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.
Apparently I didn't communicate well. I was trying to point out that one can't infer much from percentages of long and short, let alone net allocation percentages, for much but vanilla funds.
So in observing that BAMBX was 165/65, which superfici…
I'm inclined to agree with @Baseball_Fan that multi-strategy funds are generally a bunch of spaghetti.
Even if one does understand how each alternative strategy tends to work in isolation and even if one does understand how they interact, IMHO t…
SWAN sounds like it's basically a principal protected note (PPN). Don't have time now to find a good reference for how they're constructed. Such a reference will help provide a better understanding of how these work.
Note that the options don't p…
I could just repeat what I said in a nearby thread on BAMBX (LINK).
Tips on linking:
One can link to a specific post by copying the link from the date on that post; your post is:
https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/comment/1432…
Alerian Energy Infrastructure (ENFR)? Hard to think of a $62M ETF that's focused on just a slice of infrastructure (energy MLPs) as a main ETF.
Investopedia's piece seems a bit confused on some details. Its title says that it is about the the …
The ICI has a somewhat provincial perspective when it comes to fund history. Though its fund timeline does start with Adriaan van Ketwich's 1774 pooled investment vehicle the Eendragt Maakt Magt ("unity creates strength") trust, the ICI can't seem…
msf How difficult is your econ class? I thought about majoring in economics, but my background in calculus was weak. Majored in Accounting instead so I could get a job after graduation.
Hard question to answer - I find the econ classes very straight…
Thanks. I've fixed the link.
When one changes the font in a link (as I did to acknowledge that this is an opinion piece, not a news story) one needs to insert the link explicitly. MFO doesn't handle it automatically. And I erred by strippi…
Here's a different take. The op ed writers agree that the decision is political. But they feel that the political calculation comes down to bipartisanship (Powell (R)) vs. greater regulation that would factor in climate change (Brainard (D)).
Th…
msf said: Schwab is projecting average real returns over the next decade of around 4.5% in the stock market and negative bond returns. Would you please provide a link to Schwab? Thanks
I read the figures straight off the graph; forecasted real ret…
Do you have to sell the Roth because your Vanguard holdings are unavailable at TRP?
If so, you may want to consider exchanging your Vanguard holdings for ones which are available at TRP prior to the transfer.
This should enable in-kind transfers of…
Keep subtracting one. So that one goes from, say, dividing by 19 years to dividing by 18 years ... down to dividing by 1 year. At that point, one must take everything out.
Which is a good thing. Otherwise one would have to divide by zero t…
RMDs for inherited IRAs are grandfathered - if you have an existing inherited IRA from which you are taking RMDs, you can continue as if nothing had changed. You do not need to deplete them within 10 years.
https://www.irahelp.com/slottreport/stre…
Your tax dollars at work.
Well, yes. Part B premiums cover about 1/4 of the cost of providing health care to participants. Tax dollars pay for the other 3/4. So the government is increasing the tax dollars it is contributing toward recipients'…
In a sense, the whole claims system is a game. The insurers do everything they can to come up with excuses to deny or delay paying the fair amount on claims.
My doctor's office had a claim denied because they had not stated explicitly that the…
Things definitely get much simpler with a single payer. I'd stop seeing all these signs on the walls and doors of my PCP's office saying that procedure X needs approval if patient is covered by insurer A, but go ahead if covered by insurer B. An…
Here's the benefits sheet on the old Select Client Services.
https://individual.troweprice.com/staticFiles/Retail/Shared/PDFs/FullBenefits.pdf
Something else missing on the new Summit Program benefits sheet is Turbotax. The online version was free…
Many European countries do not use single payer systems.
Everyone in France must buy health insurance, sold by a number of nonprofit funds [i.e. multiple payers]. ...
Switzerland has a universal health care system, requiring all to buy insurance. …
Thanks for the insight from the provider's perspective. As a patient (or in business terms, as a customer), I've wound up delving into not just CPT codes but their modifiers. In one doctor's office after I started questioning some things, they s…
One can use Portfolio Visualizer (PV) to see how he arrived at the age 70 investment portfolio values. PV shows slightly lower values. That is possibly because when one asks PV for a 6% rate of return, it doesn't use 6%/12 (0.5 basis points) for t…
Out of curiosity, I fed lisinopril into GoodRx, and the cheapest price it gave me for a 90 day supply was at a supermarket without a coupon. If you use a GoodRx coupon at the same place it would cost over 10% more.
Update: New monthly premium for Part B will be $170.10 per month, which is an increase of $21.60 per month. Also, Part B deductible will increase from $203 annually in 2021 to $233 annually in 2022. Everywhere I had read indicated around a $10 a …
It depends on the physician or other medical provider.
I used an ACA plan that didn't include one of my doctors and he charged me a reasonably modest cash rate. Same for some physical therapy sessions that I paid for out of pocket while I sicc…
The first thought through my mind was: the IRS would never consider TWVLX "substantially identical" to whatever index one would like. For tax purposes at least that would get laughed out of court.
The article conflates active share and correlat…
Funds can and often do drift across category boundaries. I would not want to see a fund whipsawed between categories every three months (funds disclose portfolios quarterly) just because it added (or subtracted) 3 or 4 percent in equities, or edge…
One can always go straight to the horse's mouth:
https://www.troweprice.com/personal-investing/campaign/summit-program.html
This is essentially the same basic information that T. Rowe Price sent to customers last month via email, though it adds a l…
If you do not try to deduct expenses that have no relationship to the purpose of the business, I don't think the IRS cares what you do with it.
The IRS does care. If it regards your business as a mere hobby, e.g. because you've failed to turn a p…
Agreed, a distinct TIN (EIN/SSN) would seem to be sufficient.
No need to go through the process of creating an LLC. An EIN can be assigned to any business. I have an EIN as a sole proprietor - it's required to have an individual 401(k).
https:/…
I agree opt out programs significantly increase participation rates above that of opt in programs. They may be the most effective way of boosting participation. However there is the danger of unintended consequences for lower income workers that…
Roth IRA used to have $2,000 limit when it started in 1998. Many people don’t have jobs with 401K) and 403(b) plans. How can one save enough for retirement with $6,000 and 1,000 catch-up, per year?
"Fifteen percent of households in the labor force …
Vanguard ...
Oh and another thing. They sense of "rounding" is illogical regarding how many shares they give you for whatever price even when you are investing nice whole $ amounts e.g. $1000.
It seems every institution has its own calculation qui…
I'm a little surprised that one could circumvent the $10K limit per year by using a revocable trust. For tax purposes, revocable trusts are treated as an extension of the individual. That's different from irrevocable trusts which (except for gran…
Taxes apply when redeemed
Just one tax - federal. Savings bonds, like Treasuries, are exempt from state and local taxes. Making their rates look even better.
The text in the originally cited piece immediately following the quoted section reads:
Now, the only problem with this cool story is there’s no evidence it ever really happened. Google results turn up plenty of stories about this supposed “study” — …
I replicated your test transfer several hours before you mentioned Yodlee. Only later, an hour or two after you subsequently named it as the third party did I try again. I tried again because as you noted Vanguard started providing alternative pa…
On wonders if Vanguard is listening.
As BaluBalu had not (until an hour ago) identified the third party, and because I did not recall being prompted by Vanguard to provide Yodlee any information, I started a test transfer. Sure enough, in the pro…
We did an IRA transfer from Fidelity to Vanguard a year ago that went via ACAT, just as Observant1 described. When I spoke with Vanguard I was told that the medallion guarantee requirement originates with the sending brokerage. If they don't req…
Most of Vanguard's index funds offer ETF class shares, so one can avoid using the Vanguard platform to invest in those funds. However, none of Vanguard's allocation index funds (target date, target risk, or "traditional balanced") or tax managed i…
