I just bought VFINX today

LOL! said:

alex, yep, thanks I saw that. I have three or four firms to choose from, but would like more and perhaps one in my neck of woods: Houston.

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Not sure about Houston, but good luck to you!

Alex said:

DFA funds are great index funds. The problem is the fact that you must either have a minimum of $1,000,000 to buy direct (that is for each fund!) or use an advisor. Fortunately, there are a few advisors that charge very reasonable fees. Such as Cardiff Park Advisors- http://www.cardiffpark.com/ that charge a flat fee not a percentage. If you are convinced that DFA is for you, I believe that is the best way to go. Personally, I'm pretty happy with Vanguard.

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I also like the DFA slice and dice approach and the fact that they have sectors not available at Vanguard but refuse to pay the advisor when I can get Vanguard for free. I got kind of excited when I read that you can buy direct with $1M until I saw that it was $1M/fund. $1M in small cap international value is a bit to much.

MB

agreed. i don't want to put one million in one fund if i only have a few million.

why did i read this WHOLE thread?

because you smoke too much crack

thefed said:

why did i read this WHOLE thread?

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Actually, I'm impressed how this board could take a troll's anti-index thread, beat the troll into submission, then hijack the thread to make it a reasonably useful thread about a family of index funds.

It's not the content, it's the journey.

newyorklady said:

because you smoke too much crack

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mb said:

I also like the DFA slice and dice approach and the fact that they have sectors not available at Vanguard but refuse to pay the advisor when I can get Vanguard for free. I got kind of excited when I read that you can buy direct with $1M until I saw that it was $1M/fund. $1M in small cap international value is a bit to much.

MB

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Another option in that situation are the core equity (I & II) and the vector equity portfolios from DFA. These are all cap portfolios with different degrees of value tilt. They are more tax efficient that the other Dimensional funds because as stocks move out of the SC universe into micro, mid, large (and vice versa) they don't have to be sold.

t

Here's a recent article

About the S&P 500

newyorklady said:

because you smoke too much crack

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is there a 'just right' amount of crack to smoke?

I got this weird picture of Goldilocks and the Three Drug Dealers in my mind.....

sorry, back to filing my taxes - ERD50

saluki9 said:

Another option in that situation are the core equity (I & II) and the vector equity portfolios from DFA. These are all cap portfolios with different degrees of value tilt. They are more tax efficient that the other Dimensional funds because as stocks move out of the SC universe into micro, mid, large (and vice versa) they don't have to be sold.

t

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Thanks

AirJordan said:

10k DODFX (Dodge and Cox)
8k RYVPX (Royce Value Plus)
5k FAIRX (Fairholme)
5k JSVAX (Janus Contrarian)
5k FBRVX (FBR Small Cap)
5k ARTKX (Artisan Small Cap)
10k VPCCX (Primecap Core)
10k PREOX (Perrit Emerging Ops.)

Beating Indexes is EZ

Also, I really don't like to trade, I'm more of a buy and hold type. I don't believe that panicing got anyone anywhere, and timing the market is too hard. If I wanted to trade I'd play with equities, but the consensus of the board is I'm not that smart...

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AirJordan hits a rough patch...

I give up I can't beat the market

i run both an actively managed portfolio and my index portfolio. ive been doing the active one for over 20 years and have beat the indexes . the active one has been fidelity insights growth mix. close to a 13% gain over that period annually. the big difference between my two are the drops. my worst year was down 14.5% in the active mix. although i didnt own the index mix back then it would have gotten slaughtered.

theres a place for both types just stick with the fund managers and funds with better long term track records . yeah they may occassionaly guess wrong but overall they tend to do fine.

the ole 80% of the fund managers beaten slogan is a very flawed statement.

you can say if you frequent the worst part of town your chances of being mugged are 80% but if your smart enough to only go to the better towns your chances of being mugged may drop to 2%.

there are lots of funds with crappy or mediocre long term records. if you remove those from your choice list your odds of having a active fund beat the indexes goes up drastically. even a quiet little stalwart like fidelity equity income has beat the indexes almost consistantly for over 20 years.

and theres something to be said for not being tax efficiant too. man i sold off a fund this year that wasnt very tax efficiant and man what a tax bill even after paying years of capital gains every year on it. you can have quite a tax torpedo when selling index funds that have had no taxes paid along the way.

Al,
I heard a news story that someplace - I think Michigan - has drive through lottery windows. I think the people would have a better time just throwing the dollars out the window as they drove.
I think I spend about $50/year on lottery tickets - I do it when I travel or the mood strikes - I like to dream.
I think the inverse intelligence rule applies to lotteries - the higher the intelligence the less you spend.