Chasing Yields in MFW

[Chulke]

So I've been running this MFW for a little over a year now and can't complain too much about it as It has made me close to 42% on the money I initially transferred into it! Which is a nice return but the one fund that I am in, BTCFX, is a Bitcoin futures mutual fund and I just can't see it continuing with a yield of 22.27% over the long term...So I've been scouring through the list of available funds looking for yield so when the time is right I can xfer those funds into a new fund or funds...naturally I wanna get the highest yield I can find but their fund screener is missing a ton of filters that would be helpful in narrowing it down, and the ones that I'm finding with higher yields all seem to have HIGH initial purchase requirements...I'm talking $1-$5 million dollars! I know there are TSP millionaires out there but come on!

Anyone got any leads on high yielding mutual funds that may be in the MFW?



Cheers yall!

[Aitrus]

I don't know mutual funds. However, if that were my only option, I would look for one that focuses on long-term stability and growth. Since I wouldn't use the mutual funds seasonally, I would stay invested and let it ride. I would focus on strong reliability over the long run.

This means I would want a fund that uses companies which provide products that are utilized in every sector of the economy at all times of the year, through good times and bad. Companies like 3M, Johnson & Johnson, Proctor & Gamble, Zep, and NIB (National Industries for the Blind - they own Skilcraft) would feature heavily. Allocations in economic sectors that are always in demand - energy, medical, and transportation, would also be on the list.

If I wanted to speculate and place bets, I would look at two sectors that I think are going to see a lot of growth over the next couple of decades. First: onshoring of manufacturing means I would be looking at industrial construction (not residential), mineral mining (need to have the base materials), and companies that work on infrastructure (building out the electrical grid, overhauling roads, etc.).

The second is the increasing use of electronics in our daily lives, so look at companies that work in the personal device and computing fields. In this sector, I see hardware manufacturing and data transport / storage as more enduring than software application creation. Most software companies come and go, (Microsoft and a couple of others are the exception to that rule of thumb), but companies like IBM, Apple, Texas Instruments, HP, Nvidia, and Dell are mainstays that have lasted decades or even generations.

[Chulke]

Thank you for a response Aitrus....I see this forum is no longer as active as it once was...I'd look at those companies if they provided decent yields with their divi's...Most of those companies I think are producing Divi's somewhere between 1-5% and in most cases those would be pretty nice if you're building a portfolio of JUST individual stocks...The idea is to use the divi's to re-invest back into the company's stock thereby increasing your share count and divi at the same time, if that makes sense how I worded it?

But I know there has to be some really great mutual funds out there that produce Divis higher than those...Has to be!!

One that I did find is LSYTX currently paying a yield of 8.24% but that's still a big dip from the 22.27% I'm getting with BTCFX. I'm looking for 10% or more...15% would be even better!

The search continues!

Cheers Y'all!

[Aitrus]

Yeah, Chulke. Activity on the forum has slowed down a fair bit. But we still get new folks in now and then who need help, and there's the occasional in-depth discussion to be had, so I'm happy that the forum is sticking around.

Your explanation of dividends makes sense. That's one of the reasons I picked those sectors and those companies: reliable dividends. I think it was 3M who had 40 straight quarters of increasing dividends at one point. At the time I had learned that fact, I had been doing research on what Blue Chip stocks were and how one made money on them (get a nice big stockpile of dividend-paying stocks, and live off the dividend payouts). Good track records like that are what I would look for in a buy-and-hold portfolio, even if it meant lower overall returns.

But as I said earlier - I don't know the mutual fund landscape very well. So I would have to fall back on things I know (at least a little), and look for a fund that matches what I know. Better to earn a little less but be knowledgeable about what's going on than bet big but have no idea what I'm investing in.

You could always go the Dave Ramsey route. He had three core pieces of advice for choosing a mutual fund:
- Invest in the 4 types of mutual funds: growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, and international.
- Find mutual funds with a 10 year or better average annual return better than 10% (12%+ is best).
- Don’t invest in anything you don’t understand.

It's that second bullet that you're having a hard time nailing down, it seems like.

[Chulke]

That is absolutely my hangup...Finding that good mix of returns and Dividends...LOL!

[relfeoh]

I'd rather chase the value than dividends. Two funds that are doing fairly well are VITAX and SMPIX. You don't have to invest the large minimum entry amounts ($100000 for VITAX) like you would if you were buying from a brokerage on your own. TSP-MFW pools the collective funds to meet that requirement.

[Bubba]

If you're looking for yield, then I would suggest to look at PSLDX. I've decided to go that route myself...but likely after our next spike in inflation. PSLDX also buys some bonds, which would be a bit of a drag. Either way, that fund does some pretty amazing things with yield.

If you're considering growth, then I would suggest you look at the institutional version of BREFX. I was following that bad boy for a few years, just never had the initial amount to join the institutional fund (which is also the only one worth it...in my opinion).

Good luck!