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.
You can’t fake, manipulate or fudge a dividend payment by hiring a talented CPA.
Ask any fund manager about "return of capital" as a dividend and you'll see manipulation/fudging is exactly what can be done.
Fidelity attempts to explain this non-div…
My all equity dividend paying funds that are found in the growth and income area of my portfolio follow. They are for my domestic equity sleeve: FDSAX with a yield of 3.95% ... IDIVX with a yield of 3.96% ... INUTX with a yield of 3.41% ... and, SV…
This NYT article seem to side on the less optimistic side of recovery.
“There’s going to be a very slow and gradual process of reopening and restoring employment beyond just a declaration from the statehouse or the county seat.”
economy/coronavirus-…
Best perk I received involved transfer bonus to TD Ameritrade and Merrill Edge...both range in amount depending on amount transferred.
TD:
https://td.com/us/en/investing/td-ameritrade/
Merrill Edge and others:
https://brokerage-review.com/article/…
bengen actually higher
Maybe not... from your first link:
1994 was about the last year we had “average” stock market valuations (according to the Shiller CAPE), except for a few months in the spring of 2009. Thus, for the last twenty-plus years, ne…
Another read on the topic:
Wade Pfau (thought leader) was cited in the article, his work leads him to think that a 2.29% withdrawal rate is the new 4% and David Blanchett from Morningstar chips in with a 3% opinion. The actual 4% rule says you start…
This NYT article seemed to fit well here:
A decade ago, the Federal Reserve was instrumental in keeping the banking system from going bust. This time around, the Fed’s actions are far more sweeping, and it has essentially propped up entire financial…
@sma3,
Help me out here. I have a close friend who was laid off at St Francis Hospital in Hartford, CT. She is basically a hourly worker, but her impression was that the hospital has been "as quiet as a church mouse" and that the hospital could not …
Obviously contributors so far have prefer not to read the links provided.
@LewisBraham, @Baseball_Fan seem to have spent too much time listen to squawk-box etc. and I get their reaction to the thread's heading and their unsubstantial comments.
Th…
Interesting Visual of how masking impacts a virus spread (move slide to increase/decrease mask use):
Interactive Agent-Based Model Visualization for COVID-19 Masking
I am a terrible stock picker. That's why I let mutual fund managers make those decisions for me. I am a disciplined saver. I put money in the hands of fund managers who have a track record of success and then I watch them very closely as stewards of…
@JohnN recently started this thread that seems worth including here:
https://mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/56127/low-risk-vanguard-retirement-portfolio#latest
@hank said,
My only suggestion would be that in the overall picture I think it more prudent to look at what a more diversified portfolio (focusing more on underlying assets) might generate long term than to focus on one or a handful of funds.
When …
FWIW: It seems to me that RMD's have a somewhat inflation provider built in as they rise each year with the only a falling market causing your portfolio to be less than the year before. So that leaves taxable as how much to withdraw if needed.
Stay …
Bee,
If you are still checking in - this interview from Morningstar is interesting: https://www.morningstar.com/podcasts/the-long-view/54
Thanks for the link:
One of my favorites is actually Bill Bengen defined it and he's the one who created the …
I've always been a proponent of defense investing as a long-term allocation in my accounts. Have held several individual stocks over the years and also own FSDAX.
The top really has blown off of this sector. Seems like a good opportunity to build …
PRWCX's manager David Giroux chimes in on GE:
What about some nonutility stocks?
We are bullish on General Electric [GE].
GE is a controversial name lately.
We didn’t own it until recently. I’ve known [new CEO] Larry Culp for about 19 years, fro…
what's interesting is to not use longest time frame but to set the start date to 2007, so you're going into retirement at a very bad time. i did it w PRWCX. started with 1 mil and at the end of 2019 you had 780k with a max drawdown of 55%, at the …
Here is an article on Perpetual Withdrawal Rates and why it is a better data point than "SWR" (Safe Withdrawal Rate):
So what is a perpetual withdrawal rate, anyway?
By definition, safe withdrawal rates plan for failure. They are explicitly define…
@MJG said,
But a tool does exist to explore the general sensitivity of outcomes to uncertain events. That tool is a Monte Carlo simulator that examines thousands and thousands of possible scenarios. They are fast to use and yield some interesting in…
T Rowe Price Health Science (PRHSX) manager chimes in:
The Fatality Rate Is Likely at or Below 1%
The accumulating evidence on the virus’s fatality rate is more encouraging. Early reports from China suggested that the fatality rate was as high as …
Moral hazard borne out of the neccessity TO PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE...not choice. Very different than the bailouts of the GFR.
econport.org/content/handbook/Unemployment/Comparing/MoralHazard.html
Careful...Suzie only invest in the stock market what she is comfortable losing:
Orman told a New York Times journalist where she has her OWN money invested…. safe, slow-growing, couldn’t lose-it-if-you-tried municipal bonds! In Orman’s words:
…
And be wary of the cognitive biases of the author of a site called "visual capitalist" towards purveying capitalist propaganda.
Good one...are you also cynical of cynicism?
On another note:
We need people working to provide goods and services:
The Treasury can make up for people’s lost wages, but people need the things wages buy. So replacing lost wages and revenues will not be enough for long: the economy has to prod…
Recent article on:
How the US Government "Monetizes" Debt:
Some thoughts:
I think this mean freeing up debt and turning the debt into money. You and I do this with property. We finance a "cash out refinance" on our homes. We free up cash at a low…
To Continue Howard Marks' Memos -
There’s an old saying –variously attributed –to the effect that “capitalism without bankruptcy is like Catholicism with out hell.” It appeals to me strongly. Markets work best when participants have a healthy fear…
Those industries that use diesel fuel are not enjoying the same discounts as gasoline users however.
Cost of gas and diesel fuel
Kinda interesting why...one explanation:
Diesel fuel, the kind of fuel commonly used in commercial trucks, has not alwa…
VWINX is a fine one stop fund for income and some capital gains. It is paying only a little more than a core bond fund but subject to more equity risk. IT lost 8% in the recent crash.
Looking at VWINX's most recent Drawdown (-8.5%):
https://screenca…
Think of Oil as a feed stock...an inexpensive feed stock. This should serve as an tailwind to many industries...travel, rail, chemicals, food, utilities. Buys into these sectors as they rally and enjoy the improved margins that "cheap oil" will prov…
Unable to find data since 1929
Not 1929 data, but 1987 - to present:
WHOSX (TLT) vs VFINX (S&P 500)
https://screencast.com/t/cYKhbbKQbu8b
More interesting is a portfolio of equal weight (50% WHOSX / 50% VFINX) produced the same long term re…
I stopped touting FLPSX here after a ton of meh, meh responses. Since NY2k, though, it absolutely pounds all of these funds. And with only the one guy at the helm. That's investing. $10k growth of SP500 is to $28k; Tillinghast laps that many times, …
