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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.
  • RMDs
    RMDs for all T-IRAs can be combined and taken from ANY ONE T-IRA. Brokers'/funds' calculations are OPTIONAL services they offer - I subscribe to those to just double-check my own calculations. Some firms also have contractual signups for calculating AND distributing RMDs but they are good only for straightforward situations.
    RMDs for all 403b can be combined and taken from ANY ONE 403b.
    Then the spoiler. RMDs for 401k must be taken from each 401k (i.e. they cannot be combined like the 2 situations above).
    Note that the RMD tables are changing on 1/1/22, and the IRS will come out with 2022 RMD worksheets LATER so as not to confuse people. But the new RMD tables were decided in 2019/2020, and were initially to go into effect on 1/1/21, but that was delayed to 1/1/22.
    RMDs from Inherited IRAs - the old rule requited annual RMDs. But with the IRA stretch gone, the IRAs must be depleted within 10 years and one can do it in any way, gradually, or all at once by the 10th year.
  • SS increase: what to do
    As an aside for those of you looking for a COVID booster, most pharmacies are requiring an appointment. The demand is overwhelming as many of those patients seeking boosters originally had their first shot(s) at mass administration public sites that are not doing the additional dose--so they are all funneling into the pharmacies. Many locations are enduring the same staffing issues as the economy at large--open positions with few if any qualified applicants.

    I tried to setup an appointment for a Covid-19 booster shot last Thursday.
    I used an app to search national/regional/local drugstores, supermarkets, and hospitals.
    Since I assumed there was ample supply, I was surprised most available appointments were two or more weeks out. After a lot of searching, I was fortunate to get one of the few available appointments at a local primary care practice the next day.
  • 10 Mistakes...
    ...Every Investor makes.
    Courtesy of Peter Lynch:

  • T. Rowe Price Summit Program
    TRP is trying to get some of their bigger investors away from the online mutual fund supermarkets so they can reduce the amount of their management fees they have to pay to Fidelity, Schwab, etc.
    For several years I've considered returning our accounts directly to TRP out of loyalty and appreciation for the excellent investment management our accounts have received through PRWCX and Giroux. Around 80% of our investments are in TRP funds (primarily PRWCX). I moved our accounts first to TDA and now at Schwab, why should they be getting a big chunk of the management fees, what are they adding to our investment returns in those funds?
    But, up until now there has been no personal financial incentive otherwise to make the move back to TRP. Now that the new Summit program has dramatically lowered the hurdle to access institutional shares ($50,000 rather than $1 million) at the lower ER and also gives access to closed funds like PRNHX, I'm seriously considering making the move. Any non-TRP funds we want to invest in can still be done so through a TRP brokerage account. Being able to park our investments in the institutional shares will potentially add TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS to our returns over the next number of decades if we are blessed to live that long.
    I've wondered why more fund shops haven't followed the lead of organizations like Grandeur Peak who will let shareholders purchase the cheaper institutional shares at far lower minimums if they invest directly with the fund rather than through brokers. Kudos to TRP for finally coming around.
    Please let me know if I am overlooking something here.
  • Preparing For The Grizzly Bear
    +1 old joe If I was as successful as FD, I would be sharing a $50 million yacht parked off St Bart's with Shakira, Zoe Saldana or Halle Berry !
  • Barron's
    There are several references to articles in Barron's. For those interested, I have been doing weekend summaries from Barron's for several years that are released on Saturday mornings. Some recent ones can be found at this link at the open read-access site,
    https://ybbpersonalfinance.proboards.com/board/12/market-insights
  • Has BRUFX changed its stripes?
    A very good point,@yogibear. BRUFX has lost assets every year since 2016. I was one who bailed a couple of years ago.
  • Inflation
    Here's an interesting and perhaps unprecedented factor that's helping to drive inflation- huge increases in warehousing costs.
    "In a matter of a year, warehousing rents in some markets have doubled. Brand-new buildings that would normally sit vacant for months are selling space before they're finished."

    ➤ Link to PBS article

  • November Commentary is live!
    +1 hank For me, it would be awesome to to earn 4% in my Fido MMA !
  • Inflation
    Gouging of customers by shippers maybe causing a bit of inflation ! If you didn't get a chance to watch 60 minutes last night, see if you can find it somewhere.
    Have a sunny week, Derf
    A link to 60 minute
    https://armchairinvesting.freeforums.net/thread/900/inflation?page=19&scrollTo=22817
  • SS increase: what to do
    "In this game, I find I'm more on the side of the providers. Especially PCPs, where as @sma3 noted, margins are razor thin. Which is not to say that I haven't seen gross abuses of the system by providers. But I haven't seen nearly the level of nickel and diming that the insurers do that drives up administrative costs. Just MHO."
    +1
  • 2021 capital gains distribution estimates (mutual funds and ETFs)
    @laurenduvall
    I am glad you and others find it useful. I do this so there is one central location with the information is aggregated for investors and in order to prevent questions as to why did my fund decline 8% when the market was up 1% today. I have previously read some posters wish there was a central location as to where investors wish they could obtain this information and look at it collectively which is why I do this every year.
    Some posters have linked this page to other board's web page to benefit its readers.
    I am open to suggestions for ways to improve this annual post. All suggestions need to be run through the MFO management for their final approval.
  • Preparing For The Grizzly Bear
    Love "experts" predictions, see (link)
    Example: In 05/2012 (article)
    Question:You have become famous for your cyclically adjusted 10-year price/earnings ratio. What do the latest numbers say about future stock market returns?
    Shiller: we found a correlation between that ratio and the next 10 years' return.
    If you plug in today's P/E of about 22, it would be predicting something like an annualized 4% return after inflation.
    FD: reality, the SP500 made 15+% average anually since that date and much better than countries with lower PE10.
    ==============
    I would love if markets collapse because I would be out. I have been doing it for years and why my biggest loss from any top since 2018 was less than 1%. I made money every week in March of 2020.
    How do I know? VIX is one of my indicators, the rest is in a lock box.
    The key is to be mostly invested. I'm in the market at 99+%(never cash) at 90+% of the time.
  • SS increase: what to do
    @Crash-in the above comment, "to be held harmless" means that your SS benefit (net of Medicare deduction) will be the same as the prior year, that is no change. Probably most will not be affected by this, since their SS increase will be more than the $21.60 increase in Medicare each month, considering that 5.9 % is a rather large SS increase.
  • Let the SS COLA Projections for 2022 Begin
    Your tax dollars at work.
    Well, yes. Part B premiums cover about 1/4 of the cost of providing health care to participants. Tax dollars pay for the other 3/4. So the government is increasing the tax dollars it is contributing toward recipients' care from $445.50/mo (3 x $148.50) to $510.30.
    Medicare is one of the only places in which the government has actively sought to hold down medical costs. That's true even in the ACA, where despite the hype, most of the cost containment measures were on the Medicare side.
    You're right that in some areas Congress doesn't have a backbone. For example, deferred and then eliminated the Cadillac tax.
  • SS increase: what to do
    In a sense, the whole claims system is a game. The insurers do everything they can to come up with excuses to deny or delay paying the fair amount on claims.
    My doctor's office had a claim denied because they had not stated explicitly that the coding was in ICD-10 (the current coding system) rather than ICD-9, which had been obsolete for years. They had to refile with no changes, just a declaration that it was coded correctly.
    Medicare Advantage insurers game the government by trying to make their customers appear as sick as possible. The way the system works, "To provide an incentive for insurers to cover sicker patients, the plans are paid commensurately more for their care."
    So the insurers push customers to accept a one time in-home visit from an insurer's clinician to find any condition that would get the insurer more money. Of course that's not what the insurers tell their customers the visit is for. And it raises all our costs.
    "If you are healthy and the visit results in an increased risk score, you won’t have to pay more for your care. But the higher Medicare reimbursement your insurer receives may contribute to the nation’s rising health care costs."
    https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/medicare-advantage-when-insurance-companies-make-house-calls-201512168844
    In this game, I find I'm more on the side of the providers. Especially PCPs, where as @sma3 noted, margins are razor thin. Which is not to say that I haven't seen gross abuses of the system by providers. But I haven't seen nearly the level of nickel and diming that the insurers do that drives up administrative costs. Just MHO.
  • 2021 capital gains distribution estimates (mutual funds and ETFs)
    @Simon,
    I own a Shelton Capital fund, but have never seen the distribution amounts posted. SBH amounts are still not posted yet. Grandeur Peak, Vanguard, Rondure, Matthews Asia and FMI Funds are several funds that have still not posted yet as of this morning.
    I believe this is the link where the information will be posted once it is determined for SBH:
    https://sbhfunds.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Distribution-Information-2021_10.pdf
  • T. Rowe Price Summit Program
    Here's the benefits sheet on the old Select Client Services.
    https://individual.troweprice.com/staticFiles/Retail/Shared/PDFs/FullBenefits.pdf
    Something else missing on the new Summit Program benefits sheet is Turbotax. The online version was free at the $250K level, and downloaded products were free at the $1M level.
    I'd say that they were more targeting the mass affluent than the high net worth investors. Really, is that free subscription to Kiplinger's Personal Finance at the $1M level going to get you to double your $500K investment with them?