Am I on track? [Portfolio help - Military]
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Am I on track? [Portfolio help - Military]
[The OP has reposted his portfolio in a new thread, which I merged with this one. See the 3rd post down. --admin LadyGeek]
Little bit about myself. I'm currently working at a morgage bank in the QC department. It's an 11 an hour job. I'm also in the Air reserves. I commute from florida to new york to do my monthly duties as well as whatever extra days they have based on the budget. Between the two I clear ~30k. I have 4000 in an emergency fund. This is well over 6 months considering right now I'm living with my brother. I have 1100 in an IRA account with a Cornerstone moderately aggressive mutual fund as well as 1100 in my TSP. I put 14% of my mil pay away into the TSP which only turns out to be 50-150 a month (so little because I'm a reservist). I also put 50 away into the IRA cornerstone. I was just wondering where to go from here or if you would change what I'm doing now. Thanks.
Little bit about myself. I'm currently working at a morgage bank in the QC department. It's an 11 an hour job. I'm also in the Air reserves. I commute from florida to new york to do my monthly duties as well as whatever extra days they have based on the budget. Between the two I clear ~30k. I have 4000 in an emergency fund. This is well over 6 months considering right now I'm living with my brother. I have 1100 in an IRA account with a Cornerstone moderately aggressive mutual fund as well as 1100 in my TSP. I put 14% of my mil pay away into the TSP which only turns out to be 50-150 a month (so little because I'm a reservist). I also put 50 away into the IRA cornerstone. I was just wondering where to go from here or if you would change what I'm doing now. Thanks.
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Re: Am I on track?
Welcome to forum,
Its a little confusing if you don't post this way
http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6212
What exspence ratio is the cornerstone fund, from what I looked up it seems have very high exspence ratio and like it is risky
Try 3 fund portfolio
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund_portfolio
John
Its a little confusing if you don't post this way
http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6212
What exspence ratio is the cornerstone fund, from what I looked up it seems have very high exspence ratio and like it is risky
Try 3 fund portfolio
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund_portfolio
John
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Re: Am I on track?
Sorry, Ill repost it in that format. Thanks fo the help!
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Am I on track? Revised
Emergency funds: I have 4000 set aside which is more then enough considering I'm living with my brother right now.
Tax Filing Status: Single
Tax Rate: 15% Federal, 0(No state tax in FL)% State
State of Residence:Florida
Income:~32k between civillian job and reserves.
Age:22
Desired Asset allocation: 70% stocks / 30% bonds
Current retirement assets
TSP- Not really a lot in this fund because I'm currently a reservist. 14% of drill pay isnt much.
Life Cycle Fund Balance Contribution allocation
L 2050 $38.56 5.0%
L 2040 $35.99 5.0%
L 2030 $41.06 10.0%
L 2020 $40.16 10.0%
L Income $37.83 10.0%
10.0%
Individual Funds Balance Contribution Allocation
G Fund Government Securities $191.97 5.0% (Recently lowered it and moved it into the international)
F Fund Fixed Income Index $247.33 20.0%
C Fund Common Stock Index $52.96 10.0%
S Fund Small Cap Stock Index $53.81 5.0%
I Fund International Stock Index $62.57 20.0%
USAA Brokerage Roth IRA(started 2 months ago.) 1.27 Exp ratio
Fund Quantity Balance
USAA CORNERSTONE MOD AGGR FUND (NTF) (USCRX) 43.385 $1,064.23
Top Fund Holdings for USCRX Filing Date: 02/28/2013
.Name Position Value % of Total
Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets 3,241,701 140,949,160 6.290%
SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust 704,763 106,792,737 4.765%
iShares MSCI EAFE Index Fund 1,701,564 98,996,994 4.418%
iShares Core S&P Mid-Cap ETF 745,118 81,985,334 3.658%
T 1 ¾ 05/15/22 78,000 77,939,082 3.478%
T 3 05/15/42 7 3,600 72,415,482 3.231%
iShares Russell 2000 Index Fun 450,000 40,707,000 1.816%
SPDR Gold Shares 181,842 27,814,552 1.241%
WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity 666, 188 27,273,737 1.217%
State Street Institutional Liq 19,295,071 0.861%
The financial advisors at USAA suggested this fund.
Questions:
1. Am I on track for a 22 year old ?
2. What should i change and where should I go from here?
3. I was considering either putting more money in each of these funds or opening a vanguard. I was not sure if that much diversification was good for someone as new as me.
Tax Filing Status: Single
Tax Rate: 15% Federal, 0(No state tax in FL)% State
State of Residence:Florida
Income:~32k between civillian job and reserves.
Age:22
Desired Asset allocation: 70% stocks / 30% bonds
Current retirement assets
TSP- Not really a lot in this fund because I'm currently a reservist. 14% of drill pay isnt much.
Life Cycle Fund Balance Contribution allocation
L 2050 $38.56 5.0%
L 2040 $35.99 5.0%
L 2030 $41.06 10.0%
L 2020 $40.16 10.0%
L Income $37.83 10.0%
10.0%
Individual Funds Balance Contribution Allocation
G Fund Government Securities $191.97 5.0% (Recently lowered it and moved it into the international)
F Fund Fixed Income Index $247.33 20.0%
C Fund Common Stock Index $52.96 10.0%
S Fund Small Cap Stock Index $53.81 5.0%
I Fund International Stock Index $62.57 20.0%
USAA Brokerage Roth IRA(started 2 months ago.) 1.27 Exp ratio
Fund Quantity Balance
USAA CORNERSTONE MOD AGGR FUND (NTF) (USCRX) 43.385 $1,064.23
Top Fund Holdings for USCRX Filing Date: 02/28/2013
.Name Position Value % of Total
Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets 3,241,701 140,949,160 6.290%
SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust 704,763 106,792,737 4.765%
iShares MSCI EAFE Index Fund 1,701,564 98,996,994 4.418%
iShares Core S&P Mid-Cap ETF 745,118 81,985,334 3.658%
T 1 ¾ 05/15/22 78,000 77,939,082 3.478%
T 3 05/15/42 7 3,600 72,415,482 3.231%
iShares Russell 2000 Index Fun 450,000 40,707,000 1.816%
SPDR Gold Shares 181,842 27,814,552 1.241%
WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity 666, 188 27,273,737 1.217%
State Street Institutional Liq 19,295,071 0.861%
The financial advisors at USAA suggested this fund.
Questions:
1. Am I on track for a 22 year old ?
2. What should i change and where should I go from here?
3. I was considering either putting more money in each of these funds or opening a vanguard. I was not sure if that much diversification was good for someone as new as me.
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Re: Am I on track? Revised
I tried formatting neatly but it came up all jumbled. Sorry.
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Re: Am I on track? Revised
At this point I would put it all in one retirement fund in each account. Just pick the amount of stocks you want and use TSP L FUND and a vanguard retirement fund for ira.
Vanguard 2025
L 2030
John
Vanguard 2025
L 2030
John
Last edited by Johm221122 on Fri May 10, 2013 8:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Am I on track? Revised
Hello and welcome to the forum!Dupidsk8ter wrote:
USAA Brokerage Roth IRA(started 2 months ago.) 1.27 Exp ratio
Fund Quantity Balance
USAA CORNERSTONE MOD AGGR FUND (NTF) (USCRX) 43.385 $1,064.23
Top Fund Holdings for USCRX Filing Date: 02/28/2013
.Name Position Value % of Total
Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets 3,241,701 140,949,160 6.290%
SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust 704,763 106,792,737 4.765%
iShares MSCI EAFE Index Fund 1,701,564 98,996,994 4.418%
iShares Core S&P Mid-Cap ETF 745,118 81,985,334 3.658%
T 1 ¾ 05/15/22 78,000 77,939,082 3.478%
T 3 05/15/42 7 3,600 72,415,482 3.231%
iShares Russell 2000 Index Fun 450,000 40,707,000 1.816%
SPDR Gold Shares 181,842 27,814,552 1.241%
WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity 666, 188 27,273,737 1.217%
State Street Institutional Liq 19,295,071 0.861%
The financial advisors at USAA suggested this fund.
Questions:
1. Am I on track for a 22 year old ?
2. What should i change and where should I go from here?
3. I was considering either putting more money in each of these funds or opening a vanguard. I was not sure if that much diversification was good for someone as new as me.
You are doing well with the exception of the financial advisors advice to place you in a fund with an ER of 1.27%

If you transfer your IRA to Vanguard, you could either use the Lifestrategy Growth Fund - 80/20 or one of the Target Retirement funds with an allocation close to your choice and pay an er 1/4 or less than what you are paying now - that means more money in your pocket instead of your financial advisors or USAA. Use USAA for car insurance - use Vanguard for it's low er mutual funds.
"One should invest based on their need, ability and willingness to take risk - Larry Swedroe" Asking Portfolio Questions
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Re: Am I on track?
Why not defer 100% of your military pay into the very cheap TSP and less into your other accounts.
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Re: Am I on track?
I considered that. My only issue is sometimes I do extra work or get chances to be put on orders for longer stretches. Its abrupt and random when this does happen. So The base drill pay would go from 225 to over 1000+ and I wouldn't have a chance to change the % that goes into the TSP because it only changes every pay period. Seeing as I would be leaving my civllian job to go to my military one, this income would be my primary income for the duration of the orders. Currently its at 14%.
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Re: Am I on track? Revised
Do I have to wait X amount of time to switch over to a vanguard?
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Re: Am I on track? Revised
No, just call vanguard. They will help youDupidsk8ter wrote:Do I have to wait X amount of time to switch over to a vanguard?
John
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Re: Am I on track? Revised
I just compared VTTVX to USCRX.. I wish I didn't listen to them. Thanks for the advice, I'm deffinitly going to look into switching ASAP.
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Re: Am I on track? Revised
At this point I would focus on savings rate and your career, they will have bigest influence on your retirement savings
John
John
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Re: Am I on track? Revised
Johm221122 wrote:At this point I would focus on savings rate and your career, they will have bigest influence on your retirement savings
John
I'm out processing from the Air Reserves and switching into the Army then immediately deploying. I plan on saving a large amount of money (no taxes in the desert) then going back to school. I'm trying to get all my ducks in line so I don't have to worry about anything while I'm in school. This site has proved as a huge asset for my success and I appreciate everything.
Re: Am I on track? [Portfolio help - Military]
Welcome! I merged your "new" thread with your first, as it's best to have all the information in one spot.Dupidsk8ter wrote:I'm out processing from the Air Reserves and switching into the Army then immediately deploying.
I also retitled the thread to draw the attention of our members with military experience. The wiki has additional guidance: Military finances
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Re: Am I on track? Revised
To do any formatting, you need to wrap it in the code tags. And make liberal use of Preview to see how it looks.Dupidsk8ter wrote:I tried formatting neatly but it came up all jumbled. Sorry.
But we can generally figure it out.
Brian