FYI: These are alternative income investments beyond blue-chip stocks and bonds.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/3-preferred-stock-etfs-that-have-yields-of-up-to-67-2016-10-06/print

Interesting that Inflation protected bonds have returned over 6-7% YTD.

If you check out the taxable bond categories vs the municipal bond categories the munis are really lagging in 2016 (even when you factor in the tax advantage for the munis) Crowded trade?
http://news.morningstar.com/fund-category-returns/

FYI: Bob Moon spoke to Taylor Riggs, Contributor to the Bloomberg Brief on Municipal Bonds, on First Word. The municipal bond market recorded a 52nd straight week of inflows into mutual funds, marking a full year of demand into the asset class and the longest stretch since at least 2010.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2016-10-06/bloomberg-brief-record-inflows-for-municipal-bonds-audio

Looks like Seafarer got a nice influx of cash just as it closed. M* shows assets are at $1.8B now.

On the contrary, the fund is exactly what most advisors expect. Those who saw Mr. Hasenstab's unique style and were early to the fund have done well for their investors. Virtually every manager will have a period of 2-3 year span of underperformance. Just as the hot money flowed into TGBAX after it's returns were great, 2005-2010, the same performance-chasing money is now moving out. Nothing has changed from a strategy or philosophy standpoint, but the bets the last couple of years have not paid out. They may do so yet. Contrary to M* comments, advisors and investors who actually take the time to know this fund have never expected it to be tame and run for capital preservation. It is a different vehicle that happens to own bonds, like it or not. It has been a big diversifier for portfolios over its long history with Hasenstab at the helm. We captured some long-term gains late last year and early this year, moving dollars to VTABX, thereby splitting international bonds into two very different pots.

FYI: The $44 billion Templeton Global Bond Fund (TGBAX) is probably not what most financial advisers would expect from a strategy in such a bland and stoic category as world bond funds.
But, based on the pace of money flowing out of the fund over the past few years, advisers and investors are catching on that this is far from a plain vanilla global fixed-income portfolio.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20161005/BLOG12/161009971?template=printart
M* Snapshot:TPINX:
http://www.morningstar.com/funds/XNAS/TPINX/quote.html
Lipper Snapshot:TPINX:
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/Fund/TPINX
TPINX Ranks #44 In The (WB) Fund Category By U.S. News & World Report:
http://money.usnews.com/funds/mutual-funds/world-bond/templeton-global-bond-fund/tpinx

FYI: RiverNorth Capital Management announced the launch of its closed end RiverNorth/DoubleLine Strategic Opportunity Fund (OPP) Wednesday, for which it serves as advisor and DoubleLine Capital serves as sub-advisor.
The fund started trading on the NYSE on September 28. RiverNorth said that the fund will opportunistically invest in fixed income securities and tactically invests in closed-end funds.
Regards,
Ted
http://blogs.barrons.com/focusonfunds/2016/10/05/rivernorth-doubleline-launch-closed-end-fund/tab/print/

Unless your daughter wishes to make/upgrade a housing purchase in the next 5 years,growth is the word !
T. Rowe Price Global Technology Fund PRGTX ( 10% )
https://www.google.com/finance?q=MUTF:PRGTX&ei=48r1V-CDHtXLjAH27bDQDw
T. Rowe Price Health Sciences PRHSX ( 10% )
https://www.google.com/finance?q=MUTF:PRHSX&ei=vcr1V8DGJ8T2jAGTt67QDg
iShares S&P SmallCap 600 Growth (Etf)(NYSEARCA :IJT (36% )
https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSEARCA:IJT&ei=Zcr1V_jyIIKK2AbS2IW4Bg
SPDR S&P 500 Etf Trust(NYSEARCA: SPY (30%)
https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSEARCA:SPY&ei=Fsr1V5CXPMWr2Abc5bqwAQ
iShares Barclays Aggregate Bond Fund(NYSEARCA: AGG (10 %)
https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSEARCA:AGG&ei=EMn1V5C-L8Gs2AaYraygCg
100 shares @ $21.00 :ROIC (4%) One of @Scott's mentions a while back.
Retail Opportunity Investments Corp(NASDAQ :ROIC
..specializes in the acquisition, ownership and management of necessity-based community and neighborhood shopping centers on the west coast
https://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:ROIC&ei=98j1V6GGMszEjAGq-YLIAg
Millennials
Here's some info on the Millennial Generation .The two Etf's mentioned do not have enough assets or volume to be viable at this time,but bear watching.
Which Millennial-Focused ETF Deserves Your Investment Dollars?
investing in this segment’s needs and preferences should be intriguing.
As this group has the prospect of comprising 75% of the workforce by 2025, it surely emerges as a long-term bet. As per research by Global X, millennials now earn about $2 trillion, with income projected to grow to $8 trillion by 2025.
Probably this is why issuers got busy in launching millennials’ focused ETFs. First Global X and then Principal Exchange-Traded Funds brought about two such products, namely Global X Millennials Thematic ETF (NYSE:MILN) and Principal Millennials Index ETF (NASDAQ:GENY).
http://etfdailynews.com/2016/08/28/which-millennial-focused-etf-deserves-your-investment-dollars/

REITS have had a rough couple weeks. Mine dropped 2% today on an otherwise up day for markets. It might serve well to read the comments from Ted's August 27 post: "A Good Time for REITS".
http://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/comment/79901/#Comment_79901

Yes, that's all interesting.
I've had a REIT ETF for around three years (for diversification) and it is only about 8% of my portfolio so this recent activity is more of a curiosity to me than anything else.

REITS have had a rough couple weeks. Mine dropped 2% today on an otherwise up day for markets. It might serve well to read the comments from Ted's August 27 post: "A Good Time for REITS".
http://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/comment/79901/#Comment_79901

No you're right. Typo. I meant VGIT 20%. (or a target date fund with bond allocation included which should be around 10-20% at her age). I was in two different conversations at the same time with SSO. The target date fund resolves any rebalance debates down the road IF the asset size where to grow substantially. When/Where she establishes a cost basis is important from a long term compounding viewpoint.

My theory is that equal weight is OK for satellite positions but should not be used for the core of your stock portfolio. The core IMO should be certain to track the stock market. VTI serves that purpose, and it's a 100% guarantee. Any shift to beat the market introduces potentially unintended risk. Granted, the risk is pretty small but the excess return of RSP over VTI is also pretty small.

@Patrick1
See the thread elsewhere about typical SP500 vs equal weighting for pros and cons and why I suggested RPG to your dau.

I have two of Guggenheim's equal weight etfs, RHS (consumer staples) and RYU (utilities). I also have the market weight etfs of these same sectors (XLP and VPU). In the case of staples, equal weight beats market weight 1, 3 and 5 years, utilities about half the time. They do not have more than a 5 year history, however being fairly new products. I am considering adding RSP to my investments, to augment, not replace VOO. I still have more in managed funds than etfs and indexes, but the gap is starting to close a bit except for international, small cap and bond funds where I prefer managed funds.

When I load equities thru spiffs (special investment positions) I usually use an equal weighted S&P 500 Index fund over the cap weighted one. I like the quarterly rebalance feature the fund that I use most often utilizes. In addition, the equal weight fund is about 52% large caps, 46% mid caps and 2% small caps. Years back when I could buy the S&P1500 Index etf ... I use it.

FYI: Equal-weight S&P 500 beats the traditional index.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-a-more-balanced-sp-500-can-lead-to-richer-returns-2016-10-04/print

Whatever she does, remember that brokerages have promotions. Make sure she asks about that when she opens the account, otherwise she might lose the bonus.
https://rewards.fidelity.com/offers/friendsandfamilyoffer1
Be mindful of her risk tolerance. What sort of investments does she have in her Roth? I may be an anomaly, but I found my risk tolerance went up after a few years of investing. Before then I would never have invested in a rocket-fuel-type fund.
So until knowing more, I'd lean toward Ted's type of investment. Pure equity, but not a growth equity fund. Though if I were going with a single index investment, I'd go for more breadth, either something like VTSAX/VTI (if limiting to US market), or VT for global exposure.
If one wants to stick with SPDR (State Street has a better proxy voting record), there's THRK (domestic R3K) and ACIM (MSCI All Country World Index).
If you want to spice that up, add an EM fund (since VT is heavily weighted toward developed countries) and/or a small/mid cap fund (VTSAX is mostly large cap).

@Patrick1: I highly recommend SPY.
Regards,
Ted

Inside The 2016 Forbes 400: Facts And Figures About America's Richest People

#29 Abigail Johnson $13.2 B 54 Milton, MA money management
CEO of mutual fund giant Fidelity, with $1.8 trillion in assets. Abigail Johnson replaced her father, Edward "Ned" Johnson, III in 2014, and became the third-generation Johnson to lead the company. Her grandfather Edward Johnson II founded the company in 1946. Today Fidelity is the nation's second-largest mutual fund giant (behind Vanguard). Abigail worked summers at Fidelity throughout college. She joined the company full-time in 1988 as an analyst
#68 Edward Johnson, III. $7.1 B 86 Boston, MA money management
#76 Charles Schwab $6.6 B 79 Atherton, CA discount brokerage
#105 Charles Johnson $5 B 83 Palm Beach, FL money management
More Than 10% Of The Forbes 400 Are Immigrants, 14 Of Whom Are Richer Than Trump
#156 Donald Trump $3.7 B 70 New York, NY television, real estate
M* Founder
#321 Joe Mansueto $2.2 B 60 Chicago, IL investment research
#335 Ron Baron $2.1 B 73 New York, NY money management
http://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/list/4/#version:static