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.
Are we comparing AO funds - apples and oranges? If we're going to compare funds of index funds, let's do that. iShare Core Alloc Fidelity Freedom® Index
Fund of Funds Yes Yes
No. of Funds in family 4 13
Structure ETF Open end
Underlying …
Not for one's entire portfolio, but for all of one's traditional IRAs (i.e. the part subject to the Table III RMDs).
Traditional target date funds are designed to be held as one's only investment. The idea is that you're leaving the asset alloc…
I wouldn't read too much into their history. Per the prospectus: Prior to June 1, 2017, the fund[s] operated under certain different investment policies and a different pricing structure. The fund's historical performance prior to June 1, 2017 may …
All I'm saying is that one can't infer that bank loans are harder to price than treasuries from the fact that the former are classified as level 2. Certainly pricing them is more difficult, just as investment grade corporates are harder to price t…
> But a lot can go wrong especially when investors think they are in a “sure thing”.
In a nutshell, that's what concerns me about bonds other than vanilla bonds (investment grade corporate, treasuries). They are fine, often for long periods …
We should take note of Fitzgerald's distinction between the very rich and everyone else, including the "merely" affluent. (Note that he really was talking about wealth, but in the context of taxes, one is usually talking about income.)
People seem…
@hank Thanks for the digging. If Amazon has over a half million employees (Ritholtz cited CNN here), and only 4% (20,000) of them are in the warehouses, what are the other 96% doing? How many are at Whole Foods or running Amazon's servers, or ...?…
"The median salary ... is $28,446, excluding [one person]."
Gosh, do you think that including one more figure would alter the median salary?
He goes on to compare Amazon's median salary with Apple's average salary. The Apple figure he's citing re…
Here's a review by someone who got a response to some of his questions from Beam, though they were mostly "nonanswers". He also got a live account and describes how it works. To quote from his page: "Spoiler alert: it’s not good."
https://www.getr…
Both Schwab and Fidelity let you sell any fund without a transaction fee. These could serve as places to dump your position if you can't find another broker where the fund is NTF.
Keep in mind that buying a TF fund at Schwab will generally cost $…
It's been covered by Forbes and by ValuePenguin, so in that sense at least it seems real.
It's probably fine as far as it goes, but I'm not enticed by "engagement" bonuses (the more you do on the app, the higher the yield). It's hard to see how a…
My apologies - too much time on proofing the text and not enough on the recipient.
I can see why the thread was closed, though I was trying to stay focused on what funds to invest in.
@Catch - I think that these young people are fantastic, and they are doing exactly what you described - getting people to recognize what's important. Hopefully to effect political change. I contributed to March For Our Lives. So make no mistake a…
Correct, I always research and cite experts when they know more than I do. But then I study them in detail, without glaze.I would have expected to see a cite to NASA's study - it's current (December 2017) and directly addresses the quoted section, s…
I tend to agree with the thrust of what Hale wrote, but I think he overstated and may have even misstated his case.
I'm most in agreement about engagement. Fund companies (Vanguard in particular) have been slow to press businesses to improve thei…
"Why the call for a "gun boycott" of Blackrock and Vanguard? It was stated above: they are the two biggest investors in those gun companies which were mentioned."
I understand the desire for a Howard Beale moment (we're mad as hell and we're not go…
"In terms of climate change, ... [a]re these sustainability scorecards rigged?"
You may have missed one of the key points I was making. When referencing a number, make sure you understand what it represents. Climate change is but one part of envi…
In a perhaps vain attempt to ignore all the ad hominem nonsense here, the reason why Blackrock and Vanguard are two of the largest owners of some gun manufacturers is simply that these are two of the largest index fund management companies. This wa…
I think you meant to link this article:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-us-ranks-near-the-bottom-on-this-sustainability-scorecard-2018-04-17
Here's one summary of M*'s report (M* has various summaries targeted at different international regio…
Possible causes:Russian hackingIRS budget cuts (couldn't pay for peak load servers)Executive branch-initiated tax cut (Congress, we don't need no stinking Congress) - watch those Trump poll numbers
Since you introduced medical information, it's worth noting that these data already have significant privacy protection through HIPAA. Medical service providers (labs, pharmacies, health insurance companies, etc.) cannot make this information avail…
Is it more realistic that Congress will make further tax cuts on top of the current law, than leave the tax law as it stands?
The reason I ask is that the Barron's column (linked to by Ted) describes making more tax cuts as "CBO’s more realistic 'A…
I know a few people who are paying 1% - some are getting a good amount of help with their financial situations (i.e. are getting reasonable value for their money), some are getting investment help and some long term planning (IMHO not in itself wort…
Navy Federal: 7 year CD offers 2.65%.
...Just thought I'd mention it, for comparison.
FWIW, Navy Fed has relaxed its familial membership requirements a bit. Now, you just need to be related (up to grandparents, down to grandchildren) to someone w…
Currently, new issue zero coupon T-bills are expected to yield 1.69% for three months, 1.85% for six month. That's within a few basis points of what banks are offering. It may be worth giving up a few months liquidity, especially in states with h…
IMHO Maurice has the right facts, but in the reverse order. What is important is that hedge funds are less regulated by federal and state authorities. In exchange for less oversight (including fewer disclosure requirements), hedge funds are gene…
"Mutual funds (publicly traded ones, like this) have to abide by SEC oversight stuff that hedge funds generally don't, and unless it's an 'interval fund' anyone can buy into or sell out of them anytime they want."
SEC: "Legally, interval funds are …
My experience with TRP is that they're pretty accommodating when it comes to opening new accounts of a closed fund by moving shares in-kind (e.g. from an IRA to your taxable account, or from a traditional to a Roth IRA).
So take "closed to ... n…
@msf I guess the SF utility tax break isn't sufficient. San Francisco Out-Migration
The article is about how hard it is to rent U-Hauls out of the Bay Area, and gives data only for San Jose. San Francisco, on the other hand, continues to grow:
h…
Correct, why I specified Park Slope, and not Cincinnati but more my hometown of Springfield's 45506, which ain't at all like 45226.
Not sure where Springfield was specified, though it may have been what you had in mind. What I saw was "Southern Oh…
Mutual funds are required to file holdings with the SEC quarterly. They tend to release their top holdings more frequently, though not necessarily through SEC filings.
On the website, you'll find the March 31 holdings.
http://www.fpafunds.com/do…
Hamilton County (Cincinnati) - median household income $50,399, poverty 16.0%
Kings County (Brooklyn) - median household income, $50,640, poverty 20.6%
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/hamiltoncountyohio,kingscountybrooklynboroughnewyor…
It's not just what you get for your taxes, but who pays those taxes and how they're distributed.
For example, in a twist on the small town speed trap, Delaware hikes the tolls on its roads on weekends to "trap" the bulk of out of state travelers…
"When [Brian Yacktman] suggested lowering the minimum [of $50M to manage separate accounts] to [his] father, he basically said, “Great idea, just don’t do it here!” because their business model was focused on managing very few, large accounts. So, w…
YACKX way underperformed the S&P 500 over its first 3 years (26.3% cumulative vs. 46.5%) and its first 5 years (99.9% cumulative vs. 153%). That was to July 1997. The spread in performance only got worse for the rest of the decade, until the …
Interesting. If you've got a "metal level" plan through work, is that a SHOP plan? SHOP is Small business Health Option Program; ACA plans for smaller businesses.
Medium and large businesses continue to buy insurance directly from insurers (or…
Welcome back, your thoughtful observations and questions were missed. Congratulations on beating cancer. Two years is a long time. Keep up the good health.
The first opinion piece (theweek.com) doesn't quite crunch its numbers well.
It talks about many liberals predicting a mass migration from employer plans to ACA plans. That's not what I remembered, so I went into the internet time machine and fou…
Annuities have all sorts of payout options, including various payouts to a survivor (e.g. spouse). When both die, the annuity "dies" with them.
Here's Investopedia's page on joint and survivor annuities. "With a joint and survivor annuity, mo…
People lament the disappearance of traditional pensions, but when they're offered the opportunity for their retirement plan to give them those pension payments for life, they'd rather take the money and run.
Traditional pensions have value. Annui…
