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.
We've seen this before:
There was once a king in India who was a big chess enthusiast and had the habit of challenging wise visitors to a game of chess. One day a traveling sage was challenged by the king. The sage having played this game all his li…
Your post helps tremendously in understanding what you're thinking about. Much appreciated.
My head is full of loosely connected thoughts that would take too long to organize coherently now, so I'll just toss out a few for the moment.
I like BLS…
Since 10 year rules, inherited accounts and 401(k)s have been mentioned, I'll throw in another technical detail:
A lump sum distribution from an employer sponsored plan inherited from a participant born before 1936 can apply 10 year income averagin…
I’ve been looking at this issue myself and there’s one important wrinkle to keep in mind. While you can take your total RMDs from any or all of your affected accounts, the accounts must all be of the same type. For example, if you have both IRAs and…
Continuing on to #4:
4. Use the life expectancy withdrawal method
The life expectancy withdrawal method determines your annual RMD by ...
For all of us, this can be very confusing.
I take exception to that statement :-)
since they started 'adjusting' them in the 80s.
CPI figures have been adjusted since day one (1919). In 1921 the government cobbled together a national figure from an unweighted average of 32 city figures.
https://www.bls.gov/cpi/additional-resou…
My initial objection was to the assertion as to the reasons for the removal of home prices, nothing more.
You not only objected but offered an alternative explanation regarding the CPI-U calculation. My comments pertained to that alternative expl…
Two petty technical points:
- You're supposed to calculate the RMD for each IRA and then add them together. Usually that comes out the same as adding the values together and then dividing, since:
$A / N years + $B / N years = $(A+B) / N years.
B…
The Barron's quote of Carson which elicited your comment was about how including home costs in the CPI-U would make that number much higher. It concerned the CPI-U, or what Carson calls "the official price report".
You posited (in)frequency of…
Why should rare years-apart purchases be included in widely impacting run-of-the-mill inflation calcs? ...
Do you disagree with the BLS for including the prices of new and used motor vehicles in its CPI calculations?
It's a continuum, arguable, d…
Rather than spend a fair amount of time searching for an ratings agency (NRSRO) default report, I'll just refer you to M*'s figures. In Exhibit 2 on p. 4 of this M* paper is a table that includes "default score" by credit rating. Those aren't de…
The answer depends on what you mean. If you are asking whether you can instruct Fidelity to (a) compute your RMD for each account, (b) add those figures together, and (c) schedule an automatic withdrawal in that amount from the IRA account you spe…
The inflation headline statistic is 5.4%. 5.9% is the adjustment for SS. That affects only SS receipients. It is based on CPI-W which is different from the marquee inflation metric CPI-U.
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cpi.pdf
As I pos…
Here's the index methodology statement. Lots of buzzwords like "Expert Council", "deep domain knowledge", "immersive", "fiat on-ramps", etc. Proprietary of course.
https://www.ballmetaverse.co/methodology
When there is a shortage of chips to fall where they may, their prices may instead rise:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/hunker-down-the-chip-shortage-and-higher-prices-are-set-to-linger-for-a-while/
The Economist: “House prices were included in America's CPI between 1953 and 1983 before being removed. This was partly because indexing benefits and pensions to inflation had become expensive and some politicians wanted to bring measured inflation…
From the linked page:
The basic formula for the total transaction price used in calculating the new vehicles price index is:
Base price of new vehicle + transportation to dealer + total price of packages & options + dealer prep and miscellaneo…
>> owing to political and statistical issues
This is silly, or at best tendentious. Why should rare years-apart purchases be included in widely impacting run-of-the-mill inflation calcs? Go read the many articles posted here about what the '…
Yes, that's it. Fidelity's EV and Future Transportation ETF. You can find the its daily holdings here (click on the Daily Holdings Report tab).
Though we don't quite know what's in the index it tracks, since the index is proprietary and the fund…
Um, yeah, and I'm kinda thinking EVs and Future Transportation are a wee bit more than just the next "hot" investment idea. I'm kinda thinkin' EV's (and whatever else comes next/with them) are gonna be a HUGE part of the LT future of transportatio…
And you certainly do not want to mis this article:
The ESG Movement: The 'Goodness' Gravy Train Rolls On
I agree with the given caveat, not only in this context but generally, "For any variable, no matter how intuitive and obvious its connection to…
For clarity: I mentioned the $5 automatic investment feature for transaction fee funds because some people are familiar with the tool in that context.
When used to purchase Fidelity funds (which have no TF) it exempts the purchase from the round…
M* does not seem to think as highly of this fund [MWFRX/MWFLX], based on its fund analysis commentary.
That would be M*'s artificial "intelligence" program. The one that doesn't like MWFLX because while its "view" of the fund's process is above a…
Calamos Market Neutral Income Fund (CMNIX / CVSIX / CVSCX)
https://www.calamos.com/globalassets/media/documents/tax-center/calamos-market-neutral-income-fund-estimated-2021-capital-gains.pdf
Estimates for all other Calamos funds will be available N…
Outstanding piece. Objective, matter of fact tone, well organized, explains the situation.
Even in the best of times, some people can benefit from the help of an advocate simply to walk them through a benefits process. Unfortunately, and as …
Here's an NPR piece about how Ford raising his workers' wages helped to create the middle class. It concludes with the statement:
[A] century after Henry Ford started paying $5 a day, it's not at all clear that today's employers and workers can re…
I've cited this2017 M* piece before, but it's worth mentioning again. It expounds on what your wrote.
https://www.morningstar.com/articles/834221/is-pimco-income-the-new-total-return
Are you asking why the beta is so low in magnitude (since the price moves sharply, one might expect the beta to be higher), or why it's that high, or even why it isn't negative (since the US market has trended up in the past few months while ENIC ha…
It was a nice clean calculation (+1).
One needs to read the source cited for the estimated 2022 premium to discover the ultimate source. That's the 2021 annual report of the Medicare trustees.
https://www.cms.gov/files/document/2021-medicare-trus…
I can't buy PIMIX in Fidelity 401k...Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr! I get so disappointed when that happens...it happens a lot!
If your heart is set on Pimco Income, you may be able to buy the somewhat more expensive institutional I-3 share class PIPNX in your Fi…
Many years ago, one could get into MWTIX at Fidelity at mere mortal mins (not the current $3M). With the lower ER of MWTIX, the fund might be worth holding. But between the higher ER of MWTRX, the fact that Rivelle will be retiring next year, an…
There are never any early redemption fees on Fidelity funds.
Fidelity has two different sets of policies. One on non-Fidelity mutual fund transactions and one on Fidelity fund transactions.
- Make too many (two) short term (within 30 days) round…
(This is a 403b, so hey, I wonder if you can sue TIAA for not automatically moving the RMD each year into some nonretirement cash account ... assuming they did not.)
Assuming the relative tried to sue, "failure to mitigate" comes to mind. (Not adv…
By law, "[t]he standard Part B premiums are set to cover 25% of projected average per capita Part B program costs for the aged, with federal general revenues accounting for the remaining amount."
https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R40082.pdf
However, for…
there’s a fee wavier which appears to drop the ER down to 0.29%
As strange as this may sound, you're reading it backward. The gross ER is 0.29%, while the net ER, after accounting for fee waivers is higher, at 0.31%.
This is because the waiver c…
Nothing like transposing characters. My error.
Looks like a pretty good fund. The only thing that jumps out on a cursory look is that it is very deep into junk bonds - more than half are B rated, another nearly 10% below B.
The higher rates only benefit newer issues (at higher rates). The existing holdings (that have lower rates) become increasingly less attractive.Even if the fund holds floating rate securities / adjustable rate mortgages?
Possibly. ARM funds were …
Especially since it's 1.1% higher than one would have gotten had the SSA used CPI-E to compute COLA.
The cost of transportation soared; no other category went up 4% or more. The category with the lowest Y/Y inflation was medical care, at 0.74%.…
M* classifies TIAA-CREF Lifestyle Income Fund as a 15%-30% allocation fund. In the summary prospectus, TIAA benchmarks the fund against M*'s Conservative Target Risk Index, which is a static 20/80 index.
https://www.tiaa.org/public/investment-perf…
The CPI-W data above has been updated to include September. You now have all the data necessary to calculate exactly the 2022 COLA. Be the first on your block with the number.
The Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers …
