John Spencer

9% Yields Still Available on Municipal Bond Funds

To see the fees for individual ETF's you have to go to that ETF's profile sheet. For instance, go to Barclay's web site, and type in JNK and you will get the profile, including the fee.

Personally I could care less about the fee. JNK is paying over 10%, the fee is very small in comparison.

I own JNK, HYG, LQD, again not a large part of my portfolio, but enough to get a pretty good cash return every month.

9% Yields Still Available on Municipal Bond Funds

One asked about getting 11% return with principle protection.

Though nothing is 100% protected in this world, UBS has been offering "structured products" for individual stocks that have paid 8 to 11% annually with protection from 25 to 40%, meaning the stock can go down 25 to 40% before you have any risk.

Example,

This month, I am going to buy one of these structured products for Amazon. The return will be 10%, the term is 6 months, and as long as the underlying stock does not drop 25% or more, I get 100% of my principle back. If it does drop 25% or more, I will get the underlying stock at market price on the close of the contract. The interest is paid monthly for some, quarterly for others. The terms vary from 6 months to 2 years. I have had about 20 of these so far, and even during the big market drop in March, I did not have any default to paying in shares of stock due to a drop below the protection limit.

UBS has dozens of these for index's and commodities, though I tend to stay away from these as they do not pay as well.

Each month UBS offers several individual stocks with similar conditions. Also UBS is not necessarily the holder of them, they broker from other banks as well. They are not FDIC insured though, so you have to weigh that with your risk tolerance.

I have about 7% of my portfolio in these structured products, and since I now have quite a few, some come due every month and I roll them over into new contracts. The only gripe I have about them is the closeout date is generally the end of the month. To get new ones you have to purchase them by the middle of the month, with a strike date around the 25th of the month. Net, if one comes due, you cannot get the money reinvested until the next month, thus losing a month. I have worked with this by parking the money in another investment for the month so I am not losing out on the return.

The principle protection by the way includes the fee. You will get your 100% back at the end of the term, not 100% minus fee.

9% Yields Still Available on Municipal Bond Funds

Living4Dividends,

I have LQD, HYG, and JNK. Though there are some fees involved, the returns have been very good. Given I bought these in April, all 3 have gone up considerably, so not only did I get the dividends, I also captured a lot of capital gains. I am now thinking that the market is likely to slow down some or flatten completely, so I plan on giving up on LQD. I have another investment that will pay 11% with principal protection. I might lose some on cap gains, but at this stage I want to play it safe. I will keep HYG and JNK.

Readjusting Expectations for Market Recovery

I have no idea where the market will go, but one thing that is not helping is all the media rant and negative articles. Things are bad, but screeming and yelling on TV about the economy are not helping.

The stimulus package will help some, not sure how much. It is just starting so no effect has been seen yet.

Mixed Prospects for U.S. Consumer Products, Durables Sectors

Steadfastmason, you have a good point, however, it is in fact cheaper to make the product in China, ship it here, and put it on your store shelf at a bargain price, cheaper than we can make it here. It is not just the cost of the manufacturing, but also the cost of the raw materials, which are also a reflection of wages in places like China.

The cost of any product (from economics books) is the sum total of the cost of all the wages that went into making it. I tend to agree with the, although there are some modifiers.

Let's assume the bowl is steel. The labor to punch it out might be 5 cents there, 10 cents here. You mentioned packaging. The cost of labor to package the bowl in a box let's say is cheaper there than here. The cost of the box itself cheaper there than here because the labor to make that box is cheaper. The cost of the steel is probably less there than here as the labor to make the steel there is cheaper than here.

The entire manufacturing life cycle of a product is a reflection of labor costs, all the way back to the cost to mine the materials to make it, or if it is made from recycle material, the cost to recycle it.

So, for us (US) to make a product cheaper on the store shelf than China, every aspect of the manufacturing of the product has to be looked and, and we should. One quick step we can do is to stop using so much packing material. Have you recently bought scissors? It comes in a heavy cardboard backing, with a plastic front face, all printed with expensive inks. And there is no way to even open the package holding the scissors without a pair of scissors. Hmmm. That packaging add bulk, so shipping is less efficient and a shipping container that holds say 100 of them is less efficient (bigger). Packaging can add 40% to the cost of the product or more.

Oh well, we have a long learning curve to go through, don't we.

Mixed Prospects for U.S. Consumer Products, Durables Sectors

Steadfastmason, you have a good point, however, it is in fact cheaper to make the product in China, ship it here, and put it on your store shelf at a bargain price, cheaper than we can make it here. It is not just the cost of the manufacturing, but also the cost of the raw materials, which are also a reflection of wages in places like China.

The cost of any product (from economics books) is the sum total of the cost of all the wages that went into making it. I tend to agree with the, although there are some modifiers.

Let's assume the bowl is steel. The labor to punch it out might be 5 cents there, 10 cents here. You mentioned packaging. The cost of labor to package the bowl in a box let's say is cheaper there than here. The cost of the box itself cheaper there than here because the labor to make that box is cheaper. The cost of the steel is probably less there than here as the labor to make the steel there is cheaper than here.

The entire manufacturing life cycle of a product is a reflection of labor costs, all the way back to the cost to mine the materials to make it, or if it is made from recycle material, the cost to recycle it.

So, for us (US) to make a product cheaper on the store shelf than China, every aspect of the manufacturing of the product has to be looked and, and we should. One quick step we can do is to stop using so much packing material. Have you recently bought scissors? It comes in a heavy cardboard backing, with a plastic front face, all printed with expensive inks. And there is no way to even open the package holding the scissors without a pair of scissors. Hmmm. That packaging add bulk, so shipping is less efficient and a shipping container that holds say 100 of them is less efficient (bigger). Packaging can add 40% to the cost of the product or more.

Oh well, we have a long learning curve to go through, don't we.

Paulson's Message to Detroit: Drop Dead

Looks to me like the government is going to let them go into bankruptcy. Comments were made that a lot of the parts in cars are made overseas anyway, which is somewhat true, but not a majority of the parts. That aside, so we let them go bankrupt, and then we have zero, no US based auto companies, only foreign car companies. Then we will complain that there is no competition and we are sending money overseas. Ok, fine, go ahead, let them go bankrupt and see what happens with what will be a huge experiment.