Bogleheads.org

exodusing wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2023 5:29 pm

indexfundfan wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2023 5:18 pm I was holding VUSXX on Etrade and I swapped it to GABXX, which potentially has no repos. It also has a very slightly lower ER.

and a longer average maturity, 32 v 46 days.

About half due to VUSXX holding the Repos I would bet. Most of the other Treasury Only are running around 37-39 days.

My tool is configurable for time frame

what do y'all think about moving from VUSXX to the vgd short term treasury index fund? VGSH is a fine fund, I own a small amount, but it is NOT by any measure comparable to VUSXX. It has a duration of approx. 2 years, it has much more price volatility. Only appropriate if you want to own longer term bonds. I a portion of my fixed income in VGSH and VTIP as part of a barbell approach with much longer term funds. VUSXX, is really for stuff I plan on spending in the next 6 mos. thanks. makes sense. i guess i was thinking of moving half of my vusxx over to vgsh or the admiral version. i really hate paying state taxes on what is supposed to be a treasury fund cheers grok Other options are an auto-roll of 3 or 6 T-bills or SGOV 6 mos. ETF. SGOV ...

What is the size of your company? If you have a group of affected individuals large enough to be worth reaching out to a Labor/ERISA lawyer to see if they can push back on company. Only you can decide if that is worth the potential cost.

I would be interested in your source data, but I am also confused, what is a 1 month ladder? How many tranches do you have in the ladder? 4 tranches with one every week? Similar patterns for the other ones? My laddering scheme showed 4 week ladders (4 steps equally entered into a ladder one every 1/4 every week on a delayed basis into 4 week T-Bills) beating all other durations for investors at a 6.37% state income tax rate. The benefit was pretty minor though 4week ladders beat VUSXX by 4bp, an 8 week by 2bp and 13 weeks losing by 5 to 8 bp depending on how many steps I used. I used data from this site. https://home.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/interest-rates/TextView?type=daily_treasury_yield_curve&field_tdr_date_va...

1 Month T-Bill Ladder - Return averaged 9 basis points higher than VUSXX 2 Month T-Bill Ladder - Return averaged 14 basis points higher than VUSXX 3 Month T-Bill Ladder - Return averaged 12 basis points higher than VUSXX 6 Month T-Bill Ladder - Return averaged 7 basis points lower than VUSXX I would be interested in your source data, but I am also confused, what is a 1 month ladder? How many tranches do you have in the ladder? 4 tranches with one every week? Similar patterns for the other ones? My laddering scheme showed 4 week ladders (4 steps equally entered into a ladder one every 1/4 every week on a delayed basis into 4 week T-Bills) beating all other durations for investors at a 6.37% state income tax rate. The benefit was pretty mino...

scoothome wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2023 11:15 am @retiringwhen

You've created such a cool tool in MM Optimizer. I suggest you start a master thread for it, similar to what Ben Mathew did for TPAW viewtopic.php?t=331368, longinvest did for VPW viewtopic.php?t=120430, BigFoot48 did for RPM viewtopic.php?t=97352, etc.

That way you can announce version updates, users can report bugs and request features, etc. Or maybe you have already started such a thread and I missed it?

I have a version 6 brewing with some thoughts on T-Bill ladders and auto-rolls. Once that settles down, I will start a dedicated thread when I announce that version. Thanks!

..."Requests for Full Withdrawals Withdrawals from the Voya Fixed Plus Account III fund are allowed to pay benefits to participants at any time. However, if the plan, as the Contract Holder, requests a full withdrawal of all participant accounts held in the Voya Fixed Plus Account III, VRIAC will pay amounts in the Voya Fixed Plus Account III, with interest, in five annual payments that will be equal to: ... The individual plan participants have no control over the decision of their employer to change plan providers. Since it was the action of the employer (to change plan providers) that has restricted access by the employees to their funds the employer has effectively barred employees from effectively managing some of their investmen...

grok87 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2023 8:55 am what do y'all think about moving from VUSXX to the vgd short term treasury index fund?

VGSH is a fine fund, I own a small amount, but it is NOT by any measure comparable to VUSXX. It has a duration of approx. 2 years, it has much more price volatility. Only appropriate if you want to own longer term bonds. I a portion of my fixed income in VGSH and VTIP as part of a barbell approach with much longer term funds.

VUSXX, is really for stuff I plan on spending in the next 6 mos.

So if I wanted to try to swap, what is the most effective way to watch and anticipate the swap points? Should I follow the Sifma index and use that as a predictor because VMSXX SEC yield as reported on Vanguard ultimately follows it with a lag? So when the SIFMA index is heading upward and equals the tax adjusted yield on VUSXX for example then swap out of VUSXX and into VMSXX and vice versa? Other folks have been trying to figure that out, but I think watching the weekly on Wednesday update of the SIFMA index is probably the best approach IF you are willing to do the homework to setup the necessary calculations. The problem is how do you calculate after tax rates for the SIFMA rate mapped to your actual fund (remember expense ratios will ...

@RETIRINGWHEN Wow what a cool spreadsheet! Thanks So I took a look and in Illinois and assuming your "Tranche 2" scenario of just flipping between VMSXX and VUSXX it takes 11 swaps (presumably well-timed) and on $100K that yields extra $132. Or if we are talking about $500K then $660, or a million dollars then $1320, and so forth. If we had to pick one or the other though is it the case that VMSXX itself will do better or will VUSXX. I need to go open up your sheet again to see Yes. you get the idea. Make sure you have both state and Federal rates correct. But if you are a high federal rate taxpayer in IL, then yes, the VMSXX will probably be the best deal. IL has relatively low flat rate, so the muni funds will work best for mos...

This thread and the fund restrictions are an example of the fact that there is no free lunch with fixed income. Most people don’t realize the constraints that must be placed upon SV funds to allow them to keep a stable $1 price AND return competitive returns. I agree, better disclosure is key and one thing I have learned is that DOL managed retirement plans such as 401Ks seem to have much more opaque disclosure, even at Vanguard. It seems like a bad combination. After reading what I could find about my plan’s SV and asking questions of the administrator, I have stopped using them for any significant Fixed Income. They are just not worth it. OTOH, The SEC has worked major regulatory changes on Money Market funds to make the risk trade-offs m...

rocketsrule wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 4:56 pm I have a lot of money invested through fidelity. I also have money in Spaxx and Fzdxx. Could you explain to me why? Fzdxx could be risky?

Here is a nice article Fidelity published this week about cash holding including their various MM funds. I think it makes it pretty clear what trade-offs exist between the different funds.

Ways to help keep your cash safe

No date matters, dividends accrue daily and are paid monthly on money market funds. If you sell in the middle of the month you will get a dividend paid out for this accrued amount eventually, either the day after selling everything or at the end of the month with the rest of the monthly dividend payment.

The only impact is when, not how much. Some folks get a bit OCD about the pennies laying around sometimes, but it is just an artifact of how the funds work. The process I described is pretty much true for any money market at Vanguard (settlement or not) and the process is similar at other brokerages too.

As per the M* articles, the Chinese economy did well, its stock returns (for investors) did not. This isn't uncommon. In the period of 2000-2009, US earnings growth was similar to 2010-2020. Stock market returns, however, were not. The former period returned less than bonds, the latter compounded at 15% annualized. It is important to understand there were very different underlying causes. Many EM countries with China being a primary example saw poor investor returns primarily due to massive dilution of shares. Essentially, they kept issuing more and more equity effectively diluting the ownership shares of earlier investors thus their share of profits. The US poor returns were almost completely driven by a lowering P/E multiples driven by i...

bikechuck wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 12:04 pm Meanwhile Outer Banks houses are being washed into the ocean. Friends of mine in the Fla. Keys have incurred tens of thousands of dollars of special assessments for hurricane damages. It is getting expensive to purchase home owners insurance in costal areas of Florida if you can find it.

People who build houses on sand bars shouldn't be allowed to buy insurance. The house WILL disappear. It is just a question of when.

People used to understand this and beach housing was appropriately disposable including tents.

edited - quoted fixed to reference to correct attirbution.

The most important take-away is compare like funds to like funds. There are really only 5 types of money market funds. I suggest you choose the risk/return and tax-treatment characteristics first. Chose the class of fund you want to hold, then chose the specific fund based upon ER, return, minimum investment and availability at your brokerage(s). Prime MM - Commercial paper mostly - usually nearly 100% taxable. Gov't Cash Reserves MM - US Gov't backed securities, Repos and some Federal Agency Money - some state tax exemption. Government/Federal MM - US Gov't backed securities, Repos and some Federal Agency Money but usually a bit more conservative and shorter duration - some state tax exemption. Treasury MM and Treasury Only MM - US Treasur...

I have a lot of money invested through fidelity. I also have money in Spaxx and Fzdxx. Could you explain to me why? Fzdxx could be risky? I'm also not sure if I understand the breakdown of it's underlying assets It is not a high risk fund, but it is a classic "Prime" money market that invests in yankee paper, Certificates of Deposit and commercial Repos. Those are generally considered more risky than US Gov't back securities like those held in a fund like VMRXX or a FDRXX which are similar. Basically, due to the higher ER on Fidelity MM funds, to get a competitive yield with a Vanguard fund, they need to take more risk. That is the reality. I am not telling you that Prime MM funds will fold or even break the buck, but the chances...

I am trying to decide which fund to use as my cash account (not core account). The Fidelity FZDXX has an expense ratio of 0.3% versus Vanguard's VMRXX which has an expense of 0.1%. There is a Fidelity $75 transaction fee to make any purchases with Vanguard. It appears that each fund holdings are about the same. Yesterday's (3/13/23) 7-day yield for FZDXX was 4.46% while VMRXX's 7-day yield was 4.53%. I would appreciate any thoughts from the Bogleheads community. Which one would you use and why? Thanks. If you are going to hold the money at Fidelity, hold it in their fund. If at Vanguard, hold the Vanguard fund. Really as simple as that. It almost never pays to pay those transaction fees, especially for a money market fund. You may have bet...

indexfundfan wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 7:54 pm Another correction: the ER of UTIXX is 0.2% (Summary prospectus 6/30/2022).

The two funds (GABXX and VUSXX) with the lowest expense ratios (0.08% & 0.09%) are neck-to-neck in their yields, and performance.

Fixed in the live copy. ER matters, probably most.

That said, have you ever noticed that he consistently claims that "all retirees liquidate their stocks AND bonds and go 100% into T-bills and cash upon retiring"? He proceeds to purport that this phenomenon will be the root cause of a demographically driven capital shortage for the next ~20 years, as the boomers all move out of equities and FI and into cash or cash equivalents. As this is the one topic I've heard him opine on where I actually have some independent expertise, I am always struck by how reductionist and inaccurate his claim is. Average retiree portfolios do become more conservative over time, but it is nothing close to the "cliff" he describes in this oft-cited statistic. His overconfident assertion in thi...

Revised.

You are right. Actually it shows 4.49% for yesterday. I will update in my worksheet.

Here is the link to my worksheet if folks what to review. It is in a tab of MM Optimize v5

Here are the after tax rates for the Treasury MM funds mentioned above.

the Fidelity FSIXX is the clear winner if you have access. The Gabelli fund is an oddball with high duration/life vs. the rest, but is also very good rates though.

Otherwise Vanguard is still very good after tax rates even at the very highest state tax rates. It only gets more attractive as rate drop. Ironically, most folks in the 10+% state tax rate are better off with Munis.

GABXX might be a possibility. It's available at Etrade with a minimum of $10k purchase. It's ER is 1 basis point lower than VUSXX and it seems to be holding treasuries only. Nice yield, excellent ER. I can't find any documentation of their actual holding after 12/31/2022. If compared to to VUSXX, they are the same on the same date. Also, anyone know where to find their report on % USGO for tax year 2022? Note, this funds' prospectus is explicit that they will invest in Repos. I am applying the same rules to all the funds. I need the following information: - current SEC Yield (last 7 days) - holdings as of the end of the most recent month. This fund only reports 12/31/2022 and not JAN or FEB yet. - Reported USGO % for last tax year (2022). ...

Why do so many people believe that VUSXX won't meet the CA/NY/CT 50% requirement? They are not even close to failing it for the first two months this year! Even if VUSXX is only 75% Treasuries, after-tax it still beats the pants off just about every other Treasury fund out there due to its low ER. Besides, few if any of those funds are 100% every year. Last year many funds found themselves down to 95% including Fidelity. It seems to me that Vanguard has been getting low risk extra yield in excess of the higher tax costs. Seems pretty goldilocks to me (in a good way!) I would rather be in rather short in my duration right now for ready "cash". In a high tax state, VUSXX may not beat out some other treasury only money market funds ...

Why do so many people believe that VUSXX won't meet the CA/NY/CT 50% requirement? They are not even close to failing it for the first two months this year!

Even if VUSXX is only 75% Treasuries, after-tax it still beats the pants off just about every other Treasury fund out there due to its low ER. Besides, few if any of those funds are 100% every year. Last year many funds found themselves down to 95% including Fidelity.

It seems to me that Vanguard has been getting low risk extra yield in excess of the higher tax costs. Seems pretty goldilocks to me (in a good way!) I would rather be in rather short in my duration right now for ready "cash".

anon_investor wrote: ↑Sun Mar 12, 2023 4:31 pm

retiringwhen wrote: ↑Tue Mar 07, 2023 10:23 am sell VUSXX -> bank account
bank account -> buy VUSXX

Both work just fine once you have ACH setup for the bank. I do it regularly. Just make sure you are careful in the setup of the transaction to ensure you choose the correct target when selling and correct source when buying.

I don't think you can do this within the mobile app (fund purchases directly from your bank account). You can do this just fine on the desktop/mobile website.

Yup, you are right! I don't use the app, I am a slave to 27" monitors.

Haha, yes, I guess my philosphy is at this tax bracket, doing anything extra for 100$, or even upto a few hundred, it's really just not worth the time. Wonder if others in this bracket do feel the same. Also, last question, I understand that VUSXX is "safe" as they come given majority is in Treasury, but the Muni (VMSXX) is just 100% tax exempt securities, so that is just as "safe"? It's very interesting stuff though, because we're seeing VUSXX at ~4.5% versus VMSXX at ~2.2%, which is a pretty big diff in yield, but still interesting how VMSXX comes out on top... I'm going to read more about this to further educate just out of the interest, but thanks for giving me the straight answer. This community is quite helpful an...

sugobw wrote: ↑Sun Mar 12, 2023 1:46 pm When you say choosing the Muni at this rate, what exactly does that mean? Just keep VMSXX and be done with it?

yes.

I'm not ever going to do Swaps.

Good time management skills there!

Hi all, this MM Optimizer is confusing for me, and that's probably just because I am a bit dense... :) If it's 40% (37% but add the 3% on top for NIIT, not sure if that is correct either?) + 10.75% state, it seems like VUSXX is "~60$" worse than VMSXX? Am I reading this correctly? And that's a marginal difference and that's with maximizing swaps? So is it right to say that VMSXX is slightly better but barely. If I'm understanding this correctly, for me, personally, I don't want to swap and do all that extra work for very marginal gains, so sticking with VUSXX still ok? Thanks all Not sure exactly what you are reading, but for NJ tax rate of 10.75 and 40.8% tax bracket (Tranch A on the Optimizer Tab), if you just held VUSXX vs. ju...

livesoft wrote: ↑Sat Mar 11, 2023 4:12 pm In my county in Texas, a car title transfer is easily accomplished by making an appointment at the tax assessor office which is nearby. They really do honor the appointment time, so the last time I did it, I was present for less than a minute and then continued on to the grocery store. I don't know how NJ works, but maybe they have modernized and let one make appointments online, so there is no waiting?

Added: In our area, almost all DMV visits also require an appointment made online, so almost no waiting.

NJ does allow appointments, they also have some forms of walk-ins still, but that won't help the OP's situation, the problem is who, not when.

CAsage wrote: ↑Sat Mar 11, 2023 3:55 pm Thinking outside the box, can you make any changes to title via mail?

Not in NJ. All titling activities must be done in person at the MVC center, even car dealers. They have runners whose job it is go over to the MVC with a pile of titles once a week or so. I tried to get a car dealer friend to help me with the trailer I mentioned (it was 9 mos. late on titling due to the pandemic and unavailability of appointments) and that is how I learned the antiquated nature of the process.

First step is to upgrade the routers. If you are on an end of life equipment there is a risk of future cyber vulnerabilities. Routers are a favorite target.

Also, my experience is that the radios in the most Wi-Fi routers start to get flakey after 4-5 years. Many issues that people think are network related are at the root, bad radio function due to age. I would replace them.

I had this experience with Linksys and also Netgear equipment.

My understanding is that you (or someone else) could represent the spouse at the DMV if necessary to allow the person to be at the hospice and not leave.

If the spouse is going to the DMV, The spouse does not need a POA or anything, simply present the signed title for transfer.

This may be another option (maybe better):

NJ MVC General Letter of Authorization
for Vehicle Transactions

this form is something I found before.

https://eforms.com/power-of-attorney/mo ... ehicle+poa

For NJ Bogleheads: What is the quickest and most expedient way to transfer a title from spouse to spouse in NJ? Is it possible to do this without physically going to a DMV? NJ DMV says, "If you need to transfer vehicle ownership you may do so only at a motor vehicle agency this type of transaction cannot be handled through the mail." However, I'm wondering if there is a workaround. Spouse is in hospice, and car was forgotten about when all other assets had been transferred earlier. Surviving spouse does not want to have to go through probate, but also has no time to visit DMV. TIA. The spouse in hospice should sign the title over to the other spouse at home/hospital. From there the receiving spouse can take the title to the DMV t...

Is VUSXX safer than VMFXX? I've been reading a lot about the SVB failure and some articles are suggesting only to use Treasury Only mm funds. Note, I currently have more than $500k that would be covered by SIPC in Vanguards VMFXX... so perhaps the Treasury fund would make some sense to de-risk? Or would I be better off spreading it around (MMs at Schwab, VG, and Fido) to get under the $500k SIPC per broker? There are three things to consider. 1.) Are the holding in the funds different regarding a default risk? From my perspective, there is no measurable difference between VUSXX and VMFXX. VMFXX has a portion of its holdings in US Gov't Agency Debt that could be considered to not have as much of the "full faith and credit" of the ...

Don't think it's crypto related. It's mostly just triggered by rising interest rates and the effect that had on reducing the value of SBV's long term bond holdings, while depositors needed to continue withdrawing money since they are mostly startups who are now burning cash faster than new investment is coming in. My understanding is that SVB had a large customer base in Silicon Valley startups, where many of them had amazing cash flows during the pandemic, thus fat bank accounts. Peter Theil and others told their companies' in the past week to get out of SVB due to its shaky status, thus creating a class bank run. Concentrated customer base with a non-diversified portfolio, results? Doom. This is not a general problem, but it could surely...

watchnerd wrote: ↑Fri Mar 10, 2023 1:01 pm

Kenkat wrote: ↑Fri Mar 10, 2023 10:19 am
This is basically my plan for financing my retirement pre-social security in one sentence.

It's so simple I don't know why it's not the default.

That used to be the default for a large number of retiree's until interest rates bottom almost 15 years ago! It is back in vogue, Ray Dalio even told us that "cash is no longer trash!"

Twitter: One problem for Silicon Valley Bank is that its customers had too much cash, and now they don’t. Made me LOL. Matt Levine as usual, has a very good take on this very issue. They got tons of cash during the pandemic that was too hard to lend, so they ended up buying those "safe" Treasuries. This wasn't crazy speculation, it was getting caught on the wrong side of a regime pivot. Makes me think even more highly of Buffett who keeps everything with maturity dates of a year or less. Maybe it was his bad experience with Salomon. His business is all about float on a lot of short-term risk (e.g., car insurance) vs. a lot of long-term risk in deep risk from re-insurance (e.g., CAT 5 Hurricanes taking out half of Florida), etc. T...

rockstar wrote: ↑Fri Mar 10, 2023 2:59 pm Twitter: One problem for Silicon Valley Bank is that its customers had too much cash, and now they don’t.

Made me LOL.

Matt Levine as usual, has a very good take on this very issue. They got tons of cash during the pandemic that was too hard to lend, so they ended up buying those "safe" Treasuries. This wasn't crazy speculation, it was getting caught on the wrong side of a regime pivot.

Wouldn't the first task of the bank(s) be to raise their interest rates enough to keep money from running out the door?

My credit union has been keeping reasonably close to Treasury MM rates over the past 12 mos., it allows me to keep a modest amount of cash there without regret. Ally, OTOH has fallen behind and I left in a minute after their little bonus quarter.

GP813 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 08, 2023 12:42 pm But none of this accounts for incredibly deflationary forces like the electrification of transportation. renewable energy, and the general fact that money is becoming easier to create, move, and settle.

Not sure where you got the idea that renewable energy has been deflationary. It seems exactly the opposite due to the constraints on raw material inputs alone. But, the add reality that they are more costly than fossil fuels and only make economic sense in most cases with government incentives is the very definition of inflationary choosing an inferior good that has a higher cost now for an uncertain benefit in the future.

Excellent work! I will start going to the Advisors site more. I am lazy too much of the time.....

If VUSXX can get attractive overnight rates by loaning out a t-bill compared to just holding a T-bill, they will do it. I hope they remember the needs of NY, CT and CA residents. HTSXX: 4.13% SEC yield + 0.58% fee = 4.71% VUSXX: 4.55% SEC yield + 0.09% fee = 4.64% It would seem HTSXX is getting marginally more attractive yields from treasuries than VUSXX from some lending. Am I missing something (other than why someone would invest with a 0.58% fee)? The JP Morgan fund appears to extend maturity a bit to reach for the higher yields near the 6 mos. mark. VUSXX has average maturity @ 30, where HTSXX has 37 days. That is the only thing that can drive higher yields that I can see. Interestingly, if you look at the JP Morgan site, they have bee...

I don't think the debt ceiling has anything to do with it. Quantitive Tightening (QT) driven removal of liquidity from the market to support higher short-term rates by the Fed is likely the reason.

If VUSXX can get attractive overnight rates by loaning out a t-bill compared to just holding a T-bill, they will do it. I hope they remember the needs of NY, CT and CA residents.

Believe it or not, but NJ allows you to exempt USGO income from IRA distributions as well. I started a thread earlier this year on the rules, and potential methods to take advantage of the law.

See this thread: viewtopic.php?t=393132

I am in the process of doing my taxes this month for 2022 and I plan on using the process I define there.