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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
TRP Global Allocation fund, RPGAX, employs about 10% hedge fund in its portfolio. Buried in the prospectus states:
The adviser generally selects hedge funds and other alternative funds, as well as any investment subadvisers, based on their investm…
@Old_Joe, thank you for the detailed diagrams and explanations. Cotter-pins I am familiar with on Honda and Toyota cars are self-locking that prevent sliding out from vibration. It takes some effort to open the pin, slides over several notches be…
@msf and @BaluBalu, thank you for your comments on hedged equity funds. Just want to better understand these strategies.
In the past, I have invested small allocation on alternatives and decided they do not add much value while incurring high ma…
There is enough space debris that the larger ones are actively tracked, so not to avoid unintended damages to the International space Station and other satellites.
By the way, the of the mirror on the James Webb Space Telescope got hit by a micro…
@msf,
The link you posted by Robin Powell stated the following:
1. Tactical allocation funds had an average expense ratio of 1.39% (they are very expensive) and an average turnover of 289% (trading costs are high and tax efficiency is low).
2. T…
Here is more info on 737 Max planes.
https://npr.org/2024/01/08/1223517098/door-plug-boeing-737-max-portland-ntsb-faa
Long time ago, an engine fell off a Boeing plane in flight near O’Hare airport. They found planes cracked pylon that holds the e…
Boeing is a component in the Dow Jones index and widely held in many funds. It seems to be the mechanics are not inspecting the planes thoroughly on a regular basis. There is no excuse to have loose bolts.
If I read the bond data properly, it appears investors are moving away from short term bonds toward core bonds which are intermediate duration. Falling yields now increase bond prices, and further appreciation is expecting when FED cut rates in lat…
@crash and @hank, thanks for the clarification. Tactical moves does require larger % to make meaningful impact on the overall portfolio. Large move for us was to exit (most) bonds in late 2021 to cash equivalent as inflation became evident. 50/10/…
@Crash said, I'm already at 61 stocks, 33 bonds.
Stock funds, right? How do you manage them? I am trying to considerate to less than 20 stock and bond funds/ETFs.
As to @Derf’s question, mostly no. I confess that my hand picked sector funds are all down this year, VPU (-8.4%), VDC (1.3%), and VHT (1.6%). I will stay with them until they recover next year. Otherwise, I will stay with diversified stock fund…
@yogibb said, I have noted elsewhere that FBALX is among the more aggressive moderate-allocation funds (nominal 50-70%). This shows in its higher volatility and higher effective-equity.
FBALX is actively managed and tracks Vanguard Balanced Index fu…
We invested with Andrew Foster when he managed Matthew Asia Growth & Income fund and followed him to Seafarer funds. SIVLX has a sizable exposure to smaller cap stocks. Really like their stock picking process. David has a real nice write up on…
Having money is good, but your health condition determines your lifestyle after retirement. We stay active when we were young. So far so good as our kids leave the house and return during holidays. Since last year we re-emerge post-COVID to trave…
Happy holidays to everyone! It is rainy and cold here in Pacific Northwest. Hopefully it will have a good snowpack in the mountains and ready for another dry year in 2024. We wish everyone to have another prosperous year.
@Observant1, at this point of our lives, we are keenly aware of EM’s risk, especially with respect to geopolitical ones. We stay with experienced management teams such as Seafarer funds, SIGIX and SFVLX, FMIJX, and ARTKX (closed to new investors) an…
@MikwM, the institutional shares, RSIIX, is on NTF platform at Vanguard, whereas it is on Transaction Fee platform at Fidelity. The minimum investment was lowered to $5K, and I have been adding. YTD total return is over 9% with 30 days SEC yield 9…
We invest with both OSTIX and RSIIX and happy to have them in our portfolio. Although both name use “strategic income” on their names, their approaches are not the same as it reflected in their ups and downs. We invest with Carl Kraufman for over 10…
@yogibb, thank you for sharing your insights on AII Sentiment.
Except for small rebalancing, I have not bought or sold anything significant in last two months. In volatile periods, I tend to sit back and watch.
Cash is building up now as CDs …
The states of Michigan and Minnesota have failed to pass the same vote. We shall see how far this goes.
The US Supreme Court now have a hot issue on their hands with DOJ Special Council Jack Smith request ruling on the absolute immunity question…
Cars are like clothing and there are many opinions depending the individual’s experience. I am cheap and thus lean toward cars in the order of being fuel efficient, reliable, large carrying capacity, and personal comfort. Believe or not, a Honda …
The misconduct also included false reports on headrest impact tests and test speeds for some models. The investigation found cases of misconduct were particularly prevalent after 2014 and, for one already-discontinued Daihatsu vehicle, went back as…
We are making small changes as part of our rebalancing:
1. Increase bond % and duration (short to intermediate and some long duration). Prefer investment grade. Funded from stocks, CDs, and T bill.
2. Increase oversea bond exposure both via index…
@Mark, think you are spot on. It was “risk on” and now is “risk off” situation in addition to a rate cut in 2024. 10 years treasury yield have fallen to 4%, and bonds took off too.
I am cautiously optimistic that we will have a decent year.
Here is my takeaways and I comments in square bracket:
1. Giroux shows his contrarian and opportunistic investment style again. His 5 year perspective on stock selection helps to buy tech stocks at “GARPy” prices as he terms it, and trimming them …
Our families are very lucky to drive Toyota and Honda. The newest car is 12 years old with over 150,000 miles. We do take care of them with their maintenance schedule.
What happen to those European cars? They used to be excellent cars.
Not everyone is rational when it comes to fear. And I believe they project that into many things including grocery and food deliveries. There is no free lunch with the monthly subscription fees to all these services on top of high inflation.
JPM team is seasoned while TRP team (a single manager) is relatively green.
I prefer wait a bit to see how it tracks against JHQAX. Still I prefer to hire an experienced manager(s).
PHEFX is available at Vanguard but not at Fidelity yet. Likel…
