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
@Mona, wish I have that much invested to bump ourselves into the highest tax bracket. Since we made the switch to index funds, distribution is well under control.
For the past 4 years or so I was in ARTLX, it seemed each year at distribution time that the IRS was the big winner.
@Mona, over the years I had enough of paying IRS on distribution even in down markets. Since vast majority of active managed funds …
it is not an easy call on the balance of risk and reward over long investment period. Question for most investors is getting the market return good enough?
Customer service is bad everywhere no just discount brokerages. Have you try to resolve computer problem from big box PC manufacturers such as HP and Dell?
In our experience, cash transfer between brokerages is the easiest - typically takes 3-5 …
@Junkster, Exact same sentiment here. Barrons want you to buy their newspaper. No point to scare everyone away.
A total return of 10% is very nice, but a more moderate return is more realistic.
The lower quality bonds have considerable exposure to oil service sectors. Given the low price of crude oil, these bonds are being hammered. Also these junk bonds maybe thinly traded, and difficult to sell without depressing the price further. Th…
Doubleline Total Return fund has been shorten the duration of its holding in the past 12 months. With an AUM over $50B, it is a much more difficult task than $50M.
I think the hike will be small (25 base points) and incremental afterward. If th…
Another one bite the dust. It is too bad that after Third Avenue was sold several years ago. Majority of their funds have performed poorly, except for the Real Estate fund. Same thing can be said with Royce funds.
Gotta love these self-promoting articles from Barrons. Concur with Edmond assessment. Through the market's ups and downs, Vanguard Wellesley is a solid and consistent fund with an expense ratio unmatched by any ALT funds. In the past 10 years the…
In a few weeks, Barrons will host the Round Table discussion with the financial gurus, and forecasting their picks for 2016. If Lou Rukeyser is still with us today, he would run the same year-end Wall Street show. These are great entertainment, bu…
@hank, the original post above indicated that Lockheed monitored information available on the public domains (Facebook and Tweeter). This is all legal but creepy for sure. The fear of organized labor, i.e. unions, is what drive Walmart to use LM…
It is worrisome that younger generations are saddled with student debts (so called financial aids). Difficult for them to get into starter home market and having to save for the 5% down payment. There seem to be fewer rent to own opportunties than…
OPM data have been compromised already.
Background investigation and drug testing is common in many positions I held in the past, and it's really no big deal. Today I am On the opposite end of the table, where I pay attention on my employees for…
I was in kindergarten when it happened. My recollection was largely from my parents who was very sad to loss a young and inspiring president.
In my study later in Europe, people still talked about the young president who stood up to the Soviet U…
No. Please read details above from Professor Snowball. Having access to the entire Lipper database and organizing them in useful format is a significant advantage to construct portfolio and evaluate mutual funds.
The charge of $100 per year is …
Once reached certain asset level, Vanguard offers $20 for TF funds, $2 for additional systematic purchase and no fee for selling. However, Vanguard offers the fewest mutual funds outside of Vanguard funds. It pays to compare and shop which brokera…
Don't think so. Most investors have difficulty paying $50 transaction fee (at least at Fidelity) to buy institutional mutual funds with higher $ minimum than $2,500. And there are additional fees for subsequent purchases.
In the past, Fidelity's minimum investment on NTF platform was $500. When the asset went up, they gradually let it rises to $2,500.
More importantly, the minimum on transaction-fee funds could be lowered to $5,000 - 10,000 instead of the $100K o…
Remember everyone, the Onion articles are for humor purpose and should only be taken lightly. Unlike the brave leader of North Korea who thought he was the sexist men alive as suggested by the Onion.
We have experienced the same emotional selling after Sept 11th, and that was an even bigger event. The martket eventully fully recovered and advanced more.
I also agree with many posted here that regardless when the hike starts, the rate will be…
@Old_Skeet,
So, in short words I should expect about half of what I received from the market going forward for the next ten years when compared to the past ten year period.
I concur with the range of 4% total return. Not quite as bearish as GMO for…
It is conservative pick... Remember he came from Goldman Sach to work for Hank Paulson. It helped to have the public exposure to oversee TARP in time of crisis. While his tenure was short, his success in the private sector, PIMCO, is less certain.…
That is for sure with the declining quality of journalism. Both WSJ and Barrons have been reducing their senior editor headcount and one have to select what to read (and forget the rest). I no longer keep my subscription to Barrons years ago.
