@shipwreckedandalone, let us know how that goes. I would be curious about your top 5 or 10 and why.

Hi @Junkster I'm familiar with IRMAA, in general. I'm curious to your earlier post when you noted 'No inflation on my social security benefits as I was notified would be receiving $293 less per month in 2024.' I will presume you received a letter from SS or Medicare, as this would be the expected method. Was this the case?
Thank you and take care
Catch

@catch22, yes received a letter from Social Security Administration this weekend. Sort of wish I hadn’t even brought all this up. The irony is I probably receive among the smallest SS benefits of anyone on this board. Add in all the income adjustments and it’s next to nothing - a whopping $808.20 monthly and will be even smaller in 2025 going forward. Lots of reasons why it is so small but not worth discussing.

I sure hope this absolutely essential article is widely accessible
https://messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/dynamic/render?campaign_id=116&emc=edit_pk_20231128&first_send=0&instance_id=108789&nl=paul-krugman&paid_regi=2&productCode=PK&regi_id=22268089&segment_id=151171&te=1&user_id=83d45440ead1d14c2a89a1e7221337d1&uri=nyt://newsletter/16d4082b-477e-50ee-bfbe-1a3332e673c5

85% of cost is the cap, irrespective of whether @junkster makes $1m or $1b per year, which should alleviate his concern that his premiums are going to keep getting worse as his income keeps rising - in other words the income effect has a cap.
I have a question on part D. Is it mandatory, similar to Part B?

Charlie Bilello has this chart for m-mkt fund assets at X/Twitter. A lot of these came from banks.

Not brand new (January 2020) - But would appreciate any takes on LCR from Leuthold. The Professor mentions a cousin LCORX in his November commentary. Both funds have “gold” ratings at M*. The ETF is a little less expensive at .85% (waiver in effect) than LCORX. But .85% still seems high to me for a ETF. The objectives appear similar. However, from what I can tell LCR invests in other ETFs, while LCORX owns stocks / other assets directly.
Probably won’t buy either. Sticking with a 10 component allocation model I’ve used for a number of months now and like. So would need to toss another holding out to make room for anything new.

Medicare is subsidized for all eligible participants. It isn't based on any inflation index. Medicare looks at its estimated expenses and then devises several IRMAA tiers annually with varying levels of income and subsidies. For Part B, participants pay 25% (basic, no IRMAA), 35% (1st IRMAA), 50%, 65%, 80%, 85% (max IRMAA) of the total program costs. I am not aware of any Medicare premium caps beyond this determination by Medicare.
For 2024, for joint filers,
Part B basic is $174.70/mo, and max with IRMAA is $594.00/mo,
Part D basic is by the plan, plus IRMAA, max IRMAA is $81.00.
The Finance Buff also has estimated for 2025, but SSA/Medicare will announce those only in November 2024.
www.ssa.gov/benefits/medicare/medicare-premiums.html
https://thefinancebuff.com/medicare-irmaa-income-brackets.html

It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I bought a government agency bond, AA+ rating, at 6.25%, 10 year duration. Callable - yes. Will it last 10 years? Most probably not, But I'll take the rate as long as they want to give it.

No inflation on my social security benefits as I was notified would be receiving $293 less per month in 2024. Ouch!

how? $3500 a year reduction?

These low-rated/junky FR/BL funds have been very popular with investors. They also have done quite well recently as rates have risen.
Now, the SEC wants to kill them. Of course, not by direct hits.
But 2 pending rules will just about do that: (1) The SEC wants to classify (junky) FR/BL as illiquid, (2) Funds would be restricted to having 15% in illiquid assets.
Well, (junky) FR/BL funds have about 80% in (junky) FR/BL. As it is now, these junky FR/BL securities take 7+ days to settle, and these funds have managed that fine during the GFC and pandemic. So, the fund industry is asking, what is the problem here?
Sorry about what may appear to be overdoing "junk" adjective, but now there are also other kinds of FRs - Treasury FRNs (top grade), corporate FRs (mostly investment-grade). But it is the (junky) FR/BL that the SEC is talking about.
ICI Alert https://www.ici.org/viewpoints/23-view-sec-bank-loan-funds

This might also be mildly good news for prospective new issue T-bill buyers. If I remember correctly, the expected yield on a 6 month T-bill was 5.42% on Wednesday and 5.45% on Friday.
Unlike new CDs, when you put in an "indication of interest" in a new T-bill, your rate is not locked in. Expectations rise and fall; what matters is what happens at the actual auction.

Some large slugs of CP New Issues were posted on Fido (and I assume all brokerage platforms) this AM as is the usual case on Mondays and Tuesdays. (Other days as well, but M&T are usually the larger load days.)
One of the caveats of placing New Issue CD Orders is that they sit in queue pending BUY on the Settlement Date. So you're still "in the game" so to speak, whether you know it or not!
To wit: I had two pending New Issue, CP, CD Orders in queue at Fido from last week, one 4-yr and one 5-yr. For each maturity, newly posted New Issues today are 0.05% higher for each of my respective pending Orders.
So...I duly Cancelled my two pending Orders and entered two new BUYs for the fractionally higher ones. Bottom Line? An extra $225 in my pocket over the life of the CDs for all of 10 minutes work today.
Also...These two newbies do not have Settlement Dates until Dec 5 (NOTE: Many times they settle a coupla days BEFORE the Settlement Date) so I will stay vigilant as they pend, watching for any other ticks UP, until the BUYs execute in hopes of pocketing a few more bucks. If so, Rinse, Repeat. (Two lines I ALWAYS wait in - FREE ice cream and FREE money!)
Easy Peezy! (Lookin' at you Joey, Sr!)
Aside: This is overall mildly GOOD news for prospective CD BUYers. The most recent trend (from early Nov) was definitely lower inventory offerings and CD rates DOWN. (And LOTS of BUYers gobbling up turkey, er, the inventories.) Very nice to see some BIG adds to the inventories that were (at least) fractionally HIGHER than the last inventory loads.

Some more background info:
Intro piece on mREITS, including basic mechanics and risks:
https://money.usnews.com/investing/real-estate-investments/articles/how-to-invest-in-mortgate-reits

[Head of income equities at TCW, Iman] Brivanlou says: "Dividend yields are a direct function of the riskiness of the underlying collateral as well as the amount of leverage employed by the mREIT, so we would urge caution and increased scrutiny if an mREIT is offering an unusually high yield." ...
"Most mREITs employ leverage to produce their returns," Brivanlou says. "Without leverage these entities could not operate profitably, which makes them dependent on a stable source of funding."

The two main parts of the real estate market in which SEVN invest are middle market and transitional. Each is a section of the real estate market where one hopes to get above average returns with all that implies for risk. Background sources below are from companies working in these markets (thus interested in promoting them).
Middle market: https://www.primealpha.com/middle-market-real-estate-2018-06
Transitional: https://lev.co/blog/financing/transitional-real-estate/
For a sense of rates associated with middle market, see p. 9 on Morgan Stanley's 3Q2023 report on floating rate loans. It shows that average coupons on middle market loans are higher than BBB, BB, and B rated leveraged floating rate leveraged loans, and only slightly higher than coupons on CCC rated loans. CCC's 19.4% YTW is way above market average; middle market at 13.6% is next highest, still well above market average.
https://www.morganstanley.com/im/publication/insights/articles/article_floatingrateloanmarketmonitor_q32023.pdf
To refine yogi's comment about most of the YTD return coming from January, SEVN gave back 3/4 of that gain between March and May, and then gained a similar amount from May to July.
https://stockcharts.com/h-perf/ui?s=SEVN&compare=&id=p67735641417
Over the past five years, its total return has been almost exactly zero. I'd call that "flat", except that its volatility is off the scale. See this comparison with JNK:
https://stockcharts.com/h-perf/ui?s=SEVN&compare=JNK&id=p02208364318

@yogibearbull. @rforno.
I'm much obliged for your responses! Ya, SEVN does not need any of my money.
PSTL: (Seeking Alpha, from last May:)
"...At Portfolio Income Solutions we maintain an archive of historical Tax Treatment of REIT Dividends for more than 130 REITs. A look at Postal Realty’s page describes that ~35% of the dividend has been characterized as a Return of Capital (ROC) since its IPO. ROC is not currently taxable as income, so the current year’s tax liability is lower than that of an ordinary dividend. No tax on the ROC is due until the shares are sold. A retiree living on dividend income enjoys a sense of higher current cash flow....
The mention of PSTL as a possible takeover taget was from a Seeking Alpha article I read over this long week-end. Of course, I can't find it, now.

PRNHX is a MCG fund (and not a very good one!) and it is NOT Closed.
https://www.morningstar.com/funds/xnas/prnhx/portfolio
Click on "Weight" in "Style Box"
https://fundresearch.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/summary/779562107

Overweight tech and healthcare, no wonder it's suffering recently. Eight percent foreign likely doesn't help.
I should add that it also has a new manager. I wouldn't stay in PRWCX if Giroux left.

”PRNHX is a MCG fund (and not a very good one!) and it is NOT Closed.”
Thanks for helping make my point. As I noted earlier, PRNHX has not been a very good fund recently. But a decade or so ago it was.
Bloomberg (subscription only) article from August 18, 2013:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-08-16/john-laporte-t-rowe-price-manager-who-beat-peers-dies-at-68
A few excerpts from above linked article:
- “John H. Laporte, a onetime Morningstar fund manager of the year who beat three-fourths of his peers in his 22 years managing T. Rowe Price Group Inc.'s New Horizons Fund, has died. He was 68.”
- “From 1987 to 2010 he was lead portfolio manager for small-cap growth portfolios as well as chairman of the investment advisory committee for New Horizons, one of the firm's oldest funds, created by firm founder Thomas Rowe Price Jr. in 1960.”Laporte oversaw a quintupling of assets in the fund, to $5.9 billion, during the two decades he ran it.”
- “Morningstar Mutual Funds, a newsletter published by Chicago-based Morningstar Inc., named him domestic stock fund manager of the year after New Horizons returned 55 percent in 1995 compared with 30 percent for the Russell 2000 Index.”
- “His successor at the helm of New Horizons, Henry Ellenbogen, hasn't dropped the torch. The fund had the highest total return over the past three years and the best risk-adjusted performance among small-cap funds that buy U.S. stocks, according to the Bloomberg Riskless Return Ranking. As of July 31 it had $13.2 billion in assets, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, more than twice as much as when Laporte left.”
That was then. This is now. Memory is a funny thing.

PRNHX is a MCG fund (and not a very good one!) and it is NOT Closed.
https://www.morningstar.com/funds/xnas/prnhx/portfolio
Click on "Weight" in "Style Box"
https://fundresearch.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/summary/779562107

Lots of small cap growth funds got creamed in 2022. QQQ lost 32.58 if we can believe M*. It was a rough year.

After Laura Geritz founded Rondure, there were numerous articles praising her prior record at Wasatch.
I thought ROSOX might be a potentially good foreign fund.
I haven't followed the fund or firm for years.
ROSOX performance has certainly been underwhelming.
The fund's 5 Yr return (as of 11/24/23) of only 0.85% lagged 99% of Foreign Large Growth funds.

“ … I see nothing bad in holding 10 to 15 % in SC, SV, or a blend of the two.”

That’s a reasonable assessment @Derf. For a disciplined investor adhering to a well thought out model portfolio and rebalancing from time to time, a 10-15% allocation to a keg of dynamite like that (+58% / - 37%) could make sense. I fear the average retail investor would buy high and sell low. That’s all. Suppose I own a few dynamite holdings myself - but in very small quantity.
As a 30-35 year veteran of TRP’s funds (and remembering the “hay-days” of PRNEX PRNHX it’s difficult to understand how that fund could have lost so much in 2022. Wondering if investor outflows played a part …