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.
Traditional Medicare lets me sleep nights and I have to chase down no eligible doctors and hospitals.
There are some (an admittedly small number) of providers who have opted out of Medicare entirely. In this sense, Medicare too has a network, it's…
What would be covered under "Equity"?
I don't pretend to know what IBKR has in mind. However, generally speaking equity means an ownership interest regardless of the form of ownership. It is broader than stock ownership, i.e. owning shares of a…
There are a few Medigap plans that offer additional benefits, like dental, vision, and hearing. I think I read somewhere that these amount to 5% of Medigap plans, but the fraction may not be even that high and I don't know how to find such plans e…
Regular account trades are routed under "payments for order flows" and that is how they distinguish the Pro account commissions.
Fidelity doesn't get payment for order flow on equity trades (it does on commodities).
Neither does Merrill. And t…
I tried to use their mutual fund search tool and asked the tool to give me all the US equity funds. I received a "There are 0 results." I am sure they offer more than 0 US equity mutual funds but could they make their website a little bit more frien…
Clients may earn interest on positive settled cash balances.
Accounts with a Net Asset Value (NAV) of USD 100,000 (or equivalent) or more are paid interest at the full rate for which they are eligible. Accounts with NAV of less than USD 100,000 (or…
As one of the affected users :-( I can assure you that that message is not for naught. My account still reads "At the close of business on November 1, 2023 ..."
I'm glad it works for you and for others, and perhaps for 99% of TIAA users. Really …
This is a problem accessing an actual TIAA investment product. As you said, that's much more serious. This is not merely trying to get info via TIAA on some product held elsewhere, such as Fidelity.
I have no problem accessing info about a frie…
I could and can log in fine. However, as the message says upon logging in, "current account values are unavailable". No change.
This problem is product-specific (note the wording "one of our vendors"). I have been able to get investment info …
Don't know about its estimated distributions, but SSgA's S&P 500 fund (SVSPX) carries a 12b-1 fee that rounds to 6 basis points (total ER of 16 basis points):
The Fund has adopted a distribution plan under Rule 12b-1 pursuant to which payments o…
FPACX currently has 91 equity holdings, per M*.
The predecessor ETF has a concentrated portfolio, "typically a 20-50 position common equity portfolio", according to its fact sheet. Its daily holdings are here:
https://fpag.fpa.com/#holdings
I…
There are more generous INHERITED IRA rules for a spouse 10 years, or even younger, than the deceased.
You may be confusing the RMD rules for a regular (as opposed to inherited) IRA. Here are the rules for spousal inherited IRAs as described by C…
Is there a real thing, gift to a spouse, when they already own 1/2 of everything you do and visa-versa?
Surely you're not saying that if you have $100K in the bank on Tuesday and you get married on Wednesday, then you immediately "lose" $50K?
In C…
Nice piece as usual from Kitces. If nothing else, it goes far in conveying a sense of why one doesn't find calculators for this. A couple of the comments are also worth a mention:
- the first comment suggests including ACA subsidies (tax cred…
Insurance is a matter of shifting risk. The more risk you want to shift to the insurance the insurer, the more you have to pay.
If you are certain that you will only need tier 1 drugs, and are willing to assume the risk that you are wrong (i.e. p…
It looks like you're comparing three 2024 Medicare Advantage plans (plan IDs from URL):
Aetna Eagle Plan H5521-323-0 (no drugs)
MVP Medicare Gold Giveback with Part D H9615-019-0 (giveback = $30 credit each month)
Wellcare No Premium Open H2775-106…
A few other things to keep in mind:
1. ACA - for those "younger" (pre-65) folk, subsidies get phased out based on income. KFF.org seems to have a decent calculator for these subsidies. I haven't checked it out extensively, but IMHO KFF is one …
Some have posted in the past that Fidelity's eMoney provides some budgeting and cash flow capabilities. I haven't used any of these so I can't comment on how extensive they are.
https://www.fidelity.com/go/monitoring-your-financial-portfolio
Echoing what yogi wrote, according to M*'s analysis, JEPIX even without the options overlay holds a defensive portfolio with a beta only 0.8 of the market. For example, unlike VFIAX, it doesn't hold AAPL, NVDA, or TSLA. In broader terms, it holds …
Intuit (owner of Mint) is pushing people to its other property, Credit Karma.
Credit Karma is thrilled to invite all Minters to continue their financial journey on Credit Karma, where they will have access to Credit Karma’s suite of features, produc…
Now there's a name out of the past.
Odd that instead of combining share classes (there's still investor class shares JAMFX), the board decided to liquidate one class of shares. Based on ERs, I suspect that there are few institutional shares outst…
You're watching hot money flows (quick and easy transactions at brokerages). Savers willing to click a few more times can still find CDs with as good or better rates at internet (or even brick and mortar) banks.
Here are four fixed rate 2 year-ish…
Just want to make it clear, JHQAX doesn't short stocks. I've actually tried to find a balanced or allocation fund that returns as well, with lower or the same volatility.
HFSAX has returned nearly the same amount as JHQAX (6.54% vs 6.71% annualized…
IOW, a plan with a $300 deductible is not a high deductible plan.
By design, high deductible, HSA-eligible health plans discourage use. Aside from free (no deductible) preventive care, they may cost so much to use that they are effectively just…
How can a political candidate possibly get elected by presenting reasonable arguments if a large percentage of the population appears to be immune to reason?
Or facts. A poll by The Economist and YouGov last April reported that 80% of Democrats a…
PEOPX and DSPIX are two different funds, not two share classes of the same fund. PEOPX is projected to distribute "just" 5.7% of NAV.
Useless trivia: PEOPX ticker comes from the Dreyfus fund's old (1990s) name: People's Index Fund. (A fund for t…
Certainly she can ask HR what she can do, recognizing that HR likely had nothing to do with her initial enrollment. I have my doubts about prospects for success, but there's no harm in asking.
CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) is th…
There's no requirement that HSA contributions be made into the employer's HSA. She can open an outside HSA (say, at Fidelity) for the year. The benefits of contributing to an employer's HSA via payroll deduction are:
1. Possible employer contr…
One huge benefit of HSAs is years of buildup of funds ....If she is only going to work 2-3 more years, I wonder if it is worth her while to sign up for the HSA now and deal with unenrolling from Medicare Part A with the Social Security Administrati…
This link seems to cover a lot of the questions regarding HSA and turning 65
hsa_and_medicare
At age 65, you can use your HSA to pay for Medicare parts A, B, D and Medicare HMO premiums tax-free and penalty-free.
You can use an HSA to pay for Me…
Unlike Mr. Sherman, I assumed the OP was talking about 3 yr stddev, because OSTIX's 5.46% is close to the target 5.20%. The latter is just enough lower to make it worth looking at a fund that is at least that much "better". In contrast, OSTIX's 10…
This looks like Price Equity Index 500 PORTFOLIO that is offered via insurance products. AUM is $26.8 million only and ER is 39 bps.
https://markets.ft.com/data/funds/tearsheet/summary?s=0P00003DWI
https://www.troweprice.com/financial-intermediary/…
Not too surprising. Given its relatively high ER (currently 0.20%), the only raison d'être I could ever see for this fund was as a convenience for T. Rowe Price investors.
Some may not have wanted to open an account elsewhere for a cheaper S&am…
I haven't been looking at Off-Topic threads, so I missed this. Saw your post in CD vs. MM rates. Great to hear that you're doing well. We've missed your posts.
RPHYX / RPHIX has reopened, so that's another option that's available to you. Sho…
I'm not sure I'd call a related distributor (a la Fidelity, Vanguard, etc.) a third party, as that term often suggests independence. Rather, a distributor is a separate legal entity (whether independent or a subsidiary), perhaps a distinction witho…
I was looking at the historical performance of a large-cap blend mutual fund yesterday (a good fund -- rated "Gold" and "five stars") and couldn't help but notice that 100% of its outperfomance over the past decade went straight to operating expense…
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-10-23/nobody-wants-mutual-funds-now
The page contains five pieces. Though four of them are unrelated to the title of the page. The actual title of the copied piece is: Barbell Strategy
Omitted in t…
How odd. An SEC search for FLPSX annual report docs prior to 20060101 turns up CSRs for 2003, 2004, and 2005. For example, the 2003 CSR is:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/81205/000075119903000008/main.htm
Perhaps you're looking in the …
when I put DODBX into the search box everything came up as in the past
Yes, but. That's all that works.
When you put in a ticker for any non-D&C fund, it autocompletes (if the ticker isn't five chars). In any case, it shows you the full nam…
Have they determined that the health benefit outweighs any long-term problems? I remember the hype about amphetamines in the 50s.
From the same NYTimes piece:
The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, an influential nonprofit group, asked abou…
