VT

Adventurous_Elk_4039

How do you miss out? The US is still like 60% of VT. And portfolio size doesn’t matter when speaking of equities.

xjcln

I thought you were going with only single stocks and not fund tickers... if you're including funds is this even an experiment? A lot of people's entire retirement plans are VT or VTI. Personally I'd just go VT for maximal diversification.

Adventurous_Elk_4039

VT.  Every stock in the world at market weight. You don’t have to worry about picking winners or if this sector or that sector crashes, you will simply BE the market and rise along with it. No rebalancing or adjustments needed.

outsidetheeggshell

VT is the only right answer

Far-Doctor3527

TLDR: VT and chill Hello, responding here because I am also unhappy that my passive funds will buy SpaceX. I have decided to not take any action regarding the SpaceX IPO, and accepting that my funds will buy it even though this IPO seems like an obvious grift. I am not trying to convince you to take action or not take action, just explaining my reasoning because this IPO has made me worry about my portfolio and maybe this will be helpful to you in your own decision. First let's understand what types of funds could be affected by the IPO: \- Total world market funds (VT and the like). These track the total world's equities market, which is roughly $154 trillion in market cap. \- Total US market funds (FSKAX, FZEROX, VTI, VTSAX, and the like). These track the total US equities market, which is roughly $77 trillion in market cap. \- S&P 500 funds (FXAIX, VOO, and the like). These track the largest 500 companies in the US by market cap, which total to about $62 trillion. Note that this is about 80% of the total market. \- S&P 100 funds / Mega cap funds (FGRTX, QQQ, and the like). These track roughly the top 100 companies in the US, totaling roughly $55 trillion. Note that this is roughly 70% of the total market, and roughly 89% of the S&P 500 \- Large cap funds (FNILX, FSPGX, and the like). These are functionally equivalent to the S&P 500 so I will not add anything here, they may be slightly larger or smaller percent of the total market than the S&P 500 depending on holdings. \- Mid cap, small cap, and international funds: unaffected The first thing you want to think about is: what are you invested in? You don't have to go super granular but most passive investors have their investments in some version of the above funds. Are you more of a total market person, or more S&P 100? It doesn't matter which one you are, but take a look at your portfolio and understand what you are invested in. Now let's assume SpaceX does IPO at $2 trillion and let's look at how the SpaceX IPO affects the broad categories: \- Total World Market Funds: 2 / 154 = 1.2% of the total world market \- Total US Market Funds: 2 / 77 = 2.6% of the total US market \- S&P 500 and other large caps: 2 / 62 = 3.2% of the S&P 500 \- S&P 100 and other mega caps: 2 / 55 = 3.6% of the S&P 100 Now let's assume that the worst case happens: SpaceX IPOs at 2 trillion, and then the price goes literally to 0. If you are mostly in total market funds, your portfolio would go down by 2.6%. If you are mostly in large cap funds, your portfolio would go down by 3.2%. If you are mostly in mega caps, your portfolio would go down by 3.6%. But let's be realistic, even with this IPO likely being an Elon grift, do we really think this is going to 0? I don't. Maybe it loses 50% of its price, maybe 80%, I don't know. But it's a real company with real revenue (though small revenue compared to its huge valuation), so it's not going to 0. I'm not going to redo all the calcs but just for example, assuming it goes down by 50% and you are mostly in S&P 500 funds, your portfolio would go down by 1.6%. But here is the biggest consideration: 100% of SpaceX is not going to be publicly tradable. We don't know exactly what the percent it is going to be but likely only like 5%. This means that the indexes will only track 5% of SpaceX's market cap. So assuming SpaceX IPOs at 2 trillion and goes down by 50% and you are mostly in S&P 500 funds, your portfolio would go down by (2 \* .05)/62 = .16%. To be clear, this is like a fifth of a percent, which is inconsequential, the market moves more than this on a daily basis. Another point: I don't know what is going to happen in the future: I don't know if SpaceX's price will actually shoot up for whatever reason, so as an uninformed person, I think actively shorting SpaceX is not a good idea. Remember the famous quote "the market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent". I am a regular person and don't have any privileged information about what is going on with SpaceX so I think shorting it would be equally risky to shorting any other company that doesn't have a high-profile controversial figurehead as Elon Musk, which is something I wouldn't do (and likely something other passive investors wouldn't do either). At the end of the day, passive investors get to benefit from all of the companies in the market without having to do the work of researching and understanding each business, and making bets about which one will go up or down. We have benefitted from all the other great businesses that have continued to skyrocket without having to use a second of time to evaluate them. If you want to take action against the SpaceX IPO that is totally ok, but you could be introducing complexity to your portfolio, and spending your valuable time thinking about how to hedge against something that will impact your portfolio less than regular daily market fluctuations. Again, not trying to convince you one way or another, and to reiterate, I am not happy that I will be buying into this IPO passively because I do think it is a grift, but by looking at the actual numbers I have decided that this is not consequential. So to summarize all of this information, even though I am more of a Fidelity stan than Vanguard, "VT and chill".

StegersaurusMark

While your advice is correct, you blatantly ignored the (nice and brief) question that OP explicitly asked. I will rephrase the question “what is the most aggressive investment strategy and what are its expected returns over 20 years if I leave this money untouched” That is a completely orthogonal question to your answer of “keep DCAing for the next 20 years” The expected returns question itself requires volumes of text and is essentially the foundation of financial planning and portfolio management. Or you can be snide and talk about crystal balls. Or you can just say VOO/VT/VBAL and chill and be pretty damn accurate

Foreign-Struggle1723

Depends on how you look at it. You might have to crunch the numbers, but over the last 10 years, VOO has handily outperformed a total world fund like VT. That's because the US has been kicking ass for more than a decade. Even Warren Buffett recommended in his will that his wife's trust be put into a low-cost S&P 500 fund—specifically a 90% S&P 500 and 10% short-term bond split. Another point to consider is that S&P 500 companies do massive business internationally, so you already get plenty of global exposure. But VT is still a safe, conservative bet if you just want a global 'set-it-and-forget-it' portfolio.

flappysack-

Like holders of VT pretty soon due to the index inclusion changes.

Plane-Salamander2580

LMAO. What the fuck are you doing buying every single shit stock in existence? You should look at all your stocks, ask yourself if there's any thesis to hold that is not dependent on Reddit advice, then sell the rest and throw it into VT until you grow a brain and figure out what the fuck you're doing. Or do options and blow up 100x as fast and declare bankruptcy. You do you.

u_spawnTrapd

It’d probably get weird long before volatility hit zero. VT only works because the underlying stocks still have price discovery happening underneath it. If literally everyone stopped evaluating companies and just auto-bought the index every month, eventually mispricings would get pretty extreme. You’d still have businesses growing earnings in the real world, but stock prices would start disconnecting from fundamentals because nobody’s actively setting prices anymore. At some point a smaller group of active traders would have outsized influence just by doing actual valuation work. I think the funny part is the system almost self-corrects. The more passive everyone gets, the more opportunity there is for active investors to outperform again.

dismendie

Only have VT investing has both buying and selling… so possible three options buy sell and do nothing that month? Someone will look for an edge and someone might find an edge… plus this makes no sense…

LeadfootYT

It’d be nice if someone other than New Yorkers and Connecticut people invested in VT. It’s a great state, could use some more money to kick around.

luxuryriot

Even if everyone was DCAing VT there are still investors at different stages of their lives, and ones with different preferences. Young people would be DCA buying and old people in retirement would be DCA selling. People in between and those that are wealthy might decide to retire early and sell more if the prices were high or retire later and sell less if prices were low. A wealthy person if prices were high may sell stock to fund a yacht purchase or sell an extra home and invest more if prices are low. With everyone trading the same asset (and even just once a month) prices would reflect the marginal demand/supply each month but then if we assume some speculators with cash who are willing to buy more in low months and sell in high months the price will also reflect the future expectations of net demand/supply.

paradox3333

SpaceX will be a tiny part of VT as it's still free do at based even if they do include it. In Nasdaq it will be larger but that's not real indexing anyway.

ThetaEdgeHQ

The practical answer underneath the noise here is that the exposure problem and the volatility problem are two different things and need different tools. The exposure problem: if you hold QQQ specifically, the NASDAQ one hundred small float multiplier rule means SpaceX inclusion gets weighted at three to five times its actual free float percentage. The practical fix some commenters pointed at is correct, swap QQQ for an equal weight version like QQEW or for a broader vehicle like VOO or VT where the inclusion math is much smaller. That is an allocation move, not a hedge. The volatility problem is different. Retail can not actually hedge an index IPO inclusion event with stock allocation alone. The cleanest expression is a long dated put spread on QQQ dated around the inclusion window, typically thirty to ninety days after the IPO date, because that is when forced index buying compresses then mean reverts. The IV term structure already prices some of this, the front month is cheap relative to the three to four month dated options where the inclusion driven flow concentrates. Put spreads also limit the bleed if the event passes uneventfully. Panic selling everything today or sitting in cash for two months is the option that combines highest cost with worst outcome distribution. Picking either the allocation move or the targeted hedge is the practical answer. Doing both is overkill but defensible if the position size warrants it.

nooeh

Sounds like you should buy and hold VT

Acrobatic-Song-3151

Buy Dfus, Vxus.  Sell Qqq, VGT, Vti, and unfortunately VT.  Voo will eventually add, but I’m not unloading all of them yet. 

paistecymbalsrock

VT

Halbaras

Just ditch QQQ if you have it and buy VT or VOO. The pump should have given way to the dump by the time it gets added to the S&P. Absolutely nothing says you need to own a NASDAQ index fund, if you really want 'high growth high risk tech' there are plenty of other ways to achieve it. I'd agree that its a pretty worrying precedent for the NASDAQ to set between changing the free float rules to overweight tiny floats, and allowing fast entry (while this specific IPO also lets existing shareholders exit earlier than normal). I'd worry less about this particular IPO wiping anyone out (besides a few foolish active investors), and more about the floodgates the index's greed has opened. SpaceX's tradeable market cap will 'only' be $80 billion in non-NASDAQ indices, so its unlikely to distort the prices of anything else besides he other space stocks Reddit obsesses over but which make up a tiny proportion of the overall index. Tesla has been sitting at unhinged valuations for years but doesn't move the wider market.

Maleficent_While2653

SOXQ is better. I would only combine this with VT as the backbone, though.

harpers25

Dear lord, stop getting your entire worldview from Reddit comments. Many index funds have always had fast entry, including VT / VTI. SpaceX will be less than 1% of these kinds of funds. It's still float weighted.

zendaddy76

Just hold for longer, set a trailing stop, maybe 20%, if you’re worried about losing money. Or sell 1/2 at ATH and keep the rest. I’ve successfully used this strategy with some big wins (MSFT since 98, AAPL since 2012, NVDA since 2020, currently holding AVGO AMD TSM MRVL GOOG - all with trailing stops that haven’t triggered, still riding them on the way up). Also I bought META when PE was low, around 200 a share, these aren’t dogshit stocks if you hold for longer and have conviction. Tha said, 90% of my money is VT and chill, 10% play money is for fun.

Agreeable-Bee-3449

Not a financial advisor but I like to do a core + satellite approach. Where the bulk of my money is in a broad index etf (like VOO or VTI, VXUS, VT etc) and then I supplement that with more risky individual investments. My satellite rn is GOOG, MSFT, MU and RKLB

NamerNoNaming

It shouldn’t end up as more than 2% of VT. Not a great situation, but not enough to change a whole investment strategy over IMO.

Detail4

Yeah if they were new accounts I’d just do VT and SPY. They say VOO tracks better than SPY at a lower expense ratio but I like the efficient options volume on SPY for writing covered calls.

charlieandoreo

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

cjorgensen

VT and chill.

Zephyruos

Improper sizing! 0.5%-3% of your total port leveraged throughout one year, the rest in 3 months treasury bond or S&P500 ETF (VOO for lower fees) or even VT for total world stocks exposure.

wandererarkhamknight

More like 0.7% of QQQ. Lower for VOO, VTI and VT, in that order.

Academic_Librarian75

Just buy Voo or VT or a combination of ETFs for 80-90% and play with 10-20%

golf_234

You should really start looking at 10, 20 50 100, and 200EMA to determine if you are buying in a bull or bear trend long term and short term, and if you are buying way too high in a bull run (i.e. way above the 10 or 8EMA in an increasing market, which can still be a mistake) sound like you have picked stocks pretty well, but with really bad timing and not paying attention to fundamentals. Also should check PE and PE/G for every stock you buy as well as news and projections, etc. I like using gemini for consensus price targets and trajectories as well. More fundamentals!!! And have the lion's share of your funds in tried and true things like VOO, VT, VTI, and so on.

Xryanlegobob

Auto invest what you can in VOO or VT. You could sell all of this and get QQQM for similar exposure but not as much risk as individual shares.

Seastep

Getting kinda hard to take some profits but I'm definitely trimming a bit and dumping into VT so hopefully I can begin that whole "chill" part. Until then, hit me on 11.

VerdantPathfinder

show me? VT took a hefty hit. What other world market are you talking about?

DerrickRoseTackoFell

Eh, I’d go VT and forget. An all world including us has good upside with less downside. Just set a recurring daily buy and go touch grass

pants_full_of_pants

You already won. Don't risk pants down in the coming bubble burst. Put 5% trailing stops on everything and as they sell off put it into VT, or VTI+AVGV+(SCHD/SGOV) depending on risk tolerance. Delete the app and only reinstall it once a month to make those trades. I mean full port Tractor Supply calls or whatever.

No_Top_1079

VOO way to reliant on tech, VT is the move now

paistecymbalsrock

VT in custodial accounts

paistecymbalsrock

VT

Fungi_Fritti

Yeah. Bc VOO in a few decades will be fine. I got other shit to worry about. If VOO won’t be fine, then VT will. Force yourself to chill

sf_cycle

If you want to invest, just do that. Like someone else said, go with an ETF like VT, VTI, VOO, whatever if you’re not confident picking out stocks. Most people suck at it, and those that don’t are often just lucky. If you mean you’re trying to time the market like OP with stocks, there’s nothing to understand. The market is a casino as they say. But long term it tends to rise.

coding9

100% they should just do all VT. They will come out ahead

Hoosier2016

Same. VT in accounts that I manage myself. Low-cost index funds based on what’s available in my employer plans (fortunately pretty good at offering Vanguard index funds). Individual stocks are too much work and the active funds I have access to charge nearly 1% to miss their benchmark by 10% (looking at you MFS).

NefariousnessBorn969

None in individual stocks. I like to keep my portfolio boring. VT is the bulk of my money.

helphouse12

I suggest investing in VT it also has international. Just put everything into that funds and don’t look at it ever and don’t pull it out even if you think “it’s about to crash” Just follow “ABB” always be buying Or you could do 70% vti and 30% vxus it’s basically the same ish

uriejejejdjbejxijehd

VT

Da_Cum_Man

I get paid tomorrow morning at 4am. Once the check clears, 0DTE calls on $SPY for $740. Any loss will be made up for my working OT at Wendy's. Any profit goes 60% to $SPY, 30% TO $VT, 5% to BTC, and just for the thrill of it: 5% into the Robinhood prediction marker that Bass wins re-election as LA's mayor,since her odds look good

BeuTaude588

if the tax-advantaged space is maxed, excess goes in a total market ETF on autopilot. VTI for US, VT for global. low expense ratio, dividend reinvested, and you mostly stop thinking about it. the only adjustment is making sure bonds are in the tax-sheltered space, not the taxable brokerage account

A10cc

Loaded up on TLT and will enter back into VT when it touches the 200 week SMA.

drew-gen-x

There's risk everywhere in life. What happens when semis crash to US stocks? I also buy $VT and $GLD to hedge. Right now I believe the Yen scare and Crude Oil scare is a buying opportunity for World ex US & especially Japanese stocks. And living in the USA I need to hedge my USD risks b/c that's what I get paid in.

Extension_Bid_7103

VT and chill using DCA. I’m not the first person on here to say it and I won’t be the last. It’s the most common advice out there for a reason.

Ahamadrayasbaboon

Buy shares of a low expense ratio broad market ETF. VOO, VT, etc.  That’s it. That’s all you do. Trying to do more is statistically likely to make you less money.  Now, leave this sub, go to r/bogleheads, and do what they do and only what they do. 

SignificanceNo3295

Jokes on you I own the QQQ,VT, VOO and SPY. Let's burn together

FINomad

Both of those routes sound awful to me. SCHD is for people that don't understand dividends. Here's a video to help you understand what dividends are and aren't (spoiler: they aren't free money): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5j9v9dfinQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5j9v9dfinQ) Nearly all of the stocks in SCHD and VPU are already in VTI (use the link in my comment above to see the overlap), so all you're trying to do is tilt your portfolio to something you don't understand. I would go with VTI + VXUS or simply VT.

yourwebg

Good idea when getting started to buy something like VOO, which tracks the SP500. VT, is also great! Get some money in there and watch it compound over time. 

Powerful-Price-3832

I have a fair amount of cash sitting in my bank, approximately 50 grand. I plan to invest maybe 30k of it soon, mostly into VT and maybe VEU. At what rate should I do this? Does it make sense to put it all in at once, or should I do some smaller amount every week? The way the economy is working these days scares me lol

000-MissingNo

Hey all, i have ~$7K to invest right now and not sure where to put it. I wanted to try and get away from tech to diversify, so even just a recommendation of industry is great. I’m currently at $11K in AMZN, $11K in VOO, and $42K in VT. I’m not looking for anything risky, i want slow and steady long term growth. Also open to other ETFs.

drew-gen-x

I keep my portfolio under 10% individual stocks. The March sell off this year convinced me that I’m nowhere near as smart as I think I am. The upside is I did time the March 31 bottom in $VT, $VXUS, $EWJ & $GLD. I’m much less stressed today than I was going through the March sell off. I’ll gamble with 10% of my portfolio but more than that isn’t worth the stress even if I did get lucky & bought the winning stocks.

strimd

People that are losing faith in the stock market are not going to be serious people. There are a lot of different exchanges and you can try to pick and choose winners but VT will be your best bet and let you sleep better at night. US vs Ex-US is a bit out of sync and I think around 64/36 right now but I consistently use a 60/40 portfolio and make a killing decade after decade.

NetZeroSun

You can buy bad stocks and meme investments. But if you don’t understand the market just keep it simple. Look at VOO or VT. It gets old calling them chill stocks because just don’t understand. Don’t look at VOO dipping for a week. Or a month. Zoom out. I mean way out. 10 years. 20. 30. Look at its growth over many years. Not a week. Or half a year. This is why so many people get tired of the chill stocks comment. But so many others also panic sell as they lose their shirt in shorting and Wall Street bets.

Caluso1

Just VT ETF and chill. It‘s not that deep

the_real_rico_mercad

VT and Chill

Emotional-Power-7242

Put $7,500 of it in a Roth IRA and buy a broad index fund like VT. By the time you're 59 it'll be worth $700,000 tax free.

Curious_Temporary_87

Fsmone, ibkr has it. Vwra is more suitable for Asians as it's more tax friendly for us. Not suitable for US residents if I'm not wrong.  It's a world index, US equivalent will be ticker VT, but the allocations are quite different.  VT has more small cap companies. 

EaseInternational648

Red? I’m in the green ya peasant. VT, AVDV, AVUV. Suck it.

East_Economy_7602

That's what the 401k is for, how do i make tendies here more than VT ;(

spicymcqueen

VT, own the world

Apprehensive-Status9

go over to r/Bogleheads . delete RH. read simple path to wealth by J.L. Collins. buy VT an be free. welcome to enlightenment, my friend.

golf_234

Eastman Kodak is a cherry picked example, I know you mean well and there is good advice here so not hating, but there are lots of examples of companies that don't look like that and are well managed enough to weather tides turning, Apple comes to mind as a counter example. Agree with most of what you are saying and know that is put out there as a cautionary example, but I would also mention not missing the obvious zeitgeists of the times, either. It would not be bad advice to have some small portion of portfolio in VGT or QQQ for example, or even SMH. I would specifically dedicate part of porfolio, maybe 5-10% in more agressive areas or companies you see growing in addition to things like VOO or VT . Sector ETF /= bagholding unless it is some absolutely wild out there play.

IronyElSupremo

There’s a lot of small cap doing nothing in VWCE and it’s American version VT, though. The index/iShares ETF ACWI beats it by 5% over the last 5 years, as bigger stocks will still have a big impact on even global equity funds at market cap. Unfortunately it has a higher expense ratio (0.32%) but traders love it. ACWI definitely does not contain small cap and most investigating this say the small cap premia has disappeared for various reasons (some brainy economist types employed by fund families that actually want to outperform say esp EM small cap, even EM SCV, tend to sit on their market cap letting the index buoy their stock \[but also a bit DM\], private equity may have taken the best/keep the best private longer as to fly under stock regulators, etc..). I’m looking at SPDR’s global SPGM long term myself with almost 3,000 global stocks, but including the top small caps, at 0.09%. Also possibly adding some profitability-screened small cap value ETFs (risky wait but the dividends will build up shares while waiting). Think Vanguard offers an ex-US global small cap value etf (UTICS) available to many non-Americans but not sure it’s profit-screened.

Covington-next

If you're asking, you should buy VT

drew-gen-x

2 things can be true at the same time. This might not be the best time to lump sum into the market and it's also usually a good idea to start good habits like investing ASAP. You have to remember the economy can go into the shitter and the USD can also lose value due to inflation faster than stocks losing value vs USD/DXY. I would figure out a plan. I am more bullish on World ex US than US so I BTD in $VT and $VXUS vs many here BTD in the $SPY or $QQQ. I will say stay away from buying individual stocks until you have a good foundation of at least $100K in indices or ETF's like $VT or $VTI. I think you can count something like $GLD towards that $100k foundation; but don't go all in on anything. Good luck.

drew-gen-x

Nope. I dropped over $60K into the market on the week of March 31, 2026 buying $VT, $VXUS, $EWJ and $GLD. I'm just not a reddit perma-bull tech bro. I am bearish on the USD & AI cap ex circle jerk though

Seastep

I think you're doing the right thing. Shave some off the top and put it into VOO/VT/VTI or your broad market ETF of choice.

jadedunionoperator

Entire uranium sector More orders than supply of the fuel source. Growing interest in demand before data centers from green energy push, now tech giants show interest. Sizeable technology leaps compared to previous implementations. By weight I hold NXE CCJ URNM RYCEY GEV Been DCA since 2020. Honestly shitting myself cause the first exposure to it was a bullshit motley fool article the literal day I turned 18. Sector has made me 10s of thousands right as I entered adult hood. Sector occupied 33% of my stock holdings, or about 10% of overall NW, dividends/covered calls/profit taking on runs goes to VT/VTI. For me it's my big gamble. With a potential lifepsan keeping me on earth another 70 years, I just can't see how the nuclear industry as a whole won't grow.

trustfundkidotaku

Just do what u can lose first I had a salaryman friend I just get him started on VT and make sure he had the balls to held through downturn and correction

owenmills04

Premarket for VT turned green(+ 0.04%) Bears 🖕

Sulli23

VOO or VT and if you get a job and contribute regularly you’ll be a millionaire by mid forties at the latest. And the compounding only speeds up after that. If you’re going to trade do it with like 10% of your portfolio.

Affectionate-Drop689

if the move from VT > options makes me 50k then ima get a used AP

Affectionate-Drop689

which calls and stocks to buy this week? going to sell more VT to fund options and stocks that will 2-3x in the next month

cjorgensen

VT and chill. You won't miss out on the next boom this way.

IMI4tth3w

i use robinhood's roth for this reason exactly. i almost exclusively invest in VOO, VTI, and VT bi monthly, but i have a handful of individual shares i've picked up over the years. many of them up 100-400% and its tempting to liquidate but if i'm in it for another 30 years its hard to justify other than locking in gains and moving it to an ETF where growth over that time frame is likely to be slower. i've had fairly good experience with using/buying/interacting with a company, liking them/their product, and buying a share or two and watch it take off. this is mostly just my "play" money account since my 401k is my real retirement but every bit helps.

cheesenkush

VT and chill. Save some for gambling 0dtes

Old_Culture_3825

Not ETFs. If they drop heavy chances are the market is turning. An individual stock, sure. But I'm not gambling so I shy away from individual stocks. VT, VOO, VTI, things that are full market or global full market. Through Thursday pm I captured all the upside that has been running. Friday was a mess but not a 4% drop mess yet so if it turns this week I'm still in and gaining. If Friday was the shape of things to come (Monday looking ugly atm) then, yes, everything likely sells this week. But, if so, I'm betting the most we will get after that is a dead cat bounce and I'm not here to trade that emotion, I'm here to avoid the massive risk that is likely at some point here without being 'out of market' if it keeps running. I think the next fall is the 3 year fall frankly. Doesn't mean I'm right. But the buy the dip can't possibly run more than another 18 months. This worked for me Oct 2007 when dow hit just under 14,000. Stop loss at 4% allowed me to be on the train all the way up and it sold 2 months later, all out (100% out). There were a few head fakes just before that but that 4% mark worked flawlessly for me. I didn't 'time the market,' I let the market do the timing via the stop loss. Then I sat there for what felt like FOREVER waiting to get back in but I wasn't sweating every night (okay, I def took some money out of my Wachovia bank account when everything felt surreal with banks being forced to merge but my holdings were locked down and not cut in half as the market fell apart). Only thing I didn't do was short a few things - didn't really understand I would MAKE money in a shit storm back then...this time I'll buy a few shekels of SQQQ if the market drops 7% or so and see how that shit show of a short works out. 😄. But back in market around 9,000 DOW 18 months later worked out just fine. You do you, it's all cool. But hurt is coming here at some point so best way to get the upside until it does is have the stop in place. Worry free.

golf_234

You sound really uninformed to think the mass of aggregate of the market is all that is possible. Tell that to the founders of Apple or Google lol. Your advice while coming from a good place simply isn’t true, of course, there are over performers and under performers. Challenging to do consistently over a long run, and self balancing in indexes comes into play will give you that, cash management and making plays in sometimes contrarian plays but to say there aren’t over performers it’s just foolish . You state it like it’s some absolute that can’t be beat. see you mean from a good place, but takes like one example to counter it. Sounds like you should just stick to VT and do nothing else. You will do well, but there are others who are more active and some indeed way ahead of that curve, even long term. Those that have can’t take those curbs lock in gain and place into an index, basically attack the problem from both ends and come out ahead. My portfolio would be a solid $120k less right now if I had listened to people like you , and most of it is in VOO now, so your take is not some novel thing that is a surprise to people.

InvestingNerd2020

Barclay for emergency savings, and the rest into Vanguard ETFs on Interactive Brokers platform. The ETF "VWRL" and never look back due to extreme diversity. It is the UK's version of VT. It has an expense ratio of 0.22%. Another option is VUSA. It is the UK'S version of VOO. It has an expense ratio of 0.07%. Lower expense ratio, but not as diverse.

TreGet234

VT, gold, bonds and chill. Possibly energy too.

Acrobatic-Song-3151

So you own no international? Maybe start there and switch over to VT. 

SooAwoo

I second what others have said. VOO is great, but I also have VT and some foreign ETFs too along with a handful of single stocks. Nearly all of my holdings are in some kind of index fund though. That being said, 100% VOO is not a bad plan at all. Maybe 10-15% of your holdings could go into some individual stocks? That way you get to have a bit of fun while not becoming overly risky.

Rough_Passenger892

How do we avoid this turd? Should I sell all my SPY, VT, VGT etc?

poopy_wizard132

Just buy VT and sell when you retire.

thereddituserusa

You could diversify further with VT only or VTI plus VXUS.

BigManWAGun

If legit, sell move to VT and never come back

Odd-Significance3441

Thanks heaps for the advice! Currently looking into setting up a recurring investment for VT! Appreciate it

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).

A10cc

We do. I compromise with myself by only gambling with 10% of my total portfolio. The rest is in VT and I'm never selling.

justdaisukeyo

It sounds like you think a taxable account is better than a 529. In some ways, I think that might be true but I think it's a mistake to not have some of it in 529 to optimize your taxes. I will give you my example. Your mileage may vary. My father-in-law gave my son $5000 when he was born. After 25 years, it's ... roughly 60,000. I did take some out to fund my son's Roth IRA when he was in high school and mistakes were made early on. If you go this route, make sure to pick an ETF that you are comfortable holding LONG TERM. I recommend either VT, VTI, VOO, or SPMO depending on your risk tolerance. My original investment was in mutual funds which distributed dividends as well as capital gains. Eventually, the distributions exceeded the tax free limits for a child. I then slowly moved everything into ETFs. Every November, I estimate my child's income and calculate how much I can sell and re-buy to reset the cost basis tax-free. In addition to the above, I contributed $250 per month into a 529 for 18 years. I stopped immediately after he graduated high school. I invested in [nysaves.org](http://nysaves.org) Growth Stock Index Portfolio. He went to in-state college so we withdrew $100,000 tax free to pay for his college. I forgot how much he had in it when he graduated college, but I checked his balance today and the remainder has grown to $150,000. Starting next year, I will start funding his Roth with it (max 35,000). After that, I will change ownership to him. I know people complain about the taxes if withdrawn for non-education purposes but the penalty is 10% plus taxes. The money is growing tax deferred which easily covers the penalty after roughly 7 years. He could also transfer the beneficiary to his children if he ever decides to have any. He could also use it as a safety net in case he is ever laid off. My point is that there are options.

Acrobatic-Bar-3621

My 8 year old has about $145K in his 529 & 23K in his brokerage that I set up for him. We plan on converting 35K of his 529 into a Roth and the dream scenario is “the scholarship exception” so I can move a large amount of of his 529 out without the 10% penalty & roll that into his brokerage. I let him pick a couple stocks he picked Amazon and Google and I put the rest in VT, RLY, & ICVT.

McKnuckle_Brewery

VOO, VTI, and VT are not at all substantially equivalent so there is no issue with wash sales.

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.