Barron's on Funds & Retirement, 12/30/23

yogibearbull

PREVIEW & REVIEW (consolidated). 2023 was a bad year for BIOTECH, but there were several M&A deals. The equal weight XBI outperformed the market-cap weight IBB. Pause in rate hikes, and prospects for rate cuts, helps companies that rely on debt. 2024 should be a better year for biotech.

Best INCOME investments for 2024. Bonds came through in 2023 beating their recent bear market. Who knew that Treasuries could move like this. Bond yields are higher and more normal. Cash remains appealing too. Dividend stocks lagged other stocks, but offer both current-dividends and dividend-growth. In the list below, fund types OEFs, ETFs and CEFs are mixed.
US Dividend Stocks – VYM, SCHD, NOBL
Foreign Dividend Stocks – IDV, SCHY, IEMG
Energy Pipelines – AMLP, KYN, SMLPX
Utilities – XLU, UTG, NEE
Telecoms – T, TMUS, VZ
Convertibles – CWB, ICVT
Real Estate – VNQ, RQI
MBS – MBB, VMBS, DLTNX
HY – HYG, TUHYX, JQC
Preferreds – PFF, JPC, FPEI
Munis – VWITX, NEA, MUB
Treasuries – SHY, TLT, TIP

FUNDS. Many investors like to buy TREASURIES at Auctions at Treasury Direct (TD; a site that isn’t very user-friendly). One has to own these to maturity at TD, or move them out of TD to brokerages for trading. But Treasuries can also be bought at major brokerages at Auctions or in the secondary market (with bid-ask spreads) with no/little commissions. Treasury funds can be used by those who don’t want to deal with individual Treasury purchases. (By @LewisBraham at MFO)

EXTRA, FUNDS. 2023 had several good bond ETF launches. A total of 500 ETFs were launched and 370 were active ETFs; there are now 1,353 active ETFs with $500 billion AUM. Many active ETFs have lower ERs than their OEF cousins. Mentioned are active multisector BINC, value TCAF, ETF of ETFs DFAW. The fee wars continued with indexed SCYB, BEMB, etc. The worst ETF offerings were AIYY, BITX, etc.

RETIREMENT. SECURE 2.0 has allowed several changes for 401k/403b, but plans have been slow to adopt OPTIONAL changes – employer contribution matching for student loan payments, emergency funds within 401k/403b (PLESAs), etc. This may be because the employers are focusing now on several MANDATORY changes for catchup provisions, auto-enrollments, RMDs, etc. (Also, because 401k/403b regulations have become very complicated)

https://ybbpersonalfinance.proboards.com/thread/546/barron-january-1-2024-2
https://www.barrons.com/magazine?mod=BOL_TOPNAV

Crash

Much appreciated. Happy New Year, @yogi.