Very clearly explained. The question really is can one achieve a similar outcome as a TIP’s using a nominal treasury ladder say 1 - 5 years without the volatility of a long dated TIP’s strategy? I appreciate it’s not an apples to apples comparison but I suspect with duration risk being kept very short (i.e. 2 to 2.5 years), a nominal treasury ladder with frequent maturity can give one a similar outcome as holding a long dated TIP’s ladder with reduced volatility.
Javier, I retired about 2 years ago. Until recently I managed all our family investments etc largely focused on simple index ETF’s. I immensely enjoyed reading about investments, legal tax strategies, etc. and managing our portfolio’s. About 5 months ago, we outsourced all our assets to a money management / planning firm. We did this simply to protect my spouse in the event something happened to me. She has very little interest in managing money. From this perspective (which was our key motivator) it has so far been a very good and useful experience. In terms of actually presenting interesting ideas - there hasn’t been much. I’m not pointing at the manager as I’m still quite hands on and insists on keeping 90% of our portfolio simple and boring. Having said all this, the primary objective has been achieved and in our case there is value in these services outside day to day management!
An important investment lesson here for sure. My only thought is are you really diversified and is FOMO relevant? Looking at a couple of EM ETF’s recently that classify South Korea and Taiwan as EM’s (MSCI), these funds are now nearly 50% semi-conductor/chips. Very similar to the S&P500. So not sure if one is missing anything !
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Very clearly explained. The question really is can one achieve a similar outcome as a TIP’s using a nominal treasury ladder say 1 - 5 years without the volatility of a long dated TIP’s strategy? I appreciate it’s not an apples to apples comparison but I suspect with duration risk being kept very short (i.e. 2 to 2.5 years), a nominal treasury ladder with frequent maturity can give one a similar outcome as holding a long dated TIP’s ladder with reduced volatility.
Post: Feeling TIPSy?
Link to comment from August 22, 2026
Javier, I retired about 2 years ago. Until recently I managed all our family investments etc largely focused on simple index ETF’s. I immensely enjoyed reading about investments, legal tax strategies, etc. and managing our portfolio’s. About 5 months ago, we outsourced all our assets to a money management / planning firm. We did this simply to protect my spouse in the event something happened to me. She has very little interest in managing money. From this perspective (which was our key motivator) it has so far been a very good and useful experience. In terms of actually presenting interesting ideas - there hasn’t been much. I’m not pointing at the manager as I’m still quite hands on and insists on keeping 90% of our portfolio simple and boring. Having said all this, the primary objective has been achieved and in our case there is value in these services outside day to day management!
Post: The Quiet Failure of Good Advice
Link to comment from May 31, 2026
An important investment lesson here for sure. My only thought is are you really diversified and is FOMO relevant? Looking at a couple of EM ETF’s recently that classify South Korea and Taiwan as EM’s (MSCI), these funds are now nearly 50% semi-conductor/chips. Very similar to the S&P500. So not sure if one is missing anything !
Post: The World’s Least Useful Financial Adviser
Link to comment from May 29, 2026