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.
The Axios reference is really up to date.
Note the US data:
Total confirmed cases as of 7 p.m. ET: 7,769 —
Total deaths: 118 (That's a 1.5% mortality rate; maybe social distancing is working)
Total recoveries: 106 (still a lot of active cases)
Nice reference; lots of up-to-date details.
As of this afternoon:
217,583 cases
8936 deaths (that's 4.1%)
84,383 recovered (so there are still many active cases)
Among the deaths:
a 34-year-old Indian soldier
a 56-year-old Brazilian
a California …
A couple of days ago, John Rekenthaler had an article on Morningstar "Why not 100% equities?" This would be in comparison to the traditionally recommended 60/40 portfolio.
He referenced a 25-year old article on the topic and talked about options and…
From the linked article: "That’s because 84% of stocks owned by U.S. households are held by the wealthiest 10% of Americans, according to an analysis of 2016 Federal Reserve data by Edward Wolff, an economics professor at New York University. "
Wha…
@msf So the SALT rule causes even more complications than anybody expected!
What are the chances that the members of Congress foresaw such issues? Remember -- the Tax Law was rushed through the majority's approval process. And this from the party th…
A tax question slightly related to this discussion: if I get a state tax refund but I don't use state tax as an itemized deduction on Federal taxes, do I have to report the refund as income next Spring?
I wonder if H&R Block and TurboTax know ho…
A good opinion piece/commentary. It's hard to believe that the small tax as proposed would have the huge scary impact. Somebody needs to come up with a lot more detail.
David
Derf, yeah, there is a fee at Fidelity.
It's T. Rowe Price Multi-Strategy Total Return Fund Investor Class. Many of the Investor Class funds have fees.
There is also TMSAX : T. Rowe Price Multi-Strategy Total Return Fund Adviser Class,
but I guess …
This has been a very nice exchange of ideas and facts. Thanks to Bee for initiating it and to everybody who added to it. This kind of conversation is one of the major strengths of MFO.
It made me curious about how Fidelity (where I do almost all of …
My wife and I opened Roth IRAs at the end of 1998, at Fidelity. At that time. we only invested in mutual funds. We figured on a long time frame so I wasn't worried about volatility. I told her "here are the two best Fidelity funds -- Select Electro…
"More specifically, demand for actively managed equity funds isn’t there. They experienced more than $204 billion in net outflows for the one year ended Oct. 31, while passive equity funds had net inflows of $222.3 billion."
The index fund/ETF effe…
The article is about individual stocks and ETFs, but there is a mutual fund in this space: Fidelity Select Semiconductors (FSELX)
It's my largest holding (held in my IRA) and I'm smiling right now -- total return: up 55% YTD, up 19.55%/year for ten…
The most aggravating part of this is to call the IRMAA an extra insurance "premium". I don't get any better health insurance by paying this higher premium. It's really a TAX on higher income.
I'm in favor of a progressive income tax, but not a progr…
I've raised this issue before -- if one were suspicious, one might think that Trump is playing the market for somebody's benefit. Easy for him to do because the todays' computer-driven markets respond instantaneously.
Cause a big jump, then sell.
Or…
Could Trump be playing the market?
There's a lot of dismal news for him to counteract.
If he makes some promising-sounding comments, we'll be up and then on to the next 60 seconds of the news cycle.
David
@msf
Similarly, we received shares of Prudential when it demutualized. The tax basis wasn't clear, but it really seemed what you said: 0.
So we contributed the shares to Fidelity Charitable Trust and were able to deduct the full values as a charitab…
People say "Someday I'll do ...."
Today, 9/10/19, is Sumday --- 9 + 10 = 19.
So lots of things that have been put off should have gotten done today.
David (the math prof)
Nice job. David is precise, unhurried, polite, knowledgeable and trustworthy. (I sound like I'm writing a letter of recommendation for one of my own students!)
David, did you know ahead of time which funds Chuck would ask you about, or were your res…
A classic example showing how legislators can be "influenced" by campaign contributions, to the detriment of their constituents.
Some years ago, I realized how much I was paying in M&E fees to my 403b provider, so I switched to Fidelity. Some r…
This is a really interesting question, but this article is a disappointing quasi-answer. Ben and Christine spend too much time talking about low-probability situations and muddying the whole issue.
I think the final conclusion is
"ETFs .... tend t…
Agreed, the markets have risen nicely this year.
But the widely-quoted rise in the markets since January 1 forgets about the steep drop in December. So we're working off a low base.
If we include the downs and ups, the past 12 months total return f…
Maybe it's the reverse -- the market got the President's message.
If I were a cynic, I might believe that Trump (and friends and family) sold the market short or bought some inverse funds or ETFs, then tweeted about ramping up the tariff wars.
Giv…
Question 4 is completely different from 1, 2 3 -- it depends upon knowing the definition of the term "interest capitalization". I would not have been able to define the term, but I'd have answered the question correctly because of the way the answer…
How frequently is the $50 paid?
Schwab should show the rate of return to maturity.
Call them and ask.
(I had to go through this procedure with Fidelity and their fixed-income person was very helpful.)
David
My best wishes for those of you in the winter storm deep freeze; it's only going a little below freezing here in Southeast Georgia.
I'm sipping Glenlivet 15 to warm my innards.
David
I love this thread!
My Mom and Dad always drank Evan Williams bourbon for "the social hour". He bought it by the case. He passed away just three years ago, at age 98. I recently finished off the last bottle from his cupboard.
But Dad also loved a go…
Right, Hank. The RMD is established at midnight, Dec 31, by the value of your IRA and your age.
It does not change during the year.
I wonder what the author of the statement was thinking about?
David
I suspect it''s possible to increase one's taxable income enough (with your RMD or windfall or big mutual fund distributions) to bump up the IRMAA surcharges on your (and your spouses) Medicare premiums without moving up to the next tax bracket.
Da…
