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
It is likely that multiple vaccines roll out from different manufacturers in order to meet the large demand. Pfizer's data on 90% efficacy is very good. Other manufacturers will have to demonstrated their safety and efficacy as well.
We have to w…
Special refrigerated shipment is an established process used in many labs, i.e. fertility clinics. Shipping billion dosages to your pharmacy under these conditions will take time and added expense. Human lives far outweigh the added cost.
The fi…
Dr. Fauci said several months ago there is likely vaccine for COVID19 by end of 2020. Moderna, Pfizer, AstaZecca and several others are at Phase III testing. The more important question is the scale up (billions dosage) and distribution of them to…
Thanks to Fed Chairman Powell yields on many bond funds are much lowered today. It is nuts that income investors have to incur additional risk either on credit quality, duration, or currency (foreign bonds) in order to get a bit more yield. These …
No big move. Strange week with lots of drama. Think things will be more clear next week. I am concern that COVID cases are rising fast with 120,000 cases on a daily basis in US. When will lockdown will take place again? Certain learned something …
On the downside, you never really pay off a home because of ongoing maintenance and repairs.
That is part of the ownership. Don't forget property tax and house insurance. Even if you are a renter, a portion of the rent over property tax, insurance…
During the pandemic, energy demand for transportation and traveling has reduced considerably to a point that layoff are increasing among large oil companies. Many fracturing firms have bankrupted in spring as oil prices fell below $40/barrel.
htt…
@hank, I started to lighten the equity allocation as I watch the COVID situation approaches the fall. Quite frankly it does not look encouraging. I hope we will not revisit the last spring as lockdown took place everywhere. Some countries did wel…
The inflation rate is critical in the calculation when future value or purchase power declines every year. For now the assumption is 2% annual inflation. Can you imagine it gets larger in the future? An amount of $1M is not likely to last 30 years…
Don't use IBKR here for investing. What are you seeking that you cannot get from Schwab/Fidelity in terms of platform reliability, fast response, customer support?
Higher expense ratio has not been a barrier for us and prefer those that able to consistently out-perform their benchmarks. We invested with Lewis Kaufman when he ran Thornburg Developed Mkt fund before joining Artisan. Definitely agree that diver…
Look like the large gain is limited to this year. The other years are so so versus its benchmark (click on the Expanded view).
performance.morningstar.com/fund/performance-return.action?t=WAGTX®ion=usa&culture=en-US
Concur. Recovery duration is the other half of criterion when consider MAXDD. I prefer those with shorter duration and VCORX is one example versus PIMIX, one month versus 6 months. Remember during 2008's MAXDD it took over 24 months to recover. Th…
@little5bee, You must having a blast (the travel experience) while taking all health precaution steps possible. Crowded places and events, especially indoor ones, are those we avoid. It is good that you are sticking to your safety protocols.
C…
Thanks for the excellent article @bee. Like several posters here I also use PRWCX and VWINX as my main balanced funds, and they performed well through March drawdown and bounced back in 6 months.
With respect to VMVFX, this global fund has underw…
Great advices posted here for those who are approaching retirement and in retirement. Maintaining good health is the key so one can enjoy doing all the activities they want during retirement. Another approach is to enjoy life (hiking, traveling or b…
@sma3,
Following the definition of maximum drawdown for this year, I come up with similar MAXDD value as you did for VCOBX: -6.8% versus -0.8% (MFO).
NAV = $21.48 on 3/6/20 - peak date
NAV = $20.02 on 3/19/20 - bottom date
The other differe…
The energy sector is taking a beating and down 40% YTD and the economy has recovered somewhat but far from the leve prior to the pandemic. The second wave of COVID cases as Dr. Fauci called it, has reached Europe and rising fast. Same is happening …
I too prefer unhedged international funds. Currency hedging reduces short term volatility that many investors likes. Over the long term the difference in return disappear.
For example, Tweedy Browne created a second non-hedged global bond fund…
An article from Barron to diversify international stocks when USD weaken,
Investors should check whether an international fund is hedged against currency fluctuations or not. The hedged funds can protect returns when the dollar strengthens but will…
I will pass. 2020 performance of Doublelune funds should tell you that he is no better than you and I when it comes to predict the future market, except he gets paid millions$.
A small allocation to Permanent Portfolio is probably ok for gold an…
Most excellent! The key is to keep the expense down during retirement. The wild card is medical expense. My wife and I will cross that point in the near future.
Had I rented instead of owned, my housing costs (average $1K / month over 35 years) would have been about $350K. So maybe...just maybe... "owning" (the bank owed the home most of the 35 years) my property was a break even proposition financially.
Th…
MFO also measures the recovery period in months within a full cycle. This cycle is short (7 months) but very sharp. I also noted the difference as well.
Perhaps @Charles can explain the differences.
it is important to note the dates when MaxDD data is obtained.
Don't know the start and ending dates for M*. it a single day or over a week or month? MFO Premium listed the MaxDD for Cycle 6 - starting 202001 (Jan 1, 2020) and ending 202008 (…
