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.
Here's Microsoft's Windows Lifecycle (support) page:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle
Windows 7 "mainstream" support has already ended. "Extended support" runs to 1/14/2020. As near as I can figure, that means primarily secur…
But what I really miss is mailx (Sys V)/Mail (BSD).Mailx is still available, same with pine and elm. if all you really want is straight text,
in windows - probably equates to https://technet.microsoft.com/library/hh849925.aspx
I was being half ser…
I agree with Mark - Outlook Express had provided basic functionality and simplicity. I've used Thunderbird since Outlook Express went away. Very happy with this also. Not quite as simple, but still moderately straight forward and easy to use.
…
@catch22 - You're right about the dates. But there is a Technical Preview edition available. (Read the warnings - not easy to back out of.)
What I've read says that Windows 10 is a good, major cleanup of everything Windows 8 did wrong. (Sort of…
I was about to mention Leah Zell. She was an original co-manager of Acorn Int'l (ACINX) along with her husband. She outlasted him as a manager of the fund, taking on Margaret Forster as a co-manager for much of her remaining tenure with the fund…
@Mark Normally I would call and ask what is going on, but I've asked a related question of different brokerages enough to accept the system message as accurate.
It used to be fairly easy to purchase "advisor" shares, or other shares designed for ad…
I'll scrimp on unnecessary expenses (e.g, I pay about $10-$30/year for cellphone service, depending on my limited usage). But I won't cut corners on essentials, like health care, or on family (stop smirking, all you people thinking of Greece :-)…
@jlev - Thanks for the info. Sounds like what's going on with Schwab (see above) - the fund is supposedly available through OneSource, but when you get to the site, you find that only institutional customers can buy.
Or something like what Fidelit…
Thanks for the reminder. I've "hired" her, too. Keep this up and we may discover that I've "hired" all the good female managers. An equal opportunity "employer".
A few more details about medical expenses and taxes (to throw into your personal tax mix):
- The tax laws were changed so that medical expenses are deductible only to the extent that they exceed 10% (formerly 7.5%) of your AGI (Form 1040, line 37).…
To a small extent I probably match the profile described. But I'd describe it more as being frugal than obsessive.
I had to smile at the line about losing a home sale over a $200 haggle. When we sold our home (from a distance), we'd already co…
One of the best fund managers I ever "hired" - Arden Armstrong. Other notables?
NYTimes, June 13, 1999, INVESTING WITH: Arden Armstrong; MAS Mid-Cap Growth Fund
Personally the best thing my wife and I have done financially was to convert our 30-year mortgage to a 15-year mortgage years ago. We will have no mortgage when we retire. That is huge.
One can accomplish this by making extra payments on a 30 yea…
With respect to the value of mortgage interest deductions, @Catch22 made a good point worth reminding folks.
In order to take advantage of the mortgage interest as a deduction, one must itemize their deductions rather than taking a standard deduct…
Do you use TIAA-CREF, or are you observing from the outside? If you're "inside", I've got questions about all the funds that M* says are NTF at TIAA-CREF, but nowhere else. Such as WASAX, to take a random example. Is is really available at TIAA-…
Paying off a 3% mortgage seems to me a very conservative/safe move. I'd liken it to owning a Treasury Bond netting holder a guaranteed 3% after taxes. As safe investments go, in an era of minuscule bond & CD rates, that 3% guaranteed return d…
LA Times, 12/20/1993, No-Loads Waive Fees to Summon IRA Investors
The article says that due to competitive pressure, Vanguard, Price, and Scudder (remember them? - first noload fund) were waiving their IRA custodial fees. It goes on to say that B…
Also, not every fund is available for automatic reinvestment (so you can't always get that $5 trade). I got burned by that a few years ago - even though Fidelity's web site claimed that the fund did allow automatic reinvestments.
I agree with all the others that a website alone is not a reason to move. (And like the OP, I do not like the new website; I thought the previous one was a minor step down from its predecessor in turn, but grew to appreciate some of its features.)…
We've all heard enough reasons why a country's budget should not be analogized to a household's. (For example, if they were similar, then one could "dynamically score" a household budget, and claim that losing a job - like cutting taxes - would in…
Forgetting about the emotional value (which is itself very real), there's a financial planning benefit to being free of mortgage payments.
Those payments must be made each and every month; one way or another you must come up with the cash. That i…
Where does it say how much money this great new plan would raise, compared with the swampy situation we have now? Did I miss something? How do the outcomes score in terms of what $ we need to have to do the stuff we do?
I was trying to stick with q…
Romney will stay pay 13% tax under this plan UNLESS it is clear stated it applies to EVERYONE. The best thing to do is usually to go to the source (what little there is):
https://www.google.com/search?q=Blow+Up+the+Tax+Code+and+Start+Over&ie=ut…
I may have to take back what I said about Mr. Burns writing well on personal finance.
The broad analysis here is fine - that keeping cash instead of paying down a mortgage is a losing proposition, but long term investing could be a winner if th…
There's a lot that can be said, but I think three words encapsulate the themes: VAT, and "dynamic scoring".
If you do a search on the former, you'll find objections across the political spectrum (for differing reasons, of course).
On the latter…
Mass marketing "healthy" has been going on since the 70s (even earlier, but it wasn't so much "mass" then). See, e.g. (think "wild hickory nuts"):
Marketing a place as somewhere to be seen is just another way to package conspicuous consumption. …
I'm glad Scott noted that the violations were in NYC. Aside from one store in Brooklyn (at toid and toid, overlooking a Superfund site), all their NYC stores are in Manhattan. There, they don't seem all that expensive compared with (again as Sc…
Some people are concerned about using gas taxes for other purposes. So where is the outrage when "The federal Highway Trust Fund ... [gets] a congressional bailout four times since 2009"?
This seems like one area where we can let the private s…
I agree with Lewis that tax rates are near historic lows (which is why I suggest to people that they consider doing some Roth conversions even if it kicks them into a slightly higher bracket, because tax rates have nowhere to go but up IMHO).
But I…
My father taught me to respect "Holmes and Brandeis dissenting". From one of their most well known dissents (edited for relative brevity):
It is true ... that every exaction of money for an act is a discouragement to the extent of the payment req…
Generally I agree with you, but there are arguably rare exceptions. Mairs and Power Growth (MPGFX) being the usual example given here.
Benham California bond funds seemed to be competitive with Vanguard's despite their somewhat higher cost, wh…
Safeco (property and casualty) was bought out by Liberty Mutual in 2008, but the life insurance and investment (mutual fund) business was sold off in 2004; the life insurance became Symetra and the funds were immediately acquired by Pioneer.
Benham…
Due to their conservative nature Vanguard has much lower allocation to PR bonds. The High Yield Tax-free bond fund has the highest exposure fund at 1.8%.
Undoubtedly true, but because Vanguard is so large, the complex as a whole was #6 in PR bon…
Oppenheimer is the largest holder of PR bonds (notably through its Oppenheimer Rochester funds), and it has vowed not to give an inch:
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-major-puerto-rico-investor-warns-it-stands-ready-to-defend-bonds-2015-6
These fu…
I'd almost forgotten about Fremont funds - as Ted's link reminds us, Fremont Bond Fund (FBDFX) was one of the two cheaper ways to get access to Bill Gross (the other being Harbor Bond Fund HABDX).
What the links don't tell us is that Fremont Invest…
Okay, I admit it, I skimmed the rest of the article. I think Gross has got ETFs all wrong when he writes:That an ETF can satisfy redemption with underlying bonds or shares, only raises the nightmare possibility of a disillusioned and uninformed pub…
Mr. Gross' ramblings aren't even numerically correct. I stopped reading after the first paragraph, so much was wrong with his hyperventilating prose.
Governor Brown's executive order does not say that "all of us simple folk should cut back water …
1998 WSJ article: Mutual Funds Take Steps to Ready for Redemptions (link is google search)
"Currently [1998] only four fund firms have permission from the US SEC to make such "interfund" loans. But several other fund companies [are moving in that…
The (or at least a) dividing line is FDA approval (which is why the machine John C linked to has potential).
Here's BC/BS of Kansas' definition of experimental (which they won't cover) - FDA approval is one of the tests:
http://www.bcbsks.com/cust…
I know I'm coming out of left field (or is it right field :-) ) on this, but I don't think that multiple share classes is that big a deal. Sure they're there to be deceptive, but that doesn't mean the information isn't out there, in plain sight, t…
