[Aviator1211]

Originally Posted by Gigi3000

EDIT:I WOULD ONLY LEAVE IT IN THE MM FOR 6 MONTHS THEN BACK TO VTTVX

Should i move all funds to Vanguard Federal MM? I have it currently in VTSAX and VTTVX. I'm not the best at reading my returns but neither have paid a dividend or a very small one this year. Its an IRA. Ive been to a financial advisor but these interest rates have gone up in the last few months so i question whether i should do their recommendations at this time.

Attempting to time the market is usually not a good idea. Full time professionals with extensive education who are paid to do that often fail. Best to choose a strategy based on your tolerance for risk and stick with it. If you want guidance, hire a Vanguard advisor. They are much lower cost than most advisors.

[Postreader]

Originally Posted by Gigi3000

EDIT:I WOULD ONLY LEAVE IT IN THE MM FOR 6 MONTHS THEN BACK TO VTTVX

Should i move all funds to Vanguard Federal MM? I have it currently in VTSAX and VTTVX. I'm not the best at reading my returns but neither have paid a dividend or a very small one this year. Its an IRA. Ive been to a financial advisor but these interest rates have gone up in the last few months so i question whether i should do their recommendations at this time.

I moved from the Vanguard total stock fund to Vanguard to MM funds about 3 months ago. I have experienced, what I consider, good returns over the past 10+ years in the total stock fund. I made the move because MM interest rates have been moving up, I no longer want to worry about volatility, my age, and I'm not as concerned about maximizing my returns. The Vanguard MM funds I use are currently earning 4.7+ %. I am expecting another bump up with the expected Feds increase today. I will reconsider the MM when rates start to significantly dip.

I believe VTTVX is a target date fund (stocks and bonds). That fund seems to have moderate risk. That fund may work for you.

I think it is good idea to solicit the opinions of others but base your decision on the advise of an investment advisor who probably knows more.

Good luck!

[spinner1001]

Originally Posted by Aviator1211

Attempting to time the market is usually not a good idea. Full time professionals with extensive education who are paid to do that often fail. Best to choose a strategy based on your tolerance for risk and stick with it. If you want guidance, hire a Vanguard advisor. They are much lower cost than most advisors.

Gigi:
If you are motivated to switch into cash for six months and then back into stock exposure, as you say, to time the market, studies indeed show that market timing is an ineffective investing strategy over the long run. In this case, you are implicitly forecasting that stock prices will fall during the next six months and then rise as you say that you would be moving back into stocks. No one knows. Ask 10 people about stock prices over the next six months and you will get 10 different answers (11 on TOTV).

If, however, you are very worried about the outlook and can’t sleep at night because of hearing lots of bad news, then this is good reason to talk with a competent and unbiased financial advisor soon. Such discussion will probably calm you in this case.

[Villages Kahuna]

Remember, the “cost” of moving your investments to cash is the rate of inflation. You may protect your investment from declining with the stock or bond markets, but the purchasing power of your cash will have been eaten away by inflation.

[Fltpkr]

Talk to a Vanguard rep. I am sure they will suggest that you take/keep a diversified balanced approach unless you have a compelling cash need. They will also be able to take into account factors you have not mentioned, such as your age, investment horizon, risk comfort level, cash needs (for RMD or other), etc. Timing the market is a fool’s game (my opinion). However you are likely to see a number of different views here - read them all with a grain of salt.

[manaboutown]

We now live in unsettling times. Everyone's situation is different. No one size fits all. For what it's worth (if anything) at age 81 I am keeping 30% of my securities portfolio in cash and cash equivalents, 6 month T-bills, Vanguard and Schwab MM and short term bond funds. 20% remains in BRK/B which I have held almost 40 years. The 50% remainder is mostly in dividend paying large and mid cap stocks and ETFs comprising them.

[Gigi3000]

Originally Posted by rsmurano

IMO, don’t have a lot of your money just sitting around as cash because the banks are having major issues and money just sitting around above $250k ($500k if joint) because fdic only covers $250k or $500k. I moved most of our money to 1 money market paying 4.85% a month ago

Yeah, I'm keep an eye on that. I bought some CDs through Vanguard that, even tho FDIC insured, are currently making me nervous. Having more than 500,000 in Vanguard MM would make me nervous too.

[Gigi3000]

Originally Posted by Plinker

Check out these two websites. Fee-only, certified financial planners.
1. Garrettplanningnetwork.com
2. Napfa.org (National Association of Personal Financial Advisors
Fee-only is NOT the same as fee-based!
I would strongly recommend, as others suggest, to avoid Parady and any other “annuity” companies. You will VERY likely be sold an annuity. They are commission driven and not fee-only.
Also, I cannot say enough positive things about Vanguard.

Yes. I had to fight the annunity sales people off when I inherited retirement funds.

[Gigi3000]

Originally Posted by Caymus

Is your advisor suggesting that you should be 100% in fixed income?

No buy would only be for 6 months then ill move it back again....?

[Boomer]

Originally Posted by Gigi3000

Yes. I had to fight the annunity sales people off when I inherited retirement funds.

Yep. One day I was having lunch with Mr. Boomer in my favorite back home restaurant. (Trio — for those of us from my hometown. )

Anyway, in the booth across from us was an older woman who was being double-teamed — not just one, but two annuity salesmen.

This was several years ago and I did not yet have silver hair, but she did. I could hear enough of the conversation to figure out she had been widowed and probably had been left in good financial shape but did not know what to do with what she had.

Mr. Boomer saw me tuning into that conversation. (Yes. I was eavesdropping but I could not help it. I accept it as my curse/gift to be able to filter conversations while still carrying on a conversation of my own.)

It was all I could do to restrain myself from moving over to sit next to her, across from those 2 “charmers” sitting opposite her in that booth and laying it on thick — with words like “guaranteed” and phrases like “no more worries.”

My skin was crawling and being who I am, it was really hard to keep myself from intervening.

(In my hometown, there are a lot of people who have worked for and have long held stock in a local behemoth that has been belching out dividends for over 100 years and has increased that dividend annually, consecutively, for almost as many years as I have been alive. Annuity salesmen just love to get their hands on those shares and they often do.)

For years, every time I have heard a woman say, “Oh I don’t know anything about all that stuff. HE takes care of it for us,” I want to scream…….

Boomer

[Gigi3000]

Originally Posted by Boomer

Gigi3000,

If I may, I am jumping the track a little here to offer a suggestion.......

I must give some unsolicited of advice, woman to woman. I assume you are a woman named Gigi. (I am a woman named Boomer.)

When I saw what you wrote in your post, I just have to say that if I were you, I would never mention my own numbers when talking about investments. I think it's fine to discuss investments, taxes, etc., in general, but I always keep specific numbers to myself -- definitely in real life, and on TOTV, too, even though it might feel anonymous here.

(This is not intended to be a criticism or to try to embarrass. It is just a little reminder that it is best to keep your own numbers to yourself when talking about money matters.)

Re. moving money, I think you can speak with someone at Vanguard on the phone to ask questions -- not sure about that though, but someone here will know.

If you prefer a bricks and mortar meeting, Fidelity has offices in various locations where you can line up an in-person meeting. There is an office in TV. You can also arrange for a phone call with a Fidelity advisor -- I think. I would avoid advisors in banks. But that's just my personal aversion to bank advisors showing.

Also, be careful of those guys who always want to buy you dinner first.

Boomer

PS: Don't expect tax advice from financial advisors because they are usually not tax accountants.

Yes, I'm a woman. Thanks for the tips! I'm, by nature, skeptical of people . Sad huh... ...also I actually just talked to Vanguard. i think im going to switch it over for 6 months. The only thing i forgot to ask if is each individual MM account has SPIA insurance up 500,000 if they total them all

[Gigi3000]

[QUOTE=Boomer;2213972]Yep. One day I was having lunch with Mr. Boomer in my favorite back home restaurant. (Trio — for those of us from my hometown. )

Anyway, in the booth across from us was an older woman who was being double-teamed — not just one, but two annuity salesmen.

This was several years ago and I did not yet have silver hair, but she did. I could hear enough of the conversation to figure out she had been widowed and probably had been left in good financial shape but did not know what to do with what she had.

Mr. Boomer saw me tuning into that conversation. (Yes. I was eavesdropping but I could not help it. I accept it as my curse/gift to be able to filter conversations while still carrying on a conversation of my own.)

It was all I could do to restrain myself from moving over to sit next to her, across from those 2 “charmers” sitting opposite her in that booth and laying it on thick — with words like “guaranteed” and phrases like “no more worries.”

My skin was crawling and being who I am, it was really hard to keep myself from intervening.

(In my hometown, there are a lot of people who have worked for and have long held stock in a local behemoth that has been belching out dividends for over 100 years and has increased that dividend annually, consecutively, for almost as many years as I have been alive. Annuity salesmen just love to get their hands on those shares and they often do.)

For years, every time I have heard a woman say, “Oh I don’t know anything about all that stuff. HE takes care of it for us,” I want to scream…….

Boomer[/QUOT

When those sales people were talking to me, it made my skin crawl too. I just knew it wasn't in my best interest even though i knew nothing about annuities. Of course i read more after that, plus i talked to people here. The real tip off was i couldn't read the contract until after signing. What's the dealo with THAT!?!

Ive been doing my own investing for 15 years, inside of an IRA. This is a new ball game outside of an IRA.....its blowing my mind that what i earn each year can be taxable income. My fiduciary drilled that into my head. Its been a learning year!

Plus with Medicare and SS around the corner, decisions decisions, decisions ....

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

It sounds like you want to move out of stocks and into a 100 percent bond portfolio. If so, I would suggest that you spread the money into several Vanguard funds, such as:

Federal Money Market fund (30 percent)
Short Term Bond Index fund (30 percent)
Total Bond Market Index fund (25 percent)
High Yield Corporate Bond fund (15 percent)

Stay away from any long term bond funds, where the average bond duration is more than about 8 years. Just a suggestion.

Agreed. If one thinks that a recession is coming this year, then it is a good time to make those changes that are outlined in this post. Incidentally, I like Vanguard very much. Another possibility is about 5% of an ETF for gold and/or silver.

[jimjamuser]

duplicate, sorry

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by Caymus

Is your advisor suggesting that you should be 100% in fixed income?

If an advisor says that you should be 100% in ANY one thing, my advice would be to get ANOTHER ADVISOR.
..........BECAUSE, no matter WHAT economic projection is expected, it IS ALWAYS better to maintain DIVERSIFICATION. Since crystal balls are not available, the next best idea is to stay diversified!