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Are you keeping your bond portfolio durations similar to the Total Bond Market Fund's 5.3ish years? Or, do you see moving it a bit lower worthwhile?

Or, another way to look at it (Ferri Vs. Total Bond):
-- Treasury/Agency: 30.5% (with TIPS) vs. 44.1%
-- Corporates: 17.9% (with high-yield) vs. 23%
-- MBS: 15.9% vs. 26.2%
(Not sure how to classify foreign)

Using .6 and .2 as multipliers, the Ferri 60-20-20 portfolio came up with: Treasury/Agency: 26.5% Government Mortgage-Backed: 14.5% Industrials: 7.6% Finance: 4.7% High-Yield Corporate: 4% TIPS: 4% Foreign: 3.4% Utilities: 1.6% Commercial Mortgage-Backed: 1.2% Asset-backed: 0.2% Of course, Total Bon...

In a recent discussion about the oddities of the Barclays Aggregate Bond Index used by the Total Bond funds, Rick Ferri mentioned a possible way to get around its 70% (approx) in government bonds. I believe his suggestion was the following: -- 60% in the Total Bond Market Index Fund -- 20% in the Va...

Just wondering ... has Wells Fargo's self-directed brokerage service changed? I read somewhere that they're consolidating under the Wells Fargo Advisors umbrella, but does that mean no more commission free ETF trades? Hope everything is still a "good deal" over there ...

Just exploring some of Morningstar's risk metrics, here are the Standard Deviation and Sharpe Ratio figures listed for the following bond funds over the past 10 years: VBIIX: SD -- 5.65; SR -- 0.83 VFICX: SD -- 5.40; SR -- 0.83 VBMFX: SD-- 3.64; SR -- 0.94 VWEHX (High-Yield Corporate): SD -- 9.12; S...

Thanks everyone ... now I'm really confused! My father once said: "Government bonds are for those already blessed with wealth. Corporates are for the rest of us struggling to make enough to live comfortably." Until recently, I've looked at high-grade corporate bond funds like VFICX as a ba...

Here's an old analysis (2007) of Orman's investment advice that still resonates:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/outing ... -portfolio

Just wondering how you split bond allocations between investment-grade corporates and U.S. Treasury/govt. funds? We're using a blend of about 60% (of our bond portfolio) in the Vanguard Total Bond ETF(BND) and about 40% in the Vanguard Investment-Grade Intermediate Term Fund (VFICX). We've got a lon...

Has anyone pointed out that the referenced Vanguard paper based its conclusions on the premise that international and domestic stocks will increase in value at about the same rate over time? That's a pretty static baseline to set, and offers an academic approach that might prove too general to apply...

Thanks for all the replies, even the attempts at humor. We're not old fogies who are ranting against pot smoking ... that doesn't matter. As someone pointed out, it's the partying late on weeknights. We just try to work hard and do well at our jobs, which is difficult living under these kind of cond...

We live in a small townhouse community in the Bay Area that was once very lovely. But it has been rocked by the mortgage downturn. Many of the original owners sold at the market's height to people like our last long-term neighbor, who bought the adjoining home at more than double what we paid for ou...

That makes sense, thanks for the clarification, Grabiner. The differences in expense ratios does make a huge impact ... but wouldn't the after-tax differences of a Vanguard nat'l muni vs. an Oregon muni fund also over time be highly dependent on changes in tax rates as well as interest rates? I'm ju...

The Columbia Oregon muni fund (CMBFX) is closed to new investors ... it also appears to be a transaction fee fund at Vanguard. I haven't been able to find a no-load fund that's open, either ... instead, we worked with Vanguard's excellent bond desk to put together a portfolio of Oregon bonds ... jus...

We've just decided to go elsewhere for a variety of reasons, many already mentioned here. We just completed transferring our WellsTrade accounts. It went pretty smoothly, but I'll warn you -- they charged us $99 as a "termination fee." Normally, I wouldn't complain. Many places charge arou...

The following article linked below points to short-term valuation concerns about REITs. But of more interest is an argument that the diversification benefits of the sector is somewhat diminished for long-term investors. Also linked below is an earlier article by Morningstar arguing that since 2001 w...

Thanks everyone for the comments ... I realize without more specifics it's difficult. But I've learned a lot and you folks have brought up some interesting questions that I'm going to pose to my accountant. Thanks again ...

Yes, we're maxing out our 401(K)s ...

RF, I like that idea, thanks. I just had a chance to run this by our accountant, and he told me that for some complicated reasons dealing with our individual circumstances, it'd be difficult. He's suggesting we choose between a Traditional IRA and a brokerage account. He's not a big fan of tradition...

We've surpassed the income limit for contributing in our Roth IRAs. I was listening to Ric Edelman on the radio and he's opposed to using traditional IRAs. He didn't explain why ... I'm just wondering if it'd be better as a long-term investor still in the accumulation phase and a long way off from r...

Thanks .... Yes, I should've explained more fully ... he already has 70% in bonds, mainly through a Vanguard annuity and an IRA. His taxable account is also full of munis (there aren't any no-load muni funds for his state, which has a high tax rate). So we've already met his bond allocation ... with...

My father is 86 years young, quite healthy and looks forward to living many, many more years. But I'm concerned that a broker is recommending he put his taxable account money allocated to stocks into three tax-managed funds. I don't doubt the funds are good ... they're each from Vanguard (VMCAX, VTM...