Fidelity just announced a new feature called Fidelity Solo FidFolios. You can make a custom index with up to 50 individual stocks, or a custom asset allocation portfolio using ETFs. You can then buy into your custom portfolio all a once using flat dollar amounts and Fidelity will juggle the fractional shares. For example, your $50 purchase could be split into 50 different individual companies. “Now more than ever, investors want the peace of mind of trading, monitoring, and rebalancing custom stock portfolios in a simple way,” said Robert Mascialino, head of Fidelity’s retail brokerage business. “With the ability to align to a specific theme or individual values, Fidelity Solo FidFoliosSM helps leverage the power of direct indexing to build a customized portfolio while simplifying how investors manage … [Read More...]

A satoshi, or “sat” for short, is the smallest unit of the cryptocurrency bitcoin. “Stacking Sats” is a popular term for gradually accumulating bitcoin by purchasing small amounts of bitcoin at a time. (100 million sats = 1 bitcoin.) The idea is that you should be excited about adding any amount to your stack, focusing on that forward progress instead of the current market price. If only it would be as trendy for folks to “stack VOO” or “stack VTI”. A low-cost S&P 500 or US Total Market index ETF is a tax-efficient way to build up your ownership of a share of excellent American businesses. Unfortunately, there is always something shinier next to this vanilla product. Factor ETFs, themed ETFs, sector… [Read More...]

Updated 6 free stocks for new account, $600 transfer promos. Webull is a brokerage app (PC and web version also available) that has $0 stock trades, $0 options trades with $0 per contract fees, free real-time quotes, and no minimum balance requirement. (Fidelity, Schwab, E-Trade, and TD Ameritrade all still charge $0.65 per contract.) Compared to Robinhood, Webull is more of a full-featured traditional brokerage shrunk down into an app. Robinhood has a sleeker minimalist feel, while Webull has a ton of options for real-time stock quotes, technical indicators, charting, etc. New account bonus details. Right now, WeBull is offering new accounts up to 6 free shares of stock: Open an account with Webull and get 2 free stocks valued between $3 and up to… [Read More...]

Although I enjoy managing my own investments, I’ve generally avoided managing other people’s money. That always felt like such an important responsibility to take on. Below is the real investment portfolio of an older family member (over 75) that is professionally managed by an large “brand name” financial firm. Understandably, the recent market volatility has hurt the balance and there is some concern, so I took a look. Before opening up the statement, I joked to myself “There better not be that ARK ETF in there!”…. and there it was. Down 66%! 😱 Deep breaths! My thoughts went to the four basic steps to performing emergency first aid: Assess the situation Plan for interventions Implement first aid Evaluate the situation. Here… [Read More...]

Here are my notes on the 2022 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Meeting. This year, CNBC has the rights to record and host the full video and transcripts (morning session, afternoon session) and they did a nice job with syncing the text and sound. I enjoyed listening to it like a podcast first and then reading through the text a second time around. There are many financial media articles with highlights, but here are my personal takeaways and notes. Berkshire Hathaway is their life’s work and legacy. It’s fascinating to see how they have tried their best to build it to last forever. I recently listened to an outdoor podcast called Dirtbag Diaries where a 78-year-old man suffering from late-stage Parkinson’s disease still completed… [Read More...]

This is a bit of an “inside baseball” topic appealing only to serious DIY investors, but I found this FT article about Vanguard’s unique tax-efficient fund structure quite interesting. Apparently, Vanguard has both a patent and special SEC permission that allows it have have a mutual fund and ETF version of the identical underlying portfolio, just as different share classes. The patent expires in 2023, but the SEC may not give other fund providers the special permission: Vanguard’s “exchange traded fund-as-a-share-class” structure allows the Pennsylvanian powerhouse to operate a mutual fund and a sister ETF as essentially the same vehicle, generating superior tax efficiency and economies of scale. As we saw with the Vanguard Target Retirement fund fiasco, if a mutual … [Read More...]

Vanguard is based right outside of Philadelphia, so the Philadelphia Inquirer often provides helpful insights on the company. Their new article Vanguard clients take to social media over customer service mishaps (possible paywall?) provides a good overview of the ongoing customer service concerns at Vanguard. I guess I am not alone. “If I’m calling, it’s because I really need someone,” said Blumenkrantz, a 68-year-old retiree of the Internal Revenue Service. He needed help finding the correct amount for a required minimum distribution from an IRA. After posting on Vanguard’s Facebook account, “I got a boilerplate response directing me to the same phone number I’ve been unsuccessfully using.” Loyal Vanguard clients, such as Blumenkrantz, are coming out publicly — in interviews, on social media, … [Read More...]

Here’s my monthly roundup of the best interest rates on cash as of April 2022, roughly sorted from shortest to longest maturities (useful for both cash reserves and as possible bond substitutes). I look for lesser-known opportunities available to individuals while still maintaining FDIC insurance or equivalent. Check out my Ultimate Rate-Chaser Calculator to see how much extra interest you’d earn by moving money between accounts. Rates listed are available to everyone nationwide. Rates checked as of 4/6/2022. Significant changes since last month: Short-term rates are moving up. Don’t overlook US Treasury bonds, as they are now relatively attractive in the 6-month to 5-year range, while CD rates are still lagging (but may catch up later). 7.12% Savings I Bonds still available if … [Read More...]

Here is an article about dividends by Capital Group. I didn’t really find the analysis very actionable, but I did like their chart that tracked the historical yields of the S&P 500 index, the MSCI ACWI index, and 10-year US Treasury bonds from 2000 to 2020. The MSCI ACWI Index is a global stock index that tracks ” large- and mid-cap stocks across 23 developed and 24 emerging markets.”. Basically, a world stock market index that includes US and all other global stock markets. I know that the total performance of international stocks has underperformed the S&P 500 for a while now, but holding international stocks does seem to consistently boost your overall dividend yield. In addition, I don’t see a strong direct relationship between dividend yields … [Read More...]

Updated new Webull 5 free stock offer. I have the strange hobby of trying out new fintech apps while also collecting their sign-up incentives. Here are several different brokerage apps that offer some variation of free stock trades, modern user interface, real-time quotes, and social sharing. Many are structured like a free lottery ticket with a minimum payout – the odds are that you’ll get a stock valued on the lower end of the ranges mentioned, but I have gotten a few big shares like AAPL before the recent split. They usually require a referral link, which means I can get some free stocks as well. A couple are offering 2X to 4X their usual bonuses right now. M1 Finance $50 Offer Open an M1 … [Read More...]

One of the perpetual debates in retirement planning circles is withdrawal rates, AKA how much monthly income can you take from a portfolio. Once you nail down a withdrawal rate and retirement spending target, then you get Your Number – how much you need to have saved to retire (after backing out Social Security and other income streams). It’s common to start with the static 4% rule, but that rule also includes some drawbacks. An alternative is a flexible withdrawal rule that adjusts based on market returns. When your portfolio grows, you can spend a little more. If it shrinks, you cut back a little. Sounds reasonable, right? However, I haven’t seen many real-world examples of flexible withdrawal rules. Schwab has helpfully outlined one … [Read More...]

Over time, more and more people are seeing the benefits of investing in stocks and bonds through low-cost index funds. Here is a chart from Morningstar showing the overall flow of assets out of actively-managed and into passively-managed US equity funds over the last 15 years. For a while, people wondered if low-cost digital advisors that managed a portfolio of index funds for a modest fee would take over. The picture looks a little different today. Wealthfront was one of the early digital-only startups, promising to manage a diversified portfolio of low-cost ETFs for you for a modest 0.25% of assets, even if you had as little as $500 to invest. They tried a few different things over the years, including changing … [Read More...]

The GMO quarterly letter is on my recurring “must read” list, and the 2021 Q3 letter “Winners, Losers, and the Case for Owning Each” did not disappoint, including some very interesting data for the DIY investor that wants to stay informed. Here are my takeaways and notes: For bonds, their starting yield tracks very closely to resulting return. 10-year Treasury rate is 2%, so the 10-year future performance for Treasuries will likely be very close to 2%. Plan accordingly. I choose to invest in short-term and intermediate-term bonds (effective duration 5 years or less). Valuations aren’t everything, but they are an important component. Total return = fundamental return + change in P/E ratio. If you compare the two decades 2001-2011 and 2011-2021, one is referred … [Read More...]

Some investors like to break down their portfolio into several different asset and sub-asset classes. One long-standing example of the “slice-and-dice” is the “Ultimate Buy-and-Hold Portfolio” recommended by Paul Merriman (see pie chart; expanded labels below). You don’t need to hold every one of these asset classes, but when held in combination they historically offer a higher return with lower volatility. S&P 500 (US Large Cap Blend) US Large Value US Small US Small Value US REIT International Large Cap Blend International US Large Value International Small International Small Value Emerging Markets Short-term/Intermediate-term Bonds For a long time, Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) offered some of the best lower-cost mutual funds tracking these types of … [Read More...]

via GIPHY Here’s my monthly roundup of the best interest rates on cash as of October 2021, roughly sorted from shortest to longest maturities. I look for lesser-known opportunities earning at least double what most savings accounts and money market funds are earning while still keeping your principal FDIC-insured or equivalent. Check out my Ultimate Rate-Chaser Calculator to see how much extra interest you’d earn by moving money between accounts. Rates listed are available to everyone nationwide. Rates checked as of 10/6/2021. Fintech accounts Available only to individual investors, fintech companies often pay higher-than-market rates in order to achieve fast short-term growth (often using venture capital). I define “fintech” as a software layer on top of a different bank’s… [Read More...]