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
Bonds are important to mitigate risk as one approach retirement or as the students start to pay for their college tuition with 529 funds. I agree the bond's yields are no where near the historical levels. Most average investors do not have access t…
I have read Vanguard's article several times. My question is when will the EM investment opportunities reflected into markets, i.e. translate in equity gains. What is being observed in last several years is high volatility especially in severe dra…
@msf, thank you for the reference to the annual reports. I had read the manager's discussion section and have not located the statement above.
"During the year ended December 31, 2018, the volume of the fund’s activity in options, based on under…
@hank, I am a bit confused with your statement.
Added: I understand how one can get google-eyed staring at the impressive returns of PRWCX. But be careful what you wish for. The fund’s had 3 or 4 managerial changes since inception. There will be m…
Putting everything into their perspectives - being cheap is relative. If the prolong scenario plays out these stocks can continue to slide lower. That is the risk of investing in EM. It is best to have either long horizon (20+ years or longer) or…
I tend to agree with @JoJo26 that what I was like when I first joined the workforce. Couple years later I changed for the better - being married and having a family. My kids are in college now completely funded by 529 plans and they will graduate …
US zoos have contracts with China to host the giant panda. In return China receives over $1M fee per year for each panda. The US breeding program have had the fortune to have high success rate. San Diego Zoo had 5 panda born there while Georgia Z…
@catch22, good posting. Read a number of books on China's history and still far beyond in understand all subtle aspects of their thinking. Remember the anniversary of Tiananmen Square conflict is on June 4th. Xi cannot afford to look weak to the…
Thank you for the detailed article that is unusual for Morningstar. Anther article from Washington Post provides their analysis on the possible outcome. A short summary is provided below since the article is a subscription-based.
https://www.w…
Glad to stay away from someone who mix politics with investment. Not only it detracts from his main duty to his investors and it shows as the performance lags badly several years in a row.
Art, Congratulation on your pending retirement. In general, I like T. Rowe Price funds since many of their managers have long track record and lower fee than the MF industry. The other metric worthwhile to consider is the recovery period after the…
The open retail TRP funds have been available in Fidelity NTF platform. So are a number of closed funds as well. This year TRP funds are available in Vanguard's NTF platform as well. As always one will be subject to the brokerage's holding period…
Agree with msf. The article is non-sense. Blackrock and State Street Advisors would be guilty too with their iShares and Powershares ETFs for not paying out capital gain and only dividends. Vanguard patent describes how their ETFs are created whi…
I'm comfortable with my asset allocation. Noted the uptick in the market while the economy is slowing globally at the same time. No radical changes, but rebalanced to more bonds recently.
Question: If I avoid the next “downturn” and you don’t, does that amplify your losses when the downturn comes?
Avoid downturn is nearly impossible without resorting to all cash. A balanced allocation, say 60/40 would lesser the sting such as last …
There is already an experience team behind the lead managers. Their pending retirement will likely to have minimal impact on the long term performance to Wellington fund. The management strategy is similar to Dodge and Cox funds.
I should add that with exception to Lewis Braham who is an excellent free lance writer for Barrons (and other news journals), I would seek out his writing on his Muck Rack website directly.
https://muckrack.com/lewis-braham
@Old_Skeet, @hank, @mark, my sentiment is exactly how you all feel. I subscribe to New York Times and Washington Post. I have access to Wall Street Journal through our public library (funded by my property tax). Barrons used to have lots of usef…
Basically you could subscribe, use the services to set up your financial plan and opt-out after you had what you needed. Bet this new pay scheme might have been in response to people doing just that.
If one uses their services wisely to set up their…
"This is a massive shot across the bow to full-service providers who have become very comfortable charging 1% to 1.5%.”
Year 1: $300+(12x$30) = $660; regardless asset base.
Year 2 and on: 12X$30 = $360
Advisors operating based on AUM will have a s…
That is one of the reason that Target Date/Retirement funds did quite well over time, plus low expense ratios.
I invested part of my rollover IRA into one five years ago as an experiment, and was pleasantly surprise how well it works.
Saw her long time ago during a PBS donation drive when she seemed reasonable. Think the frame got to her and her views today are out of line with the average Americans.
My investment grade bond funds are up today while there are signs of global slowdown, especially in Europe. Guess the tipping point was the inverted yield curve. Next week will be something else...
From consumer perspective I see nothing wrong with competition that ultimately benefit the investors. Fidelity is now offer equivalent index funds with even lower fees than those from Vanguard. Stroll lower on the webpage - Fidelity also lowered t…
TurboTax does not request your driver ID. Don't recall if they request this info. Perhaps for those who file electronically, this may speed up the process.
I too have made sizable changes in recent years. More than half are broad based Index funds and ETFs while the rest are actively managed funds and individual stocks. These days there are much other things to do with kids in college and gardening. …
My blended ER is less than 70 bps. I run everything independently via Fidelity. The core of my portfolio passive equity exposure as it's my belief that active manager add little value in most market segment.
@JoJo26, well done with your overall ER …
So Mark Yockey is no longer the fund manager... He used to be pretty good manager until the drawdowns in 2000 and 2008. Also notice the ER has reduced to 1.38%, a bit lower than the previous 1.5%. International smaller caps had a hard time in 201…
@Old_Joe, it is all about greed and the bottom line to the drug companies. US used to manufacture fine chemicals including these active ingredients used in drugs. Then came these low cost manufacturers in China and India who may not use the same ma…
