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
Actually, Kathleen Gaffney's fund has done much worse, almost twice the loss. Exposures to junk bonds and foreign bond (hurted by strong U.S. Dollar) were the curpit.
I try to stay away from funds that I don't understand the strategy, that include Rob Arnott's funds. Glad I stay with plain vanilla TRP Capital Appreciation and Vanguard Wellington.
@Dex,
look to buy anything that pays a dividend! That is a few viable vehicle today. If you have a longer horizon, Europe is several years away from full recovery and the low expection may prove to be decent entry points.
Question is which directions, up or down. Many of these debts from hydro fracting companies are in trouble. Some are shutting down operations, and laying off workers as these low quality oil (sour crude) are facing oil price in the mid 30's.
High annual turnover rates in excess of 200% or more tend to have larger distribution on short term capital gain.
Also international funds that use currency hedging also have larger distribution on dividend.
@heezsafe,
Well said. Barron's 2015 prediction and stock pick were mostly wrong. Here we goes again for another round of expert picks for 2016 - no thanks.
@linter, agree with your view on healthcare sector that was one of few brighter spot last year. Ever increasing drug price beyond inflation rate will make them easy target in this election year.
@Mark,
An under-performance of over a year versus its benchmark is definitely a red flag. I would sell quickly if I lost confident on the fund manager's approach/stock picking process. in the annual reports they tend to reports the largest detract…
@DlphcOracl: I invested with Warren Buffett a quite awhile. Often the reasons for the new positions are quite insightful. What differentiates him from many of us is that he tends to have very, very long investment horizon, sometimes in decades. …
@Old_Skeet, very wise indeed on buy and hold. Probably want to wait a bit until the dust settle. I rebalanced last fall and have not made sizable move in the asset allocation.
Yes, it is that uncertain feeling until it proves itself years later in 2000 and 2007. That is one reason having cash give you that option. What has Warren Buffet bought lately?
I notice that the pricing remain high before the recession, and going higher in the past few years. For personal travel, we do many much more local travel with cars.
How many of us avoided market timing in 2007-8 and did not capitulate eventually?
Capitulation is the classicial way to sell low and lock in the paper loss. For those who stand pat and ride it all the way back in 2009 and more in the following yea…
The persistent lagging performance in last few years was self-inflicted with poor stock selection I my humble opinion. If you have lost confidence with the management, it is time to move on. There is nothing wrong with cash until better opportunit…
iPhone 7 release is in the horizon (late 2016), while iPhone 6 series are matured. Concur with Scott's assessment on Apple. I also think other products are coming online as well.
On a side mote, I had a chance to test drive iPad Pro versus Touc…
@Charles, it is only paper loss until you sell. You are not alone - 2015 was tough for many investors to have any meaningful gain. Let's hope 2016 is a better.
You can open a second MFO linked Amazon page and start shopping again on items from the first page. In the future, bookmark the link directly for ease of use.
Concur with msf on managing different aspects on tax loss and AGI. We like to put it on a spreadsheet and make enough Roth conversion without getting kick into the next income bracket. As such we like it take tax loss should be done throughout the…
Prefer to use cash and patience instead. Having tracking a number of alternate strategies for the last several years, only sure thing is that the fund managers are paid very nicely.
That is what being well connected and having an army of lobbyist can do for you. Got to to have love that your and my tax dollars being used to bail out the banks while the banks still collect fat bonus.
