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.
Support MFO
Donate through PayPal
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
Thank you for the info. EM is down today. I will need more time to digest the trader's strategy. As for Musk there are conflicting stories that he is getting Saudi $ for him to go private while another one said NO. So I will wait and how thing s…
Most likely there will be more patches release after the hard copies (CD) are sold. Think about the tax preparers - more training to keep up with the changes.
It is ever more important to keep track of the transactions, medical bills, and others …
Days like Friday are not all bad. It reveals to the investors on how their portfolio can weather various market conditions. This week is about Turkey and how it impacts the rest of the world. Judging from the previous week, S&P 500 declined 0.…
Just about all my domestic bond funds are up. Foreign equity and debts fell, especially those with USD hedging. It is a good time to review your allocation again.
Definitely. I use Vanguard Global ex-US REIT, ETF, VNQI to expand oversea exposure - higher volatility without USD hedging than domestic REIT index. Also I use Fidelity Real Estate Income for domestic REIT (50/50 REIT equity/debt) - respectable r…
Another move trying to retain existing investors or getting new investors. Many like to invest with Fidelity sector funds and they have many choices. The recent rise of ETFs and sector ETFs change the landscape considerably, so does Fidelity's AUM.…
The investor share of American Beacon Sound Point Floating Rate Income fund, SPFPX is available at $2,500 minimum (instead of $250K for institutional shares) and at a higher expense ratio of 1.11%.
Competition in product design benefits the consumers as shown in the auto industry. Prior to the 70's oil embargo there was no incentive for fuel efficiency as Detroit put out cars that rust out in several years while getting 8-10 miles per gallon.…
Smartphones can actually be repaired and have internal components replaced. Often one can find repair booths set up right outside Apple stores where they can replace the broken glass pane, replaced worn Li-ion battery, camera and others. The busin…
Sound exciting and lots of planning (number crunching as well). Do you have a financial planner you trust and work with in AZ? Someone who are fee-based advisor, not asset-based. Perhaps other on the board can chime in. Remember BobC who wrote ex…
Marsico funds are not doing well since Tom Marsico left Janus. I suspect the he does not have the same level of analyst and investment team support he once had at Janus.
@bee,
Not trying to be nitpick here. Please let me clarify what I said earlier. Prior to forming SFGIX, Andrew Foster was the lead manager of several Asia-centric funds at Matthews Asia Funds since 1998. This places his track record back to 20 ye…
Please read David Snowball's write up on SFGIX again. I continue to invest with Andrew Foster since the time when he managed Matthews Gro&Inc fund. Over the 10 years period he made more money for me than the Vanguard EM Index fund in mt 401(K)…
I confirmed what msf stated on the required paperwork for trading authorization. The same mailing address also allow to have all accounts with one single login - very convenient.
@LewisBraham, Agree. The other popular social media stock, Twitter is down 16% today as fake accounts are discovered and purged. https://marketwatch.com/story/twitter-shares-slide-16-after-fake-account-purge-new-rules-in-europe-2018-07-27
These s…
@bee, thanks for the update. This is only the early phase of tariffs and the impacts are felt across the board. Next is the threat of $500B tariffs.
With respect to the theft of intellectual property, this has been an on-going issue for a long…
Perhaps I am old fashion and I value my privacy. I pick up the phone and talk with friends and family that I care about. Often the conversation goes on for a quite a while to catch up and the process repeats itself again. Also we do FaceTime that…
@hank, This is like seeing a car crash in slow motion where one industry falls after another. The farmers and the meat industry are suffering. I would not rule out the tariffs will speed up the recession to later half of this year instead of 2019.…
Many farmers want to sell their crops, not taking government handouts. Then there are the meat producers and ranchers. This only adds to the already large deficit.
Something every investor should know (as I learned) a single stock can go from a jewel to coal overnight. This is one of the reasons I invest in mutual funds and not signle stocks.
How true! It is about risk management through diversification in ind…
This is the consequences of quantitative easing of the EU. German government bond (Bund) are not doing better. For example, the yield of 2 year bond is -0.6%. That is right, you pay the government to own their debt.
https://bloomberg.com/markets/…
Not a good day for Ford and Chrysler. Both are affected by the tariffs.
https://reuters.com/article/us-fiatchrysler-ceo/fiat-chryslers-marchionne-dies-shares-dive-on-profit-slide-idUSKBN1KF1ST?il=0
https://msn.com/en-us/money/companies/fords-pro…
disappointing results—including from notable names like Boeing Co., General Motors Co., and AT&T Inc.
That is not good for being the blue chip stocks. What is next?
PGLOX is a new fund that started in 2017. Lots to like with small AUM, $17.3M. The #1 holding is Amazon (10%) that likely to contribute to the outperformance over VDC.
No. We are talking about billion pounds of chicken, beef and pork. In the meantime, what can the meat producers to do for NEXT year if there is already a boat-loaded of old meats in your refrigerators.
Short term interest rates are rising on one hand while the corporate debts are at all time high due to the easy money policies.
Recent Barron article from Charles de Vaulx of IVA Worldwide fund mentioned the overpricing of corporate and high yiel…
This may not be good for meat packing houses and their earnings. Below are some of the publicly trades stocks - watch their earnings as we are in the midst of reporting now.
https://manta.com/mb_34_C300B_000/meat_packing_plants
Not sure why SUVs are cramped relative to minivans. My neighbor leased a Hummer and the center console took up much of the space in the middle. Certainly not a family-oriented vehicles. Sorry to hear BMW SUVs did not fit your need. I understand that…
@msf, I still have lots to learn about annuity. At present I am not sure wanting to give up $500K for an annuity with insurance companies. What is your assessment on Vanguard variable annuity products?
salesman claimed it’s because us boomers need a higher seat to be able getting in and out easily. News to me!
SUVs are actually harder to get in-and-out, and I am 6'4". Last time I rented a Chevy Tahoe SUVs for a day while my Odyssey was having a ma…
Youngstown, OH is the major US manufacturing site for Honda. Both of our Civic and Odyssey were made there. I believe Canadian Honda cars are made in Alliston, Ontario. It is crazy that the Accord was voted the best passenger car in 2018, but that …
@bee,
Adding to your tread above. What else you consider non-market correlated sources? There are few funds and sectors that have lower correlation to the broader stock index (but difficult to have correlation
A good tool an individual investor can use when deciding between managing their own investments for "retirement withdrawal purposes" verses owning an annuity is Portfolio Visualizer. Obviously PV data is using past performance data, but it provides …
Same here. Bonds are having hard time this year and foreign bonds are lagging even more. The headwinds are currency and interest rates. There are two more rate hikes coming this year. So the domestic economy is doing as well as CNBC is telling e…
Also he called EU and China for manipulating their currencies and this directly affect every investor's mutual funds. So it is unrealistic to separate fiscal policy from investment. I read every annual reports and (good) fund managers talk about t…
