Tom Madell article:

-Vanguard index mutual funds and comparable Vanguard ETFs are merely different classes of the exact same fund. Their returns are virtually identical while they have had no capital gain distributions over the last five years. Therefore, there is no particular performance superiority of one over the other.
-An ETF will not always outperform a nearly matched mutual fund. Some ETFs can still sport higher expense ratios than comparable mutual funds. And managed, as opposed to indexed mutual funds, can tilt their portfolios as to sometimes achieve a better return than an ETF which adheres strictly to its benchmark index.
-Mutual funds with a load are typically, but not always, going to show lower fee-adjusted long-term performance than a comparable ETF or mutual fund without a load, although that difference can disappear the longer the mutual fund is held.
-Nowadays, many mutual funds have very low expense ratios, especially non-managed funds.
-Be leery of performance tables that do not take into account a load's effect on performance.
-When comparing an ETF with a mutual fund, investors should look beyond just the conventional fund vs. ETF label. Some apparently similar investment vehicles, even passively managed funds, may have important differences from each other which might favor one investing in a mutual fund, or vice versa.

not-simple-truths-etf-vs-mutual-fund-performance
Screeners:
https://etfdb.com/screener/
https://mutualfunds.com/screener/#etfs-anchor
https://mutualfunds.com/screener/

fwiw, I myself thought BO's Nobeling to be silly and a lowering of the prize, and many suspected he thought so as well (there was writing about it), although the notional reason had to do w weapons nonproliferation and Midwest reachout, at the time anyway.
Why they went ahead and voted it, yeah, probably what LB says, the first AA prez and such.
But FD1k: why, since we are to admire and maybe trust your constantly impressive investing and esp bond-fund-choosing success, do you make such basic historical mistakes?? Why do you throw banana peels in front of your promotional path by not knowing the years and events when these really important things happened?

@FD1000 Again your timing is off. Obama won the Nobel in 2009. Putin annexed Crimea in 2014. Gadaffi died in 2011. And the stuff about Isis is hogwash and occurred in 2011. Obama won the award because despite America still being an incredibly racist nation some 400 years after the first slave ships arrived, he overcame great odds to become the first African American president. That by itself is an incredible accomplishment. Even today given some of the asinine comments I read online about him, I find it amazing he won--twice.

My current thinking is to wait until age 70. That gives me 5 years (age 65 to age 70) to convert tIRA money to a Roth without having SS push me into a higher tax bracket. (Before age 65, my conversions are limited because I am on ACA).
As Kings53 said - 15% of your SS will be tax free, so it pays to make that as big as possible. For some, that tax free portion will be higher.
As one data point, my FIL waited until 70 to collect - he’s 97 now. His checks haven’t kept up with his personal inflation but we are certainly glad they are not 30% less.

Just moved into a new home over the past month...when going thru my "stuff", I found notebooks and literature from seminars, presentations from industry conferences from the mid-90's. I worked leading an OEM sales team selling to the Semicon "tool" mfg's (a tool might be a 200 or 300mm CMP machine) such as Applied Materials etc. I distinctly remember in the late 90's parking 3 blocks down a side street when visiting AMATs corp site in Sunnyvale as there was no parking in their lots, too full, too busy. Tons of highly paid, talented associates working there.
Absolutely amazing to me when I looked where the tools were being sold and where the market share was then compared to now. Crazy how much semi business has been sent overseas in the last 20-25 years. Absolutely crazy. No really. It is insane!
And now we sell weed, raise taxes, build casinos, hand out fee monies because all the good jobs were exported. Dang!
Baseball Fan

Greetings,
Curious as to the class' life experience in selling a home. Wife and I are getting ready to sell our wonderful home after 25 years...
Have found out that real estate agents are generally not worth their comission fees. None of them will help you find a home unless your budget is over a 1.5M. Then they will chauffeur you house to house to look at them. Otherwise you surf the net or they take your email and put you on an auto email with all the beat up overpriced crap homes on them, waste your time and then they unlock the door for you and walk thru the home like they are experts. Sheet.
They have this game they play, called comps. Called the shall we say Orange Fish agent, showed me chart how he gets 99% of ask price then tells me based on comps your house is worth xyz. I say really. You can't find another home for sale in my neighborhood of over 300 homes. The one's that have sold have sold in a day and sold for $10k over ask. What do I care what a home sold for 10 months ago. Can you sell me SPY ETF at the price it was 10 months ago? No, then why the freak should I go to market with an old price? I told him no wonder you gave me the 99% figure. You are selling me on my selling my home under it's current value so you can sell my house in a weekend and move onto another sucker. Then he starts telling me what I should fix up on my home as with an FHA loan you will get a high degree of inspection, don't want to fail that. Told him go freak himself, I'm not going to add onto this housing charade by selling my home to someone who can only put 3.5% down and leverage himself to the hilt. Told him this conversation is over, you can leave now, don't let the door hit you on the arse on the way out, bye bye.
What has been your experience and apologies if this should be in off topic etc
Baseball Fan

Retired @53 and took it @63. I didn't need it but took it because tomorrow is not guaranteed. A bird in the hand yada yada yada... Unfortunately I know someone who only benefited 2 years. I'm glad they took it asap.

I sometimes imagine the Cayman Islands as just one big UPS Store with shiny walls of P.O. boxes for the tax shelters and a few palm trees in the background. This is fascinating reading: https://taxjustice.net/cms/upload/pdf/Tax_Notes_0707_Lessons_from_the_war_on_tax_havens.pdf
If the U.S. truly turned against these havens--and it had in the past briefly--I doubt there would be anything they could do to stop us. The Cayman Islands has a population of 66,350 and anywhere between $1.5 trillion and $1.9 trillion custodied there, depending on which estimate you believe. But the U.S. never will, especially with Biden who represented America's biggest haven for other countries--Delaware--for many years.

@hank -- First Eagle does value. Value has gotten spanked for a long time now, so not sure PRPFX is an apples-to-oranges comparison.
That said, in looking for a place to put some $ (I've held First Eagle Global in the past), I'm taken aback by it's volatility. I don't mind trailing markets in go-go years, but the FESGX has seemed to be more volatile than promised.

@Sven et al
The initial reports began about one month ago, but this BBC story is a recent update.
Having lived in Taiwan (Taipei area) for 2 years, I continue to follow a variety of news about the country, over the years.
ADD: Phoenix plant Taiwan Semi
Not a fix for the current circumstance, but........

A passing question about inflation: was it not "through the roof" immediately after WW II? I have no idea, just conjecture. The total cost of the war was an absurd, uncountable amount. But we survived, and I think we are better off without swastikas flying overhead, or Tojo in charge, over in the other direction. Sadly, millions had to suffer under uncle Joe Stalin for years and years, afterwards.

A passing question about inflation: was it not "through the roof" immediately after WW II? I have no idea, just conjecture. The total cost of the war was an absurd, uncountable amount. But we survived, and I think we are better off without swastikas flying overhead, or Tojo in charge, over in the other direction. Sadly, millions had to suffer under uncle Joe Stalin for years and years, afterwards.

...seeing that guestimates for IBonds re rating on May 1st estimates for inflation variable rate going up to 3.54%?
That's higher than it's been in ~ 10 years? I guess it makes sense...
FWIW, I pay no attn to the propoganda and the esteemed columnists in the NYTimes. Right or wrong, I'll think for myself and not what others signal to me how I should think.
Not for me, no thanks.
Best,
Baseball Fan

@Chinfist, apologies but I am not qualified to answer your question. I haven't planned on it as my thinking is that at this point anything that I recover will be a postitive. In my mind, I'm positioning my investment in IQDAX as a sunk cost and a somewhat cheap lesson as to not get involved in any "black boxey" type of investment as I get older and "wiser". Ouch. Hoping to get ~ 50-60% of my monies invested back. Based on my past experiences, I'm thinking this will drag on in the courts for several years.
Appears that the young man who ran this fund believes he did nothing wrong.
What a sheet show. Good Luck to you and stay healthy!
Baseball Fan

"Second point. what if your ss is banked for 3+ years & market takes a very heavy hit. Recovery takes 3-4 years to recover"
If the worst three years happen early in the accumulation phase (ages 62-70) you come out better, because you've banked only three years of SS checks. If the worst years are closer to age 70 ("retirement"), you take the worst hit.
To see what happens if the worst three years are just after you "retire" at age 70 (age 70-73), try out the PV Age 70+ simulation above, and set "Sequence of Returns Risk" to "worst 3 years first". You're virtually guaranteed of losing if you live to age 83, and a 50/50 chance of losing if you just live to age 80.

@bee : "The main reason this strategy seems optimal to me is that Social Security has no cash value upon death."
Not so, there is a death benefit but rather quite loooow ! Less than $300. I think it's $255, but wouldn't bet on it.
Second point. what if your ss is banked for 3+ years & market takes a very heavy hit. Recovery takes 3-4 years to recover. Good luck with that plan.
Now for those that can bank their ss, go for it, but remember this isn't a guaranteed plan
As Crash stated, "Everybody is different."
Stay safe, Derf

@bee - your "image" doesn't include a link to an image.
Below are a couple of links to Portfolio Visualizer; it's easy to tweak the inputs to see how things would go under different assumptions. With my usual qualifications that I'm setting PV up to run a simplistic, normal distribution model that bears only a passing resemblance to reality.
SS adjusts payments for inflation, so the calculations are in real, 2021 dollars. The cited article says that (in 2021 dollars) taking SS at age 62 for this person would pay $2060/mo, while waiting until age 70 would pay $3643/mo.
Thus, if one takes the money starting at age 62 and invests it, then starting at age 70 that nestegg would have to provide (in 2021 dollars) $1583/mo (the difference) until death for the same income. If you run out of nestegg money before death you lose - you draw only $2060 rather than $3643 from that point until death. If there's anything left of the nestegg when you die, you win. What's left over is your bonus.
I've set up the accumulation phase (age 62-70) to contribute $2060/mo, inflation adjusted. I've set inflation at 2%, 0 volatility, and rate of return at 7% with 12% volatility (about that of VWELX). Make sure to check the inflation adjusted box at the bottom of the graph (to get the value in 2021 dollars rather than nominal 2029 dollars). Mouse over the graph to get the age 70 value after 8 years.
You've got a 50/50 chance (50th percentile) of doing better or worse than about $235K.
For the age 70+ phase, you have to withdraw a net $1583 as explained above. Again, I've used 2% inflation, 0% volatility, 7% rate of return, 12% volatility. And I took the $235K from the accumulation phase as the starting portfolio value.
This will show you how long your nestegg might last - will it outlast your life (you win) or will it run out early (you lose)? It depends on the parameters you pick, what you expect your lifetime to be, and what percentile of likely outcomes you choose to look at.

PV Accumulation Phase
PV Age 70+ Phase (up to age 100)

I can't read the article but if Krugman said that inflation is going to be way up, he will be wrong and not the first time, see (2016). I'm amazed he got the Nobel Memorial Prize.
Let's talk inflation:
The ANNUAL inflation may get to 3-4% in the next a few/several months because it's compared to last year meltdown. In Q4/2021 and on I don't see anything beyond 2.5-3% and for several months consistently.
Remember, monthly CPI is relative to last month. If an item goes up 10% and next month stays the same then next monthly inflation for this item is zero.
Example: Gas at the pump jumped about 20% YTD (similar for 12 months) but is flat for about a month now(link).
We have been borrowing from the future for over 10 years already. In the years ahead it will get slower. The Fed welcome 2% (maybe 2.5%) long term inflation. Add to it big tech replacing jobs and improving processes + global competition, and you get tame inflation.

There has been an ongoing debate as to when to start taking Social Security, as early as age 62, as late as age 70 or sometime in between.
Here's an article from The Retirement Manifesto that details the debate:
https://theretirementmanifesto.com/should-you-take-social-security-at-age-62-or-70/
I use the author's SS numbers to create a strategy that take SS at 62, but not for income. The SS benefit is instead invested over the next 8 years (until age 70). I create (4) investment options (investment allocations) that attempts to achieve a 3%, 6%, or 10% or an all cash return.
My strategy takes Social Security at age 62 and letting those payments accumulate for eight years...the time frame between age 62 and 70. This allows eight years of accumulated Social Security payments creating a "SS nest egg" . At age 70, this accumulated "SS nest egg" then can provide a withdrawal strategy that would equal the differential of the higher SS payout. If one were to die early this SS nest egg acts like a life an insurance policy for a spouse or other beneficiary.
The main reason this strategy seems optimal to me is that Social Security has no cash value upon death. By collecting SS at age 62.... as early as possible.... one secures at least those payments while waiting to start SS at age 70. I would rather start accumulating payments while waiting to reach age 70 and invest rather than purely waiting until age 70.
Achieving a average return above 5% would be optimal for this strategy. Here a look at the numbers:

I'm with Fidelity and Schwab for years. I never waited at Schwab more than 1-2 minutes and many times the reps work from home.
In the last 2-3 years, I waited several times at least 20-30 minutes at Fidelity and then they transferred me again to the "right" rep and waited long again.
I don't use sophisticated trading software, I mostly buy funds/indexes and when I buy a stock, it's pretty easy to use the normal tools they have.
These sophisticated trading software are for Trading-Obsessed. I tried a couple of these years ago and after several months of practicing and even trading (and fast daily trading including E-mini SP500/Russell/QQQ futures) they didn't enhance my results.