@yogibearbull:

In his spare time, he also looks through individual mortgage documents to find any discrepancies in the mortgages that had been processed and approved by the lenders years ago

I see what you did there!

It's always nice hearing you on with Chuck, David. I'm a daily listener to Chuck's program and have been for years. One of the other times you were on, Chuck asked abuut a fund request I had sent him.

Connecting what TRUMP and PULTE said, the purchases would be by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buying back some of their outstanding bonds.
Pulte is the Director of FHFA who overseas Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In his spare time, he also looks through individual mortgage documents to find any discrepancies in the mortgages that had been processed and approved by the lenders years ago (banks, mortgage brokers) - did you keep copies of your mortgage closing papers?
Treasury and agencies have bought bonds back although they are net issuers of bonds.
Corporations also buy back their bonds at discount. But there are several issues: (i) if the bonds are trading at discount, there are investor concerns about the company and it may not have liquidity on hand to buyback bonds, (ii) the bankruptcy judge has to approve bond buyback for companies under bankruptcy, (iii) the difference between par and discounted price is treated as taxable income (seems not applicable for government agencies).
One can also think of callable bonds as bond buybacks by companies and that may be at par or at some premium.

Chuck called and asked for time on his show. I nodded. Liz Ann Sonders was the star attraction, and I got slotted into the corner usually reserved for money managers. There's no real way to anticipate what Chuck will ask, so it's not exactly mellifluous. He does send of list of (now 425) funds that listeners have asked about (at some point in the past 20 years, I suppose), and asks if I would do a "lightning round" on five of them.
Snowball on Money Life
At base I tried to explain my philosophy on portfolio construction (roughly: fiddling is a disaster, make a sensible plan, walk away, enough life), answered an impromptu question on "what you like right now" (uhhh ... CrossingBridge) and then takes on five funds, two of which were closed.
For what all of that is worth,
David

Barron’s Funds Quarterly+ (2025/Q4–January 12, 2026)
https://www.barrons.com/topics/mutual-funds-quarterly
(Performance data quoted in this Supplement are for 2025/Q4 and for 2025)
If this is an AI bubble, worry how it may unwind – sectorally (e.g. dot. com bubble burst) or systemically (e.g. GFC). This bull market has had 3 good years and broadening into non-AI/tech may extend its life into a 4th year. SP500 has 35% in tech nominally, but that overlooks some AI/tech hidden within communications (XLC) and consumer-discretionary (XLY). Prudent strategies include adjusting allocations, rebalancing, dividend stocks, alternatives, and foreign exposure. Mentioned are ARCNX (commodities), BDMAX (market-neutral), DFJ (Japan dividends), FDV (dividends), GQEPX (quality), GSINX (foreign), MOWNX (global), SCHD (dividend), SDCI (commodities), SFVLX (foreign), SVAAX (dividends), XLP (consumer-staples), XLU (utilities); in bonds, AGG, PTTRX. (By @LeweisBraham at MFO)
QUARTERLY REVIEW. WINNERS were precious metals (GLD, GDX; SLV, SIVR), LOSERS were cryptos (IBIT, COIN). Strong were healthcare/biotech BBC, VGHCX; natural resources LITP, GUNR; foreign IDV, EPDIX, DODFX, GMOI, SCINX, VXUS. Surprising was VPMCX that had a good year but heavy outflows. Not surprisingly, firms rushed to offer new ETFs and ETF classes/clones of mutual funds (and some firms also offered mutual fund classes of ETFs – why not?). (By @LeweisBraham at MFO)
MFOP data for 2025/Q4.
Top 5 Categories – commodities, precious metals, biotech
https://i.ibb.co/rfQ9fgyc/MFOP-Quarterly-Top5-010426.png

Bottom 5 Categories – alts, China, global sc/tech
https://i.ibb.co/kg820J0G/MFOP-Quarterly-Bottom5-010426.png

LINKs: Quarterly Digest1 Digest2

Exploding the War budget , as opposed to fixing Social Security or health care, really illustrates where this maga GOP is heading! Like flashing strobe lights of warning to all the folks who thought they were going to be helped with much higher costs.
There were all useful idiots, who are to be discarded like yesterday's trash. Under Raygun's huge defense build-up, the national debt was actually tripled in only 8 years.

The GQP only understands 'hard' strength as a sign of national power -- ie, military and law enforcement. Things like public diplomacy, health care, education, reliable infrastructure, child support, etc. are elements of 'soft power' and aren't as made-for-tv glamorous for them. Plus there's little to no money in it for them.

Exploding the War budget , as opposed to fixing Social Security or health care, really illustrates where this maga GOP is heading! Like flashing strobe lights of warning to all the folks who thought they were going to be helped with much higher costs brought on by tariffs.
They were all useful idiots, who are to be discarded like yesterday's trash. Under Raygun's huge defense build-up, the national debt was actually tripled in only 8 years.

From Markets A.M. newsletter by Spencer Jakab.
On this day in 1825, America's first great nonfinancial initial public offering was launched.
The Delaware & Hudson Canal Co. went public at $100 per share.
The stock hit $112 that May, slid to $71 over the next three years
but then went on to be a stable growth stock for decades.

krug tonight
You may have heard that Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves — 300 billion barrels. You probably don’t know that Venezuela’s reported oil reserves tripled while Hugo Chavez was president. This increase, from roughly 100 billion to 300 billion barrels, didn’t reflect major new discoveries or exploration. Instead, it reflected the Chavez government’s decision to reclassify the country’s Orinoco Belt heavy oil as “proved” — oil that can be recovered with reasonable certainty under existing economic and operating conditions:
As Torsten Slok of Apollo, who recently made this point, notes, “Much of the oil is extra-heavy, which has low recovery and a high cost to produce.” This suggests that Venezuela’s claims to have immense usable oil reserves were politically motivated hype.
This view is supported by the fact that the huge increase in Venezuela’s reported oil reserves wasn’t followed by a surge in production. On the contrary, Venezuelan oil production soon plunged:
Plunging production was associated with a steady degradation of Venezuela’s oil infrastructure, which would take years and many billions of dollars in investment to restore. Given these costs as well as political instability, major oil companies clearly aren’t enthusiastic about the idea of sinking money into Venezuela.

I could envision a new administration, in three years, forcing renumeration from any participants in improperly profiting from a resource grab. I would assume oil executives are considering this eventuality. In a world awash with oil reserves, is this worthy of taking the hit to reputation and bottom line? Will the risks stop them?
From the Krugman article posted by @AndyJ
"And $62 (breakeven price) a barrel wouldn’t be high enough to make investing in the Orinoco Belt, where the estimated breakeven is more than $80, profitable even if there were no political risks."

"If just a few years ago someone had tried to convince me that this was even possible I would have written them off as a ridiculous alarmist"..

An alarmist here. Feels like the world's turned upside down. One thought is that maybe buying foreign stocks isn't so great an idea. If an imperialist U.S. can grab off weaker countries like Venezuela or Columbia (under consideration ) and set its eyes on Denmark's Greenland - plus potentially all of Canada - then it can also confiscate those foreign assets you'd previously considered safe.

Our political system actually seems to have nothing effective in the way of checks and balances to mitigate this. If just a few years ago someone had tried to convince me that this was even possible I would have written them off as a ridiculous alarmist.
The Heritage Foundation architects of the destruction of the United States political system worked long and hard on "Project 2025", to be ready in case someone stupid enough to be their running dog were elected. And Trump was.

@WABAC
"the result of inheritances" Ah, so there is a rationale beyond step-up basis. And quite a good one.
Over the past 25 years, we have been the beneficiaries of a few small to moderate inheritances. I never really spent any of it on myself, feeling more like a caretaker of someone else's legacy. Though arguably, it lightened my load. Some went to college funding, some to paying off my wife's car in the 1990's, most was simply invested.
Simply put, I get it.

Is your wife still driving that car? :-)

@WABAC
"the result of inheritances" Ah, so there is a rationale beyond step-up basis. And quite a good one.
Over the past 25 years, we have been the beneficiaries of a few small to moderate inheritances. I never really spent any of it on myself, feeling more like a caretaker of someone else's legacy. Though arguably, it lightened my load. Some went to college funding, some to paying off my wife's car in the 1990's, most was invested.
Simply put, I get it.

"Investors are starting to raise doubts about how much oil Venezuela really has
and whether it could be profitably extracted."
"To make Orinoco oil marketable, producers must blend it with lighter hydrocarbons, known as diluent,
or upgrade it into a lighter synthetic crude using large industrial facilities.
Without blending or upgrading, this oil backs up in the field."
"José hosts four major crude upgraders: Petromonagas, Petropiar, Petrocedeño, and Petrosanfelix.
Those facilities have a combined nameplate capacity of 600,000 to 650,000 barrels a day.
In practice, utilization has been far lower due to years of deferred maintenance, corrosion, power outages,
and equipment failures that have left units cycling on and off."
"Rystad estimates that $53 billion of upstream and infrastructure spending would be required
over 15 years just to keep crude oil production flat."
"Lifting production from 1.4 million to 2 million bpd by the early 2030s would require
an additional $40-$45 billion, much of it tied to pipelines, upgraders,
and other non-upstream facilities that cannot be bypassed."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/how-much-oil-does-venezuela-really-have-for-chevron-the-truth-matters/ar-AA1TF7qY
Comments: Venezuelan crude is "heavy" and requires lots of processing.
Oil industry infrastructure has long been neglected and substantial capital investment is needed.
There is currently a glut of oil and Brent/WTI benchmark crude prices are relatively low.
Is this a favorable scenario for major U.S. oil companies?

I wouldn't put them in my IRA. But if they help you sleep at night I guess they're working for you.

Why?
Only MRFOX and SGOVX are tax friendly, the others should be in tax sheltered funds because they are not tax efficient.

I would like to add MRFOX to the taxable at some point. For the IRA I'm focusing on NTF only funds as I rebuild the equity portion of my IRA, and MRFOX ain't that where my IRA is. EISIX fills the spot SGOVX might have gone into.
I don't care for the fund of funds approach, so QDSNX is out, especially at the prices they charge. Nothing but my own SWAN prejudice in action.
Given the max draw down, worst year performance, and standard deviation of DBMF, I think I could do better with a plain old equity or bond fund.
I mostly don't care for the difference between price and net asset value you get with bond etf's. Nor do I like to get above 25% in the sort of stuff JAAA trades in. CBLDX fills the space in my IRA that JAAA might have fit into. For me it was the SWANier choice.
PRPFX has definitely been on a roll owning gold, and stocks like Palantir and Nvidia. It's the sort of fund it might have been nice to get into ten years ago. For a new purchase I went with PMAIX which was one of the few allocation funds to have positive returns in 2022. I'm not optimistic about beating inflation any time soon.
For the equity portion of the IRA I'm not looking for a specific SCV fund. I think I'll get enough exposure from ALVIX and FMIEX. I might like PVFIX in the taxable, but that space is currently filled by VSMIX. I got into it before it closed. Last I checked, I couldn't even add to it, which is a minor bummer. The same team manages VVOIX, which is still open.

old_Joe
The IRMAA cost is calculated every year based on your taxable income from two years prior. Includes Capital Gains and tax exempt income.
So if your income drops, your IRMAA deduction will also drop.
If you income drops in 2025 vs 2024, you can file an appeal and ask them to recalculate IRMAA for 2026, based on 2025 income, not 2024 income, as soon as you file your 1040 for 2025.
There is a form to use and it is rather simple, but you have to have filed last years taxes first. I can find the form if you cannot
I did it a couple of years ago and it saved me 6 months of that increase.

It would be a fairly easy calculus for an oil CEO to decide how much $$ he/she ( there is at least one) is willing to put into VZ to get back the value of confiscated assets. But how do you value assets confiscated 20 years ago? Trump will be ebnding a lot of arms and today promised to use taxpayer money.
The real issue would be can you depend on USA keeping nationalization from happening again? I would bet no way Jose. Can you see DEMS willing to continue so VZ intervention in 3 years?
It will take years to remake the Government there especially if you believe a fraction of the reports about Hezbollah heavy involvement in VZ under Maduro.
https://en.mercopress.com/2025/10/22/us-senate-warned-of-hezbollah-expansion-in-venezuela
There are a number of legitimate ( ie not just Fox News) reports of Hezbollah involved in narco terroism and drone manufacturing with drone capable of hitting US. I am surprised Donnie hasn't used this as a pretense.
Then there is the real nut job Miller
“It has been the formal position of the US government since the beginning of this administration, frankly going back into the previous Trump administration, that Greenland should be part of the US. The president has been very clear about that.”
It is hard to believe someone at the highest reaches of US Government believes this, much less will go on record, not to mention his previous posts:
In a post on X, Miller slammed what he described as the former government’s immigration approach, claiming Western nations opened their doors at the expense of their own citizens.
"Not long after World War II the West dissolved its empires and colonies and began sending colossal sums of taxpayer-funded aid to these former territories (despite have already made them far wealthier and more successful). The West opened its borders, a kind of reverse colonization, providing welfare and thus remittances, while extending to these newcomers and their families not only the full franchise but preferential legal and financial treatment over the native citizenry. The neoliberal experiment, at its core, has been a long self-punishment of the places and peoples that built the modern world".

Does hind sight & fore sight come into play here?

MRFOX, SGOVX, PRPFX, and PVFIX have consistent management style for at least 15 years. JAAA is only 5 years old, but seems like a solid risk/reward choice.
The others are hindsight plays.

So my wife is 63, she was in head on collision last year and decided to retire from her job and enjoy life. She took her SSA starting in December 2025. I’m 62, turn 63 in May and deciding whether to take my SSA in May and retiring as well. The bonus for us is that I’m military retired, so our healthcare is from Tricare and I use the VA sparingly. I assume SSA is the only calculator out there, or do I create a spreadsheet to calculate returns based on years such as 63, 64 etc to see how long it would take to recoup the money if I waited until 67 to take it.