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.
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…
I cited the requirement above - 5% net redemptions and liquidity costs above 1 basis point.
There is another set of rules for discretionary redemption fees. These may be imposed only if the fund board deems the fee to be in the best interest of t…
Those "certain money market funds" are institutional funds. This is in lieu of the earlier swing pricing proposal.
institutional prime and institutional tax-exempt money market funds will be subject to a mandatory liquidity fee when net redemptions…
bonds are higher up than stocks in terms of principal protection
This sort of principal protection concerns bankruptcy. When a company goes bust, whatever assets it has go first toward paying off debt (bond holders). If the company has anythin…
The 3.5% is just the cap on what an intermediary may charge. I'm confident that if one were to invest via Fidelity, Schwab, E*Trade (Morgan Stanley), Merrill (BofA), Vanguard, etc. there would not be a load.
Accounts at financial institutions are considered to be inactive if there has been no activity (aside from automatic divs/interest/CD renewals) for some period of time, often 12 months.
The institution continues to hold your assets, though it may "…
For the most part, this looks even worse than described. The S (retail) shares will have management fees of 1.25% plus shareholder servicing fees of 0.85% plus implicit borrowing fees. The expense table suggests this adds another 6.08% to the an…
The CR is only 71 pages long, double spaced (25 lines per page). Throwing out the first couple of pages (essentially title pages), and recognizing that it is in three sections each ending with partial pages, there are approximately 68 x 25 = 1700 …
Congress will get paid
That's part of the Constitution: Article I, Section 6, Clause 1.
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S6-C1-1/ALDE_00001044/
for no work
There's the problem. The Constitution doesn't require them to actuall…
Ideally, one would just copy the HTML table () from the original page to here and be done, but MFO supports only limited HTML. That doesn't include tables.
However, MFO does support preformatting (), so one can copy the whole table as text (inclu…
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Here's the bar chart of the predecessor (privately offered) fund's performance. I don't care what this fund is investing in, I'll pass.
This is one of the few downsides of investing via brokerages (necessary for ETFs) rather than directly with fund companies.
When your 1099's come from the fund companies, they usually include all this supplemental information personalized to your…
Schedule 3, line 1 (foreign tax credit) gets totaled in Schedule 3, line 1, and carried over into 1040-SR line 20 (in the "taxes and credits" section).
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040s3.pdf
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040s.pdf
Mutual f…
Pretty weak article, and poorly written. Hard to figure out what it is saying anyone holds.
Is it counting ETFs as equities? Asked because it separates out investments in mutual funds (17.57% advised, 20.10% DIY).
Cash? 5.70% advised, 15.7…
Is this the SA piece you're talking about ("Norway's WHT is 15%.")?
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4633977-we-expect-lower-earnings-from-aluminium-giant-norsk-hydro
From the company's own website:
The withholding tax of 25 percent may be lower pu…
The bond market will close two hours early (2PM EST) on Dec 29th. Just in case you're looking to dump Treasuries as rates continue to rise. (That's a lighthearted statement, not a prediction.)
Less often practiced, but potentially useful, is tax…
IMO, robo-advisors are nothing more than hyped-up allocation funds that are liked by the younger generation. If one is willing to spend a little time, one can achieve a similar effect with traditional allocation funds (static-allocations; Income, c…
Have robos gotten their clients out of the cap weighted S&P 500 - or at least reduced exposure this year?
Hopefully not early this year. YTD (through Sept 22, data from M*),
VOO (S&P 500): 13.89% (23rd percentile LCblend)
IVOO (S&P 40…
Looking at a new ETF (INCM) from Franklin. 60% fixed income, 20% equity and 20% “convertible equity linked notes”.
ETF page
It helps to provide a link.
What the page actually says is: "Convertibles/Equity-Linked Notes". Convertibles and ELNs cu…
In the end, I believe the clients have the equal responsibility to work with their advisors in order to put together a solid asset allocation plan so to meet their future needs.
Wow are you on the mark. I know a few people who are using advisors …
I've not used any financial adviser, WEG or other, personally. My situation is simple enough to handle myself; just maximize after-tax value subject to risk tolerance.
Don't dig too deeply into the spreadsheet. It goes beyond obvious simplificat…
@Sven - very nice writeup specifically addressing some questions asked here.
Curious that your advisor said VPMCX wasn't available. From the fund prospectus:The Fund is closed to new accounts for investors not enrolled in Vanguard Flagship Servi…
for many funds, the documents only go back to 2007 even if the fund is much older (example: Ariel Fund).
That's not entirely correct. You may not be able to find them, but generally the SEC has fund docs going back to 1994 or 1995, including Ariel…
It's usually better (safer) to Read The Fine Manual (prospectus). Sample from VPMCX / VPMAX prospectus, Jan 25, 2008:
MANDATORY CONVERSIONS TO INVESTOR SHARES
If an account no longer meets the balance requirements for Admiral Shares, Vanguard may …
