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Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
  • New Report: All Stock Portfolio Beats Stock and Bond Mix Over Time (Originally From Bloomberg)
    “It’s a deeply out-of-consensus view certain to rankle the Wall Street establishment. A group of academics set out to test time-honored investing advice that says a diversified portfolio of bonds and stocks is the best way to save for the future.”
    Huh? I’m surprised it took a new study to reach this conclusion. However, I think the report is at least thought provoking. Also mentioned is the importance of investors “sticking with” an all stock portfolio during tough times. Otherwise, the report’s findings likely wouldn’t hold water.
    The question is: ”What would you do? Why?”
    https://www.fa-mag.com/news/you-re-better-off-going-all-in-on-stocks-than-bonds--new-research-finds-75713.html
  • High yield long term CDs
    Sorry, I'm an interloper in this thread. Just found a(nother) short-term promo CD for 8 or 11 months at Byline Bank. Chicago area. 5.45% yield. With a $5k minimum.
    (Quarterly compounding.)
    https://www.bylinebank.com/rates/#personal
  • T Rowe Price Capital Appreciation & Income is live
    Not quite: 51 +4 = 55%, yes? And 5% cash, per Tarwheel.
  • T Rowe Price Capital Appreciation & Income is live
    If you include the 4% foreign bonds, then the bond allocation is 60% for the fund.
    I previously stated,
    "Per @Tarwheel's post, PRCFX is currently (51%+5% or) 56% in bonds."
    How are you getting to 60%?
  • High yield long term CDs

    OK, so since I can't say I will never withdraw from a brokerage CD, I will transfer them from the 401k to a Bank IRA.
    Nothing against your advisor, and this may well have been discussed, but if it was not... This point is a cornerstone of CD ownership that a client should have learned in even ONE fee-based hour.
    EDIT: I've bought plenty of Secondary Issue CP CDs for Discounts. I hope to never be in a position to have to TRY to sell one, unless of course for a Premium!
    I will make sure all CD are call protected
    CP is a CD ladder holders friend.
    I don't quite understand the 3 month to 1 year rates holding up better and building the far end of the ladder. With the info I've given can you show me how that would look?
    All comments here are about brokerage, CP CDs. Bank CP CD data may/will vary.
    Up to one year rates are not very far down from their respective peaks and still at/above 5%. To wit, 3-month rates peaked around 5.50% and are still at 5.35%. On the far end, 5-yr rates peaked around 5.05% but are now DOWN to 4.40%. They are consistently dropping 0.05% and their Available Quantities are significantly DOWN. (FWIW, I've been pointing this up for months on these threads.)
    Same for the next line - not sure what current BUYs on farthest end of ladders.
    Farthest end of the ladder for this discussion is 5 years, or IF you plan to go out further, 10 years. To wit, the "short end of the curve" is the % closest to ZERO.
    I think I understand not bothering the Jan and March BUY's - wait until a couple of weeks before they expire to decide as it's a guessing game until then.
    Don't bother with the specifics until then. We have only educated guesses as to what respective rates and quantities will be available then. With interest rates, I always try to deal with what we know NOW. We know the current rates, available quantities and the current trend(s). We did have that period over the past coupla years where we were reasonably certain the Fed was going to raise rates. We're still in the guessing stage on what happens next and when.
    I don't understand the last paragraph. I currently have a one year no penalty CD and a another one penalty CD for the amounts shown. Not sure how to make them non-taxable.
    Seems to be a misunderstanding on this. I did NOT suggest anything in your txbl a/c could be made non-txbl. Suggest re-reading what I posted and quote the line(s) you don't understand.
    Can you modify my plan above to show me what you would do it.
    Hmm...I've kinda put a wee bit of effort in here already, no? If you re-read my post and factor in these responses, you should be able to do that. Seems kinda clear to me, no?
    I realize you are not giving me advice - it's only an example. I know you don't know all of the facts. Are you an advisor (just curious). Thanks in advance!
    You're welcome. No, not an advisor. Life-time bean counter, governmental and private audit manager. Grew up as many did wanting to "be able to live off the interest." Life-long manager of portfolios of several, never-paying* friends and relatives. Owned CD ladders for ~15 years.
    * = And I have never asked them!
  • TIAA outage
    New message, 12/8/23
    Effective December 8, 2023, the vendor operational outage is resolved, and operations have resumed. However, there is a temporary delay with resuming full online services for your policy/contract. We anticipate full online self-service functionality to be available the week of December 18, 2023. Current account values are unavailable for individually owned life insurance policies and annuity contracts. Please contact us at 877-694-0305 to obtain account details. Regarding backlogged work, our first priority will be to process financial transactions as received in good order without negative impact to you. Any non-financial transactions will be processed as soon as administratively possible. This issue does not affect any other TIAA Products. Account values and online services for all other TIAA products are available as usual.
  • High yield long term CDs
    @Jan:
    Disclaimer: You likely gave your advisor the detail of your current investments and your projected income gap upon retirement, along with risk profile information. That is all needed for anyone here or elsewhere to provide quality advice.
    Without all that, here's what I'd offer you as suggestions/ideas:
    Know that predicting the future of interest rates, their rates and the magnitude of their moves, is a fool's game.
    Only BUY brokerage CDs IF you reasonably KNOW you will NOT need the proceeds before their respective maturity dates. Selling them as Secondary Issues will cost you dearly at this point in time (and likely for months/years to come), IF you can be lucky enough to find a BUYer.
    Only BUY CP CDs to eliminate the guessing game on your holdings and risk of them being Called before their normal Maturity Date.
    Know that 3-month-to-1-yr rates are holding up the best, and LT rates (out to 5-10 years) are taking weekly, if not daily hits. Consider that trend is likely-to-very likely to continue, which should cause you to consider building the far end of the ladder as soon as possible.
    The "do now" stuff appears fine but I would make any current the BUYs on the farthest ends of your ladder.
    I'd not bother with trying to define any specific BUYs in Feb and Mar '24, or even Jan '24. (See my first comment about predicting the future interest rates.) We can guess what's gonna be available then, but we have no certainty those guesses will be anywhere near accurate. You can have a general plan for future dates, but leave the specifics TBD by your research in the week-to-two weeks leading up to getting those proceeds.
    I have no idea why he recommended the last item related to CDs in your taxable a/c best serving you IF at 2-yr intervals. I have no CDs in taxable a/c's. If I did, I would want them to be the ones at the shorter end of my ladder for the very reason he gave, to "give you added financial flexibility in retirement." 2-year CDs does NOT give you the flexibility (not the interest rates!) that 6-month, 1-yr and 18-month CDs would.
  • Fidelity Conservative Income FCNVX - small tweaks to risks
    FCNVX is really an ultra-ST bond fund. That is how I use it. It may also be the only Fido fund (besides Fido m-mkt funds) that don't have ANY ST trading restrictions at Fido. Also, not long ago, its higher ER investor class was dropped and now there is only FCNVX with 25 bps ER, although several new Advisor classes have been introduced since 05/2023 with various restrictions (FCNYX, etc).
    I will monitor this change because my complaint with Vanguard ultra-ST OEFs and ETFs has been that they have higher duration or maturity in the ultra-ST group.
  • High yield long term CDs
    Admitting that I have a lack of knowledge, I decided to hire an advisor who was recommended to me by a couple of friends who have used him for many years. I pay him by the hour and he is charging me 3 hours which I feel is reasonable.
    I am 71 and will retire in 6 months to one years time so this isn't a retirement advice. I am very conservative with money. My objective is to generate as much as income as possible form the interest .I have a decent amount of social security in addition to this as I have worked for 50 plus years and didn't claim SS until I was 70.
    My question: I think it would be good to lock in 5 or even 10 year CD's rates as they are north of 4% and that would yield a decent amount of returns. I am concerned if I use CD ladders, the rates which are going to fall sooner than later might end up losing me money in the end.
    I will meet with him soon and he will answer any questions/concerns I have. I would greatly appreciate your opinion and or advice as this would enable me to ask him questions.
    His comments:
    Goal:
    To move cash to longer maturity CDs/Treasuries to take advantage of relatively high interest rates over a longer period of time.
    Things that can be done now:
    In your Company 401k Brokerage link:
    Buy a $100k 2-year CD. (Non-callable)
    Buy a $90k 3-year CD. (non-callable)
    Buy a ~$87k 4-year CD. (non-callable)
    In Feb ’24 when the Bank CD in the IRA matures:
    Invest 100k in a 1-year CD.
    Invest $100k in an 5 year CD.
    Leave ~$17k in cash.
    In March ’24 when the CDs in the Bank taxable account mature:
    Buy a $70k 1-year CD.
    Buy a $70k 2-year CD. (no penalty)
    Other things to note:
    If we build this CD ladder, eventually you will get the average 5-year rate. When a 1-year CD matures, you can buy a 5-yearCD. There should be at least one CD maturing every 12 months.
    I have intentionally left cash in the IRA and “non-CD” funds in the 401k. This because at some stage you will have RMDs and we don’t want the CD ladder to interfere with taking them.
    I think the taxable CDs should be in 24-month intervals. This will give you added financial flexibility in retirement.
  • Fidelity Conservative Income FCNVX - small tweaks to risks
    While tweaking is under discussion, M* notes that TRP’s TRRIX has been “on the tweek” so to speak.
    ”The team (that manages TRRIX) has made several changes to the underlying holdings over the past several years, adding both T. Rowe Price Hedged Equity PHEFX and T. Rowe Price Dynamic Credit RPELX to the portfolio in 2023. Both strategies add an element of volatility hedging and dynamic risk adjustment to their respective asset classes. Although hedging won’t necessarily improve the portfolio’s average risk-adjusted return, the hedges may cushion losses and reduce the maximum drawdown during bear markets, in exchange for reducing the potential upside.”( Excerpted from Morningstar)
    @msf has referenced a Fidelity income fund. While TRRIX now calls itself a “balanced (40/60) fund” that was not always the case. At inception about 20-25 years ago it eas actually called the: “T. Rowe Price Retirement Income Fund”.
    TRRIX suffered double digit losses in 2022. That’s a lot for this fund. Glad TRP is tweaking. Perhaps they should have been quicker on the stick. YTD the fund is up +7.8%. That’s still a long way from making up for last year’s loss.
  • Fidelity Conservative Income FCNVX - small tweaks to risks
    Prospectus Supplement, Dec 1, effective Dec 6
    Monthly Fact Sheet
    Max average maturity - Was 0.75 years, now 1 year max (as of 11/30/23 actual avg maturity is 0.53 years)
    Max security maturity - Was 2 years (3 years for floating rate securities), now 4 years
    Max pct invested in lower quality IG securities - Was 5%, now unlimited (possibly subject to the 20% restriction for investing outside of its "normal" investment)
    Judging from the 10/31/23 composition of the portfolio (28% A rated, 6% BBB rated), it looks like "lower quality IG securities" means BBB, while A-rated securities are considered higher quality.
  • High yield long term CDs
    For anyone still interested in guaranteed interest rates for the FI portion of their port...
    CP CD rates continue to tick DOWN, and with it the opportunity to build a 5-yr CP CD ladder yielding a rate near 5% continues to disappear.
  • T Rowe Price Capital Appreciation & Income is live
    Per @Tarwheel's post, PRCFX is currently (51%+5% or) 56% in bonds.
    Per Fido and M*, as of the latest data on 09/30/23, PRWCX holds 32% bonds.
    Not enough detail yet on the current PRCFX stock and bond holdings to do a more detailed comparison of them.
    But the pairing of them appears to be more of a 70/30 fund and a 40/60 fund combo. In that respect only so far, it would be similar to holding VWENX and VWIAX. That's a pairing that used to be very common amongst investors given their respectively different stock/bond allocations and very different stock/bond strategies and holdings.
    Given what we know, including that PRWCX is a LG fund, IF PRCFX turns out to be a Blend or Value fund and/or has significantly different LC/MC/SC splits or bond holdings, pairing them would be all the more similar to the pairing of VWENX and VWIAX.
  • TIAA/CREF VAs at MFO
    Some here have TIAA accounts (403b, 457, IRAs). MFO Premium recognizes TIAA/CREF VA special tickers (MFO/Lipper). Ordering below is from the highest to lowest ERs. Unfortunately, the MFO/Lipper naming of R1 and R3 classes is wrong. The newest R4 class is omitted here.
    CREF Bond Market IF-MTJQ / IF-CMQ9 / IF-CMR2
    CREF Equity Index IF-MDMF / IF-CMQ7 / CMQ8; there is also a lone ticker IF-BZKF without ER, but just seems IF-MDMF.
    CREF Global Equity IF-SKRL / IF-CMQ5 / IF-CMQ6
    CREF Growth IF-FDWD / IF-CMQ3 / IF-CMQ4
    CREF ILB IF-WPZK / IF-CMP9 / IF-CMQ2
    CREF Social Choice IF-THMV / IF-CMP3 / IF-CMP4
    CREF Stock IF-CBMF / IF-CMP5 / IF-CMP6
    CREF M-Mkt IF-RWDV / IF-CMP7 / IF-CMP8
    TIAA Real Estate Account (T-REA) IF-SMZQ
    Save the following MFO Watchlists (MFO Portfolios without specified weights; equal-weights are assumed) for easy access to tickers:
    TIAA/CREF VAs True R1 (Watchlist)
    IF-MTJQ IF-MDMF IF-SKRL IF-FDWD IF-WPZK IF-THMV IF-CBMF IF-RWDV IF-SMZQ
    TIAA/CREF VAs R2 (Watchlist)
    IF-CMQ9 IF-CMQ7 IF-CMQ5 IF-CMQ3 IF-CMP9 IF-CMP3 IF-CMP5 IF-CMP7 IF-SMZQ
    TIAA/CREF VAs True R3 (Watchlist)
    IF-CMR2 IF-CMQ8 IF-CMQ6 IF-CMQ4 IF-CMQ2 IF-CMP4 IF-CMP6 IF-CMP8 IF-SMZQ
    Listed TIAA-CREF mutual fund/OEF tickers are recognized normally.
    LINK
    Edit/Add. MFO Premium Pointers https://ybbpersonalfinance.proboards.com/thread/539/mfo-premium
  • T Rowe Price Capital Appreciation & Income is live
    If one already has PRWCX which has 40% in bonds, why would I select PRCFX which is 50% in bonds? I am just trying to understand
  • "Green Investors Have New Room to Grow"
    @WABAC - I don't know the answer to your questions. We both know some funds say one thing and do another, at least until they are caught.
    As for your dismissal of any ESG fund that consists of 5% Amazon stock Brown Advisory at least notes that their process may not meet everyone's beliefs and value standards.
  • T Rowe Price Capital Appreciation & Income is live
    T Rowe Price has posted more information about PRCFX on its website. Although detailed holdings are not yet available, the asset allocation is posted. Currently, it’s holding 51% in domestic bonds, 40% in domestic stocks, 5% cash, 4% foreign bonds and less than 1% in foreign stocks. Dividends will be paid monthly and capital gains annually.
    I like that distribution scheme. On my larger IRA stakes I reinvest the dividends and realize the cap gains for shopping around.
  • "Green Investors Have New Room to Grow"
    I don't know about Baseball_Fan, but I try to avoid funds with more than a token appearance of Amazon due to their labor history, among other factors. If it shows up in an ESG fund @ 5% I just laugh, and keep on moving.
    @Mark,
    Isn't it possible that these choices are the best of the bunch given Browns investing strategy and practices? I sure don't know so maybe you could fill us all in. I don't see anything on their website where they claim to be perfect in their execution of same. They just claim that they strive to be responsible.
    Are there funds that claim to be perfect? Are there funds that strive to be irresponsible? I don't know. Maybe you could fill us in?
  • T Rowe Price Capital Appreciation & Income is live
    T Rowe Price has posted more information about PRCFX on its website. Although detailed holdings are not yet available, the asset allocation is posted. Currently, it’s holding 51% in domestic bonds, 40% in domestic stocks, 5% cash, 4% foreign bonds and less than 1% in foreign stocks. Dividends will be paid monthly and capital gains annually.