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have $100k to invest - want conservative investment

#1
want a conservative fund/ETF with monthly income. 
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#2
Everyone has a risk level and it is different for high low funds as well as for conservative.

When we started investing back in 1977 our risk level was near zero. As we tried new things, our acceptable risk level has increased. Perhaps it is after you grow to $500,000 or more. We have done well with FCNTX, FMILX, FLPSX and over last 5-10 very well with FUSVX and FNCMX.

These last 2 are index funds for sp500 and nasdaq, have lower fees which we are moving toward.

Recently we bought ~$60,000 of FZROX with all zero fees. It is like total market index, so new there are no charts or % returns.

I think 50-50 some of the index funds may be good. Probably a bigger issue is will the market continue up.

We use NHMAX sold by fidelity with limited fees for our monthly income. It is from nuveen.

Good luck in your endeavors.
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#3
Marty998- I was surprised with the 0.98% fee and 4.2% load additional for the last municipal sector fund. It reminds me of the charges involved...

Thanks for the information!
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#4
Mark: Me too. Yes, high fee. There is no load. We wanted to reduce our Federal tax, so using muni bonds.
 
Our 60 each muni bonds (4.75 to 5.25%) have decreased - recalled/redeemed by the various municipalities over the past 3 years.
They are down to 27 each now. We did not want more muni bonds at 3%, so we (wife) found Nuveen.  I like it too.

This represents a smaller portion (35%) of total - balance 65% is equity funds.

If there is something better, please advise. Good observation on your part.

 
When I look at what folks do, I wonder why is this and that - there is always a back ground story.
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#5
Thank you for the information!

How do we calculate monthly income that will be generated by investing $50K in NHMAX after paying for the fees and the load? I have been advised to buy MEMTX but not sure how much monthly income will be generated from this either. I wish I had asked the Fidelity advisor who recommended it. Btw, does any one here own MEMTX?
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#6
(11-22-2018, 01:05 AM)Spitfire Wrote: Thank you for the information!

How do we calculate monthly income that will be generated by investing $50K in NHMAX after paying for the fees and the load? I have been advised to buy MEMTX but not sure how much monthly income will be generated from this either. I wish I had asked the Fidelity advisor who recommended it. Btw, does any one here own MEMTX?

It is awkward, I agree.

We look at the "compare funds" website. If you find NHMAX and select the income tab, it shows the last dividend as $0.0735. Take this value and multiple it by the shares for your funds.


As an example we have ~$270,000 or about 15,642 shares. Multiply the dividend and shares (0.0735x15642) for ~$1149/month. I believe the monthly return is about 0.04255% (=1149/270000) and annual ~5.10% (=0.04255x12). Of course, there is a 0.98 annual fee to deduct from this.

You could do a similar calculation for your amount although we have noticed the buy price is slowly going up, so less shares are purchased.

In addition, this is muni bond earnings, so no Federal tax and we are not locked into a 30 year muni bond. If the market changes or we need more retirement monies, we can sell shares.
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#7
Vanguard (and several others too) have several all-in-one funds that may suit your required return/risk need: Get a complete portfolio in one all-in-one fund

Vanguard also has a few managed blended (growth/income) funds of different characteristics. The following link can be good starting point for your research:
Best Vanguard Funds To Invest In

PS: To clarify, the above is just to give some ideas about different choices available, rather than suggesting a specific one. The choices (across the universe of funds from all managers/companies) can be quite overwhelming and it'd be easier to narrow down if one can be more crisp about the specific requirements. Hope the various types of funds and their respective characteristics help in fine-tuning your requirements.
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#8
I agree with Omy's comment and was going to write something similar. But I though it might be useful to add on some specific fund names within the Vanguard offerings.
 
For someone who wants an easy and safe conservative choice and doesn't want to spend a lot of time and effort managing a number of different funds, I would suggest considering the Vanguard Wellesley Fund (VWINX).  It's one of the highest rated funds in the world (it has an overall 5-star rating from Morningstar), and it's one of Vanguard's more conservative funds, with about 36% in stocks and the rest in bonds and cash. Historically, you can see in the chart below, investments in this fund tend to steadily and slowly rise with no sharp jumps up or down. Even the great recession was only a small dip for this fund, and the relatively small loss experienced then was quickly recovered, within the same year, whereas many riskier funds took several years to recover. With $100,000 to invest (50K minimum), you can choose the "Admiral Shares" version of this fund, with the symbol (VWIAX), which has the same characteristics but slightly lower fees so you earn even more. If you buy through Fidelity there's a $75 commission; if you wish to avoid that, you should open a separate account directly with Vanguard.
   
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#9
(12-18-2018, 11:35 AM)DaMa Wrote: I agree with Omy's comment and was going to write something similar. But I though it might be useful to add on some specific fund names within the Vanguard offerings.
 
For someone who wants an easy and safe conservative choice and doesn't want to spend a lot of time and effort managing a number of different funds, I would suggest considering the Vanguard Wellesley Fund (VWINX).  It's one of the highest rated funds in the world (it has an overall 5-star rating from Morningstar), and it's one of Vanguard's more conservative funds, with about 36% in stocks and the rest in bonds and cash. Historically, you can see in the chart below, investments in this fund tend to steadily and slowly rise with no sharp jumps up or down. Even the great recession was only a small dip for this fund, and the relatively small loss experienced then was quickly recovered, within the same year, whereas many riskier funds took several years to recover. With $100,000 to invest (50K minimum), you can choose the "Admiral Shares" version of this fund, with the symbol (VWIAX), which has the same characteristics but slightly lower fees so you earn even more. If you buy through Fidelity there's a $75 commission; if you wish to avoid that, you should open a separate account directly with Vanguard.


Thumbs-up on VWIAX - not only it's MS 5-star, it also earned the Gold rating in the 30-50% equity category. Two other Vanguard Gold-rated funds in the same category, but slightly more aggressive are VTMFX and VFCGX. Although both have about the same % allocation on stock, VFCGX has exposure to some mid/small cap companies and VTMFX has international exposure for both Stock and Bond. The distribution yield of VWIAX is better than the other 2.
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#10
I second your recommendation of VWIAX. I have owned it for more than two decades and it has provided me with peace of mind at times when the markets have been in turmoil.
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