Bogleheads.org

1) At your tax bracket only contribute to the traditional 401k moving forward. You’ll want any bonds (if any) in the traditional for this use FXNAX, then fill up the rest of the trad and all of the Roth with FSKAX and FTIHX.

2) Use a “total market” index fund for best diversification (FSKAX) and a “total international” index (FTIHX). These are likely to consistently give the best total returns. “Growth” doesn’t necessarily mean best total return so ignore that buzzword and invest in growth and value which are conveniently both in a total market fund.

3) Don’t use any of those, use the funds suggested above or some other set to build a 3 fund portfolio.

mrsmitt wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 5:22 pm As the interest rate is going up I am slowly moving my Bond portion of AA from cash and short-term instruments to bonds.

I have a couple of Roth IRA accounts and an after-tax brokerage account that still has cash as a part of AA. What are the best financial vehicles with low risk that will give me a nice return and will be highly liquid in case I want to convert this into stocks or cash?

Brokerages I use: TD Ameritrade and Merrill Edge.

#1 Don’t time the market like this.
#2 You have high expense brokerages which moving away from would benefit you greatly .

There is a standard format avail here on forum for portfolio reviews that may help you get more feedback. Congrats on your great savings at such a young age. Keep it up. https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Asking_portfolio_questions Thanks for the suggestion! I stuck with the approved template format for the first several years but this is my first year trying out these trend tables and I forgot to pull over some key info that this template request. I have updated my post above with additional details to fill the gaps. The trend tables are sort of hard to read and provide unnecesary detail to us while leaving out key information like what percentage of the portfolio each fund represents. We could probably figure it out with all the dollar valu...

Nope the ER, complexity, and lack of diversity goes against the boglehead strategy.

Tom_T wrote: ↑Thu Mar 09, 2023 8:55 pm Since you left the job, you do have the option of moving your 401K to an IRA at Fidelity,Vanguard, etc., where you'll have all the choices you want.

This is probably not optimal though if you want access to the Backdoor Roth contributions. Both of your 401ks have good cheap index fund options keep the money in one of them.

1) Maybe but it depends on what fund options you have in the 401k. Ideally you’d have a cheap total bond to hold your portfolios 5% of bonds. A S&P 500 index fund is an acceptable total market proxy.

2) Sell it all, the losses roll over if not used this year.

3) Sell it all and diversify.

4) Looks pretty good otherwise

PurpleSatire wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 8:45 am Thanks for the info!

My plan is to retire early living off my individual brokerage fund and not touch my retirement accounts until 60.

The idea is to let them grow independently of my personal brokerage and unlock them at level 60.

It would be helpful if you posted all your account holdings including the 401k with percentage of total portfolio % of each fund. You’ll get better as more complete advice is you gives us more information.

FriedOkra wrote: ↑Thu Feb 23, 2023 4:54 pm Bump. Still looking for some feedback on asset allocations and specific questions. Thank you.

Your proposed portfolio adds up to 400%. It’s easier to give advice when you list each fund in each account as a percentage of the total portfolio. Same for your existing portfolio. We’d also need to know the gains on your existing investments.

occasionally i see posts that say 'i am just getting started and have $100k and need advice' or something similar so here is what i would tell someone like that for basic advice without getting overly complicated. Potential plan I use vanguard for stocks, treasuries, mutual funds -There is no brokerage fee for treasury bills. You can use Vanguard or Fidelity or similar. If i was getting money and wanted to start investing i would do the following Open a Vanguard or Fidelity or Schwab account Open an internet bank account (Ally is my fav) Put your payments into the internet bank savings acct - (paying 3.4% currently) and then setup a link and send to your Vanguard money market fund aka your settlement fund anything over 6 months living expe...

marginal wrote: ↑Wed Feb 22, 2023 9:17 pm Instead of speculating, has ever the total bond returned of what CD pays today 5%?

Yep

confusedinvestor wrote: ↑Wed Feb 22, 2023 2:10 pm What about Treasury bills? Where to park emergency fund?

Hard to answer in a vacuum. You received some good links above additional you should check this one out which will help you get better and more complete answers: viewtopic.php?p=76191#p76191

jonybogle wrote: ↑Tue Feb 14, 2023 1:35 pm.
2. there is a prohibition in the link against posting the "amount of money you have invested" for some kind of privacy reason but i assume it is OK to post rough numbers on how much you intend on investing in order to get help planning.

One rough estimate of of total portfolio dollars and then everything else as percentages of that number is best. AA is in % or ratio so you doing the math is better than every reviewer having to do it. Reviewers can the also quickly from their head make recommendations on how adjust the total portfolio because everything adds up to 100.

This is my first post, though I've been lurking for a while. My current position for my 403b is as follows; 50% VTWAX Vanguard index (0.10 er) 50% VFINX Vanguard index (0.17 er) I'm a firm proponent of passive index investing and quite frankly, I don't plan on ever changing this holding. Clearly, I am not in favor of bonds and have a US large cap tilt. I have essentially cut my international exposure down to 22.5 percent from VTWAX's 45%, and reduced my US mid and small cap to roughly 9% down from VTWAX's 18%. These percentages are estimates and it's my understanding will change as markets fluctuate. VTWAX is a wonderful index but a balanced US/ international portfolio is too high for my liking. My risk tolerance is high. Current age is 41...

This is my first post, though I've been lurking for a while. My current position for my 403b is as follows; 50% VTWAX Vanguard index (0.10 er) 50% VFINX Vanguard index (0.17 er) I'm a firm proponent of passive index investing and quite frankly, I don't plan on ever changing this holding. Clearly, I am not in favor of bonds and have a US large cap tilt. I have essentially cut my international exposure down to 22.5 percent from VTWAX's 45%, and reduced my US mid and small cap to roughly 9% down from VTWAX's 18%. These percentages are estimates and it's my understanding will change as markets fluctuate. VTWAX is a wonderful index but a balanced US/ international portfolio is too high for my liking. My risk tolerance is high. Current age is 41...

Random_Guy_3776 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 13, 2023 5:30 pm

Welcome to the forum!

This link may be a good start: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Managing_a_windfall

As would: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting_started

And finally there is some critical information missing from your question to answer with any confidence. If you follow the format below with all the details you'll likely get more and better answers: viewtopic.php?t=6212

Wiggums wrote: ↑Mon Feb 06, 2023 10:08 pm Welcome

You have over 62% in pretax accounts. You should consider some Roth conversions once you are retired and probably before you draw social security.

Good advice. I was thinking they should roll the IRAs into their 401ks so they can contribute to their Roth IRAs again too.

vangaal wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 7:05 am

lakpr wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 1:12 am

vangaal wrote: ↑Fri Feb 03, 2023 8:38 pm Regarding the 457 Plan. My wife just informed me that she has a max contribution of 4% to her 457 plan

Max it out!! May be she kept her contribution rate as 4%, I dont think any employer can set up the max contribution an employee can make, to only 4%.

This is directly from the plan's website. I am currently logged into her account " Please note that the maximum contribution percentage allowed by the plan is 4.0%."

That sounds more like a max match.

I think the exercise of filling out the portfolio review data is valuable to the topics OP. It makes them learn what data is most useful and how to find it. It also starts the conversation in a common and harmonized way decreasing confusion. The tool to simplify this task may get more people to do it but if it’s too simple it robs them of a learning opportunity that they probably really need. I think the tool has more value for established BH folks who want to quickly assemble the review even though they could do it by hand.

You’ll get better and more complete advice if you post all the details in this format: viewtopic.php?t=6212

JD101 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 29, 2023 5:36 pm

wetgear wrote: ↑Sun Jan 29, 2023 5:22 pm
Looks good, how do you know what your total AA looks like without the weighting of the balance of each though?

I hid the dollar figures for security reasons I have spread sheets to see how the numbers would look like after the adjustment. If that's what you meant to ask.

Gotcha, but how does hiding values in a spreadsheet protect you? It's not like a social security number.

No it bothers me that there isn't an easier way to view those either. That being said I think Retiredjg gave you even better options, regarding a 3 fund portfolio, in your other thread. What does you current portfolio look like? Did you take those suggestions? https://i.postimg.cc/sfMx8ZbC/Van.png Correction, fidelity should read Target 2030 Yes, I did take the valuable suggestions Retiredjg provided and started building my portfolio. This is how it looks like. I need to switch at Schwab; Balanced Index Fund and Target 2035 to Target 2030 and that should bring my asset allocation to 43/23/35. (65/35). Let me know if you see anything. Looks good, how do you know what your total AA looks like without the weighting of the balance of each thou...

JD101 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 29, 2023 2:55 pm OK thank you both, that rests the matter!

Target date funds have a glide path and it gives you a rough idea as to how asset mix would tentatively follow over time. Do you know if they have a tabular version of the glide path which will provide close information than eyeballing it which means you can be off few % points.

No it bothers me that there isn't an easier way to view those either. That being said I think Retiredjg gave you even better options, regarding a 3 fund portfolio, in your other thread. What does you current portfolio look like? Did you take those suggestions?

retiredjg wrote: ↑Sat Jan 28, 2023 2:43 pm I think if you don't take this fund out of taxable now, later on you will wish you had. Fixing it now is easier and probably cheaper than fixing it later.

However, there is not nearly enough information in your posts to make anything other than a guess. That's my guess.

+1 give us the full picture and you’ll get better advice. Could be a good plan or have some big flaws we just don’t know with the available information.

coreman73 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 28, 2023 2:41 pm Having said that, it seems the common advice is:

1) Max out traditional 401k
2) Put your tax savings to Roth IRA

That is common advice but it’s made in a vacuum assuming an either/or situation. The better advice is max out traditional 401k and an IRA (usual a Roth IRA). If you’ve got the availabile money. You should max your 401k, two IRAs you and your wife’s, and the HSA.

farminvestor wrote: ↑Sat Jan 28, 2023 2:01 pm I have about $300k in short term cash I am looking to park at ME. Currently I have this in an Ally HYSE, but I’m trying to consolidate everything with BoA for simplicity and it seems like I can get a (slightly) better return with ME anyway.

I’m not clear on the pro/con difference between these two funds. Above all, preservation of the principal is most important - this is not money I want to take a risk on. I understand Preferred Deposit is FDIC backed, but since TTTXX is all US Treasuries I feel like this is a negligible difference, right?

I also know you have to call and set up the initial Preferred Deposit investment (not a big deal to me). Any other reasons to not go with TTTXX?

What’s ME?

I think this is possible but why not just roll it directly into your current 401k. Easier because there are less steps to deal with.

I am looking for a safe drama free portfolio that can give me 4-3.5% return about $65k after taxes. What does this mean? What's the $65k? No portfolio is going to guarantee 4% a year. Maybe CDs, at least for the time being. Nothing will long-term. Do you mean 4% real or 4% nominal? I need about $65k a year to live out of $2M. I am mostly looking for funds recommendations and if Wellesley is a good choice here or something else. In retirement accounts I would recommend a Vanguard LifeStrategy fund. How do you plan on accessing this money inside of retirement accounts at your age? I should have around close to 5 years of expenses in my after-tax account; in the mean time I will do rollovers to our IRA'sto meet the 5 year rule. If I find myse...

Are you 100% stocks? Have you considered something like 60/40 or 50/50 stocks/bonds? Or target date fund? It's not buying the top that is bad. It is buying the top and then panicking and selling at the bottom. I am not tempted to sell, even if the "Phase 3" crash becomes a reality. I just hate the thought of putting in a lump sum at the top. I know it will be OK in the long run, but it may take 5-10 years to be made whole with that new money if the market really gets amped in March and we crash. If I lumped summed in S&P 500 in March 2000 peak, how long would it take to break even? If the money you already have invested is worth more than your lump sum how long will it take to make that whole again if you don’t sell and wait ...

Simple is better assuming this isn't in a taxable account.

Hello and thank you for your reponse! I have a couple follow up questions if I may? Apologies for any weird formatting in the reply here: Does your 401k offer a Roth option? To confirm, yes my 401K currently has Roth Contributions. Regarding the Roth IRA: and Vanguard's Total US Stock Market Index fund (VTSAX, ER: 0.04) for your Roth IRA; if you want to have some international stock exposure in your Roth IRA that would be OK too; I would go with Vanguard's Total International Stock Index (VTIAX, ER:0.11) 1. Would you recommend an "either or" approach here? Meaning I should select, either VTSAX entirely or VTIAX entirely depending on if I want international exposure? I would think more diversified is good no? Meaning VTIAX, which ...

Is the TSP your only investments? If not it's usually better to look at the portfolio as a whole. Maybe you only put 1 fund in the TSP and 1 fund elsewhere.

Mickster99 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 24, 2023 3:48 pm I called Fidelity today and used the amazing info on this forum to navigate the process. I finally got in touch with someone in their "Investment solutions" team, and he was vaguely familiar with this process. I told him I wanted to perform a non-hardship service withdrawal of after tax funds from my 401k to my Roth IRA. He replied and told me that was possible if I called in, but kept referring to this as a rollover. Anyone happen to know if that is correct? I would need to call in periodically to do this, but the long term advantages more than make up for the time on the phone. Thanks for the AWESOME feedback everyone!

That doesn’t sound right. Can you make after tax contributions?

Mickster99 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 24, 2023 3:48 pm I called Fidelity today and used the amazing info on this forum to navigate the process. I finally got in touch with someone in their "Investment solutions" team, and he was vaguely familiar with this process. I told him I wanted to perform a non-hardship service withdrawal of after tax funds from my 401k to my Roth IRA. He replied and told me that was possible if I called in, but kept referring to this as a rollover. Anyone happen to know if that is correct? I would need to call in periodically to do this, but the long term advantages more than make up for the time on the phone. Thanks for the AWESOME feedback everyone!

Yes it’s a rollover.

My trad 401k is primarily bonds. My Roth IRA is primarily stocks. This is optimized for tax efficient placement: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Tax-efficient_fund_placement If I leave the MBR in my 401k then I can’t help but invest the Roth portion the same way as the trad portion which is suboptimal so I roll it out. I understand, but couldn’t you just keep track of the commingled allocation until it’s time to retire and withdraw, and then just roll out once at that point? Wouldn’t that be the same result? I have the same commingled 401k in Fidelity, and the Sources screen tells me what % of my total balance is pre-tax vs post-tax. If it is 70% pre-tax 30% post-tax, then couldn’t I just keep the commingled investment mix at 70% bonds and...

Welcome to the forum. Your initial post gave a good idea of where you guys are, and where you want to head. I wouldn't spend too much time listing all of the holdings in your current accounts. Instead, I think you would be well-served by using this forum to figure out how you want to be invested going forward; figuring out how to consolidate your various accounts at one of the big three low cost investment firms, vanguard, schwab, or fidelity; and then doing that (consolidating your accounts and getting them out of Ameriprise). This will save you money and logistical headaches in the future. Suggestion: You might either reach out to Fidelity or stop at one of their offices for help in setting up appropriate accounts there (IRAs and a taxab...

outlierZ wrote: ↑Mon Jan 23, 2023 7:49 pm

student wrote: ↑Mon Jan 23, 2023 9:40 am I agree with posters who said that you don't need FSPGX and VMILX as you have 500 Index and International Index.

Thanks! I have down ~30% on VMILX. Should I take the loss and rebalance or wait until I recover some losses?

There’s no loss as this is in a 401k

Welcome to the forum. Your initial post gave a good idea of where you guys are, and where you want to head. I wouldn't spend too much time listing all of the holdings in your current accounts. Instead, I think you would be well-served by using this forum to figure out how you want to be invested going forward; figuring out how to consolidate your various accounts at one of the big three low cost investment firms, vanguard, schwab, or fidelity; and then doing that (consolidating your accounts and getting them out of Ameriprise). This will save you money and logistical headaches in the future. Suggestion: You might either reach out to Fidelity or stop at one of their offices for help in setting up appropriate accounts there (IRAs and a taxab...

Yes. And no... Yes, in the sense that your Roth IRA is a separate account from your 401k. In that same vein, a "Backdoor" Roth is completely independent from a MBR. You can do both - independently from each other. The accounts could remain forever separate if you wanted. But where the paths may cross, is at somepoint , you may want to transfer money from your after-tax/MBR/Roth 401k into your Roth IRA. Again, plans vary wildly... But if your MBR doesn't allow in-plan conversions (or limits then, or has fees for them, or has bad investment options), but it allows "rollovers" to your Roth IRA, that might be advantageous. Or as previously noted, if you want to access the funds before 59.5 and/or separation from employer, m...

It is my understanding that one's Roth IRA accounts are absolutely independent from their Roth 401(k) ones. Correct? Yes. And no... Yes, in the sense that your Roth IRA is a separate account from your 401k. In that same vein, a "Backdoor" Roth is completely independent from a MBR. You can do both - independently from each other. The accounts could remain forever separate if you wanted. But where the paths may cross, is at somepoint , you may want to transfer money from your after-tax/MBR/Roth 401k into your Roth IRA. Again, plans vary wildly... But if your MBR doesn't allow in-plan conversions (or limits then, or has fees for them, or has bad investment options), but it allows "rollovers" to your Roth IRA, that might be...

question for the forum: all new deposits to my 401k automatically go to a target date fund. i also have a taxable account for retirement. i keep the taxable account all equities, and convert pieces of the target fund to bonds as necessary to balance my taxable equities and achieve my desired ratio. i believed i was following boglehead advice by keeping bonds in tax deferred space when possible, thus avoiding taxes on the interest they produce. a friend recently told me that i should do the opposite, as the greatest long term gains (and thus capital gains) will be in equities, so the benefit would be greater to use tax deferred space for equities (or in this case, a target fund) rather than waste a portion of it on bonds ..... who is correc...

NotSoDaring wrote: ↑Sun Jan 22, 2023 11:09 am

jebmke wrote: ↑Sun Jan 22, 2023 9:18 am Looking at the list, I'd expect them all to be in VTI.

Thank you for the response. I just did a comparison of the two. But it's hard to compare 4K holdings in VTI and 69 holdings in MOAT.
The worst part of MOAT is the .46 expense ratio.
I already have quite a bit of VOO, which we did instead of VTI.

That’s mighty expensive for a fund with so little diversification. Too expensive and risky. Better to just do a total market and get exposure to those companies by default.

placeholder wrote: ↑Fri Jan 20, 2023 6:50 pm

wetgear wrote: ↑Fri Jan 20, 2023 4:04 pm Why won’t you have taxable income?

As noted in the original post:

I currently have a side business that will provide enough losses (due to depreciation) to offset 100% of my income for 2023.

Wouldn’t that be capital losses and only applicable to offset 3k/year of ordinary income.

black_knight_32 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 20, 2023 11:41 am

tashnewbie wrote: ↑Fri Jan 20, 2023 11:15 am

black_knight_32 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 20, 2023 11:11 am

tashnewbie wrote: ↑Fri Jan 20, 2023 11:06 am That fund is an S&P 500 index fund.

Yes i'm aware of that. Meant to say Vanguard fund. Edited original post.

I'd have absolutely no qualms using the State Street 500 index fund. At 2 basis points, it's a bargain. Consider yourself lucky that you have an option that great in your 401k. It tracks the same index as Vanguard's S&P 500 index fund. Any difference would be due to tracking error which appears negligible.

You can check this to validate that: link

Should I fully max it out ($22,500) considering I’ll have no taxable income?

Why won’t you have taxable income?

I’m not sure I understand the question. Rebalancing is selling some funds to buy others thereby maintaining your target AA. It’s sounds like you’re thinking about changing your AA.

Booogle wrote: ↑Thu Jan 19, 2023 1:18 pm Bank of America says U.S. likely to default

https://www.thestreet.com/markets/u-s-d ... of-america

That's rich coming from BofA.

OP, I retired with a very similar portfolio, 95% Trad IRA, 5% Taxable. It was clear from my modeling that if I did nothing, my future Tax Rates would climb due to RMDs. It was also clear that my Retirement was pretty Fragile and I could not tax efficiently access funds for larger unexpected purchases, Those observations drove my strategy for the first five years of Retirement. My question for you, with so little in Taxable or Roth, why are you focusing on the tax efficiency of investments held in different accounts (e.g. 2% of your Portfolio)? Is this the biggest risk you should be concerned about? WoodSpinner WoodSpinner -- I believe what OP described is the opposite of your scenario. I think OP is saying that 2% is in tax-advantaged acco...

If I were to hold Balanced index fund(60/40) in 401k, His IRA accounts 85 % of the portfolio and International stocks in Her IRA and our Taxable account 15% of the portfolio. Will I be able to do everything I need to do as far as balancing goes? Tax loss harvesting etc? Or we need US stocks to do tax loss harvesting? I will be starting Roth and Roth also will have balanced Index. This way I will have two funds as opposed to 3 and there is security that major part of the portfolio is 60/40 anyway. balanced index fund and International stocks. You can only TLH what you have in taxable that is at a loss so you may lose opportunities to TLH US stocks and/or bonds. Rebalancing may be tough if you don't have some flexibility in your biggest acco...

hi, new user here. Me googling for my problem led me to this site. I have searched the forum for similar topics, just "TD" mentioned in posts since 2023 returned dozen search result pages and no direct answer so I'm posting this. it's been very frustrating with "Treasury Direct is unavailable, blah blah blah, please try another time" error message when trying to add my other bank accounts to TD. I'm fairly new to TD, but having already established an account and have successfully added primary bank account and made T-Bill purchases with it to test how the system works. Now that I'm comfortable with the site, I wanted to link/add my other bank accounts, and it's been a nightmare. 3 out of 4 accounts returned immediately ...

dr_roboto wrote: ↑Tue Aug 24, 2021 10:45 am

stan1 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 24, 2021 10:39 am There's no S&P 500 Index choice?

Unfortunately not.

Can you move the 529 to somewhere with better options?

What does your IPS say to do? I usually try to correct small AA drift using new contributions.