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.
Same thing I’ve always done during market drops. Nothing. I periodically rebalance my accounts when the markets are up, but I never hold cash waiting for a drop. That’s a losing proposition in my book, unless you need a certain amount of cash to liv…
Whatever happened to the biggest stock market crash we’ve ever seen if Biden was elected, as predicted by Trump? Ironically, Trump could be credited for the big stock market rise during the final months of his administration — mainly because Biden w…
I wish my daughter had taken my advice about selling some of her Beanie Babies when they became a bubble! Unfortunately, she didn’t and we still have a closet full of them. At least our puppy has found a use for them.
I bought my nephew and niece e…
I owned OAKBX for about 10 years in my IRA, and it generally performed better than average. I sold it several years ago because it was changing in ways that didn’t suit my purposes. It started holding higher percentages in stacks, its volatility inc…
Here is the best way I’ve found to get guaranteed 2% return that is totally safe right now. Purchase everything you can with a cash-back credit card - groceries, gasoline, clothes and other necessities. My Fidelity Rewards VISA gives us 2% back on a…
I bought a new car in August, earlier than planned, for several reasons. First, I could get a low interest loan on a desirable model. Second, we are unable to spend money we had budgeted for things like travel, eating at restaurants, going to concer…
Your home may not be a great investment but it is certainly a decent investment, comparable to safer investments in returns. Some people get lucky and buy homes at a great price or in neighborhoods that spike in value, but that’s often not the case.…
COVID-19 has thrown a kink into many retirees’ plans. It’s difficult and risky now to do many things that people have saved all of their lives fo — like traveling, visiting family and friends, taking classes, etc. It has helped us by reducing our sp…
TRP has invested a portion of some of its allocation funds in hedge funds for a while now. I’ve had a large portion of my Roth IRA in TRPBX for quite a few years, and it’s got about 5-10% of assets in a hedge fund, if I recall correctly.
Crash, If your accounts are with T Rowe Price, you might want to consider PTTFX for a bond fund. It is highly diversified, but unlike RPSIX, it doesn’t hold any stocks. I moved a portion of my TRP account from RPSIX to PTTFX a while ago and wish I h…
We’ve also been running a budget surplus due inability to travel, eat at restaurants, go to bars and other fun stuff. We’ve taken the opportunity to remodel our bathrooms, replace some worn out carpeting, and install a privacy fence. I also bought a…
The Zero Hedge website frequently quoted by OS and other trolls is an extremely questionable source run by a Bulgarian with ties to Russia. Read about it here:
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/zero-hedge/
Old Skeet,
I am beginning to wonder if you are a Russian operative. Do you know anything about the Zero Hedge site you are fond to quote? It is owned and operated by a shady Bulgarian who supports Vladimir Putin. Read about here:
https://mediabi…
TAIFX is an option for taxable accounts. It’s more of a 50/50 rather 40/60 for stocks/bonds and holds more foreign securities than VWINX. It’s a tax managed fund, so all of its bonds are munis and it also holds a lot of dividend paying stocks. Altho…
@Tarwheel how do you like TAIFX?
I should be getting advice from you on simplifying.
I've been thinking about harvesting some tax losses in the taxable to cover Roth conversions for the IRA.
TAIFX fills an important niche in our taxable portfol…
I’d like to visit family once the pandemic calms down. We had planned to visit several brothers and sisters in January but called off the trip due to the virus. Unfortunately, my wife’s brother died in a workplace accident in March, and we had plann…
I’ve tried to keep it simple and tax-efficient in taxable accounts. Our largest holdings in order are TAIFX, FZROX, FLTMX and FTABX. We also keep about a year’s worth of potential income needs in cash, currently mostly money markets. We had a CD lad…
If you believe in the benefits of diversification, PSILX is a fine choice. It has low expenses for an international fund, above average returns and exposure to almost all segments of foreign markets.
My question is: Will we have to pay taxes on the income from the stimulus checks? My wife and I don’t need the money. We receive pension and SS payments that more than cover our needs. I am inclined to donate our checks to charity but need to withho…
The advantage to M*, when it worked, is that I could track and compare fund returns YTD, and 1,3,5,10 and 15 years. I don’t see how I could do that using a spreadsheet. M* also allows you to customize portfolio views so that it displays yields, expe…
Take a look at the historical returns for high yield and floating rate funds in 2008 and 2009. Most of them lost big in 2008 but had huge gains in 2009, in some cases as much as stock funds. However, there are no guarantees that history will repeat …
Trump is milking his daily press briefings to juice his poll numbers, much like many governors have done in the past during hurricanes and other natural disasters, or George Bush after 9/11. NC’s former Republican governor Pat McCrory employed this …
When the economy rebounds, it will be in spite of Trump, not because of him. However, he will certainly try to take credit for it.
Remember Harry Truman’s motto “The buck stops here”? Trump is the polar opposite.
You’re not the first one to make “mistakes” like this, myself included. However, I’m planning to continue to hold our stake in PRFRX, at least until it rebounds. With all of the money that governments are pouring into the markets and the extremely l…
THOPX has had excellent long term returns and typically has low volatility. However, during periods when high yield bonds suffer, it can also drop much more than many short term bond funds. This also happened in 2016, but it bounced back well the fo…
Floating rate funds also got creamed in the 2008 crash. We have a small percentage of my wife’s Roth IRA in PRFRX but plan to continue holding rather selling at a loss. I am confident that it will bounce back in time.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a calculated cynicism behind the Trump-Fox view. After all, most of the likely deaths would be in blue states that tend to vote Democrat. In contrast, the red states that vote more Republican are more rural and co…
I googled it, and found a SS announcement that says “All my Social Security services are currently unavailable.”
The Trump administration is one incredible cluster f***
Thanks for the link, Sven. It looks like the break-even point for me is age 84-85 between drawing SS at age 66 and 70. I rather doubt that I will live older than 85 given my family history but my wife’s family tends to live longer. However, by start…
Upon further reflection, I am certain that we would donate our check to charities or those in need. However, it would be better if the government to find a way to make any payments need based.
It’s hard to spend any money right now except for groceries and regular bills. Many restaurants, bars and stores are closed, with more to come. If I got a check, which I don’t need, it would just go into my savings account. It’s not enough money to …
