How's that retirement penson going?

[Dave Hounddriver]

Here's a clue on what to invest it

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-51731422

Quote

Coronavirus panic: Why are people stockpiling toilet paper?

 

[manofthecoldland]

1 hour ago, Mike J said:

It is very rare for a money manager to beat the market even before he/she takes out their fees.  Diversify with no load (or small fee) index funds that mirror the markets.  Why pay a manager AND get a lower return?  Over the long haul the market is almost certain to outperform a money manager.

 

I agree. After nearly 30 years of managing my retirement portfolio in managed select sector funds, I ended up indexing for the last 12 for the major portions. I advise my adult daughters to read and heed John c. Bogle's Common Sense Mutual Funds (1999, revised 2009). 656 pages to build and preserve their savings. 

Many active and institutional fund managers index considerable portions of their controlled assets... but don't always openly publicize the fact  

[Tukaram (Tim)]

Government pension that is guaranteed by law to never earn under 7%. So... it is going just fine

[scott h]

12 minutes ago, Tukaram (Tim) said:

Government pension that is guaranteed by law to never earn under 7%. So... it is going just fine

and my peers laughed at me in the wake of the Vietnam war for joining the military……….well who is laughing now!!! 

[hk blues]

3 hours ago, Mike J said:

It is very rare for a money manager to beat the market even before he/she takes out their fees.  Diversify with no load (or small fee) index funds that mirror the markets.  Why pay a manager AND get a lower return?  Over the long haul the market is almost certain to outperform a money manager.

 

I was skeptical about this so I did a quick Google to check. Only 25% of mutual fund managers beat the market over a 3-year period and only around 5% beyond the 3-year period. And that's before you add in management fees. Of course, to be fair you'd have to look at how many private investors do better but I'd say we are all perfectly capable of losing our own money without having to pay a professional to do it for us!

 

[OnMyWay]

4 hours ago, manofthecoldland said:

I agree. After nearly 30 years of managing my retirement portfolio in managed select sector funds, I ended up indexing for the last 12 for the major portions. I advise my adult daughters to read and heed John c. Bogle's Common Sense Mutual Funds (1999, revised 2009). 656 pages to build and preserve their savings. 

Many active and institutional fund managers index considerable portions of their controlled assets... but don't always openly publicize the fact  

I wish I would have become a Boglehead early in my investing career, but I did not.  Especially for younger investors with a long time frame, that is the way to go!

I don't have any "pensions" except Social Security from the U.S., which my kids get too, so we have a nice income.  It is not subject to any market fluctuations.

I do have a TIRA and a Roth IRA and I manage the investments.  When I first moved to the Philippines I was spending a lot of time trading, and I spent quite a bit of time before and after I moved, budgeting my anticipated income and expenses for the long term until they plant me.  I budgeted just 3 % growth for investments.  I took some heavy losses a few years back in the oil sector and have been recovering since.  Now I am over my 3% goal and generally climbing.

Currently, I only hold 3 funds and they are risky, but I have over 50% cash, and am looking for buys.  One of the funds I did buy a last week and so far, I got it a a low point.  Might go lower, who knows.  I think the market will still fall more.  I was tempted a few times in the past weeks to buy some others but held off.

So from my high before this recent crisis, I have had wild swings in the values, but it doesn't bother me.  I have followed 2 of these funds for years and owned them a few times before.  I would have been much better off if I had not sold them and just let them build up, so that is what I am doing now.  They have excellent managers with long term track records of steady, stable returns.

[manofthecoldland]

6 hours ago, Tukaram (Tim) said:

Government pension that is guaranteed by law to never earn under 7%. So... it is going just fine

Are you referring to the expected rate of return on state sponsored pension benefit funds?

If you were able to get into a state government defined benefit pension program years ago before they started shifting by steps into defined contribution plans, that's very good. I was. 

But the rate of increase on your personal benefit is based on a COLA computation year-to-year for most. Those have been no where near 7% over the last 22 years in my state, which is in the upper quadrant.

There's a big difference between what the fund earns and what the individual recipients receive on a personal basis. The funds must remain solvent due to the anticipated demographics of its recipients. Most states are mandated by law to meet targets so they can service the benefit promises made. If the mandated targets aren't met by market investments, the taxpayers are on the hook.

Some states are in serious trouble re their pension promises.

I'm unaware of the Federal systems and Federal pension benefit increases other than the US SSA benefit increases we receive from time to time, which have never been significant for many given the way they now compute the COLA formula to counter yearly inflation.

I am not complaining however, since any increase whatsoever is better than no increase at all.

Hey..... my Golden Eagle Kings just went from P 70 to P95 a few days ago. The wife's co-madre went to several different sari-saris in search of a better  price, but no luck, since it was the distributor's pass through. Maybe it was a scheduled sin-tax increase. 

The same  thing happened last Sunday while I and 5 other expats were having beers at a beach resto. The beer delivery man came in the middle of our session, apparently with the new supply's price increase. Rather than charge us the initial menu price from when we started, the manager over-stickered the old prices with the new to reflect the increase. Some of our beers cost us the old price, and some the new. Some of the fellows were outraged, since we weren't drinking the restock (they argued) and wanted to hang the servers. Since I was the  first to call for my bill due to my service trike arriving at the appointed time, they sprung the new cost on my bill and my wealthy German friend called attention to it. Explanations of the instant price increase were then given to the roiled mob. I just paid the new price and let it ride, but most of the guys wanted the old price... and they got it on the beers they drank before the truck arrived.

So some paid 2 different prices for a bottle of the same beer.  Outraged by the use of Pinoy logic in the matter and willing to take it out upon the innocent employees, I  willingly paid the extra 40 pisos for my 4 beers and downplayed the situation. The group consensus was that we would end our regular Sunday patronage of the resto over the incident and use an alternate resto down the beach front. I told them of a very nice nearby place where the food was great and you could order a galvanized bucket of 6 beers in iced water for P220.  My 4 beers had cost me P280 ( and I gave the poor server a P20 tip, which some of the guys argued against).  So I lead them there in my service trike and they all follow in their motorbikes and cars for an extended drinking session.   Now all is well and all are having More Fun in Da Philippines.  

Whew !  Its not always so easy to have achieve that.         

 

[hk blues]

18 hours ago, manofthecoldland said:

The group consensus was that we would end our regular Sunday patronage of the resto over the incident and use an alternate resto down the beach front.

 

I guess it would depend on exactly what price the original owner paid for the beers you were drinking - I assume it was the price in place at the time of delivery i.e. the old price but he/she may have some other arrangement with the supplier - unlikely, but who knows.  If all is as it seems then the original owner deserves to lose business for profiteering - kinda typical short-sighted business practice that we often see here.  

Edit to add - my San Mig Lights went up to 46php at my local Sari-sari store last Sunday.  

Edited March 8, 2020 by hk blues
Added Info

[OnMyWay]

What a wild ride it is!  I missed the open as it moved to 9:30 pm local after the U.S. time changed over the weekend.  DJI was down over 2000 points!  Now -1124.  I'm doing a day trade on the same fund I did last week and it looks like I will do well.  I have a stop loss on it so I can go to sleep and still make money.  I will set my alarm for 0300 to see where I stand.

[earthdome]

3 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

What a wild ride it is!  I missed the open as it moved to 9:30 pm local after the U.S. time changed over the weekend.  DJI was down over 2000 points!  Now -1124.  I'm doing a day trade on the same fund I did last week and it looks like I will do well.  I have a stop loss on it so I can go to sleep and still make money.  I will set my alarm for 0300 to see where I stand.

It certainly is a wild ride. Glad I went with a financial adviser in 2018 who designed my IRA to hedge against things like this. At this moment I am only down a bit over 4% since Feb 19.