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.
Here's the full article (I think):
https://medium.com/the-esg-advisor/when-esg-funds-dont-walk-the-walk-on-climate-change-votes-46e28630caf
An earlier version of this article first appeared in Morningstar Direct
Does the 403(b) plan hold the VEIRX shares directly (i.e. is your wife buying shares of the fund), or does the plan offer "units" (shares) which use VEIRX as the underlying fund? That's the way annuities tend to be structured, and since Mass Mutual…
"Fast, cheap, good" keeps running through my head.
With rushed delivery, scaled back training programs, cutting prices by making safety an add-on feature, we know which two Boeing picked.
I use the premier version of TT online and do not pay anything for software or efiling. I do it all for free - courtesy of Fidelity
You can get the download version for free as well. When you click on the Fidelity link, you're brought to a TT pag…
Certainly if a computer has a hardware error that flips a bit, all bets are off. It could affect almost any value anywhere. But that's highly unlikely.
Software quality can be categorized. Typical application software, well who cares if it o…
I'd really like to thank @Old_Joe and @hank for their copious posts and editing with their own explanatory commentary.
I'd heard about a report in an Asian paper on the history of the 737MAX (and how it was rushed into production) but hadn't got…
Here’s a brief Turbo Tax statement comparing their on-line filing to downloading or buying cd:
https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2750704-what-are-the-advantages-of-the-turbotax-cd-download-software-over-the-online-versionA key difference to me (tha…
My point was, and I've seen, you will argue any topic on either side, which leads me to think that debating is your passion. It is just what you like to do. Can you admit that? There is a penny difference between statements. That can't logically hap…
Have you ever held stock of an American company that was merged into a foreign company and where the owners of the extinguished company received over half the value of the resulting company?
Consistent with Form S-4, the Merger will be reported as .…
First you ask me why 1 + 1 must always equal 2 ("Why is one [arithmetic sum in box 1a] right or wrong").
Then you ask me to "argue" that the sky is not blue.
You're equating a question about an internally consistent abstract system (arithmetic) …
Why is one right or wrong? Why does that calculation have to be absolute to fractions of a penny?
Because there is no ambiguity. I received so many dollars and cents from each fund each time it distributed a dividend. When those dividends were…
When CPAs do your taxes, they don't even input cents (i.e. round everything to the nearest dollar). Being off by a penny means absolutely nothing. Your CPA perhaps. And when they do, they might round off to different dollar amounts because of that…
Dredging up half-century old ideas? If you don't think this will work, try listening to Milton Freedman talking about it with William F. Buckley in 1968.
In his example (remember this was 50 years ago), he's giving all families of four $1500 as…
It's important to be precise here.
"What is the most preferred accounts you folks use for 401K - we have merrill edge ..."
" I called merrill edge. their fees are free if you have sufficient funds ..."
Merrill Edge is not the best place to call fo…
Categorically?
As the article points out, ESG cost is as much a matter of perception as reality:. "[M]any of the ESG strategies are holding their own in terms of both performance and fees."
FITLX (0.11%), TICHX (0.22%), FNIDX (0.20%), ESTV (0.1…
AFAIK, Merrill Edge charges for trades in small business 401(k)s (though may waive transaction fees in SEP IRAs):
SEP IRA: "Merrill Edge offers participants simple, flat-rate pricing of $6.95 per online stock and ETF trade.* If you're a sole propri…
@catch22 I've never been impressed with TT's state packages. They seem like little more than glorified word processors. They don't help you understand where the figures come from, Intuit doesn't post what's included in state software updates, and…
Aside from investing in muni bonds, Ted's also a gentleman farmer. I don't know if he has to deal with Pub 225 and related tax forms. That's something I have never glanced at, and frankly never hope to. (With just 2M farms in the US, he's one o…
Would it be okay to talk about Fidelity?
I've notified Fidelity that the amount in box 1A that gets downloaded into TurboTax doesn't exactly match the amount on their pdf 1099-DIV.
Sure it's only a penny difference, but still one of these is right…
Generally speaking, if one's taxable income is below the standard deduction, one don't need to file anything. (Hard to find a reference explicitly stating that beyond not filing a 1040 you also don't need to file anything else.)
However, as this…
Thanks, but not original. At the time of the GFC (global financial crisis), people were referring to retirement accounts as 201(k)s.
See, e.g. Scott Burns, They Don't Call Them 201(k)s for Nothing, April 24,2009.
https://assetbuilder.com/knowledg…
Got to agree here. Perhaps they could have said simply: 401(k)s became 361(k)s in Q4 and leave it at that?
An important point that I think was virtually ignored is that 401(k) brokerage accounts are typically options within more traditional 401(k…
@Old_Joe , @MikeW , @johnN - thanks guys, but I'm just doing a little arithmetic. I always did like playing with numbers.
And it did seem to make sense to work out the effective rate for people in more realistic tax brackets. If you're taking i…
@BenWP Frank Bruni has a column in the NYTimes about how the playing field (for college admissions) isn't level due to the advantages wealth brings. Though he's writing more about parents who donate buildings or pay $50K for someone to guide a child…
The tax equivalent yield of SWKXX is for Californians with ordinary taxable income (i.e. not cap gains, qualified divs, or other odd categories) above $1M (single) or $1,145,960 (married).
For what one might consider upper middle income (esp. in Ca…
Here's Schwab's page for purchased (i.e. position) MMFs. The rate on SWVXX appears to have dropped a basis point. It's now 2.31%.
https://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/investing/accounts_products/investment/money_markets_funds/purchased_money_fund…
From the rate sheet:
"The 'National Rate Region' is applicable to accounts opened by customers with a residential address in one of the following states: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CO, DE, GA, HI, ID, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, OK, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NH…
I wasn't as clear as I could be. I was trying to compare Merrill Edge's best with Fidelity's "standard". Merrill only offers Blackrock and Federated MMFs. According to their latest rate sheet, the only MMF available for self-directed investors …
Here are a few pages from Schwab about their plan. They (or other providers) can set up and manage a plan for you.
DB plans can be very useful for tax purposes, generally for high earners over age 50. The reason for that age is that since th…
Some small tax points:
- one gets 1099-DIVs from closed end funds as well as from mutual funds and from stocks
- one gets 1099-INTs from bonds, because they pay interest, not dividends
- 1099-MISC income (e.g. for independent contractors) can usu…
As the article notes, there are a few exceptions to the rule that you can skip RMDs with employer accounts: if you're a 5% owner of the company, or if the plan docs (not the IRS) require you to take RMDs at 70½. But generally you don't have to tak…
@PopTart - at your age, assuming you are working, I don't think you need to consider income producing investments. If you do, it would be more as a strategy for long term growth (i.e. reinvesting divs but focusing on high div portion of market) th…
I did a google search on "can one delay RMD's past age 70.5" and found several linked articles but none of which pertain to mutual funds so consider this input useless or of little value.
...
Here's one from Forbes in May, 2018 to get you started:
h…
"It is possible to delay RMDs if one is still working"
It is true that one can delay RMDs from an employer retirement plan before retirement. The article was discussing RMDs for IRAs though ("It's ridiculous that the IRS forces them to begin withd…
Advance announcements often are a way to increase assets of already bloated funds. Consequently a few families, notably Vanguard, do not provide them (and sometimes even hard-close funds, i.e. close them to new money from existing investors).
I d…
"Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Ben Cardin, D-Md. ,,, said the original RMD age was set in the 1960s and has not been changed."
That would have been remarkably prescient as IRAs were created in 1974 by ERISA.
Originally there were no RMDs. They w…
The catch up provision is similar the "regular" 401(k) limit - it's set by law and the employer can't reduce it.
(In contrast, the "regular" contributions by highly compensated employees may be limited by law if they contribute way more than mere p…
https://www.heraldtribune.com/news/20190304/stepleman-do-target-date-funds-do-their-job
Buffet recommended these vehicles recently.
We have 10 % in 401k in tdf
Huh?
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/warren-buffett-target-date-funds-arent-way-go-175…
I bought a car about a year and a half ago. Had I known then that I could wire my garage spot for charging (at my expense, of course), I would have considered all-electric cars, and yes, specifically the Model 3.
From an investing perspective, th…
I doubt you bought the fund at inception. It appears that it was a (low) load fund then. In late 1992, Fidelity started waiving some loads in IRAs. The load was not removed on taxable accounts until 2003.
Chicago Tribune, 1990:
At one time only …
