@Ted. Thank you for the link.
My biggest take away from some of the words related to some of the pension funds is that; let us (pension fund managers) blame the sad state of affairs of gains since the market melt 9 years ago on low yields. The pension funds are going to run out of money and/or be forced to reduce future benefits or BOTH. Hell yes, they are and will. Guess that underfunding doesn't help much either, eh?
From the article:
Government-bond yields have risen since Donald Trump was elected U.S. president, though few investors expect a prolonged climb. Regardless,
the ultralow bond yields of recent years have already hindered the most straightforward way for retirement funds to recover—through investment gains.>>> So, no investment gains from price appreciation that many bond types have had over the past nine years??? Ya, right! If these managers have not made money from bonds in past years, they need to find new work. Losses in other investment areas have likely offset bond price gains.
From the article:
Pension officials and government leaders are left with vexing choices. As investors, they have to stash away more than they did before or pile into riskier bets in hedge funds, private equity or commodities. Countries, states and cities must decide whether to reduce benefits for existing workers, cut back public services or raise taxes to pay for the bulging obligations.
>>>Prior discussions and links here at MFO have indicated performance problems with many large pension funds. Perhaps that should have invested in something like VWINX and/or a simple 50/50 equity/bond mix with 4 holdings.
Educated, smart folks; who are not the sharpest tools in the investment world shed! Perhaps hire a few more hedge fund managers.......oh, wait; these managers are being fired by numerous funds!
10 year annualized returns sampler on the simple side of investment life:
--- IEF = 5.5%
--- TLT = 6.7%
--- LQD = 5.5%
--- TIP = 4.
1% (even the lowly regarded TIP is far above this percentage using simple moving averages for buys and sells)
--- VTI = 7.
1%
--- SPY = 6.8%
--- IWM = 6.7%
--- QQQ =
11.4%
--- VWINX = 6.7%
Pick any 4 of the above and one still finds an average of about 6.2% annualized over
10 years. Yes, I know; not much diworsifiers in the above choices. Build your own pension fund and post here, eh?
Problems with the future of many pension funds and survival are real. Problems with this also result from the skill set of much of the management(s).
Other than these, all is well with the world.
...etf ticker highlight test IEF QQQ
Take care,
Catch
