GOOD TIME TO BUY HBLIX FUND? also considering jhqax

ducrow

im thinking about selling logox fund and repacing it with hblix fund. im an older investor and my goal is to remain invested but with funds that have less downside risk. im thinking that with interest rates dropping hblix could be a good fund to gain more bond exposure. the other funds i own are DODBX LCORX MTRIX VGWLX . ive also considered buying JHQAX (but im thinking a balance fund that holds value stocks might hold up better in a selloff)} . i will appreciate all opinions and ideas as to what i should do.

Crash

I'm 70. Officially OLD. Are not DODBX and HBLIX a bit more like each other, compared to WBALX? I just threw that one into the mix. And Morningstar doesn't always label and align things very well. I own WBALX. Performance-wise, HBLIX and WBALX are in the same 5-year ballpark. DODBX outruns the other two over 5 years, but it is not avowedly "conservative" or even "moderately conservative." Of the three, WBALX holds the highest bond quality. HBLIX offers the highest yield among them. (Morningstar.) Anyhow, how many different AA/balanced funds does a person need? If you've decided to make a switch toward less beta and volatility, I'd lose DODBX and replace it with one of the other two---assuming you've made your money, and growth is not any longer the highest priority. Never a bad time to act on your priorities, unless the Market is in turmoil. The Market's been volatile, but it's always a matter of degree. I would not call it turmoil, as the Indices march ever-upward.

MikeM

@ducrow, any chance you can edit your post and capitalize the funds you own? Makes it a whole lot easier on the reader.

hank

d

@ducrow - You are correct that HBLIX is a bit more conservative than LOGIX. It holds considerably more fixed income / bonds and a lesser amount of equities. Both look like decent funds. “Year-over-year” LOGIX is up 21.74% (M*) while HBLIX is up “only” 18.91%. Both have been hot. So how much real risk reduction? Your plan might resemble leaping from the red hot frying pan into the bubbling stew pot. A bit cooler …..

Sounds like the contemplated switch is based in part on the premise that interest rates will continue falling. Maybe they will … Personally, I’m not too sure about that. It’s not the Fed or politicians that will ultimately determine longer term interest rates (a popular misconception). It’s things like government debt-load, inflation, economic growth / recessions, geo-politics (including wars), the dollar on the foreign exchanges and “black swans” like the recent global pandemic. A 10-year bond at just over 4% seems very low to those of us here who came of age in the 70s when mortgages were running 15+%.

I don’t think you can go wrong adding to cash after a couple very hot years. I also like a toe-hold in the precious metals - however they’ve been bid up a lot lately and could suffer a big correction. There’s not much out there that looks cheap to me right now in either fixed income or equities. Use a portfolio analyzer as one gage of where you are on the risk spectrum.

I note you own DODBX. Excellent fund. I owned it for many years before finally selling a year or so ago as part of a “consolidation” of assets under one umbrella.

Re Mike’s remark. if you type a fund’s symbol in capital letters the board’s software automatically highlights it and creates a link to a variety of sources. Good idea. I hadn’t paid much attention to that since I dwell mainly at the M* site and don’t mind entering symbols manually.


Good luck.