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.
All of the links given are fine references, and well worth the read. (Note that the ritholtz link is to a somewhat academic paper by Bruce Bartlett - with 96 footnotes.) Thanks to all for the pointers.
In the 90s, I took a course on partnerships…
Forget the RMD for the moment. You earn $1000 in wages. That's taxed when earned. And if you contribute it to a traditional (deductible) IRA, it's taxed upon withdrawal.
(If you don't have that compensation, you're not allowed to contribute …
You can't use RMD to fund an IRA.
(Well, cash is cash, and if you have $1000 in compensation, and a $1000 RMD, you can put $1000 in the IRA and think to yourself that the cash came from the RMD. That's okay, but the IRS still says the contributi…
I worry that people invest in things that they don't fully understand, though Junkster can explain the mechanics and risks of bank loans better than I.
Here's a good, current (Feb 2015) column from Schwab describing some of the risks involved. …
Not quite sure what you have in mind, so I'll just walk through the rules as they would appear to apply to you:
1. RMD - you have to take this; that's the end of the story as far as this money goes.
2. IRA contribution - you need "compensation" …
At least for RMDs, Fidelity does allow exactly what you described: "there would be a sell of the holding and then the money would be moved the cash position".
From Fidelity's Automated Withdrawals - MRD/Life Expectancy Form:
5. Funding Your Distr…
Comparing GLRBX and VWIAX is not quite comparing apples and oranges, but perhaps oranges and tangerines. One is a 50/50 stock/bond fund. The other is a 40/60.
That VWIAX has performed as well is a testament to the 83 basis point ER advantage …
@Junkster @MJG - thanks for the kind words. They are much appreciated.
@Dex - I agree with you that money may be more useful/valuable early in retirement, when it can be enjoyed. (Of course this depends on one's objectives - if it is to horde e…
Here's a very good article from the American Association of Individual Investors explaining the old classification system (growth, growth & income, etc.) that Ramsey is using. Not surprisingly, it dates from 1999.
The only nit I have to pick w…
Let me offer a different analysis that I think is simpler, yet equivalent to Kitces. It leaves until the end assumptions about inflation rate, tax rate, and rate of return on investment, so that one can decide for oneself whether the risk/reward is…
@Junkster - while I'm not in RMD mode, I think I can address your question. Especially since it is broader than RMDs - what happens if you have a jump in income in your last quarter. (This would be of interest not only to retirees, but to self em…
Always wonder about the Big concern with Loads, Performance of Level Load is based on NET figures, (that is minus the 0.75% load paid every year) for your easy comparison.
10 yr. return of class-C (level load) OSMCX blows its competition away (#…
It's not T. Rowe Price considering IRAs to be pensions; that's Michigan law:Under Michigan law, qualifying pension and retirement benefits include most payments that are reported on a 1099-R for federal purposes. This includes defined benefit pensio…
It sounds like you're trying to get a better understanding of basic investing and follow good guidance. May I suggest a bit more reading (and asking questions here) before making major changes?
While I'm not familiar with Dave Ramsey, three thing…
" In 1945, the largest 25 mutual funds in the United States cost an average of 0.76 percent per year. ... The biggest active funds in 2004 cost 1.56 percent."
I don't know about 2004, but in 2015, the average ER of the 25 largest active funds (usi…
Just to be clear, if you have to get life expectancy from different tables (Table II and Table III) for different IRAs, then you must calculate each RMD separately.
If you're using the same life expectancy (divisor) for all IRAs, then there's no…
Who can tell you? The IRS - they're from the government and they're here to help. Well, actually their help is here: Pub 590b.
There are a few different factors - different beneficiaries on different IRAs, magnitude of age difference from spous…
Are you sure Social Security is taxed in Mass? From Mass.gov:21. Are Social Security benefits taxable in Massachusetts? Is the Medicare tax withheld from my Social Security benefits deductible on my return?
Massachusetts does not tax benefits rece…
Why are Georgia roads in such good shape?Georgia invested in its highway infrastructure significantly between 1977 and 1985
Continuing the 2014 Georgia Infrastructure report on roads:lack of investment since then has created congestion and freight b…
Perhaps I missed something. I thought the proposition voted down had three components: increase the sales tax (a consumption tax) from 6% to 7%, make gasoline exempt from sales tax, and increase the gas tax to support roads (about as pure a consum…
Here's a quora post on these bonds; it does a good job of enumerating the issuer-specific risks:
http://www.quora.com/How-good-or-bad-an-investment-is-SolarCitys-Solar-Bonds
These bonds are not the same as typical corporate bonds. A couple of dec…
Personally, I would never drop $100,000 in any single offering, whether it be a bond or fund/stock. I'm a very cautious, conservative investor.
This raises an interesting question. You wrote that your portfolio is around $1M, so (quickly doing the…
@Dex - it looks like you got the right answer. There are different MAGI calculations for IRA deductibility, for Roth contributions (here, MAGI excludes Roth conversions), and for medical coverage (Medicare, ACA).
The latter, as you discovered, ba…
@Dex - thanks for being diligent and forthright with the numbers. ACA often does cost some people more money (though not as much as they may think, because health care/insurance rates were rising so fast anyway that part of the increase was inevit…
"They are not reduced if you start them at age 62. Of course, if you take them earlier, you're spreading them over more years, so the rate at which you receive your benefits is reduced."
The cynical side of me begins to wonder if all these media sp…
Neither the best written nor the best read article. The underlined phrase is just part of the sentence. Notice that it is set off by commas. I'll emphasize the effect of that punctuation by replacing the commas with parentheses:Of course, the …
There are some funds that M* gets enthralled with, data aside. WPVLX is one of them. Like David, I took a flier on this fund in the late 90s and got burned. I looked through the M* analyst report archive to find the following headlines:
3/2000…
FPNIX is IMHO a unique fund, one managed for preservation (using a wide variety of strategies and derivatives defensively), as contrasted with a fairly vanilla (albeit well managed) short term bond fund.
Different paths to the same end. As you…
My interpretation of not taking "a big risk with principal", and of "near cash", and of "3-5 years" is that one is willing to live with short term fluctuations and minor dips in principal, but expects to come out positive at the end of 3-5 years. …
"Target-date funds have selected dates at which time the assets will be liquidated"
Once again we find a financial writer who doesn't seem to know what he is talking about.
Target date funds' dates refer to the general date of one's retirement. …
@JohnChisum Excellent point about mixed use. Apropos, this weekend 150 cities are holding annual Jane's walks. (Jane Jacobs was a journalist who advocated for mixed use, human scaled communities.) Highly recommended.
A little late on a couple of responses, so I'll try to address just a couple of points:
@slick - Inner Harbor is nicely done, but IMHO it takes more than downtown construction to revitalize a city. It entails improving neighborhoods, developing n…
Some of the NYTimes article, and more of the blog, seem to be misreading the report (if the blogger even read the report in the first place).
Since the blogger is focusing on the "public asset classes" (both highlighting text pertaining to these in…
Originally from "Little Criminals", his 1977 album better known for "Short People".
Starting in the 70s (or late 60s) you saw the decline of many northeast and midwest cities ("rust belt"), including the white flight alluded to in the song. New Y…
I just called T. Rowe Price (regarding a transaction). After expressing my concern, I asked where they were working. Owings Mills, MD. Which I guess gets us back to the Wall Street Week thread.
@Old_Joe Thanks! That was driving me crazy. I kept trying to remember what it was, and all that kept popping into my mind was the Post Office (Rincon Center).
Oh goody. We've gone from the four food groups (a 1-dimensional representation) to a food pyramid (2-dimensional). In investing, from stocks/bonds/cash (1-dimensional) to style boxes (2-dimensional). Now let's go to 3D; can HD be far behind?
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