Trust Funds For Kids

    Tag: Fees and Commissions

    • Portfolio Two Updated January 2017 – Tax Time

      Portfolio 2 is our second longest lived fund, at over 14 years.  This fund has transitioned from individual stocks to an ETF and CD mix.  The beneficiary contributed $7000 and the trustee $14,000 for a total of $21,000.  The current value is $32,151 for a gain of $11,151 at 53%…

    • On Investing

      Investing has changed significantly during the 25 or so years that I have been following both the market and also the tools available for an investor to participate within the market.  The following trends are key: The cost of trading and investing has declined significantly.  Trades used to cost more…

    • Transition for Portfolio Two

      Portfolio Two is transitioning to ETF’s and CD’s.  This is aligned with the “basic plan” that I refer to here.  The portfolio has $28,781 (all in cash) as of December, 2015. At a high level our investments will consist of: $10,000 in the lowest risk interest rate products (Federally insured…

    • Fees and Expenses

      History of Fees and Expenses When we first started these trust funds twelve years ago, investing in stocks was expensive.  It cost $25 to buy a stock or to sell a stock (although we rarely sold, since we were and still are trying to “buy and hold” more often than…

    • Inadvertently Pushing Out Long Term Shareholders

      Companies in the US have long decried the “short term” orientation by shareholders and analysts, and encouraged long term participation in markets. The tax code attempts to foster this as well, since “short term” gains are taxed at a higher rate than “long term” gains, which are for stocks held…

    • Stock Selection Notes

      We just completed stock selections for the six portfolios. It takes a few weeks, from the time the stock selections are posted, collecting the $500 contribution from each beneficiary, matching the $500 and contributing $500 more, and then following up to actually get the selections from each beneficiary. These decisions…

    • Dividend Portfolio Final Results

      Since interest rates are so low I didn’t want to just renew my CD bond “ladder” and decided instead to take those funds and invest them in a portfolio of dividend stocks. Currently stock dividends are returning more than government debt, which is a very rare occurrence. Thus I selected…

    • Portfolio One Updated August 2012

      Portfolio One is our longest portfolio, going on 11 years soon. Here is the latest update or it is on the links on the right side of the dashboard. Portfolio one is worth $24,609 on a beneficiary investment of $5000 and a trustee investment of $11,500, for a total of…

    • Analyzing Performance – Portfolio One

      Background on Portfolio One The first portfolio of my trust funds was set up right after the attack in September, 2001.  It seemed to be an inauspicious time to invest in stocks.  However, since these trust funds have a long time horizon (they start when the beneficiary is around 12…