Bogleheads.org

sperry8

I understand that Intermediate term Investment Grade is making a supplemental capital gains distribution to holders of record as of march 25. I bought the fund in late Jan and am down just under 3%. Should I sell this fund to avoid the cap gains payout? After all - I haven't been in it long and then...

sperry8

They need to hurry this up. Rates are dropping and we can't lock in 1 yr CD's over $100k until they pass this. They are already late to the game.

sperry8

S& P at 350. The market can't come back up until the next election when voters can bring some sanity to government. Are you friggin kidding me? Our last govt f***ed us! Now we're in debt and our hands our tied. And your upset at our current govt? I mean, nothing great from them so far... but to bel...

sperry8

This video is hilarious! A must watch, love it!!!!

sperry8

Adrian Nenu wrote:I'll capitulate and start selling stocks when the S&P 500 index hits 1400.

Adrian
anenu@tampabay.rr.com

I'm with Adrian, I'm with you!!!

sperry8

Hello all, http://seekingalpha.com/article/122836-investment-grade-corporate-bonds-beware-the-risk The author of the above article states "If you own investment grade bonds or ETFs in this sector, then place a 10% stop loss on your entry price. If that price is violated, then sell. I would not purch...

sperry8

I can't believe you are still peddling this "tolerable loss x 2" garbage. Today, of all days, when the S&P 500 is down over 50% from its peak less than a year and a half ago, your inane dictum has once again been proven horribly wrongheaded. - the 50% loss is an average but severe bear market losse...

sperry8

I've had the Penfed card for 6 mos too and love it. Their online website isnt the best, but they certainly offer great cash back.

Shane

sperry8

Hello all, I currently use Mornigstar's "Portfolio Manager" tool to track my investments. However, I do not reinvest my dividends and capital gains payouts, but rather have them swept into a money market fund. I then use these funds to re-allocate when and where I want. It seems to me that their too...

sperry8

Hello all,

I just read the following article:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081210/gmac_tarp_aid.html

Does this mean that if I have a CD with them and they are unable to become a bank holding company that my funds are at risk? Or will the FDIC insurance still be valid?

Thanks
Shane

sperry8

OK, here is what I found. They use the average cost basis method on their website, so if you have recently purchased new shares that are now in the money but they are mixed in with a fund that you've held for a long time and it shows a loss, then you likely will see short term losses as opposed to s...

sperry8

It isn't right for my account. They are showing short term losses of over $10,000 when they should show a $1,000 gain. I'm on the phone with them now to identify what is going on. This is crazy, I never though they could be so off!

Shane

sperry8

expat wrote:I am market timing with my weekly DCA amount by choosing the day of the week to invest.

I love it! This is exactly what I've been saying on other posts. Every single investment anyone makes is basically market timing.

Shane

sperry8

"Looks like the entire lineup of index funds will be avoiding distributions." [/i] The above statement refers to capital-gain distributions. Every Vanguard fund will be making a dividend distribution . Dividend distributions can be worse than capital-gain distributions. This is because, unless qual...

sperry8

I've decided to ... shift part of my bond allocation to equities ... I want to take advantage of the current market prices. ..in all reality the market is cheap ... I'm however betting that the US & World Economy will pull out of the dumper ... to take advantage of this chance of a lifetime to purc...

sperry8

Tough year for holders of Capital Opportunity (~10% capital gain distribution), Health Care (~7% capital gain distribution), and Primecap (~7% capital gain distribution). Once again, looks like the entire lineup of index funds will be avoiding distributions. Great news! - DDB I think its free money...

sperry8

This brings up another question. If I convert my IRA to a Roth IRA, does the full conversion amount count as income? For example, Lets say I have $60,000 in income. I then am eligible to convert to a Roth in 2008 because I'm less than $100k and single. Let's say I have $60,000 in my IRA. Does this e...

sperry8

Adrian, whatever you do be sure to rebalance back into your AA. For example, if you held 50/50 allocation in US vs foreign equities, you will now be something like 52/48 US/foreign. What you should def do is bring that back to even. If you just plow all your new money into the best performing class ...

sperry8

One of the best for int'l flights (not domestic) is www.vayama.com

sperry8

Well, in the first place, it's not true. The Dow needed 22 years to recover from the 1932 low back to its 1929 peak, so from 1929 until prices recovered in 1954 the return on the market index was negative. The above is not true. They are not including dividends. Including dividends brings it under ...

sperry8

I do not own EM--Vanguard or otherwise and never have but it seems to me that if I did I would buy after a severe crash on this part of the world. Then I would hold for the long haul and wait for it to grow and when I feel I made a decent return I would sell out and give the return back to the over...

sperry8

Shane has a good point - it's YTD is very similar to a large cap international index fund. I do hold the fund in my Roth. While it is certainly not a mid/small cap international fund, Global Equity is my only exposure to mid/small international. Hence, I am holding onto Global Equity (w/ Wellington...

sperry8

The problem with slicing as Taylor describes is trading costs and usually more niche sub categories have higher expense ratios. However in this unique case with Vanguard foreign expense ratios are lower than the top category and there are no trading costs if you lump sum in (and/or are Flagship wher...

sperry8

Historically about 2/3 of the time DCA loses you money. Depends of course on exactly how long you DCA over, but in general you lose money as in general while you wait the market is climbing. I read that quote early this year from Fisher's book. So I went all in. June 1, 2008. Ugh. Sometimes the oth...

sperry8

When I first subscribed I was a newbie. I read a bunch of books and learned about indexing and low expense ratios and had all my holdings with Vanguard. But I didn't know if I had the right asset allocation and/or which funds to buy. I saw an ad from Dan who said they believed everything I believed,...

sperry8

Is it rebalancing really? Let's say VGTSX in January 2008 is 20% EM and you decide to hold 20% EM and 80% Euro/Pacific instead of holding VGTSX. Letting EM slide like it did this year is considered "rebalancing" because market weight shifted? I don't know if that's the right term. *cue total market...

sperry8

I think they added a new mgr recently. Too many cooks in the kitchen. It's a closet index fund now.

Shane

sperry8

The only reason I can see to hold different funds is expense ratio, especially if you hold enough to qualify at Admiral level. In the case of Vanguard you can buy European Stock Index (..22% regular, .12% Admiral) and Pacific Index (.22% regular, .12% Admiral) and VWO (.25% ER) and it would be cheap...

sperry8

I know many of you have heard of Dan Weiner. He runs a Vanguard newsletter that attempts to pick the best among Vanguard's active funds and have his subscribers follow his advice. I am a subscriber and follow some of his advice. I thought you'd be interested in a recent change he made. Last Friday O...

sperry8

I like PRIMECAP. I have held their closed fund for years (PRIMECAP), but Primecap Core is a nice substitute. I dont see why you are chasing performance as the other poster discussed. Primecap Core is down... its a good buy low and hold candidate. I have about 50% of my portfolio indexed and the othe...

sperry8

Since we cannot know, I diversify my holdings internationally in developed markets, emerging and US. This way, wherever the next Japan is (and it will show up somewhere) you are diversified and other markets will go up. 100% US is too risky.

sperry8

I believe RodC's numbers are about right. Over the last 40 years the real return on the US stock market has been about 4.5% year, which is much lower than the 7% long-term real return we so often hear about. It appears that over the forty year investing life-time of today's investors that the 7% re...

sperry8

I second Rod's "huh?" . . . I'm guessing that a) they didn't include dividends and b) they screwed up the inflation adjustment . . . Typical about dividends. The one I always come back to is the claim that someone who invested at the peak of the market in 1929 would not have come back to "even" unt...

sperry8

Sorry, I wrote "35" in my last post, I meant 3%.

sperry8

Good point. But even if he picked another time-frame, maybe one just a few years earlier that would make the returns 2% annualized over a 45 year time period. Maybe he could even go a few years earlier than that and find a date that shows 35 annualized over 50+ years. Those are still horrible return...

sperry8

I was reading an article in another financial blog today (not sure if its ok to say their name/and or link, so I didn't) and the author said: "As an aside I saw an interesting comment on Realmoney.com Monday. A commentator said if you use the 1966 HIGH and adjust for inflation the stock market is up...

sperry8

Hi Rick, 1) I have been retired for 2 years. 2) I am spending more than I anticipated. 3) It's only been two years, but I am spending more on rent than anticipated (I am re-thinking my locale to save costs). I do not own a home (which ultimately may turn out to be a good thing since I may be able to...

sperry8

I bought each Wednesday for the last 3 weeks (always on dips). The amount I invested was .4% of my total portfolio each time (for a total move of 1.2% of my money into equities vs cash). I will continue to shift .4% on ea consecutive 5% dip from cash into equities. I'm currently down ~8% on my inves...

sperry8

Anything can happen, but I think the FDIC (Gov't) would have to backstop all dollars under the $250k limit. Imagine what would happen if they didn't Consumers would pull ALL the $10 TRILLION+ dollars they have in banks out. ALL of it! People would hoard cash literally in their mattress. Crime would ...

sperry8

I have accts at ING, Everbank and GMAC. I find ING to be the easiest to use online - although I cannot complain about Everbank. GMAC has been the hardest to use and made me jump through more hoops to work with them. Also - take a look at Citibank, they are offering 4% for 6 mo CD's and have money ma...

sperry8

Eloan is offering 4.02% for a six mo CD.

Shane

sperry8

I am 50% US and 50% foreign. With recent losses in the market, I'm probably slightly higher US and (52/48) or something like that. I will ultimately rebalance and go back to 50/50. Even at 50/50 I'm making a significant bet on US stocks as they represent only ~40% of the world stocks. As well - I be...

sperry8

Unbelievable post!!!!! I even get a newsletter from this Roubini guy. Dire predictions and he's just tearing the US gov't reaction to pieces. And here I find out he's cool over the long term! Just sits back in index funds like the rest of us!! Amazing!!!!!!! I always wondered why he never said what ...

sperry8

I am staying the course... down over 30% in equities so far... but staying. And in fact, bought a very small % (1% of my assets) on Monday and again today. Will continue to go in with some of the cash I have on the sidelines each 5% drop in equities. Buy low... hold.... sell high.

Shane

sperry8

Thank you SO MUCH for posting this. This is the sort of thing one needs to read during these times. I'm only 39 and haven't been through many bear markets in my investing lifetime (1 to be exact). This perspective helps.

Thanks again!
Shane

sperry8

Roubini is a fear monger. Shake out all the companies with poor earnings and bad mgmt and then we'll be left with stronger companies with better earnings/dividend opptys. This is how we are paid in the market. The 70's was bad, but we came back. 87 bad, but we came back. The tech bust was bad, but w...

sperry8

Shake out all the companies with poor earnings and bad mgmt and then we'll be left with stronger companies with better earnings/dividend opptys. This is how we are paid in the market. The 70's was bad, but we came back. 87 bad, but we came back. The tech bust was bad, but we came back. This time is ...

sperry8

I traveled the world for 8 mos last year... here are the best things to do: 1- Capital One. Best card for credit. 0% fees. With their reward program you'll even be earning almost 1% cash back (if you redeem the points for a travel statement credit). However, know this... Capital One has a weird frau...

sperry8

How long do you think rates will stay this way? I mean, rates jumped 2 percentage points in a week! Won't they come down just as fast?

Shane

sperry8

I have an idea that might be able to buy you some time while we wait for the Fed to possibly raise rates (or for long rates to go up w/o the Fed). Everbank offers a 4.76% rate in their YieldPledge money market acct for 3 mos. They only offer it for $50k max, but still its more than the others offer ...

Bogleheads.org

Search found 1912 matches

Intermediate Term Investment Grade

Are Investment Grade bonds too risky right now?

Portoflio Tool?

GMAC going bust?

Re: Vanguard Distributions

Re: Hi Petro.............

Re: Vanguard 12/08 distribution estimates & ex-div dates

Re: benefit of DCA

Dan Weiner

Returns over the past 42 years are 1% annualized?