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2. My specific question is > some for the distributions show as at loss - others are at a gain . I can identify and cherry pick and sell off a few of the distributions that are currently at a loss . This would then raise the gain of the remaining…
There are lots of numbers in the tax code that aren't indexed to inflation. ISTM that automatic (as opposed to manual) inflation adjustments are a fairly new concept, given that the modern tax era (16th Amendment, first 1040) started in 1913. Why,…
I hope these FB employees will find other meaningful jobs elsewhere with their skill sets. Twitter situation is even worse.
One writer's perspective:
The over-expansion at Big Tech has been bad not just for the companies’ shareholders (Amazon, M…
My point was a simple one. Extrapolating returns from figures of the moment is a risky proposition.
Here, reinvestment risk is amplified because it is not just coupons being reinvested but the principal itself is rolling over 1-4 times in a ye…
About 1% less dry power than in 1Q22 or 2Q22. See p. 5 in the 2Q22 commentary:
https://riverparkfunds.com/assets/pdfs/rpsthyf/commentary/RiverPark-Cohanzick_2Q22_Shareholder_Letter.pdf
It is risky to project out the yields (though I did that by q…
Compare apples to apples. Also be careful whether talking about total return or yield. Personally I prefer total return since a higher yield coming out of principal (declining NAV) seems misleading.
Of the numbers below, I'm most inclined to lo…
I ended a Prime membership in part because packages are delivered ahead of estimates anyway (and I'm just not that impatient) which suggests to me lots of deliverers making fewer deliveries. Still, I live in a condo and already the daily Amazon dro…
When I can find a CD for 5% or more, then I'll bite.
Is this what is meant by "eating one's words"? :-)
7 month certificate. Andrews Federal Credit Union. Membership open via American Consumer Council ($8) if you don't meet any of the other …
"Longer term CD's near 5% might come back, but for now it seems questionable."
Not quite 5%, but KS State Bank is offering 3-, 4-, 5-, and 7-year CDs with 4.99% APY.
https://www.ksstate.bank/resources/deposit-rates/
Interest compounds and pays qua…
" complications in bankruptcy or lawsuits."
Federal protection extends only to bankruptcy proceedings, not to creditor lawsuits. To understand this, it helps to see where protections come from.
Protection of money in employer sponsored plans come…
The difficulty is in accurately price securities. Securities don't have to be exotic to be illiquid and thus difficult to price. As Lewis later wrote, "The problem is many bonds and debt securities don't trade every day."
Not that long ago (earl…
@msf- sleeping dogs and all that stuff... :)Yeah, I know, and I thought about it. But this strikes me as that rare, real win-win situation.
Contrast it with something like NTF (aka "free") fund transactions. When NTF trades were introduced,…
So if I go to a bank and get a CD on my own, I get a certain rate, but if I go through a broker, I get a better rate? Wait, that's not free, that better than free :-)
@LewisBraham - point noted. That section didn't sound like you but it didn't come across as sharp enough to readily identify as sarcasm. No harm done. Worth clarifying.
“Taxation is the price we pay for civilization.” Oliver Wendell Holmes. According to fellow Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter: “[Holmes] did not have a curmudgeon’s feelings about his own taxes. A secretary who exclaimed ‘Don’t you hate to pay…
"I would just note that I had to "adjust" to watching my brokerage CDs change in reported value each day at my brokerage. "
Same thing for T-bills. Major difference is liquidity. The CD market price quoted may be a work of fiction. Did the val…
i think the statistical measuring rods are just not showing RELEVANT data. Maybe they did, in days gone by. Before federal agencies re-defined stuff to make things look better than they actually are. It's all too mushy and opaque and convoluted. So …
It was a rather different fund before June 2022.
Before:
The Fund seeks to deliver monthly dividend income derived from its investments in mortgage-backed securities (“MBS”), including U.S. agency and non-agency residential MBS, commercial mortgage…
Best wishes for a speedy, complete recovery.
I had covid a while ago. No medication. It took me "just" 4-5 days to recover, but about two weeks until I tested negative, and about three weeks before I could function for more than half-days. Fr…
I've seen things like this suggested before. As the writer points out, there are two concerns.
The first is volatility, which he addresses by purchasing a ladder at time t0 that mature in 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, and so on.
The second concer…
The ACA pre-existing condition requirement covers ALL health insurance plans unless it’s a grandfathered plan: https://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/about-the-aca/pre-existing-conditions/index.html
The information there is at best poorly written. If it …
Here in California, ARCO has perhaps the lowest cost gasoline. Since the composition of the profit margin for fuel from any gas station is a "black box", it's pointless to wonder what part of the price may be ascribed to anything.
...
ARCO's price d…
"The retailer pays for the card service by incorporating its cost into the price of merchandise."
No, it doesn't have to be that way. A decision has to be made.
I thought it was beyond question that a merchant's costs, all its costs, were covered b…
The retailer pays for the card service by incorporating its cost into the price of merchandise. Everybody pays, regardless of whether they charge their purchase or not. The retailer pockets the excess when a customer pays with cash. That's gr…
CUSIP is correct. See
https://www.farmcreditfunding.com/ffcb_live/debtSecurities/fixedRateBonds.html
Rating by Moody's is AAA. "The Aaa long-term senior unsecured rating on systemwide debt securities issued by the Federal Farm Credit Banks ...…
This seems somewhat like a non-event, given that China is "the largest importer of gas in the world". China is not like Qatar, a major exporter.
In terms of world demand, it doesn't matter whether China exports some LNG and imports more, or exp…
"transactions had been inadvertently omitted from his financial disclosures."
Note use of passive tense to deflect responsibility.
“I take very seriously my responsibility to be transparent about my financial transactions and to avoid any actual or…
Schwab seems to require a brokerage account to have checkwriting in order to use its bill pay feature. (At least it did in 2018, which is the date on this Schwab One bill pay enrollment form.)
It's interesting that Schwab is actively removing cash…
Many brokerages provide cash management services as if they were real banks. For example, Fidelity accounts offer checking ant debit card services. But those services are provided by UMB Bank (routing number 101205681is associated with UMB Bank,…
Until 2013, Visa's and MC's contracts with US merchants forbade them from adding a credit surcharge. However they were permitted to provide a discount for cash payments. That's still the law in NY, and this is how the Supreme Court described it …
No it actually doesn't. For the purpose of calculating the inflation adjustment, only the endpoints are used.
This is much the same as many equity-linked securities work. See, e.g. the point-to-point payout description in Fidelity's descript…
Given that the price of a barrel of oil (WTI) dropped 22.3% in the six months from March through Sept, and that overall energy prices dropped slightly (0.3%) in the same period of time, an overall positive increase in prices over the same six months…
This is because the CPI-W rose only 0.077% M/M. Had it risen as much as the CPI-U (0.04%) then the cost of living adjustment would have been 8.9% (at least according to my arithmetic).
This seems to be a little different than 2012. According to Morningstar, Vanguard switched the benchmark index " on 22 index funds and exchange-traded funds in 2012."
In contrast, VINEX is an actively managed fund. The internals (components) o…
SPRXX = 2.84% 7 day yield (no min)
If you can gather together $100K for FZDXX, you can immediately pull $90K back out. It requires only $10K to maintain. And in an IRA, its min is $10K to open.
The next 3 month T-bill has an anticipated yield of…
Sources please. The cut and paste section came from:
https://smartasset.com/financial-advisor/michigan-inheritance-laws
Its inheritance and estate taxes were created in 1899, but the state repealed them in 2019.
Its estate tax technically remains …
QLAC is just a version of a Deferred Income Annuity, and it has [additional] limitations... It has to be used in a qualified account, has premium limitations, et cetera. But on the other hand, a Deferred Income Annuity pretty much has no limitations…
ISTM the difference between a life estate and a life estate deed is the difference between a piece of real estate and the real estate deed. One is the property, the other is the legal document describing the property.
A little bit of terminology …
