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
The trade war is on now and there will be no winners. It is naive to think trade barrier will have no impact on the bottomline - earnings. That is why England is trying to negotiate a trade deal with EU on the consequences of Bretix. Without it the…
failure of government or the lack of regulation
Hard to imagine how these informations do not being monetized in public traded companies. When one freely posted their personal information on these sites, they become the company's property and can b…
There are something to be said about privacy. Tough to avoid technology today but everyone can make inform decision on how to share personal information.
Not relate to this topic, what is happening at Facebook remind me of the movie Minority Repo…
Not to scare everyone that commercial planes typically land on automatic mode. Unless a difficult situation arises as one the Hudson River that a skillful pilot can land it on water safely. Perhaps AI still requires further refinement before they …
Let's face it. Retail has been overbuilt for two to three decades. Everywhere a BJ's opened, a Sam's club opened within a mile. Staples followed the same strategy with Office Depot. Online shopping has just pushed these overbuilt brick and mortars o…
@Mark, thanks for the article. For now I don't need income from bonds, but just to counteract the stock asset class. A CD ladder sounds interesting now especially there maybe as many as four rate hikes this year. I will check out Fidelity and Vang…
@MikeM, I reduced my equity and bond allocation by 15% early in the year and have been holding double digit in cash. We had a good run last year but the geopolitic situation has worsen and the possibility of a trade war. I may increase my TRP Capi…
@MikeM and @Ted, are cash/CD viable alternatives to bond fund, at least for the next 6-12 months? Money market funds now pay a bit over 1%. The upcoming Fed meeting is near end of March and 25 basis point raise is expected.
I got my 1099-div from Fido online 2-3 weeks prior to the paper form. Fidelity is supposedly one of the better one online brokerage. it is too bad they did not do maintenance after midnight hours instead.
Not all targeted date funds are created the same. Fidelity is no exception.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/retirement/special-report-fidelity-puts-6-million-savers-on-risky-path-to-retirement/ar-BBJSUgr?li=BBnbfcN
@bee, Really appreciate your informative posting. It is never to early to learn and make informed decision early in the planning phase. We still have 10+ years to go as our kids are entering college now.
Impeach before he instills more ruin I say.
@MikeM, the alternative (Pence) could be much worse especially when Congress failed over and over again to act as check-and-balance from the executive branch.
Without Hope Hicks serving as a filter to h…
He had trouble reading the script when he was invited to SNL awhile back. Some said he cannot read or he really needs reading glasses badly.
For sure we know he doesn't like to go through the detailed security briefing every morning. Everyone le…
@larryB,
My parents talked about the great depression and what made it worse.
In 1930, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act raised tariffs on 20,000 goods Americans bought from abroad. Imports fell significantly, but Canada and other countries retaliated …
He is trying hard to fulfill his campaign promises. Nevertheless he failed to call them "currency manipulator" the first day he entered the office. There is no winner in this trade war.
@msf, thank you for the CR articles. Depending where you live, local farmer market prices swing wildly. When we live in midwest, there were no price advantages other than freshness of the produces. In the areas around Portland, OR, there are hig…
@bee, you asked for global small cap exposure. QUSIX is a foreign small-mid cap fund.
Alternatively, Grandeur Peak funds may fit your need, but many are closed to new investors including their Global Opportunities fund. Going back to their histo…
There is no firm definition for the terms 'natural' and 'organic' foods
The term 'natural' is purely marketing tool to fool the uninform consumers. As the term 'organic' there are strict USDA guideline on how the food can be produced and labeled. …
Bernard Horn's Global Value, PGVFX is an all cap global fund, while the Pear Tree Polaris Foreign Value Small Cap is a mid-small international fund, QUSIX.
@MikeM
I think it is safe to say there are 100's of different schemes or formulas within this alternative category. Which formula or fund will out-perform a balanced fund over the entire economic cycle and which one's will have their shining moments…
He wrote that if the investors bought a fund via ETF shares, they underperformed by around 1.6% over the period examined. But investors who bought the same fund via open end shares slightly outperformed the fund.
@msf, Agree. Underperforming by 1.6…
Outflows amounted to 8 percent of the fund’s total assets at the start of the week, a rate of withdrawals not seen since August 2010.
The five-session stampede for the exits erased the previous nine weeks of inflows into the fund, which is issued by…
It turns out that was mere lip service. The administration proposes spending a measly $20 billion a year -- or $200 billion of the $1.5 trillion total -- for a decade.
How true! More details on its impact on the local government and muni bond marke…
This time reminds me of 1994 when the Fed raised rate aggressively to fight inflation. While the economy was doing well, three quarter point raise slowed the stock market (S&P 500) to 1.33%. Many felt it was overly aggressive and unnecessary, bu…
I understand yields are low for investment grade bonds,If not bonds, what are the options besides cash?
I also observe that many income investors are increasing draw to riskier bonds including junk and emerging market debts.
The bear market is already here and the decline is far from being done. From the market peak as of 1/26/18 till 2/9/18, here is the 2018 return:
S&P 500 as represented by Vanguard 500 Index: -9.3%
International market as represented by Vanguar…
This is pure non-sense. Unlike splitting individual stocks, splitting mutual funds provides no value to the investors. The investors get more shares propositionally to the split and the NAV is reduced accordingly. The total sum remains the same. …
@sma3
3 month CDs pay 1.4% You may be a lot happier in April going this route. I think it may be risky to think intermediate bonds will do anything than loose less than equities at this point.
Any recommendation on banks that offer that rate? For n…
@davfor,
Thank you for bring to our attention of VWINX - the historical plot going back to the 70's. The Fed is planning 3 rate hikes this year, possibly 4 if inflation is getting bad.
Concur with everyone's assessment on SFGIX. In the semiannual report of SFGIX, Andrew Foster discussed his view on China and its risk-seafarerfunds.com/letters-to-shareholders/2017/10/semi-annual
As other noted here that SFGIX held up better durin…
The earning season is upon us and there are more reporting to come. What we are seeing this year is the beginning and there will be better entry points. I have ample cash from rebalancing several weeks ago.
