Gyroscopic Investing

craigr wrote: Of the gold ETFs, none are really officially sanctioned, but they are better than not owning the asset if give a choice.

MachineGhost wrote:

craigr wrote: Of the gold ETFs, none are really officially sanctioned, but they are better than not owning the asset if give a choice.

Out of the sorry lot of gold ETFs, I recommend the ZKB Gold ETF.  This ETF represents direct ownership in physical payable gold bullion bars backed by Zurcher Kantonalbank which is owned and managed by the largest canton (state equivalent) in Switzerland, i.e. government backed.  The ticker is ZGLDUS.SW at Yahoo or ZGLDUS on the Swiss Exchange (other currenceis also available).

Info: http://www.six-swiss-exchange.com/funds ... 101593CHF4

MG

craigr wrote: I don't think US residents can buy that etf. Though for non US persons that is the etf I would recommend.

craigr wrote: Here's a breakdown of what I'd do if I only wanted to use funds:
Stock - VTI, IWV, SPY or IVV

BearBones wrote:

craigr wrote: Here's a breakdown of what I'd do if I only wanted to use funds:
Stock - VTI, IWV, SPY or IVV

Thanks, Craig. Here's more info on the equity ETFs:
          ER    Vol
VTI     .06  1.9k
IWV    .2     .4k
SPY    .09  197k   
IVV    .09   3.7k

So, for me, IWV is out, I guess. How to sort out if the higher trading volume of SPY justifies it over VTI which otherwise has a broader market cap and a tad lower expense?

And are there any advantages in Vanguard's MFs over their ETFs (e.g., VTI), especially if one can get Admiral Shares?

jco wrote: Is anyone else finding this useful? I do and would like to keep it thorough and up-to-date.

KevinW wrote:

jco wrote: Is anyone else finding this useful? I do and would like to keep it thorough and up-to-date.

Yes. It's been a while since I had anything to add, though.

rnmike10 wrote: Dear Craig R,

You recommend the (Vanguard) MF's vs. the identical ETF's, is there a reason? (if i have my broker account with Vanguard and the ETF's trade free)

craigr wrote:

BearBones wrote:

craigr wrote: Here's a breakdown of what I'd do if I only wanted to use funds:
Stock - VTI, IWV, SPY or IVV

Thanks, Craig. Here's more info on the equity ETFs:
          ER    Vol
VTI    .06  1.9k
IWV    .2    .4k
SPY    .09  197k 
IVV    .09  3.7k

So, for me, IWV is out, I guess. How to sort out if the higher trading volume of SPY justifies it over VTI which otherwise has a broader market cap and a tad lower expense?

And are there any advantages in Vanguard's MFs over their ETFs (e.g., VTI), especially if one can get Admiral Shares?

Vanguard mutual funds that have an ETF ticker equivalent are linked together. They are identical. The ETF is a share class of the fund. It is unique in the industry and gives them tax advantages for fund holders because they can use the ETF as an outlet to get rid of less tax efficient trades on the market.

Buy the broad based fund if you can. Vanguard total stock market is the top dog. IMO.

Sandoor wrote: Here are some suggestions for European PP holders. Not sure if you can fit them into your list.
I advise European PP holders to focus on Germany for the cash and bonds part so that's what I based my suggestions on.

Cash:
EXVM: eb.rexx Government Germany Money Market
EXHB: eb.rexx Goverment Germany 1.5-2.5

Gold:
PHAU: ETFS Physical Gold
XOB1: RBS Physical Gold

Long Bonds:
EXX6: eb.rexx® Government Germany 10.5+

Equity:
DXET: db-Xtracks Euro Stoxx 50 (Acc)
EUEA: Ishares Euro Stoxx 50
IMEU: Ishares MSCI Europe

There is a lot more to say about this topic and I actually did last week on my blog. Unfortunately it is on Dutch so a bit hard to share here, but for those who can understand Dutch, please read it here http://www.indexvolger.nl/2012/02/de-pe ... e-praktijk.

KevinW wrote: My employer's brokerage window is switching to Aon Hewitt Financial Services, so I took the time to comb through their monster list of no-transaction-fee mutual funds. I found about a dozen mediocre PP-compatible funds. Should I post them here; or would you like me to enter them directly into the Google Doc?

hoost wrote: I just caught this post that I apparently missed earlier.  I also have Aon Hewitt and never thought to look if they had no transaction fee mutual funds.  Did you end up making a spreadsheet with the results of your research?  If so, would you be willing to share the link?

craigr wrote: Yes Kevin I totally agree. Perfect is the enemy of the good. You are right that a lot of funds people have may not be optimal, but are good enough compared to many alternatives.

Maybe we need some way to more clearly define the funds (our own star rating?) to people can sort by "Best" "Good" and "Acceptable" or some such?

KevinW wrote:

hoost wrote: I just caught this post that I apparently missed earlier.  I also have Aon Hewitt and never thought to look if they had no transaction fee mutual funds.  Did you end up making a spreadsheet with the results of your research?  If so, would you be willing to share the link?

Their no transaction fee (NTF) list is here:
http://hewittfs.com/pdf/NTF_Fund_List.pdf

It's 65 pages long and the overwhelming majority of funds are high-expense, mediocre, active stock funds. I didn't make anything as sophisticated as a spreadsheet, just took some terse notes. Executive summary:

- There are many underwhelming stock index and short term Treasury funds. Only two long term bond funds and zero gold funds.

- T Rowe Price has the least expensive offerings in all 3 categories:
PREIX 0.30
PRULX .55
PRTXX 0.44
They all have a minimum investment of $2500.

- PRPFX is on the list and has a minimum of $1000.

If i had a plain Aon account I'd probably use PRPFX up to around $10,000; then a 4x25 using the T Rowe Price funds and a gold ETF. Somewhere around $50k it becomes cheaper to use 4 ETFs since the ER on those mutual funds starts to cost more than ETF trade commissions.

My employer's plan actually includes better options for stock and cash, and has some other policies to work around. So for now I am holding PRPFX, and later I will switch to using the built-in plan stock and cash funds, and Aon for TLT and IAU.