Hi, guys.
And thanks for the kind words. They mean more than you know.
Too, don't write us off just yet. At base, I'm looking for a path toward the fulfillment of two goals: (1) some better balance in my life and (2) new energy and fresh perspectives for MFO. In my ideal world, that might mean a partner to help set editorial direction, contribute to the writing and build more bonds within the industry. Assuming an interest on their part, I'd continue to contribute ... but maybe 3,000 words rather than 15,000?
My current aspiration is to contact folks we've worked with in the past ... managers, media relations folks, newsletter editors, some of the fund trusts ... to see if they have creative ideas or leads.
It's going to be an adventure!
David

@InformalEconomist- Thanks, I was just about to post essentially the same info in response.
To all: Please address any further questions or comments to InformalEconomist's original posting, so that we don't wind up with two separate threads on the same subject.

Jerome Powel is Trump's hand picked Fed Chair, one of Trump's "top of the line professionals".
Nevertheless, Trump agreed with you that Powell was "foolish" and "crazy" However, Trump came to that conclusion when Powell raised interest rates. Trump felt rates should be lowered. That's just what Powell is doing now.
Moving past the ad hominem remark, we get to Banana Republic, surely not the clothing store :-)

Over the past century, “banana republic” has evolved to mean any country (with or without bananas) that has a ruthless, corrupt, or just plain loopy leader who relies on the military and destroys state institutions in an egomaniacal quest for prolonged power. ...

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/is-america-becoming-a-banana-republic
Rather than a banana republic, perhaps what you had in mind was the Weimar Republic?
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/ess_germanhyperinflation.html
At any time one can find conspicuous consumption in all age groups. That said, an objective account would show that Porsche was and remains a brand for males going through midlife crises.
From Fortune, January 1995:

The demographics of the Porsche owner are utterly predictable: a 40-something male college graduate earning over $200,000 per year.

https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1995/01/16/201811/

Plus ça change:

The demographic of the Porsche owner, includes a college graduate, household income over $100,000, 85% male, and 15% female. The typical Porsche owner is 40 years old and up ...
The age demographic rose from an average age of 48 in 2007 to an average age of 51 in 2012.

https://www.stephenzoeller.com/targetmarket-segment-porsche/
FWIW, what I saw in Silicon Valley at the turn of the century were stock rich entrepreneurs driving Bimmers, not Porsches. (Well, Larry Ellison drove a Testarossa.) Me, I was zipping down I-280 at 100+MPH in my MR2. 80% of the fun for 30% of the price (see 80/20 rule). Value investing.

@hank,
Ha! I see what you did there...out in left field...apologies if I did not communciate my question clearly...did not mean to imply that I would put all or most of monies as an inflation hedge...just asking what % would most seem apropos, is it 10%, 15% etc.
The Invesco funds you listed seem interesting, but...will admit I am shying away from derivatives, swaps and the like...do like the looks of the PRAFX T Rowe fund, I'm going to ponder it further...
I could be wrong but I have seen info that equities at times are NOT a good inflation hedge contrary to what many beleive. Equities took it on the chin in late 70s early 80's.
Real estate intrigues me, home prices going thru the roof (pun intended), multi-family housing growing like weeds. Home Depot, bought out HDS HD Supply, had large div who sells to multi family developers etc..(Disclosure: I hold a lot of HD stock)
Gold...has worked in the past but maybe Bitcoin is the ultimate either farce or statement/ clever investment in which many believe too much central banks have grossly increased their balance sheets and money supply??
Have to hand it to Fleckenstein...he's been consistent thru the years on his views, maybe wrong, but consistent...and I'm hoping he still has that good hair...
Take care/Best,
Baseball Fan

This fund is being completely changed. When it reopens, it will be with a new subadvisor, Clearbridge (Legg Mason, now owned by Franklin Templeton). Until then, the fund (with its 1* rating) will continue to be managed by Franklin Templeton.
Based on the managers named, one may expect it to be a sibling, if not a clone, of 3* Clearbridge Int'l Small Cap (LCOAX). F-T is significantly reducing fees on the Franklin fund to roughly match that of the Clearbridge fund.

Morning Class,
Biden, Yellen, Powell...ya'll think these clowns have it under control? You have got to be kidding me...turning this country into a Banana Republic...bankrupting our future generations, debasing our currency, creating inequality up the ying yang, the "rich", meaning kooky Bernie Sanders and kooky Liz Warren get wealthier and wealthier while they "fog" and rail against "billionaires" to purposely obfuscate the real issues, meaning our number one export in the USA is and has been sending real jobs overseas, that is what causes all these issues, not whether we should pay a burger flipper $15/hr.
@Tarwheel, respect your comments re the Trumpster (what a crazy mofo, huh?) but this all reminds me of the turn of the ceturury when the 20 something year olds were driving 911's, riding limo's smoking cigars in back...it all came crashing down.
These clowns are going to put us thru an inflationary cycle which will make the 70's and 80's look like a day on the beach in LaJolla...
Good Luck and Good Health to all regardless of your political views,
Baseball Fan

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1124459/000137949121001970/filing223986418.htm
Excerpt:
Franklin International Small Cap Fund
The Fund will reopen to new investors on June 1, 2021. Prior to that date and since June 3, 2013, the Fund was closed to new investors, with limited exceptions that permit the following categories of investors to continue to open new accounts in the Fund: (1) Trustees and officers of the Trust; (2) members of the Fund’s portfolio management team; (3) 401k plans that have signed a letter of intent (dated prior to the Fund’s closure) to invest in the Fund; (4) participants in any 401k plan that is already a shareholder of the Fund or has provided Management with a letter of intent (dated prior to the Fund’s closure) to invest in the Fund; (5) clients of discretionary investment allocation programs where such programs had investments in the Fund prior to the Fund’s closure; and (6) other Franklin Templeton funds. The Fund reserves the right to modify this policy at any time.

Under David’s stewardship at MFO the Dow Jones Industrial Average has roughly tripled, rising from 12,800 on 4/29/11 to near 34,000 today. Stepping aside at the top is never a bad idea. :)
And - thanks for everything David. Please continue to post / share during your semi-retirement.

(there is a table so see the link)
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1577579/000110465921059710/tm2114848-1_497.htm
Funds affected:
Effective May 3, 2021, the following changes will be made for Barings Active Short Duration Bond Fund, Barings U.S. High Yield Fund, Barings Global Floating Rate Fund, Barings Global Credit Income Opportunities Fund, Barings Emerging Markets Debt Blended Total Return Fund, and Barings Global Emerging Markets Equity Fund:

The SSTF is "sort of" real. It's real on paper. But, it isn't real in the sense that Canada's trust fund is real, i.e. mostly invested in equities and real estate. In the not too distant future, federal spending adjustments and additional taxes may well be needed to keep it "real". Keeping the COLA adjustments below changes in the actual cost of living may also wind up being part of the solution.....
Is the SSTF Real?

Gasp!

All of which feeds into my decision to step aside as publisher of the Mutual Fund Observer by year’s end. After 25 years of writing about funds and ten years of being the defining presence at MFO, it’s time to give a new colleague the chance that Roy Weitz long ago gave me.

A heartfelt thanks, David, for picking up where Roy left off and jump-starting the world's best mutual fund website.
May the wind be ever at your back.
https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/category/mutual-fund-commentary/

All ratings have been updated on MFO Premium site, including MultiSearch, Great Owls, Fund Alarm (Three Alarm and Honor Roll), Averages, Dashboard of Profiled Funds, Portfolios, Quick Search, and Fund Family Scorecard. The site now includes several analysis tools, including Correlation, Rolling Averages, Trend, Ferguson Metrics, Calendar Year and Period Performance.
You can read more about the latest features here.

@billr: I did just what you contemplate. When I turned 66 and first filed for SS, we had two kids at home, one 15, the other 7. The benefits for each continued until their graduation from HS. In the case of the younger one, contributions to the Michigan Education Savings Program (TIAA managed) and invested in Global Equities amounted to a nice pile of dough for tuition, etc. I did not explore taking SS earlier than 66, but as @msf points out, it might have worked for us. FWIIW, I continued to work until 70.

Barron’s has the cannabis growth story “covered“ in this week’s (May 3) edition.

“Happy birthday. Now pack up your stuff and go.
“That might constitute a harsh goodbye for most employees, but unless your name is Warren Buffett, it is a possible ending for corporate executives and directors … Mr. Buffett is 90 and has been running Berkshire for five decades. His business partner, Charlie Munger, is 97.
“(The) reality is that most CEOs will never be able to approach that tenure. Some 70% of S&P 500 companies had a mandatory retirement age in place for corporate directors as of December … Other research suggests such policies are in place for perhaps a third of S&P 500 chief executives. Not even Berkshire is immune to the pressure: The pension fund Calpers cited the board’s long tenure and the lack of board “refreshment” as one reason it plans to withhold its vote to re-elect some Berkshire directors this weekend.
“While many won’t last in a top job nearly long enough to see such a policy invoked—the average S&P 500 chief executive retires at 60.1 years old after a tenure of about 8.4 years—perhaps the practice needs a rethink in an era when once-unthinkably long lifespans are commonplace.”
From: The Wall Street Journal - May 1, 2021

An investment advisors dream proposal for a new client at this time. To the potential client, "if one had only purchased at or near the bottom of a particular sector last March or April."
Fun times with numbers right now, eh?
Check the 52 week return on this global etf list.

https://www.fedsmith.com/2021/05/01/best-12-month-tsp-return/
Best 12 Month TSP Return: 78%
One TSP Fund now has a 12-month rate of return of 78%. Here is an update on the performance of all of the TSP funds for April 2021.
C and S fund doing extremely well...
No changes in our distributions in tsp past 12 yrs
85s% stocks 15s% bond cash
Regards

“Professional money managers are turning up the heat on Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. California Public Employees’ Retirement System and Neuberger Berman have demanded that the Omaha, Neb., conglomerate bring in new directors and provide more disclosures on climate risks and executive pay.
Leading up to Berkshire’s annual meeting on Saturday, proxy advisers Glass Lewis & Co. and Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. have recommended that investors withhold their votes for board members. While many of the complaints aren’t new and none of the shareholder proposals are likely to pass, Berkshire’s lackluster returns in recent years have made it more vulnerable to criticism amid a growing wave of investor interest in corporate sustainability issues …
Under Mr. Buffett’s leadership, the firm boasts 20% compounded annualized gains from 1965 to 2020, outperforming the S&P 500’s 10.2% gains including dividends during the period. Berkshire’s total returns over the past three- and five-year periods were 12% and 14%, respectively, compared with the index’s 19% and 18%.”
Link: The Wall Street Journal - May 1, 2021
Lengthy article. While I’ve excerpted portions relevant to Berkshire’s investment returns, other areas of contention are also addressed, including Berkshire’s commitment to fighting climate change,