TastyTrade Referral (Important Correction!)

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Update: I’m very sorry, I was in a rush and read the offer wrong. There is no $500 for the referred person. Please don’t open and fund. If I end up getting a $500 reward for referring you, I will send you the $500. However, I don’t have a way of tracking this, so please contact me now if you opened an account with my referral code and have already funded. My recommendation is to not fund – especially due to the long 6-month holding period.

TastyTrade brokerage is offering a $500 double referral offer. However, it is only for the referring person, not the referred.

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Berkshire Hathaway 2024 Annual Shareholder Letter by Warren Buffett

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Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) released its 2024 Letter to Shareholders (also see full 2024 Annual Report), which Warren Buffett traditionally also uses as an educational instrument. As always, I recommend reading it yourself (only 13 pages total this year). I enjoy reading the letter first (with no spoilers), then peruse the various newspaper and media commentary, and finally re-read the letter again. Here are my personal highlights and commentary.

The total market cap of Berkshire is now over $1 trillion dollars. The total value of their public equity holdings was $272 billion. The total of their cash holdings was $334 billion. The total value of their controlled businesses was about $400 billion.

Berkshire’s businesses are doing fine overall, especially their insurance business. Their controlled businesses just continue to churn out cash, which obviously adds to the cash pile if there are no new investments. BRK parks nearly all of its cash in Treasury Bills, which made a lot of interest in 2024 as compared to the past several years.

No significant new purchases, in either public or private businesses. Berkshire wants to own great businesses, but only when paying the right price. However, he didn’t give any indication that he thinks folks are completely nuts. On a relative basis, you can judge for yourself with this chart of BRK’s cash as a percentage of assets. Source: WSJ (gift article).

American businesses are still special, although it takes vigilance to stay that way. Berkshire owns some international companies based in Europe and Japan, but it has always been and remains predominantly US-based businesses.

Berkshire shareholders can rest assured that we will forever deploy a substantial majority of their money in equities – mostly American equities although many of these will have international operations of significance. Berkshire will never prefer ownership of cash-equivalent assets over the ownership of good businesses, whether controlled or only partially owned.

Paper money can see its value evaporate if fiscal folly prevails. In some countries, this reckless practice has become habitual, and, in our country’s short history, the U.S. has come close to the edge. Fixed-coupon bonds provide no protection against runaway currency.

Berkshire is not buying Berkshire anymore. BRK has ceased with the buybacks, which means that they are either at or above his estimation of fair value.

Patience and discipline may be the lesson here. Altogether, the letter was a nice, familiar reminder that the things that made Berkshire Hathaway great are still the same. No surprises, no big drama. Right now, valuations are plump so they are holding onto what they already have and other accumulating cash. Berkshire is disciplined enough to do nothing when there is nothing smart to do. I can still hear Charlie Munger saying something to the tune of “It’s not the worst place to be, drowning in cash!”

Perhaps that is the lesson. Everything is at least fairly-valued if not higher. Hold what you have. Let it compound. Be patient. There will be new opportunities eventually.

Past shareholder letter notes.

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Fidelity Money Market Funds: Claim Your State Income Tax Exemption (Updated 2025)

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Updated. As the brokerage 1099 forms for the 2024 Tax Year are coming out, here is a quick reminder for those subject to state and/or local income taxes. If you earned interest from a money market fund, a significant portion of this interest may have come from “US Government Obligations” like Treasury bills and bonds, which are generally exempt from state and local income taxes. However, in order to claim this exemption, you’ll likely have to manually enter it on your tax return after digging up a few extra details.

(Note: California, Connecticut, and New York exempt dividend income only when the mutual fund has met certain minimum investments in U.S. government securities. They require that 50% of a mutual fund’s assets at each quarter-end within the tax year consist of U.S. government obligations.)

Fidelity has released US GOI percentages for 2024 on their institutional website, but it’s a little hard to read since it includes a lot of funds and share classes that are used by Fidelity-affiliated financial advisors and institutional portfolios. Their tax document page still says “Expected mid February” – Update 2/22: 2024 Percentage of Income from
U.S. Government Securities now available
. The numbers from both sources are the same, although rounded off differently for some reason.

Here are the results for the most popular core Fidelity money market funds:

  • Fidelity® Treasury Only Money Market Fund (FDLXX, CUSIP 31617H300) – 97.0032%.
  • Fidelity® Government Money Market Fund (SPAXX, CUSIP 31617H102) – 55.0877%.
  • Fidelity® Government Cash Reserves (FDRXX, CUSIP 316067107) – 57.1917%.
  • Fidelity® Treasury Money Market Fund* (FZFXX, CUSIP 316341304) – 50.5640%. *FZFXX did not meet the minimum investment in U.S. Government securities required to exempt the distribution from tax in California, Connecticut, and New York.
  • Fidelity® Government Money Market Fund Premium Class (FZCXX, CUSIP 31617H706) – 55.0877%. This fund has a $100,000 minimum, but also a lower expense ratio than SPAXX, which means it earns about 0.10% more yield annually as of this writing 2/20/25.

To find the portion of Fidelity dividends that may be exempt from your state income tax, multiply the amount of “ordinary dividends” reported in Box 1a of your Form 1099-DIV by the percentage listed in the PDF. For example, if you earned $1,000 in total interest from Fidelity Treasury Only Money Market Fund (FDLXX) in 2024, then $970.03 could possibly be exempt from state and local income taxes. If your marginal state income tax rate was 10% that would be a ~$97 tax savings for every $1,000 in total interest earned.

On a net after-tax basis, folks with a ~10% state income tax rate will likely find that FDLXX earns more interest than the default core holdings of SPAXX/FZFXX, even though the gross yield of SPAXX/FZFXX is higher than that of FDLXX.

To obtain these tax savings, you’ll have to manually adjust your state/local income tax return. I don’t believe that TurboTax, H&R Block, and other tax software will do this automatically for you, as they won’t have the required information on their own. (I’m also not sure if they ask about it in their interview process.) If you use an accountant, you should also double-check to make sure they use this information. Here is some information on how to enter this into TurboTax:

  • When you are entering the 1099-DIV Box 1a, 1b, and 2a – click the “My form has info in other boxes (this is uncommon)” checkbox.
  • Next, click on the option “A portion of these dividends is U.S. Government interest.”
  • On the next screen enter the Government interest amount. This will be subtracted from your state return.

Standard disclosure: Check with your state or local tax office or with your tax advisor to determine whether your state allows you to exclude some or all of the income you earn from mutual funds that invest in U.S. government obligations.

[Image credit – Tax Foundation]

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Vanguard T-Bill/Ultra-Short Treasury ETF, iShares Money Market ETFs Now Live

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Vanguard’s new index ETFs that hold short-term US Treasury Bonds are now live (press release).

  • Vanguard 0-3 Month Treasury Bill ETF (VBIL). Tracks the Bloomberg US Treasury Bills 0-3 Months Index, which holds T-Bills with maturities of 3 months or less. Expense ratio of 0.07%.
  • Vanguard Ultra-Short Treasury ETF (VGUS). Tracks the Bloomberg Short Treasury Index, which includes U.S. Treasury Bills, Notes, and Bonds with less than 12 months until maturity. Expense ratio of 0.07%.

Both are the lowest-cost ETF in their respective categories. As a result, I expect they will grow to be popular as now you can access low-cost cash from Vanguard without opening a brokerage account at Vanguard.

For now though, they’ve only been around for several days, so the volume is still relatively low and the bid/ask spreads are relatively high. For now, I am keeping my current favorite cash ETF holding: iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF (SGOV) with an expense ratio of 0.09%, close enough for now.

This ETF.com article points out that this is a growing sector for ETFs, with iShares also launching two of the earliest money market ETFs this month:

  • iShares Prime Money Market ETF (PMMF). Actively managed money market ETF. Expense ratio of 0.20%.
  • iShares Government Money Market ETF (GMMF). Actively managed money market ETF. Expense ratio of 0.20%.

These ETFs do not hold only US Treasuries, but instead hold a basket of cash-equivalents that satisfy the strict SEC money market rules under Rule 2a-7 that help to ensure both safety of principal and liquidity in times of market stress. However, this covers a variety of “safe” stuff besides Treasuries so the interest paid out may not be exempt of state and local income taxes. The “Government” money market is more likely to have a higher percentage that qualifies, but when I looked at their holdings there are a lot of various swaps and/or derivatives that probably don’t count as US government obligation interest.

Anyway, interesting that you can buy money market funds as ETFs now. If they are successful, I don’t see why Vanguard wouldn’t enter this sector as well. I’m confident they could beat those expense ratios.

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Callan Periodic Table of Investment Returns 2024 Year-End Update

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Callan Associates updates a “periodic table” annually with the relative performance of 9 major asset classes over the last 20 years. Above is the most recent snapshot of 2005-2024, which you can find on their website Callan.com. The best performing asset class is listed at the top, and it sorts downward until you have the worst performing asset. I find it easiest to focus on a specific Asset Class (Color) and then visually noting how its relative performance bounces around.

The Callan Periodic Table of Investment Returns conveys the strong case for diversification across asset classes (stocks vs. bonds), capitalizations (large vs. small), and equity markets (U.S. vs. global ex-U.S.). The Table highlights the uncertainty inherent in all capital markets. Rankings change every year. Also noteworthy is the difference between absolute and relative performance, as returns for the top-performing asset class span a wide range over the past 20 years.

Beyond showing the value of diversification, you can still see how performance chasing is hard to avoid. Look at the orange and maroon squares from 2005 to 2010; Emerging Markets Equity and REITs had some crazy-awesome years in the past, and everyone wanted to own them back then. These days, you hardly hear anything. The same could easily end up being true for what has been doing well in the last 5 years – US Large Cap Equity. Or not. Everything is always so much clearer in hindsight!

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Best Interest Rates Survey: Savings Accounts, Treasuries, CDs, ETFs – February 2025

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Here’s my monthly survey of the best interest rates on cash as of February, roughly sorted from shortest to longest maturities. Banks love taking advantage of our idle cash, and you can often earning more money while keeping the same level of safety by moving to another FDIC-insured bank or NCUA-insured credit union. Check out my Ultimate Rate-Chaser Calculator to see how much extra interest you could earn from switching. Rates listed are available to everyone nationwide. Rates checked as of 2/9/2024.

TL;DR: Liquid, short-term rates slightly lower overall. Longer-term rates actually went up a little; there are 4%+ APY 5-year CDs. Compare against Treasury bills and bonds at every maturity, taking into account state tax exemption. I no longer recommend fintech companies due to the possibility of loss due to poor recordkeeping and lack of government regulation. (Ex. Evergreen Wealth at 5% APY is a fintech.)

High-yield savings accounts
Since the huge megabanks still pay essentially no interest, everyone should at least have a separate, no-fee online savings account to piggy-back onto your existing checking account. The interest rates on savings accounts can drop at any time, so I list the top rates as well as competitive rates from banks with a history of competitive rates and solid user experience. Some banks will bait you with a temporary top rate and then lower the rates in the hopes that you are too lazy to leave.

  • The top saving rates at the moment top out at about what Quontic Bank offers at 4.75% APY (No min). Roger.bank is at 5.00% APY (no min), but does require an additional checking account. I have no direct experience with either, but those are top rates. CIT Platinum Savings is now at 4.30% APY with $5,000+ balance.
  • SoFi Bank is at 3.80% APY + up to $325 new account bonus with direct deposit. You must maintain a direct deposit of any amount (even $1) each month for the higher APY. SoFi has historically competitive rates and full banking features. See details at $25 + $300 SoFi Money new account and deposit bonus.
  • Here is a limited survey of high-yield savings accounts. They aren’t the top rates, but a group that have historically kept it relatively competitive such that I like to track their history.

Short-term guaranteed rates (1 year and under)
A common question is what to do with a big pile of cash that you’re waiting to deploy shortly (plan to buy a house soon, just sold your house, just sold your business, legal settlement, inheritance). My usual advice is to keep things simple and take your time. If not a savings account, then put it in a flexible short-term CD under the FDIC limits until you have a plan.

  • No Penalty CDs offer a fixed interest rate that can never go down, but you can still take out your money (once) without any fees if you want to use it elsewhere. Marcus has a 7mo/13mo No Penalty CD at 4.15% APY with a $500 minimum deposit. Farmer’s Insurance FCU has 9-month No Penalty CD at 4.25% APY with a $1,000 minimum deposit. Consider opening multiple CDs in smaller increments for more flexibility.
  • Abound Credit Union has a 8-month certificate special at 4.75% APY ($500 min). Anyone can join this credit union nationwide with $10 fee. Early withdrawal penalty is 90 days of interest.

Money market mutual funds
Many brokerage firms that pay out very little interest on their default cash sweep funds (and keep the difference for themselves). Note: Money market mutual funds are highly-regulated, but ultimately not FDIC-insured, so I would still stick with highly reputable firms.

  • Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund (VMFXX) is the default sweep option for Vanguard brokerage accounts, which has an SEC yield of 4.27% (changes daily, but also works out to a compound yield of 4.35%, which is better for comparing against APY). Odds are this is much higher than your own broker’s default cash sweep interest rate.
  • Vanguard Treasury Money Market Fund (VUSXX) is an alternative money market fund which you must manually purchase, but the interest will be mostly (100% for 2024 tax year) exempt from state and local income taxes because it comes from qualifying US government obligations. Current SEC yield of 4.26% (compound yield of 4.35%).

Treasury Bills and Ultra-short Treasury ETFs
Another option is to buy individual Treasury bills which come in a variety of maturities from 4-weeks to 52-weeks and are fully backed by the US government. You can also invest in ETFs that hold a rotating basket of short-term Treasury Bills for you, while charging a small management fee for doing so. T-bill interest is exempt from state and local income taxes, which can make a significant difference in your effective yield.

  • You can build your own T-Bill ladder at TreasuryDirect.gov or via a brokerage account with a bond desk like Vanguard and Fidelity. Here are the current Treasury Bill rates. As of 2/7/25, a new 4-week T-Bill had the equivalent of 4.32% annualized interest and a 52-week T-Bill had the equivalent of 4.24% annualized interest.
  • The iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF (SGOV) has a 4.27% SEC yield (0.09% expense ratio) and effective duration of 0.09 years. SPDR Bloomberg Barclays 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF (BIL) has a 4.18% SEC yield (0.136% expense ratio) and effective duration of 0.15 years.

US Savings Bonds
Series I Savings Bonds offer rates that are linked to inflation and backed by the US government. You must hold them for at least a year. If you redeem them within 5 years there is a penalty of the last 3 months of interest. The annual purchase limit for electronic I bonds is $10,000 per Social Security Number, available online at TreasuryDirect.gov.

  • “I Bonds” bought between November 2024 and April 2025 will earn a 3.11% rate for the first six months. The rate of the subsequent 6-month period will be based on inflation again. More on Savings Bonds here.
  • In mid-April 2025, the CPI will be announced and you will have a short period where you will have a very close estimate of the rate for the next 12 months. I will have another post up at that time.

Rewards checking accounts
These unique checking accounts pay above-average interest rates, but with unique risks. You have to jump through certain hoops which usually involve 10+ debit card purchases each cycle, a certain number of ACH/direct deposits, and/or a certain number of logins per month. If you make a mistake (or they judge that you did) you risk earning zero interest for that month. Some folks don’t mind the extra work and attention required, while others would rather not bother. Rates can also drop suddenly, leaving a “bait-and-switch” feeling.

  • OnPath Federal Credit Union (my review) pays 7.00% APY on up to $10,000 if you make 15 debit card purchases, opt into online statements, and login to online or mobile banking once per statement cycle. Anyone can join this credit union via $5 membership fee to join partner organization. You can also get a $100 Visa Reward card when you open a new account and make qualifying transactions.
  • Genisys Credit Union pays 6.75% APY on up to $7,500 if you make 10 debit card purchases of $5+ each per statement cycle, and opt into online statements. Anyone can join this credit union via $5 membership fee to join partner organization.
  • La Capitol Federal Credit Union pays 6.25% APY on up to $10,000 if you make 15 debit card purchases of at least $5 each per statement cycle. Anyone can join this credit union via partner organization, Louisiana Association for Personal Financial Achievement ($20).
  • Falcon National Bank pays 6.00% APY on up to $25,000 if you make at least 15 debit card purchases, 1 direct deposit OR ACH credit transaction, and enroll in online statements.
  • Credit Union of New Jersey pays 6.00% APY on up to $25,000 if you make 12 debit card purchases, opt into online statements, and make at least 1 direct deposit, online bill payment, or automatic payment (ACH) per statement cycle. Anyone can join this credit union via $5 membership fee to join partner organization.
  • Andrews Federal Credit Union pays 6.00% APY on up to $25,000 if you make 15 debit card purchases, opt into online statements, and make at least 1 direct deposit or ACH transaction per statement cycle. Anyone can join this credit union via partner organization.
  • Find a locally-restricted rewards checking account at DepositAccounts.

Certificates of deposit (greater than 1 year)
CDs offer higher rates, but come with an early withdrawal penalty. By finding a bank CD with a reasonable early withdrawal penalty, you can enjoy higher rates but maintain access in a true emergency. Alternatively, consider building a CD ladder of different maturity lengths (ex. 1/2/3/4/5-years) such that you have access to part of the ladder each year, but your blended interest rate is higher than a savings account. When one CD matures, use that money to buy another 5-year CD to keep the ladder going. Some CDs also offer “add-ons” where you can deposit more funds if rates drop.

  • KS State Bank has a 5-year certificate at 4.30% APY ($500 minimum), 4-year at 4.30% APY, 3-year at 4.30% APY, 2-year at 4.25% APY, and 1-year at 4.30% APY. $500 minimum. The early withdrawal penalty (EWP) for the 5-year is a huge 540 days of interest.
  • Mountain America Credit Union (MACU) has a 5-year certificate at 4.35% APY ($500 minimum), 4-year at 4.30% APY, 3-year at 4.25% APY, 2-year at 4.05% APY, and 1-year at 4.35% APY. Early withdrawal penalty for the 4-year and 5-year is 365 days of interest. Anyone can join this credit union via partner organization American Consumer Council for a one-time $5 fee (or try promo code “consumer”).
  • You can buy certificates of deposit via the bond desks of Vanguard and Fidelity. You may need an account to see the rates. These “brokered CDs” offer FDIC insurance and easy laddering, but they don’t come with predictable early withdrawal penalties. Right now, I see a 5-year non-callable CD at 4.25% APY (callable: no, call protection: yes). Be warned that both Vanguard and Fidelity will list higher rates from callable CDs, which importantly means they can call back your CD if rates drop later. (Issuers have indeed started calling some of their old 5%+ CDs during 2024.)

Longer-term Instruments
I’d use these with caution due to increased interest rate risk (tbh, I don’t use them at all), but I still track them to see the rest of the current yield curve.

  • Willing to lock up your money for 10 years? You can buy long-term certificates of deposit via the bond desks of Vanguard and Fidelity. These “brokered CDs” offer FDIC insurance, but they don’t come with predictable early withdrawal penalties. You might find something that pays more than your other brokerage cash and Treasury options. Right now, I see a 10-year CDs at [n/a] (non-callable) vs. 4.48% for a 10-year Treasury. Watch out for higher rates from callable CDs where they can call your CD back if interest rates drop.

All rates were checked as of 2/9/25.

Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash

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Morningstar Discussion about The State of Vanguard in 2025 (Highlights)

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As a follow-up to my thoughts on Should I Stay with Vanguard? and their recent expense ratio drop announcement, I recently listened to this 30-minute Morningstar video with Daniel Sotiroff and Susan Dziubinski about the current state of Vanguard in 2025. I think it provided some good additional context. Here are some highlights and brief commentary.

Vanguard funds brought in another net $222 billion last year, with the ETFs up $306 billion but the mutual funds losing $84 billion. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF brought in $117 billion all by itself. Vanguard holds over $10 trillion in assets total. Overall, they are not struggling at all.

However, with the mutual funds following the industry trends and still losing assets, mutual fund holders should be wary of them being forced to sell positions and create capital gains distributions. This includes foremost their actively-managed mutual funds but possibly eventually their Target Retirement 20XX Funds.

Vanguard is rolling out a lot of new bond ETFs. Vanguard Core Tax-Exempt Bond ETF (VCRM), a broad US muni-bond ETF. Vanguard Short Duration Tax-Exempt Bond ETF (VSDM), a short-term US muni-bond ETF. Both ETFs launched November 2024.

Coming in 2025 are the low-cost index ETFs that hold T-Bills: Vanguard 0-3 Month Treasury Bill ETF (VBIL) and the Vanguard Ultra-Short Treasury ETF (VGUS). Then there is Vanguard Short Duration Bond ETF (VSDB), which is actively-managed and will hold short-term bonds across multiple bond sectors.

Vanguard is splitting off their Wealth and Advice division entirely. It will now be completely separate from the Personal Investors division, showing how important it is to the current company. Heading this division will be Joanna Rotenberg, most recently employed at the wealth advice division of Fidelity Investments. As an everyday Vanguard customer, I’m constantly seeing their advice ads to meet with an advisor, but I’m still waiting for them to actually make the product useful. With all these new executives, I guess I’ll have to give them at least another year or two to figure it out. Count me as hopeful on this one.

The new CEO from BlackRock, Salim Ramji, has also stated a desire to focus on helping retires to create income from their portfolios. The drawdown period is another big problem in the industry, which I don’t think anyone else has solved yet either. In fact, creating a stable paycheck is even harder than just growing your portfolio over time and accepting the volatility. Count me as skeptical on this front.

There is an upcoming virtual Joint Special Meeting of Shareholders on February 26, 2025. Sounds like a good example of “Oh, the fund holders own the company and get a say in things!”, but after looking at the fund proxy vote , it looks like the usual nothing-burger. There’s only one real question on the proxy vote card (the second one is “You gonna go to the meeting?”). They’ve already picked the replacement trustees that they want; it’s not like it’s an election where people are running with different platforms. You basically vote for them all, or withhold your vote against them all. Given the huge institutional holders, I don’t even know if every retail investor voted “against all” that it would actually prevent any of their chosen picks from joining the board.

Image credit to Canva AI “HMS Vanguard on hopeful seas at sunrise”

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Vanguard ETF & Mutual Fund Expense Ratio Drops (February 2025)

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It’s been a while since Vanguard announced a big round of expense ratio cuts, and just in time for their upcoming 50th anniversary, they announced what they call the largest fee cut in Vanguard history spanning 87 funds and projected to save fundholders $350 million this year (effective 2/1/25). In this regard, I am not worried about Vanguard. They know that low costs are core to their identity.

At Vanguard, we believe our funds’ impressive long-term performance owes much to their low costs. For the 10 years ended December 31, 2024, 84% of our funds outpaced the average results of competing funds. The performance of our actively managed fixed income funds has been especially strong: 91% of our active bond funds and 100% of our money market funds have outpaced their peers’ average results.

In fact, I worry that they focus on low costs too much. Cuts are nice, but these expense ratio cuts mean probably 0.01% for the average investor, or $1 a year per $10,000 invested. I’d much rather Vanguard keep the 0.01% and spend it on maintaining a highly-trained, long-tenured staff. There is a palpable difference when talking with a typical Fidelity employee vs. Vanguard employee. I think Vanguard is heading in the right direction, but their staffing still feels much less experienced.

Here are the largest funds and ETFs with expense ratio drops:

I would point out that the ETF version of some of the mutual funds are still slightly cheaper. For example, BND is at 0.03% while VBTLX went from 0.05% to 0.04%. Again, small margins, but you can hold Vanguard ETFs easily at any brokerage and I like that optionality.

Here are a limited sample of funds that I have held in the past that were affected:

  • Vanguard Total International Stock Market (VXUS) lowered to 0.05%.
  • Vanguard Treasury Money Market Fund (VUSXX) lowered to 0.07%.
  • Vanguard California Municipal Money Market Fund (VCTXX) lowered to 0.12%.
  • Vanguard Intermediate-Term Treasury ETF (VGIT) lowered to 0.03%.
  • Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO) lowered to 0.07%.
  • Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US ETF (VEU) lowered to 0.04%.

Here are the current expense ratios on the four broadest ETFs + their classic S&P 500 ETF:

  • Vanguard Total US Stock Market (VTI) at 0.03%.
  • Vanguard Total International Stock Market (VXUS) at 0.05%.
  • Vanguard Total US Bond Market (BND) at 0.03%.
  • Vanguard Total International Bond (BNDX) at 0.07%.
  • Vanguard 500 Index (VOO) at 0.03%.

I find it interesting that one of the last places where the “Vanguard Effect” hasn’t shown up is in money market funds. They still have consistently the best and cheapest default cash sweep money market funds, Treasury money market funds, and Municipal money market funds. They also have some of the best muni funds in general. They are expanding their bond ETFs, but for now access to these alone is a strong reason to stay with Vanguard as a brokerage if you are DIY investor.

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Vanguard Money Market Funds: Claim Your State Income Tax Exemption (Updated 2025)

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Updated February 2025. As the brokerage 1099 forms for the 2024 Tax Year are coming out, here is a quick reminder for those subject to state and/or local income taxes. If you earned interest from a money market fund, a significant portion of this interest may have come from US Treasury bills and bonds, which are generally exempt from state and local income taxes. However, in order to claim this exemption, you’ll likely have to manually enter it on your tax return after digging up a few extra details.

(Note: California, Connecticut, and New York exempt dividend income only when the mutual fund has met certain minimum investments in U.S. government securities. They require that 50% of a mutual fund’s assets at each quarter-end within the tax year consist of U.S. government obligations.)

Let’s take the default cash sweep option for Vanguard brokerage accounts, the Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund (VMFXX), which has an SEC yield of 4.29% as of 1/31/25. Vanguard has recently released the U.S. government obligations income information for Tax Year 2024 [pdf] for all their funds, which states:

This tax update provides information to help clients properly report state and local tax liability on ordinary income distributions received from mutual fund investments in 2024.

On the next page, you’ll find a list of Vanguard funds that earned a portion of their ordinary dividends from obligations of the U.S. government. Direct U.S. government obligations and certain U.S. government agency obligations are generally exempt from taxation in most states.1

To find the portion of Vanguard dividends that may be exempt from your state income tax, multiply the amount of “ordinary dividends” reported in Box 1a of your Form 1099-DIV by the percentage listed in the PDF. Note that on the IRS Form 1099-INT, there is a special Line 3 that includes “Interest on US Savings Bonds & Treasury obligations”. However, for the Vanguard funds, they report on 1099-DIV and not 1099-INT. My Vanguard 1099-INT was all zeros.

For the Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund (VMFXX), this percentage was 59.87% in 2024. (For reference, it was 49.37% in 2023.) Therefore, if you earned $1,000 in total interest from VMFXX in 2024, then $598.70 could possibly be exempt from state and local income taxes. If your marginal state income tax rate was 10% that would be a ~$60 tax savings for every $1,000 in total interest earned. For 2024, this fund met the threshold requirements for California, Connecticut, and New York, which require that 50% of the fund’s assets at each quarter-end within the tax year consist of U.S. government obligations.

In comparison, the Vanguard Treasury Money Market Fund (VUSXX) had a GOI percentage of 100% in 2024. (For reference, it was 80.06% in 2023.) If your marginal state income tax rate was 10% that would be a $100 tax savings for every $1,000 in total interest earned. With a very similar SEC yield of 4.27% as of 1/31/25, this is why many people chose to manually buy VUSXX instead of the default settlement fund as it can earn you a higher after-tax interest rate.

The following Vanguard funds and ETF equivalents have 100% of their interest from US government obligations:

  • Short-Term Treasury Index Fund (VGSH, VSBSX)
  • Intermediate-Term Treasury Index Fund (VGIT, VSIGX)
  • Long-Term Treasury Index Fund (VGLT, VLGSX)
  • Extended Duration Treasury Index Fund (EDV)
  • Short-Term Inflation-Protected Securities
    Index Fund (VTIP, VTAPX)
  • Inflation-Protected Securities Fund (VIPSX, VAIPX)

Note that several other Vanguard funds have a lower but nonzero percentage of dividends from US government obligations, including the popular Vanguard Target Retirement Income funds. It may be worth a closer look for residents of certain states, especially those with larger balances and closer to retirement (holds more bonds).

To obtain these tax savings, you’ll have to manually adjust your state/local income tax return. I don’t believe that TurboTax, H&R Block, and other tax software will do this automatically for you, as they won’t have the required information on their own. (I’m also not sure if they ask about it in their interview process.) If you use an accountant, you should also double-check to make sure they use this information. Here is some information on how to enter this into TurboTax:

  • When you are entering the 1099-DIV Box 1a, 1b, and 2a – click the “My form has info in other boxes (this is uncommon)” checkbox.
  • Next, click on the option “A portion of these dividends is U.S. Government interest.”
  • On the next screen enter the Government interest amount. This will be subtracted from your state return.

Here are some links to find the percentage of ordinary dividends that come from obligations of the U.S. government. You should be able to find this data for any mutual fund or ETF by searching for something like “[fund company] us government obligations 2024”]. If you do not see the fund listed within the fund company, it may be assumed to be 0%. The data is sometimes not released until mid-February.

Standard disclosure: Check with your state or local tax office or with your tax advisor to determine whether your state allows you to exclude some or all of the income you earn from mutual funds that invest in U.S. government obligations.

[Image credit – Tax Foundation]

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Firstrade Brokerage: 3% Match on IRA Contributions, 2% Match on IRA Rollovers

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Firstrade is a discount brokerage firm that is smaller but has been around for decades. They have a new IRA match promotion with a 3% match on contributions and a 2% match on IRA transfers and 401k-to-IRA rollovers (up to a $20,000 match amount). They have no minimum balance requirements, no annual fees on the IRA, and they don’t require any premium subscription (like Robinhood Gold). There is a minimum 5-year hold period. You can also get up to $250 in transfer fee rebates for eligible transfers over $2,500. Must open IRA by 2/21/25.

Update: For IRA rollovers, note that the fine print states “Mutual funds and Fixed income products transferred into the account are excluded from the calculation of rewards for this offer.”

More details:

1. Open a Firstrade IRA. Open a Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, or Rollover IRA during the promotion period.

2. Make Contributions or Transfers. Contributions: We’ll match 3% of new contributions made within 30 days of account opening. Transfers: We’ll match 2% of the total amount transferred from another IRA or 401(k) made within 30 days of account opening, up to a maximum of $20,000 match bonus.

3. Earn Rewards. Bonuses are paid 30 days after your new account is approved.

Get a 3% match on contributions and a 2% account transfer boost when you open a Firstrade No-Fee IRA. No minimums, annual, setup or maintenance fees—plus, enjoy commission-free trading on stocks, ETFs, options, and mutual funds.

Promotion Period: Open to U.S. residents who open a new retirement account (Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, or Rollover IRA) between January 21, 2025, and February 21, 2025, and fund the account within 30 days of approval.

This is very similar to the current Robinhood IRA promo, but without the Robinhood Gold requirement that costs $5/month. You may prefer Firstrade as they have a published phone customer service number and a physical branch in Flushing, NY. Customer support is also available in traditional and simplified Chinese, with representatives who speak both Cantonese and Mandarin. Or you may just appreciate that they aren’t Robinhood.

This would be a great offer if Robinhood didn’t already do it first and locked many of us into their 5-year hold period, but then again, if Robinhood didn’t do it first, then Firstrade probably wouldn’t have made this offer.

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Vanguard 10-Year Stock Market Forecasts 2025-2035 (+Retrospective)

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Vanguard recently released their most recent annual 10-year forecast as of mid-November 2024 (effectively the beginning of 2025). The beginning of the year is the time for forecasts, and that also makes it a good time to remind ourselves how badly they can be wrong and how you shouldn’t really use them for anything.

Let’s look back at how those same forecasts performed from 2011-2021, with confidence ranges within the 25th and 75th percentiles. I have some old images saved from when Vanguard gave us an update in 2021.

For US Stocks between 2011-2021, their forecast in 2011 was roughly between 6% and 12% annually for US stocks, for a median around 9%. That a wide band! The actual return? 13.4%. As of early 2025, we are still outside their confidence bands.

For Global ex-US Stocks between 2011-2021, their forecast in 2011 was roughly between 6% and 11% annually for US stocks, for a median around 8.5%. The actual return? 4.0%. As of early 2025, we are still outside their confidence bands here as well.

I’m not trying to pick on Vanguard here, but they do release these things with a certain degree of seriousness and brand authority. But honestly, I wish they wouldn’t. I mean, sooner or later they’ll be correct, but how could you possibly attribute that to skill and not luck?

I’m going to include a copy of their late 2024 10-year forecasts (close to the start of 2025) here because they usually delete the post after a couple of years. This way, we can look back again in the future. For this chart, the ranges are their median forecast with a fixed 2% range of confidence for stocks and 1% range for bonds.

Notably, the 10-year median return forecast is 3.8% for US stocks, 7.9% for Global ex-US stocks, and 4.8% for US total bond. This table includes their percentile confidence ranges.

This all reminds of me of the old joke: How can you tell economists have a sense of humor? They use decimal points.

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Vanguard Thoughts: After 23 Years, Should I Stay or Switch to Fidelity/Schwab?

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I’ve been a Vanguard customer (ahem, owner) for 23 years now. As such, I’ve also been one of those long-time customers that has been disappointed to see their struggles with customer service for their individual retail brokerage clients. One of my big decisions in 2024 was if I would move the majority of my assets to Fidelity or Schwab. Here’s another long-winded post about my thoughts about Vanguard.

Jack Bogle made a powerful decision when he created the Vanguard ownership structure. Each of the mutual funds was its own entity, and the shareholders own the funds. In turn, the member funds own the umbrella Vanguard Group. The member funds each pay their own expenses for research, management, etc. Everything is “at-cost”. There are no outside shareholders that may call for profits to put aside or dividends to be paid out to them. In theory, this means that the goals of each individual retail investor are aligned with the Vanguard executives.

However, in practice, we are entirely passive shareholders in that we have no vote over who is CEO, who is on the Board of Director, how much each of those folks gets paid (we don’t even get to see the actual number), whether the company should prioritize customer service or growth of assets or employee benefits. As with many large non-profits, the executives at Vanguard get very large compensation packages and the target is almost always growth, growth, growth. Bigger is better; more assets means the executives can justify a larger paycheck.

When I started with Vanguard, they were much smaller and there was more “fat” in the system. Their expense ratio for the flagship S&P 500 index fund something like 0.20% annually ($20 a year for every $10,000 invested). ETFs did not exist, and mutual funds usually charged users a transaction fee unless they were on a “mutual fund supermarket” with a pay-to-play structure. In turn, this made mutual funds more expensive because they passed the costs onto the customer. Vanguard refused to pay kickbacks because that would increase the costs to shareholders, so us retail investors had to go “direct” to Vanguard to get access with no transaction fees. The cheapest option was to go direct with Vanguard, and they had a “cheap and cheerful” reputation. They weren’t the best in customer service, but phone calls were answered promptly.

Then came the exchange-traded fund (ETF). ETFs were cheaper to maintain for Vanguard (and everyone else). This drove costs even lower. ETFs could be bought and sold at any brokerage with the same transaction costs as a stock. ETFs also had inherent tax-advantages that made it much easier to avoid creating capital gains distributions. I believe a big break happened when Vanguard stopped holding the mutual fund and ETF expense ratios at the exact same level. Everyone was incentivized further to hold the ETF version.

Today, the expense ratio for the flagship S&P 500 index mutual fund is only 0.04% annually ($4 a year for every $10,000 invested). But the ETF version is only 0.03% annually ($3 a year for every $10,000 invested). There are both certainly much cheaper than 20 years ago, but today each of their ETFs also has at least two other competitors at the same low expense ratio. Vanguard probably feels forced to keep their ETF costs as low as possible, lest they hurt their “low-cost” brand.

However, since each Vanguard fund has to pay for its own expenses including customer service costs, Vanguard is now incentivized to have you hold your ETF at another brokerage. (And once you start holding Vanguard ETFs in another brokerage, technically you should be rooting for lower costs and thus Vanguard to spend less on customer service as well.) Trades are zero now everywhere. But every single customer service call still has to be paid for somehow, and from this perspective, you can begin to understand why their customer service has gone downhill. Their margins are purposefully thin and the only solutions are to either raise their expense ratios a tiny bit (slower growth and perhaps lower executive salaries) or just try to keep spending as little as possible on customer service.

Guess which one they picked? From WSJ article (gift) Vanguard’s Die-Hard Customers Have a Message for New CEO: ‘The Service Is Abysmal’:

Brokerage-account customers were also recently warned that “excessive reliance on phone associates” could lead to additional fees or account termination.

Importantly, Vanguard has limited ways to subsidize the low costs of their ETFs. Meanwhile, Fidelity still makes a ton of money upselling customers to a variety of wealth management services. Schwab earns hundreds of millions extra by quietly paying nearly zero interest on their cash sweep (they recently dropped it to 0.05% APY in December 2024), pocketing an average of 2% to 3% annually on their customer’s idle cash. Robinhood lets me trade random crypto 24/7 and promotes active trading which results in an insane amount of payment for order flow.

Is this the natural end for Vanguard? Will they just make the commodity product and let others distribute it and deal with customers?

This is why the new CEO will undoubtedly have a big focus on low-cost wealth management. This will allow them to charge customers a higher fee for increased financial advice and customer service. They would finally have something to upsell. The only other alternative is for them to raise Vanguard brokerage fees so that the retail customers pay directly for the additional services they require.

In the end, I asked myself, “If something happens to me, would I rather have my wife deal with Vanguard, Fidelity, or Schwab?” She may end up wanting to pay for extra assistance and advice. Vanguard would have the worst customer service, but perhaps they will come up with a reasonable-cost advisory system. Fidelity and Schwab would undoubtedly be happy to provide her additional financial advice as well, likely at a higher price. Fidelity has solid customer service in my opinion, but I don’t really like their wealth management options based on my past experiences helping older relatives. Schwab has a conveniently-located physical branch near us, but I have a bad taste in my mouth after their “Intelligent Portfolios” zero-interest-cash-is-good-for-you fiasco. (See CBNC article Charles Schwab to pay $187 million to settle SEC charges that it misled robo-advisor clients on fees.)

In the end, I have punted my decision and only made some smaller moves. I transferred our Vanguard IRA assets over to Robinhood as a 5-year test run (in exchange for $16,000). I already have my Solo 401k and an active Cash Management Account at Fidelity. Perhaps Vanguard will shore up their customer service to “decent enough” and use AI to create a at-cost/low-cost advisory platform for the masses. Perhaps the Fidelity model of solid customer service plus a whole bunch of both low-cost and higher-cost menu items is the best one. Perhaps I will place the highest value on a local Schwab human rep.

Image credit: Canva AI generated with prompt “HMS Vanguard in rough seas”

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.