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.
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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
I notice that the pricing remain high before the recession, and going higher in the past few years. For personal travel, we do many much more local travel with cars.
How many of us avoided market timing in 2007-8 and did not capitulate eventually?
Capitulation is the classicial way to sell low and lock in the paper loss. For those who stand pat and ride it all the way back in 2009 and more in the following yea…
The persistent lagging performance in last few years was self-inflicted with poor stock selection I my humble opinion. If you have lost confidence with the management, it is time to move on. There is nothing wrong with cash until better opportunit…
iPhone 7 release is in the horizon (late 2016), while iPhone 6 series are matured. Concur with Scott's assessment on Apple. I also think other products are coming online as well.
On a side mote, I had a chance to test drive iPad Pro versus Touc…
@Charles, it is only paper loss until you sell. You are not alone - 2015 was tough for many investors to have any meaningful gain. Let's hope 2016 is a better.
You can open a second MFO linked Amazon page and start shopping again on items from the first page. In the future, bookmark the link directly for ease of use.
Concur with msf on managing different aspects on tax loss and AGI. We like to put it on a spreadsheet and make enough Roth conversion without getting kick into the next income bracket. As such we like it take tax loss should be done throughout the…
Prefer to use cash and patience instead. Having tracking a number of alternate strategies for the last several years, only sure thing is that the fund managers are paid very nicely.
That is what being well connected and having an army of lobbyist can do for you. Got to to have love that your and my tax dollars being used to bail out the banks while the banks still collect fat bonus.
@Mona, wish I have that much invested to bump ourselves into the highest tax bracket. Since we made the switch to index funds, distribution is well under control.
For the past 4 years or so I was in ARTLX, it seemed each year at distribution time that the IRS was the big winner.
@Mona, over the years I had enough of paying IRS on distribution even in down markets. Since vast majority of active managed funds …
it is not an easy call on the balance of risk and reward over long investment period. Question for most investors is getting the market return good enough?
Customer service is bad everywhere no just discount brokerages. Have you try to resolve computer problem from big box PC manufacturers such as HP and Dell?
In our experience, cash transfer between brokerages is the easiest - typically takes 3-5 …
@Junkster, Exact same sentiment here. Barrons want you to buy their newspaper. No point to scare everyone away.
A total return of 10% is very nice, but a more moderate return is more realistic.
The lower quality bonds have considerable exposure to oil service sectors. Given the low price of crude oil, these bonds are being hammered. Also these junk bonds maybe thinly traded, and difficult to sell without depressing the price further. Th…
Doubleline Total Return fund has been shorten the duration of its holding in the past 12 months. With an AUM over $50B, it is a much more difficult task than $50M.
I think the hike will be small (25 base points) and incremental afterward. If th…
Another one bite the dust. It is too bad that after Third Avenue was sold several years ago. Majority of their funds have performed poorly, except for the Real Estate fund. Same thing can be said with Royce funds.
Gotta love these self-promoting articles from Barrons. Concur with Edmond assessment. Through the market's ups and downs, Vanguard Wellesley is a solid and consistent fund with an expense ratio unmatched by any ALT funds. In the past 10 years the…
In a few weeks, Barrons will host the Round Table discussion with the financial gurus, and forecasting their picks for 2016. If Lou Rukeyser is still with us today, he would run the same year-end Wall Street show. These are great entertainment, bu…
@hank, the original post above indicated that Lockheed monitored information available on the public domains (Facebook and Tweeter). This is all legal but creepy for sure. The fear of organized labor, i.e. unions, is what drive Walmart to use LM…
It is worrisome that younger generations are saddled with student debts (so called financial aids). Difficult for them to get into starter home market and having to save for the 5% down payment. There seem to be fewer rent to own opportunties than…
OPM data have been compromised already.
Background investigation and drug testing is common in many positions I held in the past, and it's really no big deal. Today I am On the opposite end of the table, where I pay attention on my employees for…
I was in kindergarten when it happened. My recollection was largely from my parents who was very sad to loss a young and inspiring president.
In my study later in Europe, people still talked about the young president who stood up to the Soviet U…
