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.
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Sven
Lynn,
Thank you so much. I am planning on a 3-year ladder since I am a year away from retirement. Lots of spreadsheet work to calculate the income replacement needed. This ladder will create a steady income stream. So thank you for all your help.
I moved back to high quality bond funds this year. Some of which you covered in the SA article. For now, I will stay with agency bonds to the bond ladder. I will pick active managers for corporate bonds.
Sven
I read that learning new music instrument, chess, and other brain-related activities help to retain the brain capability. Many instruments use both side of the brain in order to train the muscle memory. I enjoying bird watching that involves track…
Please take it look at this - perhaps it was NOT about drug trafficking.
https://msn.com/en-us/politics/international-relations/the-us-warships-off-venezuela-aren-t-there-to-fight-drugs/ar-AA1Pb9T6
Thank you @bee and @DrVenture for your suggestion on traveling. We are planning to convert our Honda Odyssey to a camper for week long trips. Reliable drive train is important for distance driving and fuel economy is reasonable with either Honda o…
The soybean farmers have it good on both ends. Not a single contract from China was made this year. Bankruptcy continues to rise among farmers while getting hand-out from the government. Isn’t that welfare that this administration is so appalling o…
@LarryB and @Crash, great choices for long term and stable investment. We use diversified index funds for oversea exposure. Emerging market is volatile, but active managed Seafarer funds provide lower risk to this asset class. We swapped half of D…
they're turning the stock market into one giant pump-and-dump scheme with rumors of what FOTUS is/may consider taking a position in
That is my exact thinking. It is all smoke-and-screen. There is no honest intent to strength the nation’s strateg…
@larryB, what i meant is to allocate our investment more toward foreign stocks and bond. They are closer to 50/50 US vs foreign. For a long time US stocks have done well, but time has changed with this administration.
While our family had the fo…
WSJ could have explain different scenarios better. We have private health care insurance. Open enrollment is now. Will see what the premium, copays, and medication coverage will be for this year. Small hikes in copays are not obvious to most unle…
@Old_Joe, i use the Lancaster, CA (north of LA) store.
We also shop at Trader Joe and Aldi, and much prefer Aldi for their produce. These stores are quite different. Trader Joe is more resemble Whole Foods with lots specialty and expensive item…
Don’t think these are game hens, they are more expensive. For sure they are smaller chickens. Hopefully this is temporally chicken shortage on the west coast.
@Mark, the Costco we visited did the switch to smaller chickens. In the past the chicken is very popular and often people get in line to get them. This time many of them just sat on the shelf, unsold. These small chickens are 60% of the previous si…
Thank you, @catch22. Got it mark down on our calendar. We always enjoy Ken Burns documentary films and the narration by Peter Coyote.
Please support PBS especially their federal funding is being cut by this administration.
Other foods are undergoing stagflation shrinkflation. . .. The box size got smaller while selling at the same price. Costco’s famous rotisserie chicken turned into game hen is the latest Costco tactic. The full impact of tariffs has yet to arrive…
“ Why soaring gold prices could be a warning sign for the economy”
The flight toward gold has coincided with a depreciation in the value of the U.S. dollar. Its value against other currencies plunged about 11% over the first half of 2025, the bigge…
To add more content to the story.
https://pbs.org/newshour/world/madagascar-military-says-it-has-taken-control-of-government
Thanks to Old_Joe. Bad link above. Please use this one.
https://npr.org/2025/10/14/nx-s1-5574215/military-madagascar-gen-z
From LA Times that would add content and number behind China’s effort on solar energy, and the wattage power they can provide.
Chinese government officials last month showed off what they say will be the world’s largest solar farm when completed h…
It was cruel that UDSA eliminated free lunches for kids from low income families in March 2025. And now this cut is another assault on the unfortunate ones. I have no words for this.
Thanks @msf for your explanation. The challenges we have with I-bond is several folds. One is the small allocation annual allowance -$10K plus 5K from tax return per person (a total $30K per family of two). For us the amount is too small to move t…
Yellowjackets built nest everywhere and they are very territorial when disturbed. Detected them early and call exterminators is the best. Several times it came close when they invaded our home through the sidings. The exterminators wore thick suits …
Another ideas are value stocks, beaten down sectors such as healthcare, consumer staples, and REITs could help diversified away from AI related stocks. The article above is actually informative; certainly not click-bait if one read its content thoro…
These voters don’t appreciate what they have (soon to change to “had”) until it is taken away. ACA, despite all the flaws, provide people to gain access to private insurance at a better rate with government subsidy. Without the subsidy, many insura…
No surprise that this country is regressing on its health care system. Vaccination has been an effective practice to keep all citizens from preventable diseases. RFK and the HHS are beyond incompetent and should resigned immediately.
My family re…
Do you see anything remotely resemble war torn zones at Portland, OR and Chicago, IL.
Portland, OR
https://msn.com/en-us/news/politics/anti-ice-protesters-mock-trump-s-claim-that-portland-is-a-war-zone-in-silliest-way-possible/ar-AA1OaZ62
Chicag…
We invest in I bond in 2021 when inflation was more than 5%. Since then we have not add more since there are more attractive options. In spring 2026 the i bond will mature and we will invest elsewhere.
Here is the link to CNN. China’s approach on AI investment and utilization is a lot more practical and feasible to benefit the business. The US AI investment reminds me of fiber-optics as the vehicle to the information highway. The dot-com bubble b…
The trade war just began. All previous meetings have net no meaningful negotiation on trade. China has learned from the first administration trade war, and now they know where the US weakness are. The video that @Catch22 posted earlier summarized …
Here is his detailed medical history:
https://thehealthy.com/aging/healthy-aging/news-is-donald-trump-healthy-family-medicine-doctor-interprets/
His family has a history of dementia. Early onset sometime not readily detected, let alone publicly d…
@junkster, Congrat to your health. All that hiking has kept you in good shape as my doctor has recommended for good cardiovascular health. We stay active in hiking, swimming, and lately dancing (my wife really enjoy that).
My stock allocation is …
Probably the most important step is to set up alerts to your email and phone of changes in your profile ( ie email etc) and Deposits and Transfers.
Great suggestion for everyone. Automatic notification brings to your immediate attention to unusua…
The 6 months trend of dollar is declining. Today could be a flight to safety - dollar as the safe heaven.
Trimmed bank loan and tech last month and waiting patiently for better opportunities.
I did not find “locking in” option in Schwab website from outside. Perhaps Schwab customers can do a more thorough job searching within the site. Calling their customer support is another option. Please share your finding with MFO posters here.
Go…
