ITOT

Over-Computer-6464

I rebalance not from cash held aside, but from my allocation to cash+bonds. If equities go up, then although the cash+bonds value stays constant it goes down as a percentage of total portfolio. At some point my fixed income allocation hits my lower rebalance threshold and I sell stocks. The opposite happens when stocks dip. The fixed income part of my portfolio rises as a percentage and eventually it hits the rebalance threshold. At is a signal to me to buy stocks. The last time that happens was in April, when the tariff dip led me to buy VTi/ITOT. Then about a month ago the recovery led me to trim my equity portfolio a bit.

Uisce-beatha

Yeah, I just started a Roth in hood for that 3% match on Oct. 30 and take away the 3% match and the portfolio is down 1.96%. Still have $3200 on the sidelines waiting but I only have until eoy. Playing this like my 401k so ITOT, IXUS, AGG, SPY, QQQ, QQQI, SPYG, WMT and SCHD

Purple__Puppy

ETF's like ITOT or SPY might be a good starting place for you. ETF's are "Exchange Traded Funds" which are basically collections of other stocks. Good brokers make it easy to see what an ETF holds (the stocks it's comprised of). If there's anything specific you think could take off in 20 years look for an ETF or Index Fund (basically the same thing) for that interest. Biosciences, space exploration, mining, entertainment, big tech, etc are all kinds of things that have a fund or idex.

LeadingRegion7183

Weekly or monthly contributions to an IRA invested in index funds like ITOT or VOO over decades will grow nicely and you will sleep well at night.

Awkward-Painter-2024

Dude... just autoinvest $50/week into VT or VTI or ITOT or VOO and go live your life.

-LoboMau

You've got a lot of overlap there; SCHG's top holdings are already a huge part of VOO. If you're aiming for a real value blend and risk management, a dedicated value fund or even a broader total market index like ITOT or VT would give you better diversification than VOO alongside SCHG.

mrks_

1. Establish or add to an emergency fund as needed 2. Complete your IRA contributions this year 3. Pick a brokerage you like and put the rest in a taxable account Any broad index fund is a good start, such as VT, VTI, ITOT, or SCHB

JRshoe1997

Yeah I agree. This how we know we are in a big FOMO market. It remind me of 2021 when everyone thought things just keep going up. Reddit was on extreme doomer collapse bs back in April when the stock market was falling. That made me optimistic and I was buying. Right now seeing this comments is giving me extreme 2021 vibes and now I am being cautious. I will continue my weekly buys of ITOT and DGRO but as far as individual stocks snd plowing money into the market like in April that part is done for me.

IronyElSupremo

“Recent” run-ups in the big tech “mega-cap” space in all likelihood. Longer term, the US Russell 1000 (the top 1000 US stocks) has edged out the US S&P 500 by a sliver since 1978 when I checked earlier this year. However Russell index funds have had a bit higher ER. My problem with the S&P 500 is when they didn’t add Applovin’ stock to either that or the S&P 400 until the last while the Russell 1000 (or 3000) had it. Fwiw iShares has their ITOT etf (0.03% er) using the S&P “completion index” for the top 2,200 or so US stocks including new additions. No more waiting like a kid before Christmas gift opening…

PashasMom

I don't ever hold the same asset in two different accounts (if one of the accounts is a taxable brokerage account). I am too lazy and too paranoid about the IRS to have the possibility of a wash sale out there. If this were my account, I would use a different broad market fund in my Roth IRA, such as VTI, DFUS, SCHK, ITOT, or SPTM.

MattBikesDC

I'm super jazzed about this hot new stock. Trades under ITOT. Buy it now!

IronyElSupremo

Even bulls are concerned with AI concentration, but it is what it is. Could expand to the large cap Russell 1000 or even iShares ITOT (the top 2,200 or so US stocks including the S&P 500) or Vanguard’s VTI the top 4,500-ish include the S&P 500). This as not only will IPOs get incorporated but a number of big European stocks are looking at domiciling in the U.S. (pharma and perhaps energy). Could also go global with Vanguard’s VT with several thousand global stocks for 0.06% ER .. or State Street’s more concentrated/often better returning SPGM with a few thousand bigger global stocks at 0.09% ER. The American tech giants still pack a punch though.

cryptopelado

Posted. Largest absolute gains come from FZROX, ITOT, and FZILX, which are broad index ETFs. Next biggest winners are NVDA and IBIT, both stocks and calls/leaps

Over-Computer-6464

I am not market timing, I am rebalancing per my written plan. I have target allocations of 88% for equities, 12% for cash+bonds. Rebalance thresholds are 10.8% and 13.2% (+/-10% relative) for cash+bonds. It is common that tax loss harvesting and rebalancing happen simultaneously. In my case I sold a few lots of VTI and simultaneously bought ITOT, but a larger amount to reduce my cash and increase my equity holding.

Over-Computer-6464

Kwolek2005 specifically said his reference point was the dip on April. We are indeed up 35% since then. I can easily verify that because I am up 35.13% on the 500 shares of ITOT (total US market ETF) I bought on April 9. My April 4 purchases are up 32%, April 7th purchases are up 34%. I did both tax loss harvesting and rebalancing of fixed income vs equities asset allocation in early April, per my investment policy statement.

Over-Computer-6464

It counted for me. I tax loss harvested and also rebalanced between fixed income into equities to maintain my target allocations. The extra ITOT (total US stock market ETF) I bought April 4 and 7 is now up 32%.

Over-Computer-6464

VTI/ITOT/SCHB are total US stock market ETFs but the track index from different index suppliers, so there is no wash sale problem. Some of the roboadvisor like Betterment and Wealthfront have white papers describing their tax loss harvesting techniques and they have very useful list of "near equivalent" but not "substantially identical" ETfs they use for tax loss harvesting. Some people will go so far as to swap between different ETFs that follow the same exact index, such as SP500. The IRS has never gone after anybody for doing that, but that is too aggressive for me.

Over-Computer-6464

Have a plan. Execute the plan. Figure out your plan during a time when both the market and you are calm, and write it down. Google "investment policy statement" to see what I mean by a plan. The key items are your target asset allocations, and your plan/triggers for rebalancing. I have a target asset allocation for equities and for cash+bonds. I rebalance when my actual allocations get more than 10% (relative) from their target. On April 4 and 7 of this year my cash holdings we higher than the trigger threshold, because my stocks had dropped sharply due to tariff concerns, I rebalanced by using cash to buy ITOT (total US market ETF, similar to VTI). I also, did some tax loss harvesting where I sold recently purchased lots of VTI at a loss and immediately replaced them with the near equivalent ITOT. This helps reduce taxes. Recently the gradual recovery of the market, and that my spending had drawn out more cash than dividend income, had lowered my cash+bonds to where it was at only 90% of my target allocation. So I sold off stocks. Not my recent wins, but some long term stocks from years ago. Try and avoid making decisions on the spur of the moment, or in the heat of the moment. Think in advance, during a period of quiet defection what you will do on various circumstances. And write it down for reference later.

dooknuckduster

SCHF looks like a international ex-US developed fund, and doesn't include ex-US emerging markets holdings (Taiwan, China, etc) Two low cost funds would be VTI or ITOT, (total US, SCHB is pretty close) and VXUS or IXUS (total international, including developed, emerging, and frontier markets). Or a single low cost fund with both US and ex-US would be VT or SPGM.

Over-Computer-6464

I have a 12% allocation to cash+bonds. I rebalance if cash+bonds goes below 10.8% or above 13.2%. (+/-10% relative). The big drop in the stock market on "Liberty Day" meant that my cash exceeded my preset rebalance threshold, and I bought enough ITOT (total US market ETF) to get my cash+bond percentage back down to 12%. I hold a few thousand shares of ORCL. The big pop a couple days ago dropped my cash+bond percentage down to 10.3%. I sold off some stock to start bringing my cash up (and also to be ready to pay Sept 15 estimated taxes). Simple rebalancing helps me time my buys and sells.

Heyhayheigh

Lol. Again. Diversifying is for safety and prudence. As an advisor I can tell you: we diversify to cover our asses. When a client wants to sue us for mismanaging their money, we will tell the judge: we used modern portfolio theory to cover our bases and have diversified portfolio with exposure to large mid small international bonds yada yada yada. Tried and true investing strategies and portfolio management techniques. Rebalancing on XYZ schedule, and here are the timestamps proving we did exactly what was promised. Does any of that sound like it will make you more money? Because it sounds like added effort and cost to me. It is for stability and predictability. The reality is you could achieve all of this with VOO and chill. Buy weekly. Tax loss harvest with the ITOT IVV SPLG, emergency cash with SGOV. It would just be indefensible in court for not being diversified enough. And clients won’t have the stones in a downturn to not panic sell as the sheer quantity gets huge.

Sirspender

I don't know, and even if I did, it basically wouldn't tell me anything useful about the stock. ITOT and chill.

howmanywhales

Hello! If this is better for a forum like r/personalfinance, just let me know. I'm entering a very new to me period of my life. First kid on the way in October. Datapoints: - me 39, wife 35, USA - gross household income is 500k - net we bring in about 27k/month - expenses usually come to about 20-23k per month - this leaves us with ~5k per month to invest/save - we own a home (885k, have about 700k left on mortgage) in a VHCOL area. goals would be to move to a bigger home in about 5 years. - risk tolerance is medium. today, we have 70k in an HSYA for rainy day fund - have ~50k in a wealthfront automated investment account. ~20k goes to VTI/ITOT, another 10k in VIO, about 5k in SCHF, the rest split between some automated emerging market stocks, bonds. wealthfront does tax harvesting on losses etc. we've seen around %10 positive gains on this account and we've had it open about 1 year and a handful of months. - biggest debt is the mortgage (included our expenses above) which is about 6k a month. car is negligible, 400 dollars a month, loans against our 401ks are about 1000 a month between us, will be paid back in 5 years. - next biggest debt would be our upcoming child. childcare expected to run us 2.5-3k a month all in. Now my question: I feel very nebulous about the next ~20 years of our finances. We live very very comfortably, but I can't shake the feeling we are leaving money on the table. Do I just keep pouring into the Automate Index funds? I'll most likely need to start a 529 for the kid, etc. I know this is almost too general - but what does this community recommend for the next 20 years? Prime earning years, but also prime expensive years. Thanks!

ClassicStory

I decided that I have far too much liquid cash sitting around in one of my saving accounts, so I figured it would be high time to invest \~$40k of that to make more money than the 3.5% APY. I also plan on maturing a CD that nets 4.5% APY in early September and investing an additional $30k or so. Here is my current portfolio with percentages of total value. * VOO - 54.0% * VTI - 17.8% * VO - 10.1% * ITOT - 8.9% * TKO - 5.7% * KO - 3.5% What would be my best course of action in how to invest \~$40k right now? I wouldn't mind selling ITOT or KO to tighten up things a bit more and give myself some more to play with. I've been told ITOT is quite like VTI, so there isn't much reason to hold both. I'm not chasing dividends and in it for the long-term, so KO can also be sold since I'm just reinvesting what I make from that anyway. I'm 40, if that matters, debt-free and make less than $80k per year. I max out my Roth IRA every year through a different brokerage and don't have a 401k since my job doesn't offer benefits.

IronyElSupremo

Definitely diversified but some investors want every down to small cap too .. even though it won’t move a market cap fund. Still long term, there’s barely a difference between the Russell 1000 S&P 500 since 1978, for all the IPOs, rapidly rising stars, etc.. the former quickly adds .. vs. the latter has a committee study said stock additions (remembering both indices may need to kick a stock out). Then there’s a drop off in performance [currently] when looking at the top 1500 (S&P 1500), VTI, ITOT, etc.. The US would need a prolonged economic period where small caps are favored and then would private equity snag these?

Sirspender

95k in ITOT and spend 5 grand on a really nice ebike. Been eyeing up a Tern HSD for years now.

EcrofLeinad

First is avoid debt. If you have high interest debt then investing is a fools errand. Second, the best investment for building wealth when “broke” is to acquire/obtain skills that will qualify you for higher paying employment. Trade school, certifications, college, etc. Third, with small starting investments you’ll only get the ball rolling after several years of continuous contributions. A $100 one time investment won’t amount to much. $100 per month will build up over a few years and start gaining steam. Fourth, invest in broad market ETFs (VOO or VT are decent starting points (or SPY, or SCHB, or ITOT, or …)) using an account with Fidelity, Schwab, or Vanguard. I believe these types of funds offer a simple means of achieving a good balance of risk and reward. Personal experience anecdote: I spent 20 months in 2023 & 2024 investing $150 per month, so $3,000 total, and at the end of those 20 months my investment was worth ~$3,225 (after first 10 months ($1,500) I was at ~$1,575). 7 months later that first $3,000 of investments is worth ~$3,350. In another 7 to 10 years, with no further additional investment, I can expect that it will be worth ~$6,700 (typical doubling rate of broad market ETFs). I’ve been fortunate that I can now afford to increase my contribution rate so I’m currently at $7,350 invested worth ~$7,850 (up ~$500, ~$350 of that is from the first $3,000 of investments).

Heyhayheigh

There are tons of sp500. SPY VOO SPLG ITOT IVV. Fidelity is great because you can just setup weekly buys for dollar amount. Supports fractionals. No reason to use mutual funds. ETF more tax efficient. You should open “some” 529 money. Maybe a smaller amount of the auto. It is a good place for friends and family to put birthday and Christmas gifts. Make it easy for them to deposit. Make sure it is not custodial 529 so you have options with other kids in case the times comes. Best of luck!!

Sirspender

The vast majority of my money is the ETF ITOT, which is a broad basket of most US equities. Could also park it in a world ETF like VT. If you're not feeling quite so star spangled patriotic and believe the rest of the world is something you'd like in your basket, do that. Both cost you basically nothing to just exist.

360degreesdickcheese

Generally speaking, you’re better off investing in a market /S&P 500 index fund (VTI, VOO, ITOT, IVV). Sector-based ETFs have historically had lower risk-adjusted returns. If you’re “certain” about the growth of these companies then they would end up being a larger portion of your portfolio as their market caps increase and losers are removed/downweighted by the index.

used-quartercask

ITOT

martin-life-learner

The good news is that for a long-term investor in a Roth IRA, the **ETF vs. Mutual Fund** debate is far less important than your actual asset allocation. In many cases (like at Vanguard), they are just different wrappers for the exact same underlying assets. Crucially, because you're in a Roth, the biggest historical advantage of ETFs—their superior tax efficiency in a *taxable* account—is **completely irrelevant**. All your growth is tax-free anyway. The choice really comes down to practical differences and investing behavior. Here’s a simple breakdown: **Choose Mutual Funds if:** * **You want to AUTOMATE everything.** This is their superpower. You can set up recurring investments like "$500 on the 1st of every month" and never have to think about it again. It puts your wealth-building on autopilot. * **You want to invest exact dollar amounts.** You can invest precisely $100.00, ensuring all your money goes to work immediately without any leftover cash. * **You want to be protected from your own worst instincts.** Mutual funds only trade once per day at the closing price. This is a feature, not a bug, as it prevents you from panic-selling in the middle of a volatile day. **Choose ETFs if:** * **You want the flexibility to trade like a stock.** You can buy or sell any time the market is open and use more advanced order types like limit orders. * **The ETF version has a significantly lower expense ratio.** For major index funds, this gap has mostly disappeared (e.g., Vanguard's `$VTI` ETF and `$VTSAX` mutual fund have nearly identical fees), but it's worth checking. * **Your broker offers commission-free ETFs but charges for the mutual funds you want.** This is less common now with major brokers like Fidelity, Vanguard, and Schwab, but it can be a factor. **The Bottom Line:** For 99% of people focused on long-term, "set it and forget it" wealth building in a Roth, the ability to **auto-invest into a low-cost index mutual fund** is the single biggest advantage. It automates good behavior. * At **Fidelity**, this would be a fund like `$FSKAX` (Total Market Index). * At **Vanguard**, this would be `$VTSAX` (Total Stock Market Index). You truly can't go wrong with the ETF equivalents (`$ITOT` or `$VTI`) either. Don't let this decision paralyze you. The most important step is to pick one and start investing consistently.

IronyElSupremo

> can’t see it beating a Chinese/Indian .. AI/robotics No one knows for certain though India is likely prime for “growth”. Also consider that the U.S. has 62% to 66% of global market cap despite only 4% of the global population (80% if talking about the “‘mega-caps”). Market standards and the American worker kowtowing to Milton Friedman style capitalism [perhaps not that willingly but anyways..] do matter. One idea may be a “global” portfolio or even fund/ETF. Vanguard’s all-cap VT or for just large/mid caps .. iShares ACWI for a pure market cap play. There’s also dividing up VTI (US) and VSUX(non-US) …or ITOT and IXUS for iShares. Another interesting twist would be Vanguard’s new environmental/social all-cap funds .. ESGV (US) and VSGX (non-US); “feel good” stuff especially if there’s an eco-disaster in the future, .. plus DFA research noted some sectors, like emerging small cap value, have large stocks that just sit there; a firm going after environmental certifications the company may be more proactive in all aspects imho.

LBTRS1911

You don't want VT and VTI as they contain many of the same companies. I use ITOT, IXUS, and SGOV/AGG myself.

PowerfulFly1326

They talked you into the “dividends are great” thing? They aren’t. This fund will underperform almost every other index the vast majority of the time. Like it has historically. As per this performance (with dividends reinvested). So on top of low performance you have the tax drag of the significant dividends to add to the negatives. https://totalrealreturns.com/n/QQQ,VOO,ITOT,SCHD

IronyElSupremo

S&P does some due diligence on these stocks .. vs the Russell. Stocks do pop up on their “completion index” of 3500 stocks (example: the iShares ITOT etf had Applovin’ but not the IVV or IJH .. while their Russell ETFs already did), but they take at least some time when adding the stocks to the large cap 500, mid cap 400, etc..

IronyElSupremo

S&P does some due diligence on these stocks .. vs the Russell. Stocks do pop up on their “completion index” of 3500 stocks (example: the iShares ITOT etf), but they take at least some time when adding the stocks to the large cap 500, mid cap 400, etc..

Far_Lifeguard_5027

By total market funds, you mean VTI or ITOT?

Over-Computer-6464

The tech stocks already have higher returns growth futures baked into their current pricing. Unless you think you are smarter than the overall wisdom of the market I suggest just getting the overall market average return by buying low costs broad market ETFs such as VTI/ITOT/SCHB total US stock market ETFs and VXUS/IXUS international stock market ETFs. Yes, boring. But in investing boring is sometimes the best.

LintItIs

If you’re starting, use index funds or ETFs that follow the stock market. VTI, SCHB, ITOT, or VTSAX. There are many quality low cost funds that give you broad exposure. The most important factor is time in the market. Just start making regular contributions.

Over-Computer-6464

It leads me to sell stocks high and buy low. Recently it led me to make purchases of ITOT (total US market stock ETF similar to VTI) on April 3 and 7, during the "liberation day dip". Those lots are up 22%. Some of my other stocks are also up significant,y and am now selling off some long term holdings. That rebalancing also led me to make significant purchases in late March 2020 and April 2020 during the big Covid selloff. Then the recovery led me to sell some other stocks in early 2021 to rebalance.

Over-Computer-6464

VOO and QQQ have lots of overlap but that is not a problem. The OP should analyze his total portfolio to see if the sector and market cap size weightings are what they want. Overlaps are NOT a problem. Lots of ETFs or mutual funds make for a messy looking portfolio but there is no inherent problem of having overlap. I have VTI, ITOT, and SCHB as my main ETFs. There is virtually 100% overlap between them because they are in total US stock market ETFs (although they follow indexes by different index providers). 109% overlap. Zero problem. I use the 3 ETFs when tax loss harvesting.

Over-Computer-6464

On a taxable account I use not only VTI but also the near equivalents ITOT and SCHB for the total US market ETF, and VXUS and IXUS for the total ex-US market. I tax loss harvest by selling lots that are at a loss, immediately replacing the with the same dollar amount of the near equivalent ETF. Those ETFs are similar, but since they use indexes from different index suppliers they are not subject to wash sale rules as they are not "substantially identical".

xiongchiamiov

There are a lot of different things going on here, without any specific question that I can see. So I'm going to just comment on things. > Wife and I invest $36k a year between our two retirement accounts (work) and 2 Roth IRA’s (max). My TSP and IRA is essentially 100% S&P 500 bc I’m in my low 20s. I would diversify that to avoid single country risk, personally. > Wife is late 20s and is a mix between S&P 500 and a target fund set for 2055. (default). That's going to bring her overweight to US large cap, since the TDF is assuming it is the only investment. > Our IRA’s are FXIAX 99% and 1% FZROX And even more US bias here. > Somehow she is up 14% on the year in her 403b, but didn’t know if target funds are the move? The expense ratios are somewhat high IMO. Six months of performance is useless data for longterm investing. You care about how these asset classes have performed for _decades_. Or if you're not going to build your own portfolio, just stop looking at performance of this account at all. How high is the expense ratio? How high are the alternatives? How long do you expect she'll stay at this employer? Sometimes it doesn't matter that much because it'll be only a few years and then you roll it over into a better plan. > Could invest more but we also want to live our lives lol. Just curious on what else I could be doing? I would suggest picking up a copy or two of the book Money for Couples and working through it together. It's not going to be quick; it is going to be work. But it will help you figure out direction, together. > HSA could be useful but I don’t pay for healthcare at all and should be covered for life (along with wife). Even if this is true, an HSA will act like a traditional IRA if you wait to withdraw until 65. > We have around $100k saved up and will continue to save here and there, as we do want to buy a house. Good. > No kids, no real plans for them either, still young tho. I would recommend that the two of you decide whether or not you want kids, regardless of _when_ that would happen. In fact, I recommend that before getting married because it's such a big important question, but we can only change the future. > Only debt is my wife’s car, $32k left. Depending on the rate of that, you may want to prioritize paying it off before doing some of your retirement savings: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics/ > May assume more debt, as I am eyeing a new Prius for longevity. I would recommend instead creating a "sinking fund". The way this works is you open a new bank account (I do this at our credit union because it takes only a few minutes), name it "prius fund", set up the automatic transfers into it as if you're paying for the car, and then once you have the cash, buy it. Then you don't pay any interest and don't get yourself trapped into more debt. > EDIT: I have a taxable brokerage account with $1k in it, but I’m not even sure why. It’s mostly ITOT for diversity and for tax benefits (I heard?). Decide if this money is part of retirement money, or house, or car, or school, or whatever, and then act on it accordingly.

InvisibleEar

I like Fidelity but it doesn't super matter. You can put any amount of money at a time into mutual funds like FXAIX, FZROX, FZILX or buy fractional shares of ETFs (slightly more of a hassle) like IVV, ITOT, IXUS.

Over-Computer-6464

I try to avoid complexity unless there is a significant benefit. I have seen many portfolios managed by financial advisors that are complex combinations of both growth and value funds, in addition to blended funds. When I do a backtest on them they end up being essentially the same return as a basic low expense ratio total market fund. [Portfolio Visializer](https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-portfolio) is good for backtesting, although free accounts are now limited to 10 year maximum backtests. For the portion of my portfolio that are ETFs I just default to the old reliables of VTI/ITOT/SCHB (total US stock market) and IXUS/VXUS (total ex-US stocks). I use the multiple ETFs for total US and total ex-US for tax loss harvesting. In your Roth that is irrelevant, so the simplest and easiest and most effective thing to do is to simply figure out our US/ex-US allocation and buy VTI and VXUS, at both brokers. VXUS tracks FTSE Global All Cap ex US Index, with 0.05% expense ratio with a fairly large tracking error of 1.78%. It is also available as the mutual fund VTIAX at the slightly 0.09% expense ratio. IXUS has 0.07% ratio and tracks MSCI ACWI ex USA IMI with 1.59% tracking error. The overall returns of the two ETFs are essentially identical. Your 20% allocation to international is very reasonable. Although market cap weighting of international is higher, due to the extra volatility from exchange rate variations, the minimum volatility (in USD) is in the low 30% range of ex-US. I choose to apply a mild home bias and chose overall 80/20 US/ex-US. Because the individual stock portion of my portfolio (old, low cost basis shares in taxable accounts) are predominantly US, my ETFs are about 60/40 US/international.

Over-Computer-6464

As you have discovered, leverage is great, …. until it isn't. Take your losses. Pay attention to what you have learned. You may be lucky and outguess the market and make great stock picks, and have great timing getting into and out of the market. The more likely path is what you have experienced. At some point hopefully you will realize that just because you were "not satisfied with 8-10% returns" does not matter. Unless I think I am smarter than the rest if the world or know something that the rest of the world does not know or realize, I just buy the whole market via broad based ETFs like VTI/SCHB/ITOT and VXUS/IXUS. At some point you may find the wisdom and maturity to "accept what the market gives". Spend some effort on determining your optimal asset allocation and the rules for rebalancing. Then follow them. Do not change course in the heat of the moment, Stay the course with the plan you put together during a period of calm reflection,

dissentmemo

Just so everything is clear. I am fine with considering these different, but they may not be. I personally like making sure the index is actually different. ITOT for example.

IronyElSupremo

In the grand scheme of things probably can ignore them, as it’s only one or two that get bumped up every so often, leaving the rest. In the US private equity probably has all the good ones and, especially in the emerging markets, Wisdomtree figured out to use dividends as the biggest market caps would do nada. On the other hand, small caps usually tend to attract attention at the start of a bull market and get bid up. So if rebalancing regularly, in an all-caps index fund like VTI or ITOT, .. the small caps that went up would be sold proportionately. Maybe for developed all caps as well (VEA, IDEV). Not sure of the EM SC. Could also split the difference. Have VOO and VTI with rebalancing out of the latter first, maybe second. Then rebalance out of VOO.

throwawayainteasy

>im trying to build wealth Statistically your best bet is to put your $3K, plus anything else you can spare over time, into a low cost, passive, broad market index fund. Something like ITOT/FZROX if you're with Fidelity or VTI/VTSAX if you're with Vanguard (other large brokers have their own equivalents). Trading individual stocks is much higher risk/reward. Doing the above is the most certain path to building wealth over the long term. Trading stocks/options can be very profitable, but the vast majority of people doing it fail to beat indexing. Index investing is slower, but it *will work* (assuming modern society as we know it doesn't collapse or the world markets turn into Japan's). If you're gonna go for option 2, the long-term strategy is to research companies and find decent small-to-mid sized ones you like for whatever reason and invest in them. For example, in the active portion of my portfolio, I'm banking on the changes to NASA's funding/operations to massively benefit contractors in the future. I'm holding decent amounts of BKSY and LUNR as they provide relatively niche services that I'm assuming are either going to either directly disproportionately benefit from a push to privatize space in the future, or they're going to get purchased by one of the bigger space companies (SpaceX, Blue Origin) who want to start providing NASA with the sorts of services they offer. I could have gone with RKLB, but I think they're pretty significantly overbought already and aren't as likely to see a big return (essentially a big increase in revenue for them has already been priced-in over the last year). Am I right? Maybe, and if I am I could see big returns. Will I be wrong? Also maybe, and even if I'm not wrong in an absolute sense my timing could be off such that by the time those tickers give be big returns, they could lag behind the overall return of the market if I had just put that money into ITOT instead. Similarly, I have a solid position in EUAD--an air defense ETF tracking European defense companies. I antipated a big buildup in EU military capabilities with the US being less of a solid NATO partner, so I made a bet accordingly. I'm up vs the market this year, but will I be over the next 5-10 years? Maybe, maybe not. That's why generally I keep 95% of my portfolio in index funds and bonds. Only 1-5% are active bets (ie, picking individual stocks to hold or options to buy/sell).

teddyevelynmosby

Let me give you a real example. I park most of my free money on ITOT. I am as bored as you. So I sell covered call. My average cost is $113. I thought $125 should be safe, .20 delta and everything. And ETF sold on monthly cadence, there goes your Theda. Check the price now. So don’t sell cc on ETF. Don’t sell high IV stock as beginner. Don’t own it only if you want to sell covered calls.

xiongchiamiov

Those are funds that buy effectively every company on the market. Info on the idea and implementation: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund_portfolio You can do it with any number of funds, but with Blackrock would be ITOT, IXUS, and IUSB. Some discussion on why this approach: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Bogleheads%C2%AE_investment_philosophy Fund providers have created target date funds that implement this strategy, and these days they've gotten very cheap in terms of fees, which is great because for most people they can simply pick something from their brokerage called like "target retirement 2055" and it'll do basically the right thing, including maintenance and risk adjustments over time, with zero effort from the investor.

Emmanuelv7

I took this from u/party-audience-1799 it explains xeqt and also why it’s not “kinda trash”. TLDR it’s good passive way to invest, limiting market volatility if you have an over 7 year horizon, while exposing you to global markets XEQT is made up of over 9,500 stocks with the majority of them coming from US and Canadian companies. Because it is made up of all stocks, no bonds, XEQT is best suited for those with a bit more risk tolerance, who are willing to wait out market swings for the potential to earn higher returns. XEQT has a low Management Expense Ratio of 0.20%, which is 0.05% lower than VEQT. XEQT is made up of 4 iShares ETF holdings, which are iShares Core S&P Total US Stock (ITOT), iShares MSCI EAFE IMI Index (XEF), iShares S&P/TSX Capped Composite (XIC), iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets (IMEG). Top holdings are Apple, Microsoft, Shopify, Amazon, Royal Bank, TD, and Facebook to name a few. The ETF portfolio invests in a basket of ETFs that, in turn, invest entirely in stocks. By investing primarily in four underlying ETFs, XEQT provides investors with low-cost exposure to over 9,500 individual stocks trading on several exchanges worldwide. About 45% – 50% of its entire focus is on US equity securities. With 20% – 25% of it is exposed to Canadian equity securities, and the rest are focused on stocks in emerging markets and international holdings. It’s a popular ETF these days. It is meant for long-term growth.

royalbluefireworks1

I would do VTI, or an equivalent over VOO. I hold ITOT in Fidelity. More diversification over VOO since it includes small caps.

frosti_austi

**Looking for dividend funds/ETFS...** * 40 year old, currently living in Southeast Asia. * I do not currently have a paying job. * I want $2,500 in passive monthly income. * I receive my only income through rent \~$1,600 net monthly. I paid $370,000 in cash for a condo in 2022. It's probably only worth about $400-425,000 at this moment. The ROI is bad. * I have zero debt. I want to sell the condo and re-invest into dividend funds with a goal of getting $2,500 a month from dividends, after the sale of the property. Let's assume I will have $400,000 after the sale (I'm a realtor). I have $200,000 in other investments (50% between FTEC, FZROX, QQQ, FNILX, SCHG, FNCMX, ITOT) which I don't draw on for living expenses, but I don't mind reallocating. * What's the initial capital needed and selection of funds/etfs/stocks to get $2,500 in passive income after 2 months?

neekogo

Nah, whole market ETF with a low cost. Many people recommend VOO (top 500 companies) or its whole market equivalent VTI. Both are owned by Vanguard. You could also buy their competitor equivalents like ITOT, SCHB, SPY or IVV. 

HiReturns

It doesn’t matter. The SP500 is about 85% of what is in the total stock index. Plot SPY vs VTI and you will see they track very closely. Philosophically I prefer the total stock market index ETFs (VTI, ITOT, and SCHB), but it definitely is not worth realizing gains in your taxable account to switch from SP500 to total US. It is barely worth incurring the bid/ask spread costs and the tiny SEC fee you would pay to switch in your Roth account.

brewgeoff

> I’m starting with the top 50 in the S&P so I can get most of the exposure I want but also remove a couple companies I don’t like and increase the weights of a few I believe in. What you’re basically doing is a heavily simplified version of what active managers do. I would not call this “Direct Indexing.” Typically direct indexing implies a few hundred stocks, weighted according to the index without bias. It sometimes includes tax loss harvesting what may create some tracking error but is usually worth the deviation. You mentioned that you don’t have a ton of money to invest. If that is true then a direct indexing approach is likely unhelpful for your situation. You would likely be better served just buying a broad market fund like ITOT, VT, DFAW, SPY, etc.

xiongchiamiov

Rather than targeting individual sections, I just use broad/total market funds (SCHB, VTI, ITOT, SPTM). If you want to cover everything, this is easier and when a company grows it doesn't have to be sold by one fund and bought by another. If your 401k plan doesn't include a broad fund, https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Approximating_Vanguard_target_date_funds provides tips on how to build that with the constituents. There's some investing theory that suggests barbelling with large cap and small cap value. Or various other slice and dices. But I don't think you're trying to get into that level.

Awkward-Painter-2024

I've reshifted and exited some overweight positions. I'm still DCA'ing into ITOT. 

FIREinParis

Keep your spending under 3% of your invested assets (including trust funds yet to be delivered). Invest the bulk in equity index funds, with a reasonable split between US and International funds (VTI/ITOT and VXUS/IXUS). Keep about five years of spending in an appropriate short-term government bond fund. And don’t get married without a strong pre-nup. Hire a good CPA. And don’t really tell anyone about the wealth.

TheEndIsNigh2028

There are countless stock etf's and mutual funds that build their stock around the sp500, such as VTI, VOO, ITOT, FSKAX, SPY etc, etc. The top 10 holdings in all of them are basically the dame with only different distributions.  VTI is Solid, but certainly not the best sp500 variant. TMFC and SCDG historically have been the 2 best variants since their inception when compared to stocks like VTI. VTI is simply the oldest and most well known. I used it 15 years ago when it was the best, it no longer is the best in its category and I split my growth funds 50/50 between TMFC and SCDG. Also, if you understood the sp500 you would understand why there will be growth so long as there is a functioning government. The sp500 is an index that tracks the 500 largest companies in the USA. Stocks like VTI and VOO use that as their base for knowing how much money to allocate into what companies each quarter, buying and selling according to which companies and rising and falling.  The only way VTI/VOO would collapse would be if the 500 LARGEST companies in the USA all started failing simultaneously. Think companies like Apple, Amazon, Walmart, Costco, Chevron, Facebook, Disney, Nvidia, Microsoft,Chase bank, JPmorgan bank, McDonald's, Starbucks, Netflix, etc etc... A couple dozen companies go in and out of the sp500 every year and the funds are redistributed to the current highest performing companies. This is why it always grows. Meaning if VTI crashes, all the companies I mentioned above along with the other largest companies in the USA have crashed, this would include all the major banks in the USA. This is why there is no need to be skeptical, so long as there is a functional government and things haven't devolved into pure anarchy you are fine.

Longjumping-Ad-3590

Ok. So if that’s the case, maybe I should TOH between ITOT/SCHB?

andybmcc

You could add the US extended market (small and midcap) as well as ex-US developed and emerging markets. The easy was is just a single fund like VT, AVGE, etc. instead of the S&P 500. You could instead combine a cap weighted total US (VTI, ITOT) with an ex-US fund (VXUS, IXUS). If someone already has a S&P 500 fund (e.g. VOO), they could add extended market (VXF) and ex-US (VXUS).

tastyfoot-

You are worried over nothing. Millions of people do this every year with no issue. There are many confirmed reports online that VTI/ITOT and VXUS/IXUS were acceptable TLH partners.

desturel

When it comes to funds, a large amount of it is in retirement account finds. VTI, SPY, ITOT, SCHB, VOO etc. All of the total market and 500 funds are held by a large number of pensioners by default without them even knowing. That includes international holdings.

GregorSamsanite

They're both "total market", but don't have identical weightings or selections of small caps. VTI includes a larger selection of small caps, while ITOT makes up for it with a slightly higher weighting of mid caps. Different index funds also have very minor variations in how much of any particular stock they actually own vs. the theoretical ratios of the index they're attempting to track, which can lead to small but measurable differences in returns.

DaemonTargaryen2024

They track different indices: - VTI: CRSP US Total Market Index - ITOT: S&P Total Market Index

taplar

They don't look identical to me. According to [morningstar.com](http://morningstar.com) VTI has around 3,604 equity holdings while ITOT has 2,434. That's a noticeable difference.

LetMeAskPls

Yes if you have money. Try not to buy individual stocks, buy ETFs such as VOO or ITOT to be safer, unless you have a godly ability to pick the right stock.

kindachubbystrongguy

Maxed my roth back in February and forgot to buy ITOT so it’s been sitting in cash this whole time lmao

StatisticalMan

There are three ways to avoid wash sale rule (for the 30 days prior to the sale) 1) Don't buy anything in the 30 days prior. 2) Sell all shares. With no shares no possibility to have wash sale rule. This is ideal if every lot is a loser. Just sell everything but if you have lots with large wins and losses this is less than ideal. 3) Sell all losing shares AND all shares (regardless of winners or losers) purchased in the last 30 days. So in your situation it sounds like #3 would be ideal. Note no matter what route you go to handle the purchases in 30 days PRIOR to the you must also not buy for 30 days AFTER the sale. Make sure to turn off dividend reinvesting. Buying a similar fund is a way around this. Sell VTI buy ITOT.

AquaKnight

No one knows. No one ever knows. You need to decide what's best for yourself and get used to ups and downs; you're never going to time it perfectly. Just remember, we're nowhere near where we were even a year ago; going up 50% past couple of years and then losing around 10% is nothing. What I would suggest is that you zoom out; take a look at SPY, ITOT, VTI or your index of choice on a 5 year and 10 year view. You'll notice right away that when you bought (1, 2, 3 months etc) wasn't as important as just buying and holding at all. Yes the % gain will be different if you bought the absolute bottom, but buying 10, 20, 30% over that bottom wasn't exactly bad either. So in short, don't wait on a floor; think of the long term with index funds and either DCA or lump sum with that in focus. Then ignore the noise and keep adding over your lifetime.

paragonx29

Up to you but I personally would. I just sold off a few of my ITOT shares at opener and took about $2500 in profit. I still have most of it invented. I have 3 mutual funds selling at EOB for some decent profit - but again still preserving my initial capital investment. The one I mentioned above will be a net loss...but hey I can use it on my taxes next year for a cap. loss at the very worst. So I'll have $50K back in cash before EOB today. I'll re-enter when I don't see what I'm seeing now. But I'm no seer.

fintechobserver

Good on you for trying to get this figured out at your age. Here is some friendly advice that I urge you to consider, but please do your own research as well. With $3,000 monthly to invest, you're in a fantastic position to build wealth, but it's smart to be thoughtful about your approach. If I could start over at your age, here's what I would do: # The Core: Index ETFs (70-80%) I'd make diversified index ETFs the foundation of my portfolio. They give you broad market exposure while minimizing the risk of any single company tanking your investments. * Total US Market ETF (VTI or ITOT): 40-50% of portfolio * International ETF (VXUS or IXUS): 20-25% of portfolio * Bond ETF (BND or AGG): 0-10% depending on your risk tolerance This core approach gives you exposure to thousands of companies across different sectors and geographies, which significantly reduces your risk compared to individual stocks. # Individual Stocks (20-30%) With the foundation set, I'd allocate a portion to individual stocks you believe in. This gives you the opportunity to potentially outperform the market while keeping overall risk in check. Consider companies with: * Strong competitive advantages * Consistent growth in revenue and earnings * Reasonable valuations * Industries you understand or are passionate about Rather than chasing the next Nvidia, focus on quality businesses you'd be comfortable holding for 5+ years. # My Personal Strategy I'd implement a systematic approach: * Automatically invest in my core ETFs every month * Research individual companies thoroughly before investing * Resist checking my portfolio daily (this leads to emotional decisions) * Rebalance once or twice a year * Continue learning about investing through books and reputable sources Remember that consistency is far more important than timing the market. The monthly $3,000 commitment will benefit enormously from compound growth over time.

No_Lingonberry_5638

ITOT

EcrofLeinad

Tips: - Only keep ~1 months expenses in checking. - Open a brokerage account at either Fidelity, Schwab, or Vanguard (recommended for no/low fees and industry leading services) for the rest of your money. Ideally your IRA should be held at the same institution. - Keep an emergency fund (3-9 months expenses) in a high yield savings account (HYSA) or a money market mutual fund (MMMF). Unlike a CD the rates will fluctuate but you can pull money out or put it in when you want/need. Examples are VMRXX, SPAXX, SWVXX, etc. - Invest the rest in a low cost indexed exchange traded fund (ETF). Examples are ITOT, SCHB, VT, etc.

waitinonit

I'm retired and currently have a 40/60 (stocks/fixed income) portfolio. The fixed income side is giving me just under a 5% YTM from a bond ladder that goes out about 11 years. I replenish the rungs with bonds (including treasuries) that are about 11 years out. So at this point getting close to 5% return on the new rungs isn't much of a problem with a investment grade (including BBB/Baa). I also have some HYG. The long term total return on HYG is about 4.7%, that assumes reinvestment of dividends. That leaves the stocks to pull the overall return above 5%. So far it's been doing nicely. I primarily have SPY, QQQ, FTEC DIA, ITOT, XLC, XLB, and like everyone else, some NVDA. The interest payments are sufficient for me, at least for now, so I'm counting on those to get me through and corrections or crashes in stocks. I rebalance every 3-6 months. This lets me take some earnings off the table an put them in fixed income. That's the minimal risk portfolio that I came up with to get a 5+ % return.

waitinonit

I can tell you what I did. I'm retired and depend on my IRA for a portion of my income stream. I'm in my early 70s and now have a 40/60 portfolio distribution. For me a 4.6% overall portfolio annual yield is "nice". For the stocks I hold ETFs: SPY, QQQ, FTEC, ITOT, DIA (which is out of favor with many folks), as well as a little GBTC/BTC (a few % of my portfolio) and, like everyone else some NVDA. I'm currently reinvesting any dividends. On the 60% fixed income side I have a bond ladder that generally goes about 11 years out. This currently gives me about a 4.7% yield, but that should increase when some CDs (bought them in 2019 and they've been giving me a whopping 2.% yield) I have mature this year, and replenish the rung with corporates. I'm anticipating an increase in fixed income yield to 5%. I plan on replenishing the rung with bonds about 11-12 years out. My fixed income is fairly evenly split between Treasuries and investment grade corporates, with about 17% of the fixed income portfolio being in BBB/Baa (lowest investment grade). So with the bond ladder extending 10+ years and a willingness to purchase some BBB/Baa grade, the returns with newly purchased rungs have been exceeding my target returns. I also have some 20 year treasuries giving about a 4.8% YTM. I purchased these as a sort of buffer to help keep me in the 4.6% overall portfolio return. Not sure where you are with respect to a Regular IRA versus a Roth IRA, but I have to say that I regret not doing Roth conversions when I was working and had an income stream to pay the tax hit. I only qualified for a Roth IRA for one year early in my career (electrical engineering). To do the transfer now, I'd have to pay the tax hit out of converted funds. I looked at the numbers and nothing jumped out at me and said "do the conversion". I've consulted with a few money managers and financial advisors, and they concurred. So I'm looking at RMD in a couple of years. It's all working for me, so far.

TravRado1024

Any specific reason for VTI vs. ITOT? Or is that just a personal preference of yours?

TravRado1024

Great point. Absolutely the ETF. I even have a recurring weekly investment ITOT lol

jroopwk

ITOT, vea, vwo,

StatisticalMan

If you want the investment there is never a reason to sell and lock in taxes unless you expect taxes will be higher in the future. So there are four tax harvesting scenarios 1) Tax Loss Harvesting. If you buy VTI it drops 30% and you still like VTI you could for example sell VTI, lock in the loss, and buy ITOT. Be mindful of wash sale rules. 2) Tax Gain Harvesting when in 0% LTCG bracket. Can't ever pay less than zero in taxes. So for anyone who is in the 0% LTCG bracket they should periodically sell. lock in the gain (which is taxed at 0%), rebuy and raise the cost basis. This is effectively erasing future taxes. 3) Tax Gain Harvesting when temporary in a lower bracket. If you are normally in the 20% LTCG bracket but this year due to unusual events you are dropping into the 15% bracket it is worthwhile to sell lock in gains at 15% vs future 20%. This could happen because of large one-time charitable donation (donor advised fund), extended unemployment, taking a sabatical, one spouse stopping work for a few years while child is young, etc. 4) Tax rates are expected to rise. Congress never changes tax brackets mid year. So if Congress announced today the 20% tax bracket will change to be 24% then it likely would not go into effect until 2026 so it may make sense to realize some gains now. However in your example if you like the stock/fund (i.e. VTI) and your expected tax bracket on LTCG now is 20% and your expected tax bracket in the future will always be 20% then the answer of when to realize gains early is simple ... never. It never makes sense to pay the same amount of taxes today that you could pay in the future. Imagine the IRS said you can defer all your income taxes for 20 years. No penalties, no interest. Would you do it? Of course. Everyone would. Paying $20k in taxes in 20 years is vastly better than paying $20k in taxes today. That is effectively what unrealized gains are. There is never a scenario to opt into pay that $20k tax bill today that would be due in 20 years.

BetterFlow226

Feel like an idiot. Sold my ROTH IRA positions this morning to diversify away from my allocations (COST, NVDA, MSFT, AAPL, TSM, ITOT, AMZN) in hopes to maybe buy lower. I was up 550% on NVDA, 100% on TSM and between 30-60% up on the rest so I made a lot of profit, but now markets are looking like they are recovering. Again, emotional trading, I’m an idiot. Since I have a wash sale on ITOT on a different account, thinking of going just index funds in the Roth IRA after my 30 days is up to set it and forget. Have about 200k, maybe go all in on MSFT

BetterFlow226

Feel like an idiot. Sold my ROTH IRA positions this morning to diversify away from my allocations (COST, NVDA, MSFT, AAPL, TSM, ITOT, AMZN) in hopes to maybe buy lower. I was up 550% on NVDA, 100% on TSM and between 30-60% up on the rest so I made a lot of profit, but now markets are looking like they are recovering. Again, emotional trading, I’m an idiot.

jdav0808

I would invest in a Crypto or Gold ETF for free. The other two are resonable but if you, by far, the largest holdings in these funds is ITOT which is a great choice all by itself and expense raito is 0.03%. Some of this will depend on your age. The younger the more risk you can take with growth ETF's the older maybe throw in a Bond fund like BND. You can do this all for free. I have 3 funds, VTI, BND and VXUS, thats it, its easy, set it an forget it.

Equivalent-Pin-7146

money market for the portion you need in 2-5 and the ITOT ETF for the portion you want to actually invest for the longer term.

Equivalent-Pin-7146

in a roth, yes. Sell all the individual stocks and roll into ITOT or VTI. You're not going to be able to consistently pick winners so buy them all.

ClassicStory

Right now I have investments in my Schwab account spread across ITOT, VTI, TKO, SPY and SCHG

Quant_Observer

Came here to say this. Arguably you could just own ITOT

Based_Commgnunism

VOOG and QQQ are the same thing. VOO, VTI, SPLG, ITOT are the same thing. Pick two. VTI & QQQ, SPLG & VOOG, whatever you like best. One total market or s&p fund, and one growth fund.

Sugamaballz69

So much overlap. SPLG & VOO are the same fund all together. ITOT virtually the same as those as well. Same with VOOG. 4 funds that are pretty much the same. I feel like people do this for what they think is diversification, but its not, its complication with no lesser risk. These funds are already heavily diversified, keep it simple. You can simplify all these to just VOO & VTI, and you should

ikeepeatingandeating

If you like what it's doing, then just replicate the percentages with cheaper ETFs. For Schwab these would be SCHB (US), SCHF (International) and SCHZ (bonds). Ignore small/medium/large cap splits in your current allocations, that's largely just smoke and mirrors to make it look like your roboadvisor is doing more work. Just invest in SCHB for US and call it a day. Every brokerage has their own versions of all-market index funds, I use iShares, which is ITOT, IXUS, AGG. Track roughly the same indices, charge roughly the same fees.

ikeepeatingandeating

VTI / ITOT / SCHB and chill. Max out your Roth IRA first for 2024, the rest in a taxable account. Crypto is gambling, if you go down that road be prepared to lose it all.

DunningCuger

I would buy equal portions SPY, QQQ, RSP, IJH, VTV, ITOT, VXUS. My real question is whether to allocate to bonds via the GOVT, and if so how much.

trippyross

I sold VOO for a loss, then bought ITOT and Fidelity considered it a wash sale

StatisticalMan

Yes but it should be relative small also if you have excess long term losses it would offset it. Personally I am just sellng VOO and buying SPY or in my case selling VTI and buying ITOT but if one wants peace of mind then go VOO -> VTI -> VOO.

ikeepeatingandeating

It's part of ITOT/VOO/VTI, so I own some of it. Other than that I don't think about it.

Ecstatic_Elephant_11

I invest in SPLG, VOO, FXAIX, and ITOT…all in different accounts.

Equivalent-Pin-7146

I'd choose ITOT