William Perry

Comments

• Your comment "Our heirs will inherit the remaining mutual fund balances when we pass away" got me thinking about my conversion from mutual funds to their ETFs class earlier in 2026. I also wonder if the recent 1 trillion dollar record valuation level of the S&P 500 ETF (VOO) at Vanguard was caused in part by many baby boomers converting their mutual funds to their ETF class, especially if you know your beneficiary already has a similar type account at a different brokerage firm. While inherited mutual fund shares in a taxable account can typically be transferred directly to the beneficiary's own similar type brokerage account at the same brokerage firm it may be easier for a beneficiary if the original owner does a conversion of a mutual fund to its ETF class during the original owner's life to avoid forcing the beneficiary from having to sell the inherited mutual funds to transfer inherited assets. Vanguard, like most brokerage firms, has a useful guide for beneficiaries that has matters the original owner(s) may want to consider during life when thinking about the nuts and bolts of transfers that will occur when they are no longer alive.

  Post: The Market’s Unpredictability

  Link to comment from June 13, 2026

• That is fair. As a retired CPA (inactive) I do tend to think of many things financial as simple, but the same is true for many topics based on your own career training and experiences. My expectation is that most who read and particularity those who write or comment on this website will not have any problem with constructing a TIPS ladder should they desire to do so. A ten years TIPS ladder give non spouse beneficiaries time to hold the TIPS in the inherited retirement accounts to maturity. How to keep them from cashing them out quickly seems to me to be the harder problem.

  Post: Better Alternatives to Buying an Annuity

  Link to comment from June 10, 2026

• Hi Dennis, I found a new little thing based on age. It was recently time for the annual renewal for my umbrella policy. The premium has increased a bit every year since I first got the policy but this year the proposed premium increased over 40% from the prior year. No car accidents, no tickets, no claims of any kind on either the bundled house or vehicle insurance policies, and a credit score in the excellent range. What gives on the increase? Rereading the umbrella declarations I noted the following bullet point - 2 Operators in the household of which 1 is 75 or over. After a call to my insurance company agent of more than a quarter century I confirmed my suspicion that this company deems those of us age 75 and over a higher risk and they were billing me for their statistically higher risk. Apparently, other umbrella insurance companies set a rate increase at age 80 so I am back to renewing my new umbrella policy at a bit of an increase every year for the next five years with a different insurance company but with the same agent. If the time comes when I no longer feel safe driving or the state takes away my drivers license I may forego renewing my umbrella policy. Best, Bill

  Post: It’s The Little Things That Scare Me Now

  Link to comment from June 10, 2026

• As to your point about the difficulty of building a TIPS ladder I would encourage the watching of the 2025 Boglehead's conference presentation titled TIPS Ladders with Kevin Esler. The free tool Mr. Esler has developed makes building a TIPS ladder less complex in my opinion. I like to keep my taxes simple so I only own TIPS is a traditional or a Roth IRA. I have bought my TIPS mostly at auction but have bought some TIPS on the secondary market to fill in my rolling 10 year TIPS ladder rungs. I would also note that the benefits from annuities are not indexed to inflation where buying individual TIPS, not TIPS funds, will return the real yield rate of the TIPS at purchase plus inflation if held to maturity. With annuities you may benefit from mortality credits from the members of the pool who die early but you suffer the expenses that are associated with annuities. Does the company issuing an annuity have the ability to fulfill their obligation to me under an annuity? Likely they do but I see TIPS as the most riskless asset I can purchase. I agree with you regarding using a financial ladder, TIPS or other fixed investments, will run out of money when the ladder benefits ends. For me TIPS are just a large part of the fixed income portion of my overall asset allocation. I am a fan of the writings of financial writer David Enna and his website TIPSwatch and his statement about the purpose of TIPS when he wrote I want to state loudly that TIPS are for preserving wealth, not building wealth.

  Post: Better Alternatives to Buying an Annuity

  Link to comment from June 10, 2026

• The typical index fund only includes the free-float weighted portion of the stock available to general investors. The estimate I have seen for Space X is that only 3%-4% of the initial IPO will be free-float. Here is a Wikipedia explanation of free-float that I found useful. I will own a small sliver of Space X soon, just like every stock in the index. A good example is the Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT) is free float adjusted.

  Post: SpaceX IPO: Is Margin Optional?

  Link to comment from June 5, 2026

• My little voice is also talking to me about my asset location and makes suggestions about how my holdings should be split between taxable, traditional IRA and Roth and also between the legal ownership being my spouse or me. Not knowing which of will die first or how long both of us will live also keeps my little voice busy. Presentations such as Adam Grossman's The Center Lane and your article helps me to quiet the voice when I split the difference on my actions whenever the answers to the questions are mostly unknowable in advance of the outcome. Thanks Mark.

  Post: The World’s Least Useful Financial Adviser

  Link to comment from May 29, 2026

• I am half way through the book as of yesterday evening. Enjoyable read and classic Jonathan Clements.

  Post: Money & Me (Kindle version) has dropped

  Link to comment from May 27, 2026

• Thanks Ben. I enjoyed listening to the Morningstar interview with Adam you linked to. Besides the writings Adam has contributed to Humble Dollar he also has a blog on his Mayport website that I enjoy and he was also a presenter at the Boglehead 2024 conference with a 501 session titled The Center Lane.

  Post: Adam Grossman on The Long View

  Link to comment from May 26, 2026

• Thanks for the interesting article Adam. I believe your article thinking parallels the Bogle Center YouTube post titled Financial Historian Mark Higgins in Fireside Chat with Bill Bernstein from the 2025 Bogleheads conference. That chat and the Higgins book, Investing in U.S. Financial History, concluded that the best practice following the U. S. historical guidance, which started with Alexander Hamilton, was to pay off our national debt accumulated during war or emergency as soon as possible. In the interview Mr. Higgens noted the last time such a pay down of such national debt occurred was after WWI, long before any of us were alive. Higgens and Bernstein's conclusion for how should we as individuals invest given where we are today is that history argues for humility, diversification, low-cost indexing, and staying the course through crises in our own investment decisions.

  Post: Inflation and Innovation

  Link to comment from May 23, 2026

• The Bogle Center posted a YouTube video titled Bogleheads Hall of Fame 2025 Induction Jonathan Clements about six days ago recorded on October 18, 2025 at the 2025 Bogleheads conference. I am looking forward to one more visit with Jonathan's writings in Money and Me.

  Post: Money and Me by Jonathan Clements

  Link to comment from May 17, 2026