Followers of Dave Ramsey would be disappointed with 5%. He tells listeners to "invest in good growth stock mutual funds" returning 12% a year. But you can't pick these funds yourself, because he thinks listeners should use ELP's to manage their money(Endorsed Local Providers)! I could go on, but I've discussed this Theocratic Financial Advisor Asshat too long already !

Victory! First - I deactivated all my Schwab accounts in Quicken and changed the Financial info to say "Charles Schwab". Just plain old "Charles Schwab".
I followed the steps on this web Support page; specifically the sections titled "What if my Schwab accounts aren't all available for reauthorization" followed by the section titled "What if I am getting a CC-501 error".
https://www.quicken.com/support/errors-when-updating-or-adding-charles-schwab-accounts
After following those steps (except for the "Cloud reset" - I don't use their web version. I only use my Desktop software), I was able to successfully download transactions.
BEWARE: The download brought in a bunch of "Match" and "New" transactions that were already in Quicken. I reviewed every downloaded transaction and deleted the downloaded line items that were already in Quicken - even the ones marked as Match. I ONLY accepted the transactions that were truly NEW.
Now let's see how long it lasts!

Synchrony/SYF was spun out as IPO in 2014. The IPO was for 15%, and in 2015, GE distributed the rest 85%.
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SYF/profile?p=SYF
https://www.ge.com/news/reports/ge-completes-the-separation-of-synchrony-financial

Great piece of humorous financial commentary from this week’s Barron’s - whether you agree with the writer’s assessment or not. I’ve tried in vain to track down the source from which Barron’s is quoting this. If you can obtain the complete essay you’re in for some additional entertainment.
Couple brief excerpts:
“Ladies and Gentlemen: Welcome to Jet Bear Airways, flight 1121 with nonstop service to Forlorn, USA….Our captain has informed us today's flight could be rather choppy due to economic headwinds, popping bubbles, delusional government spending, and a zero interest-rate policy that stayed too long at the party, leaving an intoxicated Reddit wolf pack eyeing a crypto-trading hamster while mingling with the cats and dogs around the open bar …..
“In preparation, turn off your electronic devices and please bring your body to an upright, numbed position. Flight time is unknown, starting at a maximum altitude of approximately SPX 4743 before heading downward from this dizzying peak while anticipating several excruciating troughs before we begin our final descent into Forlorn. After reaching cruising altitude, we will serve giant stock grants and loan-forgiveness programs to all executive class fliers …”
Attribution:
From: Barron’s December 7, 2021
Title: “What a Long, Strange Trip”
Author: William Gibson
Original Source: Gibson’s Technical Strategist - Nov. 30

I feel that longevity insurance is one of the few useful products that the financial industry has created in the past several years. That said, if it's not a product that you are interested in independent of tax considerations, then buying a QLAC is a poor way to reduce RMDs.
Kitces, Why A QLAC In An IRA Is A Terrible Way To Defer The Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) Obligation
https://www.kitces.com/blog/why-a-qlac-in-an-ira-is-a-terrible-way-to-defer-the-required-minimum-distribution-rmd-obligation/
Getting back to timing of conversions ... Though recharacterizations (undo's) of conversions are no longer allowed, there are a couple of other tactics that provide some or much of the same effect.
One is to use a recharacterization that is still permitted. A contribution as opposed to a conversion can still be recharacterized. So if you contributed $6000 to a Roth IRA in 2021 but in doing your taxes you discover that you'd have been better off taking the deduction, you can recharacterize the $6K as a contribution to a traditional IRA. (You can also do the opposite: contribute to a T-IRA and then recharacterize it to a Roth.)
https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/retirement-plans-faqs-regarding-iras#Recharacterization of IRA Contributions
Another it to take advantage of the 60 day rollover rule (sometimes limited to one per year). One could withdraw money from a T-IRA near the end of the year, and then early the next year when the tax situation is clearer (and within 60 days of the withdrawal) either put the money back into the T-IRA (60 day rollover), put the money into a Roth (indirect rollover conversion), or split the money between a T-IRA and a Roth.
If any money goes back into a T-IRA, you can't do this again for another 365 calendar days. The restriction is according to days, not fiscal years.

@ Hank
Does it matters what you convert, if you can always buy or sell anything in either account tax free?
Once you have the capital in a Roth, I agree it should be probably devoted to more risky, long term investments.
Converting before you are on Medicare and after are two different calculations.
It is important to remember that the IRMAA surcharges go from zero dollars ( B Medicare Premium $1776 /year in 2021) to $700 for ONE DOLLAR of income ( AGI before the standard deduction) above $176,000 for a couple and $111,000 single. A couple would therefore pay $1400 extra.
IRMAA is based on two years before 1040, so 2022 will look at 2020 AGI. Once you file 2021 taxes in 2022 you can ask for redo, if your 2021 income is lower. It takes a month or so, so you will end up paying more for a few months.
One strategy I am considering is to do a large conversion, all in one year, before I take SS at 70. Then the impact of the conversion on the IRMAA will be limited to one year.
Other things to consider. IRS lets you put up to $135,000 in a QLAC which will reduce you RMD proportionally.
Lawrence Kotlikoff from BU has a great article in Barrons
https://www.barrons.com/articles/most-retirement-planning-is-wrong-laurence-kotlikoff-51631207476
He also runs a web site with a neat financial planning program for $100, Maxifi. It may be overkill for a lot of folks, but it will allow you to run all sorts of projections and scenarios about Roth conversions pretty easily

@MikeM- like you, I view all of our financial accounts through Schwab because it's easier to see everything together on one site. There is one institution though- JP Morgan bank accounts, that seems to need "reauthorization" every so often, presumably to maintain security measures.

I reached a knowledgeable guy in tech at Schwab who says they started transitioning to this new bank type authorization last month, because it is more secure and does not share our passwords with Quicken. Tha is when the "zz" started showing up.
He admits Quicken has yet to fix it.
Yesterday, with his help I was able to download my transactions using "Schwab Bank Investor-C" one of the options that pops up it you type "schwab" into the search bar at "Add an account". Others have used this successfully.
Investor Bank C is a legitimate Schwab web site
First you have to erase the "zz or zzz- Schwab" nomenclature in the financial institution, and deactivate the account.
Then add the accounts back by searching for Schwab in the add account window but use Investor C instead of "Schwab & co"
Some people have had trouble getting accounts listed but I got all my accounts linked to this Bank Investor C
Unfortunately, although it still works, it has changed my brokerage accounts transaction menu into bank types. So no more dividend reimbursements, just deposit and wthdrawals. Even sales are just "withdrawals". You can edit them
The other idea Schwab guy had was to go into
TOOLs> Online center
Click on "contact info" at top while holding downs CTRL SHIFT
a window will pop up
click boxes next to "financial branding " and "download F1 list"
Refresh
then Update/Send.
He assumed that would instantaneously change the "Investor C" to "Schwab & Co" which it did not
This morning I am still able to download transactions , but only from Investor C, per above and all as bank account transactions. I am able to edit them to "sales" and reinvestments
Deactivating the account and using Schwab & Co to log in gives me the CC-501 error message, where all this started.
So nothing has really changed, other than I have accurate balances in my accounts
I will touch base with schwab and when I have the entire day to spend will try Quicken support

I find it very helpful to play around with tax estimates (using a tax calculator) in December. In some cases, it is the last chance to make contributions (such as employee retirement plans) that might impact your tax return. Also some investors employ tax harvesting strategies to capture losses. There are many more considerations. I linked a few articles I found. You may have some to share.
Here's a easy to use tax calculator for TY2021:
https://efile.com/tax-service/tax-calculator/2021-tax-calculator/

Articles on last minute tax related financial decisions:
14-last-minute-moves-that-can-boost-your-tax-refund
2021-last-minute-year-end-tax-deductions
/december-2021-tax-moves
dont-miss-out-on-these-last-minute-tax-savings-tips-for-2021

497 1 d245107d497.htm UNDISCOVERED MANAGERS FUNDS
JPMORGAN TRUST I
J.P. Morgan Income Funds
JPMorgan Inflation Managed Bond Fund
JPMORGAN TRUST II
J.P. Morgan International Equity Funds
JPMorgan International Research Enhanced Equity Fund
J.P. Morgan U.S. Equity Funds
JPMorgan Market Expansion Enhanced Index Fund
UNDISCOVERED MANAGERS FUNDS
JPMorgan Realty Income Fund
(Class R2, Class R5 and Class R6 Shares)
Supplement dated December 1, 2021
to the Current Prospectuses, as supplemented
As previously supplemented on August 11, 2021, at meetings held on August 9, 2021, the Boards of Trustees agreed to consider in early 2022 the conversion of the following four mutual funds to newly created exchange-traded funds (the “ETFs”) (each, a “Conversion”):
•JPMorgan Inflation Managed Bond Fund
•JPMorgan International Research Enhanced Equity Fund
•JPMorgan Market Expansion Enhanced Index Fund
•JPMorgan Realty Income Fund
Each new ETF will be managed in a substantially similar manner as the current mutual funds. If approved by the Boards of Trustees, it is anticipated that the Conversions would occur in 2022.
By converting these strategies to ETFs, J.P. Morgan Investment Management Inc. (“JPMIM”), the investment adviser for the mutual funds, believes shareholders in these mutual funds could benefit from reduced costs, including lower transfer agency costs for certain classes and no Rule 12b-1 or service fees. JPMIM is communicating the proposed plans prior to formal board approval, in order to provide shareholders with ample notice of the planned Conversions and allow them time to engage with JPMIM on the implications of the proposed transactions, including the need to have a brokerage account prior to the Conversion.
Each Conversion would consist of (1) the transfer of all or substantially all of the mutual fund’s assets, subject to its liabilities, to the corresponding shell ETF for shares of the ETF; and (2) the distribution of the ETF shares to the mutual fund shareholders in complete liquidation of the mutual fund. It is anticipated that if approved by the Boards of Trustees, each Conversion will not require shareholder approval.
When the Conversions are considered, each Board of Trustees, including the Trustees not deemed to be “interested persons” of the mutual funds pursuant to Section 2(a)(19) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, will need to determine whether it is in the best interests of the target mutual fund and that the Conversion would not dilute the interests of the mutual fund’s shareholders.
The new ETFs have not commenced investment operations, and it is anticipated that each will not have shareholders prior to the Conversion. If the Conversions are approved by the Boards of Trustees, existing shareholders of each mutual fund will receive prior to the Conversion a combined information statement/prospectus describing in detail both the Conversion and the surviving ETF, and summarizing the Board’s considerations in approving the Conversion.
It is anticipated that each Conversion will qualify as a tax-free reorganization for federal income tax purposes and that shareholders will not recognize any gain or loss in connection with the Conversion, except to the extent that they receive cash in connection with the liquidation of any fractional shares received in the Conversion.
In connection with the proposed Conversions discussed herein, an information statement/prospectus that will be included in a registration statement on Form N-14 will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). After the registration statement is filed with the SEC, it may be amended or withdrawn and the information statement/prospectus will not be distributed to shareholders unless and until the registration statement is declared effective by the SEC. Investors are urged to read the materials and any other relevant documents when they become available because they will contain important information about the Conversions. After they are filed, free copies of the materials will be available on the SEC’s web site at www.sec.gov. These materials also will be available at www.jpmorganfunds.com and a paper copy can be obtained at no charge by calling 1-800-480-4111 .
This communication is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale. No offer of securities will be made except pursuant to a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933.
INVESTORS SHOULD RETAIN THIS SUPPLEMENT WITH THE
PROSPECTUSES FOR FUTURE REFERENCE
J.P. MORGAN TRUST I
JPMorgan Income Funds
JPMorgan Inflation Managed Bond Fund
J.P. MORGAN TRUST II
JPMorgan International Funds
JPMorgan International Research Enhanced Equity Fund
JPMorgan U.S. Equity Funds
JPMorgan Market Expansion Enhanced Index Fund
UNDISCOVERED MANAGERS FUNDS
JPMorgan Realty Income Fund
(each, a “Fund” and together, the “Funds”)
(Class R2, Class R5 and Class R6 Shares)
Supplement dated December 1, 2021
to the current Prospectuses, as supplemented
As previously supplemented on November 23, 2021, as announced on August 11, 2021, the Boards of Trustees have agreed to consider in early 2022 the conversion of the Funds to newly created exchange-traded funds (the “ETFs”) (each, a “Conversion”). If the Conversions are approved, each new ETF will be managed in a substantially similar manner as the current Fund. In connection with the Conversions, the Board of Trustees considered and approved certain actions described below. Each of the actions will be implemented on January 18, 2022 (the “Effective Date”) only if the Boards of Trustees approve the Conversions.
On the Effective Date, the following will be added as a new section for each of the Funds except the JPMorgan International Research Enhanced Equity Fund under the heading “Investing with J.P. Morgan Funds — LIMITED OFFERING — Funds Subject to a Limited Offering — Limited Offering of Class A and Class C Shares”
Class A and C Shares (each, a “Limited Class”) are publicly offered only on a limited basis and investors are not eligible to purchase a Limited Class except as described below. Except as otherwise described below, shareholders permitted to continue to purchase shares of a Limited Class include existing shareholders of record and, if the shareholder of record is an omnibus account, beneficial owners in that account as of the effective date of the limited offering.
• Existing shareholders of each Limited Class may continue to purchase additional shares of the Limited Class in their existing Fund accounts either through J.P. Morgan Funds Services or a Financial Intermediary and may continue to reinvest dividends or capital gains distributions from shares owned in the Fund.
•Group Retirement Plans (as defined in the glossary) (and their successor, related and affiliated plans), which have a Limited Class available may continue to open accounts for new participants and can purchase additional shares in existing participant accounts.
For JPMorgan International Research Enhanced Equity Fund, the following will replace the current disclosure under “Investing with J.P. Morgan Funds — LIMITED OFFERING — Limited Offering of Certain Share Classes” on the Effective Date:
Class A Shares of the JPMorgan International Research Enhanced Equity Fund (the “Limited Class”) are publicly offered only on a limited basis and investors are not eligible to purchase the Limited Class except as described below. Except as otherwise described below, shareholders permitted to continue to purchase shares of the Limited Class include existing shareholders of record and, if the shareholder of record is an omnibus account, beneficial owners in that account as of the effective date of the limited offering...

I, too, have been unable to download my Schwab accounts. When I logged into the Quicken Support website, I found many reports of people losing their data and getting unexpected side-effects by following Quicken's advice to re-authorize! It seems that the Quicken side of this change is very unstable. I've decided to enter my transactions manually until I see some evidence on their Support site that there is a reliable fix. My Fidelity accounts don't seem to be affected; however that is one of the side-effects that I often saw: other financial transactions stopped working randomly! For your Fidelity account, you should be able to safely go to the "Edit Account" page in Quicken - then the "Online Access" settings - Deactivate the account followed by re-activating the account. I am not aware of any changes that Fidelity has made to their download process; only Schwab.
I've been using Quicken for a very long time and this is the worst software snafu I've encountered. Forcing us to manually enter transactions at the end of the year is very time-consuming and defeats the purpose of using their software.
Here is one example from the Quicken Support website. We are not alone:
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7901922/schwab-access-messed-up

Think we don’t have sufficient patient data to confirm the impact of Omicron on the broader population and demographic. Moderna news from Financial Times said one thing (somewhat negative) and BioNTech provided a more positive news with their vaccine. The comments in Financial Times article are well worthwhile to read.
https://ft.com/content/27def1b9-b9c8-47a5-8e06-72e432e0838f
https://ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/biontech-ceo-says-vaccine-likely-to-protect-against-severe-covid-19-from-omicron-1.5687229
COVID situation has elevated to the top since last Friday. Will we re-visit last spring when many countries underwent lockdown? Personally I don’t think so, with the advancement on prevention (vaccines), treatment (antibodies, antiviral drugs and steroid medication). Restrictive travel has already deployed in Europe, Asia and US and that is good. Testing of air travelers and contact tracing are being used. All these practices will slow down the virus spread while buy times for the medical community and government to response. The coordination between the countries is highly encouraging.
Learned from last spring, I will stay put and make small adjustments if necessary.

Article appears in today’s (November 29) Financial Times.
Link is for an alternate source which may be more accessible.
Title is taken from the FT.
Bylines: Hudson Lockett & Tabby Kinder

Excerpt from Saturday’s (November 27) Wall Street Journal
“Investors’ hunt for higher fixed-income returns has powered sales of low-rated corporate bonds to a record. U.S. companies, including medical supplier Medline Industries LP and videogame maker Roblox Corp., have sold more than $455 billion of bonds with speculative-grade credit ratings this year through Monday … That already beats the full-year total for 2020, when junk-bond sales set a then-record of $435 billion.
“This year’s bond sales mark a notable reversal from the spring of 2020, when investors’worries about widespread bankruptcies and defaults sparked a selloff in low-rated debt … In a recent report, the International Monetary Fund warned that increased leverage could make the financial system more vulnerable to corrections…”
Subscription Required https://www.wsj.com/articles/high-yield-bond-sales-soar-to-record-as-investors-have-few-other-places-to-go-11637931601?mod=hp_lead_pos4

Don’t know what REMIX is about - but a number of financial outlets, including Barron’s, have commented lately that the futures markets were overextended. While futures contracts can be used to hedge risk, they also represent a bullish bet from what I’ve been able to read. A lot of funds using futures got hit today. TAIL (which I own) which hedges with puts (seen as more bearish) did OK. Of course, all these gimmick funds are risky longer term.
The inflation hedges, like miners, were whacked hard today. In the oil sector, both NYMEX & BRENT were down over 6%. Not much was spared that I can see. Real Estate & Utilities both hit hard - even as interest rates fell.
Cheer up. I believe this underperformance on the inflation hedges to be only “transitory.” :)
-
For the benefit of mfo members, here’s how some hedge-type funds on my watch list performed today:
SWAN -0.28%
HEGD -1.83%
DOG +2.47%
NUSI -1.25%
DRSK +0.14%
SPDN +2.26%
FTLS -1.84%
DFND -0.10%
TAIL (owned) +2.80%
A couple mutual funds that are more broadly diversified than the above, but which employ some hedging techniques:
HSGFX +2.44%
TMSRX (owned) -0.47%

Hi, all.
A few pieces of information that I hope are helpful -
Our regular website does indeed run on WordPress, however, we do not use GoDaddy for hosting. So far as I know, the Mutual Fund Observer site has not been breached. I added the "So far as I know," because in most cases, a company's security has been breached for a period of time before they realize it.
This discussion board does not run through WordPress. It uses an open-source software called Vanilla Forums, which is not nearly so big a target as WordPress. Your password here never gets stored in WordPress.
That said, no site is ever safe from compromise. The advice from @JonGaltIII is spot on. 1. Use a password manager.
2. Do not recycle the same password over and over on multiple sites.
3. Use Two Factor Authentication whenever you're sharing personal or financial information.
4. Despite the convenience, don't allow shopping sites to store your credit card information if that's an option.
Happy holidays and stay safe!
Chip

“ … I used to subscribed to it for over quite awhile until the Great Recession where I found Barrons completely missed several signs leading to the great decline.”

I’d concur with @Sven that Barron’s is not a particularly good barometer / predictor of major changes in market direction or sentiment. Their “Commodities Corner” bear call on gold around the 2000 -2002 period stands out in particular. Within a few weeks of the very bearish call, gold took off on a tear going from under $300 to an intermediate term peak of $700-$800 in just a few short years.
But Barron’s is really a compilation of many different market assessments. A careful reading will reveal these. Their weekly “Market View” column (Formerly called “Quoth the Mavens”) pulls excerpts from an assortment of current financial newsletters. Often, these will contradict one another. Yet a perceptive reader may draw some reasonable inferences. Weekly columnist Randall Forsyth may fall short of being “profound” in assessing market direction or valuation - but provides an intriguing skeptic’s eye toward many financial issues - particularly keen on assessing retail investor sentiment I think.
I’ve purchased 3 or 4 stocks over the past year based on Barron’s recommendations. All did well. Today I sold one, NGLOY, after a quick 14% run-up since they recommended it roughly 2 months ago. Still like it - but have been trimming risk wherever I can of late. So, based on some very limited experience buying their picks, I’ll guess they’re probably right more often than wrong on those recommendations.

This is another perfect example of why one should utilize a password manager and not rely on auto-password fill via browser or worse - use the same password for multiple sites. If you use a password manager like LastPass, you need to remember one password and not 200. Plus, it runs continual checks on all sites and when a site has a compromise, it prompts you to change that unique password - The Wordpres or GoDadd breach has zero impact if you have unique passwords that auto-change or manual change on each unique site after prompt. Two-Step verification is also a must - especially for financial sites. The new apple ios update supporting temp email addresses also solves the "email" exposure / spam / phishing issue.

December Newsletter is out:
outperforming-the-market-while-the-fed-is-on-hold

Summary
Since March 2020, Fed short-term rate policy has been on hold and stocks have soared.
Such prior "on hold" periods have also led to excellent returns.
While this hold cycle continues, Growth funds/ETFs are likely to excel the overall market.
But even better than Growth, small cap stock funds/ETFs have outperformed during these on-hold periods.
When the Fed does raise rates, Financial and Real Estate funds, along with Growth funds, will be your best bet.

@MikeM -
Personally I don’t care for online editions of various publications like Barron’s or the WP. Not sure why - but they seem to be laid out more like a website - “links on top of links.” In addition, I had a bad experience many years ago getting one publisher to stop charging my card after I cancelled the subscription..
Amazon pioneered the Kindle reader(s) and sells subscriptions to most anything, although tracking them down on Amazon’s site is sometimes difficult. These Kindle subscriptions read more like a regular newspaper or magazine (front page to end). Essentially, you keep “turning” pages. In addition, there’s an easy to pull down index accessible from anywhere you might be.
Prices for subscriptions are often a bit higher, One nice feature is you can go to your Amazon account and cancel anytime. And they refund the remaining balance same day. One drawback, I suppose, is the Kindle publications don’t update throughout the day. OK with me. And some readers complain about missing charts - particularly with IBD. No - I’m not a Kindle or Amazon salesman! Just trying to be helpful. The type of subscription format is really a matter of user preference.
Devices? The Kindle app is supported by virtually any device. I have the app installed on my ipad. Works fine. Still - being the “finicky” type, I feel I get a superior reading experience from my dedicated (Amazon) Fire 8-9” tablet. The refurbished ones are cheap and quite nice - like new.
-
Since they’re a bit hard to track down on Amazon, here are direct links to a few financial publications available in Kindle format.
WSJ
Financial Times
Barron’s
IBD
The Economist