forget hedge funds. Your money belongs in the Il teacher's ret system

[charliebrown]

My wife was a teacher in ill, and is a member of the illinois teacher's retirement system. If you read the great news on the front of the annual 2011 letter, you will
see an eye-popping 24% return on the trust for FY 2011. It doesn't say when the
year ends, but given the timing of the bulletin I would guess it's Sept.

Although that big fat return might make you feel good at first, on second though I wonder what in the heck these guys are investing in.

A 100% stock portofio would be up about 2%.
10 yr treasuries 6%.
A 100% gold portfolio would be around 30%

Maybe they went for a balanced portfolio of treasuries and chipotle??

[don]

Re: forget hedge funds. Your money belongs in the Il teacher's ret system

Chipotle has made its way to Illinois

[Starving Steve]

Re: forget hedge funds. Your money belongs in the Il teacher's ret system

What is the base year for the retirement fund? In other words, they might be calculating the 24% return on the base year, not on last year.

My stock investments stink, over all, not all of them but about two-thirds of them stink. But if I wait long enough, maybe fourteen or fifteen years beyond the date of the initial purchases of those horrid stox, the dividends repay my losses, and I walk away with the stocks with zero net cost. Over the base year ( i.e, the year of purchase ) I would have a fabulous return in my sixteenth year.

An example of one of my horrid stocks: General Electric Co. which is making more money than most of the companies in America. GE pays a very nice dividend of approximately 4%, but its stock price is down by about half of what I paid for it. So, using the rule of 72, I would have to wait 18 years and then my GE would be free for the ride. On the 19th year, my return would be fabulous because I would be taking the dividend stream for that year and dividing by zero invested.

If you wait long enough, everything comes up roses--- at least until you die or get divorced, get sued or get put into the loony bin.

Comparing terrible investments (like GE) to money in the bank or in 30-day U.S. treasury bills earning 0.000%, GE still comes out the winner....... So long as Bernanke runs the Fed, bad investments like GE and like gold become great investments over the long haul.

[dropthatcash]

Re: forget hedge funds. Your money belongs in the Il teacher's ret system

My wife was a teacher in ill, and is a member of the illinois teacher's retirement system. If you read the great news on the front of the annual 2011 letter, you will
see an eye-popping 24% return on the trust for FY 2011. It doesn't say when the
year ends, but given the timing of the bulletin I would guess it's Sept.

Although that big fat return might make you feel good at first, on second though I wonder what in the heck these guys are investing in.

Maybe they went for a balanced portfolio of treasuries and chipotle??

Perhaps the accountants calculating the returns were educated by the same teachers that take this "proficiency" exam;

http://www.icts.nesinc.com/PDFs/BasicSkills.pdf

Note the 35% passing rate on a multiple choice test with 4 choices per question. Since one would expect to earn 25% just on random guessing, teachers only need another 10% right to pass this very basic skills LOL exam. Still to hard? No problem. One gets 5 testing attempts to pass this test.

[Starving Steve]

Re: forget hedge funds. Your money belongs in the Il teacher's ret system

Standardized timed-testing of so-called, "basic skills" is the downfall of public education, not just in America but apparently in Canada and the U.K. as well.

First, the so-called, "basic skills" are not basic anymore, except to dinosaurs. No-one wants these so-called "skills" in the job market. Second, learning test-taking skills is to not learn anything at all, except to how take a timed-test. Third, teaching to timed-tests is an insult to teachers and a waste of time for students. Fourth, since this is what public schooling --- not public education but the public drill of "schooling" --- has come to, why fund public education at all? In America, the EPA and Dept. of Education in Washington are two of the best places to begin cutting federal funding.

I was a credentialed teacher in California for several years, and I worked as a substitute teacher every day. And in the end, all that I was, sad to say, was a glorified baby-sitter.... A handful of kids wanted to learn in spite of the school system, but most kids wanted to play because of the school system.

[lektrode]

Re: forget hedge funds. Your money belongs in the Il teacher's ret system

....wait long enough, everything comes up roses--- at least until you die or get divorced, get sued or get put into the loony bin.

....

wasnt that keynes' theory?
altho... hey... that might not be all that bad of a 'retirement option', eh?
how was the food at that 'resort' they checked you in at, you'd mentioned a while back, up there in Vanc?

;)
(all in fun mr steve, no offense intended, you know eye like yer stuff...)