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
Many farmers want to sell their crops, not taking government handouts. Then there are the meat producers and ranchers. This only adds to the already large deficit.
Something every investor should know (as I learned) a single stock can go from a jewel to coal overnight. This is one of the reasons I invest in mutual funds and not signle stocks.
How true! It is about risk management through diversification in ind…
This is the consequences of quantitative easing of the EU. German government bond (Bund) are not doing better. For example, the yield of 2 year bond is -0.6%. That is right, you pay the government to own their debt.
https://bloomberg.com/markets/…
Not a good day for Ford and Chrysler. Both are affected by the tariffs.
https://reuters.com/article/us-fiatchrysler-ceo/fiat-chryslers-marchionne-dies-shares-dive-on-profit-slide-idUSKBN1KF1ST?il=0
https://msn.com/en-us/money/companies/fords-pro…
disappointing results—including from notable names like Boeing Co., General Motors Co., and AT&T Inc.
That is not good for being the blue chip stocks. What is next?
PGLOX is a new fund that started in 2017. Lots to like with small AUM, $17.3M. The #1 holding is Amazon (10%) that likely to contribute to the outperformance over VDC.
No. We are talking about billion pounds of chicken, beef and pork. In the meantime, what can the meat producers to do for NEXT year if there is already a boat-loaded of old meats in your refrigerators.
Short term interest rates are rising on one hand while the corporate debts are at all time high due to the easy money policies.
Recent Barron article from Charles de Vaulx of IVA Worldwide fund mentioned the overpricing of corporate and high yiel…
This may not be good for meat packing houses and their earnings. Below are some of the publicly trades stocks - watch their earnings as we are in the midst of reporting now.
https://manta.com/mb_34_C300B_000/meat_packing_plants
Not sure why SUVs are cramped relative to minivans. My neighbor leased a Hummer and the center console took up much of the space in the middle. Certainly not a family-oriented vehicles. Sorry to hear BMW SUVs did not fit your need. I understand that…
@msf, I still have lots to learn about annuity. At present I am not sure wanting to give up $500K for an annuity with insurance companies. What is your assessment on Vanguard variable annuity products?
salesman claimed it’s because us boomers need a higher seat to be able getting in and out easily. News to me!
SUVs are actually harder to get in-and-out, and I am 6'4". Last time I rented a Chevy Tahoe SUVs for a day while my Odyssey was having a ma…
Youngstown, OH is the major US manufacturing site for Honda. Both of our Civic and Odyssey were made there. I believe Canadian Honda cars are made in Alliston, Ontario. It is crazy that the Accord was voted the best passenger car in 2018, but that …
@bee,
Adding to your tread above. What else you consider non-market correlated sources? There are few funds and sectors that have lower correlation to the broader stock index (but difficult to have correlation
A good tool an individual investor can use when deciding between managing their own investments for "retirement withdrawal purposes" verses owning an annuity is Portfolio Visualizer. Obviously PV data is using past performance data, but it provides …
Same here. Bonds are having hard time this year and foreign bonds are lagging even more. The headwinds are currency and interest rates. There are two more rate hikes coming this year. So the domestic economy is doing as well as CNBC is telling e…
Also he called EU and China for manipulating their currencies and this directly affect every investor's mutual funds. So it is unrealistic to separate fiscal policy from investment. I read every annual reports and (good) fund managers talk about t…
Today many electronic components in computers, TV, dishwashers, laundry washers and many more, are made in China. Used to be Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Thr tariffs will only drive up the cost of consumer products and thereby the inflation wil…
Today he ripped into Chairman Powell on June's rate hike (two more coming) and strong USD. Certainly this crossed the line of the Federal Reserve being independence. When was the last time you have seen such childish outburst from previous adminis…
@davidmoran,
larryB beat me to it. Vanguard Prime money market offers 2.05% yield. Ultra-low ER allows for higher yield.
Last time I checked PCI the discount was less than 1% - not so attractive. As I recalled from Sam Lee who was a Mornings…
I would say stock picking and portfolio construction are the major contributors. David Giroux's fund holds 25% bond and 5% cash whereas many balanced funds have about 40% bond. YTD bonds are a drag on balanced funds. Also he is investing in utili…
Google Smoot-Hawley and you can find the consequences from the past.
https://marketplace.org/2017/08/24/sustainability/trade-stories-globalization-and-backlash/what-was-one-worst-pieces-us-legislation
The stock price of BRKB jumped 5% today. Having too much cash and few opportunities of reasonable price. Glad he unloaded IBM and bought Apple instead.
@davidmoran, DSEEX is doing well this year and pays out a small monthly dividend. The European equivalent CAPE fund is doing quite as well since it is not hedged to USD.
My long held MAINX is lagging badly this year as the dollar strengthened. S…
@larryB, increasing the CD ladder with respect to rate hike is the right to do. There are two more rate hikes to come this year. Inflation is already here as consumer products including cars, home appliances, electronics are getting more expensive…
I have been moving large cap funds to asset allocation funds such as PRWCX. The increased allocation to utilities is appropriate in this phase of the bull market. A new addition is Vanguard Multi-factor ETF, VFMF which is an all-caps fund. At pre…
Toyota Motor is a sizable component in developed market index. So how the tariff impacts its earning and stock price is qualified as "fund discussion". For that very reason the smaller cap funds are ahead of larger cap funds. When the supply chai…
By the way we limited ourselves to a small allocation in TRP's Global Tech Fund. What concerned us was the heavily weighings in the top 10 stocks. On the other hands, we have more confident with Primecap Odyssey Aggressive Growth, POAGX, and their…
I track a number of alternate funds for several years but never invest in them for obvious reasons - high fees and dismal returns. We decided it was better to have cash/cash equivalent now that the interest rates are more attractive.
The stress to meet the production goal has gotten to him. Last report was that he has not left the factory for several weeks. His recent outburst is concerning...
New Horizon has done well this year. So have to give Henry Ellenbogen credit for his stock picking skills. Unfortunately many of T. Rowe Price smaller cap funds are closed to new investors including New Horizon fund.
what is risk parity ?
I just stay with PRWCX even though it has been closed to new investors for some time. BTW it has been doing well among the asset allocation funds this year.
@LewisBraham,
In spring I have upgraded several old computers. Now we are working on the cell phones. No doubt that the tariff will pass down to consumers in the coming months. So will inflation.
Generally, I take no more than one half of what my five year average total return has been.
@Old_Skeet, Do you have a target range of your cash sleeve? My motivation is most likely different from yours. Mine is more defensive-based given there are…
Nice country to visit including Northern Ireland. Big contrast to major US cites with respect respect to homeless people. Demographic seems quite favorable comparing to the rest of Europe. Also lax tax laws attracted foreign companies to set up the…
