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 lay the responsibility for the current lopsided political bias of the Supreme Court directly at the feet of Harry Reid, who in another short-sighted political maneuver eliminated the filibuster provision when considering the appointment of federal…
I also agreed with Mitch McConnell's previous stance that this whole thing is a very bad idea because it sets a precedent that future Democratic presidents may take advantage of. Of course, that's no longer operative, since Mr. McConnell has once ag…
I'd feel a lot better about the Supreme Court if it hadn't been the victim of politicization by both parties. I absolutely don't want a court that is predictable because of political bias. I much prefer not having any idea how or why the court will …
This morning Trump admitted he doesn’t even really see the situation at the border as an emergency.
“I didn’t need to do this,” Trump said. "But I’d rather do it much faster."
It's an "emergency" but he didn't need to do this? Hello??
With respect to border security, the recent trial of "El Chapo" Guzman was illuminating. The testimony and evidence revealed the history of many sophisticated and successful methods of transporting drugs into the United States.
Trump's wall would h…
@hank- You are welcome. BTW, when I access our Morgan/Chase account via the internet, the whole shebang is consolidated right there: the checking account, a small savings account that we also keep there, the Amazon cc, the Sapphire cc, and one addit…
We don't have charge cards with either First Republic or Schwab, but we do have ATM withdrawal cards. We never use those domestically, but when doing foreign travel we use them, and both are no foreign transaction fee. So far they have worked very w…
@DavidV- no problem- thanks for the clarification.
Before he got old he was just "Skeet". After he got old I told him that I had the lock on the "Old" title. He should have listened to me. :)
@hank- I hope that you appreciate the following, because when I was reviewing the previous version in the "edit" mode I accidentally hit the "return" key, and erased the whole damned thing. So here goes one more time.
It's been some years since I o…
@hank- If the size of our paper currency had diminished in scale with the decrease in purchasing power it would now be about half the size of Monopoly money.
@Mark- Yep, we're also pretty close to your situation. Everything paid for, and with pension incomes, we don't really need income from equity investments, and don't want exposure to a sudden downturn in equity values. We just think that we're gettin…
@Mark- Just checked out iDine... no restaurants that we would be interested in for our area. Also, being a firm member of the "no free lunch club", I have to wonder if a restaurant that uses iDine or something similar doesn't offset the expense in s…
@DavidV: I'm sorry, but I'm not sure what posting you are referring to. I took a quick look at recent posts on the subject, and came up with-
• December, 2018: "Being 80, I've done more than tinker around the edges- I've eliminated a few weak sis…
@Mark- Yeah. Well, if I had the depth of resource structure that Mr. Buffett has, I'd go with his plan too. By resource structure, I don't mean the actual value of the holdings- I mean the expert financial information and manipulation resources whic…
The Amazon credit card (Morgan-Chase Visa) seems advantageous because in addition to the normal cash-back percentages on non-Amazon purchases you get (as a "Prime" member) a 5% discount on all Amazon purchases charged to that card. (The discount sho…
Down to about 1%. At 80 and with potential health issues, I am not optimistic about the time-frame likely needed to hunker down through the next downturn and then back up the other side. My wife has no interest in the financial affairs, other than a…
Perhaps John should study up and try again for one of those TSA "government" security jobs that pay 150k just to run your stuff through the x-ray machines. They can't be all that hard to qualify for.
@hank- your answer to John is a complete giveaway on your social leanings... if you were on the "right" you'd start by taking away your opponent's right to vote.
I've been hearing this "we won't solve (insert problem here) by throwing money at it" forever, and always from those "conservatives" who freely acknowledge a given problem but don't want to pay a nickel towards ameliorating it. Please note the use o…
After Ted provided that info I took a closer look at the Schwab site- there is in fact a "YTM" column which gives the Yield To Maturity. Thanks to all for the help!
BTW, doing Munis now doesn't seem to be advantageous, even compared to CD yield. As…
Some wonderful quotes from that article-
• The ideologically-driven narratives of the ever-wrongs make for bad policy, poor economic analysis, and terrible investment strategies.
• They continue to say things will happen that keep on not happening…
FWIW, I've had the impression for the last couple of years that the Fed has been increasingly more open with respect to what they may be considering, starting with Bernanke. I have no real idea whether this is good or bad, but I'm leaning towards th…
Once in a while at a restaurant I'll order a Scotch Old-Fashioned. Last time the waitress asked if I wanted a "premium" Scotch. I advised her that if one ruins Scotch by adding all that other crap you might as well use the cheapest that you've got. …
