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
Adobe just want to sell more stuff, your data, to potential advertisers. As consumers one needs to read the fine print before you agree to use their services. For example, Adobe offers free cloud service (several GB storage) to store your images o…
@Crash, my corporate credit card switched to MasterCard after years being with Amex. We travel overseas on business or on personal that we don't pay transaction fee either on Visa and MasterCard. Why use ATMs when you can obtain cash from your deb…
@bee, Navy credit union is for those who are in uniform or work for DOD, correct? What are their advantages over say the local credit unions?
Our mortgage is still with a large bank, but we maintain a checking account with a local credit union. T…
Agree with LewisBraham. I own Facebook not by choice but through my index fund. Personally I don't care for social media stocks in light of how they exploit their users to enrich their own pockets.
I am at the highest level of bond & cash in recent years. Don't see outstanding upside. More risk today with possible war with John Bolton on board. Remember Dick Cheney? Trade war is another.
@Maurice, Good find. That is troubling to have all your communication made available. What's next? It is bad enough to have Amazon tracks my shopping habit and send me recommended items based on my browsing history, and time spent on each item. …
Agree with Crash and MikeM. Little upside with domestic bonds - three more rate hikes. Foreign bonds don't yield much other than EM debts.
Hold more cash instead
Draining the swamp by appointing people with business experience and in most cases none at all. The three generals are exception. The appointment of John Bolton is scary. Just remember how he was removed from Bush administration. Statement he mad…
S&P lost 6.3% last week and now it is -3% for the year. I would wait a bit since there is likely more volatility to come. The trade war is just unfolding as one watch a car crash in slow motion.
The trade war is on now and there will be no winners. It is naive to think trade barrier will have no impact on the bottomline - earnings. That is why England is trying to negotiate a trade deal with EU on the consequences of Bretix. Without it the…
failure of government or the lack of regulation
Hard to imagine how these informations do not being monetized in public traded companies. When one freely posted their personal information on these sites, they become the company's property and can b…
There are something to be said about privacy. Tough to avoid technology today but everyone can make inform decision on how to share personal information.
Not relate to this topic, what is happening at Facebook remind me of the movie Minority Repo…
Not to scare everyone that commercial planes typically land on automatic mode. Unless a difficult situation arises as one the Hudson River that a skillful pilot can land it on water safely. Perhaps AI still requires further refinement before they …
Let's face it. Retail has been overbuilt for two to three decades. Everywhere a BJ's opened, a Sam's club opened within a mile. Staples followed the same strategy with Office Depot. Online shopping has just pushed these overbuilt brick and mortars o…
@Mark, thanks for the article. For now I don't need income from bonds, but just to counteract the stock asset class. A CD ladder sounds interesting now especially there maybe as many as four rate hikes this year. I will check out Fidelity and Vang…
@MikeM, I reduced my equity and bond allocation by 15% early in the year and have been holding double digit in cash. We had a good run last year but the geopolitic situation has worsen and the possibility of a trade war. I may increase my TRP Capi…
@MikeM and @Ted, are cash/CD viable alternatives to bond fund, at least for the next 6-12 months? Money market funds now pay a bit over 1%. The upcoming Fed meeting is near end of March and 25 basis point raise is expected.
I got my 1099-div from Fido online 2-3 weeks prior to the paper form. Fidelity is supposedly one of the better one online brokerage. it is too bad they did not do maintenance after midnight hours instead.
Not all targeted date funds are created the same. Fidelity is no exception.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/retirement/special-report-fidelity-puts-6-million-savers-on-risky-path-to-retirement/ar-BBJSUgr?li=BBnbfcN
@bee, Really appreciate your informative posting. It is never to early to learn and make informed decision early in the planning phase. We still have 10+ years to go as our kids are entering college now.
Impeach before he instills more ruin I say.
@MikeM, the alternative (Pence) could be much worse especially when Congress failed over and over again to act as check-and-balance from the executive branch.
Without Hope Hicks serving as a filter to h…
He had trouble reading the script when he was invited to SNL awhile back. Some said he cannot read or he really needs reading glasses badly.
For sure we know he doesn't like to go through the detailed security briefing every morning. Everyone le…
@larryB,
My parents talked about the great depression and what made it worse.
In 1930, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act raised tariffs on 20,000 goods Americans bought from abroad. Imports fell significantly, but Canada and other countries retaliated …
He is trying hard to fulfill his campaign promises. Nevertheless he failed to call them "currency manipulator" the first day he entered the office. There is no winner in this trade war.
@msf, thank you for the CR articles. Depending where you live, local farmer market prices swing wildly. When we live in midwest, there were no price advantages other than freshness of the produces. In the areas around Portland, OR, there are hig…
@bee, you asked for global small cap exposure. QUSIX is a foreign small-mid cap fund.
Alternatively, Grandeur Peak funds may fit your need, but many are closed to new investors including their Global Opportunities fund. Going back to their histo…
There is no firm definition for the terms 'natural' and 'organic' foods
The term 'natural' is purely marketing tool to fool the uninform consumers. As the term 'organic' there are strict USDA guideline on how the food can be produced and labeled. …
Bernard Horn's Global Value, PGVFX is an all cap global fund, while the Pear Tree Polaris Foreign Value Small Cap is a mid-small international fund, QUSIX.
