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.
Support MFO
Donate through PayPal
Sven
Lynn,
Thank you so much. I am planning on a 3-year ladder since I am a year away from retirement. Lots of spreadsheet work to calculate the income replacement needed. This ladder will create a steady income stream. So thank you for all your help.
I moved back to high quality bond funds this year. Some of which you covered in the SA article. For now, I will stay with agency bonds to the bond ladder. I will pick active managers for corporate bonds.
Sven
Saw a car caught on fire because the driver's Samsung phone exploded. Sloppy engineering or what? I always thought Li ion battery packs have dual safety electronic control within the pack, at least that how laptop batteries are built.
Samsung actually helped when their Notes 7 catches on fire - couldn't be the worst timing. Sale figure of iPhone 7 shot up as Samsung's product recall was announced. Christmas is only 3 1/2 months away.
There are actually more people moving to credit unions for the same reasons many posters talked about here. And it is getting the banks notice such that they want the credit unions to live under the same rules, as the banks are subjected to, i.e. L…
@Hank,
Here is an article from Rick Steve, author to the show Rick Steve's Europe. He does a better job in explaining chip embedded credit card than I can.
https://ricksteves.com/travel-tips/money/chip-pin-cards
@Hank, we live in Pacific Nothwest, so British Columbia is one of our favorite place to visit. Vancourer has all metropolitan attractions to offer (kids friendly), beautiful landscape, and diverse culture and food. US dollar is strong relative to …
@Derf, Your Visa card provider is corrected for your protection. Only last year all Visa and Master cards finally switched from magnetic tape based to chip-based. In the meantime, my old credit card was compromised at Target. Europe and Japan ha…
@Derf: My banking relationship has soured when the lending service was combined with investment service as a consequence of repeal of the Glass–Steagall. The profit from serving small depositors is very small relative to the hefty fees generated f…
We used to accounts with another large US bank, Bank of America. They sent us all sort of debit cards, but we prefer credit cards. When BOA tried to charge us late fee (20% interest) on our monthly credit card bill while it was paid electronically…
Overall the change has been good and very predictable. The capital gain has reduced significantly and the dividend distribution is manageable, ~2% for S&P 500 index funds, for example. We have a national-based muni fund, thus we pay only state…
When the Fed raised 25 base point earlier in the year, the market reacted poorly and they held off until now. Foreign markets fell another % more than the broader US market. If the labor market and other indicators are improving (no matter how sma…
Awhile back we decided to use index funds and ETFs in our taxable accounts to minimize year end distribution. Sometime active managed funds paid out sizable distribution even in bad years.
The story has all the twists and turns...
wsj.com/articles/u-s-regulator-bans-theranos-ceo-elizabeth-holmes-from-operating-labs-for-two-years-1467956064
This "continuing resolution" has been in place for a number of years. If Congress does not pass 2017 budget then there will be a government shutdown as in 2013. All the saber rattling means little when either candidate has to face reality/looming …
I have been following this biotech story for awhile. Operating without transparency among their scientists is disturbing to say the least. The more I read the more it sounds like smoke and mirror, then came the FDA knocking on the door.
In our taxable accounts, we only invested in index funds and EFFs. Several times we were surprised by the large year end distribution and paying sizable tax.
Moving to VIMAX would be very tax efficient while the ER is at 0.08%!
What a change from 2015 when MSCI index was down 15.4%. So taking the long term view and staying the course would help to invest in this volatile asset class.
WisdomTree is considered one of the better ETF shop. Lately many of their new ETFs are are essentially slice and dice of some index. Wonder what the average holding period of ETFs in general comparing to index funds? Rapid trading is not investin…
Like Ed's comment too on cash, but I see it as opportunities to repositioning the portfolio at the right time. Little did I know that emerging market is the leading asset class this year and Andrew Foster came through again.
Barron's would do its customers a greater service if they also included a scorecard for each of the team's members past forecasts accuracy. That just might be a little embarrassing, although very educational
Agree, but Barron's would have harder tim…
Artisan's management fee has consistently above average among actively managed funds. Many did mind as long as their performance is good. Some of their strategies over the last several years have been lagging badly. For example, Artisan Sm Cap Va…
As Birinyl pointed out,the timing to add REIT when it is at its height couldn't be worst. Also only 28 companies will be added and it is far short of VNQ and SHH which both have over 100 companies.
More details on Seafarer Oversea Value fund is available on Seafarer website. Their thesis of value investing is new and unproven in a highly volatile and risky area. For now I will stay with Growth and Income fund until the new fund has been runn…
REITS have had a nice one-year run-up from a trough hit last autumn. I suspect the rally in bonds has helped, as real estate is highly interest rate sensitive.
@hank, you are right on with the interest rate correlation. Now that Fed is more likely …
Oppenheimer's investors (529 participants) took a sizable loss in their "Core Bond" within a conservative portfolio. Oppenheimer settled out of court and a new administrator, TIAA-CRAF was named afterward
doj.state.or.us/releases/pages/2009/rel1119…
@catch, We have visited and enjoyed a number of Candian cities. To maintain a reasonable real estate market value, there is nothing wrong with some limitations from foreign investment. Vancourer Islands have many American retirees who learned the …
Last time we visited Vancourer, BC, the real estate market value was bid up by mainland Chinese investors. Guess that is a good way to obtain real asset.
After reviewing all available options, we chose Iowa 529 plan that uses a host of Vanguard index funds. The choices are either age-based or individual portfolio. We are very happy with the age-based portfolio and its return for the past 15 years. …
Cost is only one of many criteria to consider. What is more important is what are the underlying index funds and the % allocation are used. I am curious how for-profit companies such as Schwab can offer these products below cost.
Think the Fed learned earlier this year the world reacted poorly with 25 basis points hike in US. This signaled US economy is getting stronger while the rest of world are cutting rates.
I still say there will be one hike this year but not necessa…
Market share of Windows-based cell phones is in single digit, whereas the rest is dominated by Android and Apple's iOS. I learned my lesson with Android phones and moved on from there.
Blackberry once has a sizable market share among the busines…
@catch22, like Mark pointed out - get yourself an iPhone. I had a Samsung phone and within one year I gave that away because it picked out all kind of nasty stuff. Some malware came from Android App Store - how wonderful!
This headache gone awa…
