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 also moved a large percentage of my "taxable" Schwab account, in 2023, to CDs in a local Bank account--those Bank Account CDs can be sold before maturity, with a less "painful" early redemption fee. Also, with all of my Schwab brokerage acco…
If you're willing to hold cash-ish (CDs in this case) for a couple of years, then why not take a closer look at RPHIX? If you wait it out a year or two, its minor volatility doesn't matter and it "always" does better than cash.
Portfolio Visualiz…
I guess Elon will be on line applying for food stamps now.
The $110 billion budget for food stamps (SNAP) should just about cover him. Unless he pushes to eliminate SNAP as part of improving government "efficiency".
OTOH, if he does get the opti…
If one is investing directly with a fund, as one can still do at TRP, it doesn't seem that a brokerage clearing house would be involved. After all, these funds and their associated sales/bookkeeping existed long before fund families branched into …
You can cancel any time you like but you can never leave :-)
Anyone remember old mail order record clubs? My vague recollection is that you could cancel any time you wanted (even right after getting those dozen records for a penny). But you were s…
Fidelity ... offers the institutional share class BAFWX (ER 0.61) for $1M.
FWIW (the million dollar question), so does Schwab.
I know some mutual funds allow you to purchase the institutional class shares for about $1000 or $2000, such as Pimco at…
https://client.schwab.com/Trade/MutualFunds/AIPFunds.aspx (login required)
No eligible mutual funds in this account
There aren't any eligible mutual funds in this account for automatic investing.
It seems that not every fund qualifies for automatic …
All you got to do is try it. What is the chance you can't cancel anytime...about zero?
Vanguard explicitly states that in order to get its $3 fee for automatic investments, you must make at least two periodic investments. Though I have never tested…
There's an irony in firms moving to ETFs. When fund supermarkets were taking off, many firms balked at participating. They said that they didn't want to lose information about their investors that they had through direct sales.
Now, by pushing a…
it is assumed that people realize the MF is not updated daily
Likewise, M* does not update etf holdings daily. The TCAF portfolio page says: "Holdings as of Sep 30, 2024". That's the same portfolio date as M* shows for PRWCX.
Their MMF competitors would be Treasury MMFs, both for security quality (Treasuries backed by the US government) and IMHO more importantly, for state income tax exemption.
If you can't find a very cheap Treasury only MMF (e.g. no low min cheap fund…
Old draft - added a bit on Strong Advantage (historical ultra-short fund illustrating the need to look beyond monthly returns if one takes on a little risk). Other than that, text is as drafted. Too much to go back and reedit.
I was a bit surp…
A couple of months ago I drafted up bits and pieces to an older thread on this. Never posted (we were on an extended foreign trip at the time and didn't have a chance to organize). I will dig that up when I've a little more time.
Here's @Junk…
Comparisons are what software tools are for.
Build a M* portfolio with $10,000 worth of PRWCX and around $6,000 worth of TCAF. That is to account for the fact that only about 60% of PRWCX is in equity. So $6K of equity in this portfolio comes …
More on traveler credit cards (NYTimes, Nov 15th) along with the comments I posted
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/15/travel/choosing-the-best-travel-credit-card.html:
https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/439grp?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share
Som…
Harbor is also liquidating its ETF clone INNO:
Supplement to Prospectus, Summary Prospectus, and Statement of Additional Information, each dated March 1, 2024
Harbor ETF Trust’s Board of Trustees has determined to liquidate and dissolve Harbor Disr…
"Intraday indicative value as of 7:00:00 PM ET, 12/31/1969" [Bold added
"The Unix epoch (or Unix time or POSIX time or Unix timestamp) is the number of seconds that have elapsed since January 1, 1970 (midnight UTC/GMT)"
https://www.epochconverter.…
It wasn't just the legacy view that was failing but the "new and improved" version as well. It would just sit there spinning.
As others have commented, the legacy portfolio comes and goes.
Terminology is inconsistent and confusing. Disregard what Fidelity or Schwab or anyone else says is a sweep account. Some brokerages use it only to mean an FDIC-insured bank account. You've observed that at Fidelity. Others use it to include MM…
In 1987, Fidelity introduced the T-account, which combines all your fund accounts into a single statement. If you are invested in several funds or have a retirement account as well as a taxable account, this simplifies your record keeping and great…
A fly in the ointment: Two weeks after I transferred a small number of MMF shares from Merrill to Fidelity, Merrill pulled them back. Fortunately I had purchased additional shares at Fidelity so this did not close out my position there.
Fidelity t…
I also uncovered the fact that PIAMX is CLOSED---- though wonderful M* asserts it is open.
M* also asserts that DFA OEF funds are open. And they are. Though you need to go through a DFA-approved financial advisor. At a cost, of course.
Simila…
Thanks yogi. That blurb has just enough verbiage beyond the page I cited to make things click. The way I read it (YMMV) is that PIA's center of attention is individual clients (separately managed accounts).
For those clients (not for fund in…
Someone's been doing a search on high yield, high star bond funds. :-)
MACS = Managed Account Completion Shares
Page on MACS (not very helpful IMHO): https://www.pacificincome.com/mutualfunds/completion-funds/
Fund page: https://www.pacificincome.…
Aside from small or boutique funds, portfolio managers are often assisted by research analysts. That's understood. So adding support may be little more than that - adding two analysts and three others with PM experience doing what could be analyst …
I view prospectuses as notorious for obfuscation, aiming at ambiguity and saying as little as possible. Are there really five co-managers here? If so, then how many co-managers are there on PRWCX? Its prospectus has nearly identical wording aside…
Is it worth the bit of extra work? Personal decision, I guess.
That applies to any mechanism or platform. If you're willing to use Firstrade, CBLDX is available ($5K min, $100 additional) without a fee. Or you could invest directly with Crossing…
For @msf and others interested in CC travel insurance, just came across this:
Credit Card Travel Insurance Study
In summary, according to their metrics, out of 98 cards top 3 are:
1. Chase Sapphire Reserve - best for Travel Accident Insurance
2.…
interesting CC usage strategy:
how-much-cash-back-can-you-earn-from-rotating-category-king-cards/
Interesting piece. Of course to achieve the theoretical maximum benefits possible one could simply get the highest paying card in each category. (Wh…
Alternatively, one could get a BofA Customized Cash Rewards, put $100K into BofA/Merrill - I agree on the latter being "passable" - and have an actual cash back rate of 5.25% Travel / 3.5% Grocery & Club / 1.75% Others up to $2,500 / quarter w n…
should we just go the scotus route and slowly\effectively privatize?
On the civil side, us common investor folk are already there. For example, here's Fidelity's predispute arbitration agreement where we give up our rights to sue in court.
https:/…
@msf I did some digging on U.S. Bank website and it looks like you might be able to get away with $50K IRA balance to avoid the $50 annual fee on their upcoming Smartly Visa.
This may need to be verified, but it seems like if you enroll in the fre…
For Verizon cellphone customers I call attention to their black Visa card (Synchrony), as for all food-related purchases, gas, and Vz purchases (including Fios service) it gives you 4%
That's interesting. Verizon gives a $10 or $20 discount when…
Since Symantec VIP is only installed on my desktop computer,
I can't comment on mobile versions of the app.
I'd prefer Fidelity support hardware authentication devices (e.g., Yubikey)
There is a pure physical authenticator that Fidelity currently s…
My city charges 2% for CC property tax payments. Even with a Fidelity card (2% cash back), I would come out ahead.
Say my tax is $100. I would be charged $102 and get 2% of that back, i.e. $2.04. Not a big win, but a win none the less. Add in …
MOAT has good amount of turnover and I do not recall it ever having a cap gain distribution
The implication being that significant turnover such as that caused by a change in index being tracked does not necessarily result in an ETF recognizing cap…
I've used Fidelity's Rewards Visa for approximately 8 years.
I appreciate that it offers 2% cash back on all purchases so that the cardholder
doesn't have to contend with varying cash back rates in "revolving categories."
Hence my interest in looki…
As with Fidelity, you'll get less than full value from the card if you don't redeem points into a Robinhood account (or spend the points at Robinhood). Not a big deal if you're a Gold member already.
I also tend to discount the value of points ear…
If this Bogleheads post is credible, that ETF likely was VIGI / VIAAX.
As an illustration of how well ETFs can avoid capital gains, Vanguard has had only three years in which its diversified stock ETFs distributed a gain.
Vanguard FTSE All-World…
No objection to broadening the scope of the thread. We should consider the pros and cons of mechanisms providers offer and/or require us to use for security. Including how they can be defeated, both by friends? (Verizon) and foes.
One of the ins…
