Recent content by Freddy

Enjoy lunch. Whole life would be a poor choice. Fixed annuities at the right time where you are getting around 6% would not be bad for part of the income allocation. VA's junk. I have been pitched on Eq UIL's to supplement my IR and retirement plan and they can have up to triple tax deferral...

6.5% is pretty good Alan. You did not mentioned 12-31-2008? Still calculating or not so good? I hope it is still calculating. :)

VBINX: Performance for VANGUARD BALANCED INDEX FUND - Yahoo! Finance Good point. I wish more investors had been in balanced funds. My statement about the broad indexes does hold up. I gave those as examples. I wish I knew what sort of cap gains investors were hit with. It appears the...

Seems a bit high. The 1980s and 1990s were also abberations with high returns. Factor 1802 to 2009 and my guess after expenses is around 5.8%. Good post. :coolsmiley:

Harley - I am not selling. Just suggesting that everyone keep an open mind. Fixed annuities at 5 to 6% (they have come down a bit) are looking pretty good versus a 40% loss in indexes, 3% CDs, zero return in the S&P 500 for the past 12 years, T bills at zero or ??? Still the fixed annuities...

I think investors should keep an open mind and do their homework. They also need to be wary of Money, Smart Money and CNBC. Maybe I came on too strong but there is good and bad in securities, mutual funds, annuities and insurance. A no-load equity index or ETF with a 0.25% expense ratio...

A more thoughtful post and i appreciate the tone of discussing these topics. Some people here have said I have an agenda and i should not start a post taking these issues on. Sorry but this is the United States and we still have the First Amendment. I saw nothing on the board saying it was...

I agree discount brokers are a huge help for investors, however the majority of do-it-yourselfers got killed in 2008. It do not matter which asset class was used. The median loss was probably 35-40%. A decent financial planner or annuity salesman, if they sold a decent equity index annuity...