Bogleheads.org

Beachey wrote: ↑Sun Mar 26, 2023 12:20 am Did you make those contributions evenly over every paycheck or did you contribute on only some paychecks? Your match is not clear but typically the match is only applied on paychecks where you contribute a minimum amount? Some employers will do a yearly 'true-up" once a year to account for uneven contributions but this is at employer discretion.

Yup, they only put money in from last year in a lump some the following year. I did talk to the 401k company once before and they said it didn’t matter when you contributed. I was worried that I might go over the max (but I fell short of that because business was slower some months).

My employer is supposed to do a 4% match @ 100% in the 401k. For the whole year I contributed $16,390.97. Gross earnings are $74,035.86. The company contributed $1445.19

How did they come up with the $1445? I thought they would put in 4% of my annual income?


ETA

I am paid a combination of hourly, commission, and tips (If that matters)

Wow. This is scary. I transfer funds once a year from Optum to Fidelity. I hope this does not happen to one of my yearly transfers. I can't close my Optum account because my work uses it for the HSA payroll deposits. I am hoping Optum modernizes their system to allow for electronic transfers. One thing I could do is to tell my work to stop the payroll deductions for HSA - and then just contribute my yearly contribution to my HSA directly with Fidelity. This might be the last year of Optum HSA contributions and transfers for me after reading this post. I think I may lose a few tax benefits with Medicare and social security payroll taxes by doing this - but it's probably worth it. That's what I do now and it works smoothly. I let my employer...

These companies need to stop all paper check transfers. This is terrible customer service.

I did recently transfer most of my funds from Optum Bank to Fidelity and it did work out alright. So it can work. I hope they are able to fix it quickly.

I'd contact Clark Howard and see which federal oversight people you can contact ASAP. They have a site to help people and you can call them!

Let’s say that someone recommends putting 25% of your portfolio into small cap value funds. I am using VBR in this instance. BUT VBR is also 20% mid cap.

So I set my global portfolio to

35% VTI
40% VBR
15% VWO (international emerging markets)
10% VEA (International developed markets)

I put this into Personal Capital
24.1% US large Cap
23.68% US small cap
20.61% US mid cap
24.9% International

6.72% is in REITs and cash



Am I understanding things correctly and I did put more into SCV? I ended up needing to put in 40% into VBR (which is all I have available since I’m using Betterment with the portfolio. Or is it expected that I only put 30% into VBR since that is 30% Small cap? But 20% of VBR is mid cap

Global EX-US Market International Developed EX-US Market Global has emerging markets, International Developed doesn’t. Or should I say Global South and not emerging markets - seems silly to me since it’s not a North South thing but rather economic measures. Anyway … So it doesn’t have emerging markets from northern countries like by Europe or Russia? BTW I don't think any funds now hold Russia? Poland was an Emerging Market, but I think that may have dropped. South Korea is, in one index (MSCI or FTSE) but not in the other. Taiwan is an EM (talking of developed countries that get an EM categorisation). My Betterment account uses VWO Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets. In the description it lists Russia in it. Is that still accurate since the w...

Global EX-US Market International Developed EX-US Market Global has emerging markets, International Developed doesn’t. Or should I say Global South and not emerging markets - seems silly to me since it’s not a North South thing but rather economic measures. Anyway … So it doesn’t have emerging markets from northern countries like by Europe or Russia? BTW I don't think any funds now hold Russia? Poland was an Emerging Market, but I think that may have dropped. South Korea is, in one index (MSCI or FTSE) but not in the other. Taiwan is an EM (talking of developed countries that get an EM categorisation). My Betterment account uses VWO Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets. In the description it lists Russia in it. Is that still accurate since the w...

typical.investor wrote: ↑Tue Mar 07, 2023 3:15 am Yeah sorry for the confusion. Global has emerging markets. That includes emerging markets in Europe.

“Global south” is a new way to say emerging markets or developing countries. I shouldn’t have brought it up

That’s interesting. I didn’t know their were different indexes for these. Thank you

typical.investor wrote: ↑Tue Mar 07, 2023 2:45 am Global EX-US Market
International Developed EX-US Market

Global has emerging markets, International Developed doesn’t.

Or should I say Global South and not emerging markets - seems silly to me since it’s not a North South thing but rather economic measures. Anyway …

So it doesn’t have emerging markets from northern countries like by Europe or Russia?

Global EX-US Market
International Developed EX-US Market

I’m using portfolio visualizer and I can choose these 2 different international index’s

Credit card interest accrues daily. Making 2-4 payments a month will pay it down faster because you'll pay way less interest.

ETA this is if you're running a balance month to month and attempting to pay it off.

homebuyer6426 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 2:44 pm No one knows. I don't own any international but I could be wrong.

Your portfolio is not simple enough for my taste. Too many funds with small percents.

I made it slightly more simplified. I got rid of the mid cap funds, since they use VBR for the small cap which already has 20% in the mid cap for its weighting. If Betterment ever goes out of business or I move the funds elsewhere I’ll have less funds to move and balance

Now it’s the following.

30% Total US market
10% Large cap value
30% Small cap value
15% International
15% emerging markets

If you are significantly bothered by underperforming the global stock market, then why are you bothering with all this complicated slicing and dicing? Why not just buy a global stock market index fund such as vanguard's total world stock index fund (ticker VTWAX or VT)? Or just buy total US and total international stock index funds in the appropriate proportion. If I buy VT in my Fidelity account it will be cheaper, but I like that Betterment does all the graphs, keynotes, and motivation emails and stuff to keep me working towards my goals. I also like how easy it is. Sometimes I just open the app and throw $10 in it and I know it only takes 20 seconds and it’s done and diversified. I’ve also been using Betterment since 2016 I think so I’v...

homebuyer6426 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 2:44 pm No one knows. I don't own any international but I could be wrong.

Your portfolio is not simple enough for my taste. Too many funds with small percents.

I don't use mid cap anywhere else. I kept it only because betterment uses them for TLH and more options seemed like probably more options to TLH.

I had my goals set to 100% stock, but it has been underperforming the global market. I have since switched them to better mirror my retirement accounts. Betterment says they are now more aggressive but it also shows that I can have higher returns. I did this to better get the returns of the global market and to possibly beat it. I have been doing 20-30% SCV in my portfolios and hoping for better returns in the long run compared to the S&P 500 while still having it invested in the US market. This way I can better get the performance of VT in a taxable account and have the benefits of automation and simplicity with Betterment and use their TLH, rebalancing, tax statements, etc. It was a 60/40 US/International and it is now 70/30 Original ...

Hmmm Maybe I’ll see if I can borrow someone’s PC to do my taxes on it or see if I can get my old Windows 10 working. It’s super slow with only 2GB of RAM.

GaryA505 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 2:05 pm I think a 1% AUM fee could be worth it in the case of someone who:
1. Can't be trusted not to do something stupid.
2. Refuses (for whatever reason) to buy a target date fund, 3-fund portfolio, or balanced fund.
3. Thinks they can time the market.
4. Has diminished mental capacity.

I'm sure there's more, but the basic idea is that someone could do way more than 1% damage to their portfolio.

I feel personally attacked

In all honesty i know I'd make better returns using 80% VT and 20% SCV but I like the automation, motivational emails and keynote presentations, and being able to see the nice charts and graphs.

... I'm also extremely impulsive sometimes and choose to setup guardrails for myself. But I won't pay 1-2%

Yes. I use Betterment as my after tax account advisor. They only charge .25% to manage my money

It's an ipad Air 5th gen with 256GB storage. I think it has 8GB RAM

mrmass wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 10:15 am

passive101 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 10:13 am

mrmass wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 10:09 am As we say here at the office. This is what you asked for. Use a real computer. Not an enlarged phone. After all this is your taxes.

But I don't want to buy a new computer just to do my taxes haha

You got me on that one. I assumed everyone has a computer.

I do use it with a keyboard, mouse, and pencil

I haven't had a need for windows or macOS in several years.

mrmass wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 10:09 am As we say here at the office. This is what you asked for. Use a real computer. Not an enlarged phone. After all this is your taxes.

But I don't want to buy a new computer just to do my taxes haha

This is the first year I’m doing taxes on a tablet. I know I can’t use the most basic form of the software. I have a 401k, Roth IRA, HSA, taxable investment account, and crypto. Should I use the iPad app or the website? Does the app version have all the features of the website?

I notice on the iPad when it runs low on memory it refreshes and loses things in the browsers. It happens with Brave, Chrome, and Safari. That makes me a little nervous to use for taxes since I’ll be switching apps and websites for forms and such.

I think you have too much overlap going on. What is your current timeframe and how much do you want to have saved in these retirement accounts by then? Cutting back on bonds would help making it more aggressive. The 500 index and contra fund and the target date fund is to much in overlapping large cap IMO. If you’re ok with more risk I would just use 2 of these funds. I’d keep the ultra low cost target date fund, but choose one further out that will keep the bond percentage lower. I’d also get rid of the higher expensive mid cap fund. Historically small cap has had better returns over the long run and your available small cap fund has a very low fee. I’d do something more like this 80% Fidelity target date 2040 or 2045 20% DFA US small cap ...

What are the other funds offered. Are there other low cost fidelity index funds? Unfortunately those are the cheapest options. They have higher priced funds that are from other companies like dodge and Cox, John Hancock (it's a real company I learned), and Lord Abbet. They all seem like funds of random things. No total market or S&P 500 funds. Their international fund is 1.8% The other options are annuities which he doesn't want. The target date funds seems to be tracking other funds I could think of to compare it too. That was my best idea 🤷‍♂️ He gets a company match and doesn't want other accounts if he doesn't need to. How high can fees get in a 401k before they're not worth paying? Would .5 and .025 be low enough to make this be a...

Someone I know has these in their 401k. No large cap funds, but they do have some TDFs from American funds. They also have a low cost small cap fund from Fidelity. It looks like the funds are significantly smaller then VBR. He’d like a 20% Small cap tilt which this could give him. From what I can tell there is no load on the American TDF. I think the fidelity is a non managed index because the fund fee is only .025%. That’s 10x lower then Avantis offers and even cheaper then VBR from Vanguard. Are either of these actively managed? FSSNX says it’s an index and the fees are very low so I think that’s passive. RHKTX has an ER of .53 RHKTX - American Funds 2060 Class R-5E FSSNX - Fidelity Small Cap Index FSSNX seems to underperform VBR, but doe...

CatCoder555 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 01, 2023 12:31 pm AI/

Keep in mind... I think OpenAI has been "dumbing down" or limiting ChatGPT. Its starting to spit out these basic answers to certain things, maybe because people are easily offended so they started just closing off more of it.

You’re not wrong. It already is and is being limited by political correctness as seen by many of it’s searches. It won’t say jokes about women, but will say sexist jokes against men. There are MANY blocks on it. It’s not even hooked up to the internet right now, which it certainly can be and is designed for.

One thing to keep in mind is that this is just one of the first released to the general public. The real good stuff is like the military tech. 10-30 years ahead of the general consumer market. Google, Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, and smaller players around the world are already designing newer, better, and faster AI’s which I’m sure we’ll start seeing get use in just 1-2 years.

There is already an ETF that uses an AI to pick the stocks in the portfolio that has been out around 5 years. In the future I think most portfolios will be done by AI’s and algorithiums. I personally think the robo advisors will be the first ones to offer these to the general public in betas.

OK I’m not the best with numbers. Here is what I have going and I have so far come up with this strategy. Is there a better one? Since I’m definitely putting more into the S&P 500 fund I’m not adding more to my Roth IRA AA of that fund. I have $250/every payday. Since I’m putting $900 into the US fund in the 401k what percentages should I be adding to the international and SCV to keep my ratio of a 60/40 split with 30% SCV? In my 401k I am using the Vanguard S&P 500 fund 100%. Every 2 weeks I’m putting in around 800-900 In my Roth IRA I am putting in $250. Vanguard total international, Total US stock market, and SCV (but how much to put in international and SCV) I currently have my portfolio at this ratio. I’ve heard 20-30% SCV is ...

OMG they have calculators for this?! I've been using sheets of paper and a calculator and then messing it up sometimes!

OK I’m not the best with numbers. Here is what I have going and I have so far come up with this strategy. Is there a better one? Since I’m definitely putting more into the S&P 500 fund I’m not adding more to my Roth IRA AA of that fund. I have $250/every payday. Since I’m putting $900 into the US fund in the 401k what percentages should I be adding to the international and SCV to keep my ratio of a 60/40 split with 30% SCV? In my 401k I am using the Vanguard S&P 500 fund 100%. Every 2 weeks I’m putting in around 800-900 In my Roth IRA I am putting in $250. Vanguard total international, Total US stock market, and SCV (but how much to put in international and SCV) I currently have my portfolio at this ratio. I’ve heard 20-30% SCV is b...

nalor511 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 27, 2023 5:09 pm Fidelity gives you fractional shares of want ETF you want, plus better service (live chat). No benefit to VG these days for an ETF holder

Dos Fidelity keep track of how much you've contributed and can it automatically figure out the max contributions I can put in based on how much I already have it set to? I do like that feature of Vanguard since I get paid every 2 weeks and sometimes have to change what I contribute.

As has been noted already Vanguard is limited to their own ETFs for fractional share investing. I'm guessing based on your opening post and subsequent post in this thread you are solely focused on ETFs because with respect to your Fidelity HSA you can totally automate the investing if you use mutual funds. As far as startups are concerned they can focus on a few things and choose to ignore others. For example M1 doesn't allow you to buy mutual funds or individual treasuries. That may not be a big deal to you or many others, but there is still more money in mutual funds than in ETFs. There have also been numerous threads here on the advantages of creating your own bond ladder. None of the brokerages are perfect, so you choose the one or com...

It is possible to do: 1. Convert the mutual fund to ETF. 2. Establish an automatic purchase of the mutual fund. Note that at Vanguard you must first own shares of the mutual fund before you can set up an automatic purchase program (at least it used to work that way). You'll end up owning both the mutual fund and ETF share classes of the same fund. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Owning ETFs doesn't preclude you from doing automatic purchase of a mutual fund. One wrinkle is that there is a minimum investment for the mutual fund. If you convert the shares to ETF shares, the next automatic investment would have to meet the minimum requirement, $3K for most index mutual funds st Vanguard. If the OP's goal is to get the lower ER of V...

Wiggums wrote: ↑Fri Jan 27, 2023 10:58 am This article suggests that you can buy fractional shares of Vanguard ETFs

https://investor.vanguard.com/investor- ... guard-etfs

I’m trying to buy an Avantis ETF

I just wanted to switch my small cap value fund from Vanguard to Avantis. I thought this would be easy to do and would stay convenient. I guess it’s not the end of the world, but I’m 1) impulsive 2) like things easy and automatic I guess it won’t be that much cash sitting around, but I would prefer it not sitting around ideally. I already don’t like something with my HSA at Fidelity, because it automatically takes the money from my checking account, but I still have to login every month to buy the fund that I want. I’m just more surprised that these multi trillion dollar companies can’t do what startups do with a fraction of their money :confused I use Betterment for my taxable account for this reason. Now that I type this I realize I’m laz...

Am I missing something here? I’m in my Roth IRA and trying to buy an ETF. It’s currently $80/share and I have $241. It won’t let me buy a fractional share. I’m beginning to think that I need to move away from Vanguard. I’ve had a lot of issues with them lately and it seems like it would actually be cheaper and easier to just move it at this point. I’m still going to ask if I’m missing something first. I was told that M1 Finance lets you automatically buy ETF’s which is great and something Vanguard doesn’t allow. Do they also do fractional shares? Does Fidelity do any better with this? (I already have my HSA with them) If Vanguard doesn’t let you do any of these things, how did they get so big and popular? Did they use to be more user friend...

Why do they not let you do automatic purchases of ETFs? Can you do this at any other brokerages? To your first question, I don't know why. And to the second, yes but probably not the ones you want. See previous Bogleheads threads: https://www.google.com/search?q=where+can+I+make+automatic+purchases+of+ETFs+site%3A+Bogleheads.org The purchase/redemption process for mutual funds are simple and straightforward and well suited for auto investment in dollars. It was built this way from the beginning. Investing in ETFs requires you to wade out into the market and buy / sell in whole shares with a uncertain dollar amount. This is trickier. Note, ETFs work like stocks and auto investing in these is relatively new and not widely available. I guess ...

Yes, it will mess up auto investing. It won’t let me convert mutual funds to ETFs it seems. Should I sell them and put it into the settlement account and then after it’s done try to buy the ETF versions? Or should I just call them and find out if they can do it and verify that the auto investments will continue and will work with the ETF versions? Vanguard will not allow you to convert from a mutual fund to an ETF online. You have to pick up your telephone and talk to them, and they will do the conversion for you. They want to talk to you and make sure you understand what you want. That seems odd, but it seems to be a lot of things with Vanguard is quirky. Can anyone confirm that if I switch to ETFs that the auto invest will still work wit...

Will it mess anything up like the auto investing into the funds that I have setup? Yes, it will mess up auto investing. It won’t let me convert mutual funds to ETFs it seems. Should I sell them and put it into the settlement account and then after it’s done try to buy the ETF versions? Or should I just call them and find out if they can do it and verify that the auto investments will continue and will work with the ETF versions? Vanguard will not allow you to convert from a mutual fund to an ETF online. You have to pick up your telephone and talk to them, and they will do the conversion for you. They want to talk to you and make sure you understand what you want. That seems odd, but it seems to be a lot of things with Vanguard is quirky. C...

livesoft wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 6:59 pm

passive101 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 6:52 pmWill it mess anything up like the auto investing into the funds that I have setup?

Yes, it will mess up auto investing.

It won’t let me convert mutual funds to ETFs it seems. Should I sell them and put it into the settlement account and then after it’s done try to buy the ETF versions? Or should I just call them and find out if they can do it and verify that the auto investments will continue and will work with the ETF versions?

My accounts/profile and account settings/accounts and trading/Holding level dividend and capital gains elections is where you can change where dividends and capital gains go for all your holdings. Thank you. I also realized that in my traditional rollover IRA I have it in VT and it was not set to reinvest. It was set to go back to the settlement fund. There is only .12 in the settlement fund so probably no big deal, but I’m glad I caught it! :oops: WAIT A SECOND How come my Traditional IRA is with VT and my Roth IRA has to use the more expensive mutual fund version of VTWAX?! If a Vanguard account, maybe you have not converted the Roth account to a brokerage account? I checked before and was told it is a brokerage account Then you can eith...

My accounts/profile and account settings/accounts and trading/Holding level dividend and capital gains elections is where you can change where dividends and capital gains go for all your holdings. Thank you. I also realized that in my traditional rollover IRA I have it in VT and it was not set to reinvest. It was set to go back to the settlement fund. There is only .12 in the settlement fund so probably no big deal, but I’m glad I caught it! :oops: WAIT A SECOND How come my Traditional IRA is with VT and my Roth IRA has to use the more expensive mutual fund version of VTWAX?! If a Vanguard account, maybe you have not converted the Roth account to a brokerage account? I checked before and was told it is a brokerage account

asset_chaos wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 6:07 pm My accounts/profile and account settings/accounts and trading/Holding level dividend and capital gains elections

is where you can change where dividends and capital gains go for all your holdings.

Thank you. I also realized that in my traditional rollover IRA I have it in VT and it was not set to reinvest. It was set to go back to the settlement fund. There is only .12 in the settlement fund so probably no big deal, but I’m glad I caught it!


WAIT A SECOND

How come my Traditional IRA is with VT and my Roth IRA has to use the more expensive mutual fund version of VTWAX?!

I've never purchased a non vanguard fund at vanguard before. When I buy it where will it have the option to reinvest the dividends? Their mutual funds have always done it for me automatically.

exodusNH wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 4:15 pm

passive101 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 4:01 pm If I add AVUV to my Roth IRA does Vanguard automatically put the dividends back into the fund? I saw they are not yet doing this with AVGE because it’s too new, but I’m wondering if AVUV has been around long enough where that wouldn’t be a problem to use as a small cap value?

Yes.

Awesome. It should be a set it and forget it thing then

If I add AVUV to my Roth IRA does Vanguard automatically put the dividends back into the fund? I saw they are not yet doing this with AVGE because it’s too new, but I’m wondering if AVUV has been around long enough where that wouldn’t be a problem to use as a small cap value?

I recently did this by $200ish dollars. I called Fidelity and since it was still in the cash account they simply moved it on their end to the 2023 year. I won’t have to fill out any forms of any kind. I’d call them directly and tell them about it. Maybe they can also do the same thing and just move those $3 to 2023 and avoid any headaches.

When I go to setup automatic investments at Vanguard for my Roth IRA it used to show me what was selected and what percentages were going into the accounts. Today I don’t see that anymore. It lets me choose between my IRA and Roth IRA. When I select the Roth IRA all the options are blank without it showing me what date, amount, or what Percentages are selected for the fund distribution.

If they changed this, how do we view this now?

I listen to the Talking Real Money podcast and they have worked with Paul Merriman. Sometimes they push Avantis funds but also say VT is as good as AVGE but recommend 20-30% small cap value of either VBR or AVUV. Is Paul saying that VT/VBR is just as good as AVGE/AVUV? Vanguard funds are certainly cheaper, but using portfolio visualizer shows both AVGE and AVUV outperforming the vanguard funds. I'm so confused and am trying to stop switching between these 🤦‍♂️ That's an interesting idea for a simplified portfolio - 70-80% or so of VT and 20-30% of a good US SCV fund. Guess I need to learn to use that portfolio visualizer... Paul was largely posing questions in the linked podcast and the data comparisons were being made by Chris Pedersen. I...

For anyone interested, Paul Merriman and Chris Pedersen briefly discuss AVGE on their latest video/podcast, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCtEykUXcA0 The discussion of AVGE begins at about 48:15 and goes to roughly minute 55. Bottom line as I heard it: Mr. Pedersen appreciates the simplicity aspect of AVGE but thinks better exposure to small/value factors can be had with nearly as simple 2 or 3 fund portfolios, (or with their complicated "best in class etc ultimate buy and hold" portfolio) portending possibly better returns. I listen to the Talking Real Money podcast and they have worked with Paul Merriman. Sometimes they push Avantis funds but also say VT is as good as AVGE but recommend 20-30% small cap value of either ...