Can someone explain how I can be at a loss in this?

Hi all, I'm a 26M that recently started a job (6 months ago) and more recently came across this sub. Boglehead philosophy resonantes with me greatly and even during my previous job (1 year total experience), I put a significant chunk of my portfolio in mutual funds, though not indexed ones since I wasn't aware of that difference.

Now that I'm done with all my studies and have to work till retirement, I want to invest the Boglehead way. I earn around $2000 per month (it's on the higher end for Indian jobs and purchasing power) My current investments are like this:

1. $360 in Indian equity index funds
2. $240 in an Indian mutual fund that tracks S&P 500
3. $240 in VXUS via the website Vested.

I'm currently not thinking of having any bond exposure for the next 10 years at least.

My question is this. Should I continue investing in an Indian MF that tracks S&P 500 or should I directly invest in VTI through Vested. The only downside there are the FX conversion and transaction charges. On the other hand, will all the gains of S&P 500 be accurately reflected in the Indian MF's value?

Secondly, is my current portfolio allocation good or is there anything I can do to make it better? Maybe increase the share of investment in Indian Equities or invest in bonds etc?

Any Indians that have followed the Boglehead method for 10+ years, your opinions are especially welcome!

Howdy y’all, I’m relatively new to managing my money responsibly (I’m a victim of a stagnating savings account and apathy.) My work offers a 457(b) in addition to a pension, so the 457(b) of course doesn’t include matching. For info there is also a 403(b) but I feel the 457(b) has more flexibility (and both utilize the same funds.) I’m going through fidelity and wanted a quick check to see if this plan makes sense.

First off the plan doesn’t offer any total market funds so I’m needing to approximate, and they also offer target date funds but the expense ratios are 0.46%, so I want to see if there’s another option.

Second off my risk tolerance is relatively high but not absolute. I’d like to maximize growth without completely betting the farm.

Current idea is:

60% FXAIX / 20% FSPSX / 8% VBTIX / 6% FSMAX / 6% DFEMX

DFEMX is the only fund with an expense ratio above 0.035%, but I didn’t want to totally exclude the developing international markets, and the fund has a good rating. I may be off base as I am new to this. Thanks in advance. And if the best advice is just to take the TDF and eat the cost I’m not mad about that.

SGOV is the best place I can find to park cash for taxable accounts in a high income tax state. Where are the best yields to park cash in tax-advantaged accounts?

My holdings are

AVES QQQM VGT VNQ VOO VTI

I sold some overlaps (SPY VUG)- should I buy more of what I already have or expand my portfolio.

I'm in the process of reorganizing my portfolio after reading The Simple Path to Wealth. My 401K is now 60/40 VTI and VTBLX and IRAs are 100% VTI. I'd like to move my taxable investment account to 100% VTI but I'm facing a $12.9K estimated tax impact. This number has fluctuated between $10-14K over the last few months. Is there anything I should keep in mind before pulling the trigger? I currently run a business but anticipate becoming W-2 employee again next year with RSUs as part of TC. Any insight would be appareciated!

Looking to get more into it

Hello,

First of all, thank you to this sub for the wealth of knowledge. This place has been a wonderful resource for my family to learn how to invest wisely.

My question is one that I haven't seen pop up before. In the end, this is not a big deal and I think that there is not a clear cut answer, but I am curious to hear thoughts from this community.

We receive an annual allocation of SARs and RSUs that vest across 4 years. Our plan has been to sell what can be sold every year on the vest date and then use the proceeds to buy index funds. We like this approach for the sake of diversification and being less dependent on this company for such a high % of our net worth.

But: what should we do when the option to exercise isn't available on the vest date because the stock is underwater relative to the issue price but eventually becomes available because of stock value increases? Obviously, the stock price fluctuates and any effort to sell throughout the year is literally attempting to time the market.

Should I just have one day a year where we sell what we can and then ignore it for the rest of the year? Should I sell as soon as any SARs become eligible?

thanks

Been reading a lot of personal finance/Boglehead stuff recently. Much of it recommends some portion of a portfolio be allocated to bonds (% of bonds matches your age, etc). I’ve seen some posts about 100% stocks but the comments are mixed. Before getting the the question, here is my current financial background & goals:

Background:

• 26 y/o with no debt
• Emergency fund in a HYSA (~4%) with Ally Bank. This fund will cover at least 6 months of expenses (can easily stretch to 12 with lifestyle adjustments if really needed)
• maxing out 401(k) and Roth IRA contributions annually
• saving ~2k/month in taxable accounts. All of this is going to VTI
• I am not married and have no dependents.
• I may buy a home in the next 5 years, but am not bullish on the idea of a “starter home” so I plan to rent (and rent cheaply) until I need to settle in a house to support a wife/kids.
• I would like to retire between ages 50-55

Current asset allocation:

• tax advantaged accounts: 401(k) is entirely in a vanguard TRF. Roth IRA through fidelity has a smattering of s&p 500 + mid cap indexes from when I first started and knew nothing, but most of it is in VTI.
• taxable account: same as Roth IRA. Some random large + mid cap indexes, but mostly VTI.

The only bonds I own are in the vanguard TRF in my 401(k). I understand the diversification benefits of bonds, but my risk tolerance is very high (no debt, no kids, low expenses, long investment horizon). Bonds are tax inefficient, so I would not hold them in my taxable account. My investment horizon is long, so I see no reason to hold bonds in my retirement accounts. There’s no need for fixed income assets in those account at my age IMO. Therefore, the only bonds I own are in my aggressive TRF (retirement date: 2065. I intentionally selected a target date later than my planned date because I want to be aggressive.)

Based on these circumstances, I think a 100% stock allocation makes sense for me. What do y’all think? What am I missing here? Are the any other assets (international stock index, REITs, etc) I’m missing?

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I’m 19, based in Israel, and just starting my journey into long-term investing (30+ years). My goal is to take a passive approach, mostly leaving the investments without active daily management. After some research and discussions, I decided to focus on Irish-domiciled ETFs due to their tax advantages for Israeli investors and broad global diversification.

Here are the ETFs I’ve chosen:

1.	iShares Core S&P 500 UCITS ETF (CSP1) – for broad exposure to the S&P 500.
2.	Invesco EQQQ NASDAQ-100 UCITS ETF – for tech-focused exposure through the NASDAQ-100.

Questions:

•	Are these ETFs recommended for my long-term passive investment goals from Israel?
•	Are there any other indexes or Irish ETFs I should consider that might offer better diversification or growth potential?

Thanks in advance for your insights!

Hi all interested in people’s thoughts. For cash such as emergency accounts or for short term goals what are the arguments for using a money market vs ultra shorts?

Ultra shorts like BUXX get more yieldthank Vanguards Money Markets and appear to have very low volatility.

But what are the arguments against using Ultra Shorts vs Money markets?

I've been running backtest for the past 2 decades and real return was insane, way above average (7%-ish). While the real return from 1900 - 2023 was something like 6% for the US and 5.2% for the globe.

Assuming this past 2 decades was an anomaly. Is it stupid of me to think 5.5% is a regression towards the mean and it is somethings i should expected in the future? I pulled 5.5% out of my ass and its not backed by any model. Should I go lower and expect 5%?

Hey everyone, I’m looking for some advice on how to best invest for my kids' future. I have two kids, and I've set up one brokerage account for each of them. I plan to transfer $100 into each account every month. Both accounts also have an initial amount of money, and any gift money the kids receive will go into these accounts too.

I want these investments to grow over time so that when my kids are older, they have a solid financial foundation. I’m trying to decide on the best strategy for this – should I be investing in individual stocks, index funds, or something else entirely?

If anyone has experience with investing for their children or has a strategy that’s worked well, I’d really appreciate your input. What’s your approach, and what’s worked for you? Any tips or insights would be super helpful!

Thanks in advance for any advice you can share!

I’m 20, and my father recently gave me a large amount of money—more than I've ever handled—so I decided to dive into stock market. I began trading stocks in January this year and was fortunate to catch a bull market. However, over the last nine months, my returns fluctuated between -15% and 10%, only to end up where I started. Seeing such poor performance during a bull market has left me disappointed in myself, and I’m starting to think stock investing might not be for me. I find myself too anxious about losses, so I’m considering switching to ETFs or mutual funds, hoping they’ll offer more stability. Still, I’d like to allocate 40% to stocks for a longer term hold.

Since I don’t need immediate access to these funds, should I transfer them to ETFs or mutual funds all at once (within the next two months), or would a gradual DCA approach be better? Also, should I maintain a 60/40 portfolio split, and would the SPY be a smart choice?

TLDR: I have FSELX & FXAIX already in my Roth, would FSKAX & FRZOX in a brokerage account be aggressive enough for young, high-risk tolerant person?

Hello, I am somewhat new to Reddit and investing, so I apologize if what I'm asking is a stupid question.

I am 22 and have been steadily contributing to a Roth IRA Fidelity, but recently was able to max it out this year thanks to some 529 money from my helpful parents. The 529 money will last about 4 more years, and after that I will max it out myself. I have a stable job in the government, so I also have a Thrift Savings Plan that I am contributing to (matching the 5%). In my Roth IRA, I have 50% in FSELX (Fidelity Semiconductors Portfolio) and 50% in FXAIX (Fidelity S&P 500). At the time I thought FXAIX was diverse enough but after reading some stuff here I guess not lol. However, it is doing quite well and I have the TSP + maybe a government pension so I am not too concerned with having enough for retirement.

I have quite a bit saved up, about 3-months worth of expenses that I plan on moving into a HYSA. So I have around ~$10k to invest. I have a high-risk tolerance and I'm looking to invest in something for my goals 20-30 years from now (retiring early?) so I won't have to wait 55 years for my Roth IRA money to be available. Because of my job and current TSP and Roth IRA, I'd like to be a little more aggressive with the money I have left to invest.

With all that being said, it looks like people here are recommending FSKAX and FRZOX, but would that be aggressive enough? If yes, Should I just drop the $10k straight into those two right away? Or do a slow trickle? Thinking about a 80% FSKAX and 20% FRZOX split. The money has been just sitting in my savings account (not even a HYSA!) losing money due to inflation and I want to make a move.

P.S. if I'm asking this is the wrong place or a silly question, my bad :/

This is what they put my money in a couple of weeks ago, what should I do? Pull it out or keep it in there?

VUSB (Vanguard Ultra-Short Bond ETF)

USFR (WisdomTree Floating Rate Treasury Fund

PULS (PGIM Ultra Short Bond ETF)

LUBOX (Lord Abbett Ultra Short Bond Fund Class F3)

VUSFX (Vanguard Ultra-Short-Term Bond Fund Admiral Shares)

MINT (PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Active Exch Tr)

JSDUX (JPMorgan Short Duration Bond Fund Class R6)

JPST (JPMorgan Ultra-Short Income ETF)

My employer offers a SIMPLE IRA in Capital Group with upfront fees of .6%. My employer matches 3%.

Every single paycheck, about $8 is withdrawn as a fee just to auto-pay my contribution into their fund. Its robbery.

I'd prefer this money go into a low-fee fund like VTI or VTSAX. However, any money I'd put into those funds myself would be after-tax. I'd then pay tax on the gains later, essentially being taxed twice.

My question is, are the pre-tax contributions still worth it to just max this SIMPLE IRA out anyways?

Hello:

I am 40 years old, and started investing late (about 2 years ago). I am currently investing $500 per month into the VTSAX.

Around 90% of my savings is in a normal savings account (4% yield annually), and the other 10% is in my VTSAX fund.

I have no major credit card debt, and I do not drive so I do not have car expenses. I do have a mortgage.

I am concerned that too much of my money is in savings, and not enough being invested considering my age.

Should I be investing more?

Thank you

Hi all. I invest mostly in MSCI world index etf (similar strategy like s and p 500 cause mostly US conpanies). To keep very longterm till I retire. But most prospects say that in the coming decades the developing countries are going to grow much more than America, Japan, Western Europe. Would it make sense to also diversify to an emerging market index etf, again to keep for 20+ years? E.g. such index would include Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, Indian etc. companies. Most likely I am missing something. Thats why I would like to ask your opinions. Thank you in advance.

I’m investing in FTIHX (total international index fund) and FZROX (Total market index fund)

Are these good? Should I switch to something else? Should I invest in more things like a small cap or mid cap index fund?

Any feedback is appreciated as I’m still very new to all of this!

I just noticed I went over the income limit for Roth IRA this paycheck due to a raise. I’ve been contributing to my ROTH IRA for the 2024 year since January. Do I need to transfer that to a traditional or are they going off my 2023 MAGI for the 2024 year, and then in 2025 I need to make traditional contributions?

If SP500 returns more than global why not invest in that?

Thanks

I don’t want the headache to keep rebalancing so is VFFVX better?

Ever since Vanguard switched to an app based 2FA I find it often does not work for me. I enter my user name and Pword on the website and it will fail to send a push notification to my phone and if I open my app there is no "yes its me" button to push, the website just spins and spins till it times out. Anyone else using Vanguard have this experience? It doesn't happen all the time but really an unacceptable amount of the time.

I need an advice on what bond ETF I could include in my portfolio. My investment horizon is 10+ years and my brokerage account is a tax wrapper, protecting my investment against the evil taxman . I'm currently UK based, so the ETF will have to be UCITS compliant.

Currently I have a VGOV position I'm not so sure about. I've found VGOV on the Investing from UK page, and I assumed that the upcoming rate cuts by the Bank of England would make VGOV even more interesting. After reading a few threads here, however, I wonder if I should have a more aggressive approach and forget about bond ETFs for a few more years.

Hi all - I have mostly ETFs and Index funds, and most of them are sponsored / managed by Schwab due to cost and other investment limits driven by employment. While keeping with overall boglehead philosophy, is there a reason to purposefully diversify the index funds you’re invested in by fund management company?

Over the past couple of months, I've started trying to learn more about retirement planning and wanted to better understand withdrawal strategies. As a finance newbie in my 40s, I was looking for a transparent way to see how different strategies (like the 4% rule or dynamic ones) might play out. While I don't have a lot of money myself (yet?), I'm hoping get a sense of how much one might need for retirement and how different withdrawal rules impact that goal.

Tools like PortfolioVisualizer and FICalc are fantastic! However, they are a bit of a black box from the perspective of wanting to learn more about the internal mechanics. So, I decided to try my own hand at creating a (very simple) Monte Carlo retirement simulator using Python in a Jupyter Notebook.

📎 The Notebook is here.

Some Features:

• Open-Source Python Code: All the code is right there for you to view, modify as you please, and play with.
• Withdrawal Strategies: Includes code for both constant dollar withdrawals (e.g., 4% rule) and a dynamic spending strategy (similar to Vanguard's dynamic spending rule).
• Customizable Parameters: Adjust stock/bond allocations, rebalancing frequency, transaction costs, withdrawal rates, and more to see their effects on your portfolio and spending over time.
• Historical Data: Utilizes Robert Shiller's historical data (S&P 500, CPI, 10-year Treasury rates) from 1871 to 2023, employing block bootstrapping to preserve autocorrelation between asset classes. The block bootstrap approach allows this to be both a backtesting tool and a Monte Carlo simulator by changing the block length.

More info is provided within the notebook itself.

Building this has been a great learning experience, and I hope it's also useful to you all. Any feedback including catching any bugs would be great!

Edit: For those unfamiliar with Jupyter Notebooks, you can either download and run them, or run them online without any setup using platforms like Google Colab or Binder. Just follow the links from notebook.