Search found 1716 matches

by brad.clarkston
Mon Jul 10, 2023 11:08 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: SCHD/VTI 55% and Wellington/Wellesly 35% for well rounded portfolio
Replies: 45
Views: 4795

Re: SCHD/VTI 55% and Wellington/Wellesly 35% for well rounded portfolio

20cm wrote: Mon Jul 10, 2023 1:33 am
brad.clarkston wrote: Sat Jul 08, 2023 2:02 pm it's current price is way way over NAV.
Where on earth did you get this idea and why didn't you double-check it before repeating it?

Funds of this size and volume rarely trade far from NAV. In the middle of trading days SCHD's premium or discount is rarely more than half the expense ratio. On Friday it closed at 71.81 with a NAV of 71.78, a .04% premium.
I'm basing it off of there last calculated NAV your looking up the running daily average (close plus premium). We are not talking about the same things.
by brad.clarkston
Mon Jul 10, 2023 11:03 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Are Prior Windows Versions Still Useable?
Replies: 9
Views: 655

Re: Are Prior Windows Versions Still Useable?

The problem isn't that they are not useful or won't run it's that they are not getting any security updates and have inadequate modern virus/malware protection.

The only way to run them safely is without any connection to the internet. Companies sill run WinXP/7 offline for various manufacturing and hardware needs but never connected to anything that can reach the internet.

From a home user perspective there is no reason to ever look at them. Getting a one off Win10/11 license is cheap or Linux is free.
by brad.clarkston
Sat Jul 08, 2023 6:20 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: SCHD/VTI 55% and Wellington/Wellesly 35% for well rounded portfolio
Replies: 45
Views: 4795

Re: SCHD/VTI 55% and Wellington/Wellesly 35% for well rounded portfolio

Trying to figure out a good asset allocation for a well rounded portflio without dedicated bond funds. I know bond funds should do well if the economy hits a rough patch and the Fed start to loosen but rather than bond funds I thought Wellesly and Welington would possibly be a good alternative to capture more upside when markets recover while still giving some protection on the downside. My thought is to put 27.5% in SCHD, 27.5% in VTI and 17.5% in Wellington and 17.5% in Wellesly. My other 10% is already in long duration individual notes and preferreds. Why is this better than vti, vbtlx, vxus. Basically a 3 fund portfolio OR VSMGX OR I shares AOR etc. How do you know your portfolio will do better? From the look of it he's wanting someone...
by brad.clarkston
Sat Jul 08, 2023 2:14 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: SCHD/VTI 55% and Wellington/Wellesly 35% for well rounded portfolio
Replies: 45
Views: 4795

Re: SCHD/VTI 55% and Wellington/Wellesly 35% for well rounded portfolio

Trying to figure out a good asset allocation for a well rounded portflio without dedicated bond funds. I know bond funds should do well if the economy hits a rough patch and the Fed start to loosen but rather than bond funds I thought Wellesly and Welington would possibly be a good alternative to capture more upside when markets recover while still giving some protection on the downside. My thought is to put 27.5% in SCHD, 27.5% in VTI and 17.5% in Wellington and 17.5% in Wellesly. My other 10% is already in long duration individual notes and preferreds. Why is this better than vti, vbtlx, vxus. Basically a 3 fund portfolio OR VSMGX OR I shares AOR etc. How do you know your portfolio will do better? From the look of it he's wanting someone...
by brad.clarkston
Sat Jul 08, 2023 2:02 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: SCHD/VTI 55% and Wellington/Wellesly 35% for well rounded portfolio
Replies: 45
Views: 4795

Re: SCHD/VTI 55% and Wellington/Wellesly 35% for well rounded portfolio

That looks good, just realize what SCHD is. It has a 0.06% ER that's really good but still a drag, it only buys non-faang stock, and it's current price is way way over NAV.

If your going to buy it and never sell all is well. If your going to look at it weekly not so much as it's a golden divi thrower and it will be in the red a lot.
My only issue with it is the price it's a hold for me right now but I have a bunch of it at about half the current ask.
by brad.clarkston
Sat Jul 08, 2023 1:43 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: How to Buy an ETF Below the Day's Closing Price
Replies: 37
Views: 3247

Re: How to Buy an ETF Below the Day's Closing Price

A few hours of price movement doesn't matter on the timescale of Boglehead investing. If you execute a major purchase higher than necessary, that part of your portfolio will forever be worth proportionately less. This is very true in say a IRA that you can't TLH in. I do most of my trades after hours, sometimes before the bell for several CEF's I buy/sell. I never buy them over NAV in a IRA (Roth to be specific) as I may never break even on them, granted I buy for at least 60 days at a time as there divi throwers. I also buy SCHD/SRET ETF's under NAV only in the same IRA. SCHD is a buy-&-hold long term fund for me but it's crazy to buy over NAV. Right now it's NAV is $42.61 and it's buy price is $71.81 = no buy only sell for me at the ...
by brad.clarkston
Sat Jul 08, 2023 1:26 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Is everything correlated & where do you park your "safe" money?
Replies: 48
Views: 4249

Re: Is everything correlated & where do you park your "safe" money?

nasrullah wrote: Sat Jul 08, 2023 1:09 pm
brad.clarkston wrote: Fri Jul 07, 2023 9:13 pm No I personally would not put TIPS in taxable. I do put normal t-bills and muni's in taxable.
And in a year or two we find out that muni's aren't safe either :oops:
Yep and I'm not even using a good muni so good luck everyone else!.

My state (Missouri) doesn't have a good muni so I'm using a Fidelity federal it's only a about $6k invested as it's mostly the left over money from my bank account (I try to not have money in the checking account after direct deposit).
by brad.clarkston
Sat Jul 08, 2023 1:22 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Is everything correlated & where do you park your "safe" money?
Replies: 48
Views: 4249

Re: Is everything correlated & where do you park your "safe" money?

What would you do? I'd try not to worry so much. If your asset allocation can accommodate it, I'd invest in a ladder of individual TIPS that matches your need to spend money in the future. Even if this requires doing so in a taxable account, given the “tax unfriendliness” of TIPS in such an account? We don't know the OP's financial situation or personal situation well enough, but, yes, this would be a potential option. I'm willing to bear whatever tax implications come from doing this in taxable. It is what it is. My tax burden last year on t-bills (before I started buying at auction) was irking my wife who does said taxes with all those little par value statements for 5-20 dollars that had to be added. The auto-roll should generate a few ...
by brad.clarkston
Sat Jul 08, 2023 1:17 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: is this a legit Vanguard email address?
Replies: 38
Views: 5485

Re: is this a legit Vanguard email address?

If you do a reverse lookup on it the real address is ck27.mta.exacttarget.com which is a random salesforce.com mailing account, Vanguard would never do that. The issue here is the assumption that an IP matches back to a "real address" as you say. That IP is likely shared by many many domains on some hosted email platform employed by Vanguard. Going from domain to IP and back to domain isnt going to prove much except let you know who else is on the same IP. It's not 1:1 any longer. Well yes as I said it's a Salesforce account so ... not sure of your point. You would be surprised at how many external IP blocks even small companies own. I run 200 unique IP's at the little bank I'm currently modernizing mostly for citrix and phone us...
by brad.clarkston
Sat Jul 08, 2023 1:07 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Is everything correlated & where do you park your "safe" money?
Replies: 48
Views: 4249

Re: Is everything correlated & where do you park your "safe" money?

SGOV Why would I want to pay an ER on top of a fund that's normally selling over NAV? My answer is no, buy the T-Bills yourself and save the money. Any days where you do not reinvest the maturing t-bills = lost interest. If you are very good at managing t bills yourself good for you but the perceived ER savings can be rapidly offset just being out of the market for a few days. 1.) There non-coupon t-bills there's no interest to be lost your only getting the discounted par value at maturity so it doesn't matter how long you wait. 2.) It's called auto-rolling treasuries at Fidelity. All I do is add new money and they re-invest auto-magically. 3.) If your trying to make money on very low risk bonds I would recommend looking at stocks instead....
by brad.clarkston
Sat Jul 08, 2023 1:03 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Is everything correlated & where do you park your "safe" money?
Replies: 48
Views: 4249

Re: Is everything correlated & where do you park your "safe" money?

AlmstRtrd wrote: Sat Jul 08, 2023 7:17 am I'll also point out that I have held a big chunk of gold since 2014 and have yet to see much benefit from its supposed non correlation to stocks and bonds. Risk parity portfolios don't always work as advertised, at least over shorter time periods.
Physical gold or paper gold? My opinion of gold mining company stock is pretty low I do not think of them as "gold".

Now physical gold coins in your piggy bank is very uncorrelated but of less practical use (says the guy with a bunch of silver coins and a few gold ones).
by brad.clarkston
Fri Jul 07, 2023 10:29 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: is this a legit Vanguard email address?
Replies: 38
Views: 5485

Re: is this a legit Vanguard email address?

Oicuryy wrote: Fri Jul 07, 2023 10:24 pm
brad.clarkston wrote: Fri Jul 07, 2023 8:16 pm If you do a reverse lookup on it the real address is ck27.mta.exacttarget.com which is a random salesforce.com mailing account, Vanguard would never do that.
Why wouldn't Vanguard outsource its email to Salesforce?

Ron
There not, that's a company using salesforces back end. If salesforce was doing the mailing it would have been a salesforce.com e-mail address.
Just like Amazon Salesforce can have some really sketchy actors on it's platform.
by brad.clarkston
Fri Jul 07, 2023 9:27 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: is this a legit Vanguard email address?
Replies: 38
Views: 5485

Re: is this a legit Vanguard email address?

A easy way to figure that out is put the part after the @ in your browser, does it go to the website you though it should? If you do a reverse lookup on it the real address is ck27.mta.exacttarget.com which is a random salesforce.com mailing account, Vanguard would never do that. The answer to this question is no it is not a good address. What's a "reverse lookup" and how do you do it? It's a reverse dns lookup. So when you do a normal lookup a url like bogleheads.org it returns : C:\Users\Brad-Desktop>nslookup bogleheads.org Server: dns9.quad9.net Address: 9.9.9.9 Non-authoritative answer: Name: bogleheads.org Address: 23.254.167.168 that gets you the ip address then you do a reverse lookup on the ip address to see if that's it'...
by brad.clarkston
Fri Jul 07, 2023 9:15 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: At what point in job search should I lower salary requirements?
Replies: 45
Views: 4652

Re: At what point in job search should I lower salary requirements?

B) There are no 200 jobs that fit you. So, why are you applying to 200 jobs? KlangFool LOL, you most certainly have never met my wife! When I jump contracts/jobs she puts me in for at least 300-500 positions across the country. I've been at my current job for eight months and I'm still government agencies following up on odd duck jobs from her last flood. I'm a very confident Sr. Engineer with lots of varied experience but she's bent the spoon to nearly breaking before. Granted I've had some interesting jobs that I would have never applied for myself that makes recruiters go 'huh?' :) Your wife submits your job applications? Yep. I put in for the jobs I really want, she mass mails me out to the world. She's gotten me the interviews for my ...
by brad.clarkston
Fri Jul 07, 2023 9:13 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Is everything correlated & where do you park your "safe" money?
Replies: 48
Views: 4249

Re: Is everything correlated & where do you park your "safe" money?

WhitePuma wrote: Fri Jul 07, 2023 9:10 pm
dogagility wrote: Fri Jul 07, 2023 8:21 pm
nasrullah wrote: Fri Jul 07, 2023 9:25 am What would you do?
I'd try not to worry so much.

If your asset allocation can accommodate it, I'd invest in a ladder of individual TIPS that matches your need to spend money in the future.
Even if this requires doing so in a taxable account, given the “tax unfriendliness” of TIPS in such an account?
No I personally would not put TIPS in taxable. I do put normal t-bills and muni's in taxable.
by brad.clarkston
Fri Jul 07, 2023 8:16 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: is this a legit Vanguard email address?
Replies: 38
Views: 5485

Re: is this a legit Vanguard email address?

Today I received an email showing as from Vanguard using the email address : vanguardinvestments@txn-commsvanguard.com The subject line reads : "Your account change confirmation is ready" I made an adjustment to my automatic investments a few days ago so this email isn't entirely unexpected. Has anyone else received email from Vanguard using this address? I use gmail filters to verify all Vanguard emails I know to be legit, but this one didn't match any of the filters I've used for years. A easy way to figure that out is put the part after the @ in your browser, does it go to the website you though it should? If you do a reverse lookup on it the real address is ck27.mta.exacttarget.com which is a random salesforce.com mailing acc...
by brad.clarkston
Fri Jul 07, 2023 8:10 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Is everything correlated & where do you park your "safe" money?
Replies: 48
Views: 4249

Re: Is everything correlated & where do you park your "safe" money?

Before I call ML and go down that rabbit hole, would you happen to know is there a ETF/MF that is close enough to cash that I could park in? SGOV Why would I want to pay an ER on top of a fund that's normally selling over NAV? My answer is no, buy the T-Bills yourself and save the money. Any days where you do not reinvest the maturing t-bills = lost interest. If you are very good at managing t bills yourself good for you but the perceived ER savings can be rapidly offset just being out of the market for a few days. 1.) There non-coupon t-bills there's no interest to be lost your only getting the discounted par value at maturity so it doesn't matter how long you wait. 2.) It's called auto-rolling treasuries at Fidelity. All I do is add new ...
by brad.clarkston
Fri Jul 07, 2023 11:11 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Is everything correlated & where do you park your "safe" money?
Replies: 48
Views: 4249

Re: Is everything correlated & where do you park your "safe" money?

WhitePuma wrote: Fri Jul 07, 2023 10:58 am
nasrullah wrote: Fri Jul 07, 2023 10:52 am
Before I call ML and go down that rabbit hole, would you happen to know is there a ETF/MF that is close enough to cash that I could park in?
SGOV
Why would I want to pay an ER on top of a fund that's normally selling over NAV?
My answer is no, buy the T-Bills yourself and save the money.
by brad.clarkston
Fri Jul 07, 2023 9:38 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Is everything correlated & where do you park your "safe" money?
Replies: 48
Views: 4249

Re: Is everything correlated & where do you park your "safe" money?

I personally do not use funds for my can't loose money all of them have risk. I buy no-coupon T-Bills that's as safe as your going to get.
I make a few bucks when they mature but that's not the reason I buy them.
by brad.clarkston
Fri Jul 07, 2023 9:34 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Thoughts on international tilt towards small and value
Replies: 2
Views: 431

Re: Thoughts on international tilt towards small and value

What are people’s thoughts on tilting their international holdings towards international small, international small value, or emerging market? Currently, my investment plan consists of 80% equity, 10% public REITs, and 10% bonds, and of the 80% equity, it’s 35% US total market (VTI mainly), 15% US small value (split equally between VBR and AVUV), and 30% international total market (VXUS mainly, which has 25% emerging market). I am contemplating about 30% tilt of the international portion (so about 9% of total portfolio) towards international small, international small value, or emerging market. The main ETFs that I am looking at is VSS versus AVDV, while acknowledging the lack of long track record of AVDV and higher expense ratio of 0.36 f...
by brad.clarkston
Thu Jul 06, 2023 8:59 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Citi Bank Suspended Our Credit Card Because We Missed a Payment
Replies: 39
Views: 5743

Re: Citi Bank Suspended Our Credit Card

We have never been late paying our bills, but for the first time, we missed paying our monthly bill on July 1st. Honestly, we did not get the monthly statement in the mail, plus life got in the way so it was overlooked. We went shopping today and could not access our cards. Of course, we had another card to use. I called Citi Bank and they waived the late fee but said they could not re-activate the card until the payment arrives. (payment was sent) So is it standard practice for credit card companies to block access to your card, if you are late with a payment by only 5 days? There were no notifications emailed that this was going to happen. Yea that's pretty standard now with the tightening economy, no more easy money. Auto-pay minimum is...
by brad.clarkston
Thu Jul 06, 2023 8:35 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Money market vs. CDs
Replies: 14
Views: 2574

Re: Money market vs. CDs

As the others say T-Bill's are the better product while the curve is inverted.
Once the Fed/Exec/Congress figures out what inflation actually is CD's will become favored again.

Six to nine month bills in a rolling ladder is the way I do it.
by brad.clarkston
Thu Jul 06, 2023 6:34 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: At what point in job search should I lower salary requirements?
Replies: 45
Views: 4652

Re: At what point in job search should I lower salary requirements?

KlangFool wrote: Thu Jul 06, 2023 6:25 pm
B) There are no 200 jobs that fit you. So, why are you applying to 200 jobs?

KlangFool
LOL, you most certainly have never met my wife! When I jump contracts/jobs she puts me in for at least 300-500 positions across the country. I've been at my current job for eight months and I'm still government agencies following up on odd duck jobs from her last flood.

I'm a very confident Sr. Engineer with lots of varied experience but she's bent the spoon to nearly breaking before. Granted I've had some interesting jobs that I would have never applied for myself that makes recruiters go 'huh?' :)
by brad.clarkston
Thu Jul 06, 2023 6:28 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: At what point in job search should I lower salary requirements?
Replies: 45
Views: 4652

Re: At what point in job search should I lower salary requirements?

I-Know-Nothing wrote: Thu Jul 06, 2023 6:20 pm I am also dealing with a recruiter, but they don’t have many prospects right now. I might need to look elsewhere.
Recruiter's are a dime a dozen and worth less than that amount. If one is slow, poor communicator, can't find listings jump to another keep the door rotating and never feel bad. A job is a major life choice it effects your finances and retirement never settle or play nice in that regard.
by brad.clarkston
Thu Jul 06, 2023 6:25 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: At what point in job search should I lower salary requirements?
Replies: 45
Views: 4652

Re: At what point in job search should I lower salary requirements?

I've worked allot of contract jobs over the years I make it a point to talk about salary last. The conversation should be about how well you would fit into the group and if you would like the job not about how much money it makes, you might not want to even go that deep into the weeds if it doesn't sound appealing. I will admit I've done so many interviews that I'm comfortable leading the conversation but I would never go into a interview cold or hot and talk my way down in salary at the start. I actually don’t ask about salary during my interviews. I just apply to jobs in the range I’m looking for, and then if I’m asked (either during the application itself or during the interview), I say $85k or $90k. I usually clarify that it’s dependen...
by brad.clarkston
Thu Jul 06, 2023 3:57 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: At what point in job search should I lower salary requirements?
Replies: 45
Views: 4652

Re: At what point in job search should I lower salary requirements?

I've worked allot of contract jobs over the years I make it a point to talk about salary last. The conversation should be about how well you would fit into the group and if you would like the job not about how much money it makes, you might not want to even go that deep into the weeds if it doesn't sound appealing.

I will admit I've done so many interviews that I'm comfortable leading the conversation but I would never go into a interview cold or hot and talk my way down in salary at the start.
by brad.clarkston
Thu Jul 06, 2023 3:27 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Televisions and upcoming Amazon Prime days
Replies: 31
Views: 3339

Re: televisions and upcoming Amazon prime days

climber2020 wrote: Thu Jul 06, 2023 5:45 am
LaurenRose wrote: Wed Jul 05, 2023 3:34 pm I run everything through an Amazon Fire Stick, so I don't even bother connecting the TV itself to Wifi and use none of the smart features which makes the TVs even more the same

Advantages of a Fire Stick over Roku?
I've never had Roku, but it's similar from the few times I've used it at friends' houses. I only use the Fire Stick because our local utility company requires it for their TV streaming services.
I've been a Roku user since v1 and I've had a fire-stick on a secondary tv.

There's nothing wrong with ether system, my wife has used the Roku so long she prefers there interface so we stay with that.
by brad.clarkston
Thu Jul 06, 2023 3:07 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Cap weighting individuals stocks?
Replies: 19
Views: 1438

Re: Cap weighting individuals stocks?

CEF's are actively managed verses ETF's and they tend to use allot of debt leverage.

You will also see massive rollovers in the underlying funds than with ETF's so you need to watch what the product is doing as it might move away from the reason you bought it.
by brad.clarkston
Thu Jul 06, 2023 2:20 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Aldi supermarket?
Replies: 106
Views: 11156

Re: Aldi supermarket?

So that's good. After that ... hmm. A lot of knockoff products with packaging so similar to mainstream name brands that I think it would be a trademark legal risk (but ... IANAL). Aldi does not sell knock off brands those are house brands they produce themselves so no chance of TM issues. I'm not sure what distinction you're making by this sentence. My point is this: take a look at the house brand breakfast cereal boxes at Aldi. If you don't think the graphics and color scheme on those boxes are designed to fool the casual shopper into thinking they're buying the name brand, I don't know what to tell you. That's a store bias, you get the same thing at Wal-Mart/Target in the cereal isle but I doubt you call them "knock-off's". No ...
by brad.clarkston
Wed Jul 05, 2023 4:50 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Bogleheads' Over 85 Equity Position
Replies: 64
Views: 9457

Re: Bogleheads' Over 85 Equity Position

Wanderingwheelz wrote: Wed Jul 05, 2023 4:06 pm Not many 85 year olds would participate here, mainly because this is a place to help prepare for life at 85, not necessarily what you should do to prepare for 105.
That's the funny part of participating on this forum I know how to plan for retirement but I have no idea what to do when I reach it.
I'm with @rockstar I can't imagine making it to 70 let alone 85 so I'm trying not to think about it much ;)
by brad.clarkston
Wed Jul 05, 2023 4:43 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Aldi supermarket?
Replies: 106
Views: 11156

Re: Aldi supermarket?

Never been to Aldi but I believe the business model is similar to Trader Joe's (which we love). The best part is being in/out in about 15 minutes for a weeks worth of groceries. You do know that Aldi and Trader Joes have the same parent company......:-) Not really. Trader Joe’s is owned by Aldi Nord since the early 1970’s which is not the same company as the one that owns the Aldi stores in the US. ALDI Sud owns the US stores which is a separate company. Both companies have the same origin because they were once a single company owned by two brothers but they split the company in two when they got into a disagreement over selling cigarettes I believe. It's still the same owners in Europe, it's in the USA that they are different companies t...
by brad.clarkston
Wed Jul 05, 2023 4:42 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Aldi supermarket?
Replies: 106
Views: 11156

Re: Aldi supermarket?

So that's good. After that ... hmm. A lot of knockoff products with packaging so similar to mainstream name brands that I think it would be a trademark legal risk (but ... IANAL). Aldi does not sell knock off brands those are house brands they produce themselves so no chance of TM issues. It's the same way with their sister store Trader Joe's - same system. Aldi's has always had the best cheap canned vegetable's. Better than white label by far. They used to be the best for milk and egg's but that's not always the case. I buy the 3 pack bell peppers it's a good deal as most $0.99 grocery deals are at the end of there shelf life. These keep awhile. There snacks are similar to name brands but a bit different taste you have to try them to find...
by brad.clarkston
Wed Jul 05, 2023 4:29 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: My high maintenance portfolio, Is it too aggressive or risky for 70y retiree, Please review
Replies: 17
Views: 2699

Re: My high maintenance portfolio, Is it too aggressive or risky for 70y retiree, Please review

OP, this is a pretty junky portfolio. If you're on this site, you probably know that already. You could do better on your own and the folks here could help you with that, if you were so inclined. Something much simpler could give you peace of mind. Blackbird Other than the preferred and the two market linked funds it's hardly a "junky" portfolio it just doesn't fit the cookie cutter BH approach. I'm surprised a money manager didn't mess it up far worse over 15 years. For OP: 1.) The bond section isn't bad tho I would be looking at a bit of TIPS or pure treasures at your age as market safety has to become a stronger thing. 2.) I'm not a fan of those sector ETF's better to go with a TSM (Total Stock Market) and TBM (Total Bond Mark...
by brad.clarkston
Wed Jul 05, 2023 2:26 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Treasury Bill Question
Replies: 11
Views: 1623

Re: Treasury Bill Question

Happy that folks are verifying that one can indeed implement a rolling ladder at Vanguard. For emphasis, one must place the trade on the trading day before maturity for the settlement dates to match. So for a T maturing tomorrow, the order for the purchase of the long rung would be entered today. This is true for any T, not just bills. That's correct (I have a Vanguard account) but I opened a Fidelity account so I can set it to Autoroll and not need do anything for the bill to automatically reinvest. Plus, when you use maturing funds to buy into the next auction, you're out of the treasury for the week between maturity and auction. The # of weeks in a MM fund in a year vs in a treasury may become important based on the size of your Treasur...
by brad.clarkston
Wed Jul 05, 2023 2:22 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: My high maintenance portfolio, Is it too aggressive or risky for 70y retiree, Please review
Replies: 17
Views: 2699

Re: My high maintenance portfolio, Is it too aggressive or risky for 70y retiree, Please review

OP, this is a pretty junky portfolio. If you're on this site, you probably know that already. You could do better on your own and the folks here could help you with that, if you were so inclined. Something much simpler could give you peace of mind. Blackbird Other than the preferred and the two market linked funds it's hardly a "junky" portfolio it just doesn't fit the cookie cutter BH approach. I'm surprised a money manager didn't mess it up far worse over 15 years. For OP: 1.) The bond section isn't bad tho I would be looking at a bit of TIPS or pure treasures at your age as market safety has to become a stronger thing. 2.) I'm not a fan of those sector ETF's better to go with a TSM (Total Stock Market) and TBM (Total Bond Mark...
by brad.clarkston
Wed Jul 05, 2023 2:01 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Televisions and upcoming Amazon Prime days
Replies: 31
Views: 3339

Re: televisions and upcoming Amazon prime days

I haven't purchased a new television in maybe 15 years, eons ago and I no longer have that one. I thought I'd use the Amazon Prime days to purchase a new one. I use television mainly for business news programs (Bloomberg, MSNBC, etc) and watching app channels - YouTube, Netflix, etc. They're all just bigger screens aren't they? - like my phone, just a bigger screen? more or less are they all the same? Suggestions much appreciated. Thanks No there not just bigger, there's a lot of difference between LED and OLED just for starters. But with that said if your not trying to get the blackest blacks for movies at 8k resolution (youtube and streamers won't manage that) your fine with just about anything in the size you want. Sounds like you won't...
by brad.clarkston
Wed Jul 05, 2023 1:54 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: When to cut losses on speculative stock play money
Replies: 55
Views: 3973

Re: When to cut losses on speculative stock play money

There's a surprisingly lot of meh advice on this thread. OP didn't ask for advice on whether to buy stocks so it's mostly self back patting. What we do need to know is if this is a taxable or non-taxable account. You can't tax loss harvest a IRA so you have to be very careful on what you put in those products. If your underwater in a IRA your truly underwater. If it's a taxable account I would set a profit and loss % based on each stock and sell when you hit them. For instance for non buy-&-hold stocks or truly cyclical sector like oil I set a 30% profit stop via a limit order after I buy it so it sells if it hits that number. I would manually sell losses but stick to a similar %. I recently sold the last of my Tesla and Exxon. While I ...
by brad.clarkston
Wed Jul 05, 2023 1:32 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Cap weighting individuals stocks?
Replies: 19
Views: 1438

Re: Cap weighting individuals stocks?

I currently reserve about 5% of my portfolio for “play money” (individual stocks) and am wondering if anyone knows of any tools that can aid in market cap weighting a portfolio of individual stocks. For example, let’s say that I want to buy 30 individual stocks, but rather than equally weighting each stock, I want to go with the market cap weight of each stock. For instance, the Dow Jones Industrial Average consists of only 30 professionally selected stocks, but is market cap weighted. Are there any online tools that allow you to type in a basket of stocks and then provide you with the markets cap weight that each stock in the portfolio would take up if market cap weighted (like the Dow Jones Average)? Thanks! Why would you prefer to do th...
by brad.clarkston
Wed Jul 05, 2023 11:24 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Economics of Buying an EV without a Home Fast Charging Option
Replies: 123
Views: 10745

Re: Economics of Buying an EV without a Home Fast Charging Option

Would she be able to run the normal wall charger ? That plugs into the house/apt outlets and charges 44mi per hour'ish.

If not allowed then no I would not recommend any EV over a hybrid.
by brad.clarkston
Mon Jul 03, 2023 4:36 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Decent time to buy small caps
Replies: 10
Views: 838

Re: Decent time to buy small caps

Preferably when you have the money to buy whatever SCV fund you like.

It's not a pump & dumb procedure if your going to tilt past a minor position it's a long term buy & hold type of deal.
Also drip makes no sense in that particular play.
by brad.clarkston
Mon Jul 03, 2023 12:55 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Cap weighting individuals stocks?
Replies: 19
Views: 1438

Re: Cap weighting individuals stocks?

I currently reserve about 5% of my portfolio for “play money” (individual stocks) and am wondering if anyone knows of any tools that can aid in market cap weighting a portfolio of individual stocks. For example, let’s say that I want to buy 30 individual stocks, but rather than equally weighting each stock, I want to go with the market cap weight of each stock. For instance, the Dow Jones Industrial Average consists of only 30 professionally selected stocks, but is market cap weighted. Are there any online tools that allow you to type in a basket of stocks and then provide you with the markets cap weight that each stock in the portfolio would take up if market cap weighted (like the Dow Jones Average)? Thanks! Why would you prefer to do th...
by brad.clarkston
Mon Jul 03, 2023 11:39 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Rolex Watch
Replies: 25
Views: 5087

Re: Rolex Watch

Yes all 'official rolex retailers' or 'service centers' will take repairs and cleanings.
You need to call your closest shop for details.
by brad.clarkston
Mon Jul 03, 2023 11:34 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Treasury Bill Question
Replies: 11
Views: 1623

Re: Treasury Bill Question

It's always been same day for me. There is the normal "possibly next day settlement" verbiage but I've not had that happen at Fidelity.
by brad.clarkston
Thu Mar 16, 2023 2:47 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: All investments at Fidelity - is that prudent?
Replies: 16
Views: 2729

Re: All investments at Fidelity - is that prudent?

I can't answer your question, but agree that it's a good one! A related question for me is whether I want to be giving out bank account information for automatic payments to the one place where all my money is --- I'd rather not have a direct tap like that. That's a different question alright your now talking about banking functions. I'm probably similar to you in that we use USBank as our checking/saving/CC/mortgage with direct deposits from work. I have my checking account linked to Fidelity to move money around and nearly all of my investments are there (new 401k at Empower). All of my wife's investments is in the Gov TSP program and a MO 529 now being regrown for grandchildren. Both institutions are A rated and hold very little uninsur...
by brad.clarkston
Thu Mar 16, 2023 11:24 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: All investments at Fidelity - is that prudent?
Replies: 16
Views: 2729

Re: All investments at Fidelity - is that prudent?

Three bad banks is not imo a "crisis" let them win there prize.

Yes your money is safe at Fidelity or any large broker as long as your not holding a lot of money in un-insured accounts which I suspect Fidelity would be on top of as a risk issue.

I'm a pretty heavy Fidelity users for 10+ years, I have no cold feet about it.
by brad.clarkston
Thu Mar 16, 2023 11:19 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Does it make sense to buy CDs now, with interest rates falling?
Replies: 32
Views: 4219

Re: Does it make sense to buy CDs now, with interest rates falling?

Pinacoladapopsicle wrote: Thu Mar 16, 2023 11:05 am Oh, mortgage rates dropped and I thought that would be an indication that they all were about to. But maybe it's just unique to mortgages?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... five-weeks

Maybe I should just stop trying to follow financial news, lol. My cash is in a HYSA and it's fine. An extra point from a CD is probably not worth this stress.
I personally wouldn't think of a 8 basis point drop as being a major indicator of a death spiral.

I try to stay out of the media as much as possible I feel better for it. I'll admit I still hit WSJ and Bloomberg a bit to much.
by brad.clarkston
Thu Mar 16, 2023 10:20 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Ben Felix: International Diversification.
Replies: 475
Views: 27777

Re: Ben Felix: International Diversification.

The funny part of the entire "pile on to the one dissenting opinion" of this thread is I didn't even disagree with his premise (check my sig and my post) it's 2023 International isn't even a continuous topic, we all know international is a good way to diversify. Specifics on EM is another story. It pretty much always boils down to a group of people (the satisficers) for whom an S&P500/TSM fund is "good enough for me" vs. the optimizers who think there's enough value in the diversification to go through the small effort to add it and deal with the tracking error when it occurs. Of course there's also the "US is better than everyone else" argument but I find that very uncompelling and how would it not be the...
by brad.clarkston
Thu Mar 16, 2023 9:25 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Ben Felix: International Diversification.
Replies: 475
Views: 27777

Re: Ben Felix: International Diversification.

That was not a personal attack, overzealous moderation possibly, but ether way it was a my personal opinion which seems not to be allowed anymore. Your more than welcome to have any opinion you want on that video just do not expect everyone to share it. I’ve been on the other side of this too and understand what you’re saying - your intention wasn’t to attack him. Since no one can know your intentions on an online forum, it needs to be assumed by moderators that a comment totally unrelated to the video content of international diversification that also is negative in nature about the person making the video is a personal attack. I’m sure it didn’t feel good for Ben to read that, even though he responded gracefully. Sure fine I'll agree wit...
by brad.clarkston
Thu Mar 16, 2023 9:07 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Ben Felix: International Diversification.
Replies: 475
Views: 27777

Re: Ben Felix: International Diversification.

watchnerd wrote: Thu Mar 16, 2023 8:57 am
rockstar wrote: Wed Mar 15, 2023 4:40 pm Is international really a thing post 90s globalization? Can’t I buy Apple and say I’m globally diversified?
Can't I buy Toyota and say the same?
Funny enough, I don't' think you can.

My 2007 Toyota Camry was about 80% made in the USA while my MacBook Pro was only 50% made in the USA (una-body, screen, keyboard) and then 100% assembled in China. It's a funny world.
by brad.clarkston
Thu Mar 16, 2023 8:39 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Ben Felix: International Diversification.
Replies: 475
Views: 27777

Re: Ben Felix: International Diversification.

Is his YouTube channel monetized? I checked it out. There are ads, and he has more than enough subscribers to monetize. "Pat, I'd like to solve the puzzle." So nothing monetized is credible? Parts of this thread are giving me the same vibes that Larry Swedroe and Wade Pfau receive (or received in Larry’s case, since it became unbearable). In this thread one personal attack had to be removed, another poster referred to Ben as “biased”, and now there’s this somewhat backhanded comment about monetization of YouTube driving his work. Why shouldn’t he earn a little money for it? It’s probably a small amount relative to his successful industry career. Really frustrating that the discussion ends up being about the person rather than the...