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 was able to go online at Vanguard and TD Ameritrade and change TOD beneficiaries very easily. With mutual funds that I bought directly from the mutual fund company (via a custodian), they all wanted medallion signature even though the I have …
It's exasperating but I can understand the problem. Reps have to be mindful of two conflicting directives: ensure safety and be responsive to customers. If the house rule is simple and straightforward, there's no question of what to do. But i…
FAIRX added medallion guarantee requirements in the prospectus dated March 16, 2009. One can compare that with the March 31, 2008 prospectus that did not have those requirements.
FAIRX went from $3.7B as of Nov 30, 2006 to $6.5B as of Nov 30, 200…
"But why stress over that choice? Whats the + or - going to be, $10k, 20k, 30k maybe? A piddly amount in the scheme of things?"
Here's a quick look at the magnitude of the risk, worst case. According to SSA, the average retiree monthly check (as …
Here's a similar thread I started a couple of years ago.
https://mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/54511/administrative-nuisances-with-some-financial-institutions
The policies and procedures of different institutions are all over the map…
With so many workers returning to the office, not to mention Vanguard's continual expansion, Vanguard has got to house its employees somewhere.
Newly hired crew will work remotely until the new office opens in early 2022. Consistent with the existin…
Recent news suggests that part of the problem may be with Tyson's stud roosters - higher quality but lower volume offspring.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/11/business/chicken-shortage-tyson-roosters/index.html
There's always Costco's loss leader $4.…
Good link.
Even better, if your software was flaky and did true-up the premiums, the IRS will fix it for you. From the cited page:
Taxpayers who have already filed their 2020 tax return and who have excess APTC for 2020 do not need to file an amen…
Jerome Powel is Trump's hand picked Fed Chair, one of Trump's "top of the line professionals".
Nevertheless, Trump agreed with you that Powell was "foolish" and "crazy" However, Trump came to that conclusion when Powell raised interest rates. …
This fund is being completely changed. When it reopens, it will be with a new subadvisor, Clearbridge (Legg Mason, now owned by Franklin Templeton). Until then, the fund (with its 1* rating) will continue to be managed by Franklin Templeton.
Ba…
What a muddled supplement. The next paragraph reads in part:
[T]he Trust’s Board of Trustees (the “Board”), on behalf of each Selling Fund, has approved and recommended that shareholders approve, the proposed reorganization .... Each proposed reor…
You don't have to wait until FRA to maximize minor children's benefits. They are based on your PIA (primary insurance amount) even if you start drawing early. Another wrinkle is that your spouse, though under age 62, can collect spousal benefits…
Bottom line: I [Ed Slott] believe this will be corrected by IRS to show that the 10-year rule means no required distributions until the end of the 10-year post-death period, and no RMDs will be required for years one through nine. However, RMDs can …
Well stated, except for the assertion that "mutual funds with a load are ... not always going to show lower fee-adjusted long term performance than a comparable ETF or mutual fund without a load [and any load fund underperformance] can disappear the…
Historically, tax changes have been retroactive. They have been effective the year in which they were passed. The only recent exception was the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act, but that became law on Dec 22, 2017.
It's not as though people who might …
A couple more regional differences. In some parts of the US, attorneys are typically used to review the paperwork. In other parts of the country, real estate agents handle this. In my limited experience, the quality of service is poor either w…
Buying and selling real estate is still localized. I bought and sold a home in a market where sales are almost always above ask and time on market is measured in days or weeks. I bought a different home in a different market where sales are typi…
"Second point. what if your ss is banked for 3+ years & market takes a very heavy hit. Recovery takes 3-4 years to recover"
If the worst three years happen early in the accumulation phase (ages 62-70) you come out better, because you've banked …
@bee - your "image" doesn't include a link to an image.
Below are a couple of links to Portfolio Visualizer; it's easy to tweak the inputs to see how things would go under different assumptions. With my usual qualifications that I'm setting PV up…
Has his status changed recently? From 2015 WSJ:
Mr. Rogers: "I am an American citizen, I pay American taxes, I vote in America. I think of myself as an American living abroad. I’m one of those Americans who’s living wherever he wants to."
https:…
At the top of the M* home page:
The site is experiencing issues with Portfolio Manager displaying duplicated holdings for funds. We are working on resolving the problem.
Regarding the funky symbols - M* has internal symbols that it uses for, among o…
I agree with Sven that posts would be more helpful if they included some comment about why the poster found an article or fund interesting.
carew388 identifies one of the first two questions I ask specifically about CEFs. The other is the amount …
" In theory, negative yields could translate into returns if inflation climbs persistently in coming years."
Those negative real yields are still going to be negative. If inflation runs at 2% so you get 2% added to the value of your TIPS annually…
I don't have a strong preference one way of the other. As with other Treasuries, there's no need to hold several securities to diversify away credit risk. Other considerations strike me as minor and a matter of taste:
With a fund, one pays fo…
"Anybody ever had their negative interest rate subtracted from a TIPS fund at the end of a month, quarter, year?"
There's likely more wrapped up in that question than many realize. First a few basic attributes of TIPS:They accumulate interest rat…
It's just another lazy piece by someone with column inches to fill.
Do a M* screen for taxable bond funds, AUM >= $100 (million), and 15 year returns >= 7.17% and you get a similar top 20 list. The results aren't identical because the sc…
Thanks for the clarification. As hank observed, derivatives can be used for protection or to increase returns. Either way they change the risk profile of the fund. I believe that investors should look at what's in a fund and if they don't unders…
Hank understates the cost. Without waivers (agreement through Nov 30, 2021), the ER would be 2.76%. And that's for tracking an index, albeit a proprietary one: ABR Dynamic Blend Equity & Volatility Index Powered by Wilshire℠.
Given the expe…
While I like adding diversification, and my own portfolio is closer to Vanguard's target date fund's 30% foreign (per NYTimes article) than to 0%, it's not clear that one benefits substantially from this diversification.
I ran a PorfolioVisualizer …
One can tell the difference between reports by text writing programs (Mad Libs comes to mind) and living, breathing analysts. The automated reports have a superscript 'Q' appended. See, e.g. GPIOX. Compare that with a real research report, e.g…
Aside from everything else going on in this thread, I would like to see any Lipper data on duration. And I would like to be able to screen on their duration numbers the way I can screen on many other factors.
I suspect Lipper doesn't provide duratio…
M*'s at it again. Instant X-ray and Portfolio Manager are failing to identify the style of many funds. I just tested a few (T. Rowe Price seems to be particularly problematic):
PRWCX - 100% unknown
PRIDX - 100% unknown
FLPSX - 100% unknown
TRSGX…
I found this very interesting and worth sharing.
...
https://theretirementmanifesto.com/your-bucket-strategy-questions-answered/
A good, common sense piece with a bit of substance to it. A few items there worth highlighting:
- Asset allocation. …
Congratulations. You have shown that Morningstar's software does not pass the Turing test.
What we're trying to do with quantitative analysis is to create an auto-generated report that provides the information to the investor as far as: what is th…
The fund holds the options for three months. As you wrote, the second fund operates the same way but the holding dates are shifted by one month. Since a three month cycle can start in one of three months, the obvious question is: why stop at just…
$1M min for institutional shares? And here I was thinking this might be something practical :-)
Here's Vanguard's list of TRP tickers offered:
https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/other/bytype?FundFamilyId=6107
I picked the first institutional…
It looks to me VGHCX was a grand slam !!!
That's assuming investors have the stomach for it. It went through a patch where excluding withdrawals, it dropped 33.17%. How many people would have stuck with it, let alone taken the scheduled withdraw…
You're making it too easy.
Repeating what I wrote before: "Likewise, if you're interested in the price change of a [muni] 10 year, look at the [muni] bond yield curve movement, not how treasury rates are doing. Interest rate curves for different ty…
