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.
Actually, if you assume that the prize won't get split among multiple winners - a bad assumption but one that Forbes apparently makes - then the odds are excellent. $2 for a 1/300M chance of winning $687M in cash after taxes.
Expectation value = …
FYI, OppenheimerFunds history:
OppenheimerFunds’ beginnings can be traced back to the late 1950s and the brokerage firm Oppenheimer & Co. (OpCo). Near the end of that decade, OpCo entered the mutual fund business, first offering the Oppenheimer …
It used to be that GO bonds were considered superior, because they had high priority and were backed by the power to tax. In contrast, revenue bonds depend on the success of whatever they're funding. These days, with some municipalities and stat…
Here's a piece on one of John Hancock's plans. It has a 1.69% plan fee - which might be paid by the employer, the employee, or split. If the employee pays that fee or part of it, it could make the fund expense look higher. The example in the a…
Was it a CIT or an a clone offered inside an annuity? That's common at smaller companies. If it was the latter, it should be possible to find info in the plan docs that separate out the underlying clone cost from the annuity wrapper fee. (Not t…
I haven't looked much at Invesco in the last couple of decades. That's when Invesco merged with AIM. That made it the 12th largest family. It's slid a bit since then, though it acquired Powershares (including QQQ) in 2006 and recently acquired …
Unfortunately, Kanovich's fund (whichever) keeps getting more expensive. OSMAX charged 1.2% in 2015. Oppenheimer then closed the fund in 2016 and raised its ER to 1.3% (the increase came entirely from a higher management fee). Then in 2017 th…
"Are you taking on more risk than you want?"
The article gives a couple of historical examples showing that you don't always win in the intermediate term with a 60/40 portfolio. Though it doesn't show that during these periods some other sane s…
I suppose some people and organizations (e.g. CMS) will celebrate anything. When you include all policies in those 39 [Medicare.gov exchange] states, both on- and off-exchange, the weighted average is actually a 1.8% increase, and when you include a…
Ted's mistake regarding the only thing you posted regarding investing was in not fully correcting your false statement that "The markets in the U.S. are closed today". He wrote that the stock markets were open today. Since you had initially ment…
Are you talking about a WFA account or a WellsTrade account? They're owned by the same corporation, and use the same clearing brokerage (Wells Fargo Clearing Services LLC dba WFA). But the services offered are different. Not that I'd trust eith…
But, but ... Don't football games lead up to the Superbowl that tells you how the stock market will do next year that tells you which funds to buy? :-)
I could be wrong, but I believe Uncle Sam requires RMDs in order to collect on the deferred taxes. You don't have to spend your RMDs but you do have to pay the taxes.
IMHO that's a significant reason, but not the only reason. IRAs are intended for…
I was a bit surprised to see CMS say that average Part D plans would be cheaper in 2019. What you're seeing, unfortunately, isn't surprising.
Earlier when I looked through filings insurers made to request rate increases for 2019, what I saw was …
You may mean a Medicare Advantage (Part C) plan. For 2019, there's one Medicare Blue Choice (Excellus BC BS) with $0 premium: the Select HMO plan. The other four Excellus plans range from $35/mo (Advanced HMO-POS) all the way up to $250/mo (Opti…
As I recall (off the top of my head), SSA will back date your SS benefits up to six months (but not earlier than your 62nd birthday) unless you tell them not to. That's why you got the call.
Several years ago I was invited to listen in on a phone…
Fidelity spent $250M to acquire eMoney three years ago. It took almost that long to integrate it with its retail platform (FullView), and has been struggling for several weeks to simply bring it up to the level of the software it replaced.
Unlike…
SSA did stop wasting paper and postage. These days, they only mail you these reports (annually) if you're over 60, not on SS, and don't have an SSA login.
You can always get your report here:
https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/statement.html
But what does household mean? It's not the term used in the source of these numbers. That source (Fed Reserve Board) uses the term "family", not "household". It goes on to note that its "family" is similar to, but not the same as, the Census Bur…
You can sell the BulletShare as it enters its last year (the portfolios of the HY variety are designed to mature throughout the final year). That way you don't have to worry about it piling up cash until it liquidates at the end of the year.
If y…
Thanks John. Do not you think that ETF or MF has the same market and interest rate risks as all other junk bond funds? Holding individual bond till maturity eliminates those risks.
BSJJ, BSJK, BSJL. 1-3 year maturity, as you originally said you wer…
You may be getting confused because this is a Canadian column. I paused at the Canada Deposit Insurance Corp.
Say "Jim" (if that really is your name), have you considered insurance products? Here in the US, they're often tax sheltered. Not tha…
Talk about not knowing where the bodies are hidden.
Kevin Landis buried Technology Leaders (TLFQX) in 2012 and Technology Innovators (TIFQX) (in 2008), and converted Firsthand's "flagship" fund Technology Value from an OEF (TVFQX) to a CEF (SVVC) i…
I am no lover of target date funds for attentive investors, but I think they can serve some investors well. I posted an extended comment to this effect on the page. (There's a second comment there as well making a similar point.)
Herein is my c…
Well, judging by the above commentary, Monte Carlo would seem to fall somewhere between a Ouija board and a direct visit from the gods revealing the future. Can't hurt, and is useful as long as the limitations are understood. Not recommended for des…
@msf- Am I off-base on this? Would appreciate your perspective.
I think @hank did a pretty good job responding. I've got just a couple of additional thoughts.
To put one of hank's comments more tersely, when I first read this thread a while ago,…
That's true. if one doesn't have 40 credits (regardless of where one lives) Part A (hospitalization) coverage isn't free. But one can still get Part A by paying a premium (currently $422/mo if under 30 credits, otherwise $232). One must also p…
Original Medicare coverage is the same for everyone regardless of where they live. That is, Medicare will pay for services received in the US, and the US only, independent of residency. So, e.g. if you are an expat visiting the US, your services…
In some people's world view, the US just makes it into the second quintile, right behind the Czech Republic, and virtually tied with the UK and Belgium. I agree that NZ and Australia would nice places to retire.
@Ted - The fund started in 2014. Did you mean YTD, 1 yr and 3 yr? Or perhaps this fund won't liquidate, but achieve a 100th percentile standing on its 5 year anniversary.
It's not that this fund has been so consistently bad. It's just that over…
Not sure what you guys have against this "tool" ... I still believe it is the best tool I use (other than my own spreadsheet) to test the probability I'm on tract - or not. Thanks for putting "tool" in quotes. As I keep writing: "As a concept, I'm …
@MJG wrote "this tool. Give it a few test runs".
I tried to draw a distinction between a technique (or technology, if you prefer) and tools, which are implementations of an approach. What is this tool? Perhaps you mean Portfolio Visualizer? …
I see that the linkster is responding to comments about too many links by posting without including links. Sneaky :-)
https://taxfoundation.org/new-irs-data-shows-ira-contributions-made-middle-class-taxpayers/
This is old news (dated April 26th)…
Isn't it nice to see such agreement when it comes to large deficits for now?
Kudlow: "We’re going to run deficits of about 4 to 5 percent of GDP for the next year or two, OK. I’d rather they were lower but it’s not a catastrophe."
Krugman: "I’m no…
Other than that, Mrs Lincoln.
>> Have you?
Sure, I use it all the time. It helps me think about RMD overage wrt taxes and how much to consider augmenting from Roth.
Yes, it will return somewhat different results for the same inputs.
>&…
Have you used the Welch optimal retirement planner -- ORP ? Have you? [Starting 2035] OASI income would be sufficient to pay 77 percent of scheduled OASI benefits. Since this is fact, until Congress changes the law, ORP reduces Social Security inc…
The public face is the home page. Nobody sees these discussions without choosing to do so. Nobody reads an off-topic post without choosing to do so. I support the idea of refraining from posting links without comment. I suggest a self-imposed limi…
FYI: (This is a follow-up article.)
https://humbledollar.com/2018/09/running-in-place-2/
Not exactly. This is a prequel to the prior MFO posting. That posting linked to a Marketwatch Opinion piece with the footnote:
This column previously appea…
