BND

banevaderplus6000

Do not listen to anyone telling you not to help your grandfather, it is better for you to learn and for him to trust you. You will both sleep better at night because of it. The following advice is going to be almost exactly what a financial advisor will tell him. Tell him at his age he should have about half of his cash in bonds and half in an all world ETF if he wants to be average . Personally I would do VT and BNDW ETFs, some will tell you BND over BNDW but I like to invest globally even in bonds. If you really do not want any risk to lose any money, at the very least get the money into a money market fund on a brokerage account, or in a high yield savings account. $10,000 earning 3.5% annual is an extra $30 a month in interest and the rates will vary depending on inflation so you will not have to worry about value erosion. And that literally it. that is investing in a nutshell if you don't want to actually learn how to invest. Just broad, global ETFs. The ONLY rule is do not sell your investments unless you need the money for good or services. If the market crashes, do not sell unless necessary. if the market rallys, do not sell unless necessary. sideways for 100 years? do not sell unless necessary.

SoundOff2222

Maybe 70% BND + 30% VT? Something along those lines

DoinIt4DaShorteez

If he has wages, the best thing for him to do as far as actually investing would be to: Open a a regular brokerage account and a Roth IRA with Fidelity or whoever. Put $8,600 into the Roth immediately. Buy 40% VOO etf, 30% BND etf, 30% SGOV etf. Put the rest into the regular brokerage account and buy SGOV with it. On Jan 4 of next year, sell the SGOV in the regular account, move the resulting cash to the Roth, and invest it in the same 40/30/30 allocation.

Buck169

What are his expectations? Realistically, in late 60s you're not going to be "in a better position" soon, or by many dollars, unless you A. take a big risk on something speculative and B. get REALLY lucky and actually make a big score. Most likely, this is a recipe for losing it all. Less risky investing (i.e. buy and hold diverse stock funds) is a game of decades to see really significant returns. If \*you\* have any spare money at all, if you start now, you'll probably be very happy that you did so in 30 years. For someone who's already late 60s, it's not so certain. If he wants to be safe, just put the money in a MMF and at least stave off most of inflation. If he wants to gamble a bit, you can start in MMF and do something like every two or three months, take 5% of the total and invest it 50/50 in BND and either VT or VOO. Continue until 2/3 of the money is in those funds, then stop changing anything. If he wants to gamble somewhat more, put 1/3 in each an MMF, BND and VT or VOO tomorrow and get ready to be pleased or horrified, depending...

oldtimehawkey

What risk level are you? Put most of the money in a low risk like VOO or VTI. Me, I’m low risk, so I’d do 80% Then buy individual stocks with the rest till you realize there’s no way to win at that and put that into BND. Haha.

Gonz4Rockford

Earnings call was better than expected + big blockbusters coming up with The Odyssey and Spider-Man BND

Gameboy69NoScope420

Yeah open a brokerage account with whatever brokerage you feel comfortable with. Do research on what to invest in. AI is a useful tool, not full proof but useful. Others will debate me I’m sure, but ETF’s like VOO, VTI are a good place to start. Some say to grab some bonds BND or something similar, and an international ETF like VXUS. Lower %’s. As I said. Do some research and don’t blindly throw your money into things.

Emotional-Power-7242

Get rid of the commodities ETF, gold shouldn't be more than 10%, replace QAQ with an S&P 500 or US total market funds, replace cash withdrawals BND and BNDX (assuming this is a long term investment account and the cash isn't short term savings).

sweglordnagger

Swap BND with VGT

sixsixsevens

Agreed. I would ditch the BND.

Calm_Chicken_5549

So I should remove the VXUS and FZILX as well as the BND?

greenpride32

I wouldn't go with BND at your age; you have plenty of time to ride out the ups and downs of growth equities. VXUS and FZILX underperform VTI and FZROX in the long run. The reason for this is the US has the largest economy and attracts the most capital investment (which helps to perpetuate the cycle). Also most of the leading US companies operate on a global scale, so it's not as though you only invested in one domestic economy. Over the course of the long run, the difference in CAGR will make a very meaningful difference in total return. My goal in investment is to grow my net worth as much as possible by making selections that have a proven track record; everything else (diversity) is secondary. You can compare VTI (US), VT (World including US) and VXUS (World minus US) - the more US weight the better the long term performance.

leaning_on_a_wheel

Sell BND and buy more VTI

leaning_on_a_wheel

Most people would say that’s very conservative for your age. You could cut BND entirely

OneManShow23

If you want to invest but you can’t just put your damn money in VTI, VXUS, BND, and BNDX and move on. You’ll make an average 5% growth. It won’t be as glorious as doing options on a stock that shoots to the moon (Nvidia) but you’ll still reap the rewards from Nvidia or a co growing to the moon.

boundary-tail

BND

srfdriver99

The term for what you're looking for is "Sharpe ratio". WIthout knowing what level of risk RH is taking on your porftolio, we cannot actually determine whether or not it is meeting its goal as an investment. For example, a traditional 60-40 VOO/BND portfolio will underperform the S&P 500 - but will perform in line with expectations per the Sharpe ratio.

IceHand41

When you say 85/15/5 is that VTI/VXUS/BND? I'm guessing that's an approximation since real life tends to be a little messier, and you mentioned some single stock pics. And what about shifting your "weight" from 60-40 to 90-10. Ratio of equities to ..what?

PomegranatePlenty110

I have, I’m not huge into the market, and kind of set it forget it. I was thinking 70% VTI, 20% VXUS and 10% BND.

Vegetable-Ad1512

Not an advisor you can beat most advisors by Putting 60% in VOO , 20% in VXUS and 20 % in BND and don’t touch it

taplar

I'm curious. Does anyone employ a long term strategy of holding something like a market ETF, along with a bond ETF and an information security ETF? Thinking about random investing things, I was looking at a back testing tool to see if you held VTI and BND, how much of VGT could you have historically held to have gotten the same returns. Wondering if anyone actually puts something like that into practice. Sorta an alternative to leverage to alter the over all risk level.

Odd-Guava9894

The issue IMO is that even if you aren't looking for growth there are now products that accomplish the job of being safe in a downturn more effectively than a generic bond allocation these days. If you are talking short term cash equivalents when you talk bonds, like SGOV, then I see the place for them, hell if you are talking about buying and holding individual bonds until expiration, they can make sense, but I don't think holding intermediate or long term bond funds as a hedge against downturns makes any sense at all these days, which is what most people end up doing when they hear they need to hold bonds. They are not uncorrelated enough to be a proper hedge, and not safe enough to justify the shit yields. If someone retiring just before COVID had gone all in on BND or God forbid TLT, because they heard bonds were safe in a downturn they'd be absolutely fucked. About the only situation where a large bond allocation makes sense to me is in a barbell strategy to offset some form of leveraged equity exposure, usually LEAPS options, and only short duration bonds even in that case.

Iniamyen

Investment elections will include SPY, BND, and DJT

sparkle_and_twist

Protection from SRR as you head into retirement. If you retired in 2007 with 100% stocks, no income, with 1.5 mil, and needed 50k a year to survive, in 2008 your portfolio would have dropped to 750k - 50k. It then took 5 more years to recover. So when the market finally started to come back you were left with 450k. Your portfolio dropped by 50% and you had 6 years withdrawing 50k from it at the bottom. I'm not a huge fan of bonds, but a mix of BND, cash, or short term bonds will help preserve capital in retirement if there is a crash. https://testfol.io/?s=81vEL3pCunn

TortugaTurtle47

1/3 in a HYSA and 2/3 in a brokerage account (50% BND and 50% SGOV).

Mitnek

It's because of the holdings of BND. What you are looking for is stripped bonds.

drummer820

As others have pointed out, they almost certainly didn’t go down DURING the acute phase of COVID in 2020. Bond prices move opposite with yield/interest rate, so when the Fed cut rates to zero and printed money, bonds and bond funds surged. If you are invested in speculative junk bonds, that’s not remotely the same thing as treasuries / BND / etc

Pristine_Berry1650

Ill have to check out BND, im only familiar with TLT and SHY

AndyShootsAndScores

Let me explain what I mean better. Look at the period Dec 31 2021 - Dec 31 2022, when S&P 500 had a major downturn. Let's compare returns of buying VOO vs BND vs a 52-week t-bill purchased in late Dec 2021 over the course of the year, accounting for dividends: VOO: **-18.06%** BND: **-13.144%** 52-week T-Bill: **+0.36%** I understand that you'd want to reinvest the T-bill in something after it matures (maybe buying either of the other funds at a comparative discount?). But after that year of time, to my eyes, holding BND wasn't really a hedge at all against an equity downturn compared to holding a T-Bill, or any other kind of guaranteed interest.

ConcentrateOk523

BND 10 year return is 1.51 percent, pretty pathetic.

bonghits96

> But my bond funds went down during COVID. They weren't uncorrelated. They went down *after* covid. If your bond funds went down *during* covid, when interest rates hit the lowest levels seen in decades, they were some weird bond funds or primarily invested in junk. BND, for example, hit its all-time high in July 2020.

BadMoonRosin

I don't think you understand what a bond or a bond fund are. The price of AGG or BND go up and down because value of existing bonds goes up and down as interest rates change. If you (or a fund) buys a bond when interest rates are 4%, and then rates climb to 5%, you can't just sell that bond to someone else without sweetening the deal (i.e. selling it for less than the prorated base price) to make up for the below-market interest the buyer will receive. Conversely, if you buy a bond when interest rates are 5%, and then sell it when rates are 4%, then you can sell it at a premium because the buyer will now receive above-market interest. Buying bonds directly "offers stability" only in the sense that you aren't even considering the possibility of selling that bond prior to maturity. You're just receiving your original 4% or 5% for the duration, and ignorance is bliss. But the actual book value of what you're holding is still going up and down, just as if it were in a bond fund.

DaveyParks200

Just give it up. You won’t convince them. Some people are just adamant on investing only in VT and BND forever, even starting in their 20s

PolitzaniaKing

I buy VTI and BND, rebalance every few years and play guitar.

1dirtbiker

I've been investing for 20 years, and am usually on my game. We all make mistakes. My position in QQQM and QQQ is very small compared to my total net worth, so I'm not as up on it as I clearly should be. I'm mostly invested in IVV, SCHD, and BND.

1dirtbiker

I rarely do trade. I buy and hold, and dollar cost average. My QQQM holdings are small, like under $50K. The vast majority of my investments are in IVV, BND, and SCHD.

Maximus77x

What would I do? I’d be firmly in the wealth accumulation stage. I’d be fully aggressive by going 100% stocks (or close to it). I’d shovel as much money as I could into a low-cost, broad-based index fund like VT until I started slowly adding BND as I got older and entered the wealth preservation phase.

datadogsoup

Too complicated. I doubt this mix would outperform VT + BND really. Probably purposefully to make it look complex. I would suggest selling it all out and yolo 0 dte SPY calls or no balls

Rare-Ad9392

I don't ask for anything from them. I have total trust, but yes as i've researched the last year, I realized that I'm paying on the high end. And would really stay with them if I was closer to 1 -1.2%. but thinking about just consolidation to a 3-Fund Structure: Total U.S. Stock Market ETF (like VTI) 60% International Stock ETF (like VXUS) 20% Total Bond ETF (like BND) 20% And do this myself and seek out a flat fee advisor yearly or as needed.

SurgicalClarity

Like others have said, these numbers just aren't realistic. I'd start with the /r/personalfinance flow chart. https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics Keep enough in checking to cover your monthly expenses (which I'm guessing are near zero since you're in high school) with a little cushion. Put the rest in a high yield savings account for now. Check bankrate.com for options but you should be able to get 3-3.5% at the moment. If you're not going to need the money for several years, you can consider investing. Once you have income from a job, you can consider a Roth IRA, or a taxable brokerage until then. You can open these accounts at a place like Vanguard or Fidelity. If you go the IRA route, consider a target date 2070 fund, or roll your own 3-fund portfolio (VTI, VXUS, BND). If you use a taxable brokerage, definitely don't do the target date fund as you'll be taxed on the capital gains distributions even if you don't sell.

snkscore

Well if the alternative proposed portfolio 60/40 then 40% bonds is a bigger bet than doing a 60/25/15. The main ETFs are mostly DBMF, CTA, and KMLM. DBMF attempts to mimic one of the main managed futures indexes, but it uses replication, trying to model and reverse engineer what the top managed futures hedge funds do but for much less expense ratio. [https://totalrealreturns.com/n/USSTOCKS,DBMF,BND](https://totalrealreturns.com/n/USSTOCKS,DBMF,BND) You can see when the COVID crash happens both bonds and managed futures don't move much and when we get the big 2022 drawdown with inflation stocks and bonds go down but DBMF goes up. If you did some rebalancing at some point you'd be coming out really well. Managed futures are not correlated with stocks or bonds, so this gives another asset type.

adiabatic_storm

I've always thought it interesting that risk adverse people are willing to accept a guaranteed bad outcome, instead of taking some low to moderate risk on something else that at least has a historical track record of success with an expected value much higher than the "safe" alternative. Like, yeah I get it, volatility is hard to stomach at times, especially in crashes or prolonged bear markets, but the irony is that if you stay committed to the higher volatility yet also higher expected value strategy long term, the strategy still significantly outperforms the "safe" one even after adjusting for a significant crash or correction. I mean look, if all you have to your name is $5K then there's a good argument for stashing that in an emergency fund / HYSA, but the idea of committing any real amount to money to guaranteed demise (via slow but insidious and continuous devaluation resulting from inflation) is clinically insane. You want time on your side, not the other way around. $10K invested in BND on April 10, 2007 is now worth $17,700 today. $10K invested in VTI in April 10, 2007 is now worth $71,622 today. (And that's after riding out the 2008 crash and everything else that has happened since.) The stock market could crash 70% tomorrow and you'd still have more money from the original investment in VTI than BND. Which begs the question: What's really more risky, anyways? I think we have to measure risk not just as potential for sudden downside corrections, but also in terms of opportunity cost on the way up. Those losses are just as real, you just don't see them like you do a direct loss, so it's easier to miss.

FoggyFoggyFoggy

Below is my all equities Roth IRA. (I have a separate, more conservative, VTI-VXUS-BND-BNDX tax-deferred account.) SPMO 45% VEA 35% GOOGL 10% RY 10% What U.S. equity ETF would you add to this Roth IRA?

ShittyUsernane1222

which 3 letter government agencies are represented the most in wsb (pick 1 from the list) ? 1. CIA (US) 2. NSA(US) 3. FBI (US) 4. DIA (US) 5. NGA(US) 6. FSB (Russia) 7. MSS (China) 8. KGB (Belarus) 9. MI6 (UK) 10. MI5 (UK) 11. ICE (US) 12. GCHQ (UK) 13. BND (germany) 14. Verfassungsschutz (Germany) 15. Other

Prudent-Corgi3793

XRT -7.63% total returns over last 5 years. Here are some bagholder stocks and ETFs that have outperformed over the same time period. NVO +16.25%, F +28.69%, GM +33.74%, SBUX -3.98%, BND -0.00%.

Technical_Formal72

No more than I would be wasting my money on a personal trainer or FA. A financial advisor won’t magically make me more money. A personal trainer doesn’t magically make me fit. If you’re too lazy to do some basic research on a long-term investment strategies like VT, VTI/VXUS (optionally BND), or a TDF ect. and don’t have the discipline to stick to that strategy then sure go blow some money on a money babysitter. But I would only suggest that to someone who completely lacked the ability to think for themselves. Investing is so easy and convenient today, I see no real argument for an FA unless you are an extremely high NW individual. A private chef on the other hand would be nice though haha

bofoshow51

I highly recommend the [Financial Order of Operations](https://moneyguy.com/guide/foo/#7-hyperaccumulation) for not just investing but general financial literacy and priority. It’s great if you are investing aggressively and getting a 10% return, it’s bad if you don’t first pay off your credit card debt with 25% interest so you’re losing more money than you’re growing, or you didn’t first build an emergency fund to handle the little surprise expenses life throws you and you have to pull money out of your investments. In terms of what way to actually invest, I highly recommend the [3 fund portfolio](https://www.optimizedportfolio.com/bogleheads-3-fund-portfolio/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=10886055113&gbraid=0AAAAACPYnC6gFzivnN-AeQgEAzjrRXjev&gclid=Cj0KCQjwio_RBhDMARIsAJPveNPg67JDp3ImRsx7BkqroO_gAI2xRVosB4Epp3u9It3_7MtQ6_RMS8caApl5EALw_wcB) for maximum simplicity, maximum success, and minimum worry/effort. Buy low-cost broad market index funds, get one each for US stock market + international stock market + bond market, ideal funds are VTI/VOO/SPY + VXUS + BND/GOVT/VGIT or even simpler VT (total world so US and international together) + bonds. When you’re young you want way more stock index funds than bond index funds in your portfolio, for reference I am a 95/5 ratio of stocks to bonds and 29yo, and I’d be 100% stock if not for my 401k target date fund having a small portion of bonds anyway. When you are near retirement, about 10-15 years away, you adjust your ratio more to bonds. It’s preference what that retirement ratio will be, I plan to go to about 75/25 or maybe 80/20 depending on how I feel my risk tolerance is in my old age. Hope that all helps!

the_shaggy_DA

VTI 50%, VXUS 45%, and BND 5%, then delete the app and never think about this wretched market for at least the next two decades

neonam11

Take some of your profits and put them into VTI/VXUS/BND and chill.

bad_detectiv3

my strategy if I ever sell my stake is to rotate into SGOV and BND \[I read about buying in bonds yesterday\] to hedge against recession.

Serious_Tree31

It’s not letting me add picture Current ETF s are : SCHD SPHQ SCHD BND VOO VWO

shantired

BND is a bond fund from vanguard, its a total market ETF. It’s not the best, but has a decent return. If you’re going to invest in VOO and BND, then it’s best to do it by opening an account with Vanguard. They have a clunky website but that also helps them keep their expense ratios low. For HYSA, my favorite is Amex just because I have other credit card products with them. There’s a bunch of others that you can research.

Mshepard24

This is the hand holding talk to me like a idiot reply I needed. Thank you good sir or ma'am. Whats the deal with the BND? Also what is the best HYSA?

shantired

The limit for zero tax is 250K if you’re unmarried and living in the same house for 5 years, which is your case. No taxes on 160K and 9 years. Here’s one way to invest: 35K in HYSA 85K in VOO or SPY or FXAIX (all are very similar). This is basically investing in pure American capitalism. 40K in BND or equivalent. This is a bond fund that you can use to buy more stocks or funds when the market is down (remember the adage: you make money when there’s blood on the streets). I would suggest that you put all your money into a HYSA right now and then invest about 10-20% every month into the 2 funds to dollar cost average (DCA).

Machine8851

BND is not good though

DrakeStone

Vti, Vxus and BND, so endorse.

tk421tech

Ok so under $20k Switched it to VOO 70% VXUS 20% and BND -> APPL / plan to get 10 total shares and leave alone for 10 yrs.

Puzzleheaded-Art1524

After an emergency fund (3 - 6 months of expenses), I have another bucket for things I plan to buy in the future. Whether it's home projects (i.e. replace a central air unit) or buy a next car, or something like that - and I sell stock to put into those buckets, so that the money is available when I need it (rather than keeping it in stocks and having a market correction right when I need the money. As others have said, I'm a boglehead - so the bulk of my holdings are in 3 funds (ITOT (Domestic Equities), IXUS (International Equities) and BND (Bonds). So I don't really worry about when to sell individual stocks. I just periodically rebalance to make sure that my overall portfolio allocation is what I intend it to be. For the other buckets (things I plan to buy in the next 5 years, I'll either use CD ladders or bond funds so that those are still earning money, but aren't subject to market downturns at the time I need the money. Boring, I know - but just the way I like it.

witchesbrewm

Whatever diversified ETF of fund you buy, you will always have a lot of tech. You could sell everything and buy a 60% VT and 40% BND or something like that. In Canada we have a lot of asset allocation ETFs (VBAL, XEQT, etc), but for some reason I can’t find a US equivalent.

PartsSprout

Ok that makes a lot more sense and that is the way to do it IMO. BND, TIPS, and similar long and intermediate bond funds are just abysmal for portfolios over the last decade.

TotakekeSlider

BND

TotakekeSlider

Hell yeah BND is up .1% today We are so back

TempeGrumble

OMG another fancy term for trying to market-time. Warning: I'm a Boglehead, so I'm going to be one of the folks advising you and your spouse to focus on low-cost, broad market index funds for equities and avoid trying to guess where and when "the market" is going anywhere. In this perspective, your advisor was wrong, and going with something broad-based within your asset allocation is correct. E.g., with Vanguard ETFs, VT (or VTI and VXUS) for equities, and something like BND for bonds.

ATPsynthase12

I’m serious, you don’t need a financial advisor and investing can be very simple if you do a little reading first. The entire philosophy behind Bogleheads is that investing can be as simple as you make it. John Bogle the founder of Vanguard designed the index fund as a low maintenance, low cost option for retail investors to get into the market and make money without having to go “stock picking” or do extensive research on each company. For example, you’ll pay 0.11% per year from your returns on a VTI/VXUS/BND 3 fund portfolio vs. 1-3% of your total portfolio value in an actively managed brokerage. It’s a no brainer.

ATPsynthase12

You don’t need a financial advisor at all. They are just middle men who harvest 1-3% of your portfolio per year and often either lose you money (via outright losses or sub par performance) or go full big brain moves to beat the S&P 500 and again end up losing your money. Or, they intentionally do stupid things to make more money off of you such as putting money on a corporate bond fund. Pull your money out and transfer it to a fidelity brokerage SPAXX account. Once the cash has settled invest it in the following; 50% VTI (vanguard total stock market index), 30% VXUS (vanguard total non US stock market), and 20% in BND. If you are not retiring soon or want more growth, do 70% VTI, 30% VXUS. Although, at your age, there is a strong argument to include bonds or TIPS to ensure you have less volatility and cash on hand if needed. That’s it. Contribute monthly, reinvest the dividends and let the compound interest grow. DO NOT TOUCH IT until you hit the amount you can draw 4% per year without depleting your accounts. Once you hit that point you can retire and are fully financially independent. Check out the wiki on r/bogleheads if you want more info.

Machine8851

BND is the reason why your not matching the sp500 YTD returns.

tk421tech

I sold VXUS and BND on Friday. Prior it was 40/30/30

tk421tech

I sold some VXUS and BND on Friday that is you see in SPAXX, to possibly put in VOO. Hence this post.

Bloated_Plaid

That BND % is wild but sounds like you wanted to be conservative.

tk421tech

It was VOO 40%, VXUS & BND 30%. Retiring in 10 yrs. (Seems it might only grow to about 100k with contributions). Prior to today I thought perhaps 60/25/15 might be a better goal. Current % 33.50/17.42/15.87 and 33.21 in SPAXX to rebalance.

Moist_Wolverine_9127

Your math checks out - VXUS has been dragging you down this year while bonds are basically dead weight. International has been underperforming US markets for a while now, and with rates where they are, BND isn't doing you any favors either. At your age though, having some diversification isn't the worst idea even if it hurts short-term performance. The 3-fund portfolio is designed for long-term stability, not chasing returns. If you went 100% VOO you'd definitely be closer to that 9.27% S&P number, but you'd also be taking on more concentration risk. Maybe consider tweaking your allocation instead of going all-in on one fund - bump up VOO percentage and reduce the international/bond weightings if you're comfortable with a bit more volatility.

charlieandoreo

Just buy VOO and VXUS or just VT. Then in a tax deferred account add BND after you turn 40.

vSylvr

21M. I max out my Roth IRA each year with 85%Voo 10%VXUS and 5%BND. I have an emergency savings in a HYSA. No debt or car payment only fix payments are car insurance and gas plus groceries. I want to save for a house someday let’s say 10 years from now. I want to invest that money in a brokerage instead of just in a HYSA. I’m going to do 70% VOO and 20% QQQM. What should I do with the other 10%? I want to keep it us stock market only.

SirGlass

Multiple people have told you just buy standard index funds like VTI or VOO, add in bonds like BND if you do not want the full risk of 100% equities. What mix is up to you and your risk tolerance. High risk go like 100% QQQ Moderate risk do something like 60% VTI / 40% BND If you want to touch some of it before 59.5 put it in a taxable account . If you need money sell some of your holdings when you need money.

SirGlass

>: I am not liquid and my quality of life is suffering for it You can sell any ETF at any time. Covered call ETF are not "More liquid" than any other ETF. I never insulted you , if you are willing to give up upside for more steady gains the most straightforward way to do this is a equity/bond mix Like 70% VTI / 30% BND or something like that. Re balance quarterly . If you need liquidity just sell some of your holdings

Ok-Quiet-853

Which bond? BND is down overall in the last 5 years.. are bonds a safe guard to what I currently hold?

amfournda

This is what I do for whatever that's worth. A little bit of BND and BNDX as I start to get older.

SynapticMelody

1) Emergency fund - enough to cover 3-6 months of essential expenses so you don't get stuck having to draw down investments at an inopportune moment. 2) Make sure your retirement fund is on track for a comfortable retirement. 3) Invest the rest in a taxable brokerage: - One-fund: VT - Or two-fund: VTI + VXUS - Add BND if you need less volatility. - Add VOO for more US large cap exposure. 4) Dollar-cost average and rebalance when your positions get it off balance from their set allocations. Avoid stocks/crypto with any money you can't afford to lose and keep it a small percentage of your portfolio (high risk).

BigCSFan

Yeah. And they typically dont perform great as far as I understand. I know BND is a big one

claire_jeep984

Smart move ditching the BND. Should be 100% VTI at this age anyway.

onemanmelee

Thanks, yeah I wasn't planning on BND for the Roth, but appreciate the reminder. For Roth I'm thinking VOO, but my purpose in posting this question was basically to make sure I didn't accidentally set myself up for wash sale issues if I chose VTI or VT (same or 'substantially equivalent' funds) for my Roth. I think probably going with VOO avoids such issues while also providing a good general high growth fund. But if I'm wrong on that, please lmk.

onemanmelee

Thanks, yeah as I've read more about them I've become less interested. I'd worry they'd become too conservative in general. I'm even currently looking at my 10% in BND and thinking maybe I didn't need to do that yet, and moving forward will focus on funding VTI primarily.

onemanmelee

Thanks, appreciate the reply. What I'm leaning towards is, since I already have VTI/VXUS/BND, is maybe just going with VOO in my Roth. It's simple and straightforward, and basically accomplishes the same thing as VTI woiuld, more or less, but avoids any wash sale complications too. But your comment helps to remind me that I'm unlikely to be selling at a loss. Still learning all this stuff, so trying not to step on obvious landmines.

moosewithamuffin

Can’t stand those single-cell organisms over in the Bogleheads sub. If anyone asks a single question outside of VTI/VXUS/BND DCAing they get a stick up their ass and think they’re all high and mighty. WSB is where I wanna be, in the casino trading 0DTEs with you regards having a good ol’ time. Never change WSB!

gentlegiant80

As a general rule, you want higher growth funds and stocks in your Roth since the funds grow tax free and withdraw tax free. I would definitely not use a Roth to buy BND as it doesn’t take full advantage of the benefit.

SirGlass

>I've done some research and decided that chasing dividends is an ok strategy for very conservative retirees. My only response might be there are better ways to smooth out returns vs chasing dividend stocks While the argument that dividend stocks are usually older more mature companies that will have steady profits even in down turns they are still stock and are still risky Dividend ETFs fell 30% with the market in the covid panic. So even a 100% dividend portfolio might be too risky for older retired people Meaning if you play with the numbers you might see a portfolio of 70% SCHD / 30% BND sort of perform the same as 60% VOO / 40% BND SCHD might be a bit safer but you offset this by holding less bonds, Or VOO might be more risky but you offset this by holding more bonds Either way you sort of get similar risk adjusted returns

onemanmelee

Hi all - I have funded my first Roth IRA, and have \~$14500 waiting to be allocated. My brokerage account already has VTI/VXUS/BND. I'm trying to figure out where to invest my Roth funds. I assume some kind of broad fund like the above would do, but I've been warned about doing the same exact funds due to potential wash sale issues down the line. I've read a bit about them, but don't clearly understand them. Like do they apply only if I have literally VTI in both accounts, or would it also apply if I had VTI in one and VOO in another, since there is so much overlap? Target Fund Dates were also suggested as an option, and I'm considering it. However, I'm not sure exactly what my retirement timeline will be. I'm 46, very tired of my corporate career, and interested in the FIRE community, including something akin to CoastFIRE, where I could hit a number where I know the portfolio should grow to sufficient by retirement age, and at that point downshift to lower paying part time work. So I'm a little wary of locking up funds on the wrong timeline, or even having them revert to too conservative too soon.

Just_Candle_315

Value of BND and BLV just keep sinking US government debt basically junk bonds

brokeasfvck

Any advice for 37M on breakdown of contributions? I tried to do a bunch of reading when I finally started actually working 1.5 years ago. It seemed that a diversified set it and forget strategy would be best. I did a bunch of reading on here and read the Tony Robbins book and some other beginner investing book. Currently my allotments every 2 weeks (or when I have extra cash to throw in I break it down to same ratio) is 62% towards VOO, 11% towards both AVUV and IMCG, 8% towards VXUS, and 4% towards both BND & BNDX. I feel like I have early onset Alzheimer's so I don't remember rationale for everything. My biggest question is the bond allocation. It's small overall, but 8% of my contributions. Since opening my account BND/BNX haven't grown, which I understand is normal. In one of the books I read I recall them saying how important bonds can be to offset volatile markets, even in earlier career investing. However, I'm starting to feel the nonimal returns from dividends when I'm not putting a significant chunk towards them probably isn't worth the opportunity cost of putting that money towards an S&P tracker. My goal is to to be able to "FIRE" in 7ish year. Fortunate to be able to put away 6 figures annually, but don't want it to all be for naught because of dumb strategy. Spoke with a Fidelity consultant and they basically said great job and consider one of their annuities for further investment opportunity :/. Thoughts?

throwawayawayayayay

Roth IRA: VT Traditional IRA: VT+BND Brokerage: Anything you're willing to buy and hold for years, either reinvesting dividends or leaving them in settlement fund as free cash to rebalance or buy something else.

ATPsynthase12

VTI 50% for broad US market coverage VXUS 25% for broad foreign market coverage BND 10% to reduce volatility and drawdowns VGT 5% tech diversification/tilt VHT 5% healthcare diversification/tilt VDE 5% energy diversification/tilt

dontbethatguyever

Feels like a late stage bubble. I’m been selling single stock holdings and parking in BND through the midterms at least. If there’s a large 10-15% sell-off, I’ll rotate back in and DCA.

DaemonTargaryen2024

First, TDFs are good inside IRAs and 401ks, not so good inside brokerage accounts. Second, TDFs are typically most accessible at their own firm: Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab. You may struggle to find (or pay a fee for) TDFs at a shop like Ally. Though you can replicate TDFs easily: VTI + VXUS + BND for example.

SynapticMelody

VT or VTI + VXUS. Use BND if you need to reduce volatility and VOO to increase US large cap exposure. Keep it simple but diversified, dollar-cost average, and rebalance when positions diverge from their set allocations. Keep several months of emergency cash reserves in a money market fund so you don't get struck having to draw down your investments when the market is down.

SynapticMelody

1) Keep house money safe if you want to buy (0–24 month horizon): Money market or SGOV/BIL ETF. 2) Emergency fund (6 months essential expenses): same as first tier. 3) Make sure your retirement fund is on track. 4) Invest the rest long-term: - One-fund: VT - Or two-fund: VTI + VXUS - Add BND if you need less volatility. - Add VOO for more US large cap exposure. 5) Dollar-cost average and rebalance yearly. Avoid stocks/crypto with any money you can't afford to lose or might need in the next 2-3 of years.

Machine8851

No point in BND, VT or FXAIX is all you need at least to start

Ok-Piano8789

just keep smiling and charging them for reconstructing a shittier VT/BND split

TortugaTurtle47

My plan that has significantly less expenses/fees: 100% stocks until 50-55 (VTI ~80% and VXUS ~20%). Once I'm in my 50s, I'll start adding bonds like SGOV and BND (my emergency fund is in them already). Probably be around 60% bonds and 40% stocks in retirement (plus cash).

Smart_Food_4823

If your portfolio looks like a grocery list, you're not diversifying; you're just collecting expense ratios. A solid VTI/VXUS/BND combo beats these 'over-engineered' institutional traps 9 times out of 10. The best edge in 2026 isn't more tickers, it's less friction

MidnightMiasma

Others have already pointed out that this is an absurd portfolio. Why? (1) Fees—you’re paying 1.5% on the portfolio and probably an additional 0.5-1% on the actual holdings, (2) complexity—this accomplishes with ~20 positions what can be achieved in 3 positions. If you go this route, you will be much worse off than if you did it yourself. You could replicate this portfolio almost exactly by buying: - 51.3% VTI (or ITOT if you prefer, basically the same)—this includes a very similar breakdown of large, medium, and small cap. - 22.5% VXUS (or IXUS if you prefer, basically the same)—this includes a very similar breakdown of developed and emerging markets. - 23.5% VTEB (or MUB if you prefer, basically the same)—this includes municipal bonds. Others have recommended BND, which is fine, but BND is not municipal bonds which have some tax advantages if you are in a high tax bracket. - 2.7% cash This entire portfolio represents the same investment mix that your idiot advisor recommended and will cost around 0.05%. 1.5-2% doesn’t sound like much, but if your expected return on your portfolio is about 7%, you give up about 1/4th of your gains to Fidelity. This sub will generally not consider anything other than a 3-4 fund portfolio mostly because it does actually make sense, but in reality, some people are scared of doing even that. If that is you, that’s okay! Just buy something like FFNOX—it bundles these funds together so you just have to buy one thing, at the cost of a very slightly higher price (but still WAY cheaper than what your advisor recommended). As for your advisor, he is not acting in your best interests. I would run.