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.
IF one wants to follow Bengen's original paper, then one should (I think) be using large cap domestic stocks and intermediate term Treasuries. (He is clear about intermediate term treasuries but says only "large cap" stocks.)
These days, many all…
Also included NYC’s 9.75% tax
8.875%.
For the record, "The City Sales Tax rate is 4.5%, NY State Sales and Use Tax is 4% and the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District surcharge of 0.375% for a total Sales and Use Tax of 8.875 percent."
h…
Two years, must be an ACATS transfer, and the offer is only for taxable accounts.
https://cdn.robinhood.com/assets/robinhood/legal/Robinhood_ACATS_Bonus_Offer_Terms_and_Conditions.pdf
IF you want a fund NTF at a brokerage, you're likely going to buy a share class with a higher ER. This is to help the fund pay the higher shelf space fee for being offered NTF.
It doesn't really matter how the fund assesses the higher ER; what ma…
Other than the content sections of the WSJ I don’t see much out there that well serves Sargent Joe Friday’s admonition:
Good point about WSJ content vs. opinion pieces - a distinction I've tried to draw elsewhere (e.g. when NYTimes opinion pieces a…
I have a BoA card that pays 5.25% for all online purchases and 3.5% for groceries. Costco Citi membership card which I also use for travel pays back 5% on gas and travel. For everything else (tax payment, health insurance, P&C insurance, etc.…
Vanguard dropped personal reps (for those not paying for PAS) years ago. Here's a 2021 Bogleheads thread discussing this.
There may be the oddball Flagship customer or two (see "Gill" in the thread) who continues to have a personal rep for unknow…
the distinction between cost method and lot selection
Exactly. Further, each - cost basis and lot selection - is a distinct legal (accounting) fiction. In reality shares owned are nothing but fungible writings in an electronic ledger. For the ta…
I searched for credit cards with good overall cash-back policies and minimal hassles.
I didn't want to play games with rotating categories, travel rewards, or some other BS.
Show me the money!
My experience with PenFed credit cards is that their po…
In theory, you could add some money and subsequently pull it out as an "excess contribution". I would not suggest that without a lot more research. The IRS frowns on maneuvers done to circumvent rules. And even if you could do this, you'd need …
@Crash - if you have a MMKT fund account you can transfer any odd amounts into it. I do it all the time.
I believe that it true at Schwab but it is not true for all MMFs everywhere. Some MMFs at Merrill can only process transactions in whole dolla…
While you cannot push an ACH "transfer" while your account is locked, you can still push electronic payments (eChecks) via BillPay (and also paper checks via BillPay). ACH transfers pulled from outside (direct debit payments, ATM withdrawals) are a…
I pay property taxes and state and federal income taxes routinely by credit card. All of these go through as regular charges. Though ultimately it depends on what the vendor (county) puts through to the bank.
With BofA one can get 2 5/8% back o…
The two key elements are the payee and the presence of FBO. The former means that you never have access to the cash, so this is not a 60 day rollover. The latter means that the money doesn't belong to Schwab.
While 13¢ may actually be something to sneeze at, you could move the money to Fidelity where you can open a house fund for a penny. Why, you might even open a baker's dozen different funds there!
Slightly more seriously, you might be able to move…
Oh, I wasn't talking about Fidelity/Elan. I was thinking, perhaps of one of the AAA cards, though they are provided by Bread Financial/Comenity Bank. That is not well regarded either. So a AAA card may not be a better alternative.
I'm looking f…
Yes, but there is a downside to staying within the 25% MLP limit.
40 Act Funds – RIC Compliant – Less than 25% MLPs
Funds that own less than 25% MLPs do not pay taxes at the fund level, enabling them to pass through the entire return to their inves…
I bit the bullet and bought into an MLP NOT in my IRA. I don't like waiting for the k-1, but the stock is worth the "hassle." The company lets you sign-in to access the k-1 before it comes in the mail. THIS year, the k-1 came atrociously late via th…
If any fund (mutual fund, closed-end fund, or ETF) owns more than 25% MLPs, the fund will be taxed as a corporation. Accordingly, there are two types of MLP funds – those structured as RICs, which own up to 25% MLPs, and those structured as corpora…
Jeff DeMaso discusses Vanguard's new CEO among other topics.
https://www.independentvanguardadviser.com/a-new-leader-comes-to-vanguard/
Thanks for the link. Always appreciated.
He writes: it certainly feels like Vanguard's culture has been chang…
The CPI index this morning (May 15) was down a bit, which is good; but Bloomberg cited that the very large increases in auto insurance (which is a portion of the index) had an affect on the CPI not being lower. So, as has been discussed here; auto i…
Just got my Fidelity offer in the mail. These come so frequently that I usually just toss them without looking. My offer is for only 12 months 0% interest, though with a $150 bonus if I charge $1K within 90 days. As MrRuffles observed, that's e…
And they don't tell you much about how much they get paid. Most "directors" are listed as directors for dozens of funds
You may be confusing executive management (full time job) pay with the compensation given to The Vanguard Group's board of direc…
IOW, the usual once a decade (or more) unexpected shocks.
https://www.ft.com/content/5148cd1e-cf01-11e4-893d-00144feab7de
At least we made it to 36,000, also predicted in 1999.
https://www.amazon.com/Dow-36-000-Strategy-Profiting/dp/0812931459
The …
Following are short excerpts from a current New York Times Report:
In a letter to a federal judge, the department said that Boeing had failed to “design, implement and enforce” an ethics program to prevent and detect violations of U.S. fraud laws …
I recall my Fidelity Visa card had been 2% from the getgo, but evidently my memory is faulty. Never had to ask for 2%.
It all depends on timing. Fidelity had offered a MasterCard paying 1.5% and an Amex card paying 2% through FIA Card Services. …
FWIW, I have never received notifications for voting for VG BOD
VFIAX owns AAPL, but if you own VFIAX you don't own AAPL directly. So you don't get to vote for AAPL's BOD. Your fund does.
Likewise, Vanguard funds own The Vanguard Group, so you…
A problem with relying on a one year impact rule is that the institutions saying this almost always equivocate - "may" affect your score, "usually", etc.
Experian recently (2023) wrote: "While a hard inquiry will stay on your credit report for two…
My experience is that the credit hits are at least that bad. When my current balance across all cards approaches 10% of my total credit limit across all cards (and not more than 25% on any given card), my credit scores take 20 point hits. I have…
Many brokerages carry "excess of SIPC" coverage. For example, Fidelity writes:
Excess of SIPC: In addition to SIPC protection, Fidelity provides its brokerage customers with additional "excess of SIPC" coverage. The excess coverage would only be u…
There are a few small gotchas.
In 2016, Fidelity changed bank providers from BofA (FIACardServices) to Elan. Do a little web searching and you will find many less than kind things said about Elan's customer service. If you don't run into a pr…
The old program started benefits at $100K; the newer Summit program starts at $250K. At that level you can get into closed funds; at $500K you can get into cheaper institutional shares with "just" $50K min.
https://www.troweprice.com/personal-inve…
Reiterating, "Unfortunately, the industry has done a good job of conflating two different concepts: cost basis and share (lot) selection."
Schwab makes total hash of this distinction in the page I quoted. Again reiterating: "This page conflates co…
Schwab did not carryover my cost basis settings and defaulted stocks and ETFs to FIFO and mutual funds to average cost basis. Strangely, the cost basis settings at Schwab look very primitive relative to how they were at TD. I do not see a way to c…
The San Francisco Chronicle is today reporting that State Farm has raised their rates across California, with the amount of the raise dependent upon Zip codes
Nice piece. However, the article doesn't say that State Farm is setting rates by zip cod…
Regarding Progressive and USAA lowballing fair market value of totaled cars, here's a non-paywalled version of the SF Chron story:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/alameda-county-da-pamela-price-insurance-scheme-undervalued-totaled-vehicle…
I have lost al hope that most organizations can keep up with hackers. The only hacks we probably hear about seem to be health care institutions that are probably legally mandated to report.
Unless one lives in California ...
California law requires…
Looking at the portfolio data, a couple of top line figures stand out. (Yogi also commented on much of this; he posted as I was composing.)
M* reports that FMSDX has 45% of its assets in its top ten holdings, but that's misleading. Its top 4 hol…
