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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
VF is right on. Mark Hockey's record is spotty in recent years. Left the International fund before 2004 when more suitable substitutes became available. Also the above average ER is ridiculous.
@catch22,
Good morning. I noticed too the recent drop of domestic bond yield. Recently, I ventured back to EM debts (EMB and Pimco Emerging Local bond, PELBX) in small allocation.
Let hope your 73/30 allocation work out.
@STB65 and @bee,
VMVFX is an global equity fund with no bond exposure. The Admiral share, VMNVX, has a very low expense ratio 0.17%. As bee pointed out, the risk profile is excellent for equity funds.
As for income investors, there are many choi…
@275LB_NY_MCPO,
Basically yes. I generally prefer mutual funds over ETFs without dealing with the ask/bid spread. EMB provides a low cost broad exposure to EM debts while the debts are currency hedged (or in USD). The daily trading volume is hi…
I wound up putting the 'spare' money into DSENX, which I shall 'convert' to DSEEX after it settles; Fido now lets one do that if the sums are enough
@davidmoran, how much $ is enough for conversion? Is there a fee? Hard to imagine Fidelity would …
Finally I bought EMB and PELBX, Pimco Emerging Local Bond, Institutional. I left that asset class in 2009, but this time I keep a lower % allocation. Beware that EM debts can go down badly as shown in 2007. The only safe bet is cash.
@hank and bee, I watched Nancy Lazar interview as well and think she has several good points.
YTD of foreign markets (both developed and EM) have done better than US market while their valuation are more reasonable. Likelihood there maybe more…
We used to invest with Matthews who have done well for us. More recently we invest with Andrew Foster's Seafarer fund exclusively. His long term record including those from Matthews Asian Growth & Income is excellent, particularly during marke…
For one reason or another there are those who don't want to manage their finance and retirement. In these situations, robo-advisors would serve their purpose. Personally I would choose a well run balanced fund such as Vanguard Wellington or TRP Ca…
The jobs that command the highest wages are in STEM – science, technology, engineering and math professions. STEM workers are earning an average of $100,000 annually, twice as much as the national average of $45,000 to $50,000 a year, Cohen said.
If…
This interview is over a year late. For those who have a sizable exposure to developed and emerging markets this year, their portfolio should be well rewarded.
Everyone expect the tax cut and policy reform will stimulate growth with GDP of 3-4%. Didn't we went down that road, trickle down economics, that went no where.
Single payer system. Health vouchers that let patients choose their healthcare provider. If we believe in educational vouchers we should also believe in healthcare vouchers. Poor performing health providers will be replaced with high performing heal…
He said that his plan aka Thumpcare will "cost less and everybody get coverage. It is gonna be terrific, you will see." Only 24 millions (largely the poor and old demographic) Americans will lose medical coverage.
"4-5 % GDP is achievable". Wh…
People need to learn to be responsible for their own retirement. These days rolling over 401(K) can be readily done with various brokerages - Schwab, Fidelity, and others.
I went to one of these show when I was a kid. Always felt bad for the animals working in the cirrus. These days people are more informed of their treatments. So this is not a surprise of their declining business. Even Sea World have to make chan…
Brazil is having turmoil with their presidential corruption. Venezuela is in even deeper trouble and this may last for awhile. As a result, many Latin America funds lost in excess of 10% this week - the worst sector in emerging market.
@PRESSmUP, No I have not considered EM debts. This sector of debt is considered the riskiest in my experience in downturn. Perhaps time has changed since then...
@DavidV,
Under bankruptcy protection laws, Puerto Rico will not have to pay their monthly dividend while it is being restructured. As debt holders, you will experience smaller dividend paid to OPCAX until a restructured plan is approved. NAV will…
DavidV, Under bankruptcy protection laws, Puerto Rico will not have to pay their monthly dividend while it is being restructured. As debt holders, you will experience smaller dividend paid to OPCAX until a restructured plan is approved. NAV will…
Increased asset class correlation in the past decade makes it harder to benefit from diversification in international markets. In the case of 2008 all equity markets went down with emerging market performed the worst. Higher risk debts including hi…
