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There has been a lot of talk about an inevitable increase in interest rates, but much less talk about our governments ability to pay higher rates on our national debt. What is it now, 13 trillion and rising? That's what has me thinking rates are going to be very, very low for the forseeable future....

mike143 wrote:I just use Pandora ("free" ad supported). I don't know the name of many artist or songs so I have no desire for paid service. The ads do not really bother me. The visual ads are block via an ad blocker on my Android smartphone.

Second for Pandora.

If one of your criteria for buying this fund was that the manager owned significant chunks of it, then that has changed and you should sell. If you didn't care when you bought this fund if the manager owned shares or not, then it doesn't matter what you do. I purchased this fund 3 managers ago. At ...

No, I would not sell the fund if it continues to meet your needs. The fact that the manager has little or no holdings in it should not be of any concern. Isn't it enough that his livelihood and occupation depends on his ability to outperform his benchmark? Think of it this way, the manager who by t...

gerrym51 wrote:how old is David Giroux. maybe he's getting his finacial house in order for retirement.maybe he's going into more conservative investments

He's 37, sorry, I should've mentioned that in the original post. I'll add it.

Good evening, I've got a question about a specific fund that I hold, and have held for 14 or so years, T. Rowe Price Capital Appreciation. We have about 25% of our portfolio in this fund. However, the question is about what I learned last evening on the Morningstar T. Rowe Price forum that I did not...

It's 1.0%. We hold a total of 5 funds. The expense ratios are 0.72%, 0.51%, 0.15%, 0.10% and 0.05%. Between 401(k)'s we can't control, Roth IRA's, Rollover IRA's, taxable accounts - multiplied for me and spouse - 0.20% and 0.50% are pipe dreams for us (and I'd bet most). That said, our weighted expe...

Not sure I understand the problem. Vanguard isn't a public interest group. It's a business. Vanguard doesn't offer bank CDs, bank savings accounts, savings bonds, stable value funds , or the G fund. I invest in the Vanguard Retirement Savings Trust Fund every 2 weeks in my 401(k). This is Vanguard'...

Very good, nice one.

Classic weed puller works best in my opinion. Then you can just put regular lime and fertilizer down. Weed puller.

We have one solitary DFA fund in our 401(k) - DFA Emerging Markets I (DFEMX). Again, in a 401(k) how does DFA inhibit performance-chasing behavior in participants? That's supposed to be an important part of their business model, isn't it? I just checked our plan rules. There are no specifically spe...

We have one solitary DFA fund in our 401(k) - DFA Emerging Markets I (DFEMX).

I'm not seeing a change of course; my copy of his Intelligent Asset Allocator from back in 2000 has him recommending only short/limited term bonds. How, exactly, is this a change of course? I concur with the above... are we talking about the change in course being the approach to thinking of two po...

Timely post for us... We've slowly been simplifying over the last 3 years. We're set on our percentage of equities and we bought all through the downturn (both 2008-2009 and 2000-2002). However, as our accounts have grown, and we've begun to rearrange things to be tax efficient (e.g., shifting CD's ...

We are currently allocated as Vanguard Stable Value fund + I-Bonds + CDs + some bonds in T. Rowe Price Capital Appreciation.

Let's say it was I-Bonds for a second, what would that mean for an investment made today? OK, now let's say it was VWITX, what would that mean for an investment made today? See what I mean? You can't invest in the last 10 years of returns, so I'm not sure that it matters which has had a better retur...

Or... you can just buy VFSVX, the mutual fund version, and realize that it's probably a wash anyway between the spread, etc and the purchase fee. Yes, the ER is also higher, but it's been coming down over time as well.

I noticed that too. Last week it was "Silver XXX for as low as $2.99 over spot" and today it's "Silver XXX as low as $4.99 over spot". Which isn't really spot because they post the bid and ask and always base their numbers off the ask... I did get a kick out of the banner ad &quo...

I am just a cave-man, but is the answer not obvious. Or is this a joke? Neither. The answer is non-obvious and I do not believe it was a joke. Take a look at the inflation adjusted return, for example, of gold from 1982 through 2000. You'd have been better off with a fist full of fiat money. Yes, t...

I'd like to see another level after $10K but before $5M or $100M like some. Let's see a $100K or even $250K level with lower expense ratios. This makes sense to me. Just eliminate the investor class shares for indexes ($3k - $10k is too small a range) and add in a "Fleet Admiral" level at...

That's great news. There weren't a lot of changes this month. There is a thread here on it though: http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=114631&newpost=1667272.

So if there is a really bad day concept in precious metals, today (silver down 5+%) would be one of those days... Any buyers here today?

I disagree. This price drop is likely related to the change in index (MCSI -> CRSP). So if they are going to make a change - even with very low frictional costs - I want to see a tangible benefit. In this case, the stated reason for the change was lower cost - so I want lower cost. If this was an ex...

" When yields go back to their historical average of 5.5%" In 10 years? Over the course of 5-7 years? A very likely outcome is extremely slow rate increases, in which case owning bonds works just fine. That 25% drop is just not a likely scenario at all. I'd tend to agree with the above. Y...

Vanguard is telling us the total bond fund will be returning 1.6-something% for a very long time. Do you really understand what this means for savings you put in there now if inflation rises to 4% a year? If you do, and can accept losing that buying power, fine. If you don't, you really need to com...

So are you folks Flagship that you received this for free and us lowly Voyager and Voyager Select folks are left peering in the window sans book?

Nikor wrote:[Economic policy and political comments removed by admin LadyGeek]

None of this is really actionable to me and, is, at a minimum, highly subject to personal interpretation and opinion. It'll likely be removed by a moderator.

[Political quote removed by admin LadyGeek]

I'm 41 and I'd caution against 100% of anything. Your current investment in Target Retirement 2040, with its 10% bond / cash position, is a little light to me on bonds. If you must do 100% stock, I'd go with 70% Vanguard Total Stock Market index and 30% Vanguard Total International Stock market inde...

They are just sitting back and collecting their dividends... er, wait...

The implied physics of that are interesting. In the end, the energy to heat your house is = hours furnace runs x furnace rated output - heat loss Heat loss is proportionate to the difference between internal and external temperatures. So the colder the average temperature of your house, the more en...

I had been using I-bonds along with TIPS in my portfolio, however, last year, I sold all my TIPS and now hold only I-Bonds. With TIPS yields being what they are these days, I-Bonds, to me, are the clear favorite of the two. When TIPS yields rise, I'll reconsider them (using a strategy like Larry Swe...

In addition to the high price per gallon (I'm in central PA and the highest I paid over this winter was $3.69 a gallon), I think you might want to consider a different overnight temperature. We originally did a similar thing, set it to 60 at 10PM when we went to bed, then raise it to 68 at 4 PM befo...

I am one of those relatively rare birds that holds more than "age in bonds." (More accurately, I should say that I hold less than 100-age in stocks.) What drives me to this is the acknowledgement that the worst case downside for equities is close to 100% - coupled with the acknowledgement...

Maybe if we had kids, for example, but we don't. Everyone's circumstances are different.

PA state tax rate is a flat 3.07%.

The total expenses haven't changed. The expense ratio used to not include the insurance/wrap fee, but the new expense ratio includes this fee. https://institutional.vanguard.com/VGApp/iip/site/institutional/researchcommentary/article/InvComChangesSVExp Thanks for that. I asked that specific questio...

Thanks for the replies. I agree regarding looking at the yield vs. SEC yield of the total bond market fund. I was just dismayed that this fund catapulted to (when including the cost of the wrapper) within 2 basis points of my most expensive fund. I *had* be actively reducing expense ratios and the t...

Thanks Brandon for confirming the higher ER wasn't just in my plan.

I've just gotten off the phone with Vanguard and am a little stunned. The Vanguard Retirement Savings Trust (e.g., stable value) fund I my 401(k) was charging a 0.31% expense ratio as recently as the turn of the year. Today I checked and it's up to 0.51%. I called Vanguard and they confirmed the exp...

He charges a 1% management fee, but he claimed that, historically, Dimensional Index funds outperformed Vanguards Index funds by at least 1% which would offset his fee. Many more knowledgeable than myself will answer about DFA vs. Vanguard as there have been many discussions here about this in the ...

Yes I think it's strange as it did the same, recommend I take spousal first, but then it did recommend I take my benefit at 70. Sounds like an intermittent issue.

Shabber wrote:Who's in?
- Chris

I own some in TSM and T. Rowe Price Capital Appreciation. No need for more than that. A lot of my friends are buying Android phones to replace their iPhones. We bought a Google Nexus 7 instead of an iPad. I'm not sold that they have a juggernaut that can't be overcome.

Not sure why you included NAESX in your reply, the question was between DFSTX and VSMAX, anyways.......... Bradley, likely he included NAESX (which is the investor share class of Vanguard Small Cap Index) vs. VSMAX (which is the Admiral share class of Vanguard Small Cap Index) because the former ha...

Securities lending revenue is reported in the Statement of Operations in the fund's annual report. Since I happen to have the report for the VG Total International Index fund handy, I'll look and see: Securities Lending revenue of 66,683,000 which compares to total expenses of 116,489,000. Edit: VG...

I'm also curious as to the transparency of the estimates above regarding items like income from securities lending, etc - how does an average investor gain access to this information?

More buyers than sellers More buyers than sellers More buyers than sellers More buyers than sellers More buyers than sellers More buyers than sellers More buyers than sellers More buyers than sellers More buyers than sellers More buyers than sellers More buyers than sellers More buyers than sellers...

My copper bullion is the 95% Cu Lincoln cent. Weighs 0.1 troy ounce. Better % of species metal than the gold American Eagle ( 22 karat - 91.66% pure Au). Heck, if 91.66% pure trades like gold, then 95% should trade in my book. The American Eagle, while 91.66% pure still contains 1 troy ounce of pur...

I use maximum tolerable loss X 2 to determine my stock allocation - it's been printed in a number of books and was also Adrian Nenu's line here for a while... works for me. The 100 - age formula was too aggressive an allocation for me in my 20's. If it's not something you can stick with, it's not th...

Nice, congrats! Do you carry it with you? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbl_hzSiK8M

No offense, but a wearer of pleated pants, other than with a formal suit, usually = old overweight man who hasn't bought pants in 10 years. You can get them cheap, though. For the last 5-10 years, every department store in my area has constantly had massive piles of pleated pants for 60-80% off lis...