Bogleheads.org

one of the reasons i keep it(besides the fact it performs well) is because it invests in some areas i'm not comfortable in doing myself. foreign holdings i mostly don't understand. they do my international exposure for me. Well, in the case of Vanguard it's pretty straight forward. Their version of...

i just retired and have trowe price 2020 fund. i like it and intend to keep it. like retirement funds in general it has its equity and bond components that adjust as one grows older. it amazes me that people think they are better at doing allocations than professionals. that does not mean you can't...

My point is that the savings from using option #2 is likely to be more than the 0.09% expense difference (thus "the 0.09%), because of the need to sell the TR fund prematurely, or to keep the TR fund's corporate and government bonds when you would get a lower tax cost from I-Bonds or municipal...

Which of these options is better? I'm making an investment in a Vanguard Taxable account. Retirement is at least ten years away. Investment option #1: Vanguard Target Retirement 2035 Fund - 0.18% total fund cost Investment option #2: Re-create the Vanguard Target Retirement 2035 Fund using the fund...

For my own investments I allocate across all accounts, but this inquiry is for someone else and I like that the Target Funds make for zero or no maintenance. I looked at the link provided by Landy and was working under the assumption that the taxable account is yours, that you have a 403b and that ...

pingo, Thanks for the links which I looked through. I don't have privacy issues, I just didn't want to expand the thread into other areas and waste everyone's time getting advice I've already considered. Even so, maybe I'll start a "portfolio" thread at a later time. I'm not attached to th...

A lot of questions, bobsmith, can address the "ideal" regardless of magnitude. But, both are important. ⋅ For instance, say Taxable is 5% of all retirement Assets, so I I say... Immaterial! Who cares? ⋅ Thus, the reason why other posters are telling your that there is ...

What type of funds are you investing? My 403(b) with Vanguard is in the low 6-figures and is invested entirely in Retirement 2035. Admiral shares are unavailable to investors in Vanguard 401(k) and 403(b) accounts regardless of account balance so there is nothing gained by slicing and dicing with i...

A lot of questions, bobsmith, can address the "ideal" regardless of magnitude. But, both are important. ⋅ For instance, say Taxable is 5% of all retirement Assets, so I I say... Immaterial! Who cares? ⋅ Thus, the reason why other posters are telling your that there is ...

This is applicable to a situation where you have funds outside of tax sheltered accounts. In that case, you have a choice to make whether to put stocks or bonds in taxable. That's a good point which I've now acknowledged for the third time. In this case, it would be better to have bonds in tax shel...

The point is you can hold your bonds in a tax advantaged account and potentially reduce your tax liability. Right, as I said to House Blend, this s a good point and one I hadn't really considered, although some would challenge the conventional wisdom of putting bonds in a tax sheltering account ove...

Not enough information provided. You could hold 100% TSM in taxable and do all of your rebalancing in tax-advantaged accounts. Rebalancing costs you $0. You'll pay at most 15% Federal tax on the dividends in your taxable account, possibly 0% if you misunderstand your tax liabilities in retirement. ...

I think you really should post your entire situation unless you are saying this is the only investment you have, no 401K, no IRA, etc. If you have substantial assets other than this investment it is probably more rather than less complicated to choose an all-in-one fund because it is harder to see ...

What is your tax rate? Do you really want to hold taxable bonds in your taxable account? Would a muni fund be better. My tax rate is 25% and will stay that way throughout retirement. I don't know if a muni fund would be better. I prefer to have the components in taxable because I can TLH in equity ...

Which of these options is better? I'm making an investment in a Vanguard Taxable account. Retirement is at least ten years away. Investment option #1: Vanguard Target Retirement 2035 Fund - 0.18% total fund cost Investment option #2: Re-create the Vanguard Target Retirement 2035 Fund using the funds...

check out 403bwise.com as well.

I guess I'm having trouble with some of the comments because I'm not a sophisticated investor. I buy and hold index funds and keep a strict AA. I don't buy or sell on emotion. I take advantage of all the tax sheltering I can. I plan for the long term. Etc. Seems to me that Vanguard has a philosophy ...

I do simple indexing investing with Vanguard. I reallocate regularly and keep an eye on things, but recently I checked in with a Vanguard Planner. I asked him about the bond market and if he thinks with the low inflation rates that maybe I should be in something else. He suggested I switch to the in...

The Vanguard planner I spoke to suggested I allocate to a 70%/30% US Stock/International Stock ratio (using their TSMI and TInternationalSMI) I know this ratio is adjusted for risk tolerance, but is there an ideal ratio strictly in terms of best diversification? If you're trying to index the global ...

1. Do your Fidelity funds also charge a Management Fee? With my employer plans, this can range from 0.05-0.1+. No, but your Employer's TPA (Third party administrator) might. Of course if they did you'd expect fees to be uniform across all vendors so for the comparison purposes of THIS thread, it's ...

To be fair to nisiprius, your OP specified nothing about a 403b or employer plan. Now that it is clear what you are looking at, the lower-cost share classes probably do not apply as you surmised. I snipped the part about him assuming this was probably in regards to a tax sheltered plan, but yes, of...

FSTVX er=0.06% jerry FSTVX (Spartan® Total Market Index Fund - Fidelity Advantage Class) Looking at the prospectus, I'm a little confused if the total annual operating expense is 0.06% or 0.07%, but the point I was making is that, according to a member of the Fidelity 403b team, Fidelity does not o...

FSTVX er=0.06% jerry FSTVX (Spartan® Total Market Index Fund - Fidelity Advantage Class) Looking at the prospectus, I'm a little confused if the total annual operating expense is 0.06% or 0.07%, but the point I was making is that, according to a member of the Fidelity 403b team, Fidelity does not o...

Here's what I've scraped up so far. Plan Member Services They charge a 0.35% fee plus something like a $30 annual account fee. Good no-load options including Vanguard SIGNAL class shares. Aspire 0.15% plus $40 annual account fee. http://www.403bplan.info/index.php Also has good no-load fund options ...

Here's the easy answer: Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTSMX) and Fidelity Spartan Total Market Index (FSTMX) are the same . There is no difference. It doesn't matter . [snip] My personal brand loyalty is to Vanguard, but I'm not going to complicate what I've said by putting feathers on th...

I might be in a position where I can choose between Vanguard's TSMI (VTSMX 0.18%) and Fidelity's Spartan Total Market Index Inv (FSTMX 0.10%). Seems to me they both do a good job indexing the whole US stock market. Any reason why I should prefer one over the other? I have a lot of experience with Va...

I'm having a lot of trouble getting my employer (and third party administrator) to add a good no-load company to the vendor list, especially one with a Roth option. Of course I think highly of Vanguard and would really like to access their funds. In some cases, a vendor will have some kind of a self...

:confused Um, if your time horizon (+30yrs till withdrawing) and personal risk level dictate, I would prefer more in extended mkt index than SP500. Extended Market index historically returns more :moneybag ......."past performance yadayada and all" ...... :wink: Point taken. I'm certainly...

Thanks for the replies. I understand why the best strategy for most is to just pick an allocation and stick with it. I don't chase market trends, try to beat the market, or make choices on emotion. It's just from what I've heard, even from Vanguard, we are living in unusual times in that they are pr...

I use Vanguard for all my investments. Simple straightforward indexing, but when I started I used Vanguard 500 IN and Extended Market in order to replicate the domestic stock market so I'm kind of stuck with that approach because of high unrealized gains. Anyway, long story short, the Vanguard Plann...

I've been searching through the forums trying to get a grasp on what to do with Bonds going forward into the next decade where returns are expected to be below historical averages. First, if there are good threads or boogle wikis I missed on this topic, please direct me. All my investments are throu...

Hi Bob, Your mistake, I believe, is assuming that the market cap ratio of 500 / rest of market has stayed constant for 13 years. I don't know where to look up the ratio from 13 years ago, but small caps have been outperforming so the ratio must have been larger (more 500 / less ext idx) back then. ...

I appreciate all the comments here. I'm an index investor who wants to basically buy things and let them sit for the long run, reallocating for drift from time to time. I understand the concern some of you are expressing that I'm over analyzing this stuff, and it's a good advice, but I think it miss...

I got in with Vanguard almost ten years ago. For whatever reason, the Vanguard planner got me into 500 IN and Extended Market instead of TSMI. Now, the new planner said they usually just recommend the TSMI. However, I've got a lot of unrealized gain on the 500 IN and Extended Market so there's no re...

I'm currently holding the following Vanguard Index Funds in a taxable account: TInternatioalSMI (of which 22% is unrealized gain) 500 Index (of which 31% is unrealized gain) Extended Market (of which 47% is unrealized gain) Each year I make a contribution to my ROTH IRA, but I can't spare the money ...

I have several vanguard funds in a taxable account. All have unrealized gains represented at least 30% of the value of each individual fund. I'd like to sell most of these funds but only in part. I assume that you want to sell these funds because they no longer fit your target asset allocation. But...

I have several vanguard funds in a taxable account. All have unrealized gains represented at least 30% of the value of each individual fund. I'd like to sell most of these funds but only in part. I've never declared a method to Vanguard, so by default I've been using the Averaging method. I have bou...

In the link provided (approximating TSM) note that something very close can be achieved just using two funds (500 index and small cap). This is not necessarily better or worse, just 2 funds instead of 3 - if that is an issue. Hey JG, Yeah, she can do it in 2 or 3. More likely I'll have her represen...

I use a 70/30 mix in my company's 401k plan, it's a bit more tilted to mid/small than VTSAX (80/20). I'd say with relative confidence you will likely match the performance, I've been doing it for 5 years now and it tracks pretty closely if you rebalance from time to time. TRP funds are good, even i...

BrandonBogle wrote:The wiki is your friend.

http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Approxim ... ock_Market

This is just what I was looking for. Thanks. I just hope those ratios hold pretty steady over time.

I'm trying to help my sister with her 403b investment. Outside the 403b she likes her Vanguard Retirement fund just fine. However, she doesn't have that option with the 403b. She DOES have access to Vanguard's TBondMI and Vanguards' TInternationalSMI, but there is no TStockMI fund. However she can g...

I pretty much agree with what you are saying here. But I think I'm hearing a mis-use of terms which I also noticed in an earlier thread. I think you may be thinking of your 403 as a type of IRA. It is not. Both 403b and IRA are ways to save for retirement, but past that they are unrelated and have ...

Well, I think my brain is full. You are correct. :happy Well, the bottom line is that converting to a Roth or tIRA does pay off in the long run despite having to pay the capital gains. There is no capital gains tax and you don't pay any tax on your earnings in the tIRA. Stop speaking about taxes it...

retiredjg, Well, the bottom line is that converting to a Roth or tIRA does pay off in the long run despite having to pay the capital gains. There are a few reasons I like the Roth better than the tIRA. First, I do think income taxes will go up not only because they are at historical lows, but also b...

If you sell the taxable account for $9,325 after tax, and then invest in a pre-tax 403(b), you will have $12,433, not $9,325, to invest in the 403(b), because you get a $3,108 tax deduction on the $12,433 contribution. Thus you will have $50,611 after tax. (And in a Roth 403(b), you will have $9,32...

1st Excel run... Existing $10,000 taxable investment of which $4500 is unrealized gain. (45%) 25% income tax bracket now and forever Assume: 7% annual gain for 25 years no calculations were done for fees which may be slightly higher in 403bs Leave it in taxable account starting balance: $10,000 befo...

Oh, NOW you want to talk about what should first go in the Roth account!? :D Actually, I'm not particularly concerned, but since you might have a preference, I thought that should be worked into a plan. Truthful answer is I don't know. My excel adventure hasn't enlightened me much. I think I have t...

Bob's not my name wrote:

retiredjg wrote:So I guess we should assume your name is not really bob

This is getting pretty close to home.

LOL

So I guess we should assume your name is not really bobsmith.... :D Do you have a final decision on what goes into Roth IRA? Or alternatively, whether you would rather hold taxable bonds in the 403b/Roth (conventional view here on BH) or muni bonds in taxable? This may be somewhat moot since you al...

You guessed right about me getting a pension and I'm thinking that if I know I'll be in a 25% bracket from here out, I might just want to go ahead and do the Roth 403b now. :oops: OMG... This is almost funny. Your pension pretty much blows my whole point out of the water. I'm brain dead for now. Ma...