Junk bonds were strong, even though higher-grade bonds dragged. This can sometimes happen when investors are optimistic about corporate health. Since ordinary bonds slipped, the extra yield from owning higher risk bonds over safer bonds is slimmer than it was a month ago. Vanguard High Yield Corporate was up 0.92% ...read the rest of this article»

The real action here on the upside was our stake in utilities. American Century Utility Income gained 5% last month. Unfortunately we have recently cut this category out of some of our other portfolios, and have sliced the stake down to just 5% here. Since we bought this fund in the depths of the Enron era, this position has climbed 80% - a full 33% in the last twelve months alone. This party has gone on a little too long. ...read the rest of this article»

The Conservative portfolio moved up 0.88% in May because of general strength in bonds and stocks. Our shorter-term bond focus and relatively small equity stake left us behind the market indexes. ...read the rest of this article»

The Conservative portfolio rose .29% in April, reflecting a strong bond market. Our equity funds were down for the month, but strength in larger allocations to bond funds overshadowed the losses. ...read the rest of this article»

Because of the relative complexity of these trades we have created an easy-to-use trade worksheet that subscribers who invest in the Conservative Portfolio can download, print out, and fill in to help them determine how much of their holdings need to be bought and sold to match our post-trade portfolios and to rebalance. ...read the rest of this article»

We’re happy this portfolio’s performance. Only two of the funds were actually down for the month, Vanguard Short Term Corporate was down .21% - a decent indication of how this fund does when interest rates climb a bit. It would be difficult – if not impossible - to lose more than 10% in a year in this fund no matter what happens to the bond market. ...read the rest of this article»

The Conservative portfolio lost .46% for the month of January. We were too light on longer term bonds to have a positive return in a month when most categories of funds slipped. ...read the rest of this article»

The main drivers were utility and foreign stocks. American Century Utility Income was up a whopping 23.8% in 2004, as this formerly out of favor category finally caught investor’s attention. Forward International Small Company – a high risk fund we have at just 5% now – was up 25.5%. ...read the rest of this article»

No funds in this portfolio are issuing a capital gains distribution that warrants the selling of the fund to avoid a tax hit. We do advise new investors who are just adding a stake to wait until after the record date to purchase this portfolio’s funds in a taxable account. ...read the rest of this article»

Utilities are proving to be one of the strongest areas in the market this year. We’ve owned a utilities fund in most of our model portfolios these past few years so we are pleased to see this formerly out of favor area take off. ...read the rest of this article»