David Swensen s Updated Model Asset Allocation
If you don’t know the name David Swensen, he is an investment manager who is best know for managing Yale Universities huge endowment. What makes him interesting is that even though he does invest in some hedge funds and private equity, he doesn’t believe that the common investor should try to emulate this. An excerpt from a recent interview in the Yale Alumni Magazine sums it up: That’s why the most sensible approach is to come up with specific asset allocation targets that you can implement with low-cost, passively managed index funds and rebalance regularly. You’ll end up beating the overwhelming majority of participants in the financial markets. In his 2005 book Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment, he proposed a model asset allocation using what he believes are the 6 “core asset classes” that an individual investor should own: Asset Allocation For 70% Stocks/30% Bonds (with ETF examples) 30% Domestic Equity (VTI, IYY) 15% Foreign Developed Equity (EFA, VEA) 5% Emerging Markets (VWO, EEM) 20% Real Estate (VNQ, ICF) 15% U.S. Treasury Bonds (SHY, IEF) 15% Inflation-Protected Securities (TIP, IPE) But in the Yale interview, he proposes a slight change that reduced real estate exposure in exchange for increased emerging markets holdings: Today, Swensen says, economic conditions might call for a modest revision. He now recommends that investors have 15 percent of their assets in real estate investment trusts, and raise their investment in emerging-market stock funds to 10 percent. This interview was printed in March/April 2009, so I’m not sure if you could call this performance chasing or not. I don’t follow his model asset allocation exactly anyway – I think the best idea is to read his excellent book and find out his reasoning for holding each asset class. The exact weightings you can hash out later. It definitely added another dimension to my investing views.
Box.net Free Fax Review: 100 Free Outgoing Fax Pages/Month
File-sharing and online collaboration site Box.net also has a handy feature that other similar services don’t have – 100 pages of free outgoing faxes per month via eFax. Their free Lite plan includes 1 GB of online storage with a per-file size limit of 25 MB. Simply upload the file you wish to fax (PDF files work well), right-click, and select Send with eFax. If you don’t see that option, click on “Add Applications” and find eFax. There are no ads, and if you need a cover sheet you’ll have to include that in the .PDF file you upload. The fax is sent immediately after you initiate it, and it was received by my fax machine without errors and with good print quality (for a fax). You do get a confirmation e-mail from eFax that it was sent successfully. Not bad at all for free! As a reminder, you can also sign up for a free fax number to receive incoming faxes at eFax or K7.net and have it sent to your e-mail. Together, I would imagine these services can cover most casual fax usage (assuming you have a scanner to convert things to PDF format).
Is Your Money Market Mutual Fund Yielding Zero?
In their most recent newsletter, Vanguard had an article about money market funds called Stability for yield: A fair trade? which basically warned investors about leaving their money market funds for other places because the extra return usually comes with extra risk. Usually, yes, but not always! Of course Vanguard is seeing people flee their money market funds; The Vanguard Admiral Treasury Money Market Fund (VUSXX) is yielding a sad 0.01%. The Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund (VMMXX) is barely beating that at 0.09%. But it’s not their fault, as the average yield on a money market fund is only 0.03%, which means many competitors are earning nothing! Move Your Money, But Stay Safe The Vanguard article correctly assumes that such low yields may tempt you to start looking at corporate bonds or funds with longer maturities. But what about the wide world of FDIC and NCUA-insured deposits? The new $250,000 insurance limits per titled accounts are now extended at least through 2013, and with careful titling of accounts, a couple can easily get $1 million covered at one institution. Here’s a recap of what’s out there: High-Yield Reward Checking Accounts These are checking accounts that are still fully insured, usually advertised locally through local credit unions, but also happen to pay a very high interest rate if you jump through some hoops each month. However, if you make a mistake you’ll forfeit virtually all your interest for that month, so it can be tricky. But for the very diligent, their rates are still averaging around 3-5% APY usually on balances up to $25,000. A current example that is available nationwide is Sierra Reward Checking at 4.09% APY on up to $25k, which requires 12 check card purchases each month, a direct deposit/auto-withdrawal, one BillPay per month, and online statements only. Online Savings Accounts With most online brokers these days, you can easily link your accounts to online banks and make direct funds transfers. At Vanguard, there is even a little icon that tells me straight up that I can transfer money to and from the money market fund quickly and safely. Here are some online banks where you’ll likely get a yield that is at least 150 basis points (1.50%) higher than any money market fund, if not much more. One primary drawback here is that you are limited to a maximum of 6 withdrawals per month, as it is a savings account. Everbank is offering 2.51% APY for the first 3 months for new accounts. This rate is higher than any 3-month certificates of deposit currently available. ShoreBank Direct is offering 1.95% APY on its online savings account with $1 to open and no monthly fees. Ally Bank Online Savings recently raised their “no fine print” savings account rate to 1.50% APY as of 12/8/09. No minimums, no monthly fees. Certificates of Deposit If you are willing to restrict access to your money for a while (you can get it out early, but must pay a penalty), your yield can go a bit higher, but not that much. As stated above, for 3-months or less go with Everbank. For example, a 12-month CD at Ally Bank will get you 1.89% APY, while stretching out to 3 years will bump you up slightly to 2.55% APY. In any case, check what your money market fund is yielding right now. Don’t let your cash sit and shrink from inflation in a money market fund, when you can get the same level of government-backed security with a lot more interest elsewhere.
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My Ooma Phone Initial Setup Experience
I received my Ooma Hub/Scout phone system from Walmart today, and it is already up and running. Thanks for your comments, and here’s was my setup experience. It literally only took 10 minutes before I was both calling out and receiving calls on my new phone number. The best part is that I didn’t have to make any tech support calls to set it up! In the box, there is the Ooma Hub, the Ooma Scout, and the usual AC adapters and ethernet/phone cables. Since we only have one telephone base with 3 handsets, I haven’t even opened the Scout yet (eBay?). Before connecting anything, you go to Ooma.com/activate and type in an 5-digit ID code from the bottom of the unit. Then you can either go ahead an pick a free phone number (check number availability) or port your existing number. Porting costs $40 or is free with a 1-year subscription to their Premium service ($120). You can just pick another number for now to test call quality, and then port later. Next, setting up the hardware is pretty simple. If you are like my household and have a cable/DSL modem connected to a WiFi router, then you simply place the Ooma Hub between the modem and the router like so: After turning everything off and then on again, wait for the indicator light on the Ooma to go from red to blue to indicate that it is ready. You then connect your phone and listen for the distinctive dial tone. If you’ve already disconnected your POTS landline, you can plug the Ooma into any wall jack and use your existing home wiring to connect additional phones throughout the house. That’s it, I was done! (Okay, setting up my free voicemail took another minute.) I like that they didn’t ask for credit card information, as I’m hoping to not pay anything ever again! Made some long distance calls and so far the quality has been good. I’ll have to use it over the next few weeks to see how reliable it is and if it interferes with my broadband internet speed. If anything, I wish I bought this thing earlier.
Ditch Cable Experiment #1: Over-The-Air (OTA) HDTV Antenna
I’ve decided to go without cable TV for at least 6 months from January 1st, 2010. I actually don’t mind paying for cable that much, it is simply an entertainment expense and given the overall convenience, not that expensive in my mind (especially if you haggle every so often). Primarily, I want to cancel it as a passive barrier against my future kids don’t watch too much TV. Also, I want to experiment with ways of re-allocating that $50-$70 per month into other entertainment methods. Potential Experiments. This gives me a little over a month head-start to find some solutions to fill the gap. I’ll probably start up NetFlix again, and considering getting a PS3/Wii with PlayON or a WD Media Player-like device for viewing downloaded content on my TV. I’ll need to figure out a smooth way to stream internet TV like Hulu to the living room with remote control (Roku?). For live sports, I wanted to see if I could grab some network channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS) off the air using an HDTV antenna for those that have an HDTV. I’m not really A/V-savvy, but after some reading all I got was that getting HD channels from an antenna is not necessarily like using the old rabbit ears, but also still similar. I mean, it’s digital, so with a good signal you’ll be getting HD-quality images that is just as good as cable TV. However, it’s still over-the-air, so reception quality matters; It’s not like you either get nothing or 100% clarity. Finding what’s available. To see what broadcast channels are generally available in your area, visit Yahoo TV and input your zip code > Antenna > Broadcast TV. Next, visit AntennaWeb to get a better idea of what you’ll actually get, and tips on where to point your antenna if needed. Buying an antenna. If you actually have “rabbit ears”, break them out and try them first. There is actually no such thing as an “HDTV-specific” antenna. I don’t have any, and to try this it out I wanted to buy an antenna from a local retailer so that I could return it easily if I didn’t get adequate reception. I stopped by Radio Shack and picked up their Amplified HDTV Antenna for $35. The online reviews were mixed, but there were some positive ones, so I gave it a shot. Result. In a word, disappointing. I was only supposed to get ABC and FOX in my neck of the woods, but the reception wasn’t that great for either one. The image was widescreen and HD but was “blocky”. If I stood near the antenna or held it just right for a minute, it would get acceptable but wouldn’t stay that way. It may be just my antenna, review site HDTVAntennaLabs and Amazon users seem to like the indoor Antennas Direct DB2 at a reasonable $38 and the outdoor Winegard HD8200U at $140, not including installation poles and such. I don’t know if it’s worth the bother for a few channels, but if you’re in a nice flat metro area you may be able to do much, much better.
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