Some refer to care in facilities, while others include in-home care. Some refer to paid care (including in-home care), others include care provided by friends and family. The typical out of pocket costs are not small, but may be less than presented as "average". Still, if one does happen to live for many years needing care, the costs can be astronomical.
I don't have time right now to sort through various numbers, so I'll just offer a few sources:
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/health/long-term-care-statistics.html
https://www.morningstar.com/articles/1013929/100-must-know-statistics-about-long-term-care-pandemic-edition
https://acl.gov/ltc/basic-needs/how-much-care-will-you-need
https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/long-term-services-supports-older-americans-risks-financing-research-brief-0
Recognizing that most people either use long term care for just a few years or not at all, the Partnership for Long Term Care program can be a good alternative. These are regular long term care policies (with some government imposed conditions, like incorporating inflation adjustments), but with an added benefit. You buy policies that last for a few years (exact terms set by your state), and should you need more care, you can be covered by Medicaid without spending down all your assets.
It's hard to find a decent description that is not state-specific because these programs partner with state run Medicaid. I did come up with one reasonable page. A brief excerpt:

Medicaid is the single largest payer of nursing home bills in America. Although it's intended to be the last resort for people who have no other way to pay for long-term care services, more and more Americans with moderate incomes are relying on Medicaid, due to the rapidly rising cost of long-term care.
...
Partnership policies include incentives to encourage individuals to purchase long-term care insurance, instead of relying on Medicaid. Although any resident of a state in which Partnership policies are offered can purchase such a policy, state Partnership programs primarily target individuals with moderate income and assets. These are individuals who can afford reasonable long-term care insurance premiums but who can't afford to pay for long-term care out-of-pocket for more than a short period of time, and thus may eventually need to rely on Medicaid after their assets are exhausted. (Wealthier individuals often don't need to rely on Medicaid in the first place, and individuals with very limited means will likely qualify for Medicaid right away, and may have few assets to protect.)

https://pksadvisors.com/long-term-care-partnership-policies/

@Derf. Brilliant idea. But if you really want more attention, TYPE YOUR TITLE IN ALL CAPS. That will get you some serious eyeballs! (old editors’ trick) :)
I cut the cord with DirecTV back before AT&T sold the looser they owned. I’d say what I thought of them over the many years I dealt with them … but the board is too polite for what I’d say.
Sling is a reasonably priced internet TV option. With sports add-ons it can get pricy. One of many good choices. Yes - there is a lot of free stuff. But haven’t tried much of that. PBS app is easy to download and free and informative viewing.
I have the “Disney, ESPN, ESPN+, Hulu Live TV” Bundle. Approximately $70 monthly for the package and virtually every college BB game played can be viewed. (Tons of other sports too). Gets all our locals and works better in this remote area than an antenna does.
If you like pro basketball, NBA League Pass is excellent. I subscribe thru Amazon at around $12 monthly. But available elsewhere similar price.
To bring this thread back to Other Investing, TD Ameritrade has a 24 hour network covering markets and trading techniques. Sling includes it in their package. However, the TD Ameritrade App can be downloaded for free off the internet and you can than watch it on your TV completely free.
PS - Another business channel, Bloomberg TV, will cost you. However, Bloomberg Radio has very similar (sometimes identical) content and is completely free. Simply download the Bloomberg radio app and start listening 24 hours a day on device of choice.
Happy viewing!

Is the McClellan Oscillator related to the oversold and overbought indicators provided by a MFO member 2 or 3 years ago? I seem to remember readings like 125 and 145 indicating the condition of the market.

Thanks @Mark for Lynn's article.
Nice piece @lynnbolin2021. I agree with your reasoning for owning some commodities in a portfolio. These cycles tend to last many years. Question, did you not include DBC/PDBC because of the high energy-oil percentage? Just curious.
FWIW, here is short video of a show comparing DBC with DBA. I now own both, but much more weighted in DBC. I've owned that one for about a year now.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/etf-battles-dba-vs-dbc-131500183.html

M* has a new analysis of why several "rated" commodity funds have not beaten the index this year, mostly due to holding longer term contracts than the ones that are going parabolic this year.
OF course having tempted you, I read it this morning on my iPad and can't find it to copy. Will keep trying.
There is a useful explanation of contago and backwardation in this link.
https://www.morningstar.com/articles/1070971/commodities-inflation-hedge-or-fools-gold
They use USO as an example of a an ETF that has failed miserably over the years to follow the price of the underlying commodity.
another M* article that answers the question "are they diversification for long term investments" The answer of course, using M* methodology is NO.
https://www.morningstar.com/articles/1074884/do-commodities-have-a-place-in-your-portfolio
Another reason why an actively mangled mutual fund might be best.
I have used GRHAX SPCAX and GCC but you have to look carefully at what the particular fund actually does over time and how it preforms.

@Derf- yes, that's an old story. When we toured there some years ago our guides pointed out huge blocks of apartments in wealthy neighborhoods that were almost totally Russian-owned.

Most in my neighborhood heat with propane. Nat gas just came in, but having it “piped” to homes is expensive. A lot of screaming here about the cost of heating this winter. Looks like petro-based heating costs are probably up more than 35% over previous winter. I supplement with wood. Even that is up anywhere from 50-150% over past year depending on source. One of the cheaper mills would sell all I could haul in a pickup for $15 two years ago. Last summer it had tripled to $45 per load. Of course the cost of fuel to haul it has also doubled.
Your Starbucks doesn’t hurt that much yet. But the guy or gal grinding the beans and brewing it needs to drive or take public transit to work, needs food and shelter, medical care, auto insurance, fuel, etc. So as these prices filter through the economy I’d expect your coffee to ratchet upward in price. Inflation ought to be viewed in total I suggest. Short term - yes it affects some more than others. But over many years / decades it impacts all of us in similar fashion - ISTM.

Energy/oil prices may not rise at the same rate but since they have risen substantially, I believe that affects every other commodity price, agriculture for example. raw materials, metals. I think you will see costs of finished consumer goods rise for quite a while, though predicting that rate is a guessing game. I also don't think the FED is doing what it takes to contain inflation. Another reason to own commodities.
Hence, my bet is still on commodities for at least this year but quite possibly for years to come. When I first started coming to Fund Alarm/MFO some 15 years ago, commodities was the daily discussion. It wouldn't surprise me we get to that cycle. again.
If I'm wrong I will edit-delete this post to erase all evidence of my stupidity :)

I thought this was an interesting post today:
Chart of the Day
Today’s Chart of the Day was shared by Shane Murphy (@murphycharts). It's a daily candlestick of the Energy sector over the past six years. The Energy sector is up more than 35% year-to-date, making it the best performing sector by a mile. It hit a seven-year high yesterday, before reversing hard today around $585 ($79 in $XLE). This level acted as resistance five times between 2016-2018. Will the sixth time be the charm? Or, will price continue to be rejected at this familiar level? Either way, this is a pretty important test for the best-performing sector in the S&P 500.

I bought most of my MAPOX shares in 2011, 12 and 15. I sold my 2015 shares in January. They were good about specific Id. I take all distributions as cash. I've felt it has always been a steady Eddy fund with no Maalox moments.
As a balanced mutual fund, I think they are good and I could recommend this fund to everyone.
I'm slowly moving away from balanced funds and moving towards equity ETFs for better tax efficiency. I'll sell more over the next years, but slowly. It is a good fund.

Some of our mutual funds are down significantly YTD. This might not be a bad time to consider executing a Roth conversion if you were planning on doing one.
roth-ira-conversions-in-a-down-market-6-things-to-consider

According to a March 2020 report from Fidelity Investments, in the year after the “trough” of a bear market, the S&P 500 has gained an average of 47%. That is in comparison to the little over 8% per year on average that the S&P 500 has returned over the last 20 years*. To go back to my example of a $50k conversion, let’s assume you did that when the market was at the low on March 23rd of this year. The S&P 500 is up 44.54%* from March 23rd through yesterday, July 28th, so that $50k grew to just over $72k in about 4 months, $22k of tax-free growth.

getting-the-most-bang-for-your-buck-roth-conversion-during-a-market-pullback/

A Roth conversion may not always be in a
taxpayer’s best long-term economic interests if:
• The current tax cost of the conversion is prohibitively high. A Roth conversion, in
its simplest sense, is a trade-off between paying taxes now vs. paying taxes later.
For the strategy to be impactful, the current tax cost of the conversion should not
be so expensive that it outweighs the benefit of any expected future tax-free
investment growth.
• The taxpayer is making regular and material withdrawals from their pre-tax IRA.
• The taxpayer does not have the cash to pay the tax due on conversion.
Tip:
We recommend converting shares of investment positions rather than selling investments in
the IRA and then converting cash proceeds. This ensures that the taxpayer continues to have
market exposure during the conversion process, and also saves on the transaction fees that
may be levied when selling an investment position.

2020_was_the_Perfect_Year_for_a_Roth_Conversion

A little more from @Devo’s linked WSJ article:
“He argued that the low inflation since the 1990s wasn’t so much the result of astute central-bank policies, but rather the addition of hundreds of millions of inexpensive Chinese and Eastern European workers to the globalized economy, a demographic dividend that pushed down wages and the prices of products they exported to rich countries. Together with new female workers and the large baby-boomer generation, the labor force supplying advanced economies more than doubled between 1991 and 2018. Now, he said, the working-age population has started shrinking across advanced economies for the first time since World War II, and birthrates have declined as well. China’s working-age population is expected to shrink by almost one-fifth over the next 30 years.”
Hard to argue with the above.
I lived through the sharp inflation of the 70s and beyond ... I recall the steep increases in gold prices & commodities that were an early prelude to the actual cost distress later felt by everyday consumers. Remember paying 15% for a fixed-rate mortgage. And recall hearing the initial announcement of Nixon’s institution of wage / price controls under the Economic Stabilization Act over the car radio in 1970 en route to my first good paying job somewhere in the southern part of Michigan.
One early lesson involved running out “with the crowd” in the late 70s and buying a few gold K-grands at $875 per ounce … and than watching their value slowly fall by more than 50% over the next 5-10 years. :) Inflation continued upward of course, but some of the “hot” assets that rose at first actually lost value towards the end of the hysteria. “To the early bird goes the worm.”
I really think the best approach is a well rounded diversified portfolio. Sure, I’ve tilted slightly in the direction of metals and away from fixed income. Might provide a slight edge if the predictions of worsening inflation come to fruition. But, be careful. Most likely by the time you and I decide something is a “good inflation hedge” a lot of the money has already been made by those “in the know” and having the power to move markets.
PS - In my humble opinion, it’s not too late to own gold, although it’s correcting today. But, it was a better buy two months ago.

Yahoo Finance and Stockcharts use ADJUSTED-PRICES that are ratio-adjusted for distributions (not subtraction-adjusted; that would be wrong, but see some links below). If the pre-distribution price is Pi that drops by distribution Di per share to Pf = Pi-Di on the ex-dividend date, then all older prices are multiplied by (Pf/Pi) = (Pi-Di)/Pi. The cumulative total return (TR) can be deduced from the ratio of adjusted prices at two specific times, and that can be annualized. This provides good enough approximations up to 10 years. Beyond 10 yrs, the approximation errors become noticeable, but still OK for most purposes.
Many sites use GROWTH-OF-10K where the number of shares are adjusted for distributions. If before the distribution, the price is Pi and the number of shares is Ni, then the balance is Bi = Ni*Pi. If dividend Di is distributed on the ex-dividend date, then price drops to Pf = Pi-Di, and additional shares for reinvestment are Ni*Di/(Pi-Di). The new number of shares is Nf = Ni + Ni*Di/(Pi-Di) = Ni *(Pi/(Pi-Di)), and the post-distribution balance is Bf = Ni*(Pi/(Pi-Di))*(Pi-Di) = Ni*Pi = Bi. So, the balance is unchanged after reinvestment of distributions (i.e., Bf = Bi); the decrease in price is offset by the increase in the number of shares.
Note a certain SYMMETRY: In Growth-of-10K, the number of shares is adjusted by the multiplier Mi = Pi/(Pi-Di), while in adjusted-prices, all old prices are adjusted by the multiplier (1/Mi) = (Pi-Di)/Pi. Thus, the cumulative TR between two specific times T1 and Tn by both approaches must be the SAME ( = M1*M2*...*Mn - 1). The graphs of Growth-of-10K and adjusted-prices should also be similar except for a scale factor. But differences arise from Yahoo Finance practice of rounding share prices to 2 decimal places only (at each distribution step), and this rounding error builds up over time. Moreover, some distributions are missed in Yahoo Finance and are not corrected and that introduces additional errors. It is unclear what Stockcharts does internally (whether rounding prices to 2 decimal places or doing calculations with higher precision) as these data details are not visible.
Yahoo Finance charts are for actual prices only. Stockcharts have the option of adjusted prices (for TICKER; default) and actual-prices (for _TICKER) and both can be seen in the same chart.
LINK

Great; it only makes sense.
So PG&E would sell or rent the home hardware for the system? (Count me as ever suspicious of a utility's agenda. Mine has been trying so hard for years to make net metering uneconomic for the home/business owner, and only a popular uprising every legislative session has stopped them.)

Typical funds report their NAVs when the underlying security’s prices obtained and calculated after the market closes. In today’s digital world, this takes several hours to post online the NAVs and their yield to date return in percentages. I too notice oversea funds, particular smaller cap funds, tend to be late, sometime 24 hours or more. @msf explained the root causes well above.
In 2008 GFC, many bond prices underwent free fall and frozen at market closes. I recalled Loomis Sayles bond fund went down several folds more than those of core bond funds. Dan Fuss, the fund manager explained later that they entered their estimated fair market value of the frozen bonds (as mark-to-market price). I owned a small % of LS bond and it took several years to fully recover at which I sold the fund.

@davidrmoran said: “Why are you selling?
Basically - Because I can. After over 30 years with most assets held directly at TRP, I moved to a full service brokerage last summer. Now I have dozens of “alternative” type funds from which to select. Some have better track records than TMSRX. Some have lower fees. Some have easier to comprehend strategies. And some are ETFs which are a bit less expensive and easier to buy and sell.

Name Ticker "%TR YTD" "% TR 5 Year" "%TR 10 Year"
William Blair Large Cap Growth I LCGFX -21.08 19.62 16.55
Akre Focus Retail AKREX -18.4 16.49 15.23
Jensen Quality Growth J JENSX -12.88 15.57 14.59
Parnassus Core Equity Investor PRBLX -11.95 14.79 14.42
Vanguard 500 Index Investor VFINX -11.65 14.05 14.08
Vanguard Health Care Inv VGHCX -9.13 9.59 13.84
Conestoga Small Cap Investors CCASX -18.81 14.2 13.59
Grandeur Peak Global Opportunities InvGPGOX -22.38 13.17 12.94
Mairs & Power Small Cap MSCFX -10.37 7.86 12.41
T. Rowe Price Capital Appreciation PRWCX -7.79 12.25 12.16
T. Rowe Price Mid-Cap Value TRMCX -1.1 9.49 12.06
Wedgewood Retail RWGFX -19.05 14.82 12.04
Artisan Small Cap Investor ARTSX -26.13 12.73 11.89
AMG Yacktman Focused N YAFFX -5.99 12.17 11.59
AMG Yacktman I YACKX -5.55 12 11.54
Manning & Napier Disciplined Value I MNDFX -5.1 10.6 11.42
Meridian Growth Legacy MERDX -15.53 11.6 11.3
T. Rowe Price Small-Cap Value PRSVX -11.01 9.61 11.11
Amana Income Investor AMANX -11.49 10.97 11.03
Walthausen Small Cap Value WSCVX -7.27 7.06 10.32
Osterweis OSTFX -13.03 11.42 10.31
Fidelity Advisor® Small Cap I FSCIX -16.18 9.97 10.07
FPA Queens Road Small Cap Value QRSVX -6.81 9.64 9.68
Fairholme FAIRX 4.21 10.44 9.44
Vanguard Balanced Index Inv VBINX -9.02 9.39 9.24
Auxier Focus Inv AUXFX -5.04 9.24 9.23
Janus Henderson Small Cap Value T JSCVX -7.67 5.1 8.66
Oakmark Equity And Income Investor OAKBX -6.33 8.2 8.46
Artisan International Value Investor ARTKX -10.86 6.98 8.35
DCM/INNOVA High Eq Inc Innovt TILDX -12.74 7.52 7.98
FPA Crescent FPACX -8.32 6.96 7.96

Some years back the WSJ or someone ran a brief piece noting that the hybrid battery had not been replaced on a single Prius in the US except for trauma. Surely not the case by now, 22y in. But a remarkable article which I wish I could find.