+1 The same thing is happening in Minnesota, where more than 80% of patients who die reside in nursing homes. The state government is demanding that hospitals discharge COVD-19 positive patients to these nursing homes, even as hospital beds go empty and the world-famous Mayo Clinic is going broke. A...

plus a long time myth was disproved and that is as little as a 2% dividend in a taxable account over the long term wipes out any tax savings from the special rates and then it acts as a drag on the investments return once the tax savings is wiped away .. this is a huge factor , as old school teachi...

It's also quite safe to put bonds in taxable right now, in whatever your preferred form. If bonds go up (i.e. yields drop near zero) and you need to rebalance, you can still do so in tax-protected space if you have holdings there. If bonds go down (i.e. yields go up) you can tax loss harvest and sh...

Most of my LTTs are in directly held 30 year T-bonds at Fidelity in an IRA. I do keep a small amount of TLT as well, for rebalancing. That said, I am glad to see that there are other ETF choices. Like gold, the increasing choices in LTTs is good for competition, and that is good for the HBPP investor.

I personally favor having a separate PP in each tax category. In other words, one PP for taxable, another for traditional IRA, and another for Roth IRA. The IRA money won't/can't be touched for quite a long time. What are everyone's thoughts on dialing back the cash percentage in IRA PPs? I started...

mathjak uses charts when they suit his purpose.

His favorite is a chart showing the decline of 30 year T-bond interest rates that is supposed to prove that interest rates have nowhere to go but up.

I wish long distance passenger rail could make a comeback in the USA, but I just don't see it. Too expensive and too slow, and too often too late. The exception is the Northeast, where Amtrak owns the rails, but there it is too crowded for the age of virus fear. Instead, see the Wall Street Journal'...

I hope you and your charts are right.

I stopped "sitting on my hands" a couple of days ago and bought some AAAU in taxable with cash I had been holding for some time as part of a portfolio rebalance.

Nothing implicit about it. Ask any moderately wealthy Chinese you meet and they will tell you that their government practices punitive capital controls. Success for Chinese means an American passport (sometimes for themselves; sometimes for their children) and an American bank account. Or think of i...

The yield of a 1 year T-bill has collapsed with the Fed’s massive monetary intervention and is currently hovering around 0.12% yield. Shorter maturities are flirting with negative yields. That explains why money market funds and short term ETFs are all stuck at the zero bound and likely will remain ...

Happy asparagus season to all the Germans out there. :D Happy asparagus season! Fond memories of the annual "spargelkarte" at the rathskeller in Nuremberg in the 1980s. I had never had white asparagus with bernaise sauce before. The Bavarians washed it down with rauchbier ("smoked be...

What is FNGBX? (Franklin Next Step Growth??)

MangoMan,

Devastating. This is how small business get destroyed in contemporary America.

pmward,

I re-read your post several times and still do not understand it.

I am still not sure whether we are headed for inflation or deflation? Are you?

As expected, the U.S. Treasury announced this morning that the I-bond fixed rate will be 0.00% from 1 May until 1 Nov. 2020. In addition to the variable rate, already announced as 1.06%, the composite rate of I-bonds purchased over the next 6 months will be 1.06%. While this rate will not set the w...

Girl-down-the-street and I broke up today. It seems an old flame rekindled on her end... the father of her kid -- so it's not like I can even be mad about it. Sigh... :'( :-\ :( Bummer, amigo. But look at the bright side: That difficult discussion about paying will never have to be brought up. Pugc...

+1 tipswatch is a great source of information on TIPS and US savings bonds. David Enna, the author, has been tracking them for years and is a reliable source of information on interest rate re-sets, for I-bonds especially. I do not, however, agree with his advocacy of TIPS, which are inferior to I-b...

Sure. Why not include an Enron share certificate while you are at it?

For teenagers and college students (who need a practical class in economics & personal finance): Take them for a visit to your bank safety deposit box. Show them the following: -A 1920 double eagle $20 gold coin -A 2020 American Eagle bullion coin -$2000 in 2020 paper I-bonds -$2000 in 2020 Fede...

As expected, the U.S. Treasury announced this morning that the I-bond fixed rate will be 0.00% from 1 May until 1 Nov. 2020. In addition to the variable rate, already announced as 1.06%, the composite rate of I-bonds purchased over the next 6 months will be 1.06%. While this rate will not set the wo...

Dieter,

Sorry you missed the deadline.

I should probably send out I-bond alerts further in advance of the reset date.

Xan, The fixed rate is +0.20% x $45,000 x compounded 30 years = $2,781.21 gain. http://www.moneychimp.com/calculator/compound_interest_calculator.htm You get the fixed rate of +0.20% if you buy before 1 May. If you wait one day and buy after May 1 (tomorrow), then your fixed rate will probably drop ...

Kriegsspiel wrote: ↑Thu Apr 30, 2020 10:52 am I just bought some I bonds. They don't really generate any excitement, but they're not going to kill you either. They're basically vegetables.

You can't eat gold, but maybe you can eat well on an income stream generated by I-bonds.

Great trick jhogue. Do you have any idea if you can gift them to yourself? Xan: The I bond variable rate will reset based on the CPI, and it remains to be seen what that will be. Zero interest rate does not have to mean zero CPI. Oil/gasoline prices are down, but prices for virtually everything els...

Xan, 1. No. The fixed rate on the date of issue stays with the I-bond from its date of purchase until it expires after 30 years. That is true even if you buy a gift I-bond in 2020 but don't deliver it until 2021. This is, in effect, a work-around on TreasuryDirect's limit on annual I-bond purchases....