The search for a bond substitute has been about as lunatic as Don Quixote’s quest for a fantasy world. Why a substitute for the Great Diversifier anyway? Because when interest rates move higher, bonds and stocks disintegrate in tandem. In the scourge of 2022, Vanguard’s total bond ETF lost 13%, not much better than the broad market’s -18%. Seeming more like de-worsification than diversification, the twin collapse spooked adherents of the venerable 60/40 portfolio.
But almost all of the vaunted replacements for bonds put forward by fixed-income detractors have come to naught.

I MAY BE WRONG, but I’m pretty sure Vanguard Group doesn’t have a secret plan to control the U.S. banking system. Not everyone is so confident, however.
There’s a federal regulation that no investor can buy more than 10% of the shares of a U.S. bank without regulatory approval if it’s seeking to “control” the bank. Thanks to the popularity of its index funds, Vanguard funds collectively owned 12.5% of State Street’s shares as of June 30.

DIVIDENDS ARE a seemingly mundane topic. But like many areas of personal finance, it’s one that still generates debate. The most common question: All else being equal, if one stock pays a dividend and another doesn’t, shouldn’t an investor prefer the one that pays the dividend? We’ll examine this question, and then broaden the lens to look at dividend strategies more generally.
To better understand how dividends work, let’s look at Procter & Gamble.

A mutual-fund company’s public relations representative once told me about what she dubbed the “conviction tour.” It was the late 1990s, and she and one of the firm’s star money managers toured the New York media talking about the importance of conviction when picking individual stocks. I guess they figured it was the sort of theme that would resonate with story-hungry financial reporters.
I like the idea of conviction. I think it can be hugely valuable to those with a prudent strategy.

WHEN WAS THE LAST time you got scammed? Mine was about a year ago, when I threw more than chump change into a red-hot newfangled exchange-traded fund called the JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (symbol: JEPI).
Now, JEPI could be the name of someone’s pet poodle, but it’s actually one of the more misunderstood high-income products in the burgeoning world of actively managed exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Just how red hot is the fund? Around for only four years,

IF YOU WORKED AT Vanguard Group, you felt like a kid in a candy store when it came to picking investments. There were so many well-run, low-cost funds to try. Yet my favorite fund wasn’t offered as an investment option in the Vanguard 401(k) plan. Ironically, it’s the fund that made Vanguard’s reputation.
Vanguard opened its S&P 500 index fund (symbol: VFIAX) in 1976. This first commercially offered index fund was designed to earn the U.S.

In going back over the comments on my last couple of articles, two reader concerns popped out at me. One, many of you still had faith in the Vanguard 500 S&P ETF (VOO/VFIAX) despite its concentration in giant AI-infused technology stocks. But, two, some readers would like to know how they might increase their diversification by adding a fund that did not always fluctuate in tune with one of the country’s most trusted large cap index funds.

How do you “stay the course”—in Vanguard founder Jack Bogle’s oft-used phrase—when those around you are losing their heads?
That can be exceedingly difficult, as the late July-early August market swoon demonstrated.
I like the old aphorism from legendary financier and advisor to U.S. presidents Bernard Baruch: “The main purpose of the stock market is to make fools of as many men as possible.”
You can easily appreciate that sentiment when the market seems to be gunning directly for you,

IT’S ONLY BEEN relatively recently that mankind has come to rely on banks, brokerage firms and investment companies to build wealth.
Tangible property—land, gold bars, houses, livestock and so on—was the standard of wealth just a couple of centuries ago. The Bible frequently cites cattle to signify someone’s wealth. If folks had “cattle on a thousand hills,” they were a billionaire in that era. Wealth was something that you could physically lay your hands on.

Do you rebalance your retirement portfolio?  Many studies have shown that you should. The folks at Hartford Funds compared the results of a 70/30 buy-and-hold strategy with annual rebalancing of an $100,000 lump sum investment from 1999 through 2023. The asset manager found that the rebalanced portfolio produced a nest egg over $13,000 greater than simple buy-and-hold.
But rebalancing does much more than just improve performance. It encourages you to sell high and then buy low,

My good friend Irving was about to open a Roth IRA with a $10,000 lump sum he had squirreled away in a savings account at his local bank. At thirty, he had just been promoted to manager of the production division of Widget Sure Repair, a manufacturer of easy-to-use tools for do-it-yourself homeowners. The promotion came with a large salary increase and my friend felt confident he could afford to make monthly contributions of $250 to the plan.

We’re probably financially independent (FI).  Based on multiple retirement calculators and hours upon hours of studying the issue, I’m confident, if my wife and I were to quit making money today, our nest egg, along with Social Security, would provide us a comfortable living for the remainder of our lives.  The only reason I’m still working is because my wife has the desire to travel more frequently and spoil our grandchildren in various ways.  I’m not certain we could safely generate the kind of income that would allow enough travel and spoiling to suit her. 

I TOOK MY FIRST cross-country car trip in 1972. It was the summer of my junior year in college. I’d be graduating the following year and embarking on working life. This would be my last chance for a while to take a long trip. I was traveling by myself, so I had the freedom to decide exactly what I wanted to do.
That’s what brought me to Pikes Peak near Colorado Springs, Colorado. One of the greatest auto races in America is the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.

The August 3rd Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on target date funds in 401k plans. The article notes:
”Target-date funds are a professionally managed portfolio of stocks and bonds that recalibrates the mix as we hurtle toward retirement age. These funds now attract 64 cents of every dollar that flows into 401(k) plans, Vanguard Group data shows, and hold trillions in assets.”
The article says some people reject these funds as too conservative and sometimes too expensive.

BONDS MAY NOT BE the most interesting investment, but they generate their fair share of debate. Especially after 2022’s rout, when total-bond market funds dropped 13%, many investors wonder how best to proceed. An open question: Does it make more sense to buy individual bonds or opt for bond funds?
To answer this question, let’s start with a simple example. Suppose you’d invested in Vanguard Group’s total-bond market fund (symbol: BND) on Jan. 1,