the February 2017 issue is live Dear friends,
There's always a balance between broader issues and discussions of individual funds. This month tilted in the direction of funds.
AMG Chicago Equity Partners Balanced (MBEAX): a singularly low-profile, low-risk balanced fund. US equities, including a larger serving of small and mid-caps than most, plus high-grade bonds. For any comparison period that takes down cycles into account, it has gold performance. For comparison periods that look narrowly at periods marked by rising markets (the easy-to-find 1/3/5 year stuff), it's a notch down. Even in those markets, it's risk-adjusted returns are better than its peers or Vanguard STAR.
T. Rowe Price Global Multi-Sector Bond (PRSNX): formerly TRP Strategic Income, we profiled it in 2011 and I own it in my retirement portfolio. It's the first in a series of profiles labeled "left behind by Morningstar." As Morningstar focuses more resources on passive products and big funds, bunches of funds that it once recognized by meritorious get dropped from coverage. In 2011, their final word was "promising but it needs a longer track record before we upgrade it." Five years later and it's a consistently top 10 fund but still no notice.
GQG Partners Emerging Equities (GQGPX): An Elevator Talk with Rajiv Jain about his new fund.
Symons Concentrated Small Cap Value, Institutional: an interesting possibility. It'll be by far the most concentrated small cap fund out there and is based on a successful small SMA cluster. $1 million minimum, so it's mostly FYI.
Osterweis Emerging Growth (OSTGX): just wanted to share word of Jim Callinan's return with the rest of the world.
My essay mostly focused on the wisdom of keeping your head when all those about you are losing theirs. Ed addresses the ugly reality that a number of big name firms are likely in their last decade. And Bob C begins walking folks through the decisions to be made in the transition to retirement.
For what interest all that holds, and with thanks for your patience and good spirits,
David
IBD's Paul Katzeff: Trump's anti-fiduciary-rule move is less impetuous than first reported widely
recession in horizon Hi Hank,
I suspect that sleeping well at night is tightly coupled to our confidence level in our investments. That confidence level must be correlated with our investment knowledge; the more, the better.
In my earlier post, I focused on the tradeoffs between major equity to bond portfolio asset allocations. I suggest we remain focused on that tradeoff because it is critical to a comfortable
retirement with its direct impact on survivable portfolio withdrawal rates. The discussion of sleep is a distraction.
Bond elements reduce portfolo average annual returns, but they also reduce portfolio volatility (standard deviation). These are competing impacts that make an allocation decision more difficult. Also the dynamic correlation coefficient between stocks and bonds changes over time which further confuses the picture.
Much good work has been done that examines these tradeoffs. Here is a Link to one such study:
http://qvmgroup.com/invest/2013/07/30/historical-returns-for-us-stock_bond-allocations-and-choosing-your-allocation/It's a rather long piece, but the subject is complex with no one size fits all solution. Enjoy the reference!
Best Wishes.
DSEUX / DLEUX
PXAIX @TSP_Transfer,
Thanks for the tip on CCAPX, which is an interesting global allocation fund, but really not in the ALT space. The CCAPX manager, Ryan Caldwell, served as the assistant manager of WASAX when it was on top of the world (1/2007 - 6/2014), and during his tenure, this fund beat the heavy hitters like MALOX and SGIIX, and even the wannabes, like WGRNX.
Test trading for CCAPX indicates that it is not available at Scottrade and Wellstrade, but it is available in TDAmeritrade and Fidelity
retirement accounts with no minimum + TF. At an actual 1.15% expense ratio, this fund has very reasonable expenses.
Kevin
DSEUX / DLEUX According to my test trade at TDAmeritrade, DSEUX has a $5K not a $100K minimum for retirement accounts with a TF.
Kevin
DSEUX / DLEUX @davidrmoran,
According to a test trade I just made in my TDAmeritrade
retirement account, DSEUX is available for a $5K minimum with a TF. Since I am grandfathered into the ThinkorSwim commission structure, the TF is only $15 each for buys and sells. For some reason, DLEUX is not available at TDAmeritrade.
Kevin
Relatively poor funds in 401k - Need help @mrc70,
As I see it, you have a much better than average selection of funds in your
retirement plan. With your selection, I would probably pick one fund and use my other
retirement accounts to complete the portfolio.
I am a federal employee, and I have a limited but a more than adequate selection of funds in our Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), which have an average expense ratio of a crazy-low 0.029%.
Right now I have 100% of my TSP in the "S" fund, which is comparable to your FSEVX. Based on technical analysis, I shift assets between the TSP "C" fund (S&P500 equivalent, FXSIX) and the "S" fund, and use my other
retirement accounts to fill out our portfolio.
If you have a position in PRWCX, then I would not bother with OAKBX, And SFGIX is a much better option in EM than GTDIX. And for FI, I would stick with PIMIX, and maybe WHAIX, and call it a day.
Kevin
What Are You Buying ... Selling ... or Pondering? Hi MikeM!
Sounds a lot like us. We are a division of a worldwide company that's been downsizing for years also. The HR Dept. is all new.....less than 90 days....so this whole thing was poorly presented. Have gone to HR.....told them what you said. They called corporate to confirm. Yes, it can go to an IRA tax free because it came out of the retirement pension fund. Thank you very much, Mike!
God bless
the Pudd
Relatively poor funds in 401k - Need help Sounds like a good plan. Remember, the discipline of funding your retirement accounts as much as possible is the biggest objective. Second is to adjust your Fed withholdings so you get as close to break even as you can. So many get huge refunds each spring that instead can be working in your retirement investments instead.
Relatively poor funds in 401k - Need help I think the funds available are a very small part of the total return outcome over time. Putting together a good diverse portfolio and not screwing things up by trying to time the market will be 90% of your profit. I see index funds and a nice balanced fund, including retirement funds on the list. Hard to beat.
