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Rick,
What about JNK?

Thanks to all you folks thus far who have commented. Each of you have voiced the very same arguments that I have had in my mind for the last six months while I have been pondering this switch. On the side of the TSM approach I most closely identify with the need for simplicity. I currently have two ...

So, I currently have all investments other than mine and wife's 403b's and her 457b in Vanguard ETF's (other than VWEHX) at TD Ameritrade. I am planning to move all investments directly at Vanguard sometime this summer. At least for the Traditional and Roth IRA accounts I am contemplating the idea o...

Ladies and Gents, So, at present I have been utilizing a total market approach with a small tilt to VCIT (inter-mediate term corporates) and VWEHX (high yield corporates) in my bond allocation for some time and have been quite happy with my returns. I'm not asking this question to validate my decisi...

Texasinvestor, Regarding some of the inappropriate comments from posters above, please keep in mind that quite a few of our ilk (what a rowdy bunch we are!) like to get a bit flustered when there is any perception that a youngster is fleecing their elders. Folks like to get a bit hyper-emotional des...

Beat The Street wrote:Just call a financial planner so you don't mess this up and have the whole family mad at you.

I second that.

TexasInvestor, First off, ignore the folks who say "Are you managing this portfolio to take care of your mother or are you managing to take care of her and her heirs?" They're not worth your time. Your mother's intention for you is to help her manage her portfolio in such a way that it wil...

Count of MC, It seems clear to me and the posters above that you have taken every reasonable precaution. You are maxing out your 401k, you are maxing out your car insurance and your umbrella insurance. We're of the same age, but I echo the sentiment above, a little bit of age will assuage these fear...

If your accountant doesn't understand this basic concept, it's time to find a new accountant. I'm beginning to think so. In fairness, there are some major complications in my taxes this year . But I'm beginning to think so. Up until this she has been brilliant (as far as I could tell). The decision...

Ladies and gents, can you direct me to the IRS publication that states that one can contribute BOTH the max of $17,000 to a Traditional 401k and $5,000 to a Roth IRA (as long as you are within income guidelines) for 2012? My accountant appears to be confused.

ps56k, Fidelity Puritan isn't a bad choice. If you're not able to utilize the Puritan Funds (Index Funds) or just want to contribute and forget it than Puritan is probably one of your better choices. Puritan is one of Fidelity's oldest funds and one of its best performing over time. It's allocation ...

ARBear: Clearly these two men who "manage your brother's investments" are merely seeking to make commissions at her expense. Run from them. You havn't disclosed some particulars of her scenario. Is all of her wealth (with the exception of the annuity) in taxable accounts? This is what you ...

Curly, I second Lawprof's suggestion. My suggestion would be to do the very thing that you have done throughout your nursing career, document, document, document. And present it to hr as a clear case of sex discrimination and bullying. The reality is that you are not some humanities instructor who i...

40% BND, 40% VCIT, and 20% VWEAX for me.

[/quote] Larry, I can assure you that the excess returns did not disappear from my portfolio. VWEAX combined with VBTSX and VAIPX has provided for a much more efficient and productive portfolio. There is no doubt however that you can go back in time and create a series of events that may cause the e...

My company recently switched health insurance providers and the new plan no longer covers a class of medications called "proton pump inhibitors" (Prevacid, etc.). Three members of my family have prescriptions for levels 2-3 times higher than the over-the-counter amounts and they are essen...

Background: Age 31 I have a full time position with my primary employer where I max out my 403b contributions ($17,500 for 2013) each year and my salary is approx $122k. It appears I will be getting a little 1099 work on the side a few days a month and I am interested in establishing a solo 401k. My...

I want my children to pay 100% of their own college education Great, now how are your children going to come up with $20K or so per year when they are 18-22? From the article: The higher graduation rate of students whose parents paid their way is not surprising, she said, since many students leave ...

A report on a study that found that parental support for college without clear expectations to the student seems to result in lower grades http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/15/education/parents-financial-support-linked-to-college-grades.html I found this facinating, but also consistent with the many p...

I see that your wife is 67 (Jan 5, 2013 post) therefore she is [medical advice removed by admin LadyGeek].

It's possible that she's simply lost interest in doing the the tasks. But my sense is that there is something else going on. I echo the concerns of several other posters that there may indeed be some sort of cognitive impairment emerging. Please do not take offense at this suggestion because it is n...

My employer's long term disability policy only covers 40% of my income and only does so for up to 5 years. After reading several discussions on this forum I have become convinced of the utility of seeking a good LTD policy as an add on to this. I am currently a member of the Knights of Columbus, and...

MD, thank you for this beautiful analysis. I am exactly at the point of trying to decide how to consolidate and simplify amongst the funds you discussed. Again, thank you. George George: You are most welcome. :) Was just running through scenarios myself (though it's long before I need to) and it ju...

AceofSpades, The first choice you have to make is exactly what your risk tolerance is. Second, you have to determine what your philosophy regarding active and passive management is. Bogle's essential hypothesis, which we all know to be true, is that COSTS matter. Indexing is a convenient means to re...

Given that VWEHX is closed at the moment except for those of us who already hold it, I would suggest JNK. It has a higher ER than admiral shares and has more credit risk but is performing quite favorably. Its credit risk is lower than the other high yield funds that I am aware of.

Investor, Everyone has their own philosophy, but you will get more bang for your buck if you do 40% VCIT, 40% BND, and 20% VWEHX. The combination gives you approximately the same return as the long term bond index without the volatility. You certainly take on a bit of credit risk in doing so but not...

Max out your I-Bonds first (your spouse and yourself), then put it in VCSH. Current SEC yield of VCSH is 1.24% and YTD is 5.63%. Here's my strategy -- I max out I-Bonds for my wife and I for EF (inflation rate is currently 1.76%). Some day, when I-Bonds fixed rate exceeds 1.5% (plus inflation rate) ...

[/quote] It's not a matter of allowing Wellington to change its philosphy - it's what does the investment charter state? The managers of the fund have a fiduciary duty to follow the charter of the fund, not change course whenever they feel like it. If you could only purchase 1 fund (not a fund of fu...

[/quote]
I was thinking "md" might refer to state of origin. I'm a lawyer. I know from retired judges.[/quote]

You would be correct.

Paul wrote: If the "asset bloat" that concerns you is the product of market timing, newbie investors will abandon ship quickly in a hot equity market. Those of us with lengthy experience in the fund know that Wellesley will underperform in hot equity markets but it will continue to churn ...

I am still intrigued by your use of the word compel. I own some mutual funds, but I don't feel compelled to own any of them. I used to own Index 500, but I guess I wasn't feeling the compulsion that you do, so I sold it. I own Large Cap index, but I guess I don't feel the compulsion you do, so I bo...

Gordon The arguments against holding Wellington Fund as a core asset in a retirement account is an example of " The enemy of a good plan is the pursuit of a perfect plan"....Gordon Indeed. It seems as if I have stepped on some proverbial toes here. The fact remains is that our dearly belov...

EmergDoc: >My own argument against this fund is pretty simple. It's a balanced fund. I don't use them. I guess I could, but it would make my portfolio even more complicated than it is. Yes, and it it is this very reason and this reason alone while I will not jump on the Wellington band-wagon. While ...

retiredjg , >If you are in a higher tax bracket (you're an M.D., right?) and if you are in the accumulation phase, I don't think putting Wellington into a taxable account is a good idea at all. The bonds are not tax-efficient and the dividend paying stocks won't help any either. Paying taxes on thos...

> But I'm wary of either fund in taxable, preferring munis and something like Balanced Index. Lev, I should have been clearer. I was not specifically inquiring about holding the fund in a taxable account. That's obviously pretty foolish at my income. My concern is my ability to create an asset alloc...

[quote="nisiprius"]There's no compelling argument for not holding it. It's a low-priced, well-managed fund. The general opinion here from the cognoscenti is that outperformance is explained mostly by its asset styles, not by management magic. Nis: Noted. I will definately take a look at th...

The standard reasons given here for not investing in this fund are that it is managed, and that is certainly an issue, and that past record is not correlated with future performance, but at the end of the day this fund has had an exemplary performance for many years, not only based on return but al...

Jerilynn wrote:

mdpsychcrnp wrote: However, again, it's hard to argue against a fund that has been successful since 1929.

No, it's really not all that hard.

Is it? Can you demonstrate that you have achieved the same risk-adjusted return of VWELX even over two decades?

Jerilynn: >1. The expense ratio is too high. VWENX has an ER of 0.19. Sure, I own my entire portfolio in ETF's with the exception of VWEAX and my ER's are certainly lower than this (though VEU has an ER of 0.18%). I find this to be a hard argument to make. I clicked on the link in the OP and it too...

Jerilynn: >1. The expense ratio is too high. VWENX has an ER of 0.19. Sure, I own my entire portfolio in ETF's with the exception of VWEAX and my ER's are certainly lower than this (though VEU has an ER of 0.18%). I find this to be a hard argument to make. >2. It's an actively managed fund and those...

W is too under diversified for my blood. Certainly that has been my argument up until this point, but it's hard to accept the gospel of indexing (and thus diversification) hook, line, and sinker when looking at the performance of this fund. It's a pretty hard argument to make against a fund that ha...

I didn't see anything compelling there. For the asset allocation of about 33% to 35% fixed income, I think a slice-and-dice portfolio has done just as well, but with more tax-loss-harvesting opportunities that will lead to lower taxes later on. Folks around here always write that one should expect ...

http://quote.morningstar.com/fund/chart.aspx?t=VWELX&region=USA&culture=en-US&statePara=%7Bsecurities%3A%5B%7Bn%3A%22Vanguard%20Wellington%20Inv%22%2Cids%3A%22FOUSA00FVM%7C0P00002T2V%7CCU%24%24%24%24%24USD%7C1%7C1%7CFO%7C1929-7-1%7C%7C%7Cfalse%7CUSA%7C19%22%7D%2C%7Bn%3A%22Moderate%20Allo...

T, Rowe Price's target retirement funds are GOOD funds. You can do a heck of a lot worse. If you prefer index funds, use Vanguard's target date funds. If you have T. Rowe Price funds available, use those. Mr. Bogle often quotes the 1.5% ER for the average active fund, these funds are 1/2 that. I do...

maroon wrote:The great value of a liberal arts education is that it teaches critical thinking skills. I think a liberal arts major can pursue a career in just about any field.

Perhaps, more importantly, can they make enough money to eat?

i went to art school and have been doing web design for years getting by... working in webdesign i have been able to keep our heads above water... Perhaps you should use some of the money to train yourself for a new career? A better paying job that you enjoy would likely be the best "investmen...

Ladies and Gents: A few of my co-workers and I have been discussing retirement investing and as a devoted Boglehead I have extolled the virtues of indexing. I've given all the typical convincing arguments. I've suggested to them that rather than use the Target Date funds available in their 403b's th...

I have had a conversation today with two people regarding expenses involving their portfolios. I know some people here don't discuss finances with anyone(outside of here) but sometimes I do. The people I talked to did not care about the expenses they were paying. It just boggles my mind as to why s...

[quote="livesoft"]I don't understand what you mean by giving up tax-advantaged space. You are not giving it up at all. In an emergency the dollar value of assets in tax-advantaged do not change at all because you do not withdraw from tax-advantaged in an emergency. You withdraw from taxabl...

We have $284,816 in taxable (easily tappable) and $207,868 (also easily tappable) in a beneficiary IRA. .... For me the issue really isn't "out-performance", per se, but the liquidity risk. I-Bonds have to be held for a year before you can tap them. Now, should I put everything into VCSH,...