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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
Welcome to the discussion board. This sounds familiar with insurance agents on selling annuity within retirement accounts. Personally I would exhaust all the tax-deferred options [IRA, 401(K), 403(b)] long before I consider annuity conversion fro…
Thanks Ted. Haven't seen 28 cents coffee for a long time considering what Starbuck charges these days. For the same reason, Vanguard's emerging market index ETF, VWO has overtaken iShare emerging market ETF, EEM in daily trading volume.
Reply to @Kenster1_GlobalValue: Shilling predicted China will have "hard landing" in 2012 as they have created their own housing bubble.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2012-02-02/china-economy-heading-for-hard-landing-as-exports-decline…
The fear of massive defaulting in muni market has not materialized last year. The lower quality, i.e. high yield muni, muni funds are worthwhile to consider for those who like to take on additional risk.
The recommendation of buying "real estate investment trusts, master limited partnerships and dividend-paying stocks" to supplement income is okay as long the clients fully understand the risk-return profiles are NOT the same as bonds. Take 2008 for…
Reply to @David_Snowball: As an investor of Matthews Asia Strategic Income fund, do you feel that the 30 day yield 2.83% is adequately compensated as compared to that of Vanguard Total Bond Market Index (30 day yield 2.17%)?
While it is not an ap…
Reply to @David_Snowball: I couldn't agree more with your last statement on Pimco's D shares - in short, it is a quite an expensive fund for retail investors, especially for a fund-of-fund. I know Scott probably has different option.
Unless on…
Reply to @catch22: Financial Engine provides a comprehensive picture using Monte Carlo simulation. It allows quite a few inputs including social security, retirement pension plan, tax-deferred accounts, properties, taxable accounts, expected retur…
Higher yields relative to US treasury that help to fend off inflation. Also beware of the higher correlation to equities than that of US treasury; thus expect more volatility.
Hey Catch, how is this calculator differs from Financial Engine?
Also where is the input for annual inflation? Not sure if 3% historical value is suitable?
Reply to @catch22: Actually 2011 was a good year to illustrate the downside protection of this fund. The balanced allocation is a less risky to gain exposure in REIT sector. I left Vanguard REIT index ETF, VNQ several years ago and invest in this …
For most part the changes (mostly the looks) are fine and I will get used to it. By the way, Vanguard is nowhere near as user friendly as Fidelity.
What is not useful at all as pointed out by Investor, fundalarm and msf, is the rate of return …
Reply to @Kenster1_GlobalValue: Today the trade volume is only 1,150 shares. Interesting, Malaysia is the top country at 22%, and China is not even on the top 10.
Reply to @Investor: Gotta love that "trickle down" theory, only if that works at all for the middle class. There is an informative interview with David Stockman (former budget director of Ronald Reagan) who shared his view on this matter. I believ…
Reply to @scott: I agree that single country China funds/ETF is not such good idea for risk management perspective. For now I am using mainly MAPIX to gain direct exposure.
As I recalled there were several Chinese companies listed in US stock …
Reply to @Kenster1_GlobalValue: Thank you. For now I am using Matthew Asia Dividend, MAPIX for Asian region exposure. Other diversified foreign funds generally avoid China directly. Many including Oakmark prefers to invest developed countries su…
You are doing quite well with only 22% equity. No direct exposure to oil/natural resource ?
Came across this article in the morning. Not exactly what to make of it. To do well, one must able to time the market just right. So this leaves me out …
"...will beat money market returns by 150 to 200 basis points"
And that is significant in this low return environment. Unfortunately, stable value funds are not available to retail investors outside of 401(K) plans. Pimco's new stable value offer…
For those who missed the conference call, a replay of the IVA Funds update call is available through March 9, 2012. Dial-In: (703) 925-2533 or (888) 266-2081. Access code: 1564717
Reply to @catch22: Thank you for sharing your thought. Recent market run-up enabled early rebalancing and consolidating to fewer positions for ease of management. Otherwise I will have a few cold ones.
thank you. Very informative article. Another article mentioned from 2008 time frame before the housing bubble burst.
http://www.fpafunds.com/pdfs/commentaries/Crossing_the_Rubicon.pdf
Below is a recent article on FPA Capital fund and its 40% wei…
Reply to @Investor: I agree. There is increasing probability that Europe will enter recession this year. Hopefully that will be a short one and Europe re-emerge in better shape.
Last week China and Japan pledged to help the IMF, but it is unc…
"Cheap and safe"
Jaffe must be kidding. Third Ave fund has been trailing badly in the last several years as he made BIG and WRONG bets in oversea real estate market. He may be around for long time, but there are better fund managers out there.
Thank you. Largest outflow from US equity, and into mostly bonds and muni bonds.
Vanguard picked up most of the business. Surprisingly DoubleLine is doing quite well.
Reply to @scott: What is Marketfield investment strategy? I see it is shorting foreign equity by 17%! Is this real that they are so bearish on foreign equity?
Reply to @scott: There are other fund managers who are more flexible and manage their funds through the up and down cycles. One I particular like is Steve Romick of FPA Crescent.
Reply to @kevindow: I agree that many diversified ETFs have the edge on ER over the average actively managed mutual funds. Same goes to index funds. However, lower ER is only one of the many criteria for constructing a globally balanced portfilio.…
Reply to @MaxBialystock: Depending what brokerage you are using for the institutional shares:
Vanguard requires $25K with $20 transaction fee, $2 additional purchases (2 required)
Fidelity requires less than $1M with $75 transaction fee, $5 addition…
