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.
Who cares? He owns ¾ of the company, so it's his toy to do with as he pleases (within the bounds of the law).
One can ask whether investors should continue to enrich him, but that's a different question, and one that will persist whether he ma…
[Special relativity twin paradox]Because the twin traveling is moving close to the speed of light when they return, the time it took them to travel millions of miles may have only been a few days, while the lapse of time for the twin on Earth may ha…
The closest Vanguard match to TAIFX would be VTMFX. Unlike Wellesley it uses muni bonds for its fixed income sleeve. Also, while TAIFX and VTMFX have roughly 50/50 asset allocations, Wellesley's is closer to 40/60 (bond heavy).
VTMFX manages …
According to this piece in The Balance, the yields on AAA munis are typically about 80% of Treasury yields. I've seen figures that are a little higher, but that's in the right ballpark.
What this means is that on average, unless you're in the 22%…
Banks with discount brokerage arms started giving their banking customers limited free trades at least as far back as 2005. That was when Wells Fargo linked free trades to PMA (relationship checking) bank accounts. It even included free mutual f…
What that text describes as a "similar move" for BofA falls short of matching other brokerages.
First, as noted above and made more explicit later in the article, its Merrill Edge platform attaches strings to "free":self-directed clients not enroll…
The data have been updated to 2020, e.g.:For 2019, plans with annual deductibles of at least $1,350 for individuals and $2,700 for families are classified as high-deductible; for 2020, those numbers inch up to $1,400 and $2,800.Not only the data, bu…
There's the medium and there's the writer of the message.
Trump tweeted that "someone can write an article or book, totally make up stories and form a picture of a person that is literally the exact opposite of the fact, and get away with it witho…
It's not zero cost, but you might take a look at United Healthcare Choice 1. For the extra $16/mo, it provides preventive dental (new this year), and unlike most MA plans, that includes a wide network of dentists. Also new this year is that you d…
On the one hand, the article bemoans the difficulty in assessing wealth. On the other hand, it then puts forth the estate tax, which entails assessing wealth, as a viable "other way".
The point of the article was that "a heavy bias toward U.S. stocks can hurt diversification and is often based on misconceptions." MPGFX does not refute that.
The article stated that "While most large U.S. stocks represent multinational firms, U.…
Sigh. All people born before 1955 (i.e. those who turn 65 before 2020) will be able to sign up for Plan F in any year, even if they're not current enrollees.
The article says that the only difference between Plans F and G is that in the latter, "…
Surely you're not suggesting that 3M does most of its mining and manufacturing in Minnesota, or that US Bank does most of its lending to midwest businesses. I might grant you midwesterners consume a lot of processed meats (Hormel). But enough of t…
A storied name, but ...
Use of the Lebenthal name
The Fund’s use of the Lebenthal name is pursuant to a Trademark License Agreement between Lebenthal Partners, LLC and the Advisor. Neither the Trust, the Trustees, or the Advisor are affiliated with…
Yes, but also to get Smith and Wallace out. He's just shooting the messenger. Wrong block, though.
Fox News studios are not on 5th Avenue but on 6th, or as suspect Trump would like to call it, Avenue of the United States of America.
https://…
A shame. He provided a reason to watch Fox News.
Does anyone still use the term "shell shocked"? Apropos to both this question and Shepard, here's a bit from George Carlin:
I misread the filing and got the wrong gender of the portfolio manager. Life goes on!Not surprising, given that In-bok is generally a male's name, such as that of biathlon athlete Lee In-bok.
I would not expect you (or anyone else) to go checking …
I had my 401 set up as you suggest until recently.
The question I asked was:
''Which funds of my 401 choices would you leave money in the next 6 months.'' Got it. You're not asking about portfolio allocation, just fund selection. There's no ap…
In the same laconic style as PK, I wrote: It [public debt] does not create, but amplifies, income inequality."
The findings summary of the paper you cited reads: "The author finds that the composition of public debt is consistently a significant de…
"It's not just that with interest rates below growth rates, debt won't snowball."
Regardless of how much debt is added outside of interest? Didn't he say before: "unless the government runs large primary deficits"? I wish he'd make up his mind.
…
Say that you like fund A more than fund B in all market environments. If you were starting with $5K, it seems pretty clear that you'd invest that money in A rather than B.
Now say you started with $6K in fund B, and because of market declines it'…
TANSTAFFL. There's going to be a tradeoff between risk and return, and among different types of risk.
RPHYX takes on credit risk (junk bond fund), but tries to mitigate it by buying bonds with special situations (e.g. "redeemed debt" bonds - bond…
Shadow must be taking the day off :-)
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/915802/000139834419017760/fp0046737_497.htm
The fund just reopened a year ago. I wonder if it will reconsider that decision now.
https://mutualfundobserver.com/discuss…
One of those products is its money market funds, which yield I’m fairly certain less than Vanguard’s so every time you hold cash you’re losing money. All of that said, they’re good products.Fidelity's MMFs yield so much less that if you try to get …
>> for the big mainstream stuff Vanguard's hard to beat
for sure, but how can anything be better for such than the 'new' Fido zero-ER offerings? Compare Fidelity's two extended market offerings. Their zero-ER one FZIPX and their extended m…
Ken Fisher Banned From Future Tiburon Conferences After Boorish Remarks
https://www.fa-mag.com/news/ken-fisher-banned-from-tiburon-conferences-52098.html
The "fireside chat" was a Tiburon event.
How is Wellington Mgmt in terms of proxy voting? As we've discussed elsewhere, Vanguard is handing off some of that to its submanagement companies. With Vanguard Global ESG Select Stock Fund VEIGX, Vanguard is explicitly designating Wellington re…
There are three recent changes at Vanguard that I'm aware of. For the reasons I describe below, I tend to view them as "non-events". Are these what you had in mind, or are there other changes that lead you to feel that Vanguard is making it more d…
Schwab index funds are cheaper than VG.Expense ratios are just one part of the equation.
On the cost side there are tax costs. When you buy an OEF share class of a Vanguard fund you benefit from the fund's ability to dump any cap gains via the …
" it was passed without anyone really reading it barely a month after 9/11 in those dark days when everyone was practically afraid of their own shadow. To wit: Ever wonder why you have to show ID to buy the 'real' (ie, what still works) Sudafed whi…
@Crash
>> That gov't deficit is already beyond ridiculous.
Don't forget that this chiefly is money we owe ourselves, and matters when it crowds out investment, which is not happening yet, though of course it might eventually. That was the e…
The Patriot Act doesn't seem to say anything special about rapid fire address changes. In fact, I believe that the PA allows financial institutions to be a little more lax when dealing with existing customers (because it is easier for them to verif…
Robert Shiller: “we owe it to ourselves.” That [is] a half-truth.
That claim would [be] accurate only in an extreme, theoretical case: if everyone had identical government bond holdings and paid identical taxes to cover the interest and principal …
Thanks @msf, I looked for the “Replica” setting and it wasn’t there.Rereading the instructions I wrote, I may have been a little sloppy. Once you get to the "what's included" link, you have to click on that link to get to another page. It's on t…
For about $20/mo, in areas where the NYTimes is delivered (nationwide), you can get a "real" Sunday paper plus two digital subscriptions (one for you, one to give away). Not a bad deal vs. $15 for the one digital subscription.
I'm using AdGuard a…
I suppose an apropos comment would be OMG.
Two of the family's other ETFs are BLES and BIBL.
https://www.etf.com/BIBL
https://www.etf.com/BLES
While I agree with @Crash that these funds are just using some old-time (religious) exclusionary screens…
I've helped my mother do QCDs from Fidelity. It was a pain, filling out their QCD request form.
When you make a QCD, you are donating your money. When you make a "donation" from a donor advised fund (DAF), the DAF is donating its money upon a…
