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.
I do concur that a fund of funds investment, if you have one, is best started in a retirement account. I was not aware that a fund of funds cannot pass along losses to the investor. That pretty much nails using the IRA, Roth IRA or 401k.
At best, …
Wellington is still open to retail investors, in case that's the reason you're looking for alternatives. See Reuters' article.
It's hard to find something really similar in terms of long term performance and history, portfolio attributes, manageme…
Indeed they did, and they made it worse.
The EBRI study excludes "the value of their primary home and any defined benefit plans".
The fool originally suggested that "defined benefit plans" were 401(k) plans and the like. That was a mistaken defi…
Either Mr. Burns or I am misreading the second question.
The couple has (or will have) $500K from downsizing home in addition to the $430K "nest egg". That $500K will be tax-free (profit on sale of primary home), so they have $930K to work with. …
Dental insurance seems to be basically prepaid service, not risk spreading. That is, it provides for basic maintenance (which one assumes most people take advantage of), and comes with a low payout cap.
An alternative is to pay a third party to g…
The $20M is in DSL - all a single position.
As Junkster pointed out, this is a muni bond, not a corporate. Aside from that, there are other differences from what Gundlach was talking about. He specifically mentioned a flood of maturities in the…
"Unlike Eaton Vance’s (EV) recently approved NextShares products, Vanguard share-class structure doesn’t shield a managers’ holdings from daily view."
This is an interesting point. Vanguard doesn't care with its ETFs, because they're share classe…
David - are you able to use MC and Visa as credit cards, or just at ATMs? My experience was that one could not use them to purchase items in most shops.
(To add to John's comment about cash mode - acceptance of any credit card did not seem to be n…
If you want active management, POSKX is a great fund. I'm just not sure why it should be particularly better suited to an IRA. Both its turnover and its tax cost ratios are extremely low, and pretty close to those of VTSAX.
Turnover: 8% (vs. 3% …
On the other hand, Discover Card says that it is already widely accepted in China. It was doing that by partnering with Union Pay. I wonder how that works, especially since DiscoverCard doesn't charge even a foreign exchange fee.
And what about …
Spoiler: about 2/3 of the people who took the 8 question quiz (could you tell a robot-generated portfolio from a human one) selected correctly over half the time, only 1/7 did worse than 50/50. FWIW, I got 75% (6/8) right.
Step right up, try your…
A little text here would help. This is a "reboot" of Julius Baer/Artio by the JB founders, including Rudolph-Riad Younes and Richard Pell (who isn't mentioned in the MFWire article). Their original fund, BJBIX, was excellent for several years unt…
More fun with numbers here. Not commenting on the Australian plan, but what strikes me as an apples-to-oranges comparison.
In the lead paragraph that Ted quotes above, we have the statement that over 90% of Australians put money into the system. …
I agree with those who hated the background - it was disturbing and distracting. Also, what's Time Square got to do with Wall Street (or does Disney own Wall Street, too?)
Another set change is that the place is now laid out like an ESPN half-ti…
Speaking of the dark side, did we really land on the moon?
https://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/PSEUDOSC/ConspiracyTheoryDidWeGototheMoon.htm
Really John, there is no dark side of the moon (unless, as the article below points out, you're a Pink Floyd fan) :…
Cute.
Isn't that also how DFA gets away with claiming their funds are not index funds? Something along the lines of: we follow the index except when we don't (e.g. for ease of trading).
If one files a paper form, the IRS requires that the paper 1099-R provided to the filer, be attached to the Form 1040.
Only sometimes. From the instructions for IRS Form 1040, p. 75:
Also attach Forms W-2G and 1099-R to the front of Form 1040 if t…
I don't want to leave a misimpression here - it was Vanguard's old policy to use more corporate bonds and to overweight sectors. After the pitfalls of this practice became evident in the early 2000s, Vanguard changed its policies.
But it was e…
Vanguard funds have managers, of course, but their job is much simpler: To follow indexes."
While that sound so tautological as to be beyond question, question it we must. Vanguard has written:Over the past six months, one of the principal differ…
I couldn't help but notice the title of the column: Fidelity vs. Vanguard, not actively managed vs. passively managed. So why did Merriman do the latter comparison? Fidelity has a series of target date funds that invest in index funds, and have …
@Old_Joe - I dug up M*'s grouping of funds for the purpose of rating expenses (average, high, low, etc.). As I recall, David had commented in the past that M* uses a different system than for its star ratings, and that's correct:
http://news.morni…
For those who like to get on M*'s case, here's a good fund to use. M* rates its ER as "low" (compared with peers, which in this case I believe is large cap blend funds sold with a load).
One part of that does make some sense (IMHO) - load fund…
I've already commented on the NYTimes site, but I'll add a little more here.
Intuit is playing on a "don't trust the government" attitude that's unseemly. Given their pricing deception this year, it would appear that they're hardly in the best…
I think you may need to read the article instead of looking at isolated sentences, even if they come from the conclusion section.
To offer a little context, consider this excerpt from the same article (emphasis added)Expense ratios are strong predi…
FWIW, I agree that most tax figures, including the SS threshold amounts, should be indexed for inflation. That's different from saying that because the thresholds are having (presumably) unintended consequences, we should get rid of SS taxation al…
While there are some good arguments that can be made for adjusting how SS is taxed, Mr. Burns (whom Ted is quoting) has instead chosen to manipulate numbers.
The initial clue is in the paragraph immediately following the lead two quoted above. Mr.…
Here's the full announcement from GE directly:
http://www.genewsroom.com/press-releases/ge-create-simpler-more-valuable-industrial-company-selling-most-ge-capital-assets
For those of us not purchasing industrial equipment, this announcement is sti…
The NYC clear channel stations that seemed to carry the best were: the #1 station in the country - 77, WABC, and newsradio stations WCBS 880 and WINS 1010 (Group W, Westinghouse) - the original newsradio (you give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the …
@slick - as a fan of minor league and Brooklyn baseball, any thoughts on the Cyclones?
Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese statue outside MCU (formerly KeySpan) Park, Coney Island, Brooklyn:
My apologies - normally I'm more careful about a fund's status, especially when it is described as "limited" by M*. As John speculated, it has a soft close for accounts through third parties. You can find that information on the AC website by loo…
In writing that JMCVX oscillates between value and blend, I didn't mean to imply that it's moving around much - just that it really sits squarely on the border.
This is a modest turnover fund. The attributes of the underlying holdings will move ar…
JMCVX is a conservative (M* rates it low risk), broadly diversified (almost 100 securities) fund that sits on the value/blend border (oscillating from year to year), tending toward large cap. It is not focused on midcap value, it just averages out …
There are theoretical numbers and actual numbers. M* publishes both on a fund's expenses page, but uses the actual on a fund's summary page.
By "actual" I mean actual dollars and percentages spent by the fund, as reported in its latest (semi)annua…
The firm manages four US mutual funds (as you'll see on their website). The same fund managers as your trust manage GW&K's small cap core (as opposed to your small/mid cap core) strategy. The small cap core strategy has a corresponding mutual…
Crash - IMHO you're asking for both too much and not enough.
WHO defines universal health coverage strictly in terms of the beneficiary, not the funder. "Universal health coverage (UHC) means that all people receive the health services they ne…
AFAIK, the ACA is truely univeral insurance, with few exceptions, mostly income related (lowest cost plan being too expensive, falling into the coverage gap due to Medicaid not being expanded); or being a member of a particular group (undocumented i…
When New Coke came out, I claimed I could tell the difference between New Coke, Coke Classic, and Coke Classic with sugar (as opposed to corn syrup). People I worked with tested that, by giving me unlabeled samples of each. (I'd imported the "rea…
Wait long enough, and a lot of what one has in mind will be said. Thanks to Hank for his most recent post above about what cash means. That was some of what I wanted to point out - that if you're thinking about cash as something used for paying …
Derivatives expose difficulties in classifying asset classes. Do you want to classify something based on how it behaves (if it returns 100% of the SP 500, less expenses, call it a LC Blend asset), or by the actual, literal assets that it holds?
F…
