[Conservativegreatgrandma]

You sound knowledgeable. Do you think it's too lake for REITS or for instance, Vanguard Precious Metals?

My money in Janus is SEP.

We also have money in Federated K, which is up over 35% for the year. Too bad we don't have much there.

For the most part, I use Vanguard.

[Grampa Dave]

My wife's 401 k was recentlly rolled over to VG's self directed 401k division.

They are a real PIA to deal with. Their Precious Metals is closed to new buyers.

Their inflation proof federal treasure notes have been doing good, that is VIPSX, I don't know the number of the fund.

If you have a 401k, you can buy funds from other companies with no load, where the managers have done well this year and in the past couple of years. If you are interested, I can Freepmail you a list of these funds so you can look them over.

Stay away from the government back mortgage funds, GNMA bond funds. That is the next pc group which will probably go down.

If you can buy stocks, a new exchange traded fund will be on the market in December which should be good for us retired types.

The fund will be an index fund of the top 50 companies with the top dividends. With GW's removal of part of the double taxation on stock dividends, those companies with good dividends are back in demand. This fund will make it easy for us.

[Grampa Dave]

Here is the other reason the stock markets are down around the world and in the US, the latest al Qaeda tapes:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1023989/posts

Holiday Greetings From al Qaeda
Smartmoney.com ^ | 17 November 2003 | Igor Greenwald

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1023989/posts

[ken5050]

FYI..check out the curent issue of Barron's..very negative on REITS, for good reason, I believe..