FYI: Sixty-nine year old Janet Smith feels like a swimmer who just escaped a riptide. Relieved, she told me, “I finally sold my house. Buying that house was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made.” I’ve changed Janet’s name to protect her identity. But plenty of people can relate to her story–and her new dilemma.
Regards,
Ted
https://assetbuilder.com/knowledge-center/articles/should-a-lifetime-annuity-fuel-your-retirement

Sold out of FDFAX in my Roth ira a few months ago;stunning underperformance for a Fidelity fund. VCSAX VDC RYCIX XLP all better choices for this industry sector. Redeployed sale assets into AUENX which until recently had a $2500 minimum for retirement accounts.

@Slick, what's that reg'l bank fund you mentioned? No hits on that ticker I can find except a pending listing for a JPM target retirement fund. I'm curious to see how an active oef (if that's what it is) is doing vs. an index ("modified equal weighted") like the etf KRE.

FYI: (Click On Article title At Top Of Google Search)
Two participants in Home Depot Inc.'s 401(k) plan have sued plan executives alleging that excessive fees and poor-performing investments represented a breach of their fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
The participants also sued Financial Engines and Alight Financial Advisors, both providers of investment advice to the plan, alleging ERISA violations.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=iFPUWoyZAcnHjwSXkY24Dw&q=401(k)+plan+participants+sue+Home+Depot+over+alleged+fiduciary+breaches&oq=401(k)+plan+participants+sue+Home+Depot+over+alleged+fiduciary+breaches&gs_l=psy-ab.3...3574.3574.0.4916.3.2.0.0.0.0.64.64.1.2.0....0...1.2.64.psy-ab..1.1.108.6..35i39k1.108.1I3RNFRcoXU

at the risk of its being so boring you would never look at the investment again, check out the holding breadth and proportions of the AO_ family --- AOA, AOR, AOM, AOK.

@davidrmoran . you suggested those funds to me in the past and I did take a look. I think it is a great way to anchor a portfolio, but I did find that they under-perform a good retirement fund option like found through TRP. FWIW. But for those who want one-stop simplicity and diversification, very good options.

Hi @Catch22,
I have no wrap fee based accounts.
All of my brokerage accounts are of the old school type. However, the firm that I am currently invested with does offer an advisor fee managed account platform. After hearing their presentation I chose not to invested in it. After my study and research the old school account type, for me, was the less expensive. So, I passed on the fee based managed money platform as it was presented. Later, the borker did call and advise he had received authority to discount the fee. Again, asked if I might be interested. I, again, passed.
I'm finding that the average investment advisors of today are more of a sales person who's task it is to gather assets for the firm's managed account fee program(s). They are not the old school knowledgeable advisor. Recently, I asked one of these new school advisors that knocked on my door a few questions to qualify them to continue our conversation. These were simple questions most knowledgeable investors and advisors would have known the answers to. One of these questions was what is the TTM P/E Ratio for the 500 Index? Their answer given was for the forward estimated P/E Ratio. After, showing him through my smart phone linking into Asvisor Perspectives I showed him what the TTM was. And, also linking to the WSJ I again showed this young man what both the TTM Ratio and F/E Ratio was. Since, he failed to answer correctly, I asked him to move along.
I'm thinking I'd go the Index route to investing before I'd start paying managed account wrap fees with new money put to work. I'll continue to pay the commission if I can't do a nav transfer or simply park the money in cash as I've got plenty of capital at work in the markets as it is.
Investing for me is entertaining and one of the ways I use to pass time now that I am in retirement. And, from time-to-time, I'll contract to work an assignement.

FYI: Episode 5 is an interview with personal finance and investing legend Bill Bernstein. Steve and Bill discuss the hurdles between you and a secure retirement and how to overcome them.
Hosted by Steve Chen, founder of NewRetirement, the NewRetirement Podcast offers interviews about the wise use of both money and time in retirement. We explore ideas and insights so that you can achieve a secure and meaningful future.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.newretirement.com/retirement/podcast-episode-5-bill-bernstein-5-hurdles-secure-retirement/

Annuities have all sorts of payout options, including various payouts to a survivor (e.g. spouse). When both die, the annuity "dies" with them.
Here's Investopedia's page on joint and survivor annuities. "With a joint and survivor annuity, monthly payments are typically reduced by one-third or one-half for the surviving annuitant."
Annuity payout options certainly can include annual adjustments ("a tiny raise, each and every year"). Really, vanilla annuities are very much like traditional pensions. It's when you start adding bells and whistles that their prospectuses get to be 200-300 pages long and you've no idea anymore what you're getting or how much it's costing you. KISS.
Regarding Catholic priests and investments, it may be more complicated than that. As an outsider, the first thought that came to mind was: if priests take a vow of poverty, how do they have the money to invest? And if they don't take that vow, why can't they invest in something like Ave Maria funds?
A quick search came up with an interesting site: cannonlawmadeeasy.com. It was founded by "an American canon lawyer who practices and teaches in Rome ... to provide clear answers to canonical questions asked by ordinary Catholics without employing all the mysterious legalise that canon lawyers all know and love." Note that the pages cite to Canons (in English) on the Vatican website.
From its page on The Priesthood and the Vow of Poverty:

Many Catholics and non-Catholics alike erroneously believe that all Catholic priests are obliged to live in poverty, but in fact this is not the case. Some clergy have made vows of poverty, while others have not. ... Priests who have not vowed poverty may also freely choose to invest their income as they see fit, and so they may lawfully own stocks or shares in mutual funds.

Each faith seems to come up with practical ways around what appear to be absolute rules. For example, Muslims live with riba, a prohibition against charging interest on loans. Yet through legal fictions, you've got Amana funds and Sukuk (a form of lending where the lender takes an equity interest).
I'm way out of my depth here, so please correct as appropriate.

Hey, @msf. Thanks for the new information. No, it's clear that you're NOT wrong. Which makes me wonder how my classmate could make that assertion--- that retirement plans for entities representing priests are prohibited from investing in the market. I'll be out there for a visit in late May. Gotta remember to ask him a question or two about it! (And he's in the old boys group, one of the veterans out there. Ordained in 1987.)

@Crash
Check item 9, in this list.
The returns sure are not money market rates for the years indicated; ALSO I do believe the return data is misplaced in the form.......the 2011 return is not likely correct and could be the 1.67% amount show in the adjacent year. 2011, from my recall; was about 1.7% (the year of the downgrade for U.S. credit worthiness). The negative amount for 2009 is likely a 2008 number, also misplaced in the list.
Oh, well; just a few trinkets of stuff.
I assume your notation is that a priest can not invest in the market place or do you mean a Catholic pension fund.
http://www.aod.org/our-archdiocese/archbishop-allen-vigneron/sharing-the-light-communications/priests-pension-plan/faq-about-priests-pension-plan/

Hey, Catch. Any priest as an individual could invest in the market. My note was about any official entity--- like all the priests in a particular diocese, planning as a group. Such an entity cannot by Canon Law put their retirement money at risk.... Oops, but WAIT! There's more:
It appears that my priest-friend is incorrect (!!!) Yet he distinctly and explicitly told me what I had just shared above, in this thread. Of course, Canon Law applies worldwide. There is a big chunk of it which must be interpreted in order to be applied in a way that doesn't screw people, for it to be applied meaningfully. As a seminarian and a former Catholic myself, my bishop once asked me if I'd be willing to study Canon Law. He needed a canon lawyer. The guy they had was retiring. I told the bishop I'd rather stick needles in my eyes.
But clearly, the Detroit Archdiocese is invested in the market on behalf of their priests. My classmate is in Canada. And the entire diocese (Nelson) has just 27 priests, and only 3 are from either Canada or the USA! I'm intimately familiar with the geography up there.
"... Investments of Plan funds grow in years when the markets perform well. The Plan fund is reduced when the market declines..."

Ok, that's reasonable... But when you die, you die. No more annuity, right? My traditional pension is on the endangered species list, I know. Not many still around. But under the arrangement, wifey will get 50% of what I'm getting already, at time of death, which will surely be more than the check is right now, each month. We seem to get a tiny raise, each and every year. I could have elected a different option that would offer me/us less right now, but insure that she'd get more after my demise, too. And speaking of retirement, my classmate, a Cath. priest, not long ago informed me of a fact that kinda shocked me: under Canon Law, they are prohibited from investing in the stock market AT ALL, when it comes to arranging a plan for the priests for their retirement. And with interest rates still very low, looks like a losing battle. Holy cow. Red Sox are 8-1 to begin 2018. Best beginning EVER for those bums! :)

@Old_skeet, my reply was about target date fund VTTVX. You can not get more diversified then that if you hold 100 funds. It is approximately a 60:40 mix of total domestic stock market, total domestic bond market, total Int'l stock market, total Int'l bond market.
@Maurice, I've actually decided to use T.Rowe Price retirement fund 2030 as a core holding in my self managed. I've been following those funds for quite a while, and they are pretty hard to beat. You are right though, they are poo-pooed by many, but I would venture a guess and say many people here on this discussion board would be well served by mainly owning just 1 retirement date fund and play along the edges for alpha. Just my 2-cents.

People lament the disappearance of traditional pensions, but when they're offered the opportunity for their retirement plan to give them those pension payments for life, they'd rather take the money and run.
Traditional pensions have value. Annuitize and you've got a traditional pension. The problems are not with the idea of annuities, the problems are with some (most) of the annuity products.
The IN column is an editorial. That said, it does make some fair observations:

We are all familiar with the horror stories tied to annuity products. Over the years, annuities, which come in multiple stripes and flavors, have been derided for high fees and commissions, questionable returns and mind-numbing complexity.
...let's be clear that not all annuities are overly complex and expensive; some are more closely aligned to straight insurance for old-age income.

In other words, some look like straight pensions.
What Crash is describing is all too common. That's a problem with the plan, not the concept. Government 403(b) plans are exempt from ERISA fiduciary requirements (though they may still be subject to state level trust laws). That's a good part of why many 403(b) plans are so confusing. It wasn't until just a decade ago that 403(b)s were even required to provide plan documents. The new legislation targets 401(k) plans, that are already better regulated.
The column, being an editorial, has its fair share of biased information. "[The proposal] has bipartisan support, and proponents range from the Insured Retirement Institute to AARP."
Well sure. The Insured Retirement Institute is a trade organization representing insurers, brokers, advisors, "solution providers", ... AARP started as a promoter of insurance for retirees and still makes money branding insurance products. The fact that legislation opening 401(k)s to annuities is supported by organizations standing to benefit from it is not exactly a reason to celebrate. (Though since the support is to be expected, it's not a big negative, either.)

FYI: (Click On Article Title At Top Of Google Search)
Some would argue that annuities and 401(k) plans should never mix. To those individuals, we say brace yourselves, because legislation is being considered in Congress that could clear a path for more employers to offer annuity products in their retirement plans.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=H3bLWsTMHKie0gKOhaKACQ&q=investment+news+like+it+or+not,+annuities+are+coming+to+retirement+plans&oq=invest&gs_l=psy-ab.1.0.35i39k1l2j0i67k1l4j0i20i263k1j0i67k1j0j0i67k1.1772.3858.0.7564.7.6.0.0.0.0.176.788.0j6.6.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..1.6.788.0..0i131k1j0i131i67k1.0.H-yEIfXUdhg

FYI: April is Financial Literacy Month, and for good reason. We all know the costs of lack of financial preparedness, especially as our country ages into retirement.
Perhaps the first step to financial literacy is understanding commonly used terms and financial concepts in our industry. With that in mind, we put together a glossary of financial terms meant as a tool for individual investors and financial advisors.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.etf.com/sections/features-and-news/quick-guide-common-financial-terms?nopaging=1

FYI: AS A FORMER JOURNALISM MAJOR, I’m a sucker for a good headline. I understand how difficult it is to grab a reader’s attention in ten words or less. So, when I came across a headline proclaiming that a group of Stanford researchers had determined the “best” retirement strategy, I admit I was intrigued. I clicked on a link to the study—and found not only a useful retirement planning system, but also a portal into the Stanford Center on Longevity.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.humbledollar.com/2018/04/longevity-stanford-edu/

I did a quick (maybe not so quick) screen of M*'s target date funds on my brokerage platform (run by Fidelity).
Unfiltered:
-945 Retirement Date Funds appeared in the first unfiltered screen. Most fund descriptors include a specific year in time (2010 - 2060).
My first screen tried to identify the high barrier to entry funds. There were 180 funds that required more than a $1M minimum initial investment (the highest being $15M). Many of these funds had such small AUM that they appear to be set up for a small handful of high net worth investors who are worried about their retirement. Wish I had their problem.
This group of funds had a variety of descriptors that seemed worth sharing:
SmartRetirement (JP Morgan)
Balance Risk Retire (Invesco)
One Choice (American Century)
Lifepath Dynamic or Index or Smart Beta (BlackRock)
RealPath (Pimco)
Target (Manning & Nappier & Wells Fargo)
Retirement (AllianzGI)
LifeSmart (Franklin)
Multi manager & Multi Index (JHancock)
I then filter for funds with an initial minimum of $2,500 or less:
-750 funds appeared
I Filtered for: No Fee / TF (this removed loaded funds - more than half of the above 750 carried loads)
-366 funds appeared
I Filter out High ER funds (set ER at 1.0% or lower):
-325 funds appeared
I Filter for low ER (set ER at .5% or lower):
-105 funds appeared
I Filter for lowest ER (set ER at .3% or lower):
-36 funds appeared from four companies:
Vanguard, Fidelity, Wells Fargo and Schwab
Returning to the 325 fund choice screen (funds with an ER of 1% or lower)...
I screened for both a high 3 yr Sharpe Ratio and a high 3 year Alpha:
-45 funds appeared, with the vast majority of these funds being American Funds.
-Also, M* consistently gave many of these American Funds 5* rating over 1,3,5 & 10 yr
-American Funds have many share classes options (R6, R5 & F2 seem the cheapest)
-Vanguard had 1 fund (Target Income = VTINX).
-Fidelity had 1 fund (Fidelity Freedom income = FFFAX)
Finally, I lowered the ER back down to .05% (to capture the lowest ER share classes):
-23 funds appeared (21 fund are managed by American Funds and their initial minimum is $250)

Further thoughts on growth and income (to supplement retirement income):
When I chart a cash choice (Ultrashort bond fund) like TSYYX (TSDOX) (which has a 24 year history) with a favorite growth fund (you pick yours)...I charted TSYYX with PRMTX... I imagine these two funds working together as the growth and income ingredients in a portfolio. The roughest growth period for PRMTX was between March 2000 - March 2010. It is during this spans of time one needed to have enough income stored in a fund like TSYYX to make distributions (for income) and make it through the under performance that PRMTX was experiencing.
For a long term growth and income investor, TSYYX might also serve a the funding source to reallocate into your growth fund (PRMTX) opportunistically as it under performed during time periods. TSYYX might also serve as the recipient of your growth as it is reallocated out of growth into income, again periodically.
Reallocating (re-balancing) between these two funds is one way of capturing these opportunities. Having two funds...one for growth fund and one for income...provides a place for these opportunities grow, to be harvested, to be stored and to be re-deployed when the time is right.
@davidrmoran: So yes, timing matters...it means raising cash when growth outperforms and redeploying from cash when growth under performs. The timing method is called "rules based - periodic re-allocation or re-balancing." I'm calling cash (income fund) any investment that is highly uncorrelated to the growth fund (market).
Source:
https://investopedia.com/terms/r/rebalancing.asp
@hank -Your cash holding may be serving this same purpose as a fund like FCONX or TSDOX (TSYYX). I guess I mention this because many investors forget that reallocation help a portfolio harvest gains that can be used for income or to be redeployed when growth opportunities arise. Cash can serve that purpose as easily as a conservative fund.
@MikeM...I'm easily impressed! Not going argue over a cash choice that works for you.
24 year chart:

Hi, guys.
Quick highlights.
Charles got to spend some serious time with quant investors and shares his experiences at, and conclusions from, the Democratizing Quant Investing conference.
Ed reflects on the ripple effects from interest rate rises to the housing market to the surrounding communities. And, too, being a avid reader, offers a recommendation for a novel he's just finished.
I walk folks through my non-retirement portfolio, less because anyone (other than family) cares about my portfolio and more because it's an opportunity to talk about the process of thinking about such things and the tools available for testing your thoughts.
Our Morningstar Minute talks a bit about Morningstar's new quant rating system; the short version is that they've discovered that their machine has learned to be about as good as their analysts, and is learning more. They now have ratings for all funds.
Profile of Guinness Atkinson Global Innovators, following a meeting I had with the company president and one of the managers. As long as you don't mind volatility (sharper than average drops, faster than average recovery), it's both sensible and profitable.
Speaking of "innovators," Sam Stewart - founder of the Wasatch Funds - appears to be heading out the door, taking Wasatch Strategic Income and Wasatch World Innovators with him. At the same time, they're merging Long/Short into Value. It was easy to be supportive of the former as long as the original First Monogram management team was in place, less possible thereafter.
T. Rowe Price has launched a hedge-like fund, Multi-Asset Total Return. Six "sleeves," with several of their younger hot shots managing them. A logical landing spot might be in their five-star Global Allocation fund, which currently devotes 10% of assets to a Blackstone hedge fund.
And then there was other stuff!
Hope you enjoy it. Me, I'm just staring out the door and grumbling about the fact that it's in the teens here when it should be ... oh, 20 degrees warmer to start the day.
David

Well, I can’t argue with the premise that if you’re in the market for a LONG period, B&H has worked and should (we hope) continue to work.
The author says that “… a buy and hold strategy will put me ahead.”
Ahead? That’s it? Ahead?
Roughly 70% of the money that I earned in the stock market came from trading.
I don’t suggest that people should trade. It’s just that I think that these articles
are intended to make you feel less like a dope when the market is crashing and sucking away a sizeable amount of your hard-earned money.
Sure, if you have 20 or more years before you retire, you can watch as the bottom falls out and plan on buying at a lower price point – sometime in the future.
But if you’re 50 or more, you must be aware of the sequence of returns.
If you’re nearing or in retirement, and you don’t have a healthy fear of losing money, then you’re open to losing your money and kissing a secure retirement goodbye.
If you lose money when you’re 60, you haven’t merely lost money; you’ve lost
your edge – edge being your money’s time value, which is all the income that your lost money could have generated.
When retirement is in sight, you’ve entered a new investment challenge. That challenge is the preservation of your money. So it’s primarily an age thing.
Sequence of returns
https://www.thebalance.com/how-sequence-risk-affects-your-retirement-money-2388672
http://abovethecanopy.us/sequence-of-returns-biggest-risk-to-a-successful-retirement/
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sequence-risk.asp

Also @Sven, if and when you separate service from your employer(s) you can roll over your 403(b) to a traditional IRA. I did this midway through my career because I change school systems. I also did this when I retired. Both qualified as separation of service.
Article on the Topic:
https://investopedia.com/advisor-network/articles/what-do-your-403b-funds-if-you-change-jobs/
One reason to keep your 403(b). If you are planning on retiring after age 55, but prior to 59.5, you can make 403(b) or 403(b)(7) withdrawals without incurring early withdrawal penalty (usually 10%). A traditional IRA would not be available for penalty free withdrawals until 59.5.
Both plans can be accessed penalty free for hardship reasons and other reasons (medical expenses, down payment of first home, tuition expenses, etc)
Article:
time.com/money/4535619/retirement-withdrawals-age-55-401k-403b/