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.
Your page at TRP may look different, but when I go to update my email preferences, at the bottom of the page is a section: "other email preferences", with a check box in bold saying "opt out of all" - I no longer wish to receive any emails from TRP.…
IRS: Need a Copy of Your Tax Return Information? They'll send you a transcript that "shows most of the line items from your tax return ... as it was originally filed, including any accompanying forms and schedules." Best part - it's free.
If your…
Yes, rounding.
Start with the June 30th prices - both @ $11.00.
The next day, July 1, one dropped a penny, one dropped two cents. Let's suppose that in actuality, one dropped 1.4c, the other 1.6c.
The next day, July 5, they both went up to $11…
Their May 31, 1995 prospectus filed with the SEC will get you AUM from 1985 FY end (1/31/86) to 1994 FY end (1/31/95). That should get you started. For anything earlier, try microfiche for Barrons, WSJ, or NYTimes at your public library - they may…
American Century Zero 2025 holds 30 bonds, over half maturing in 2025, the remainder maturing in 2024 and 2026. Virtually a pure 2025 mix. If held to maturity (2025), mark to market doesn't matter, just as it doesn't matter if the value of the ind…
If you want the interest rate offered by a deferred fixed annuity, but don't want to be locked into the policy (addressing BobC's comment), you could take a look at Mutual of America. No surrender charges, no matter how short a time you hold the po…
Not all zero coupon bond funds trade in and out of investments. See American Century Zero Coupon 2025 BTTRX. Not saying the idea of zeros is a good or bad investment, just that it is possible to target a maturity date with mutual funds.
If you're talking about what you can buy in your employer's 401k (Schwab PCRA), then you cannot buy the Northwestern Mutual annuity. If you're talking about an IRA through a brokerage (Schwab or anyone else), then you'll be able to buy Treasuries (…
There are (at least) three issues here:
1) Generating a guaranteed stream of income at retirement
2) What to do now with your $100K
3) Mixing IRAs and annuities
I'll take those in reverse order.
Generally, it is not a good idea to put annuities…
A couple of details that you may be missing:
- Vanguard's ETF share class of a fund cannot be more tax efficient than the open end share classes (Admiral, Investor), and will usually be less tax efficient. This is because, unlike other ETFs, Vang…
You forgot the gain on the dividend. On March 18th, that dividend was reinvested at a price of $49.63. Thus it bought $0.46/$49.63 = 0.009269 shares.
The end value is thus 1.009269sh * $52.96 = $53.45 (the fractional share also went up in value)…
That's only for IRAs (and HSAs and the mySmart Cash account). See Fidelity FAQ and click on the question: "Are my investments FDIC insured?". That said, here's the disclosure statement for IRA/HSA accounts. (The disclosure statement notes that "…
Basis on jointly owned stock gets an adjustment upon death so long as the stock is included in the gross estate. That is, roughly speaking, everything including what passes through the estate (will) and what passes outside the will (right of surviv…
One difference is insider trading. Strong (the company) not only allowed Canary Capital to rapid trade its funds (as did Janus), but provided insider information to Canary (and of course to Dick Strong, who rapid traded on the fund he was personall…
A couple that I liked when I was researching LCV a year ago were Invesco Diversified Dividend LCEIX, and Becker Value Equity BVEFX. They're both lower risk (per M*) than any of the other funds mentioned, and both have turnover in the teens (the Col…
Interesting. To see possible impact, I suggest researching ARM (Adjustable Rate Mtg) funds - these were big in the 90s, and most fizzled. They floated, but slowly - since ARMs typically adjust annually, and even when they adjust, many have caps on…
"Generally, you can also exchange, tax-free, one share class for another in the same mutual fund. For example, you may have previously purchased Investor Shares of a particular Schwab mutual fund and now have accumulated enough to qualify for the lo…
In the 2001-2003 time frame, Janus made deals with Canary Capital to enable them to do late trading and frequent trading (in apparent contradiction to their prospectuses). I am not aware of "multiple" problems "over the past decade". The recent c…
Not sure what you're saying here.
If your objection is ethical (legal/moral improprieties), then I might expect you to admonish others not to invest with Janus. (As I repeatedly comment on Heartland - I will not invest so long as William Nasgovitz…
You raise a lot of different points, so this response will be a bit long.
1. Same shop isn't the problem - it is (a) same analysts and (b) same space.
a) Same analysts - Fund families like Vanguard and Harbor outsource many of their funds to…
Oakmark Equity and Income (OAKBX) is still open, just not through brokers. If your fiance is not prohibited from investing directly with the company, she could open an account there and then move it to a broker. Assuming she is still interested.
…
Doesn't this just mean that you shouldn't expect to be increasing diversification by investing in multiple Janus funds? I think that's a common problem with boutiques.
The ruling has little to do with how good Janus funds are - whether one ought to be investing with them. Rather, it has to do with accountability. With this 5-4 ruling, we have another blow against accountability - management companies (the people…
If you're willing to live with a growth-oriented balanced fund, you could look at Janus Balanced (T class) JABAX. (Though I do also like the Manning & Napier funds recommended above as well if you're open to growth-oriented funds.) Janus has…
I think a lot of the confusion about cost basis is because there are two different, but interrelated things going on. One is which shares are being sold, and the other is how much each of those shares cost.
Now (and also with the new rules), un…
Could you identify specific Democrats and left leaning persons leading the charge to confiscate retirement plans? No one was leading such a charge in 2008.
FactCheck.org (Nov 26, 2008) - Are congressional Democrats talking about confiscating IRA a…
Fee-based advisers can diversify away their selection risk by recommending different holdings to different clients, but they remain exposed to market risk. If the market as a whole declines, then their clients' portfolios, on average, decline. Sin…
I somewhat disagree with the adage that stocks and bonds move in opposite directions; in this, the low correlation recited by MJG provides support. If stocks and bonds were anticorrelated, the correlation coefficient would be negative.
However, I …
It seems you win the gold star. A M* analyst, Russel Kinnel, writes:We knew that hot money was flowing to Fairholme Fund. We also knew it would fly out when the fund hit its first bump. Still, it's kind of shocking that $1 billion would zip out o…
I think I located the regulation language for average cost, going forward (2012+). It is section 1.1012-1(e)(7)(ii):Order of disposition of shares sold or transferred. In the case of the sale or transfer of stock to which the average basis method …
Quick (I hope) responses to four items:
1) Transferred shares - for any "covered" securities (stocks purchased 2011+, funds in 2012+, etc.), brokerages are required to transfer cost info along with the shares when you move from broker to broker. …
The brokerages have not been great at communicating this information. That concerns me, and I think people need to check with their own brokers to know what to do, to make sure that the right method is reported, and to protect themselves.
There ar…
Until this year, investors were required to report to the IRS their method of cost basis accounting (if not the IRS-defined default) with a note on their 1040 Schedule D.
http://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040sd/ch02.html#d0e998
The requirement to…
From footnote on CEFconnect.com:
"Annualized total return ... calculation assumes that all income and capital gains distributions by the Fund have been reinvested at net asset value (share price) on the ex dates during the period."
From State Stree…
I'll try to split the difference. The brokerage may not have complete information (wash sales across brokerages comes to mind). In these situations, the calculation done by the brokerage may be wrong, and the taxpayer can (and will be asked to) re…
My radar picks up when I see numbers tossed around without citations, and terms used without definitions.
For example, on p.11, there is an assertion that 5% of wealthy Americans pay 58%+ of total US taxes collected. Fuzzy terms: wealthy (income…
That's it. The upside is that you can trade with impunity (as far as the IRS is concerned), and you don't pay taxes on interest, dividends, or capital gains while the money's in the IRA. The downside is that the withdrawals (except for the contribu…
The best suggestion is Investor's - advocate for improvements in the plan, and urge fellow employees to contribute more.
You can contribute to a traditional IRA. You won't get a deduction, but you will defer taxes on the income generated. Once …
Being somewhat obsessed on technical definitions, let me start by stating, then ignoring, a more narrow description of ETFs (see http://www.sec.gov/answers/etf.htm): Most ETFs are technically open end funds, because they are continuously available …
Cathy, a very cursory look suggests that this is a reasonable portfolio - good slug of bonds, a fair smattering of alternative investments (commodities, real estate), solid funds, individual stocks appear to be category leaders (conservative), in se…
