Bogleheads.org

Yes that is one problem with the world fund, it has a higher expense ratio than if you held the total US market etf and Total International etf. Another problem is the number of stocks. Vanguard World has about 4k stocks if you bought total US and Total Int. You would have about 6k stocks. Dave

Yup. If your too snooty to have an admiral fund, the ETF TFI is a very good substitute. Dave

Larry Swedroe discusses this in his recent books. Do you have less of a need to take risk given your financial picture. Are you investing for yourself or your heirs. Mostly he cautions, the richer you are the less risk you need to take on. He refers to rich people who take a flyer on some risky asse...

Stop buying individual stocks. Your expenses to have the portfolio you have must be really substantial. Money that goes to commissions does not earn you money. Buy indexed etf's or invest in funds at a low cost mutual find provider such as Vanguard. Secondly, an "emergency fund" consisting...

I don't have a problem with what you propose which is to in general replicate the target fund. From your library take out one of the early Swedroe Books or William Bernstein books. The Swedroe books are The Only Investment Guide You Will Ever Need, and What Wall Street Does Not Want You to Know. The...

I spent several years getting used to "Value" stocks being the stocks of distressed companies, an exact quote from your first book. As a result it's going to take a while to embrace the concept that profitable, i.e. companies that are not distressed, will out perform. I think Marx may have...

There is only one low cost bond fund that you list. I don't know anything about it When you have an asset class that is now only yielding 2%, lowering costs is even more important than usual. Buy it, or get some of the 2015 or 2020 target fund - which is a sneaky way of buying mostly bonds.

I defiantly am not criticizing the fund which I happen to hold. About 7 years ago Total Bond held commercial paper with maturities as short as 90 days and their turnover was more than 100%. Now they don't buy anything with a maturity shorter than a year. Once you understand the reason for it, the tu...

Don't walk, run away from those high cost funds in your 401. The extra 1% a year just for the management fee adds up to a lot of lost appreciation over 30+ years. The turnover is less important than the fee because your not subject to gains taxes in a tax free account. But the brokerage commissions ...

My source is that i have owned TBM for years and periodically glance at the holdings. Dave

The problem isn't the fund it's the index. The idea of the agg. bond index is to create a statistically accurate reflection of the bond market. If they have a 30 year bond one year, the next year you would think it would be the 29 year bond. No, they sell it and replace it with a more statistically ...

I don't know your state, mine does not have an income tax so I can do national muni bonds which are more diversified than single state. The thing I noticed about your post is you said you have three value funds. Most who tilt to value don't bother with having a mid cap value fund. The theory being t...

I am a retired lawyer. First, you and yours should realize that your income, even in a high expense city, is above average for lawyers, so you should not quit your jobs unless you have offers paying as much. Secondly, paying down debt should be only after you have maximized contributions to tax free...

OK I will bite. 1) The book you want to get from your library is the first Swedroe book, The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You'll Ever Need. Or one of his later books. 2) A portfolio that contains some bonds, over longer periods, consistently beats a 100% equity portfolio because it do...

Here is an answer from an old investor who learned things the hard way. First, I don't know what the Capital Preservation fund is. Secondly, I think the rest of what your doing is fine. I note you picked lower cost index options, and that your stock, bond, and international allocations are rational ...

At your level of investing most Bogleheads recommend a 3 fund portfolio. 1) A total US market if available or 500 index if not; 2) a total international/emerging fund 3) an intermediate bond fund such as Vanguard Total Bond. 1) might be 50%, 2) 30% and 3) 20% of funds invested, not counting emergenc...

What your proposing makes sense. I don't have a problem with 80/20 either. Since I am a bit more than twice your age I will tell you that the size of a bond holding should be high if you think your the kind of a person who would panic and sell out at a stock market low. If you can stand the volatili...

Not having really good retirement options is fairly common. I would just have the 500 index and the Pimco bond fund. Then I would hope to soon be able to open an additional account and put Vanguard Total International there. The alternative is a much higher cost Fido target retirement fund. Costs ar...

It looks very good to me. There are a couple of funds I would not bother with. Mid value and Intermediate Treasury come to mind. If I were to add one fund it would be Vanguard Intermediate Term Investment Grade bond fund. Recently Jack Bogle in an interview called for a corporate bond index. The fun...

28% in Emerging is an overweight. Also the VIG etf is similar to the large cap portion of total market. I don't think natural resources is really an asset class. The combination of funds seems to be based on speculative tilt based on hunches that might not pay off. Why not three funds, Vanguard Tota...

That would give you an average duration of about 3.5 which is conservative but perhaps appropriate given your outlook. By comparison total bond is about 5.6. The yield is going to be low, around 3% or less. But yields are pathetic everywhere and trying to do better yield wise means taking on more ri...

With interest rates at historic lows the most likely direction for them is to rise at some unknown point in the future. If and when that happens a bond fund will decline by it's duration for each 1% increase in rates. Historically rates average around 5% and are about 2% now. So if rates return to n...

There is a lot of confusing noise in the investment world. So you don't want to pay too much attention to people who are paid to talk 30 + minutes a day. They have to say something even if they can't think of anything intelligent to say. If you put all your money into something like Life Strategy Mo...

I doubt that the 2050 is the only Target Date fund available to you. If they have a 2040 or even a 2030 it should be higher in bonds than the longer fund. So you could shorten the target and get to the allocation you want for now, change it in the future if you want. You don't worry about paying cap...

The default rate on muni's is practically non existent. Last time I looked which was more than a year ago it was .003% At the state level there has not been a Governmental Operation bond default since Arkansas in the dust bowl era. Think of all the municipalities in the US and I can practically name...

Happy April Fools Day folks. Dave

For all that typing you deserve more response than you have been getting. Here are some general observations. You might consider the fact you have a defined benefit plan as making retirement less of a risk, so maybe you can afford to have less in bonds. I am kind of the reverse. I worry about the lo...

I don't agree with a lot of the advice you have been given. 1) Regarding age in bonds etc. Your parents are well enough off that they are really investing for their heirs anyway. So I don't have a problem with 30% or maybe even 20% bonds. In a couple of the Swedroe books he refers to possible alloca...

I am about your age and station in life. I look at what you have and think, this guy needs more international/emerging. So that is where I would put the money up to the point where your 30-40% international. My reasoning is diversity, and because international stocks have been kept down by events in...

I had a friend who some time ago worked for a company with a 401 with NY life. It was a very expensive plan and the costs take a big chunk out of appreciation. And when she changed jobs, they socked her with a outrageous withdrawal fee. Anyway, your idea of the Roth at Vanguard is a good one and STA...

In addition to the wiki article a rule of thumb is that if your saving for a down payment or some other event. Use a bond fund with a duration no longer than the period till you will need the money. Vanguard Short Term Investment Grade comes to mind if you likely to need the money in a couple of yea...

I would roll it to Vanguard IRA in an instant. Your paying about twice what they charge and you will be paying that much more for 30 years or more. If you have some doubts about where to put it just pick a Vanguard target retirement fund. Also having an IRA invites you to make contributions to it in...

You know, the choices in the 401 are so bad it's as if someone got paid off. I would read the article in the wiki about how to talk to your HR person about what is in the 401. Search for the article "How to campaign for a better 401k." Then I would get some co workers together and have the...

Yes I would split it. Dave

I am a bankruptcy lawyer. I have a lot of customers who got into real estate without knowing what they were doing. Dave

I can harp quite a bit about REIT. It consists of 2% of the total US stock market. So 10% is to overweight it by 500%. Then you look at where it is valuation wise. In 1999 REITs sold for about 70% of the value of the underling real estate. Today it's 230%. In 1999 REITs sold for about 15 times earni...

I don't know who gave you the idea about bonds, vs. stocks in tax free being an issue because it's not. You want tax efficient assets in taxable and tax inefficient assets in tax free. In order of tax efficiency worst to best, taxable bonds, REIT, Small Value, Large Value, Large Blend, International...

The Vanguard Small Value fund is 15% REIT so you should factor that into your allocation. Frankly REITS are now so over valued I just have the Small Value fund. Tilting to small value works over longer periods of time. Since Financial stocks are also value stocks the financial crash of 2008 makes th...

I get the impression that for me to give you a specific plan that you would actually follow would require something about as long as a book. Instead go to the library and check out one of the following. Bernstein, The Investors Manifesto, or The Four Pillars of investing. Or Swedroe, What Wall Stree...

Send it to me. Alternatively I-bonds from treasury direct or CD's. They don't lose principle if rates rise. Frankly your fear of a bond decline due to rising rates is overstated. Something like Vanguard Short term Investment Grade has a short enough duration that it does not go down much in a rising...

Legally the decision to accelerate has to be made in good faith. The legal basis is that in every contract is an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. This is often the theory advanced in lender liability cases. So the fact the person you talked to might have been having a bad day, is not...

If I had your attitude about getting into a mature market, I would pay off the mortgage with that cash. Your allocation is quite normal and can stay that way. Dave PS World wide International stocks are not hitting new highs. You did not say what your US v. International/Emerging allocation is. If i...

...but know that historically, having a small bond component actually improves long term expected returns. Source? This is in the first two Swedroe books. Also look at Bernstein, Four Pillars of Investing. More accurately the statement should be that over long periods 90/10 to 80/20 does better tha...

If memory serves the rates on long term treasuries went from about 5 to 11%. over about a 3 year period. But that just my memory. So the rate increases were more than 1% during a couple of years of that period - This I definitely remember. If you had intermediate bonds you were looking at declines a...

Both you and yours have been violating an important rule - costs matter. The 1% in added costs over a 30 year period adds up to a lot of lost appreciation. If you go over to the Vanguard site and find their cost analyzer and run the expense ratios against your typical Vanguard with an average return...

I cant tell if I agree with the prior post or not. I think one should maximize tax free compounding. That grows for 30 years without taxation. With any kind of IRA once the calender goes beyond April 15th contributing for that year is gone. So I would use the money in the Roth till you reach the con...

My experience is that if the bonds coupon is higher that market rates the muni will always be refinanced i.e. called. I am so used to this I know the call dates of the bonds I have in a ladder, I can't remember the dates they mature. I would worry if a muni paying maybe 4.5% went past a call date. T...

I think we are getting trolled. Gold was at $1720 per ounce last October and is $1577 per today. Dave

I can give you a couple or rules of thumb. 1) I cant for the life of me figure out why you have 500 index, mid cap funds, and small cap funds in each account. My bet is you could get a total stock market fund in one account at least that would be better, and less expensive than holding the three fun...

Morningstar does some calculation regarding tax efficiency. I never pay much attention to it. They peg the ETFs this way; VSS tax efficiency .64 - cap gains potential 6.45 VXUS tax efficiency .74 - cap gains potential 4.19 VWO .53, .49 cap gains potential 5.86. I suppose that makes VWO the most effi...