Search found 46082 matches
- Fri Mar 31, 2023 5:20 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Money Market Funds and the Fed
- Replies: 6
- Views: 558
Re: Money Market Funds and the Fed
I'm not very risk adverse. I'm thinking more about how the fed may respond and any long[er] term impact. EG: adjustments to FDIC, market regulations, etc. If you are not risk adverse you are better to hold more risky assets: longer term bonds + equities, primarily. Losing money on bank deposits is ... a perfectly avoidable risk. Is it really worth taking on more risk for +1% return? The risk of a severe wipeout (if future deposits over $250k are not insured?). We'd have to go into politics to discuss policy changes - that's not permitted here. FWIW the voting public is hearing "bailout" and not liking it. My view is the SVB Bank run had the potential to turn into a run on every medium sized bank. First Republic, which did not hav...
- Fri Mar 31, 2023 4:57 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Annuitization Conundrum – are we cheating ourselves?
- Replies: 12
- Views: 1851
Re: Annuitization Conundrum – are we cheating ourselves?
Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond. Your responses validate my instincts to kick this can down the road a bit. I will put off the decision until the age of 73 when I need to begin taking RMDs. If my portfolio is still in good shape at that time I will put it off again until I reach the age of 79 ish if I am fortunate enough to reach that age. It is helpful to have input from the community because it gives me confidence in this approach. The way the mathematics of annuities work, the "mortality credit" ie the uplift because you have fewer years to live, rises as you get older (of course). But I don't think the rise is linear? I.e. as you get into your mid 70s & up the income from the annuity starts to rise. Given ...
- Fri Mar 31, 2023 4:33 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Help me analyze a pension decision
- Replies: 11
- Views: 737
Re: Help me analyze a pension decision
Spouse 1 is retiring and eligible for a pension. Their Option 1 is to take $418 per month with no survivor benefit for spouse 2. Option 2 is to take $373 per month with survivor benefit. Both are 65 years old and in good health for their age. They have saving and social security on top of this and this is not part of the original retirement plan (it’s essentially gravy). How would you advise them on this decision? Almost certainly to take the survivor benefit. Although you don't specify percentage (often it is not 100%) It's very cheap life insurance, in effect. Or more properly longevity insurance (protection against outliving your capital). If it is CPI indexed then it is absolutely worth doing-- taking the survivor benefit. CPI-indexed ...
- Fri Mar 31, 2023 3:19 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Money Market Funds and the Fed
- Replies: 6
- Views: 558
Re: Money Market Funds and the Fed
So, like anyone who prefers a better earning than 0.01% from banks I moved cash into assorted money maket funds.. The news and commentary about the huge amount of cash leaving banks for money market funds seems like it's gong to be a catalyst for something . The potential fed regulations and whatever other actions they can take might become a factor moving forward. The thought is a bit scary. I know there are some smart people in DC and they might like to take a stab at something, but they're also prone to cause future problems that are hard or impossible to unwind, and/or just do the wrong thing. Any ideas what might the lay of the land might become if this situation gets (more) focus by the fed? I noticed some of the regional banks I use...
- Fri Mar 31, 2023 3:18 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Bernstein on TIPS and T-bills
- Replies: 132
- Views: 14849
Re: Bernstein on TIPS and T-bills
How are TIPS yields determined? Are they periodically set or a function of supply/demand? I see that the real yield on a 30 year TIPS was 4.27% in 1999 which is incredible. Same as any other bonds--supply and demand. Thanks. I wasn't sure if it was like an I-bond with a fixed rate. I guess those big yields on TIPS in the late 90s were due to the fact that they had just launched and maybe were not so popular. The coupon on a TIPS is fixed at issue. It is then indexed for CPI inflation over its life (can go up or down). When the market buys them it takes a view, implicitly, on future inflation up until maturity. Also the return on the bond is "back end loaded" in the sense you don't get the uprating on the Principal (redemption or ...
- Fri Mar 31, 2023 3:11 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: [Bank failure discussion mega-thread]
- Replies: 2218
- Views: 149971
Re: [Bank failure discussion mega-thread]
A century ago, depositors had to ride their horses to the bank to withdraw money. Then the automobile came along and made bank runs happen quicker, so I hereby blame previous bank runs on the existence of automobiles. People are grasping at straws to excuse SVB's dumb management. Smartphones and social media didn't cause SVB's failure anymore than electricity caused IndyMac's failure or automobiles caused the S&L failures of the 1980s. In all cases, crummy management caused the failures. First part is reasoning by false analogy (you are trying to set up a Straw Man argument). (Your correct analogy would be the telegraph, most likely. Or perhaps the railway. A bank run in my father's home town in England, in the 1800s, was stopped by so...
- Fri Mar 31, 2023 3:10 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: [Bank failure discussion mega-thread]
- Replies: 2218
- Views: 149971
Re: [Bank failure discussion mega-thread]
A century ago, depositors had to ride their horses to the bank to withdraw money. Then the automobile came along and made bank runs happen quicker, so I hereby blame previous bank runs on the existence of automobiles. People are grasping at straws to excuse SVB's dumb management. Smartphones and social media didn't cause SVB's failure anymore than electricity caused IndyMac's failure or automobiles caused the S&L failures of the 1980s. In all cases, crummy management caused the failures. First part is reasoning by false analogy (you are trying to set up a Straw Man argument). (Your correct analogy would be the telegraph, most likely. Or the railway. An ancestor of mine stopped a bank run by shipping actual money (cash) from London by r...
- Fri Mar 31, 2023 2:55 am
- Forum: Non-US Investing
- Topic: U.K. gilts
- Replies: 15
- Views: 2138
Re: U.K. gilts
Thank you!baron_greenback wrote: ↑Thu Mar 30, 2023 3:38 pmMy go-to screener for UK ETFs is JustETF - they list a half-dozen short-term UK gilt ETFs, of which IGLS from iShares looks the most straightforward.Valuethinker wrote: ↑Thu Mar 30, 2023 9:46 amCheck the ETFs. There will be one. I always look at Vanguard and iShares first.
I think ETFConnect has a screener? (Not sure)
(Short-term gilts are pretty safe, but do note they're only yielding around 3.4% as of this writing.)
- Fri Mar 31, 2023 2:54 am
- Forum: Non-US Investing
- Topic: FDIC-Insured Deposit Sweep Program for non-US residents OR the EU equivalent
- Replies: 3
- Views: 260
Re: FDIC-Insured Deposit Sweep Program for non-US residents OR the EU equivalent
Do they sell brokered CDs in Europe?daviddem wrote: ↑Fri Mar 31, 2023 12:08 am Check out Brokered CDs
You can sell brokered CDs on the secondary market before the term, however they suffer from interest rate risk: if the rates increase, the value of your CD on the secondary market decreases.
Alternatively, to get rid of interest rate risk, you can purchase a money market fund that exclusively invests in ultrashort term Treasuries (either directly but mostly via repurchase agreements aka repos). You can find some via the IBKR mutual fund scanner.
- Thu Mar 30, 2023 11:53 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Should I buy a house?
- Replies: 22
- Views: 2149
Re: Should I buy a house?
Maybe an unusual situation and question, but here it goes. Age: 40 Net worth: 2.5M. 2M in taxable (not too much in outstanding taxes), 0.5M in 401k Location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA Laid off, not working anywhere but looking and hoping to work soon. Partner's income is ~100k per year. Not married, no kids, but trying for a kid and if it happens, we've agreed for her to stop working. I wonder if it makes sense to buy a house in full cash now or is that a bad idea. There's an 1.4M house that we like. Schools look good. Currently we're renting at $4200 per month. If it matters, I'm planning to work until 55-60 or so and after that we are fine with retiring somewhere cheaper. This doesn't need to be a forever house and probably can't be sin...
- Thu Mar 30, 2023 11:31 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: [Bank failure discussion mega-thread]
- Replies: 2218
- Views: 149971
Re: [Bank failure discussion mega-thread]
BTW Credit Suisse had become known in banking markets as Debit Suisse.
Which demonstrates that black humour is often the best form of humour.
Which demonstrates that black humour is often the best form of humour.
- Thu Mar 30, 2023 11:30 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: [Bank failure discussion mega-thread]
- Replies: 2218
- Views: 149971
Re: [Bank failure discussion mega-thread]
Matt Levine's "Money Stuff" column is very germane today. I get it via a no-cost email subscription. The URL is Money Stuff: SVB’s Depositors Weren’t Very Loyal He makes the interesting point that bond investments have a duration, but that deposits can also be said to have a duration. Even if depositors have the right to withdraw at any time, the actual duration depends on the behavior and loyalty of the depositors. A bank with sleepy depositors would do well, a bank with antsy depositors would go bust, even if their investments were the same. One way to say this is that a bank with sleepy and undemanding depositors is much more valuable than a bank with nervous and demanding depositors, but it is hard to measure that. In fact ba...
- Thu Mar 30, 2023 9:46 am
- Forum: Non-US Investing
- Topic: U.K. gilts
- Replies: 15
- Views: 2138
Re: U.K. gilts
Check the ETFs. There will be one. I always look at Vanguard and iShares first.
I think ETFConnect has a screener? (Not sure)
- Thu Mar 30, 2023 9:44 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: College bound son for CS [Computer Science]
- Replies: 211
- Views: 12794
Re: College bound son for CS [Computer Science]
If I lived in the USA and I had the money, I would look for a good 4 year undergrad college for my child. I think those places tend to give greater attention to teaching quality and personal attention to the student. Prestigious names are for grad school (there it really does matter). Catching Up Is Hard to Do: Undergraduate Prestige, Elite Graduate Programs, and the Earnings Premium https://law.vanderbilt.edu/phd/faculty/joni-hersch/2019_Hersch_JBCA_catching_up_is_hard_to_do_undergraduate_prestige_elite_graduate_programs_and_the_earnings_premium.pdf "A commonly held perception is that an elite graduate degree can “scrub” a less prestigious but less costly undergraduate degree. Using data from the National Survey of College Graduates ...
- Wed Mar 29, 2023 10:11 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Do I sell the business to PE or not?
- Replies: 52
- Views: 4496
Re: Do I sell the business to PE or not?
Typical PE deal is funded with a substantial amount of debt that is assigned to the business. The PE firm is the lender, not a bank. The PE firm has firm control of management and the loans have restrictive financial covenants. They will drain cash out of the business. They will install their own management who “claim” they are industry experts - “questionable” depending on just who is buying managerial control. Some firms are better than others, but they all want the cash. What is the most expensive line item on your P&L? Typically it’s labor - they will look to cut that - in that field, if you don’t have the right staff, the business will suffer. As an owner, you will not want to work for someone else. It’s like night and day. You bu...
- Wed Mar 29, 2023 10:07 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Do I sell the business to PE or not?
- Replies: 52
- Views: 4496
Re: Do I sell the business to PE or not?
This might be a dumb question, but could you sell 49% of the business to PE? Take a quick cash infusion to help the business continue to grow, cash out and put some money in the bank for your own personal financial security, and continue to own the majority of the business and continue being your own boss, etc? Not sure how these things work, but maybe you could sell less than half the business and maintain majority control, while still cashing in personally? The PE firm will structure their investment to give them effective control. For example, they will put 90% of their money in in the form of Loan Stock, say paying 8%. That's a debt instrument, and it will suck up any spare cash flow the business will have. That Loan Stock will have a ...
- Wed Mar 29, 2023 6:21 am
- Forum: Non-US Investing
- Topic: Is European real estate market collapsing?
- Replies: 18
- Views: 2432
Re: Is European real estate market collapsing?
Compared to the US index much more conventional office buildings, retail property and industrial property. I don't think you see much of the sorts of things you have in US index: cellular towers, healthcare properties etc.UpperNwGuy wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 4:32 pm What's in those ETFs? Is it office buildings? Shopping malls? Apartment buildings? Something else?
Between Covid, energy crisis and weak economies, the demand for these traditional sorts of properties is probably pretty poor.
- Wed Mar 29, 2023 6:20 am
- Forum: Non-US Investing
- Topic: Is European real estate market collapsing?
- Replies: 18
- Views: 2432
Re: Is European real estate market collapsing?
Commercial and residential real estate are on very different tracks. I am aware of very few residential real estate companies that are listed in Europe. There are not, generally, the equivalent of "apartment REITs" that they have in the USA.
Lisbon has become the "hot" city in Europe to move to - people liken it to Berlin 10-15 years ago. So there is that. Also Portugal had a foreign investor visa programme, and that may have brought in residential property buyers.
- Wed Mar 29, 2023 6:16 am
- Forum: Non-US Investing
- Topic: Who do I send the W-8BEN form to ?
- Replies: 3
- Views: 367
Re: Who do I send the W-8BEN form to ?
One of the things I forgot to do in the move from the US to the UK. I know I need to file a W-8BEN to someone just not sure who. In the US I had Vanguard funds in a Vanguard brokerage account. I moved them to a US IBRK account and have now moved them to a UK IBRK account. So do I send the form to IBRK UK or Vanguard US ? I suspect this question has been asked before but search did not throw up any obvious questions. Also while I'm here - is it better/more cost effective to claim tax paid in the US on my UK tax return or can I (and would I want to) try and reclaim all US tax paid from the IRS. I could see that taking some time.It's taken the USCIS three months just to acknowledge receipt of my GC surrender form ! Probably be months before t...
- Wed Mar 29, 2023 5:39 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: [Bank failure discussion mega-thread]
- Replies: 2218
- Views: 149971
Re: [Bank failure discussion mega-thread]
I could see that a bank that is just under 250b doesn't want to go over. Those that are a lot under 250b would be taking a substantial risk and have less free capital. But what about banks already over 250b? Why no interest from them? The hassle? If you're already at $2T, the $100B of assets is only 5%. Plus you have to pony up the cash for the assets. When you're already making money hand-over-fist, why dither around with another 5%? There's a desire by regulators not to further increase the size of "Too Big to Fail" banks. So originally they were blocked out of the bidding, it appears. The US is "overbanked" compared to any other developed country. But evidence shows that in terms of local lending to companies and esp...
- Wed Mar 29, 2023 5:29 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Bernstein on TIPS and T-bills
- Replies: 132
- Views: 14849
Re: Bernstein on TIPS and T-bills
One cannot rely on dividend income from a stock portfolio. Nor can one rely upon stock prices. During the GFC, real dividends fell very briefly by 23%. During the Great Depression, real dividends fell by 50%, interestingly not dropping significantly until 1932, bottoming in 1935, then snapping back almost to normal 2 years later. (For those who are interested, there's a real dividend column in Bob Shiller's famous spreadsheet.) So, the last half of the above is certainly true, but the first half isn't; if you're spending half your stock dividends (ie, a 1% burn rate), you're probably OK. A small pad of T-bills is probably a good idea, as well. My point was a corporate governance one. Dividends are discretionary by law. Observed past behavi...
- Wed Mar 29, 2023 5:07 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Curious about bond direction cause and effects
- Replies: 13
- Views: 1323
Re: Curious about bond direction cause and effects
To be more direct, buyers of bonds, primary or secondary, bid a price in a market that obtains a given yield. What sets the yield that all the buyers and sellers arrive at, I have no idea. Said yield is hugely affected by the duration of the bond and by faith in the credit of the borrower. It originates in the prospect of future financial gain in lending or borrowing money. And also in some sense the future economic growth and inflation of the economy. At a root, it is a supply of funds from savers, and a demand for funds by borrowers. Central Banks have, in the era of Quantitative Easing (buying bonds up and down the maturity curve), quite a lot of power to move it at least in the short run. Question whether they have much control over re...
- Wed Mar 29, 2023 5:03 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: [Bank failure discussion mega-thread]
- Replies: 2218
- Views: 149971
Re: [Bank failure discussion mega-thread]
The Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, has been in financial services regulation for over 30 years. He noted the SVB failure is the fastest seen since Barings went down over a weekend in 1995. Barings was the discovery of a £850m loss on derivatives trades in the Singapore office by a "rogue trader" named Nick Leeson. A tiny loss compared to SVB (which had something like $15bn of equity capital?). This is the social media & electronic world. A bank with hundreds of billions of deposits can be "run" in 24 hours. I am wondering, in a world with "artificial intelligence" whether things might take a further gear up. Your AI Treasury Manager decides that a bank is going down, and moves your money be...
- Wed Mar 29, 2023 3:24 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: European ETF funds
- Replies: 5
- Views: 528
Re: European ETF funds
I had a question on European ETF funds, recognizing that VGK is Vanguard's offering (and which I've had before), specifically the SPDR's SPEU and the hedged Franklin fund FLEH. (All use the same benchmark) VGK (inception 3/4/2005) 0.11% er, 22.5 B asset, std dev 23.6, Sharpe ratio 0.38 SPEU (inception 10/15/2002) 0.09% er, 386 M asset, std dev 22.4, Sharpe ratio 0.42 FLEH (inception 11/2/2017) 0.09% er, 14 M asset, std dev 17.58, Sharpe ratio 0.64 While I can see that SPDR's offering isn't really any significant improvement over Vanguard's fund, and that it has much less assets, I can't see why the Franklin offering with a better Sharpe ratio has such a minuscule asset base, since it's been open for over five years, so at least it's been o...
- Tue Mar 28, 2023 4:17 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: [Bank failure discussion mega-thread]
- Replies: 2218
- Views: 149971
Re: [Bank failure discussion mega-thread]
142 billion withdrawals over 2 days against 175million deposits. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/28/svb-customers-tried-to-pull-nearly-all-deposits-in-two-days-barr-says.html That bank runs in digital era can be over before it is known to common folks!!! I reality, I give them credit for their back-end systems being able to support that and not crashing. Maybe it didn't. The systems apparently didn't crash, but Planet Money had a podcast about the SVB bank run, and two small-business tech entrepreneurs were shocked when they thought they had withdrawn their money in time, only to discover that their withdrawals did not complete in time to beat the FDIC shutdown of SVB. I suspect they just slow walked it. Deliberately or due to overload. I bel...
- Tue Mar 28, 2023 4:16 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: [Bank failure discussion mega-thread]
- Replies: 2218
- Views: 149971
Re: [Bank failure discussion mega-thread]
Is it more than $250k?harikaried wrote: ↑Tue Mar 28, 2023 2:19 pmWe have money at a regional bank that we used to buy commercial real estate with an adjustable rate mortgage that balloons. Should we be doing something now?Valuethinker wrote: ↑Mon Mar 27, 2023 5:04 amCommercial Real Estate exposure is a risk for most US regional and small banks
I hate to spread stories. Your bank may be perfectly safe. It is almost certainly safe. Federal regulators will be crawling over the books of every bank to check that they are not in the SVB position.
Nonetheless the events do underscore the importance of spreading deposits (and CDs) in lump amounts of $250k or less.
By the way this ?First Citizens? bank which just bought SVB is a pretty good risk. They will have stripped clean any bad assets.
- Tue Mar 28, 2023 4:08 pm
- Forum: Non-US Investing
- Topic: Is European real estate market collapsing?
- Replies: 18
- Views: 2432
Re: Is European real estate market collapsing?
Industrial real estate will be doing badly due to the energy crisis.youngsters wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 4:15 pm It's dramatic title but European real estate ETFs have gone down by 40% last 12 months. What's happening? I know market isn't strong globally and interest rates are going through the roof but elsewhere the real estate funds have been performing more in par with the other market.
City centre offices are in trouble just about everywhere.
Retail is staggering.
Interest rate hit of course.
I don't know why Europe might be worse than North America, say. But it is not a pretty sector at the moment.
- Tue Mar 28, 2023 12:00 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Pros and Cons of intentionally underinsuring home?
- Replies: 31
- Views: 2081
Re: Pros and Cons of intentionally underinsuring home?
But, according to the insurance company, there's no way to "under insure" our home in the state of Massachusetts. If it did burn down, we would get a check for the replacement value and can build (or not) whatever we like. One could certainly under-insure by foregoing insurance altogether (not recommended). I have an elderly uncle in Mass who is doing just that. True enough, but I would not forego liability insurance under any circumstances. I don't think my insurer would write policies for the cars and umbrella without the house. Under no circumstances should any property owner forego liability insurance. The American legal system is just punitive on tort law. They will go after the insurer, but after you as well. Then your esta...
- Tue Mar 28, 2023 11:55 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Pros and Cons of intentionally underinsuring home?
- Replies: 31
- Views: 2081
Re: Pros and Cons of intentionally underinsuring home?
Be careful our city had a wild fire break out and burned hundreds of homes to their foundations. Many people found themselves under insured and tried to just abandon their lots after paying off the mortgage. The costs to remediate a lot back to a build-able condition was not inexpensive for some lots $60k to 100K+ in some cases. The city gave the home owners a several years to clean up their lots and ended up suing several. Im not sure the outcome of those lots that could not afford to remediate. I would think eventually they could sell the lots to a developer as real estate prices rose and their lots became worth more then then cleanup costs... Insurers usually pay out to rebuild, I believe. I believe they have clauses against paying out ...
- Tue Mar 28, 2023 11:53 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Pros and Cons of intentionally underinsuring home?
- Replies: 31
- Views: 2081
Re: Pros and Cons of intentionally underinsuring home?
If you have no plans to rebuild in the event of total loss, and there is substantially more value in the lot (land) than in the home structure, would it make sense to underinsure the dwelling coverage to reduce premiums? Especially given the relatively low likelihood of a total loss? Thoughts? Thanks. The loss adjuster will reduce your claim by the estimated degree of underinsurance. If you were 25% underinsured, say, your claim will also be reduced by 25%. Potentially I believe it could refuse the claim altogether, if it was underinsured. The way you "underinsure" is to have a high deductible. That's good economics - only insure for the losses you find hard or unable to bear. Unfortunately it's bad for insurance companies, so th...
- Tue Mar 28, 2023 11:39 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Personal loan from U.S. to India
- Replies: 16
- Views: 1246
Re: Personal loan from U.S. to India
I have a family member in India who needs a fairly substantial loan in the near future and is asking for my help. Let's say for argument that I am going to agree to loan them the money. I am based in the U.S. The loan will be money sent from a U.S. bank to a bank in India (not via Bitcoin (I think)). The loan amount will be anywhere from $9k to $25k. A bunch of questions: 1. Do I just walk into my local bank (Wells Fargo) and do a wire transfer? What is the preferred way to do this? 2. Is using a wire transfer company a less expensive way to do this (get a better exchange rate). Are they safe for this amount of money? 3. I understand that transfers of more than $10k will require filling out an IRS form. What about multiple transfers made t...
- Tue Mar 28, 2023 11:35 am
- Forum: Non-US Investing
- Topic: Invest $150,000 in Time Deposits?
- Replies: 8
- Views: 989
Re: Invest $150,000 in Time Deposits?
My allocation is 73% cash (a quarter of it in EUR, the rest in USD) and 27% international stocks (USD ETF). I am currently making no income as I am starting a company in a Eurozone country. In terms of my allocation, I am planning to: - Keep some cash available (30,000-50,000$) at all time (in checking/savings accounts) for the short-term as I have no income - Invest 150k+ (which is slighty over half my total net worth) in USD term deposits on HSBC Expat/Jersey (3.9-4.2% interest rate) for 3-6 months. - Invest the money from the expired time deposit into stocks if the market crashes by then, or extend the term deposit for another 3/6 months or 1 year if the market has not crashed. If I get solid and stable income from my company, I will st...
- Tue Mar 28, 2023 10:13 am
- Forum: Non-US Investing
- Topic: Invest $150,000 in Time Deposits?
- Replies: 8
- Views: 989
Re: Invest $150,000 in Time Deposits?
My allocation is 73% cash (a quarter of it in EUR, the rest in USD) and 27% international stocks (USD ETF). I am currently making no income as I am starting a company in a Eurozone country. In terms of my allocation, I am planning to: - Keep some cash available (30,000-50,000$) at all time (in checking/savings accounts) for the short-term as I have no income - Invest 150k+ (which is slighty over half my total net worth) in USD term deposits on HSBC Expat/Jersey (3.9-4.2% interest rate) for 3-6 months. - Invest the money from the expired time deposit into stocks if the market crashes by then, or extend the term deposit for another 3/6 months or 1 year if the market has not crashed. If I get solid and stable income from my company, I will st...
- Tue Mar 28, 2023 7:59 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Sell sports car to pay off mortgage?
- Replies: 50
- Views: 3483
Re: Sell sports car to pay off mortgage?
Hi, you’re right. I’ll give some more details. I owe ~27k on my other vehicle. That is my only other debt. I have no student loans or credit card debt. I owe no money on the sports car and I only drive it in the summer. We have bad winters here. My mortgage is at 3.25%. I make 120k a year. Single no kids. I contribute 15% of my income to my 401k, I don’t think I max it out ever year. I have about 150k saved in retirement. There's no need to repay the mortgage. This may be the cheapest mortgage finance that is available in your time as a mortgaged person. The car loan may be at a higher interest rate. I would say above 5%-6% then it's actually getting quite painful. It's more of a concern if you do not max out every year. Because of the way...
- Tue Mar 28, 2023 5:59 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Do I sell the business to PE or not?
- Replies: 52
- Views: 4496
Re: Do I sell the business to PE or not?
Are you commercial HVAC, residential service, and or residential new build? Reason I ask is the service side, as you likely know is nearly recession proof. I think this is very important in thinking about the next 5 years. If you were residential New build only I’d offload it at those numbers right now and start back up if you wanted later. Watching many business owners sell, I would highly recommend not retaining a percentage. That never seems to end well for the previous owner. The company will likely want to grow the business but will struggle to retain the ones who helped you get it where it is. But sounds like you own the building and if you can lock in a long term lease take that mail of money. Have you considered selling some percen...
- Tue Mar 28, 2023 5:12 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: College bound son for CS [Computer Science]
- Replies: 211
- Views: 12794
Re: College bound son for CS [Computer Science]
The big dirty secret is that many, many undergrad programmes are the same at different colleges. Same textbooks. Same lecture content. Most of us would agree that for a kid with the talent to succeed at, say, MIT, the difference between MIT and their local community college or directional state U would be immense. Sure, the course titles, at least for the initial CS sequences, might be similar, and perhaps even some of the textbooks, but the difference in depth and pacing, the assumptions about student capabilities built into assignments, the peer interactions, etc. would be VERY different, and, financial issues aside, few parents would advise the MIT-capable (and admitted) kid to go to community college instead. But the difference between...
- Tue Mar 28, 2023 3:48 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Do I have to get a hybrid?
- Replies: 167
- Views: 12332
Re: Do I have to get a hybrid?
Love my Rav4 2021 mild hybrid. 41 mpg city 38 hwy claimed (and is what i am actually seeing). It is AWD and really peppy which is what sold my hubby on it (he is a track car guy). I understand even the F1 cars are hybrids! We are in Duluth MN which has snow for about 6 mo AND hills, so AWD is more important than in other parts of the country. Without AWD, the mpg is of course better. Has anyone else seen this great website: greencarreport.com ? They report on and rate new (and upcoming) hybrids and EVs. This website has just reported significant price drops in used EV car prices, especially Teslas. I would personally love an EV but first of all, the prices make me laugh they are so high, and with our driving round trips frequently 180 mi, ...
- Tue Mar 28, 2023 3:20 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Curious about bond direction cause and effects
- Replies: 13
- Views: 1323
Re: Curious about bond direction cause and effects
So everyone knows if the fed raises interest rate, bond value falls because existing bonds with lower interest rate are worth less. The reverse happen if the feds lowers rate. What if us bonds are downgraded? I would think the cost of borrowing would increase for the us resulting in a reduction in bond value. However in 2011, I recall a move toward quality ie treasuries after downgrade. I wonder if investor feel there would be more flight to quality. You can't predict whether a change in credit rating is "in the price", or something that surprises the market. Usually in my experience it is in the former. If there is a default risk premium in US govt securities, then it will have moved by the time the rating agency gets round to d...
- Tue Mar 28, 2023 3:16 am
- Forum: Non-US Investing
- Topic: Holistic Allocation - stocks vs. bonds [Israel]
- Replies: 2
- Views: 508
Re: Holistic Allocation - stocks vs. bonds [Israel]
I'm in the process of moving over my workplace pension fund over to a self managed one. I'm 46 and my pension will be available at age 60. Right now 70% of my monthly savings goes to my pension and 30% to my personal portfolio that I hold with IB. Due to the tax advantages of the pension fund, I believe it's best to hold 100% VWRA (Vanguard Global Fund) in my pension and make up the difference in my taxable personal portfolio (the pension currently holds 30% bonds which will be sold when moving over). When moving the pension over to self-managed and buying 100% VWRA my holistic portfolio will have an allocation of 90% equities and 10% bonds. The question is this - a) is my strategy wise, and b) should I simply sell off part of my VWRA unit...
- Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:48 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: total market and CD's
- Replies: 17
- Views: 1482
Re: total market and CD's
Hi all How does the forum feel about a 50/50 portfolio of VTI and a CD ladder(5% interest, sounds good to me) for a 63 yr old. This is money in an IRA, with no plans to use this cash, until RMD kicks in. I have enough cash on had for several years and no Debit with a pension, which covers all expenses and no plans at this time to take my Social Security. just looking for simplicity. I know it has no foreign investments, but I am fine with that. I welcome all options. thanks This is perfectly fine. There is a suggestion here that you use Total World. Assuming that includes USA? I don't actually think it will make a big difference to your final outcome. Normally I suggest American investors hold 20-30% of their stocks (so around 15% in your ...
- Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:25 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: College bound son for CS [Computer Science]
- Replies: 211
- Views: 12794
Re: College bound son for CS [Computer Science]
College professor here; please take the wise words of Valuethinker and BeanieMaker to heart. I am seeing about 20% of my students fail right now, not because they don't have the intellectual ability or academic skills to be successful but because they are academically disengaged. My campus is either not the right fit for them, they don't like the culture, or they are struggling with mental health challenges (side note: all families, please consider having a backup plan for mental health services for your child in place bc many college counseling centers are overwhelmed). Your child is in class 15-20 hours max per week. Both Purdue and Pitt have high-quality academics, but which one will provide the student-life environment that will allow ...
- Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:03 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: New Car Sanity Check - 50-90k
- Replies: 48
- Views: 5848
Re: New Car Sanity Check - 50-90k
As in "Americans talk all the time about race, but not class. Brits talk all the time about class, but not race".
Class discussion is certainly an English obsession (if not necessarily a British one).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDIHrX-Jp2E
You certainly get a sense that in the North East of the USA there is an elaborate sense of class and some quite fine distinctions as to class. Connecticut v New Jersey. But ethnicity is also buried in that. I am not sure this is the case anywhere else in the USA? Perhaps in the Old South?
- Mon Mar 27, 2023 11:59 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: New Car Sanity Check - 50-90k
- Replies: 48
- Views: 5848
Re: New Car Sanity Check - 50-90k
Guy has nearly $5mm net worth and over $1mm annual income at age 34. I think you can buy a $90k car and not worry much about it. This thread is ridiculous. Unless I missed it, OP’s gender has not been established. I do, fwiw, often miss a lot. Not sure if you missed it, but you seem to have missed the part where “guy” can refer to a person of unknown gender, a group of multiple genders, or a single gender. You’ve never said “that guy cut me off” without knowing the gender of the person doing the cutting off? You’ve never referred to a group of people as “guys”, even if the group had women, or was exclusively female? Perhaps you haven’t, but doesn’t mean others don’t. True enough, I'll sometimes say "hey guys" to a mixed gender gr...
- Mon Mar 27, 2023 11:49 am
- Forum: Non-US Investing
- Topic: 4% rule in the uk
- Replies: 19
- Views: 1431
Re: 4% rule in the uk
... Thanks I supposed in the long run the currency fluctuations will even out and can even be good for diversification for equity . What is your opinion on global bonds? Unlike stocks the holding horizon is lower and the return might easily get wiped out by currency swings. In the early part of the 1900s the British pound was worth about $5.00 US. Today the British pound is worth around $1.25. So, a 75% drop in relative value over about a century but no reason to expect the fluctuations to even out with the pound strengthening tremendously going forward. I assumed, implicitly, that gavinsiu meant "even out with inflation". i.e. that the long run determinant of currency level between 2 countries is the relative inflation rate. Pur...
- Mon Mar 27, 2023 9:22 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Do I have to get a hybrid?
- Replies: 167
- Views: 12332
Re: Do I have to get a hybrid?
You have to make the hydrogen. Right now that is done in a very "ungreen" way by reforming natural gas. Then you have to transport the hydrogen. "ungreen" describes most people's electric also... and more so when more cars are dumped on a grid that can barely get thru summer without pleads to curb AC use in some places. That's even before you get to the manufacturing processes. I wish there was a real conversation but it's been taken over by electric is angelic and ICE is the devilish stuff. You've tried to confuse a discussion about Hydrogen v EVs with references to EV v ICE debates. My point was not about that. It was about the problems of getting a genuinely clean hydrogen energy system & energy efficiencies v EV...
- Mon Mar 27, 2023 9:10 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Why Bank of America’s free cash flow went negative?
- Replies: 11
- Views: 1197
Re: Why Bank of America’s free cash flow went negative?
Cash flow on banks is a difficult measure in any case.Grt2bOutdoors wrote: ↑Sun Mar 26, 2023 9:58 pm You should not look at the cash flow statement in isolation. It’s best to read the income statement and balance sheet in conjunction with the cash flow statement to understand what the year over year changes were and how it affects the cash flow of the company. Reading the notes would be helpful to you as well.
As to your question if the company is unprofitable, the income statement shows the company is profitable.
Are you looking at this particular company for your schooling or for some other reason?
Movements in deposits & borrowings can be huge and dwarf any operational number.
- Mon Mar 27, 2023 9:09 am
- Forum: Non-US Investing
- Topic: 4% rule in the uk
- Replies: 19
- Views: 1431
Re: 4% rule in the uk
There is no doubt a UK investor should use a globally diversified equity portfolio. On diversification grounds alone. After all, 60-70% of the profits of the FTSE100 are earned overseas. If we believe that is a desirable diversification away from the UK economy, then we should also consider that diversification into companies and sectors (like high technology) that the UK does not have, should be a good thing as well. The question is whether to hedge currency exposure for equities. That's harder, but because the UK is a relatively small & open economy (imports a lot of what it consumes) it's generally a benefit to have global currency diversification. UK prices will tend, in the long run, to track global prices. Your home equity, your ...
- Mon Mar 27, 2023 9:08 am
- Forum: Non-US Investing
- Topic: 4% rule in the uk
- Replies: 19
- Views: 1431
Re: 4% rule in the uk
There is no doubt a UK investor should use a globally diversified equity portfolio. On diversification grounds alone. After all, 60-70% of the profits of the FTSE100 are earned overseas. If we believe that is a desirable diversification away from the UK economy, then we should also consider that diversification into companies and sectors (like high technology) that the UK does not have, should be a good thing as well. The question is whether to hedge currency exposure for equities. That's harder, but because the UK is a relatively small & open economy (imports a lot of what it consumes) it's generally a benefit to have global currency diversification. UK prices will tend, in the long run, to track global prices. Your home equity, your ...
- Mon Mar 27, 2023 8:20 am
- Forum: Non-US Investing
- Topic: 4% rule in the uk
- Replies: 19
- Views: 1431
Re: 4% rule in the uk
Thanks for all of the info. One particular shocking stat. The safe withdraw rate for Japan is 0.26%. While Japan’s peak was in the 80s, I wouldn’t say it gone under. Yet, you can see this as a cautionary tale that could occur in the uk and the us. I wonder if a safe bet might be to take a global weighting. Like investing in the us there might be currency fluctuations in addition to mismatched inflation. Had the Japanese investor invested in a globally diversified portfolio they would have been in far better shape. Retirement in 1966 in US (or anywhere), 1929 or 2000 all posed particular challenges. High weightings in US Treasury bonds would have helped in 1929 or 2000 but not in 1966. Sequence of Return Risk is very real. There is no doubt...
- Mon Mar 27, 2023 7:32 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: [Bank failure discussion mega-thread]
- Replies: 2218
- Views: 149971
Re: [Bank failure discussion mega-thread]
Silicon Valley - there’s the takeover, long weekend for the FDIC I’m sure. https://www.fdic.gov/news/press-releases/2023/pr23023.html The FDIC estimates the cost of the failure of Silicon Valley Bank to its Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) to be approximately $20 billion. So we can now put the question to rest -- This was a bailout. The depositors didn't buy private insurance but got FDIC insurance after the fact. Wouldn't it be nice if we could leave our house uninsured, have it burn down, then get paid anyway? :oops: The FDIC just set a dangerous precendent. They will have to do the same for future bank failures, otherwise it would be unfair. What do the FDIC-defenders say now about this not being a bailout? Depositors are not shareholders o...