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@msf I'm curious what diversified foreign funds you like. ThxThe one that you mentioned, DODFX, looks good. On the growth side, VWIGX has been getting a lot of attention (including from me) in another thread.
In small cap, PRIDX has been qui…
A minor point, but I believe the fund originally started with $15 stocks. That's what I recall, and also what Kiplinger reports.
https://www.kiplinger.com/article/investing/T041-C009-S002-fidelity-low-priced-stock-a-good-eye-for-bargains.html
I…
I'm relieved to see that benefits will be increased for those $400K+ earners who will be paying more in FICA. Not a lot, but something.
FDR: " We put those pay roll contributions there so as to give the contributors a legal, moral, and political r…
That latter strategy is what I generally use. One delegates country allocation to the fund manager of diversified foreign funds. By implication one is delegating EM allocation as well, unless one chooses a not-so-diversified foreign fund where the…
Without discussing the merits of the proposal, let me highlight one paragraph:
On the cost side, the act would increase the Social Security tax rate by 1.2 percentage points, for both you as well as your employer. Landis downplays the significance o…
All funds incorporate the expenses of their underlying funds as part of their total expense ratio. One of the knocks against funds of funds is that they slather a second layer of fees on top of those expenses.
For example, from M*'s classroom:So …
What I am trying to say that many uncomplicated and reasonable strategies will work if given sufficient time for accumulation and growth.
I believe that you and Pfau/Kitces are addressing two different halves of one's investing lifetime. My fault…
I agree with you that a core holding having an appropriate glide path plus a little bit of tweaking around the edges can serve as a good plan for many people.
The question is: what's an appropriate glide path?
See, e.g. Pfau's and Kitces' paper su…
It sounds like what @Investor is thinking of is index linked annuities. Just one of many ways of wrapping the same structured product. See also structured notes, equity linked CDs.
Conceptually there's nothing wrong with these, if their risk re…
SAI: "As of October 31, 2018, Legg Mason, Inc., 100 International Drive, Baltimore, Maryland 21202, owned of record 25% or more of Short Term Yield Fund’s outstanding shares."
Whitehurst is just the contact (c/o) name given for Legg Mason here. …
The enthusiasm of many people for individual bonds, especially regarding safety, continues to fascinate.
Ted "want[s] a reasonable risk free portfolio." Yet the individual bond portion of his portfolio contains one solitary bond. a junk bond (Mo…
They're two different share classes of the same fund. That means they both represent ownership of the same underlying portfolio (fund). It's just that they're sold to different types of investors and they have different annual expenses (expense r…
"The tax reform law of 2017 eliminated many deductions, including those for charitable contributions."
No, and that's the point. Charitable contributions are still deductible, though because of a higher standard deduction you're less likely to be…
Anyone have Treasury as their cash holdings instead of CDs?!! Yes. In taxable accounts. Along with prime MMFs, short/ultrashort funds (muni and taxable), and savings accounts.
"Around this time last year ... the Republican agenda was intact."
@Ted - you put this in play
The article continues ... "All that changed in the last three months of the year. ...[Elaine Stokes] says 'We went from a Republican-led agenda to a m…
... moved somewhere cheaper: Albuquerque, New Mexico. ...
I guess none of this is relevant to investing, except for me, still in the accumulation stage, with the money I'm saving on living expenses I can now sock away 30% of my income each year.
…
A couple of interesting reports by Brookings:
Housing in the US is too expensive, too cheap, and just right. It depends on where you live.
One of its observations is that "Neighborhoods with persistently low home price-income ratios raise concerns…
Fidelity announced a doubling of its NTF ETFs from 250 to 500 immediately after Schwab announced a doubling from 250 to 500.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fidelityinvestments-etf/fidelity-schwab-expand-commission-free-etfs-to-over-500-idUSKCN…
A little housekeeping:
Skeet mentioned a number of Vanguard funds using investor class tickers. These are now closed to retail investors; look for the admiral class shares. For example, instead of VIGRX, use VIGAX.
@STB65 writes that PRIDX sug…
I sold my large position last week. Vanguard had to contact them one or two times because they did not report back.
My apologies for forgetting that you too had invested in the fund. Glad to hear you've managed to escape intact.
Nice catch. It's not unusual to see VCs get shares of a private company at a discount, but I've never seen something like that done with seed money for a mutual fund. (That's not to say it's not done, but it's not something I've run across.)
I no…
All of them, or at least all retail Vanguard funds of funds. Same as T. Rowe Price's funds of funds using their retail (not institutional) class shares in underlying funds, same as other fund families. It's how they can claim they're providing t…
Best Ira maybe SEP- Ira if you have a small business or have 1099 incomes... I have one at Vanguard - it's great way to have tax sheltered acct to have for long term holdings because you save so much tax deferred to use for investing
Anyone have D…
No explanation. Was it something we said?
https://mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/47020/statx-what-am-i-missing/
Shadow - I hope you have no problem cashing out.
I agree with the conclusion, but with little else here. Slott plays to his crowd: the government is bad, the government is out to get you, the government lies.
Look at the quote Gary gave (gov said SS would never be taxed). Here's what SSA says…
VTTVX holds four funds. Along with their weights and ERs, they are:
Total stock mkt index VTSMX (Inv shares): 37.49%, 0.14% ER
Total bond mkt II index VTBIX (Inv shares): 26.38%, 0.09% ER
Total int'l stock index VGTSX (Inv shares): 24.95%, 0.17% …
If you are a retail investor in one of the funds above, your shares will be automatically converted into Admiral shares. It's a tax-free exchange.
At the same time, Admiral shares will have their minimums dropped to $3K, same as Investor class sh…
"This marks the first time that the ETF share class will charge less than the Admiral share class." (That is, no cuts in the ERs of other share classes, including Admiral class.)
https://www.morningstar.com/articles/915885/vanguard-cuts-etf-fees.h…
One area in which I'm in agreement with @MJG is that I don't publish my portfolio. How I invest may be totally wrong for someone else. My investments are spread over a wide variety of families, though some of my largest holdings by family includ…
My blended ER is less than 70 bps. I run everything independently via Fidelity. The core of my portfolio passive equity exposure as it's my belief that active manager add little value in most market segment.
JoJo26, well done with your overall ER …
I've about 1/3 of equity invested abroad.
For those who hold that markets are efficient (you can't beat the market), I've got too little in foreign stock, which represents only 57% of the world equity market.
For those who hold that multinational …
Honestly, I think the issue is overrated. But it was on my mind since there was a link to a M* article about how foreign funds might better be left in taxable accounts since there you could take advantage of the foreign tax credit.
https://mutual…
Sounds to me like @Old_Skeet has simply got an old fashioned, "traditional" full service account. Which can be a good deal if you've got enough money invested.
"Small fry" pay loads that go largely to brokers for sales and service. But for lar…
"But pension funds, endowments, and other institutional investors represent the vast majority of public company shareholders—and, according to a recent study, these investors view buybacks as among the best actions management can take when it comes …
I'm still debating which of Kristian's funds to buy. Global or one of the internationals. All good performers. In case it matters, global funds rarely pass through foreign tax credits, while international funds do so a fair amount of the time.
In…
Frozen foods. Let's start off with what ought to be the most obvious for Kraft - Mac & Cheese. Branded slightly upscale as Cracker Barrel:
Then there's Devour - it's new line of frozen foods. It supposedly ran a Superbowl commercial (don'…
Hey @MSF, thanks for the heads up that HNASX is managed by the same manager as TRLGX. I've been interested in the TRLGX but it has a $1M minimum. Looking to invest in either AKREX, TRBCX, BIAWX or this one for my large cap growth exposure. Any t…
My history books go back just to the First Continental Congress (1774), presided over by Peyton Randolph (whoever he was). The only George I know going back almost to the 1750s (well, 1760) was George III.
Like you, I was wondering who it might …
