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Vanguard Total World Stock ETF May Be the Only Fund You Need
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"Vanguard Total World Stock Index (VT) offers unrivaled diversification. This comprehensive portfolio holds a piece of every investable stock in the world and marries it to a low fee. These features should make it tough to beat over the long run."
Vanguard's VT May Be the Only Fund You Need
Top Comment: Crazy to look at the past 70 years, the U.S. stock market has outperformed foreign stocks by 1% per year, but all of that outperformance has come after 2009. 🤷🏻♂️
[Need Clarity] Debt funds LTCG benefits may be removed for investments done after April 1st 2023
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Folks , this is a major major news .
In a major setback for Mutual Fund (MF) investors, the government may do away with the long term capital gain (LTCG) tax benefit benefits that a debt fund mutual investors enjoy. According to the proposed amendments, in the Finance Bill 2023, investment in mutual fund where not more than 35 percent is invested in equity shares of Indian company will now be deemed to be short-term capital gains. This will apply to investments made on or after 1 April 2023. Currently, investors in debt funds pay income tax on capital gains according to the income tax slab for a holding period of three years. After three years these funds pay either 20% with indexation benefits or 10% without indexation.
Will it mean indexation benefits are done with and debt funds and normal FD are in par now ?
We need to wait and watch on this , if this gets recalled - but this is such a major news that my jaw dropped.
Sources:
https://twitter.com/CNBCTV18Live/status/1639111031820804096
https://twitter.com/iRadhikaGupta/status/1639051747900497922
Top Comment: Few trends that have been clear to me: Govt wants to make money like a corporate entity. All revenue sources should go up YoY. Govt wants it easy and target low hanging fruits. Eg. a. 2018: 10% equity LTCG re-introduced b. 2018-2022: lowering interest rate on PFs, c. 2020: PF ee contribution taxable above 2.5L in a year d. 2023: push towards new regime, all tax deduction benefits to be removed gradually e. 2023: debt funds indexation benefits to go away, opening up the possibly of removing indexation benefits from all asset classes My prediction for the future: every gain will be taxed at income slab rate, no exception. Govt will market this as simplifying tax structure for the common man. We’re all set to see massive personal wealth erosion in our life times.
Work May Fund an Apprenticeship. Should I take it?
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My work are willing to fund a Cyber Security Analyst apprenticeship for 15 months. Part of me wants to take it. Another part of me is thinking whether being tied down to one place for the next year and a half is worth it.
My current role is very much "IT generalist". I could be doing anything from resetting passwords to setting up new servers. I don't quite have a specific honed subsection of IT to go down as of yet.
It it worth locking in for the next 15 months? Or should I keep my options open in case better, higher paying positions open up in the coming months?
Top Comment:
Fully funded apprenticeship and you get paid? Cmon, a year and half is not a long time. You also don't have a specialty and here a wonderful opportunity to do so, and you dont think so?
A 3 month emergency fund may not be enough anymore.
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I don't believe the 3 month e-fund advice holds water anymore. Especially for those in corporate jobs. Here's why:
I was laid off in the beginning of January. The company offered a 1 month severance. Not that I had a choice- but I accepted their offer.
I took a week off to feel bad about myself and mope- but got right back on the horse the very next week. Sending out LinkedIn messages to contacts, updating my resume, talking (on the phone!) to some former colleagues- putting out feelers. The 3rd week I started to steadily apply for jobs. At least 3 per day. I spent the time to tailor my resume and cover letter to each position. Many companies had unique screenings so it was different every time. A few even had me take logic tests online which took a good 30min to an hour each. I didn't get a single call back until week 5, which was just talking to HR reps. Week 6 I had 3 interviews with hiring managers. Now we are halfway into week 7, and I have meetings set up for week 8 with team members of a few different companies. If all goes well- MAYBE I get an offer by week 10 with a start date around week 12. And that's me getting lucky and having industry contacts pulling for me. And also being optimistic that these interviews will turn into offers. Not to mention the fact that I probably won't get paid until week 14 or 15 at the earliest.
During this time I haven't seen a penny from unemployment or my previous company. My previous company has 90 days to pay me severance, and unemployment is pending until they have someone look at my severance package. All 40 of the folks laid off at the same time as me are in the same boat.
I am very fortunate to have saved a large E-Fund because I had intuition that my company was underperforming and was very frugal over the last year. But I know a few of my ex-colleagues are in hot water. One of them has already had to sign up for door dash because he is worried about next month's mortgage payment.
TL;DR: Between covid, the slow hiring process of corporate jobs, and unemployment issues- you'd be lucky to start a job less than 3 months after getting laid off. Think carefully if that is enough of an e-fund for you.
Top Comment:
3 months is on the lower end of what is recommended -- I believe the prime directive here echoes wisdom elsewhere, which says that 3 to 6 months is good, but longer under uncertain conditions (COVID creating a lot of uncertainty in these times), even upwards of a year's worth.
SoftBank’s $100 Billion May Get Dwarfed By Tokyo’s $1.6 Trillion Fund
Main Post: SoftBank’s $100 Billion May Get Dwarfed By Tokyo’s $1.6 Trillion Fund
Top Comment:
“Fumio Kishida just did something that no Japanese leader has in eons: surprise global investors with a creative and doable plan to revive the economy’s once-fabled animal spirits.
The prime minister pledged to open a path for the $1.6 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund, the world’s largest such entity, to finance the startup boom his predecessors didn’t. “
This is huge! Japan has really been losing out to the rest of the world in tech recently
I may be raising a "trust-fund kid" and I'm not sure how to handle it.
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Recently, my parents announced that they had opened an account for my 3-year-old son that will grow $28,000 annually (the maximum non-taxable gift amount between both of them), effectively paying for college and giving him over a half-million dollars to do with as he wishes once he reaches adulthood. Additionally, my father stated that my son (and any additional grandchildren that may come from my siblings or me) will be the "primary benefactors" to his enormous wealth. Which means that there is a strong likelihood that he will have access to tens of millions of dollars when he grows up, if not significantly more. It sounds like their intentions are to make this money available to him at the outset.
How do I teach my son modesty in the face of what's to come? If I don't tell him until he's almost old enough to receive it, he may resent the deception; but if he is made aware of it at a young age, he may develop a superiority complex or even collapse under the weight of the overwhelming circumstances. I don't want to raise someone who thinks he can "have it all" without earning it, but that doesn't change the fact that that is his apparent new reality, at least eventually.
I also don't want him to feel like his grandfather is a hero and a great role model, because regardless of his financial status, he has significant problems and our relationship is loving but tenuous. He curses constantly, has a truly cruel sense of humor, is a copious drinker (drinks while driving constantly while literally mocking me for expressing my concern), and both parents think of themselves (and us) as being exclusive to a very high social circle. I could and would love to go on, but then I'd be taking the focus off my main concern, so I'll just leave it at that. I don't want my son looking up to them, and it will be very hard to discourage that while still acknowledging all that they are providing for him.
I'm still wrapping my head around all of this, so I apologize if I don't sound very coherent. I'm not sure what kind of advice can be offered, but any input would be greatly appreciated. He's young enough that we have time to carefully consider how we will handle this, thankfully, but it feels like the pressure has suddenly gone up dramatically.
Edit - corrected the college fund amount, it's $28,000 ($14,000 per parent), not $14,000.
Top Comment:
I'm in a similar boat. My kids won't know about any money that is coming to them until they are about to receive it.
As for college, they do know that we have a savings account set aside to help with tuition. And any scholarships they received to offset the cost means that the extra money is theirs upon graduation.
GNOME is the winner of Microsoft's FOSS Fund #20 (May 2022).
Main Post: GNOME is the winner of Microsoft's FOSS Fund #20 (May 2022).
Top Comment: So each month, open source contributors from Microsoft seem to vote on a project, and that project gets $10,000 USD. Gnome won #20 which is for May 2022.