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.
"But for larger investors, fund families pay for those services out of their own pockets - not from loads. This is common industry practice. In a sense, not only is Skeet getting shares at NAV, but he's getting a kickback in the form of a payment fr…
I think that JoJo26 kind of nailed it with his comment re "bombarding the board with garbage". That was also the drift of my "birds of a feather" remark the other day.
@Graust-
I've been thinking about your comments since reading them the other day, because I feel that much of what you said was both interesting and accurate. On your major points-
"You guys, isn’t @johnN not a native English speaker? I think yes…
@Sven- Yes, for example one of the key ingredients in valsartan and many other blood-pressure medicines is made in China. The only reason that we consumers now know this is that all of the products made with this Chinese ingredient have been "recall…
@Investor- A very welcome back! I've often had a thought for you, wondering how you were doing. Glad to see that you're OK. Never mind Ted- he's been a bit grumpier than usual as of late. Rono and Catch22 are still with us, as is Hank, Mark, and a f…
As I'm sure most have noted, John seems to post just for the sake of posting, whether or not the material is either useful or even intelligent. Much of the time it's painfully evident that he doesn't thoroughly read the material, much less understan…
@Ben: For some people, anything that will cost them a dime is Far-Left Socialism. Much easier to chant "You can't solve this problem by throwing money at it" than actually trying to do anything... especially if, god help us... a TAX might be involve…
Yes. Maybe it bears repeating.
"What Americans who support “socialism” actually want is what the rest of the world calls social democracy: A market economy, but with extreme hardship limited by a strong social safety net and extreme inequality limi…
I lay the responsibility for the current lopsided political bias of the Supreme Court directly at the feet of Harry Reid, who in another short-sighted political maneuver eliminated the filibuster provision when considering the appointment of federal…
I also agreed with Mitch McConnell's previous stance that this whole thing is a very bad idea because it sets a precedent that future Democratic presidents may take advantage of. Of course, that's no longer operative, since Mr. McConnell has once ag…
I'd feel a lot better about the Supreme Court if it hadn't been the victim of politicization by both parties. I absolutely don't want a court that is predictable because of political bias. I much prefer not having any idea how or why the court will …
This morning Trump admitted he doesn’t even really see the situation at the border as an emergency.
“I didn’t need to do this,” Trump said. "But I’d rather do it much faster."
It's an "emergency" but he didn't need to do this? Hello??
With respect to border security, the recent trial of "El Chapo" Guzman was illuminating. The testimony and evidence revealed the history of many sophisticated and successful methods of transporting drugs into the United States.
Trump's wall would h…
@hank- You are welcome. BTW, when I access our Morgan/Chase account via the internet, the whole shebang is consolidated right there: the checking account, a small savings account that we also keep there, the Amazon cc, the Sapphire cc, and one addit…
We don't have charge cards with either First Republic or Schwab, but we do have ATM withdrawal cards. We never use those domestically, but when doing foreign travel we use them, and both are no foreign transaction fee. So far they have worked very w…
@DavidV- no problem- thanks for the clarification.
Before he got old he was just "Skeet". After he got old I told him that I had the lock on the "Old" title. He should have listened to me. :)
@hank- I hope that you appreciate the following, because when I was reviewing the previous version in the "edit" mode I accidentally hit the "return" key, and erased the whole damned thing. So here goes one more time.
It's been some years since I o…
@hank- If the size of our paper currency had diminished in scale with the decrease in purchasing power it would now be about half the size of Monopoly money.
@Mark- Yep, we're also pretty close to your situation. Everything paid for, and with pension incomes, we don't really need income from equity investments, and don't want exposure to a sudden downturn in equity values. We just think that we're gettin…
@Mark- Just checked out iDine... no restaurants that we would be interested in for our area. Also, being a firm member of the "no free lunch club", I have to wonder if a restaurant that uses iDine or something similar doesn't offset the expense in s…
@DavidV: I'm sorry, but I'm not sure what posting you are referring to. I took a quick look at recent posts on the subject, and came up with-
• December, 2018: "Being 80, I've done more than tinker around the edges- I've eliminated a few weak sis…
@Mark- Yeah. Well, if I had the depth of resource structure that Mr. Buffett has, I'd go with his plan too. By resource structure, I don't mean the actual value of the holdings- I mean the expert financial information and manipulation resources whic…
The Amazon credit card (Morgan-Chase Visa) seems advantageous because in addition to the normal cash-back percentages on non-Amazon purchases you get (as a "Prime" member) a 5% discount on all Amazon purchases charged to that card. (The discount sho…
Down to about 1%. At 80 and with potential health issues, I am not optimistic about the time-frame likely needed to hunker down through the next downturn and then back up the other side. My wife has no interest in the financial affairs, other than a…
