Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
Has anyone had any CDs called in? When I first started buying CDs, I didn’t realize they could be called unless listed as uncallable. I soon realized my mistake and have only bought noncallable CDs or Treasuries since then.
However, I initially bo…
If you own GE, then you know own GEHC and GEV. We’ve got GE shares that we’ve own for 40-50 years. It’s finally starting to regain some of the value it lost over the past 20 years. My wife’s grandfather gave her the original shares, and she hasn’t w…
Nobody knows where longer term rates are headed, despite all of the punditry. The so-called experts have wrong repeatedly. I deal with the uncertainty by covering all of the bases. My CD ladders extend out 5 years, and when issues mature, I reinvest…
Almost all of the brokered CDs I’ve bought are non-callable. There are no additional fees, unless you cash out early— which is the same for almost any CD.
@Crash - Why not buy brokered CDs? I can easily search for and buy the highest yielding CDs at Fidelity, and I assume Schwab has similar offerings. They are all FDIC protected.
@yugo - The yields on my 5-year CDs are 5.0-5.1%, all non-callable. I bought them when rates peaked in 2023, so they have 4+ years left until maturity. Some of the shorter term CDs will start maturing in May, and I doubt if I’ll be able to buy new 5…
I don’t ever buy CDs with automatic rollover. When they mature, I either reinvest in CDs with the highest rates, Treasuries or short-term to intermediate bond funds. I also have set up several CD ladders extending out 5 years, with yields averaging …
FCNVX is my only bond fund that hasn’t disappointed me over the past year. At some point, I’ll start adding to my intermediate bond funds but they continue t lose value.
I do not understand all of the Apple haters, which is not to say that they are perfect. However, I am an unabashed Apple lover. In my home, we have iPhones, iPads, Apple TV, Apple Watch, an iCloud account and an old iMac that we no longer use. We se…
BTW, you can also create a ladder of US Treasuries extending out 10-20 years that now yields well over 4%. Treasuries are call-protected, and you can easily sell them if you need cash sooner than maturity dates. Treasury income is exempt from state …
@MikeM - You seem to be missing the point about CDs. I don’t recall anyone advocating investing all of your money in CDs, or even a substantial portion. The great thing about CDs right now are the relatively high yields with predictable, stable retu…
My I-Bonds were bought through Treasury Direct, and all transactions are online. At the time I sold them, I assumed they would send me 1099-Interest forms in the mail. They didn’t and I forgot about the I-Bond sales when I originally filed my taxes …
What exactly are you buying of any real value when you “invest” in cryptocurrencies? With stocks, you are buying shares in a company. With bonds, you getting a more-or-less stream of income. I don’t get it.
I’ve already moved a substantial portion of my bond/income allocation to ultrashort bond funds, CDs and money market's. I’m just surprised that intermediate bond funds continue to bleed money. I’ve still a fair amount of money in intermediate funds …
My problem is that bond funds that I bought 3 years ago are still losing money, even with higher yields and additional shares bought every month through automatic reinvesting. It is hard psychologically to keep putting money into investments that ke…
My portfolio has become unbound, surpassing its all-time high achieved in 2021. It was close at year’s end, but blew past the previous peak in late January— despite two years of modest withdrawals since 2021. The usual suspects (Mag 7) have accounte…
My most successful mutual fund is FCNTX, which I’ve owned about 25 years. I have sold portions over the years because it had grown so much that I was afraid it getting too large. Plus, I used to follow M* religiously, and they rarely have anything g…
TCAF and PRWCX are managed funds. Just because their top holdings right now are similar to the S&P index doesn’t mean that they will be in the future. Personally, I think TCAF would be a good complement to SCHD. If you’re going to invest in a ma…
The mortgage on our first house was 10.5% in 1986. Our second house had a mortgage about 8%, but we refinanced to a 15-year loan at 6% a couple years later. We eventually paid it off at that rate.
Doing quite well... the CDs and Treasuries keep dribbling out money like a broken slot machine. I like money!
I’m loving the higher yields. I’m in no hurry for the Fed to drop rates. Every time a CD or Treasury matures, I just buy some more — often …
@yogibearbull - My wife’s grandfather gave her the GE stock more than 40 years ago. We sold portions over the years for down payments on two different homes. It then proceeded to lose much of its value, but my wife doesn’t want to sell it for sentim…
FCNVX, my favorite bond fund of the past year, dropped only 0.1%. USFR actually rose 0.03%, to be expected since it’s a floating rate fund.
Although not a fund, General Electric, was up 1.14% on the day. Don’t ask me about its 5, 10 and 20 year ret…
@Crash - I do not understand your problems with the Fidelity website. I think it’s fantastic. I’ve been one of their customers for 20+ years, so maybe your issues are due to lack of familiarity. I also had an account with TRP for more than 20 years …
I’ve got several funds in the moderately conservative class that might be worth considering. Fidelity offering is FMSDX, which started out with phenomenal returns and is now more typical for the class. TRP’s higher income clone of PRWCX, which is PR…
EM has been nothing but a black hole for me. Sold my two funds with relatively high EM holdings last year, and I’m sleeping better. My best performing EM fund (SFGIX) gained scarcely more than a mediocre bond fund in more than a decade of owning. Ot…
Crazy day on Wall Street on Friday. Bonds got absolutely destroyed, but stocks did well. FCNTX went up nearly 4% in one day! Overall, all of my accounts rose in value, even with huge drops in bond funds. I may go ahead and start redeploying money fr…
I sold all of the muni funds in our taxable account last year and reinvested in CDs and Treasuries, as well as an ultra-short bond fund, FCNVX. My CD- Treasury ladder goes out five years, with more issues on the short end. The yield on munis is so m…
I moved all of my TRP funds to my Fidelity account a couple years ago since all of the funds are NTF at Fido. This has made my life so much simpler. I have kept the TRP funds that have been good performers, but sold the laggards and reinvested in Fi…
I started buying brokered CDs at Fidelity because the yields are higher, they are easy to purchase, and it’s a convenient way to build and maintain a ladder. My credit union used to offer very competitive rates but has not kept pace over the past co…
@MikeM — That’s low for a balanced fund with about 60% of assets in bonds and cash, but one month’s data is not enough time to draw conclusions from. The yield in December 2023 was quite a bit higher — about 3.1% if annualized. FMSDX has a similar a…
I think @Old_Joe has it right. However, I don’t understand why some would buy a jumbo CD requiring a deposit of $100,000 or more when they could buy a brokered CD (fully insured) that yields much more. Makes no sense to me.
I noticed that too because we own PRFCX in three different accounts.
By my calculations, that would amount to a 1.7% yield if it pays at the same rate every month (which is probably unlikely).
