@Observant1 What drives you to purchase addition share of this fund? A quick look on yahoo fin. shows it to be running "way behind" in the category over 1 & 3 years!

If I may opine here, when I look to buy a new car, computer, piece of furniture I don’t just focus on the ones that have risen the most in price over the last 3 years. I sometimes apply the same logic to buying financial products, But perhaps I have it all backwards,

@stillers,
Please indulges us with your "pay no tax" strategies.
With your RMDs being 16 years away and retirement starting in 2012 or at age 45, I am all ears.
Congratulations.

Thanks!
Let me correct your dates. Sorry if my post was confusing on that!:
Retired in 2012 at Age 56
RMDs will start in 2029 at Age 73 (unless gov't pushes back further)
Paid ZERO FIT 2013-2024 (12 years)
Plan to (and very likely will) pay ZERO FIT/SIT 2025-2028 (4 years)
Total ZERO FIT/SIT period (16 years)
Strategy was pretty simple (but takes a while to explain!):
Starting with first professional employments in 1980, got as much $ as humanly possible into tax-deferred accounts. We were DINKS, Double Income, No Kids.
ONLY worked for companies that had defined benefit pension plans as a bene. Collectively had four professional jobs and four defined benefit pension plans between the two of us between 1980-2012. Annually maxed out 401k's and 403b's and all other investable monies went to Roth IRAs.
Rolled all possible Pension monies to IRAs upon termination of service to control when we receive income. Final employers provided lovely parting gifts of Retiree Health Insurance, Retiree Dental Insurance and a RHSA (Retiree Health Savings Account). Retired with just enough $ outside the umbrella (in taxable a/c's) to bridge income gap in years until early SS began for both at Age 62 in 2018.
Started taking (effectively) tax-free IRA w/d's in 2013 to fully defray annual income gaps and/or maximize tax savings. Currently, SS and remaining pensions (that could not be rolled) cover all but a couple grand of annual living expenses.
98% of liquid net worth is still in IRAs and only 2% is in taxable accounts. We have generated negligible taxable income other than early SS starting in 2018 and remaining Pensions that weren't rolled starting in 2013. We have ALWAYS since 2013 kept total taxable income UNDER the taxable MFJ threshold.
And to answer question by @derf:
No formal employment since both retired in 2012. We do however have some friends and relatives throw at us a little cash, dinners, event tix and the like for our otherwise gratuitous mgmt of their ports. I have also done some yard work for some neighbors to keep busy and active for a ridiculously smallish hourly fee. Currently down to just one neighbor as I've tired somewhat of all that.

@Old_Joe, I first came across it on Apple News that I subscribe to. It explains the bond world in details with relevant graphs on each points. The rise of long treasuries (10 years treasury for example) since last October to near 5% today has negatively impacted the equities and bonds. It also presented the “ excess CAPE yield” at historical high, suggesting below average future returns on stock market in an already rich valuation environment.
Our local library subscribers to many newspapers. Generally searching by the title would find it.

I always forget about my library card.
Tip of the cap to @Observant1 for finding the MSN link.

@Observant1 What drives you to purchase addition share of this fund? A quick look on yahoo fin. shows it to be running "way behind" in the category over 1 & 3 years!

I had savings and checking at Capone but several years ago I did away with the savings account and now keep excess cash in a Vanguard MM. It's just a couple clicks to move money between them. At one time they were competitive but that went away pretty fast when rates started going up.

@Old_Joe, I first came across it on Apple News that I subscribe to. It explains the bond world in details with relevant graphs on each points. The rise of long treasuries (10 years treasury for example) since last October to near 5% today has negatively impacted the equities and bonds. It also presented the “ excess CAPE yield” at historical high, suggesting below average future returns on stock market in an already rich valuation environment.
Our local library subscribers to many newspapers. Generally searching by the title would find it.

I was taking RMD on Jan 2 or 3. But in 2020, the pandemic year, the RMDs were waived - first for those who took it after February or March, and finally for all around mid-2020. So, I was kicking myself for 5-6 months in 2020 for taking RMDs too early. Now I take them in mid/late-year.

Different strokes for different folks.
We plan on making QCDs when we're finally subject to RMDs. So had we been subject to RMDs by 2020, we would not have been very upset at having taken a distribution that wasn't required. The money would have gone to some good causes (at least we think so).
We make partial Roth conversions annually. Since those are generally best done early in the year, and since they cannot be done prior to taking RMDs, we plan on taking RMDs (for QCDs) early each year.
In 2009, RMDs were also waived. But this was announced at the end of 2008. So there was no confusion about what to do with 2009 RMDs already taken. Only two waivers in 50 years (RMDs started in 1974 with ERISA), and only one of those without advance warning. Those are pretty good odds of it not happening again in our lifetimes.

@WABAC
On the Osterweis (OSTIX) quarterly webinar today, they mentioned staying short, 1.5 years because they’re not being sufficiently rewarded for taking on additional duration risk.

Thanks for the info. We have that in my wife's IRA.
Not just higher for longer, but shorter for longer too.

@bee
RMDs are taking as early as possible to potentially provide a LT capital gain (from the RMD WD date + 1 year) AKA "Capital Gains Years". Conversely, In years where these RMDs suffered a loss, one would sell (by Dec 31st of that year) to harvest a tax loss which would help offset future gains in "Capital Gains Years".
I don't believe TLH is legal in IRA. Maybe I'm missing the boat?

I took a somewhat different approach. I converted quite a bit to Roth while staying in the lowest tax bracket. Yes, I paid some taxes but the Roth grows tax free forever. The earnings/growth on the funds I converted many moons ago (retired 17+ years) more than make up any taxes I've paid and are still growing tax free forever (if they don't change the Roth laws ). Who knows which way is best as I'm not going to do all that math. Let's just say they both work out exactly the same and call it a day. As they say: "there are more than one way to skin the cat."

@WABAC
On the Osterweis (OSTIX) quarterly webinar today, they mentioned staying short, 1.5 years because they’re not being sufficiently rewarded for taking on additional duration risk.

@stillers,
Please indulges us with your "pay no tax" strategies.
With your RMDs being 16 years away and retirement starting in 2012 or at age 45, I am all ears.
Congratulations.

Next to nothing? Why stop there? For us, it's been nothing.
Not to beat a dead horse, but as a retired bean counter I've posted many times that tax planning is, or should be, a lifelong process.
When we started our professional careers in 1980 we adopted our "Avoid, Delay, Minimize" tax plan and have executed it with relentless precision. We prefer to pay our income taxes on our own schedule.
Result? We have not paid a dime in FIT/SIT since the year after our retirements in 2012, and will likely continue to choose to pay ZERO until RMDs are required at Age 73, a tax-free period of 16 years.
Some cool features of the strategy are ZERO taxes on otherwise taxable Cap Gains, SS and pensions, and (effectively) annual tax-free withdrawals from IRAs up to the taxable threshold. We choose to take the cash in lieu of Roth conversions to fund our smallish, annual income gap.
There are three phases to an investor's life: Accumulation, Maintenance and Disbursement. Our lifelong tax strategy and retirement investment strategy have allowed our portfolio to continue to grow significantly annually and we remain in the Accumulation phase.

I'm playing this game by bundling cap gains into some years and ordinary income into others.
A few techniques to bundle ordinary income
- Do Roth conversions in "ordinary income years".
- Buy short term (1 year or less) CDs/T-bills in "cap gains years" that mature in "ordinary income years"
- Invest in muni (MM, bond) funds in "cap gains years", and taxable (Treasury, corporate) funds in "ordinary income years"
A couple of techniques to bundle cap gains
- Accelerate recognition of gains (sell and repurchase if desired) in "cap gains years"
- Sell "around" annual distributions - avoid distributions of ordinary income (if any) and repurchase after record date (recognizes additional cap gains)
Depending on how much space you have in your 0% cap gains bracket, creating more cap gains may or may not work out for you. In any case, the added cap gains are state-taxable, so that should be kept in mind as well.
On the flip side, Roth conversions may be partially or fully state tax-exempt, depending on the state. That's motivation to convert some money even if it eats into the 0% cap gains bracket.
Note that the numbers presented in the graph are incorrect.
Cap gains: $47,025 (top of 0% bracket) + $14,600 (std ded.) = $61,625, not $63,475
Ordinary inc: $47,150 (top of 12% bracket) + $14,600 (std ded.) = $61,750, not $63,475
Note also that the cap gains bracket does not line up exactly with the ordinary income bracket (as given by the IRS). Close, but different.
It looks like the author may have been adding in the 2023 extra deduction ($1,850) for being over age 65 (or blind). That would make the cap gains figure come out to $63,475.

Thanks @msf, I am still digesting what you wrote. Wondering if RMDs could be worked into this "Capital Gains Year" strategy where by:
RMDs are taking as early as possible to potentially provide a LT capital gain (from the RMD WD date + 1 year) AKA "Capital Gains Years". Conversely, In years where these RMDs suffered a loss, one would sell (by Dec 31st of that year) to harvest a tax loss which would help offset future gains in "Capital Gains Years".

Giruox’s PRWCX has a large long term capital gain distribution in 2024; much more than recent years. In light of what he stated in Barron’s round table discussion, the market is very expensive. Not just the Mag 7, but the rest of S&P 500 are above the historical PE, he has a net seller.
Similarly, Buffet sold much of Apple stock and other in mid 2024. Questions is why at the particular timeframe?

Current selling makes sense... I think a lot of the movement is just rebalancing. Account's are up 30-50% the last 2 years (SPY up about ~46%) so they need to take some off the table to get back to target asset allocation. That along with all the chatter about overvalued, high PE's. tariffs etc... makes everyone a little caution. Add to that "is inflation going back up?????" re: yields.... is enough to keep our heads spinning.

From the original paper:
"Spending cutbacks to self-insure against the tail risk associated with medical costs or advanced age is clearly suboptimal when products exist to pool these risks."
I wrote: "The risk is in outliving your money. A traditional immediate annuity is not the only way to protect against this tail risk. A longevity annuity (a form of immediate annuity where payouts are deferred) will also do the job."
You can use a fixed immediate (traditional) payout annuity but you don't have to. If you want to continue to keep market exposure for several more years, a longevity annuity can enable you to do that.
Here too, there's more than one way to skin a cat. A variable payout annuity, even with immediate payouts, also provides a measure of market exposure. And as noted in another quote I gave, it protects against the risk of locking in a low rate of return if you annuitize when rates are low.
My implicit suggestion was to think about what your objectives and risk concerns are and to look around. Products usually do exist to meet those objectives efficiently.

If there were an opportunity to run polls in this forum, I would try to find out
A. Of those fully retired, how many manage their portfolio for total return and how many target X amount of income per month / year.
B. Of those that target X amount of income, (1) did they ever manage the portfolio in retirement entirely for total return and (2) if so, how many years into retirement (or age) did they add the element of income requirement?
P.S.: for me (A) so far total return. I have not figured out if and when I might introduce income requirement but given some people have it, I can not assume that I will only manage for total return. So far, I draw from the portfolio of what is needed.

If you have a Automatic RMD Withdrawal set up at VG, it may be wish to check that it is still there.
I have had an Automatic RMD Withdrawal set up at VG for many years. Everything has always worked fine.
This year, I received a letter from VG dated 1/3/25. It was the RMD withdrawal confirmation summary for 2025, and everything was correct. I was set up for 2025.
Then today, I received another letter from VG dated 1/8/25, with another RMD confirmation summary for 2025. This one showed "2025 Service Level -- Calculation Only" and "Distribution Option -- None". My Scheduled Automatic RMD Distribution had been removed.
I telephoned VG and spoke with a lady who was very helpful. She restored my scheduled RMD and everything is fine again. I just want to alert others that could have happened to them and to check their confirmation.

@dtconroe said, ”Thanks for your information Hank! Your comparisons are actually to those of "bee", which I quoted in my post”
Yeah - @bee and I both taught. Probably some similarities to situations. We’ve both been here through thick and thin many years. bee is smarter than me. Adds greatly to the forum with really deep incisive / informative posts. Sorry for my miscue!
My own take is that we develop confidence in how we invest over a lifetime of investing, reading, listening, sharing. There are many ways to skin a cat. Examine your past experiences and plot the best course you can based on that experience. If you don’t have a background that gives you confidence in some approach, don’t change horses (or wagons) midstream. But folks with past experiences may be comfortable with and able to handle risk taking that others shouldn’t undertake.
Maybe relevant - The cost of living varies by geographical location and standard of living desired. I couldn’t afford beachfront in Miami or a condo in a NYC high-rise. Housing in southern Michigan (Metro Area) is more expensive than the upstate regions. These differences make individual comparisons difficult.
Annuities haven’t appealed to me personally. And I don’t distinguish between dividend income and asset growth. If my holdings’ NAV is rising X% a year over time, I don’t care how that gain was achieved. In a taxable account it would matter. But in a tax-deferred / tax-exempt account a gain is a gain ISTM.