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.
HHS Breach Portal: "As required by section 13402(e)(4) of the HITECH Act, the Secretary must post a list of breaches of unsecured protected health information affecting 500 or more individuals. The following breaches have been reported to the Secret…
>>You do your taxes yourself manually? If you use a program and do auto-importing, all of this problem goes away.
I've previously pointed out that imports don't necessarily match 1099s. So importing may not only fail to make this problem go …
If Wiki is to be believed, the largest swing in the Dow, by far, was under DJT, where the Dow swung nearly 1600 points, and closed down nearly 1200. The next two closest swing happened that same year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_d…
Merrill doesn't seem to be skimming anything, except arguably not compounding interest on fractions of a dollar. It's their record keeping that's the main problem. It will cause me consternation at tax time, as I strive to accurately report the nu…
Graphics like these are fun, but analytically leave much to be desired.
Take transportation fatalities. The graphic shows 1 fatality for every 6,700 automobiles, presumably in service. That appears to be in the right ballpark. Here's a data s…
If more evidence is needed that M* is trying to drive away anyone but high revenue customers (read: professionals), these are excerpts is from their transition FAQ:
Where's the one-page fund PDF report?We've removed the one-page fund PDF report fro…
I've read that trends after the mid 2030s are supposed to stabilize, once we get past the baby boomer bulge. Not doing a lot of research now to find supporting text, but quickly dug up this graphic. It shows relatively flat revenue and outflow c…
PTIAX recognized (showing a drop-down to click-on), but then after clicking, I'm brought to a "nothing" page. But TGUNX DOES work. Also, PRWCX works. I'm referring to the old "legacy" page which includes the "purchase" tab.
The fund search capabili…
@_msf - hi sir. What private bond(s) / funds /etf do you hold in your portfolio.. Thx Not sure what relevance specific investments have.
I do own shares of a bond fund that holds a significant amount of Mexican bonds, including some 8% coupons. …
"Headlines frequently state the program is going bankrupt. It isn’t. Today’s level of benefits may not be sustainable, given current funding sources, but Social Security payroll taxes are sufficient to maintain the bulk of benefits currently paid. "…
... Just tried typing-in a different ticker in the "quote" box from that old link. A drop-down thing appeared. It recognized the ticker. But then CLICK on it, and you are taken to a "nothing found by that ticker" page. When I type the same ticker in…
Alpha testing was what M* did for months - providing links to "preview" the new M* pages. Anyone following these links (I did not) could be thought of as a requisite "friendly" user, one not expecting to see a fully functional system, albeit with g…
I show an 8% coupon for the Mex. bonds held by my PRSNX. The character of this fund has morphed a bit, taking on more risk than before. Or maybe it's a product of being labeled differently by M* and therefore the stats are being compared now to oran…
Is true that the "Purchase" function is no longer a part of fund's profile on M*? I have often relied on this button to show all share classes of a fund. I don't see it these days.Apparently that's the case. It might work to type the name of the fun…
No but I think I earned the Voluntary Departure Badge.
Sounds more like a constructive eviction to me.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/constructive_eviction
(1) landlord substantially interferes with the tenant's use and enjoyment of the premises …
2019 contribution limits are:
401(k): $56K + $6K (catch up) = $62K
SEP: $56K (no catch up provision)
https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/cola-increases-for-dollar-limitations-on-benefits-and-contributions
The IRS has not yet announced 2020 figures…
Try Fidelity's fund research pages (but only for funds, not ETFs, etc.). Each fund has a "compare" link toward the upper righthand corner that you can use to compare with other funds. Or you can just go directly to an empty compare page here, an…
That sounds about right. I believe you could instead project a higher ROR and contribute less. You would still fund the pension plan up to the IRS limit ($225K/year pension @retirement). You would invest for higher returns and wouldn't even ha…
There is a way to get to most of the old pages (courtesy of a post in a M* forum thread). Start with the page below. Most of the tabs for other pages for the fund still work, but the quote, chart, and distribution pages are gone.
http://performa…
"compared to the flagship bond fund of the others." NEFZX? AUM $7.3B. LSBDX, $10.9B.
"'Dan Fuss pioneered the benchmark-agnostic, multisector approach to fixed-income that has defined the firm’s flagship Loomis Sayles Bond (LSBDX) since 1991."…
College opens one's eyes to other ways of thinking and seeing the world and I believe liberal arts in particular help to teach people empathy and critical thinking--both positive traits that may not have a specific monetary value. A liberal arts edu…
@Tarwheel - thanks for info on your background. I've studied a bit about environmental regulations (more than a mini-course) and appreciate how some parts were written to allow what is possible now, while other parts were written to prod the deve…
Not quite the identical situation, but here's what I did when I sold my home intending to rent until I learned the new area and found a new place to buy at the right price point and location.
I put this money, which was for a short but uncertain te…
BRLIX is equally weighted only through the end of this month. As the prospectus now says: "This 'roughly equally weighted' Index contrasts with most other 'market-cap weighted' indexes, which give more weight to the stocks that have appreciated th…
@rono I completely agree. Your penultimate paragraph echoes and adds to a comment I made there - that M*'s business model has changed. As a result, it seems to care less about retail customers. It is as though, by removing the more substantial …
Here's a good (and lengthy) deconstruction of Gunderson's book from a fine site, The White Coat Investor.
https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/killing-sacred-cows-a-review/
I agree with others that home office and travel expenses are items that can attract attention and are likely to be challenged. For example, the IRS will disallow meal expenses that it considers "lavish or extravagant". That's the IRS's wording (i…
We did open sep-ira 2 yrs ago... These strategies help us save lots tax $$.. Probably will roll over to retirement acct when turn 62.5 yo (this was what our cpa recommended previously)... Sep-ira worth every penny imhoLike any traditional IRA, the S…
The rule given, to save 10% (including employer contributions) for retirement, is a bit simplistic, as even the writer acknowledges:
Of course, there will be times when you’re between jobs or you need your money for a pre-retirement-age emergency. …
I don't keep up with the various offerings from all of the fund families (especially funds like these, being more of a DIY person myself), so I hadn't looked into TRLAX.
Apparently T. Rowe Price rebooted the fund two years ago, changing it from a t…
"So what's needed instead? ... Well, it's something called target-income funds or TIFs. Those are funds that would provide investors with a specified level of income in retirement -- much like a defined benefit plan or an annuity."
There's already …
There's a difference between glitzy UIs or tinker toy "apps" on the one hand, and mission critical applications or systems software on the other. When it comes to the latter, management is usually very reticent to change. Hence we get creeping fe…
"Now consider the New America High Income fund (HYB), which has consistently outperformed the T. Rowe Price open-end fund even though both share the same managers and much the same portfolio. The key difference between the two is the former is a clo…
Here's a clear, more in-depth explanation of leverage, especially as used by CEFs.
https://www.fidelity.com/learning-center/investment-products/closed-end-funds/leverage
A couple of numbers in the original article caught my eye, as they were presen…
This is not your father's Wheaton. I did not realize that the town had fallen off the wagon (three decades ago!).
https://www.oneillinois.com/stories/2019/1/7/wheaton-best-place-to-live-in-illinois
"'That has been a boom,' Gresk said of finally b…
It's sort of the latter - what strategy is the fund following? Except that intent is irrelevant. It's a matter of "watch what I do, not what I say." A momentum strategy fund is one that maintains a significant percentage of its portfolio in high…
If you continually monitor the M*, Lipper*, etc. charts and keep shifting money away from the poorer performing funds into the better performing ones in each “category” (as a good many do), than I’d say you are a “closet momentum player” - though pr…
Many years ago I was on a business flight with a software manager who was working on a fault tolerant system. While we were waiting in the plane still at the gate, it seemed the entire 767 was momentarily shut down for a reboot. He remarked to me…
The Momentum Trading Strategy (Finance)
https://what-when-how.com/finance/the-momentum-trading-strategy-finance/
A strategy that buys past winners and simultaneously sells past losers based on stock performance in the past 3 to 12 months is profitab…
