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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
Reply to @Investor: South Korea has been a developed country for quite awhile. So it is no surprise that the FTSE index did not include it in their developing market index. Going forward these countries continue to "mature" and so does their repre…
Reply to @catch22: Same here. We really like FRIFX since Investor brought this to our attention several years ago. It pays a decent 4% dividend while maintains low volatility.
His accounts returned about 5% with a 35%/65% equity/bond allocation. I think the author could have done by taking on more risk such as higher % of emerging market debts and high yields. Both which asset classes returned well over 10%. By then ag…
Reply to @Charles: Really appreciate the info. I left Schwab years ago for Fidelity when Schwab's service was trailing badly. Perhaps it is time to give them another try.
Fidelity is a solid shop to set up your rollover, Roth and tradition IRA accounts. Rollover process from your old 401(K) is very easy as we have done so from our previous employers. All your tax-deferred and taxable accounts will be consolidated i…
Reply to @Charles: Why are front-loaded fee (A share) waived at Schwab while Fidelity does not? If that is true across the board, this could enable access to many funds as no-load.
Reply to @Old_Joe: You can get into the institutional shares at Vanguard for $25K along with $25 transaction fee. Other large brokerage houses require $1M.
Reply to @AndyJ: It has been discussed last year that that "the consequence of failing to act on fiscal cliff leads to recession in 2013". Now the matter has delayed until March. Can't wait to read Barron's round table prediction for the rest of t…
Reply to @Old_Joe: PRHSX is still open to new investors, while it may be closed through other fund supermarkets. Otherwise, I am with Ted recommending this excellent fund.
Artio International funds have been losing asset due to their under-performance for some time. At presence there is no compelling reason when there are plenty solid choices.
Reply to @Investor: This year bonds in general have very well relative to precious metals. Most of my bond positions return more than I expected - >10% total return. Multi-sector, junk and emerging market debts (dollar and local currency based)…
Reply to @Old_Joe: Wasatch has the tendency to close their funds early at low asset level. The announcement came out well over several months prior to closing. You may want to look at other Wasatch offerings in similar space - see andrei posting …
Sorry about your loss. From your message, I assume you have an account with Fidelity. Some suggestions are listed below:
Balanced funds:
Greenspring, GRSPX (NTF fund), invested mainly in mid-smaller caps and the rest with bonds
Smaller cap funds…
For larger caps I do like WisdomTree Emerging Markets Equity Income Fund, DEM, a lot more than the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.
For smaller caps, Wasatch Emerging Small Caps, WAEMX, has performed very well since inception.
Reply to @Investor: I exited the entire position in January 2012. It was holding one too many "value trap stocks". Prior to that it was trimmed throughout 2011 and replaced with Wasatch EM Small Cap, WAEMX, first, then the rest with PQIIX. This c…
Reply to @Investor: Not sold on gold/silver as a long term vehicle, I exited the entire position of PRPFX last year. A plain vanilla, low cost investment grade bond fund such as Vanguard Intermediate Investment grade bond, VFICX, performed much be…
Lost confidence on IVA Worldwide, IVWIX with respect to its stock selection and replaced it with Pimco Income Builder, PQIIX, which has done better so far.
Reply to @johnN: Happy holidays. Our house has not used gold in the past and unlikely to do so in the foreseeable future. Inflation is not a concern from Fed's perspective, thus gold is not a good hedge. Personally we like biotech, "picks and sho…
IVA founders came from First Eagle/Jean-Marie Eveillar as well. With smaller asset basis one would expect IVA would excel over that of the larger asset First Eagle funds. But that is not the case where IVA funds are lagging badly for the last seve…
Here is another article with additional details. Most likely this will affect the higher tax brackets of 28% and above, where federal tax may not be 100% exempted.
http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20121118/REG/311189982
Reply to @Mona: Vanguard Hi Yield corporate, however, is closed to new investors. In term of duration risk, OSTIX would do better in rising rate environment. In the near term, 2013 for example, the rate is unlikely to go up given the current econo…
Reply to @hank: What Petraeus committed is keeping up with the tradition of American men in power, nothing more.
http://www.thesegreentimes.com/page.php?p=articles&id=16
Reply to @joe74: FMIHX is NOT closing while the mid-cap oriented FMI Common Stocks, is closed to new investors. Is this what you are seeking? Also David has posted information on FMIHX under Star in the Shadow.
Reply to @catch22: In addition being classified as a multi-sector fund, LSBDX hold sizable, ~30%, Canadian and Australian bonds. Thus far this fund is ahead of the Loomis Sayles global bond fund, LSGBX.
Reply to @Rbrt: As I recalled in other interview, the farmland he referred to are "private" real estate investment trust, not the public traded REITs.
http://www.fa-mag.com/component/content/article/1-features/12079-bargain-scavenger.html?tmpl=…
Reply to @Hiyield007: Another option - DoubleLine Total Return, DLTNX, invest mostly in mortgage backed securities. The no-load investor share, has a lower ER (0.76% with $2,500 minimum) than Pimco's offering.
I too concur with Ted's suggestion. PAMCX and BUFSX are ran by long time experienced managers with solid records. Besides both funds are closed to new investors.
Reply to @Ted: Thanks for heads up. Will watch LSBDX really close from this point on. Dan Fuss is 77 years old and Kathleen Gaffney was expected to be the successor.
Reply to @Investor: Concur with your assessment. We stay away from advisor sold products as many do not provided better return than simple index funds. In 2008 downturn, these active managed funds in my home state actually performed worst than ind…
