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Long time follower, posting for 1st time. During the last few years, I tried my hand at diversifying the portfolio and now have unwieldy portfolio. One of the goals for 2023 is to simplify and eventually towards an 80/20 VTI-BND portfolio. However I do not want to do all of them overnight in one go and structurally move them in a meaningful way. Which of these would you recommend targeting to sell for 2023. Symbol - Description - Quantity BND - Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF - 104.237 BNDX - Vanguard Total International Bond ETF - 68.084 IVOO - Vanguard S&P Mid-Cap 400 ETF - 205.282 MGK - Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF - 495.023 VBK - Vanguard Small-Cap Growth ETF - 72.661 VEA - Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF - 209.047 VIOO - Vangua...

I went from renting to buying a house that’s turned out to be a money pit. I paid $65k down on a $200k house and have about $18k into repairs/updates and a lot more to come. 3) I figure I need about $15k in my emergency fund for 6 months of living expenses. I have more than that in checking, savings and money market, but use it as a cushion for if I can’t cash flow my house repairs from my salary. Is that ok or should I be doing something else? Given what you wrote about the house being a money pit and needing to spend a lot more soon, I think it would be reasonable to hang onto more cash. 1) I max my 401k, IRA and HSA. I’m currently doing all Roth in my 401k but being in the 24% bracket, at what point should I go traditional? Income tax r...

curo wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 5:34 pm I presently have two accounts:
2.5 m in taxable
1.5 m IRA
I'm using the core 4 principle for both accounts (60/40). Since these accounts are close to a 60/40 split. Would it be wise to allocate my IRA account (40%) to fix income and my taxable account (60%) to equities. And consider these two accounts as one when I rebalance.

I have done what you are deliberating myself, because I dislike paying taxes unnecessarily.
The wiki describes it as 'tax-efficient fund placement' (or tax-efficient asset location).

I have decided that I would like to semi-retire early, at age 42, and work only for pleasure and likely part-time at lower paying jobs, supplementing investment income. I want to reduce my taxable income as much as possible starting in 2024. Current situation: 1. $1.3M in brokerage 2. $930K in 401K 3. $260K ROTH IRA 4. $1.2M in stock options at the company I am leaving, most of which has been held for over a year 4. About to get ~$200K (after tax withholdings) in severance 5. About to get ~$600K of equity out of a home sale (not taxed) I think I'll need on average ~$100K a year to live based on my new budget right now, which may go up/down based on costs in any given year. My goal is to have ~20-30K of that come from part-time work, so reg...

macobow wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 12:44 pm I have had this money market account for quite some time. Now it pays 1.87 APY. I want to put at least $10K into high yield savings. Considering current noise about banking turmoil..... what about UFB Direct preferred savings at 5.02 APY or Salem Five Direct E-one at 4.1 APY? Both are FDIC insured. Would this be a good move on my part or bad? I guess it's a no brainer but i'm not entirely sure.

Many people use Ally online savings, and I have in the past.
I have no complaints against Ally.
But I've since decided I dislike paying taxes on interest (ordinary income), so now I hold hardly any cash in taxable accounts.

CtScrtDsse wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 8:02 am Any recommendations on where to buy a reasonably priced bicycle (with training wheels)?

My son is 3 years old and very tall (98th percentile for height), most tricycles for his age are too small for him and I'm trying to find something reasonably priced that could last hopefully more than a summer or two. Amazon? Wal-Mart? Thank you!

Craigslist.
(Sorry if it's a repeat; did not read all of the other replies.)

I'm progressively simplifying our Vanguard portfolios and at same time looking to maximize income. I will appreciate feedback on some changes. Background: we are both 69, I'm retired, husband is mostly retired. Own our home, no mortgage. We are drawing SS, no pensions, husband's expected income around $40K this year, fully retiring next year. Our SS covers about half of our living expenses and we have sufficient liquidity for next three years to cover the rest without going into our tax-deferred retirement funds. Except for $200K in bank, all of our resources are in Vanguard: $260K in a taxed brokerage account and $2.25M in our IRAs. Looking ahead to 2027 when we have to begin RMDs, we want to build up cash in our respective IRA MM account...

ChinchillaWhiplash wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 5:13 pm “Buy when others are fearful”. Does it make sense to back up the truck to sector funds such as financials? Seems like a good time to get a huge discount. You might have to sit on it until it rebounds but you would do that with any holding. What would having 10-15% of portfolio in this matter as far as the downside. Could go down more. If it does just DCA into it. Is this any worse or riskier than holding something such as a REIT fund at these percentages?

Before committing 10-15% of my portfolio to anything more risky, I would project mathematically the potential impact to my overall portfolio.
Perhaps you have already done this.
Good luck with whatever you decide.

I sincerely appreciate all the valuable advice I've received so far. Why a five-year horizon? I started investing in 2006, but I have yet to be able to reach the 300K. Despite my efforts, I've seen minimal progress in my investments, and I recognize that I must be making some mistakes. I hope that by maximizing my returns over the next five years, I might have better luck than the laissez-faire approach I held for the past 19 years. Any advice or suggestions you can provide regarding portfolio simplification and maximizing returns would be beneficial. @arcticpineapplecorp My goal is to maximize returns for the next ten years. And yes, I have at times considered going 100%. @ Johm221122 Hoping to break into 500k by then. Thank you @Doctor R...

CookieDough wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 8:08 pm If you're ever going to be on an ACA health plan, and if your MAGI is low enough during those years, you might want to compare ACA subsidies against future tax savings by doing Roth conversions in order to prevent future tIRA withdrawals from bumping you into a higher tax bracket. That can be a complicated question regarding whether you come out ahead doing the Roth conversions or taking the highest possible subsidy.

This.
I try to 'walk the tight-rope' each tax year, considering ACA subsidies and paying 12% (or less) for each dollar converted to Roth.

johnpau wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 8:00 pm Hi All,


I currently have brokerage account with Vanguard ( 3 fund portfolio) invested heavily.

From 2-3 years I have savings account in Ally bank just for peace of mind, in case stock market takes wild dip.

With all the recent banking news going on, I was wondering its time for me to move $$ away from Ally bank anything in excess of $250K (FDIC limit).
I know Ally started to pay 4.75% for 11-month no penalty CD.

Does it make sense to move excess $$ (above 250K) from Ally to Vanguard money market ?

If yes, which one do you recommend.

Or completely go with a different place (Fidelity ...etc)

Any other suggestion are welcome.

Unwise to exceed FDIC insurance limits by any material amount, in my opinion.

drramey wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 8:06 pm I like the idea of living off of dividend/interest if the saved amount at retirement allows it instead of selling off assets. In tax deferred accounts one could easily exchange holdings for something more income focused with no tax consequence. My taxable account is mostly VTI. Is there anyway to restructure holdings in a taxable account without a heavy tax penalty? In my case changing from VTI to corporate bonds, dividend stock funds, preferred stock funds, etc….

Hard to beat the tax efficiency of VTI in taxable.
If you haven't already, learn about tax-efficient fund (or ETF) placement.

So after taking five years to pass through Rick Ferri's stages of indexing ... ... Asset Allocation = 50/42/8 Looks really good. Just a few thoughts, since you asked for any suggestions: ... Overall, well done! Thanks and yes any suggestions welcome! 3. Would it be unreasonable to put MMF cash in my Rollover IRA (and buy Total Market in taxable with it instead of S&P), sell S&P when I need cash, and purchase total market with the MMF in the IRA to keep things balanced out? That would reduce cash drag if I have it right. Thanks again. Understood on the first 2. ... 3) That is how I handle our fixed income. I keep everything other about a month of expenses in tax-deferred accounts. When I need more money to spend, I sell some equitie...

I currently have an HSA plan through my employer(School District), but I don't know if the fees with investing my HSA is too high. The HSA funds is sent to a credit Union called "Gulf Coast Educators Federal Credit Union and the Credit Union offers a 3rd party on their website called, myHSAinvestments to handle the HSA Investments. There are some fees through the 3rd party that's in addition to the standard expense ratio of the investment fund. It does have Vanguard Index Funds which is great since Vanguard is my Brokerage and as far as I know, Vanguard doesn't have their own HSA option (why?!?) And this is the fees incurred by the 3rd party: 0.50% Annual Fee Fee invoiced quarterly (0.125% per quarter or $1.25 per $1,000 of account va...

berg wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2023 8:23 am Tomorrow marks the ten year anniversary of my first post on Bogleheads! I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to everyone on this forum who has taken the time to help me secure a better future for my family. I made so many better decisions, with much more confidence thanks to all of you! My wife calls you my money friends on the internet. I can't thank you all enough!
...

I was just lurking back in 2013, reading so many of the historical postings.
Truly amazing the amount of knowledge available on this forum!
'Thank you' to all contributors and moderators.

Redlee wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2023 1:16 am Vanguard and Fidelity are popular with Bogleheads and for good reason. But which firm would be in third place after them? If they closed tomorrow, where would you move to?

This would be for a "three fund" style portfolio of ETF's but with access to the most popular tax-loss-harvesting pairings. So access to those at low or no cost would be a priority.

The one that comes to mind is Charles Schwab. But is there something better?

Schwab is fine.

jebmke wrote: ↑Fri Mar 17, 2023 10:38 am I only take losses in my taxable account.

Bingo.
I, too, prefer losses in taxable.
TLH is my friend.

aboose wrote: ↑Thu Mar 16, 2023 7:47 pm I've never sold funds before so I am curious about this.

Say I sell on Business Day 1. I believe it takes 2 days to settle, so it will reach the settlement fund on BD3. then I ask for a transfer to my bank account. On what BD do I expect the cash to land in my checking?

Sell one share and try it.

Hi, With interests so high right now, what might be a better new investment, index funds or CDs? I just opened a Roth IRA at Vanguard and I also have an account at Ally Bank, which has one offer of 5% APY fixed rate for an 18 month CD. At Vanguard I saw some offers on their CD page of 5.35%. Would it make sense to invest in one of these CDs as long as rates are high, then maybe change to an index fund once rates are going down again? Or would investing in an index fund now still be better (and more profitable) in the long run? At Ally Bank the APY on my regular savings account (40,000$) is 3.60% currently as well and it's nice to get paid a chunk of interest every month without worries, while the stock market seems to be going up and down ...

TinyHouse wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 7:17 pm After over a decade of learning from and reading this forum ...

Especially for traditional 30 year retirement horizons, you can probably withdraw much more than you think. Check these out and let me know your thoughts, and take care!

Early-retired already, with perhaps more than 40 years before my funeral.
Basically a 3-fund portfolio, with overall AA ~60/40, spread across HSA, 401k, taxable, and traditional/Roth IRA accounts.
No way I am going to withdraw anywhere close to 5% annually, unless something catastrophic happens.
If said catastrophe strikes, I will likely begin working again for a paycheck.
Best of luck to you, if you enact your proposal.

Charles Joseph wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 5:59 pm

John Z wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 5:25 pm Short term (1-day, 1-week, 1-month, 3-month and YTD are in the bottom 2 quartiles of performance which is a good thing, you would be buying in low.

Or, manager risk is showing up. Matt Hand just recently took the helm with Michael Reckmeyer's retirement (equity side).

I sold Wellesley a few months ago when I finally surrendered to all index. I miss it, but for me (and me only) I had to pick sides in order to keep sane. Active? Or index?

Isn't it nice to no longer need to care about manager movements?

A most classic RBD play just happened. Remember that Fridays cannot be bona fide RBDs, but Monday was a great RBD for AVUV when it dropped an additional -3.85% by the close though it was down even further intraday. And the next day AVUV has traded as high as 75.62 though it has slacked off to 74.11 as I type this. BND even cooperated by going up 1%+ on Friday and 1%+ on Monday, though it has gone down more than 1% from it Monday high. In any case, selling BND on Monday to buy AVUV, then selling AVUV on Tuesday has been profitable. Should BND be rebought? I'm gonna wait for now. Added: these kinds of trades can not be backtested with the current version of PortfolioVisualizer.com because it (a) doesn't have intraday numbers and (b) only has...

hotajax wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 9:29 am ,,,,, are you a little bit satisfied?

Surely you jest.
I assume you have used the search box and read prior threads about Fisher.

LITeacher wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 11:39 am

wilked wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 11:38 am Is this to compare yourself against?

Some advice would be not to do so. Focus on your financial goals and compare yourself vs those goals, not vs others

My two cents...

Not necessarily --- more to see what is possible at specific income levels.

'Tis possible to retire with a portfolio more than 20x one's highest annual salary, without any windfalls.

Stanczyk wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 10:50 am Should I prioritize retirement accounts, or should I just do taxable?

Whichever is most advantageous tax-wise.

grandnexus wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 8:35 am Schwab has fallen over 20% in a few days due to the banking fiasco, seems like a good buying opportunity. Thoughts?

Edit: It is now down 37.75% since Thursday as of 9:43am EST

Introduce single-stock risk to my portfolio?
No can do.

Charles Joseph wrote: ↑Sat Mar 11, 2023 10:32 am

retired@50 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 11, 2023 10:09 am This sounds like some sort of security protocol to me.

Regards,

Agreed and thanks. My thought is they have the checks but wouldn't confirm receipt unless I could give them the exact amounts, due to security reasons. Should probably hit my IRA next week (I hope).

I hate rollovers. The money disappears into the vortex for a while. I think this should be my last one (will likely leave my 401k at Fidelity in there. It's got excellent options; all low-cost Fidelity index funds).

FWIW, when I have done rollovers from 401k, the 'FBO' check comes to me, and I drive it to my local Schwab office and deposit.

Hi, I posted a question regarding balancing my 401K back in 2019. I was 59 1/2 at the time ... ... Questions: 1) Should I move all my Vanguard accounts into a three fund portfolio and similarly with Fidelity? I am worried about more volatility but the target funds seems too conservative to me. 2) I estimate I need $85K in retirement and that does not include medical costs. I've read a few posts regarding Planvision services. For someone like me who has not seen much improvement in my accounts and does not have anything left to invest, can anyone tell me if that would be a viable option vs. PAS? I'm really lost about distribution, taxes, etc. when I actually retire. I I stick close to a 60/40 asset allocation for my whole portfolio, but eac...

Elm195b wrote: ↑Fri Mar 10, 2023 12:52 pm Asking for a friend! Any recommendations between the three for an individual who isn't interested in managing their own investments. Has anyone closed out their Personal Capital account and moved everything to Vanguard or Fidelity? How easy was the transition? Did it require you to sell any investments or were you able to just transfer holdings to new company? He is holding the majority of his investment in IRA's and 401K.

I moved from Vanguard to Schwab many years ago.
Has been a good move for me.
I self-manage basically a 3-fund portfolio, with AA of ~60/40.

I’m 55 and just retired. Because I have Roth conversions planned until RMD I also decided to open an HSA, which if I’m correct will allow for $4850/yr to “add” to the conversion within my desired bracket. My question is what to invest in. I’m generally healthy and my HDHP has a $7k deductible. My AA is 60/40. Unless I incur more than the usual annual costs (eyeglasses, maybe a prescription, etc) I was thinking I’d just let it grow for 10 years while funding until 65, at which point I’d use it for Medicare premiums etc. Do I load $7k into a MM or bond fund, then go 60/40? Just dump it into a target date fund? Some other approach?? My HSA is 100% equities (VITSX), except for the required cash amount. My overall portfolio 60/40 AA is achieved...

As a fellow 31 year old, I recommend dumping everything that you can into VT Vanguard Total World and think about bonds in 10 years. If VT isn't available, then the cheapest target date fund available. Considering we have a long runway, I'm not going to assume the US dominates the stock market our entire lives. With VT, you're covered no matter what happens, but this is debated ad nauseam here; you'll have to come to your own conclusions. Keep things as simple as possible and worry about saving more than investing right now, as your savings are likely to outpace any investment gains. Thank you! Yeah, I ended up going with a strategy of 60% domestic and 40% international stocks as an overall in my portfolio. When you say, "worry about ...

I am 78, wife is 75. Have small ($50K) IRA, paid for (~$250K) home and ~$200K in taxable brokerage account with a 1.25% fee. And, that account is entirely ETF’s and MF’s. No need to leave any funds to kids. They do quite fine. Simply want to gradually withdraw $7K-$10K annually to live our years. And with lower or no fees. Think I could do fine with the appropriate ETF’s in a robo account or a zero cost brokerage account and be rid of the advisory fees (or have a significantly lower annual fee with a robo). I really do not want to spend much time to manage an account. Did that for the better part of my life. Looking for advice on my fee reduction ideas and thoughts on where (robo or self)? TIA I am early-retired. I have my traditional IRA,...

saycanyouc wrote: ↑Mon Mar 06, 2023 2:11 pm Basis of this question: I'm getting what I consider unacceptable customer service from Vanguard. For convenience's sake, lets not discuss why I feel that way. My interest is in competence and low fees. For those of you who are Vanguard customers, if you HAD TO move your account, where would you move it to?

Schwab.

dlm2827 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 05, 2023 3:36 pm What suggestions would you have for me to share with her for better use of that money?

Sorry, I have no suggestion.
Just writing to say that you are not alone in this situation.
I gave up long ago.
We each do our own thing.
Life goes on.

Ask the person living in the next house over if there is a 'Millionaire Next Door'.
(Sorry, could not resist.)

TheTimeLord wrote: ↑Thu Mar 02, 2023 5:33 pm Personally, I prefer to have a different index in my Taxable accounts as my Tax Deferred accounts to avoid unintended wash sales during TLH.

Bingo!

I am early retired, and my ~60/40 portfolio is basically three index ETFs, mainly at Schwab (plus my 401k still residing at former employer).
My Roth IRA, HSA, and taxable account are all ~100% equities.
~100% of my fixed income is in tax-deferred accounts, plus some spillover equities.
When I need spending money, I simply sell a few shares of VTI from my taxable account.
If that causes my whole-portfolio AA to be out-of-balance, I simply re-balance in tax-deferred.
Portfolio is easily self-managed.

tibbitts wrote: ↑Wed Mar 01, 2023 5:30 pm Is TD login down just for me or everyone? The site is up but when I enter my account number, there's an outage message.

I had no problems around noon ET today.

OP, I am at a similar income level to you. Cook and eat at home until the situation stabilizes, I mean don't eat out or buy drinks out at all. Grocery is one area where savings can usually be found. Take all the food in the house out of the refrigerator, freezer, and cabinets and put it on the kitchen table, then make a plan to eat it, even if it means having cooked carrots, baked beans and pickles for a meal. (This is temporary. We're trying to get out of a jam here.) When you do go grocery shopping, the first purchase should be a box of quart-size freezer bags. If you buy a pound of ground beef, the minute you get home cut it into four quarter-pound portions and freeze two of them. Eat ONE hamburger for a meal, not two, and skip the mult...

Postings like this cause me to consider buying more stocks.
(Not single stocks, but broad-market index ETFs.)

firefi1983 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 26, 2023 4:40 pm Need suggestion on allocation and % for the allocation. Here are my 401k fund options(with expenses) I am interested in:

1. DODGX - Large cap value (0.51%)
2. FXAIX - S&P500 (.02%)
3. VWUAX - US growth (0.23%)
4. OTCFX - Small cap growth (0.85%)
5. FSMAX- Extended market (.04%)
6. FTIHX - International Index (.06%)

My 401k stocks are 100% S&P500 index, because like yours, it is the least expensive ER of all my options.
(Of course I do have other monies (some outside my 401k) which bring my overall portfolio AA to ~60/40.)

giantgreenanemone wrote: ↑Thu Feb 23, 2023 5:24 pm Thanks for the valuable input and well wishes, everyone! Far exceeded my expectations which were already high.
...

I recognize that I ultimately will need to decide what to do, but I've learned lots from this thread that I had not even considered before (such as prenup and umbrella insurance lol).

Thanks again, and cheers everyone!

Impressive.
Yes, it's like trying to drink from a fire hose, with all these replies.
With time and reading here, you will be all set.
(Just FYI on AA - During the stock market drop in 2008-09, I was almost all stock ETFs, which meant I had little money to buy equities while they were cheaper. Since then I have kept at least 25% in fixed income so that I would always have some money to re-balance with.)

albireo13 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 24, 2023 4:18 pm The 1% ….

They could put a pile of bricks, or a chimpanzee, in charge of my portfolio and I'd still lose 1%.

I am barely into 7 figures so 1% is roughly 10k.

Yes, $10k per YEAR that you have a million dollars there.
And I bought a nice used Toyota for about that amount.
Raymond James is not for me.

I just do not pay for beverages at all, and drink only tap water.

Hi, Due to the recent loss of my parents, we have an inheritance of ~$7.5M coming in. Our situation is as follows: Emergency funds: Yes, credit union checking account Debt: None Tax Filing Status: Married Filing Jointly State of Residence: NY Age: 51 / Wife's age: 49 I'm recently out of work, and while I'm figuring out next steps, I want to generate $150k/year in income from the portfolio for the next 1-2 years. I was thinking of opening a Fidelity account, and maybe figuring out a ladder of CD's/bonds in the shorter term. I'm interested in learning about what other possibilities could provide income/inflation protection in the short term as well. What is the best place to get guidance there? This would ideally be someone I could pay who i...

hudsoner wrote: ↑Fri Feb 24, 2023 1:37 pm Hi,

My wife and I (52 & 49) are both applying to this: https://wealthforlife.net/tax-free-matching-overview/... which seems like it's a no-brainer, if we can pay into the 5x annual installments. The downsides I can see are:

+ The distributions are fixed, not adjusted for inflation
+ There are 5 years of paying in, with penalties if those payments aren't made

This seems like an excellent option to augment our retirement income. Am I missing something?

I only skimmed the website, but my skepticism alarm is still ringing.

Hoping someone can give some suggestions for ETF choices for my husband's HSA. We're both in our early/mid 30's and have a simple portfolio with 90% stocks (25% international)/10% bonds across our retirement accounts. We've only used mutual funds before though so these ETF choices aren't as familiar to me. Our total retirement portfolio is around 600K. Since the HSA is a relatively small part of that portfolio (just opened it last year, contribute the max with part contributed by his employer), should we keep it simple and just invest in a US stock fund? These are his choices: Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT) ER 0.07% Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) ER 0.03% iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) ER 0.03% Vanguard Extended Market ETF ...

My daughter just graduated and is starting her career as a Radiology Technician. Her starting salary is around $55K a year. She's been offered two health plans; a standard PPO Plan the covers 100%, no deductible, for $110/month, and an HSA Plan that has a $1500 deductible at $55/month. She is 22 years old and in great health, no prescriptions. Single with no children. I'm inclined to advise her to go with the HSA plan and sock away as much money as she can while she's young and her expenses are low. She will also be contributing to their retirement plan at the maximum allowed. I don't know much about health plans so any advice would be appreciated! I always chose HSA, and treated it like a 'Roth IRA on steroids' (supreme tax-deferred accou...

For those of you that have a budget / track expenses what are your categories and why? I used to track expenses many years ago but I had 45+ categories and it became too much. While it was nice see how much I spent on coffee, cable, dry cleaning, gifts, groceries, electronics, eating out, household items, clothing, insurance premiums, federal taxes, state taxes, etc. - it often became too time consuming to break down the $400 receipt from Costco, Amazon, Target, etc. and I gave up. I’m looking to take a more simplified, sustainable approach but provides meaningful data points. My goals for tracking expenses: - Track total annual expenses and create several years worth of data to form a view on what expenses might look like in retirement - ...

'Staying the course' with my ~60/40 asset allocation.