Money can be moved from one purpose to another. It doesn’t remember where it came from.
It’s a Stock Picker’s Market
If you read or watch financial commentary, I’m sure you’ve encountered this piece of insight: “It’s a stock picker’s market.” I heard a guest say this in a recent episode of WealthTrack. Is it true? Absolutely. If someone picks the right stocks, they will have a better performance than the market. There’s no doubt about […]
What Makes Investing Hard?
I wrote a few weeks ago Investing Is Simple. “You come up with an asset allocation, open some accounts, pick a few index funds, and you are done. Once in a while you see if anything is out of whack and you redirect your new money to wherever is lagging. It’s not complicated at all.” […]
Sold PIMCO Foreign Bond Fund
I sold my entire position in PIMCO Foreign Bond Fund (Unhedged) Institutional (PFUIX). According to its prospectus, this fund invests in “… Fixed Income Instruments that are economically tied to foreign (non-U.S.) countries, … which may be represented by forwards or derivatives such as options, future contracts or swap agreements.” I bought this fund in […]
The Right Lessons and The Wrong Lessons
It’s the one year anniversary of the fall of Lehman Brothers. The media marked that event as the start date of the financial crisis. Several financial podcasts I listen to all ran features on “lessons from the financial crisis.” I’m more interested in the lessons at a personal level, not so much at the macroeconomic […]
Rebalancing in a Bear Market
The stock market crash in 2008 provides a good case study for rebalancing. If you are not familiar, rebalancing means selling some assets to buy other assets and putting your asset allocation back to what you originally wanted. Rebalancing is good for maintaining a portfolio because you are buying low and selling high. For 2008, […]
Which Broker? You Don’t Need One
When people start investing outside their 401k or 403b plan for the first time, their very first question is often "Which broker?" The answer should be "You don’t need one." Vanguard is a great choice for beginning investors (and seasoned investors!), but Vanguard is not a broker. It’s a mutual fund company. Vanguard has a […]
What Exactly Do You Do with Something That Could Be the Deal of a Lifetime?
Although it’s April Fool’s Day, this post is not a joke. My favorite mutual fund company Vanguard started a blog at vanguardblog.com. A team of five investment and communication professionals write for the blog. I have high hopes for it but I wish it were better. In one article, Forecasts and second marriages, Craig Stock […]
A Low Stock Price Is Neither Cheap Nor Less Valuable
I heard a comment on a New York Times Weekend Business podcast saying that a share of GM stock can’t buy a gallon of gas for a Chevy and a share of GE stock can’t buy two energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs (as of a week and half ago before the bounce back). While true, I […]
2008 Personal Rate of Return
Everybody knows 2008 was a bad year for investing. It may seem odd to some people that I never bothered to calculate my rate of return during the year. That information just isn’t so useful to me. I have no control over what the market does. Most of my investments are already in index funds […]
3 Reminders About Year-End Mutual Fund Distributions
I wrote on Tuesday that I bought PIMCO CommodityRealReturn Strategy Fund D (PCRDX) on Dec. 5, 2008. It’s a good segue to today’s post. As luck had it, only a few days later, my jaw dropped when I saw the price of the fund dropped 25% in one day. It turned out it was just […]
Ratings in Magazines Versus Actual Customer Experience
Good customer service is worth paying for. I think everybody understands that. But in this age of easy price comparison, we sometimes forget. Fellow blogger indexfundfan is having trouble with TradeKing, an online discount broker. TradeKing is holding his money hostage for 60 days. According to TradeKing, it was rated #1 in customer service by […]