@hank. Thanks! I will... someday. Looks like stocks are taking off, but bonds are doing moderately well, too. ALL SORTS of bonds. The Fed is backstopping EVERYTHING. "Don't fight The Fed." I never intended to do so. But, the timing: Just after I moved mostly into bonds (for the purpose of reducing risk in retirement), here we go with a Fed-induced METH LAB, juiced Market. Oh, well. I'm still 35% in stocks and will continue to benefit, to that extent. Meanwhile, my bond funds are rolling along nicely, as well. "Let It Roll." Little Feat.

Thanks @MikeM for the comment. I was aware of your past experience with PRPFX. I slowly established a position during 2014 and 2015 after most of the euphoria with gold had subsided. January 4, 2016 I converted it to a Roth (and discussed that here). Oil was in the dumps back than (bottoming at $26 later in January). I’m satisfied with the fund’s performance post-conversion. IMHO the fund requires a very long-term perspective and a certain personal philosophical leaning regarding money, risk, value - and markets as well. So it is definitely not for everyone.
Today it represents 11.6% of invested assets. It is the only fund I’ve chosen not to rebalance or take any distributions from in retirement. That’s intentional, as it will grow to a larger and larger portion of total investments over time. Umm ... I don’t know how large a % I’m willing to allow the fund to become. As I grow older and more conservative it may replace some riskier assets in the allocation model - particularly in the “real assets” & “balanced” sleeves room exists. I’d think 35% of total portfolio might work.
Yup - it has appeal as a lower volatility substitute for gold. That’s to the chagrin of us longer term investors who hold it through thick and thin.

@hank, as my CDs have matured and yield on CDs and MMs have gone to virtually nothing, I've also been changing "cash" into other holdings. But I've been keeping those other holdings on the conservative side. Nothing too speculative. Not reaching for yield since all my retirement money is in IRA and 401k. I'm just interested in steady, conservative, total return for this substitute for cash... with the understanding I'm also adding risk.
I've invested quite a bit of "cash" into 2 places, short term treasuries by an ETF, ISTB (Ishares 1-5 year duration) and put a substantial amount into a conservative alternative fund, MNWAX.
I used to own PRPFX years ago. As you probably remember it was one of the darlings of the board during and after the 2008 recession. By memory, I think the stocks it holds are geared towards energy which hasn't been in favor for quite a while. Always thought of it as a conservative play on gold.

My goals at retirement are 6+% average annually with SD < 3 + positive annually + never lose more than 3% from any last top.
It seems to me that you jump around quite a bit with large sums of money into a few funds (mostly bond?) that are on a roll in terms of recent performance and low SD. Great that this seems to work for you, but I could not personally implement such a jumping strategy (if I'm correctly understanding your approach). I doubt the approach could work with a few buy and hold funds over the long term. Most would fail on the SD. Taking a quick peek, seems that SIUPX might come close to your criteria? (Avg 5.75 lifetime and SD of 2.9)

One reason maybe that AVEFX ''flies under the radar'' is it is not available at Fidelity or Schwab no load/NTF.

In 2020 peak to trough AVEFX lost about 10% while FPINX lost only about 2%.
AVEFX has 20% in stocks FPINX < 1%
Vanguard VASIX is a better choice than AVEFX. See (

chart). VASIX ER=0.11%. It has better performance and SD(volatility) is close.

There may well be better choices for this TYPE of fund, but the criteria I was focusing on was never a down year. VASIX has had two, including down 10.53% in 2008. Not so pretty. AVEFX has an unbroken streak during its existence dating back to 2004.

If you want only funds that never lost money then performance could lag badly. PFNIX 10 years average annually is only 2% and that's a dismal bond performance.
AVEFX has a much better performance but 3.8-3.9% average annual return for 5-10 years are not good enough for me. At least VASIX performance annually is at 5.2-5.3% and Vanguard uses just indexes.
My goals at retirement are 6+% average annually with SD < 3 + positive annually + never lose more than 3% from any last top.

SUPPLEMENT DATED MARCH 31, 2020 TO THE SUMMARY PROSPECTUSES AND PROSPECTUS FOR THE GRANDEUR PEAK EMERGING MARKETS OPPORTUNITIES FUND, GRANDEUR PEAK GLOBAL MICRO CAP FUND, GRANDEUR PEAK GLOBAL OPPORTUNITIES FUND, GRANDEUR PEAK GLOBAL REACH FUND AND GRANDEUR PEAK INTERNATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FUND (EACH A “FUND,” AND TOGETHER, THE “GRANDEUR PEAK FUNDS”) DATED AUGUST 31, 2019Effective April 1, 2020, the Grandeur Peak Emerging Markets Opportunities Fund, Grandeur Peak Global Opportunities Fund, Grandeur Peak Global Reach Fund, and Grandeur Peak International Opportunities Fund will reopen to all shareholders.Also, effective April 1, 2020, the Grandeur Peak Global Micro Cap Fund will reopen to all shareholders who purchase directly from Grandeur Peak Funds. The Fund remains open through financial intermediaries to shareholders who currently hold a position in the Fund. Financial advisors with clients in the Fund are able to invest in the Fund for both existing as well as new clients. The Fund also remains open to all participants of retirement plans currently holding a position in the Fund.

Firm is called Empower Retirement.

@hank - thanks for the last paragraph, otherwise I might have read the whole post as tongue in cheek.
Seriously, opening up a Fidelity (or any brokerage) account is little different from opening up a mutual fund account. If you do open up an account, don't spend the whole $10 in one place. Diversify :-)
One opens an account online here. (Look for the headings: Investing and Trading for taxable accounts, Saving for Retirement for IRAs).
Brokerage accounts all have a settlement (what Fidelity calls a "core") account. This is essentially your "checking" account for the brokerage. Fidelity currently gives you three choices for a core taxable account. Government MMF (SPAXX), Treasury MMF (FZFXX), and a sweep account. That's where the cash is put into bank accounts (semi-invisibly) and you earn bank interest (0.01%) instead of divs on the MMFs (0.01%). Any money you deposit into the brokerage account first goes into whatever your core account is.
After you open the brokerage account, you'll be offered the option of funding it. Fidelity should offer you funding choices: transferring cash from a bank account via EFT or mailing a check, possibly other ways. The EFT won't work with your debit card (I believe) but will take money from the account underlying your debit card. You need the routing number and account number to set this up.
Once your deposit clears, you're free to make online trades up to your full, incredible amount of $10. Fidelity is pretty good in that it usually makes cash available for trading quickly, even though it will hold cash deposits for several days if you want to withdraw that money. When you purchase something, it will show up as a separate holding in the same brokerage account.

Hello @bee,
I’ve been an infrequent poster but have been snooping on MFO for some time. In 2002, after the dotcom implosion, I crafted an Excel file to keep track of our (with DW) investment accumulations. I would track the bi-weekly changes, as well as the starting totals on January 1st of each year.
As we got closer to retirement, I calculated our current expenses and projected a retirement budget for comparison. The retirement budget had/has two versions = “Frugal Lite” and “Frugal Extreme.“ With those numbers, I then calculated the taxes to add to this total number. From this number I calculated the percentage passive income we needed to offset this total expense need. I calculated a 2.5%, 3.0%, and 4.0% yearly return. I use 2.5% as my S.W.A.N. figure.
I then projected the social security we would each receive and subtracted that amount from the total expense budget. The remaining balance was the amount our portfolio would need to generate each year. When 2.5% would cover this cost, I believed that I would/had come to a place I considered - “financial independence.”
All of this data is the “Rube Goldberg” that comes down to the final number. That is, the difference between what is needed for living expenses & aspirations, and how much our portfolio generates. My concern is that this number be on the “positive” side of the ledger even with withdrawals (RMDs, etc.). If it should dip to the negative, then we would need to shift our expenses from the “frugal lite” to the “frugal extreme“ budget.
I am in my 3rd year and my DW her 6th year of retirement. So far so good.
Best to all,
Brian

@WABAC, hope this thread helps your headache. Your retirement income needs will come from SS, maybe a pension, maybe part time work, maybe a portion of your personal retirement accounts (RMDs or other withdrawals).
If considering an annuity run some withdrawal scenarios with a fund like VWINX which may provide a similar withdrawal rate to an annuity and still allow you to have full control over it.

Not too worried about headaches at the moment. Aside from market performance, we are saving cash every month under the current conditions. This has been an interesting stress test.
Used to spend 135$ a month filling up the cars. Now, one car, or the other, gets filled up every third month,
The little numbers might be small for what some folks here may need. But they add up quick for our situation.
While I have "enjoyed" the accumulation stage. I'm not so sure I want to manage the RMD stage. We're still 7-8 years out from that. And I don't have to sort it out today.
But it's something to think about so long as we can entertain the idea of relying on our retirement accounts, without tapping into taxable accounts.
The recent changes in the way inherited retirement accounts are treated by the IRS has influenced my thinking.

Chapter I -Too complex for me. Fortunately I purchased the DejaOffice App at Apple around the time I retired. It has proven highly reliable and very versatile for creating various files and keeping backups. Updating the most recent backup to all devices (weekly) works reliably. So I have basic records of just about everything related to investing since retiring 20+ years ago. Annual returns, additions from other sources, withdrawals by year, total withdrawals to date, total gains to date, Roth conversion dates and amounts, etc. etc. I also record every fund exchange, transfer or sale I make, but normally discard those files after 3 years. The thought of having to maintain all that garbage in some type of paper file (as might have been common 25 years ago) is daunting to say the least.
Chapter II - I don’t worry too much about any overarching plan. Looking at those detailed records gives me some degree of confidence I’m heading in the right direction. We’ve skated around the related issue in the past of whether it’s better to keep a 3-5 year cash reserve to smooth out those market shocks or to just pull what you need from the overall blend of assets. The former allows for a more aggressive investment approach of course (but with fewer dollars). Good arguments both ways. I’m in the minority here as I believe in not maintaining a separate cash reserve. However, am quite conservatively invested,
Chapter III - In terms of how much and when to withdraw? Depends on needs. Pull substantial amounts for a new car or home renovation maybe every 5 years. Lesser amounts for other years. If worried about market levitation I do a 6 month “advance” by transferring the next year’s anticipated needs into cash still within the tax-sheltered domain. I did that mid-way through 2019. Not planning on doing that this year. Politicians have gone spending crazy in an election year. A trillion here ... a trillion there ... Hell to pay some day. But I expect the markets to hold at least until November. As far as those drawdowns for major purchases go ... if the market’s sucking air and your investments are way down, postpone whatever you’d intended. Wait for a better time. I suspect that in that regard the human brain is better enabled to make the decision than would be MonteCarlo or any other computer simulation.
Chapter IV - Can’t quite get my head around the popular notion of “spending down” assets. My invested assets have increased (in nominal terms) during retirement. I expect them to continue to increase. (That’s after whatever withdrawals were taken.) There’s something to be said for having an increasing “net worth” at any age. In fact, it seems counterintuitive to me to be “investing” (presumably for growth) while at the same time planning how to divest oneself of said assets. Maybe it’s because I have a decent pension. Don’t know. But it’s a real brain stopper for me.

I probably have more complexity than most but my wife and I have had many different jobs with their associated different type of retirement accounts. Nor do I trust any one broker so we have stuck with Vanguard Schwab and Fidelity. Vanguard is becoming an increasing pain so I am thinking of moving the money.
I use a modified bucket approach and have set up "investing goal" categories in Quicken, including "money to live on" "emergency fund" conservative bonds, risky bonds , dividend, equity, speculative international, etc. Each specific position gets assigned to the best suited goal in Quicken. Most mutual funds you can pin to a general category. You can also set up investment types with small cap, large cap etc, and I break bonds down by duration category
I download the account activity from each brokerage at least once a week. It works pretty well and gives me at a glance what % and dollar amount I have in bonds, conservative speculative etc.
As I just retired I have not taken distributions, but this system will let me see quickly the effect on my allocations after I sell something.
It does not handle current income terribly well but I have found several online sites to do that. Morningstar is OK but clunky with bonds and dividends.
Simply Safe Dividends (Simplysafedividends.com) has a portfolio tracker that will tell you your expected income from each position and the portfolio as a whole and it is simple to download from Quicken, or you can let SSD download directly from your brokerage account. I have never been comfortable handing out my passwords so I do it myself.

If one of you bond meisters (maybe msf?) can explain this to me it would be surely appreciated. I am looking heavily into bond funds now as I reach retirement .M* rates the PTIAX bond avg rating as BB in the style box area . Yet it then reports these bond rating percentages as present in the fund. AAA 32.71%,AA 31.37% A 10% BBB 5.75% BB 1.33% B 0.92% Below B 8.59% and NR 9.13%. I have seen similar numbers on M* where the bond avg rating is far below the actual percentages which are much greater among the higher rated bonds. It would seem to me that the above PTIAX bond rating avg would be more like A and not BB as noted. Am I missing something here?

Schwab seems to have most of the information I need for planning & reporting purposes. I even have my external accounts located there so I can get a sense of aggregation, but they don't allow you to count those accounts in any calculations such as monthly income. The monthly income tab for my Schwab accounts is a very handy & easy way to see the monthly income generated. Schwab will also generate a retirement plan for me at least once a year, maybe as often as I'd want as I seem to get a lot of emails asking me to do so. They are good at working with me regarding changing any variables (such as inflation, rate of return, etc) to see how it might impact the future. I'm sure they would like to get my accounts under management but they have not been pushy at all. Overall, I'm very pleased with Schwab & at some point might transfer my wife's Roth IRA & a small Roth of mine from TRP there.
The retirement plan that Schwab generates is the most comprehensive that I've used. It shows a year-by-year cash-flow analysis which includes annual income, withdrawal of assets, & taxes due plus more. I've also used TRP's FuturePath Tool too. I've looked at the OpenSocialSecurity tool as well as neither my wife or I have taken social security yet.
I also still use Quicken which is helpful for budgeting but most of that is on autopilot which is how I like things set up. I would still refer to my account statements vs Quicken for any exact information that I would need.
I like a bucket approach not so much that I think it generates the best results but it's easy for me to wrap my head around as well as makes it easy for me to leave my equity portion alone.
Next year will be the first year that my wife & I will need to take from our retirement accounts but we actually have the cash so that we won't need to take much. I retired at the end of 2016 due to health reasons but was fortunate enough to have taken out a personal disability policy. It was equally fortuitous that I had been paying for it out of our personal funds vs through my corporation. The money has been tax-free (with multiple benefits beyond the obvious). I would strongly recommend for anyone getting a personal disability policy that if you can afford to, pay for it out of personal funds.
@Old_Skeet, "Nope, I just spent less and lived within my means saving some along the way plus I have been a good prudent investor and grown my wealth through the years." I totally agree with that plan.

I continue to do what I have done for decades which is KISS.
Prior to retirement.
We saved for years thru 401K. Always paid all bills on time. Never made a budget. Spend the rest. No more than 5-6 funds. No spreadsheet
At retirement
1) Usually 2-4 funds
2) No budget, no spreadsheet, no tracking of anything. Our discount brokers have all the information we need. I don't need anything beyond that
3) During working and at retirement we only have several thousands(maybe 2 months of expense) in checking account. Everything else is invested most times. In the last 10 years I was in the market at 99+% at about 98%. This means no MM,CD.
4) I never understood the concept of emergency fund and/or 2-3 years of expense in cash. We have access to credit cards first, then several thousands in cash. If we need more we can sell some shares and get it within 1-2 days. So why do we need cash unless it's ransom or illegal drugs?
If stocks are down then use your bond funds for that and you must have some ballast bond funds
5) We get distribution monthly, if it's not enough I sell some shares.

Thanks for the comments so far.
@Old_Skeet. Does"living below your means" imply you live in the basement of your in-laws? Mine were pretty mean too. We moved out as soon as we saved enough for a down payment on a house. Now the means are moving into our house and we are "living over our means".
With your portfolio construction, if you were to segregate out your 20% cash position, I could image the remaining 80% equating to a balanced fund (50% equity / 50% income). Is that one of your benchmarks?
Great job on achieving a return equal to a little over 9%.
@davidmoran, I like the idea of simplifying, but I also believe one has to keep an eye on the "cooks in the kitchen". I look for fund managers who attempt to protect on the downside while achieving most of the market's upside. PRWCX , VWINX and BRUFX are examples of this in my portfolio. VLAAX seems to fit this bill as well.
@WABAC, hope this thread helps your headache. Your retirement income needs will come from SS, maybe a pension, maybe part time work, maybe a portion of your personal retirement accounts (RMDs or other withdrawals).
If considering an annuity run some withdrawal scenarios with a fund like VWINX which may provide a similar withdrawal rate to an annuity and still allow you to have full control over it.

Gives me a headache.
One of the reasons I've been thinking about annuitizing the retirement funds when the time comes. I'm not sure I'm going to feel like sorting through all of the choices I've invested in over the years when it comes time to take RMD's.
The taxable accounts are different. With any luck, they will be passed on. So it's easier to indulge a tempered optimism.

How does one keep track of their gains or losses while at the same time accounting for permanent losses from portfolio withdrawals?
Let say I have $100K and I plan on withdrawing 4% or $4K in year one of retirement and I do that Jan 1 of that first year. My balance is now effectively $96K as a result of the distribution. To me this is a permanent loss because I am spending, not saving that 4%. Obviously my bookkeeping accounts for this withdrawal until I spend it. Maybe I buy a car with this 4% and the car goes up in value after I buy it. Maybe I blow it on Jan 2 at the casino...ouch... but these are the dynamics of spending down your portfolio. You may have something (a car worth at least $4k) or you have nothing more than a recollection of the $4K withdrawal.
If my overall portfolio drops 10% soon after Jan 1, I now have $86.4K. My hope is that over the next 3-5 years I will recoup that 10% market loss, but I realize my withdrawal rate (4%) is now greatly impacted by my eventual portfolio balance come Jan1 of the next 3-5 years.
Segregating 5 years worth of withdrawal might act as a drag on my potential upside performance, but might hedge my downside potential. Five years of withdrawal that include a 2% inflation adjustment would amount to $20.8K. It might be prudent to keep this amount in a conservative investment with little downside risk. That leaves a little less than $80K invested for the longer term (5 years). An average 5 year return of 5.8% would return this portfolio to its $100K value, but inflation requires a 7.9% average return in order to keep the same buying power.
Seems to me that in retirement one needs segregate "withdrawal assets" (maybe up to 5 years worth) from "market assets". This way your withdrawals are not necessarily connected to the market's ups and downs. In 5 years, a new calculation will determine what the nest 5 years of "withdrawal assets" will amount to.
If your are managing these dynamics in retirement please share your strategy.

We do have hedging portfolio /and stock portfolio...mostly good qualities funds that we tend hold longer terms, no changes in those...the smaller liquid assets we do little tradings
We are still 90/10 but mostly in stocks for longer term retirement.
Have raised same question with Mother*s retired portfolio... thinking may add another good bond funds /index or add more fidelity2020 vs lsbrx but will wait for answers from board. Couple pimco funds have not hold up to pars recently.
Most manage funds may not outperform index funds longer term
Sorry to cause any confusion from previous posts
Regards

Latest email update. It sounds like people will be forced to move from mutual fund platform to brokerage platform no later than 2022.

We're working toward the retirement of our old investment platform, which supports accounts that only hold Vanguard mutual funds. We'll continue to support clients on this old platform until it's retired from use in 2022 or earlier. But know that some of the features you've used in the past may not be available as we make updates and changes in the future.
...
How will it affect you?
There will be a few very minor changes, but overall, it will be a very similar experience. You'll keep all the investments you have today. And your account type will stay the same too (Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, individual, etc.). You'll just be able to do a little more—but only if you want to. For example, you could invest in stocks, bonds, or ETFs.