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
Do we want another round of tax cut? Where is the party that shout fiscal responsibility? Who really benefitted from the 2019 tax cut? I representing the middle class certainly did not. Further, we already reached over $996 billions budget defic…
Absolutely, one of the very best in the news business. May he rests in peace. Gwen Ifill passed away back in 2016. Judy Woodruff is another great reporter.
@catch22, good chart to illustrate the point. In the last 10 years or more, the US large cap growth stocks have dominated the market over the value stocks. When will that switch the lead, no one really know until the report earnings start to rever…
I buy a copy of Turbo Tax Deluxe that costs $50. Another $15 more for the Premiere version if your investment is more complicated.
Even if the filing is FREE, I really don't think it is prudent to put all personal information (social security # …
Kitces also pointed out that ...
once the 5-year rule has been satisfied once for a taxpayer (i.e., if you’ve already had a Roth for at least 5 tax years), it’s been satisfied for good; in turn, this means that recent contributions may actually be e…
If you are willing to take on a slight interest rate risk, you can consider Vanguard Short-term treasury index, VSBSX.
https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-funds/profile/VSBSX
Duration is 1.9 years, SEC yield 1.56% and ER 0.07%.
Certainly ther…
Nice writeup from Lewis. In 2008 all my Dodge & Cox funds did not fare well - DODFX (-46.7%) and DODGX (-43.3%). With patience they all recovered in next few years and gained more ever since. DODIX was added recently, thus it may have more ove…
Also interesting that the S&P 500 earning has increased in recent years. Do it justify of having higher Shiller P/E?
https://www.multpl.com/s-p-500-earnings
Note that the S&P 500 earning is on the upward trend prior to 2008's crisis, then …
Reading these docs is like reading tea leaves. They can mean whatever you want to read into them.
That is for sure - too much materials to digest easily. Your explanation makes sense for this fund with an one-year duration and yet manages to yield…
To continue the fund description that Lipper quoted from T. Rowe Price:
The fund also uses interest rate futures, interest rate and credit default swaps, and forward currency exchange contracts, primarily to manage interest rate exposure and limit t…
January 6 and advised me that it could take two or three weeks because I had requested transfer of individual mutual funds.
That is really the worst case. If the entire MF accounts is transferred, it should take about a week instead - the benefit o…
I agree that alternative funds have been lagging badly in down cycles, thus I don't see them for drawdown protection. Once you subtract the high fees (typically 2% or more), the results are pretty sad. No wonder those who manage these expensive pr…
@bee, Thank you. Matthew McLennan and Ed Hyman's interview was particularly informative. McLennan's First Eagle Global fund, SGIIX, is doing well this year with YTD return 19.8% while holding 14% cash.
This is similar to Tweedy Browne when a second unhedged global fund was launched at a later date. In the long term, currency hedging is a wash but it does incurred additional cost.
@MikeM, I think we are on the same page. I too have invested with Andrew Foster since his days managing MACSX and now with SIGIX. Now I am evaluating Seafarer Oversea Value fund.
With respect to investing in China, I pay skillful manager to …
I tend to agree with hank. Peter Lynch was an outstanding money manager of Fidelity Magellan fund in the 80's. He managed to outperform the S&P index for a number of the years. He left his money manager role and took on other duties while stay…
Expense ratios for alternatives and long/short strategy funds are quite high, 1.5 -2% and up. So TMSRX is interesting and reasonable on the ER. Providing that TRP's strategy plays out in their favor, this would be a decent vehicle.
@MikeM,
The concern about China is that they are more than a low cost manufacturer for consumer products. China is on the path taken by Japan (after WWII) and South Korea (in the 90's) to develop their high tech manufacturing capabilities. They wa…
I’ve read a bit of what Price’s “brain trust” envisions for the fund. What I hear from them is that they foresee a possible scenario in which both bonds and equities are falling together. It’s not hard for one to imagine how that might happen. They …
You are not missing anything.
#1 question - With low inflation and fixed income vehicles paying ~2%, many investors are chasing what is going up, US equities.
#2 question - Perhaps this is their cash position. However, money market funds are …
@Gary, Please see the IRS link provided above. Roth IRA contribution limit for 2019 is $6,000. For those who are over 50, an additional $1,000 is allowed as catch-up.
For 2020, Roth IRA contribution limit remained unchange.
If in doubt, the b…
@bee, I really appreciate your sharing since we are in similar timeframe as you. Several years ago we started consolidating our IRAs to two brokerages (Fidelity and Vanguard), and the third with our current employers. While Fidelity online service …
Agree. However, that data (full market cycle) is not always available.
Its seems reasonable to look back to 1/1/08 or so as a start date if you want get a better sense for performance over a full market cycle.
Overvalued market - for sure it has been stretched. Job data from last Friday got the market going again. Will an agreement be made between US and China in order to start the manufacturing sector since it has been trending downward for several qua…
Good comparison. My 401(K) use Vanguard's TDFs. T. Rowe Price uses more actively managed funds - a bit more volatile but with a slight edge in returns.
TRRIX's ER is 0.51% which is reasonable.
Similar to this 40/60 balanced fund is Vanguard Wellesley Income fund (35/75 stock/bond allocation). The admiral shares' ER is 0.16% with $50K mininium.
