Bogleheads.org

jackholloway wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 10:10 pm

Ocean77 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 9:40 pm I read the article, but I still don't know why one would buy a TIPS that matures at age 104.

It frequently seems like much of this forum plans to live to that age, or at least strongly weights minimizing the risk of a lifestyle drop then.

[SNIP]...

These TIPS are marketable. If I learn in my 80's or 90's that my chances of hitting my 100's have all but evaporated, I should have no qualms about liquidating the longest dated TIPS in my portfolio. At present though, in my mid-60's, I'm quite healthy and maintain a healthful lifestyle, so I will continue buying the 30-year rungs of my TIPS ladder, perhaps into my early or mid 70's.

+1 to all the posts quoted below. When I saw this thread topic, my thoughts immediately went to the singular usefulness of all the data that a real rate marketplace provides for economists and investors. Additionally to the reasons supposed above, selling TIPS provides a useful market estimate of future inflation. The expected cost to the government is the same as with nominal bonds, just as the expected return to the consumer is the same. They each protect against different risks and are exposed to different risks. I would say the benefit to both is the ability to finance debt as well as debt-diversification in case inflation is higher or lower than expectations. [SNIP]... part of the motivation was that they wanted to create a prediction ...

I think it may be because it's of no consequence whether it's actually a new-issue "13wk bill" or a reissued "52wk bill" with 13 weeks left on it. It's still a Treasury Bill (with 13 weeks until maturity) so there's no accrued interest whatsoever.

This has been discussed a lot already. There is a mega-thread on the horrible new interface. The best workaround I've seen so far is to bookmark this link: https://personal.vanguard.com/us/faces/TPView. Once logged in, click it, and you'll see the "old" (and much better) interface. Some actions will stick with the old interface (e.g., buy/sell), but some will use the new interface (e.g, transaction history). Wow! Thanks Kevin :D What a breath of fresh air after putting up with the new site for months. This old view, even with all its little shortcomings, is so much more concise. More information, better ordered, readable... My outside investments acct set up for I and EE Bonds is actually sortable by name again! This might be my ...

gtwhitegold wrote: ↑Wed Feb 01, 2023 9:37 pm That's what I am tracking as well, but I was curious if there were any odd-ball cases where something else was possible, such as changing the investment into a separately managed account.

I have no experience with that but would guess it would have to be something that the 401k or 403b administrator offered to fund holders, and possibly at the behest of the employer involved.

With Bridgeway likely converting BOTSX - Bridgeway Tax Managed Omni Small Cap Value Fund and DFA, JP Morgan, Fidelity and other companies either already converted funds or are in the process of doing so, how does this work for accounts that are not set up to hold ETFs like certain 401k, 403b, and similar types of accounts? Are they normally liquidated before the conversion or is the fund still held? As more fund managers convert their funds into ETFs, this definitely becomes more of an issue to investors. This is my understanding: Assuming Bridgeway's BOTSX conversion to ETF proxy vote goes for "Yes" on Feb 15th, then on Mar 10th, any shares of BOTSX held in any brokerage anywhere will either be automatically converted to a round...

Are you saying that Vanguard confirmed they will do this conversion? Vanguard doesn't "do" the mutual fund to ETF conversion itself, it just happens somehow across the board for all holders of BOTSX simultaneously, on February 15th... I think that's when. I did explain the situation to Vanguard when I discussed it on the phone prior to initiating/downloading the account transfer paperwork. What I explained in my post here is exactly what Bridgeway has stated in the proxy documentation as well - we owners of BOTSX had to approve the planned conversion. I've also spoken with Bridgeway on the phone about this. It's supposed to be fairly transparent - one day you hold shares of the mutual fund BOTSX, but the next day BOTSX no longer ...

[Snip...] [Snip...] [Snip...] [Snip...] But this is again really a different subject, systemic banking system risk you perceive from the crypto industry (I won't further digress by giving my opinion on your perception). I'm talking about the subject of this thread, a debt ceiling related technical default on treasuries. In which case it is not IMO correct to immediately look at the effect on the FDIC or NCUA of a technical default on treasuries. Because the Fed would in any plausible scenario lend to banks with a liquidity problem caused by the banks' not getting timely payments on their treasuries, quite likely allowing the very same treasuries held by the banks on which payments were delayed to be used as collateral for those loans. IOW ...

Moving Bridgeway Fund BOTSX to Vanguard for ETF Conversion I'll be calling Vanguard this Monday, 1/23 regarding the account transfer form I completed and mailed back to them, and which they received 2 weeks ago according to USPS.com delivery tracking. I'm a bit annoyed that I cannot find any indication in my Vanguard account online that they've received my paperwork, let alone have been working on it, but I'll be learning more on Monday. The main reason I'm posting here however is because I'm curious if anyone has gone through a situation similar to mine, as described below: I hold Bridgeway Funds' Omni mutual fund BOTSX directly at Bridgeway. Bridgeway will be converting BOTSX to an ETF (non-taxable event) later in February and their BOTSX...

WoodSpinner wrote: ↑Fri Jan 20, 2023 8:24 am I am considering a switch to a TIPs 10 year ladder as an LMP. Used to making a single withdrawal in January from my IRA to fund my expenses for the year. Might need to rethink the strategy a bit.

WoodSpinner

For an LMP going out just 10 years, I think one would actually do alright limiting themself to just January maturities. Maturing 10 year TIPS always exist up to 10 years out from the present year so you can find them maturing every January through 2033. And, because those 20 year TIPS were being sold up to their discontinuation after January 2009, you have those additional January maturities to choose as alternates to the 10 year TIPS, but only through January 2029.

o - Specific maturity months (e.g. January) Covered somewhat already by the “earliest maturity” option ? I think there may be a fair number of folks out there who don't realize how limited is the pool of TIPS available for building ladders with very specific criteria. For example, to have all issues in a ladder mature annually in January would eliminate 5 and 30 year issue TIPS and half of the 10 year TIPS. * The following info will be enlightening to some: • New 30 year TIPS are only originally issued in February (Aug re-opening is still the February maturity) • New 05 year TIPS are only originally issued in April and October • New 10 year TIPS are only originally issued in January and July They all pay interest semi-annually based on the...

Amazon is currently offering H&R Block Deluxe + State for $22.49. Don't imagine that'll last very long... $19.99 (still available) beats that. Just be sure to use the $15 off Promo Code that appears just below the $34.99 price. Use it when you check out at Newegg. Newegg has H&R Block 2022 Deluxe ($10 off) & Deluxe+State ($15 off) on sale for $14.99 ($19.99 respectively) with promo code as of Thursday morning 1-12-2023. I pulled the trigger on Deluxe+State. Total including tax: $21.60 Deluxe+State promo code HRBL23 Download: https://www.newegg.com/h-r-block-2022-deluxe-state-win-tax-software-download/p/N82E16832732169 Deluxe+State promo code HRBL23 Physical key card (shipped to you): https://www.newegg.com/h-r-block-tax-softwar...

Very nice!
Thank you for creating this and for your responsiveness to fine-tuning it and so forth.

newegg

barelybarefoot wrote: ↑Wed Jan 11, 2023 12:27 am https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/ ... luxe-State

Office Depot has Deluxe+State for $22.45

Thanks for the link, but this morning when I tried it their website was down, and then now that I see it's up again, the price is back up too! Back at $34.99.

Pretty much the same thing with the camelcamelcamel link at the bottom of Northster's post. It does imply there is an offer for $22.45, but the rebate doesn't seem to be real. It still appears to me to be actually $34.99

Oh well, I'm still watching...

I'm getting a very late start this year, and presently I'm seeing $34.99 pretty much across the board for Deluxe + State. I'll wait into next week, but just wondering if anyone has seen any better pricing this first week of January?

I wonder what this means for my favorite multifactor fund(s). US Multifactor ETF has $132.3 million in assets US minimum volatility ETF has $68.5 million (this could be up for the chopping block next as it's not far off from the liquidity etf) US Value Factor ETF has $683.3 million US momentum factor ETF has $220 million US Qualify factor ETF has $192.9 million RIP - VFLQ is now on the ETF trash heap . I too think Vanguard's Minimum Volatility Fund VFMV would be the next one on the block. Of the remaining Vanguard Factor ETFs, it has both the minimum assets and typically the minimum trading volume. I gather there's a fair number of Bogleheads who hold the Multifactor fund VFMF . I hold the Value VFVA and Momentum VFMO funds

jhfenton wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 2:29 pm For the first time, Vanguard is liquidating an ETF. When I saw the headline, I could immediately guess which fund it was.

https://corporate.vanguard.com/content/ ... 92622.html

In the U.S., yes it's a first, but in February, 2021 Vanguard eliminated a whole group of factor ETFs they marketed in the UK:
https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=331084

I doubt I'll be a buyer of I Bonds in January, but I'll know more once the new fixed rate is announced in November.
I think I'm more likely in January 2023 to be using my $10,000 annual allotment for the delivery of $10,000 face value of Jan 2022 gift bonds.

I bought the max ee bonds the last 3 years (90k total) and now see that the 20yr treasury is yielding 3.7%. Should i withdrawal the ee bonds (get only the 0.1% or whatever) and just buy 20 year treasuries instead? I am 42 and was planning on buying max for the next 10+ years so it would be an annuity to allow me to defer ss until 70. Personally, I'd want the available secondary market rates for 19 and 18-yr zero coupon bonds to exceed the respective EE Bond's yield to maturity (YTM) by a steady 40+ basis points before bothering with (i.e. considering) the transactions. We're not there yet... and not saying I'd necessarily exchange them for zeros either. Just one more choice to have to spend time thinking about . Year YTM Yrs left 1 3.53% 2...

I just bought a two year T bill at $99.92. I thought rates were over 4.1 percent? Am I missing something here? My six month T bills were at $98.25. Did a flight to safety make this a lousy two year investment? What you bought is not a zero-coupon t-bill, but probably a treasury note. In other words, it has a coupon payment which increases the yield. If you provide the CUSIP number someone can verify that for you. I bought the two year "Treasury Note" today too, and I'm pleased. 4-1/4% coupon, 4.290% yield: https://treasurydirect.gov/instit/annceresult/press/preanre/2022/R_20220926_3.pdf MisterMister - Note this next link as well. Anytime you're considering buying Treasuries at auction it's a great place for information: https://t...

I bought the max ee bonds the last 3 years (90k total) and now see that the 20yr treasury is yielding 3.7%. Should i withdrawal the ee bonds (get only the 0.1% or whatever) and just buy 20 year treasuries instead? I am 42 and was planning on buying max for the next 10+ years so it would be an annuity to allow me to defer ss until 70. Personally, I'd want the available secondary market rates for 19 and 18-yr zero coupon bonds to exceed the respective EE Bond's yield to maturity (YTM) by a steady 40+ basis points before bothering with (i.e. considering) the transactions. We're not there yet... and not saying I'd necessarily exchange them for zeros either. Just one more choice to have to spend time thinking about. Year YTM Yrs left 1 3.53% 20...

I've never purchased individual treasuries and have a few questions about how to practically implement a LMP using individual TIPS. Both my spouse and myself are age 42 with plans to retire at age 55. We hold a fixed rate 30 year mortgage well below the EE bond doubling rate-we've covered that nominal liability with our yearly EE purchase. We also max I bonds yearly ($25k). Our projected fixed essential expenses (healthcare premiums, utilities, groceries, transportation, etc) are approximately equal to anticipated combined social security at age 70 of roughly $55k. Additional expenses (travel/restaurants/leisure) will be funded by equity heavy risk portfolio. If we want to set up a LMP for essential expenses to fund the gap between early r...

Does anyone here maintain a list of their I Bonds (and EE Bonds) using "Outside investments" at Vanguard? It won't value them for you but in the past I've found it a nice way to view the portfolio. Nice, but only until the new website design was rolled out. If anyone knows something about dealing with it's new shortcomings that I don't, please let me know. Btw, yes I know all about TD's software and #Cruncher's website. This link is to a "how-to" post I made in the Vanguard "Fisher-Price" thread: https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6879593#p6879593 Yes, I include the total value of my I Bonds in the "Outside Investments" section at Vanguard. That allows me to have all of my investments l...

Does anyone here maintain a list of their I Bonds (and EE Bonds) using "Outside investments" at Vanguard? It won't value them for you but in the past I've found it a nice way to view the portfolio. Nice, but only until the new website design was rolled out. If anyone knows something about dealing with it's new shortcomings that I don't, please let me know. Btw, yes I know all about TD's software and #Cruncher's website.

This link is to a "how-to" post I made in the Vanguard "Fisher-Price" thread:
viewtopic.php?p=6879593#p6879593

I think the new website problems at Vanguard.com transcend the more commonly mentioned excuses I've read in this thread, including compliance with the Federal ADA, comments like "it's a design trend that many websites are now..." and "it's mostly a matter of being patient and learning the new format". Pre-internet and up through through the launching of the earlier versions of MS IE, I worked in documentation and software training, including CBT and then in original HTML design and website development and I continue to have strong opinions about user interfaces for both hardware and software, and I think Vanguard is an embarrassment. Here's an exercise for folks that nicely demonstrates some of Vanguard's incompetence wi...

Regarding Bridgeway's BOTSX being converted to ETF As a mutual fund, I think it was only accessible through an advisor. As an ETF, it will be available to everyone? Does that create any capacity problems? Will it be harder to have the strong tilts to size and value if more people have access / more money to invest? Thanks, Dave ETFs are available for purchase by anyone through brokerages, so capacity is something I've wondered about too. I also wonder if BOTSX history will be incorporated into the ETF's stats. As when DFA converted some of its mutual funds to ETFs, this should be a non-taxable event. I suppose I should just go to the DFA website and figure this out for myself, but not right now. :D I do wish Larry would comment on the capac...

I'm looking to save some short term reserves in treasury notes (1, 2, 3, 6 months) soon, by creating treasury ladder, buying in every week. (I already maxing I-bonds, 10K myself + 10K in revocable trust). I'm not timing the market, but there is high likelihood of interest rates rising in the next few Fed meetings until the end of the year, possibly carrying over to early next year. Given this, is there a correlation such as, as interest rates rise, short-term treasury yields rise? I think not (because I know yield curve inversion happen with no correlation to interest rates), but I wanted to still check. Regardless of whether such correlation exists or not, does it make sense to buy into treasury ladder every week (1, 2, 3, 6 months), or w...

Is the goal of bond allocation just to keep up with inflation or is it supposed to provide a slightly higher return? Can someone help me understand what is the purpose of bond allocation and how I bond and TIPS fit? In general, the purpose of a bond allocation is to preserve your capital. As Jason Zweig said, "Bonds aren’t meant to make you rich; they keep you from becoming poor while paying you some income along the way." I disagree. The purpose of bond allocation is to produce predictable income in the future. That's why the asset class is typically called "fixed income". If the goal is literally "preserve your capital" then cash would be the instrument that does that best. From my standpoint, it's not neces...

donaldfair71 wrote: ↑Sat Aug 27, 2022 10:28 am Larry Swedroe said on Twitter last night that Bridgeway’s tax-managed small value fund (BOTSX) will convert from Mutual Fund to ETF some time next year.

I own BOTSX but hadn't heard that, so thanks for the heads up.
It's good news for SCV investors.

CP4641 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 26, 2022 10:14 am Hi, You may find what you need by selecting "More account information" and then "Bond and CD cash flows".

Hey thanks! Something in the new "Holdings" page that I actually consider an improvement! I used to have to click away from the Balances and Holdings page multiple steps to finally get to that report.

jebmke wrote: ↑Fri Aug 26, 2022 10:16 am When I look at Balances and Holdings from the drop down, I get this on the rhs [this is for the MF account, the brokerage account looks the same]. If I go to the overview I get a larger font and clicking to a specific account, it is different -- uses "transact". That's why I stick with B & H. More lines per page. I'm using Brave browser; I suppose they could use a different UI for different browsers - who knows.

Once again, your time is coming! Enjoy the old "Balances and Holdings" page while you still have it.

Enjoy the familiarity jebmke while you still have it, but it's just a matter of time of course, they're presumably rolling us into it by groups. I gather a good chunk of us got rolled into the new format yesterday.

[Preemptive note to LG: Please do not move this into the chaos of a Vanguard Mega thread] Given the new Vanguard website changes (which I was automatically pushed into yesterday, like others apparently were): How are you viewing your Vanguard holdings of US Treasury Bills-Notes-Bonds? I used to look at the "Balances and Holdings" page which now just takes you to the new "Holdings" page. All of the following links take me to this same, new report: https://holdings.web.vanguard.com/ https://personal.vanguard.com/us/TPView https://personal.vanguard.com/us/myaccounts/balancesholdings The big problem with Treasury holdings in this new (and worsened) report is that it no longer sorts by CUSIP. CUSIP sorting was never particula...

Today I entered an order at Vanguard for 50 Treasury bills maturing in about 1 month. Shortly after placing the order, the order status said "Accepted". I expect to see Open or Executed, so I don't know what Accepted means. Later this order was "Rejected", so I decided it would be an opportunity to place the order using the simplified Vanguard interface, so I could share it here . [Snip...] Thanks for the tutorial Kevin. I have never even looked at the new method before and am quite comfortable with the old style but might give it a try next time. Do you have a preference? I do have a couple more questions, mostly out of curiosity than anything else: Do Treasury Notes ever show up when you're pulling up these lists that...

jeffyscott wrote: ↑Fri Jun 10, 2022 4:24 pm

Kevin M wrote: ↑Fri Jun 10, 2022 3:30 pm ^At Fidelity I see min qty 1 for the 2/15/2052 TIPS directly in the search results. In depth of book, I find min qty 1 for the 2051, 2050 and 2049.

FWIW, Schwab shows min 10 for the 2052 in market depth, yield is 0.661 vs. 0.667 for 50. For the others mentioned, a min. of 1 is directly in the search results.

This couldn't possibly mean that Vanguard, in its gentle, paternalistic way, is steering the smaller quantity purchaser away from a security that will yet re-open for auction in August? No, that's impossible. I'm just overthinking

Here's a basic yield to maturity (YTM) tool to help assess any decision for possibly bailing on one's older EE Bond holdings. Remember that as the years left until maturity decline, so must the years decline for a comparison zero coupon bond rate. Over time, unless nominal rates shoot up much higher, one's not likely to easily justify selling off most existing EE Bonds. Year YTM Years left 1 3.53% 20 2 3.72% 19 3 3.93% 18 4 4.16% 17 5 4.43% 16 6 4.73% 15 7 5.08% 14 8 5.48% 13 9 5.95% 12 10 6.50% 11 11 7.18% 10 12 8.01% 9 13 9.05% 8 14 10.41% 7 15 12.25% 6 16 14.87% 5 17 18.92% 4 18 25.99% 3 19 42.42% 2 20 100.00% 1

Doc wrote: ↑Fri Jun 10, 2022 3:45 pm At Schwab the current minimum quantity for 2/23/22 T-Bill is 3000. But if you click on "View" in the market depth column you get 10 different sell/buy entries with buy quantities varying from 1 to 50000. I expect that Vanguard has a similar depth of field.

No, Vanguard does not have a similar depth of "field" for the 2/15/2052 TIPS.

^At Fidelity I see min qty 1 for the 2/15/2052 TIPS directly in the search results. In depth of book, I find min qty 1 for the 2051, 2050 and 2049. At Vanguard I only see min qty 50 for 2052. For the others I see min qty 1. [SNIP image] So this seems real. Fidelity has a much deeper book for TIPS. Kevin Thanks for the comparison info on Fidelity. It's disappointing to hear. I have checked the 2/15/2052 TIPS at Vanguard brokerage many, many times over the last 3 months of rising rates and have never seen a min qty of 1 while the other long TIPS routinely have had them. I will make the same comparison with Fidelity myself the next time this happens, and won't hesitate to place a "free" telephone order should I encounter the same di...

Kevin, your post ↑ above makes for an excellent "how to" guide for inexperienced Vanguard bond brokerage users. Nice job. As an aside, regarding minimums, today I decided to complete the Feb 2052 rung for my TIPS LMP which I'd held off on since buying a token 1 TIPS at auction last February. I'd periodically watched the secondary market since then and I have never seen the minimum qty below $50,000 face value, and today was no different. I rarely speak with Vanguard but the folks at the bond desk appreciated my situation enough to make my purchase for me without any fee. I think it's the first time I've used them and the person I spoke with gave me realtime changes in price/yield as he prepared to enter the order. He was very plea...

What I want to confirm is that, disregarding taxes, interest-rate risk, and all that is there any reason why the return from I-Bonds with a 0% fixed rate would be any better or worse than a 5-year TIP with a 0% real return held to maturity (not sold before maturity)? Doesn't seem to me there is. Well yes, there probably is a reason... but don't ask me to quantify it. First of all, you can only present this as a hypothetical b/c TIPS all come with a minimum coupon of 0.125%, so you can't get away from having to deal with those problematic biannual coupon payments. With I Bonds, all yield (inflation and fixed rate) is effectively reinvested in the I Bond. I believe that because of the differences between the way inflation growth is added to ...

I am doing another experiment for you (and others who are interested). Today I placed an order at Vanguard for 10 of the 4-week Tbills being auctioned Thursday and settling the following Tuesday. I had only about $660 in my settlement fund when I placed the order. After the order, I initiated a sale of a MM fund of $10K to fund the purchase. I have a calendar entry for 7/5, 4 weeks from today, to place another order for the 4w that should be auctioned 7/7 and settles 7/12, on the date the 4w I'm buying Thursday matures. I will make sure there is not enough in my settlement fund for the purchase, so will rely on proceeds from the maturing bill to fund the purchase. I will report back with the results. Thank you Kevin, this is perfect! I've ...

I agree with jeffyscott above.
For almost all practical purposes, TIPS do not provide deflation protection.
I Bonds do provide deflation protection.

Doc wrote: ↑Sun Jun 05, 2022 1:20 pm

FactualFran wrote: ↑Sun Jun 05, 2022 12:29 pm it is commonly called a 1 year T-bill

So Fidelity and Schwab and the US Treasury are not "common"?

WSJ and Bloomberg are fairly "common" benchmarks , and they're in common with Vanguard:

https://www.wsj.com/market-data/bonds
https://www.bloomberg.com/markets/rates ... t-bonds/us

I have just started buying T-Bills at Treasury auctions using my Vanguard brokerage account. As you say, Vanguard does not have an option to roll maturing T-Bills into new ones. Does it mean that I'll always be missing a week of investing? Victoria, I don't think using an "auto-roll" option with any broker (let alone Treasury Direct) can ever improve upon any potential "lost time in the market" that entering the rolling buy orders yourself might incur. "Auto-roll" simply saves you the hassle of having to enter orders yourself, let alone remembering to do so. But of course, this assumes that a maturing security always matures in time for it to fund your settlement account by the settlement date of the replaceme...

Well, instead of those bond funds, if you plug in Vanguard's Interm-Term Bond Index VBIIX (aka BIV), its CAGR at 7.41% exceeds them all, albeit with higher volatility than the others. Personally, I'm still fairly wedded to the notion that Treasuries complement equity the best when it matters most.

I have some old iBond from like 15 years ago that today are still earning like around 8%. according to what I see today on the website. Does that mean in the past, they may have earned zero some years ? Absolutely, yes . But the 0.00% composite rate floor is a nice feature that only I Bonds have. I find #Cruncher's website, by far the easiest way to grasp the big picture of ones I Bonds history in one screen. Check it out for whatever purchase dated I Bonds you have: http://eyebonds.info/ibonds/home10000.html Here is an example of a specific I Bond with history that includes two different periods of deflation and it shows how this affected its composite rate for those two 6-month periods. It's a $10,000 I Bond with 1.40% Fixed Rate Purchas...

Just adding a data point. I did the extend, then file route for paper I-bonds again. Taxes filed on April 7, refund above $5000 direct deposited on April 27, paper I-bond with issue date 4-2022 received on May 2. Treasury wised up this year and sent only a single $5000 denomination I-bond. Glad to see that - last year I got the 12 separate envelopes over about 2 weeks, and was sweating it out waiting on one of the $1000 denominations. Hey, congrats! You got your paper bonds, you only have to mess with one $5,000 bond, and you got in just before the new May inflation rate. Not bad! My one concern is if this might imply that Treasury's finally getting close to using up all of its leftover paper I-Bonds. Will they just print more? Might this ...