Fidelity’s Total International Index Fund is more diversified than its other international index funds.
Mutual Fund Or ETF Dividend Frequency and Compounding
How often a mutual fund or ETF pays dividends doesn’t affect its performance.
Is Morningstar Losing Relevance In An Indexing World?
Morningstar’s data and ratings on mutual funds aren’t that useful when you invest in index funds.
Schwab Intelligent Portfolios: Primary and Alternate ETFs
Schwab Intelligent Portfolios will use Schwab ETFs as the primary ETFs in most asset classes.
Bond Closed-End Funds: Good Or Bad?
This articles explains how bond closed-end funds work and how they are better or worse than the traditional open-end mutual funds and ETFs.
Buy Bond ETFs At Large Discounts To Net Asset Value (NAV)
For reasons I don’t completely understand, bond ETFs, especially ones investing in illiquid bonds such as munis, trade at a premium to the net asset value (NAV) most of the time. That means you will pay more to buy the ETF than the value of the illiquid bonds held by the ETF. Look at these […]
My Experience With Selling Cash-Secured Put Options
I should give an update for my experiment with selling cash-secured put options. Back in June 2012, when the percentage of my portfolio invested in stocks was close to reach a trigger point for rebalancing, I wrote this post: Sell Cash-Secured Puts: Get Paid for Your Rebalancing Commitment. The gist was that by announcing to […]
Buying On Dip With 2013 IRA Contribution
It’s a new year. The IRA contribution limit has gone up by $500 to $5,500 ($6,500 if you are 50 or older). Have you made your IRA contribution for 2013 yet? I haven’t. I’m going to continue with my experiment with buying on a dip. Last year I bought Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund […]
Sell Cash-Secured Puts: Get Paid for Your Rebalancing Commitment
The previous two posts Pay a 30-Year Loan On a 15-Year Schedule and Borrow 30-Year and Invest The Difference showed how you can save money if you are committed to making higher monthly payments on your mortgage. This fits into a general theme: pay a lower price if you commit to something and you make […]
Best Investment Options With Fidelity BrokerageLink
401k plans are slowly getting better. My plan added a low-cost collective trust. My wife’s plan added a self-directed brokerage account, also known as a brokerage window. Her plan is managed by Fidelity. Fidelity calls it BrokerageLink. Some 401k plans managed by Charles Schwab also have this feature. Schwab calls it PCRA — Personal Choice […]
Vanguard New S&P ETF Ticker Symbols
With some fanfare, Vanguard launched nine new ETFs based on S&P indexes last week. When I first looked at the ticker symbols, I see a mess. All nine funds use a combination of V, I, O, and G. They are VOO, VOOV, VOOG, IVOO, IVOV, IVOG, VIOO, VIOV, and VIOG. After staring at them for […]
Index Funds Or ETFs? How About Both?
Investors should thank Schwab for pioneering free trades on its in-house ETFs. With the pressure Schwab put on the competitors, now both Fidelity and Vanguard offer free trades on select ETFs. The free ETF trades are a gift to investors. Free ETF trades make it really easy for small investors to put together a diversified […]