You could split between two funds, say EXTAX and FLTMX.
Performance of VTMFX seems pretty good over the past 3 years

Not too thrilled with the ER for EXTAX - seems a bit high to me compared with VTMFX.

You could split between two funds, say EXTAX and FLTMX.
Performance of VTMFX seems pretty good over the past 3 years

Never agreed with you more, @Ted Rob has gotten it so wrong for so many years, I suppose, sooner or later, things will look up for him.

>>>Even when looking at individual funds here (HSGFX, MFLDX, CVSIX, etc.) the prospectus usually gives the manager so much discretion per holdings and strategy that they are very difficult to understand, and their direction can change on a whim.<<<
Three dog funds when compared to the S&P over the past many, many years. I didn't read the article but isn't the only reason these funds came into vogue was because of 2008? I recall a WSJ article back in the late 90s titled "Waiting Up Rich." It was about how so many investors retiring found themselves rich by merely hanging tight with S&P.
Obviously I am not a fan of buy and hold but in the long run it surely beats all these alternative funds sought by scared investors worried about a replay of 2008 or worse.

FYI: The rates that utilities charge customers and the profits the providers of water and power can make are highly regulated, but utilities' stock gains have pushed the funds that focus on them to the No. 3 performing sector in the past 15 years as well as year to date.
A $10,000 investment in the average utility mutual fund on Sept. 30, 1999, would have grown to $28,940 by Nov. 10 this year, according to Morningstar Inc data.
Regards,
Ted
http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=MTg2NTQxMzA=
Enlarged Graphic: http://news.investors.com/photopopup.aspx?path=WEBlv111214.gif&docId=726052&xmpSource=&width=1000&height=1063&caption=&id=726044

@rono & @mark:
I have been Long/Short CT&FL for the last few years...I short FL in the summer and CT in the winter. Dividends are:
- I never lose my tan,
-open toed shoes and
-fresh produce.
It's an apples and oranges kind of portfolio...very fruitful.
@charles:
50% state muni ETF or muni fund
50% VTI (Vanguard Total Stock Market)...adding state specific etfs might be a way of "goosing" sector weightings such as energy (TX, SD) or tech (CA,MA,NC) or trends such as boomer-nomics (FL, AZ).
The closest I have come to simplifying this idea in one mutual fund is USBLX which accomplishes this by combining national munis with a S&P index fund. It does this at a fairly high ER (1%). The fund advertises itself as a "growth and tax strategy fund" and M* categorizes it as conservative allocation.
Other question I have:
Are etfs treated like stock holdings when it comes to tax harvesting strategies...much like selling stocks to harvest losses?
Also, at death do etfs adjust their cost basis (like individual stocks) making them a better vehicle for inheritance than mutual funds?

@openice: Thanks for the heads-up. George has been with Royce for 23 years, and managed Royce Trust (FUND) that I owned on several occasions.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.roycefunds.com/people/whitney-george

@JohnChisum: I paid for the premium service for 1 year only and later switched to TRP's free offer of M*. so cannot blame M*, though I keep adding to my TRP holdings at every opportunity for last 7 years.

Sears down 9.55% today......Amazing volatility in this stock.

It's because the public float has shrunk so much that Sears was taken out of the S & P 500 a couple of years ago. Plus, you have 65% of the float short. It's basically a tug-of-war between Lampert/Berkowitz and assortment of fund managers with smaller positions vs the shorts.
Shares Outstanding5: 106.47M
Float: 49.44M
Shares Short (as of Oct 15, 2014)3: 17.35M
Short Ratio (as of Oct 15, 2014)3: 9.30
Short % of Float (as of Oct 15, 2014)3: 65.10%
Shares Short (prior month)3: 17.19M
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sears-booted-from-sp-500-over-public-float-level-2012-08-29

I hope this is an appropriate addition to this thread... (not generally a good start to any message, I realize).
This year looks like it will be a record year for capital gains distributions. After years of thinking about it, I've put together a free website to serve as a one-stop shop for gathering capital gains estimates. My database has 250 firms and already has links to nearly 90 firms' estimates. The information I share is less valuable to the folks that are reviewing this thread, but I do think the site is more accessible and I do provide additonal information. (I'm currently posting links to preliminary information or even 2013 links if that's all that is available.)
The site is CapGainsValet.com. Although the site is free, like MFO, I am asking for financial support. In my case, I'm asking for donations to my favorite charity.
This is the first place I am notifying about the site. I could not think of a better group to reach out to before I try to spread the word. Please let me know your thoughts and recommendations.

Add-on, @catch22:
>>>>>"Not sure what you mean by "We'll do our SERIOUS investing elsewhere."
Does this mean that monies that are not invested in the workplace 403b are instead invested in a trad. or ROTH IRA?
One aspect of workplace retirement accounts is reducing gross taxable income during the tax year, which some folks consider a benefit to saving by this method."
**********
By "serious" investing, I just meant that we won't be putting our OWN money into the 403b. We get the deduction from our IRAs, still. We've not even begun to withdraw from our IRAs, and are still adding to them. Traditional. (Wife still is working, though lately cut to part-time.) There were a couple of years in which I inherited more than the $6,500.00 Trad. IRA maximum and so we bought a couple of funds as taxable investment accounts, but they remain quite small: SFGIX and DLFNX. Whether taxable or not, I think they were solid choices. :) Thank you for your concern, which I know is genuine. Typo above: we own NAESX Vang. Small-cap, not NEASX.

@Charles
Yes, this is an interesting site. I do have a login for this site from many years ago; but have not logged in for some time.
For those reviewing any of the companies; I am not sure how BrightScope updates data, but I know some of the data for who is managing the investments for a particular company are not updated. One company changed vendors 2 years ago and the old vendor is still listed. FWIW
Take care,
Catch

FYI: From hot to not and back again, Japanese stocks have been a confusing lot the last couple years.
Japan's stock market is flying after the Bank of Japan surprised the world last week by increasing its bond-buying stimulus program. The Nikkei 225 index jumped nearly 5 percent the day of the announcement, and it's back in the black for the year. In the spring, it was down nearly 15 percent. That follows a stellar 2013, where the Nikkei soared nearly 60 percent.
Underlying all the market moves is investor confidence in whether Japan can jumpstart its economy's too-weak inflation. Japanese shoppers and companies have grown accustomed to prices staying the same, which encourages them to delay purchases and investments. That weighs on consumer spending and restricts the economy.
To raise its inflation rate and jolt Japan, the country's central bank is pushing stimulus. Last week's surprise move caused the value of the yen to drop. That serves to make imported goods more expensive for Japanese shoppers and also boosts revenue for Japanese exporters.
Even after the big jump for Japanese stocks, they remain cheaper than their U.S. counterparts, says Taizo Ishida. He is the lead manager of the Matthews Japan fund, whose $683 million in assets makes it one of the biggest to focus solely on Japan. He recently discussed what U.S. investors can expect from the market. Answers have been edited for clarity.
Regards,
Ted
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/039ca5a0a61e457397f041c017b307fd/what-japans-stimulus-jolt-means-investors
M* Snapshot Of MJFOX: http://quotes.morningstar.com/fund/f?t=MJFOX&region=usa&culture=en-US
Lipper Snapshot Of MJFOX; http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/Fund/MJFOX?countrycode=US
MJFOX Is Rank #3 In The (JS) Fund Category By U.S. News & World Report:

"The fund also ranks in the top 1% of its short-term category for the one-, three-and five-year periods. While those results are impressive, the comparison is a bit misleading. The short-term categorization from Morningstar is merely a reflection of the fund’s current portfolio, which has an average effective duration of about three years." (Barron's profile, my emphasis)
FATRX is not a ST bond fund, and neither is THOPX (as some MFOers recently characterized it in another thread); they are total return bond funds which, for now, have chosen to keep their durations short enough, for long enough, that M* has thrown them into the ST bond category (resulting, IMO, in some pretty serious distortions in relative performance and purpose).
Nonetheless, I checked out FATRX awhile back and thought Elswick could become a good one. His core plus portfolio has been and is presently somewhat different than standard fare. Too bad it comes with a FEL=2.25%; just such a turnoff for me

Sometimes you have to work with the hand you're dealt. My first 403b experience was through a life insurance company that took 5% off the top of all contributions. A few years later the employer switched to another life insurer with better fees up front but heavy penalties for withdrawal before the 7 year vesting period was up.
Don't let these bad policies get at you @MaxBialystock. The benefit of the lowered AGI on your income taxes exceeds the fees they throw at you. Also, time is a great compounder. You lose out a lot by skipping years of contributions. The miracle of compounding as it is called.
Of course max out any other plans you have like IRA's.

Thanks for your responses, and the very detailed history by msf, it does have quite a history of bouncing around. I owned UMBIX for many years before I sold, but I have been happy with SMGIX, which I purchased through ML, and Pope indeed is a fine successor to David Williams. I suspect the two funds will eventually merge. I like the contrarian bent, UMBIX never was a true large value either, it had a style all its own. SMGIX seems to play the same way.

I suspect any responses you get will be from legacy investors like Maurice and myself. Though unlike Maurice, I did invest in a Columbia fund ages ago, when Columbia was a boutique shop in Oregon with a few good growth funds. Got rid of that in 1997 when Columbia was acquired by Fleet Boston (later called Fleet Financial).
The Acorn lineage that Maurice is referring to is almost completely separate. Liberty acquired a bunch of fund companies including Stein Roe (Young Investors fund, Stein Roe Special), Newport Pacific (Newport Tiger Fund), Wanger (Acorn Funds), and others.
Fleet Boston brought these Liberty lines together with Columbia in 2001 (when it acquired Liberty). BofA in turn acquired the whole mess in 2004, subsequently merging some Nations Bank funds into it. (BofA had merged with Nations Bank previously.)
Regarding Excelsior funds - they were acquired by US Trust (which was acquired at some point by Schwab, but sold to BofA in 2007), and rebranded Columbia when BofA acquired them.
BofA has since sold the Columbia line to Ameriprise.
The Acorn funds have been kept somewhat separate, but otherwise, I don't have a clue what "Columbia Funds" means anymore. It's certainly not the low cost growth-oriented boutique I bought years ago.
I do know that they make it exceedingly difficult for "eligible investors" (those who are allowed to purchase noload Z shares like SMGIX). Can't seem to open an account online, can't even find an application to download that includes Z class shares.
Columbia has closed off access to Z shares via supermarkets - you can buy their A shares, but Z share accounts are frozen (no buys allowed, even for grandfathered customers).
You put all that together, and maybe Columbia is of interest for hard-to-find types of funds, but it's not a family I'd be looking to for most categories. All that said, Pope seems to be doing a fine job at SMGIX. It's natural that this resembles the current incarnation of UMBIX, since Pope manages that as well (albeit with others there).
But as M* opines, it's a different style now - not the same as the value-oriented fund you sold off. If that's what you're looking for, it seems you may still need to keep looking.

I've been putting up with this SLOTH with morningstar portfolio manager
for YEARS. It's part of the reason I resigned my M* premium membership BACK
in 2005 !!!!!!!!! -yes that many years and it never really improves. I also use FREE
M* port. mgr @ TRP. AND It's WORSE THERE.!!!
--I generally get fund updates from MARKETWATCH .COM which usually show current
nav shortly after 6PM EST.

The chief reason anyone writes about PRPFX is that 97-03 period. Before and after those six years, you do better (including the bumps he cites, almost) with something like GLRBX.

I've noticed, going back several years, that the evening post-market-closing updates at M* used to get done by 6:00. Now it's more like 7:30, and it is not uncommon to go later. And then, there may very well be one or another of my funds NOT updated with the rest of them. Stinky.