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
Finally reality set in - no inflation (more like deflation), no rate cut across the board. Besides how much more to cut when some European treasuries already having negative yields. Reality is the global economy has been sluggish this year, but re…
Through my university I have access to WSJ, NT Times, and Washington Post. The public library in my town also have both the printed as well the electronic version of the above plus Morningstar - great use of the property tax dollars. Used to subsc…
Today many Californian retirees cannot afford to stay in their beautiful but expensive home state. In the Pacific Northwest we have many Californians retired here with lower cost of living. No doubt California has lot to offer but only as a touris…
The good old days when airline traveling was a real treat. Food was serve with silverware even in coach class. Flying to Europe is still quite good. Hot towel was provided before each meals.
Today the market is expensive and the earnings have been deaccelerating. Money managers I follow are having difficulties finding compelling stocks to buy.
He must be smoking something when today's 10 years Treasuries is yielding 2.5%. It is highly unlikely to reach 4% higher in two years. Especially now that Trump is urging Chairman Powell to cut rates. Today the Fed will decide the rates going for…
I recalled he was fired from TCW for his alleged pornography stuff on work computer. Even if there is a fine grain of truth to this, that is just disgraceful. So should we name him the Porn King now since he so readily label someone else?
The Environment Protection Agency, EPA was created during Nixson administration due to the pollution and environmental awareness at that time. As I recalled a major river in Ohio caught on fire that brought to the nation's attention. That is how m…
I concur with @expatsp and @catch22 on this posting. Tariff has everything to do with investing and YOUR retirement. Now Fed Chairman Powell is being pressured to cut interest rates even when the inflation is below the 2% threshold. If the econom…
Excellent choice by Southwest. Example of corporate greed on behalf of Boeing. The pilot control software package is an "add-on" option. Can you imagine air bag is optional in cars sold today?
After two crashes that point to this software, Boein…
Bonds are important to mitigate risk as one approach retirement or as the students start to pay for their college tuition with 529 funds. I agree the bond's yields are no where near the historical levels. Most average investors do not have access t…
I have read Vanguard's article several times. My question is when will the EM investment opportunities reflected into markets, i.e. translate in equity gains. What is being observed in last several years is high volatility especially in severe dra…
@msf, thank you for the reference to the annual reports. I had read the manager's discussion section and have not located the statement above.
"During the year ended December 31, 2018, the volume of the fund’s activity in options, based on under…
@hank, I am a bit confused with your statement.
Added: I understand how one can get google-eyed staring at the impressive returns of PRWCX. But be careful what you wish for. The fund’s had 3 or 4 managerial changes since inception. There will be m…
Putting everything into their perspectives - being cheap is relative. If the prolong scenario plays out these stocks can continue to slide lower. That is the risk of investing in EM. It is best to have either long horizon (20+ years or longer) or…
I tend to agree with @JoJo26 that what I was like when I first joined the workforce. Couple years later I changed for the better - being married and having a family. My kids are in college now completely funded by 529 plans and they will graduate …
US zoos have contracts with China to host the giant panda. In return China receives over $1M fee per year for each panda. The US breeding program have had the fortune to have high success rate. San Diego Zoo had 5 panda born there while Georgia Z…
@catch22, good posting. Read a number of books on China's history and still far beyond in understand all subtle aspects of their thinking. Remember the anniversary of Tiananmen Square conflict is on June 4th. Xi cannot afford to look weak to the…
Thank you for the detailed article that is unusual for Morningstar. Anther article from Washington Post provides their analysis on the possible outcome. A short summary is provided below since the article is a subscription-based.
https://www.w…
Glad to stay away from someone who mix politics with investment. Not only it detracts from his main duty to his investors and it shows as the performance lags badly several years in a row.
Art, Congratulation on your pending retirement. In general, I like T. Rowe Price funds since many of their managers have long track record and lower fee than the MF industry. The other metric worthwhile to consider is the recovery period after the…
The open retail TRP funds have been available in Fidelity NTF platform. So are a number of closed funds as well. This year TRP funds are available in Vanguard's NTF platform as well. As always one will be subject to the brokerage's holding period…
Agree with msf. The article is non-sense. Blackrock and State Street Advisors would be guilty too with their iShares and Powershares ETFs for not paying out capital gain and only dividends. Vanguard patent describes how their ETFs are created whi…
I'm comfortable with my asset allocation. Noted the uptick in the market while the economy is slowing globally at the same time. No radical changes, but rebalanced to more bonds recently.
Question: If I avoid the next “downturn” and you don’t, does that amplify your losses when the downturn comes?
Avoid downturn is nearly impossible without resorting to all cash. A balanced allocation, say 60/40 would lesser the sting such as last …
There is already an experience team behind the lead managers. Their pending retirement will likely to have minimal impact on the long term performance to Wellington fund. The management strategy is similar to Dodge and Cox funds.
I should add that with exception to Lewis Braham who is an excellent free lance writer for Barrons (and other news journals), I would seek out his writing on his Muck Rack website directly.
https://muckrack.com/lewis-braham
@Old_Skeet, @hank, @mark, my sentiment is exactly how you all feel. I subscribe to New York Times and Washington Post. I have access to Wall Street Journal through our public library (funded by my property tax). Barrons used to have lots of usef…
