Previously Answered Questions


How far down do you expect the market to go?
July 23, 2008

Question:
I just retired and the recent decline has made we change my idea of how I should invest my retirement accounts. I need income from these investments to live on but realize I can't put all my money in bonds or Cd's or I will probably run out of money due to inflation. What do you suggest I do? Wait for the market to go up again? How far do you think the market is likely to fall before the next bull market starts? 
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Where to put your cash
July 22, 2008

Question:
Where should I put money that isn't covered by FDIC insurance?
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Invest all at once or gradually?
July 21, 2008
Question: 
I have some money I want to invest in a buy-and-hold account. I don’t know if I should invest it all at once or dollar-cost-average over a year or six months. Which is best?
 
Military retirement
July 20, 2008
Question: 
In three years I will conclude a 30 year career in the military as an enlisted man. I own a house, paid off this month, have an 11-year old son, two cars (paid off), excellent credit and no debts. The house is a rental property as I am currently living overseas. I will have to buy another house in three years, start saving for college for my son and will start a second career.  I have not started saving yet because I wanted to pay off the house. What are your recommendations for buying a house, saving for college expenses, retirement after my second career and tax shelters for the next three years?

Problems with buying loaded funds
July 19, 2008
Question: 
Regarding mutual funds, why isn't it a good idea to invest in C shares for a time period of one to five years, then convert to A shares in the fifth year? I have looked at American and Franklin Templeton and cannot understand, given the scheduled loads and expenses, why this would not be a good strategy. I am 53 years old. Thank you so much.
 
IRA rollover allocation
July 18, 2008
Question: 
I currently have a Vanguard rollover IRA that's worth about $120,000. I expect that I will not need this money for eight years or more. I have taken $100,000 of this and allocated it according to your suggested Vanguard buy and hold strategy based upon a 60/40 equity/fixed ratio. I split the remaining $20,000 evenly between the Vanguard Strategic Equity Fund and the Vanguard Windsor II fund. I have always like these two managed funds.  Do you think this little investment wrinkle of adding these two funds to your buy and hold suggestions is safe? Or are there any pitfalls to this strategy?
 
Fidelity Magellan case study
July 17, 2008

Question: 
I am studying investments and I'm using the Fidelity Magellan fund as a case study. How well has this fund performed in recent years, and what benchmark do you use to evaluate it? What does "good performance" mean to you? Does it include anything other than just return? Would you have recommended Magellan in 1995, or any other growth fund?
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TIAA-CREF analysis
July 14, 2008

Question: 
My husband and I are both working at universities, and have invested money in the TIAA-CREF stock fund. I am still not clear how to place this fund in a portfolio, how to evaluate its performance and which benchmark I should use. It is not easy to follow this fund since there's not much information available about it other than what's on TIAA-CREF web site.  What do you suggest?
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What to do with a slumping fund
July 12, 2008

Question: 
I am a senior citizen and I invested $5,000 divided equally between in Janus' Global Life Science and Olympus funds. Now my $5,000 is down to only $2,800. Should I my dump these funds? Should I switch to another Janus fund? Or should I just sweat it out? I have other investments besides these two funds.

Mutual fund expenses
July 08, 2008

Question: 
If I buy a mutual fund at the end of a year, are there expenses that will be assigned to my shares even if I have owned them only a short while?

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