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.
Reply to @Sven: Good point, and with munis traditionally paying 80-90% of treasuries, merely a 25% bracket (especially in high tax states like NY/Calif.) would be more than enough to make them worthwhile.
I think that what you're suggesting is that…
Not to sound like a broken record about poor financial journalism, but he lost me when he said that low turnover helps keep the expense ratio down. Turnover affects brokerage costs and also has market impact (i.e. moving market prices upward as yo…
Thanks. What I was trying to convey is the issue of how one allocates investments when one is living off of generated income and/or gains (drawdown phase). My feeling is that since cash is fungible, it really doesn't matter where the income produ…
The article is heavily biased (not that I disagree with its position).
It draws a distinction between corporate boards and investment company (mutual fund) boards in claiming that the former is much more active and concerned with stockholder int…
This is really a two part question: can the 401(k) distribute your shares in-kind (i.e. without converting to cash), and will Fidelity accept a transfer of those shares. On the first part I can give you an educated guess, and on the latter, a defin…
FWIW, I use a combination - a brokerage as a hub (including bill payment, wires, EFT, checks - all free), a large CU for the bulk of cash (better interest rates) and HSA (likewise), a local bank for safe deposit (lowest cost), and a TBTF bank for AT…
Reply to @Mark:
Schwab and Fidelity generally take great pains to mimic one another (with Schwab usually charging $1 more). That goes for TF funds as well. Schwab recently changed its fee structure so that it charges $76 going in, $0 for sales. …
Reply to @Mark:
Short answer - three years of solid underperformance (94th percentile!) and it's closed. In the previous seven years, it never dropped below the third quintile (worse than 60th percentile). It's now done that in 2009, 2010, and (so…
Reply to @kevindow:
Thanks. I'm not averse to mult-cap funds, and in fact prefer them. (My goal in identifying funds that fit particular "squares" is not to pigeonhole them but to identify building blocks that can be used to construct a balanced…
Reply to @catch22:
Regarding Fidelity teams ...
Fidelity has been trying for some time to form teams, or at least co-manage funds. They started experimenting with pairing managers in 2005, with Mid-Cap Stock (FMCSX). And as I'd mentioned, the…
Reply to @fundalarm:
Thanks for the additional information - it's reassuring that he (and you) kept your cool through that period.
Weirdly, Fidelity offers the cheaper Select shares (JMVSX) NTF to "retail" investors, but they still require a $1M m…
Reply to @Ted:
Stocks go through what seem to me to be multi-year cycles, where growth leads, then value leads. Here are figures going out ten years for M*'s Mid Growth Index and its Mid Value Index
Over ten years, their performance is nearly th…
Reply to @Investor:
I considered adding this to my posted list, in part because I thought you might bring it up. For at least a couple of reasons I can think of (and probably others that will come to mind later), it doesn't fit my particular needs…
Reply to @MoneyGrubber:
The TRP mid cap funds are great funds, and had it been open, their mid-cap value fund would have been on my list (despite its lackluster three year performance).
On the growth side (though I'm not looking there right now),…
Reply to @mns:
Thanks for the suggestion. As with the ones on my watch list, it doesn't quite meet all my wishes, but it's pretty close too. Excellent returns, low turnover, passable (not great) ER at 1.23%, terrific (low) tax cost. A bit hi…
Nice note, but rather than completely ignoring these banks, take advantage of them. Just like AT&T (and MCI, and ...) in the 90s, these banks are giving away free cash. Take 'em up on it. They often offer $150-$200 to open an account and ke…
My, we have been having a bit too much coffee today, haven't we :-)
Trust me, I get just as frustrated with the absolute stupidity of some procedures and responses, so (in my best Arkansanian accent) I feel your pain.
All that said, here are a c…
This seems to be a matter of balancing craft and brilliance. I think there's little doubt that brilliance becomes, well, less brilliant with age. I vaguely recall that in math, physics, computer science, the vast majority of breakthrough work is …
Funny you should mention this sort of stuff. I've just been filing claim papers for a class settlement with Fidelity for its Ultra Short Bond Fund (FUSFX).
Schwab's violations were I believe on the outer fringe. The article doesn't say this …
Corporate notes marketed directly to small investors have been around for a couple of decades.
Google-cached article from Crain's Chicago:
"In the 1990s, Tom Ricketts pioneered the first corporate bonds marketed to individual investors ... In 199…
Schwab sets its prices based on marketing, Vanguard on costs - so you know which one is sustainable. (Not to mention the quality of VG's management group.)
In any case, Vanguard's latest drop in expense ratios demonstrates this. (Including ER in…
Reply to @Sven: Yes. The theory is that the fee is high initially because the fund is so small. As it grows, the expense ratio is expected to drop so fast that the management company, even as it recovers the money waived, can keep expenses going …
Reply to @Maurice: Perhaps a bit of a sidetrack, but how is Vanguard's $20 fee for paper statements different from, say, the $2/mo fee that Scottrade and E*Trade charge for paper statements?
Reply to @bee: The M* ratings are backward-looking scorecards. If a fund loses relatively more even for a year than other funds, then its average return goes down more, and it is more likely to lose a star over the past year. So the 5* funds lost…
You're misreading the duration of the waiver. The May 1, 2015 is for the new Service Class shares (that I alluded to in my previous post). (The contractual duration of the fee waiver for the Investor and Institutional classes is currently blank -…
Generally speaking, what you get should reflect which sectors have done poorly in the past year. That's why many people recommend rebalancing - you automatically shift from sectors that have done well to ones that have been underperforming. No c…
On the other hand, one of the funds already went TF, and it's not unreasonable to expect the other one to have gone TF. With the 12b-1 fee, it is likely that both funds will be offered NTF.
(I don't like paying that additional fee for NTF acces…
Larger funds have issues that smaller funds don't - that's clear. Beyond that, the article is replete with anecdotal evidence and misleading figures.
The average size of a top 100 fund has increased 62% since 2008. What's that mean? Is it tak…
I would not alter my allocation because of tax considerations, e.g. I would not put everything into muni bonds just to avoid taxes. IMHO the question is how to invest in each bucket efficiently.
If you are a buy-and-hold indexer, then buying low …
Reply to @Investor: It seems we both made the same typo - D shares (direct through Janus) are cheaper, not more expensive than the T shares (through brokers). Which goes to my point that sometimes it pays (literally) to go via the fund house.
Got …
Reply to @Investor: A couple of refinements to your comments ...
Sometimes, the fund is available elsewhere, but not the same best share class. Janus D shares are available only through Janus (and only for people who already invest directly throug…
A couple of minor corrections:
- Jaffe says that when dumping everything, cost basis method doesn't matter. It does, and is generally the only time I prefer average cost to specific shares. With average cost in a rising market, the short term s…
Can't answer why states exempt more federal agency interest from taxation than they're required to (i.e. state-to-state variation). As to why some interest but not all is state tax-exempt - whether interest is taxable depends on whether Congress c…
A couple of VA links, FWIW
- ProtectiveRewards II prospectus (appears to be dated May 2011): http://google.brand.edgar-online.com/EFX_dll/EDGARpro.dll?FetchFilingHTML1?ID=7762216&SessionID=g0fHHe9tsQ5lnl7
- Compensation schedule: http://www.s…
Reply to @CathyG:
I wouldn't be surprised to find stuff like this (and more) about any large brokerage. Not that that excuses any of it. What I am suggesting is to compare RJ with any other brokerage, to see if one can do better. (One alternate …
Hi Cathy -- for me to comment on full service brokers is for me to comment on something I've almost no knowledge about. But I'll go ahead anyway :-) Actually, I think that in some respects it's like selecting a real estate broker - something I do …
Yes, there is a way, but it sounds like you may not be clear on what creates that tax deduction. It's the fact that you're contributing money to a spousal IRA. It doesn't matter where that money comes from.
If the only way you can come up with …
