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I got lots of those :(
KMP (now KMI) comes to mind. No longer an MLP, screwed their shareholders.
We have a lot of big oil, nat gas, pipelines and shale. Too big to fail? Too late to bail!!
It seems stupid not to buy good energy companies when they…
I must be a contrarian with a capital 'C' My present mind-set is to go back to what I did years ago - reinvest those divvies. 1972-3 and 1987 were good for that. 2008-9 not so much - just let cash build. Of course, this assumes divvies continue to …
Wait a minute. Isn't KMI the old KMP people who left their shareholders holding the bag and owing major taxes? Thought so. I are one. Stick 'em in their pipeline,
The opening chapter of Tuchman's Guns of August, which David mentioned, I found particularly compelling: the funeral of Edward VII in 1910 and the gathering of the high and mighty of the Ottomans, Hapsburgs and Romanovs, all those empires gone by th…
I recently bought Vanguard's Strategic Small Cap for my kids Roth IRAs. Nice it's #1.
Years ago my first purchase for them was Bridgeway Ultra Small BRUSX. Went gangbusters for a while (4K now 27K for each kid) Now languishing for some considerable…
I have never thought of gold as an investment. We hold, physically, a few eagles and maples against some bizarre occurrence and when we travel abroad we each carry one. I think at ages 75 and 73 the chances are are slimming that such an occurrence w…
It's my take that they keep it pretty much 60/40. So why not just buy VWINX?
Although, IMHO, I would not at this time.
I like VEIPX, and VDIGX. As well respected as Vanguard is, I can't see buying anything with bonds in it. Keep cash or very short …
Bought a little of Brookfield BPY (thanks to all posters who mentioned this one) at 20 on Monday. Other than that, keeping some cash to buy widows n orphans stuff plucked from the Div Aristocrats when they swoon further. May add FBIOX to the mix, no…
I am watching Monday - all the worried people dumping stuff. If it happens, well, I have a short list that I didn't buy 2009. I am 75...must be nuts.
best, hawk, the incorrigible...uh...so-called investor.
I am thinking of adding to Vanguard Natural Resourses VNR (no connection to Vanguard Funds). Anyone here hold this and if so do you think it can maintain its dividend until things improve? I'm an optomist...things will improve...lol
Hello Derf. I bought the investor shares VGENX for the kids' Roth IRAs last year, and just recently added some more for 2015. They are ages 34 and 39 FWIW. We don't have any ourselves as we have individual stock holdings in big oil, nat gas, pipelin…
Hello, Roy! I want to tell you how much FA shaped my scope of the investing world. I came over from Brill in the early days. I soon found that FA was, and remains, an experience of learning and appreciating the wisdom of others who understand much …
Gadzooks? Gadzooks I haven't seen that in many more years. A venerable expression, I am sure. As Billy Shakespeare once said as he watched a bunch of bow-legged men coming over the horizon, "Gadzooks, forsooth, what men are these, who wear their pan…
Ha. How about NOT buying? Spring 2009, Ford Motor at 1.87, 20K typed into the little box sitting on the screen. Ah, screw it says I, the thing'll probably fold.
Somehow "lost opportunity is a much better feeling than lost money" makes me feel a litt…
Usually MLPs are held in taxable accounts. Let's hope not too many held shares of KMP (KinderMorgan LP) which in morphing into KMI as a regular corporation left its taxable account shareholders hanging out to dry.
I'm interested in Bberg's small-cap rankings as I have only one holding there: Bridgeway's BRUSX. Anybody using the Vanguard VSTCX mentioned in the article? It seems to have outperformed BRUSX. BRUSX had a few outstanding years (03-04 I think) and …
Preachin' to the choir here :)
We started our kids in IRAs when they were in their early teens, 2K was the max. Now at age 37 and 32 they have 160K and 130K respectively all in Roths (converted from trad IRAs). It's kinda our annual 'gift' to them. …
Hi BenWP and others. I will have to check out Bruce Funds. Always had a soft spot in my heart for 'strip-mall' quality shareholder reports. Does anyone remember Bridgeway's early ones, stapled at the upper left, looking like your term paper only fol…
Hi Hank.
My own marginally functioning brain seems to cope best with the old 'sentence' password idea using the first letter of each word, etc. Here's one I just sent to the scrap heap after a year: "I went to my brothers wedding at Paducah Arkansas…
As I said to the guys who built our house a few years back and they all asked if they could smoke around the property, "Sure, as long as its Marlboro." And they all had'em in their pockets. :) Bought the stuff mid-90's rock bottom flying by the seat…
'Journalistic incest' appears as a buzzword. Guess who is married to whom/employed by whom, and what (or who) the 'whom' owns. Etc, etc.
Won't quote a source as I haven't checked the facts. Just interesting.
Yep, there's a way. The account is in the kids names, but with an adult as custodian for the minor. 25 years ago there weren't too many fund companies that would do this (we used funds rather than stocks) but we found a few, and started IRA's for ou…
I'll read about it in the morning.
Of course he'll try to mess with Roths, if not today, then some other day, if only to insinuate the idea of taxing Roths into the sheeples' minds. This may get the Roth owners galvinized...anybody know the number/w…
Have orders in for XOM, and Plains All-American PAA. I am still long COP and CVX.
Also recently added small bits to existing positions in Permian Basin, PBT, Baytex BTE, Prudoe Bay BPT, Ferrellgas FGP, Niska NKA, Vanguard Nat Res VNR, and Global Pa…
Hey, Catch. Happy New Year to you and yours.
A timely post, me thinks, as we were just nibbling and noshing around the kitchen discussing our 529's. Question: how does a 529 impact financial aid, either federal or thru the college of choice? No hur…
Hi Catch. I grew up with my father saying nothing about the war he served in (World One), and becoming upset when I read descriptions in All Quiet on the Western Front (which I was required to read in high school.)
This past year I visited Belgium, …
Thanks for the responses guys. The foot's going "tap tap" as I type.
Haven't posted of late as I have turned into a one-trick pony: Buy What's Cheap, and there's nothing new or exciting about that. Anyway energy's the story around here, although I c…
Many many thanks to all who responded here!! Not only have you been enlightening and helpful to a newcomer (our DIL) but you just may have acquired a new lurker. This was the spirit of FA, and it seems it is continuing here (minus a few recent acrim…
Hi Bob C. Thanks for your response. It rings very true - years ago when we started our retirement savings we used...gasp...variable annuities. When we finally realized our mistake it took us 8 YEARS to gradually get out.
Anyway I have asked her to …
Yep. Like anything else, only more volatile: you don't lose till you sell. We don't consider gold an 'investment' either and hold only a small 2% of portfolio.
However, when we travel in places such as eastern Europe, the eastern Med, Russia, and wh…
Does the same concept apply when one finds oil, copper, gold nuggets etc. on their property? This is just wrong. Moral: Find stuff, shut mouth.
How do you get rid of the stuff? I think they thought this through. Sell one coin, maybe (uh, my grandfat…
Hi Gingersnap,
OK, this is a Roth which means she has 40+years for it to grow.
FWIW, and I am 71 BTW, is to steer clear of any bond component and go with blue chips all the way. My vote is Vanguard's VDIGX.
Other stuff can be added later, but I th…
Sitting on 40% cash, but dipped a toe into DNI at 14.98 today.
Last week another toe into SO at 40
Watching NKA, O, GOV, for tax deferred and BIP and VNR for taxable.
Sorry this stuff didn't come up blue with an underline. Still learning.