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.
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…
This link seems to cover a lot of the questions regarding HSA and turning 65
hsa_and_medicare
At age 65, you can use your HSA to pay for Medicare parts A, B, D and Medicare HMO premiums tax-free and penalty-free.
You can use an HSA to pay for Me…
Unlike Mr. Sherman, I assumed the OP was talking about 3 yr stddev, because OSTIX's 5.46% is close to the target 5.20%. The latter is just enough lower to make it worth looking at a fund that is at least that much "better". In contrast, OSTIX's 10…
This looks like Price Equity Index 500 PORTFOLIO that is offered via insurance products. AUM is $26.8 million only and ER is 39 bps.
https://markets.ft.com/data/funds/tearsheet/summary?s=0P00003DWI
https://www.troweprice.com/financial-intermediary/…
Not too surprising. Given its relatively high ER (currently 0.20%), the only raison d'être I could ever see for this fund was as a convenience for T. Rowe Price investors.
Some may not have wanted to open an account elsewhere for a cheaper S&am…
I haven't been looking at Off-Topic threads, so I missed this. Saw your post in CD vs. MM rates. Great to hear that you're doing well. We've missed your posts.
RPHYX / RPHIX has reopened, so that's another option that's available to you. Sho…
I'm not sure I'd call a related distributor (a la Fidelity, Vanguard, etc.) a third party, as that term often suggests independence. Rather, a distributor is a separate legal entity (whether independent or a subsidiary), perhaps a distinction witho…
I was looking at the historical performance of a large-cap blend mutual fund yesterday (a good fund -- rated "Gold" and "five stars") and couldn't help but notice that 100% of its outperfomance over the past decade went straight to operating expense…
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-10-23/nobody-wants-mutual-funds-now
The page contains five pieces. Though four of them are unrelated to the title of the page. The actual title of the copied piece is: Barbell Strategy
Omitted in t…
How odd. An SEC search for FLPSX annual report docs prior to 20060101 turns up CSRs for 2003, 2004, and 2005. For example, the 2003 CSR is:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/81205/000075119903000008/main.htm
Perhaps you're looking in the …
when I put DODBX into the search box everything came up as in the past
Yes, but. That's all that works.
When you put in a ticker for any non-D&C fund, it autocompletes (if the ticker isn't five chars). In any case, it shows you the full nam…
Have they determined that the health benefit outweighs any long-term problems? I remember the hype about amphetamines in the 50s.
From the same NYTimes piece:
The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, an influential nonprofit group, asked abou…
New diabetes/obesity drug prices per month (image below should open), https://twitter.com/Jason/status/1692641465363493146
Only injectables, no oral tabs yet.
Most insurance cover them only for diabetes, not obesity.
The key word in the graphic…
The five year CD might have a penalty of a year (it would almost certainly have at least a six month penalty) for early withdrawal. That could still make this a good move.
But if you bought the CD from a brokerage it would be little different fro…
I believe D&C is changing their funds to institutional shares and they need to be registered with SEC. They are still sold through Fidelity Retail brokerage, but it has not been completed yet.
That's an interesting theory, but the new filings…
I’ve long held a slug in international bonds thru an etf. Seriously considering shifting that into an etf that’s about 70% U.S. & 30% foreign. ISTM that with the 10 year near 5% U.S. bonds are the better choice now. What am I missing?
FWIW, tha…
What's the connection? Is the cheapest quintile requirement intended to bias the selection toward Vanguard, American Funds, D&C (not one of the three firms totaling 18 funds on the list), and Baird? If so, is it also intended to bias against …
Below is the complete response received from Fidelity. There's really little else Fidelity could say.
Thank you for your email that we received on October 6, 2023, regarding SEC rule 2a-7. As your concerns are important to us, your email was forwar…
Some fund companies will allow you to do a direct rollover into a closed fund even if you have to liquidate your employer-sponsored plan assets to do a rollover. (Having to liquidate for a rollover is not unusual.)
Try calling TRP and asking if th…
My approximation for the closed PRWCX is a mix of TCAF + PYLD + USFR.
PRWCX - often imitated, never duplicated.
It varies its equity sleeve between 56% and 72% of its assets (per M* analysis report). That's going to be hard to mirror, let alone…
@Old Joe . My guess is the CMS just pulls numbers out of some data banks which are not accurate.
Enough with the guessing, please. Not when two minutes of searching can turn up the actual practices one is interested in.
BLS data collectors visit (…
Vanguard has two different cash sweep programs. They both use the same banks. For reasons described below not having to do with safety, I wouldn't be inclined to keep much money in either sweep account.
Vanguard Cash Deposit uses the FDIC-insured…
We go through the same ritual every year - anecdotes about how prices of some class of items or another has shot up. Then a leap from that to inferring that the average increase in prices nationwide can't possibly be what the BLS is reporting.
Th…
Also:
If I'm reading it right, the links provided by @msf apply to Medicare Advantage Plans. But I have traditional Medicare, and pay for a separate Part D Plan.
Part B incr: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/12/your-money/social-security-cola-2024.h…
CPI-W "fingers". https://www.bls.gov/cpi/tables/supplemental-files/cpi-w-202309.xlsx
Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W):
U.S. city average, by expenditure category, September 2023
[1982-84=100, unless …
My guess is that after the expected Medicare part B and D cost increases for next year this 3.2% will be a joke and more closer to 0%.
You would guess wrong. The average monthly increase in SS (based on a 3.2% increase and the average current payme…
To clarify: you don't get interest in the month that you sell.
So if you sell at the beginning of a month you've only lost a day's interest (for that month). But if you sell near the end of the month, you get nothing for those 30 days or so.
It…
It depends on how likely you are to need the money. You can get a 5.65% 1-year CD not counting a 3 mo penalty if you redeem early. Depending on how likely you are to draw on the money, your expected return could beat the MMF.
Either way, you're …
Here's an interesting piece written a week ago on divining the next fixed rate. As the writer states, there is no rule that the Treasury follows, just heuristics.
https://tipswatch.com/2023/10/08/the-i-bonds-fixed-rate-will-rise-but-by-how-much/
Tr…
M*: Cash Is No Longer Trash, but the Opportunity Cost Might Be Greater Than You Think
https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance/cash-is-no-longer-trash-opportunity-cost-might-be-greater-than-you-think
This M* piece is oriented toward the long te…
Other strips of short term bond funds got hit this week.
Ultra short term IG floating rate bond ETFs did nicely. I've been considering using them in lieu of bond funds in tax sheltered accounts for now.
"All" floating rate ETFs, including bank l…
I try to avoid putting my foot in my mouth (not always successfully), so I did check the SEC filings before sending a followup to Fidelity. I'd never looked at N-MFP filings before, but they're the equivalent of N-PORT filings (monthly holdings) f…
I've sent a note to Fidelity, as it has not updated its prospectuses.
Unfortunately, I was a bit too tactful in my note. I indicated that the Federal Register reports that a prospectus is change required by the SEC not later than Oct 2. I asked…
Several people have commented in other posts about cumulative performance figures being distorted by a recent year's hot performance ("what have you done for me lately"), including Prof. Snowball, me, and others.
In Prof. Snowball's piece (linked …
Have a heart, Your Honor!
Perhaps the judge did and may have offered parole in say just under 10,000 years :-)
Several countries have introduced CBDCs. The Fed is still evaluating digital-dollar.
Cryptocurrencies and central bank digital currenci…
Not exactly.
The bank then has two options:
1. Sell the property at a significant discount (let's say $200M)
2. Add value to the property themselves then sell it
Assuming the lender perfected its security interest (i.e. did a UCC 9 filing to put t…
A debtor files for bankruptcy voluntarily. The idea behind voluntary bankruptcy is to protect the debtor, to provide breathing space for the debtor to restructure or start over.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/voluntary_bankruptcy
OTOH, creditors…
Here's a good piece from the Sept. 8 (online) or Sept 9 (print, p. B2) edition of the WSJ:
https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/taxes/bonds-bond-funds-state-taxes-cd066239
[Per SC] [T]he Constitution prohibits the states from taxing federal debt. Bu…
As of Dec 31, the best rate on a CD in the 10-12 month timeframe may have been 4.90% APY for a 10 month term.
https://web.archive.org/web/20221222065208/https://www.depositaccounts.com/cd/1-year-cd-rates.html
That comes out to about 3.653% yield (…
focus only on bonds that are very close to maturity
That seems a bit excessive. Even MMFs can have debt that doesn't mature for 397 days. One only needs enough liquidity to meet redemptions. The SEC is increasing liquidity requirements for MMF…
