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
@JohnChisum, Like you I am facing the same issues with bonds. Perhaps I am a bit early, I reallocated high yield and emerging market debts to US investment grade bonds, intermediate term. Also I am keeping some in Vanguard Total Bond Index In my 4…
Still early to another entry point. Been trading VDE several times this year for modest gain. Slow global growth is a concern. Exxon Mobil reported poor earning this morning, down over 40% from same period of a year ago.
@Edmond, I agree with your assessment. I review Vanguard's information from time to time, but it is difficult to conceive how a low interest environment can provide reasonable returns on bonds in the future, say risk free instruments such as treasu…
“I think they’re protecting the longer-term interests of their investors,” said Josh Brown, chief executive officer at Ritholtz Wealth Management. “I think it is a fantastic move they are making. Size is negatively correlated with performance.”
The…
Drone investing
Target-date funds are a great financial innovation with the potential to help millions of investors. But if you do set your investments that way, you shouldn’t ever really forget them.
Investors on autopilot may never learn the bas…
We have had saving and checking accounts with BOA. Luckily we found a local federal credit union that can handle majority of our needs. We moved on from BOA almost 20 years ago.
Debt can crush families. While we cannot control what we inherit fr…
This is the product of low yield environment that force those who seek decent income return and not knowing the downside risk. How can one retire relying on CD and treasury?
At present Fidelity is offering a number of index funds with expense ratio a tad lower than those of Vanguard equivalent Admiral shares. Hope this can stem the outflow.
5-star ranked FMI International, which does foreign large caps and costs a below-average 98 bps. That’s a $4.2 billion fund with a rockin’ track record versus its benchmark.
EEM has done reasonably well this year and they are losing asset to activel…
Asset allocation or balanced funds should also be emphasized. Oakmark Equity Income fund was mentioned, but there are a number noteworthy ones including Vanguard Wellington and Wellesley Income funds.
CalPERS's unfunded liabilities are serious problem, and there is not an easy way to resolve it without re-negiate the payout rates to these government retirees.
Actually I am rebalancing now to increase cash position after trimming precious metals and US equity. YTD is over 7% and that is good enough for us. Earning season is upon us in the States and I don't have confidence given the slow global growth a…
@ rjb 112,
That was not the impression I got from my discussion with Seafarer representative, but I could be wrong. For the sake of accuracy, I will ask again on this specific question.
One can invest directly with Seafarer for the institutional shares. If you agree to the automatic investment purchase ($100/purchase), the $100K minimum is lowered to $1,500. Very nice for small investors.
For traditional and Roth IRA, make su…
Nevertheless, US treasury is still the safe haven for the rest of the world. Negative and near zero yields are here among European and Japanese debts. It is crazy that you (the investors) pay the banks to hold your money.
Other suggested to buy …
@rforno,
After all, investing, however you do it, active or passive, looks awesome when everything's going up.
Many investors also learned that actively managed funds don't necessary provide much downside protection as observed back in 2008. Few fu…
Still recalled he invested in Washington Mutual and did not ended well. morningstar.com/advisor/t/42990829/wamu-s-toll-on-oakmark.htm
Let's hope it is different this time around.
The same article also mentioned that Fidelity has launched index funds with even lower expense ratio than Vanguard. Are these funds profitable to Fidelity or just a move to attract new money?
Tough call without knowing the person's risk tolerance, financial goals, and sources of funds. Since she has account with Vanguard, it would be equally as wise to talk with Vanguard advisors, even without using their advisor services.
@Charles,
Thank you. My global portfolio is up modestly 3.8%, and that is good enough for us. EM equity, REIT, domestic bonds have contributed positively while developed market lagged.
S&P500 bond index is available at Vanguard as Vanguard Intermediate Term Corporate Bond index, VICSX Admiral Share
ER 0.10% with 0.25% purchase fee; SEC yield 2.96%
The ETF equivalent, VCIT, has the same expense ratio and SEC yield, but withou…
Who is next if UK leaves the EU? Certainly, the stronger export-oriented countries such as Germany who benefits the most. But Greece's problem demonstrates the downside of the EU as well. The common currency, the EURO is another problem.
I watched that show and thought that was pretty funny. In fact it is sad how these investors are taken by John Hancock (or any other insurance companies) as their 401k plan administrator.
That is a very generous % for profit-sharing. The term "profit-sharing" has disappeared in private sector several decades ago. Several companies I worked for paid less than 1-3% as year-end "bonus".
Total return since inception (Nov, 2011) indicates about a 3.6% annualized total return rate.
Decent annualized return. Other risks must also be considered (currency, geopolitical, and credit) when invest outside of US.
All the bad news appears to have been priced into emerging market funds, so any good news translates into gains almost immediately.
Other parts of EM besides China are not in good shape either. Think there is more downside risk in the near term.
Leading up the recent weeks, the polls was against BREIT. As of this week polls are too close to call. In the near term, there is likely a pullback across the globe. Will this worsen further in light of weak economy and low yield environment? I …
Hard to argue with the low yield in US and Japanese bonds, and in some case negative yield in European bonds. All the QE around the globe is not helping for those who need income in their retirement.
@Catch, I will get you the details in the next few days after I talked with my colleague.
For now, I recalled that there is special IRS site that you need to sign up to start getting your tax record straight. Also you need to inform your local po…
@Catch,
Sorry being late to your discussion. Several of my co-workers who filed their tax return electronically got instead notification that someone else had already filed the tax return on their behalf. They have to take a number of step to mak…
