Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

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.

    Support MFO

  • Donate through PayPal

msf

About

Users name
msf
Joined
Visits
32,887
Last Active
Roles
Member

Comments

  • FD1000 For a guy who claims to keep up, you really don't keep up, do you? https://www.foxnews.com/media/paul-krugman-trump-economy This is a 2020 article where "Krugman acknowledged that he had "reacted badly" and retracted his prediction three …
  • Reported by CBS, not according to CBS. It wasn't a CBS analysis. CBS was reporting a Republican analysis and reporting that the administration had issues with the analysis. IOW, CBS reported two different political analyses. The analysis, from…
  • Access has now been down all of November. This has become "service" as usual. The whole stock market was up and running six days after 9/11. It can't possibly be five times as hard to fix this cyberattack on TIAA's third party server or to migr…
    in TIAA outage Comment by msf November 2023
  • Inflation has been the highest since the 80s at about 20% since 01/2020. Did employees get an equal increase to keep up with it? No "Median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers ... quarterly averages, seasonally adjusted" http…
  • I can’t argue with the OP’s general conclusion that on average Americans are better off financially than they were prior to the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. ... Reminds one of the 6’ fella who drowned in a river that was on average 5 fee…
  • Perhaps you're missing the first paragraph in the cited piece. That first paragraph has a bullet list of five metrics for financial state, all of which are positive. One of those is family wealth. Cash on hand is just one relatively small par…
  • This might also be mildly good news for prospective new issue T-bill buyers. If I remember correctly, the expected yield on a 6 month T-bill was 5.42% on Wednesday and 5.45% on Friday. Unlike new CDs, when you put in an "indication of interest"…
  • Some more background info: Intro piece on mREITS, including basic mechanics and risks: https://money.usnews.com/investing/real-estate-investments/articles/how-to-invest-in-mortgate-reits [Head of income equities at TCW, Iman] Brivanlou says: "Divid…
  • I'm a bit wary when 'enhanced', 'strategic', or 'dynamic' are included in a fund's name Marketing aside, what do you really think about the funds? Are enhanced index funds genuinely enhanced? Link Rather than (or in addition to) reading a summary,…
  • They are quantitatively "enhanced" index funds, though Fidelity dropped the "index" part of the name for the ETF versions. Fidelity converted its International Enhanced Index Fund FIENX, its Large Cap Core Enhanced Index Fund FLCEX, its Large Cap G…
  • A deductible is the amount you have to pay before any insurance kicks in. The highest deductible a Part D plan is allowed to have is $545; some may have lower deductibles. https://www.medicare.gov/drug-coverage-part-d/costs-for-medicare-drug-c…
  • Traditional Medicare lets me sleep nights and I have to chase down no eligible doctors and hospitals. There are some (an admittedly small number) of providers who have opted out of Medicare entirely. In this sense, Medicare too has a network, it's…
  • What would be covered under "Equity"? I don't pretend to know what IBKR has in mind. However, generally speaking equity means an ownership interest regardless of the form of ownership. It is broader than stock ownership, i.e. owning shares of a…
  • There are a few Medigap plans that offer additional benefits, like dental, vision, and hearing. I think I read somewhere that these amount to 5% of Medigap plans, but the fraction may not be even that high and I don't know how to find such plans e…
  • Regular account trades are routed under "payments for order flows" and that is how they distinguish the Pro account commissions. Fidelity doesn't get payment for order flow on equity trades (it does on commodities). Neither does Merrill. And t…
  • I tried to use their mutual fund search tool and asked the tool to give me all the US equity funds. I received a "There are 0 results." I am sure they offer more than 0 US equity mutual funds but could they make their website a little bit more frien…
  • Clients may earn interest on positive settled cash balances. Accounts with a Net Asset Value (NAV) of USD 100,000 (or equivalent) or more are paid interest at the full rate for which they are eligible. Accounts with NAV of less than USD 100,000 (or…
  • As one of the affected users :-( I can assure you that that message is not for naught. My account still reads "At the close of business on November 1, 2023 ..." I'm glad it works for you and for others, and perhaps for 99% of TIAA users. Really …
    in TIAA outage Comment by msf November 2023
  • This is a problem accessing an actual TIAA investment product. As you said, that's much more serious. This is not merely trying to get info via TIAA on some product held elsewhere, such as Fidelity. I have no problem accessing info about a frie…
    in TIAA outage Comment by msf November 2023
  • I could and can log in fine. However, as the message says upon logging in, "current account values are unavailable". No change. This problem is product-specific (note the wording "one of our vendors"). I have been able to get investment info …
    in TIAA outage Comment by msf November 2023
  • Don't know about its estimated distributions, but SSgA's S&P 500 fund (SVSPX) carries a 12b-1 fee that rounds to 6 basis points (total ER of 16 basis points): The Fund has adopted a distribution plan under Rule 12b-1 pursuant to which payments o…
  • FPACX currently has 91 equity holdings, per M*. The predecessor ETF has a concentrated portfolio, "typically a 20-50 position common equity portfolio", according to its fact sheet. Its daily holdings are here: https://fpag.fpa.com/#holdings I…
  • There are more generous INHERITED IRA rules for a spouse 10 years, or even younger, than the deceased. You may be confusing the RMD rules for a regular (as opposed to inherited) IRA. Here are the rules for spousal inherited IRAs as described by C…
  • Is there a real thing, gift to a spouse, when they already own 1/2 of everything you do and visa-versa? Surely you're not saying that if you have $100K in the bank on Tuesday and you get married on Wednesday, then you immediately "lose" $50K? In C…
  • Nice piece as usual from Kitces. If nothing else, it goes far in conveying a sense of why one doesn't find calculators for this. A couple of the comments are also worth a mention: - the first comment suggests including ACA subsidies (tax cred…
  • Insurance is a matter of shifting risk. The more risk you want to shift to the insurance the insurer, the more you have to pay. If you are certain that you will only need tier 1 drugs, and are willing to assume the risk that you are wrong (i.e. p…
  • It looks like you're comparing three 2024 Medicare Advantage plans (plan IDs from URL): Aetna Eagle Plan H5521-323-0 (no drugs) MVP Medicare Gold Giveback with Part D H9615-019-0 (giveback = $30 credit each month) Wellcare No Premium Open H2775-106…
  • A few other things to keep in mind: 1. ACA - for those "younger" (pre-65) folk, subsidies get phased out based on income. KFF.org seems to have a decent calculator for these subsidies. I haven't checked it out extensively, but IMHO KFF is one …
  • Some have posted in the past that Fidelity's eMoney provides some budgeting and cash flow capabilities. I haven't used any of these so I can't comment on how extensive they are. https://www.fidelity.com/go/monitoring-your-financial-portfolio
  • Echoing what yogi wrote, according to M*'s analysis, JEPIX even without the options overlay holds a defensive portfolio with a beta only 0.8 of the market. For example, unlike VFIAX, it doesn't hold AAPL, NVDA, or TSLA. In broader terms, it holds …
  • Intuit (owner of Mint) is pushing people to its other property, Credit Karma. Credit Karma is thrilled to invite all Minters to continue their financial journey on Credit Karma, where they will have access to Credit Karma’s suite of features, produc…
  • Now there's a name out of the past. Odd that instead of combining share classes (there's still investor class shares JAMFX), the board decided to liquidate one class of shares. Based on ERs, I suspect that there are few institutional shares outst…
  • You're watching hot money flows (quick and easy transactions at brokerages). Savers willing to click a few more times can still find CDs with as good or better rates at internet (or even brick and mortar) banks. Here are four fixed rate 2 year-ish…
  • Just want to make it clear, JHQAX doesn't short stocks. I've actually tried to find a balanced or allocation fund that returns as well, with lower or the same volatility. HFSAX has returned nearly the same amount as JHQAX (6.54% vs 6.71% annualized…
  • IOW, a plan with a $300 deductible is not a high deductible plan. By design, high deductible, HSA-eligible health plans discourage use. Aside from free (no deductible) preventive care, they may cost so much to use that they are effectively just…
    in HSAs Comment by msf November 2023
  • How can a political candidate possibly get elected by presenting reasonable arguments if a large percentage of the population appears to be immune to reason? Or facts. A poll by The Economist and YouGov last April reported that 80% of Democrats a…
  • PEOPX and DSPIX are two different funds, not two share classes of the same fund. PEOPX is projected to distribute "just" 5.7% of NAV. Useless trivia: PEOPX ticker comes from the Dreyfus fund's old (1990s) name: People's Index Fund. (A fund for t…
  • Certainly she can ask HR what she can do, recognizing that HR likely had nothing to do with her initial enrollment. I have my doubts about prospects for success, but there's no harm in asking. CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) is th…
    in HSAs Comment by msf October 2023
  • There's no requirement that HSA contributions be made into the employer's HSA. She can open an outside HSA (say, at Fidelity) for the year. The benefits of contributing to an employer's HSA via payroll deduction are: 1. Possible employer contr…
    in HSAs Comment by msf October 2023
  • One huge benefit of HSAs is years of buildup of funds ....If she is only going to work 2-3 more years, I wonder if it is worth her while to sign up for the HSA now and deal with unenrolling from Medicare Part A with the Social Security Administrati…
    in HSAs Comment by msf October 2023