VTI
Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares
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23 F advice on my long term portfolio: VTI/QQQM/Costco
Is it ok to never have bonds if you start investing early?
Let's go! For most, the best investment route is to just purchase a S&P500 index fund/ETF and hold on (*while adding to it often and extra when markets are in a down-cycle). Vanguard's VOO and VFINX have low expense ratios % and are great choices! VTI / VTSMX are also good (total market) options.
Let's go! For most, the best investment route is to just purchase a S&P500 index fund/ETF and hold on (*while adding to it often and extra when markets are in a down-cycle). Vanguard's VOO and VFINX have low expense ratios % and are great choices! VTI / VTSMX are also good (total market) options.
Let's go! For most, the best investment route is to just purchase a S&P500 index fund/ETF and hold on (*while adding to it often and extra when markets are in a down-cycle). Vanguard's VOO and VFINX have low expense ratios % and are great choices! VTI / VTSMX are also good (total market) options.
I hit $100,000 in Broad Market Index Funds (mostly VOO and VTI) this Jan
I have about 10k on hand. Thinking 50% VTI or VT,30% VXUS, and rest 20% in stocks. Unsure about my ETF choices though
Target Date Funds (TDF) in Taxable Account for Money Needed in 4-5 Years?
What to do with $300,000 just sitting in my checking account?
Thoughts on 31yo investment portfolio - big pay raise next year and questions
100% stocks is not universally good advice. Stock market indexes are not always the right benchmark for your performance.
Is FZIPX same as AVUV? Looking for Low ER small cap ETF
I'm creating a portfolio for my brother, any thoughts?
Lost eBay Lego bid war, now have 1.3k, what stock to invest for coping
Where to invest 10k leveraged from CC cash advance (5% fee)?
As a non-US resident is it worth getting Ireland-domiciled ETFs?
3rd year of maxing out my roth ira. How do my allocations look
Limited International Fund Options in Employer’s 401K Plan?
Choosing spouses growth stocks for taxable account
Three things that will happen in the next 1-2 months. Willing to ban bet any of these if you are.
Okay Portfolio Going Into 2024? [23 YOLD Looking for long term investments]
Thinking about a higher growth portfolio for the new year.
30 year old. What's got the greatest possible potential for returns? TQQQ?
What is the quality of stock markets in other countries compared to US?
Searching for advice on F1 NRA brokerage accounts (Vanguard Vs. Schwab)
Started 529 account for child, invested in "NH Portfolio 2042 (Fidelity Index)"
With IRAs about to reset for 2014 what are you all planning to buy?
Portfollio allocation after move from edward jones
Do you ever buy stocks outside of the indexes and Mag 7 near all time highs?
Investing brokerage accounts for my kids and nieces - best course of action?
Investing advice for moving around 100k into ETFs
I've got $500K burning a hole in my pocket: should I bet it all on tech stocks?
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> If he didn't do his due diligence, VOO is just as much of a gamble as every other holding he has. VOO would be a gamble if OP was investing cash that he/she needed to access in a short term. Otherwise, for long term investors, especially novice investors, it’s hard to go wrong with broad market ETFs. And there really isn’t any due diligence required to amass a fortune with VTI and chill.
Had 55k to invest two years ago. I have 59k now after spending countless hours trying to beat the market. If I had parked it all in VTI, it would be what... 80k or so? I could have read like 50 books instead.
Had 55k to invest two years ago. I have 59k now after spending countless hours trying to beat the market. If I had parked it all in VTI, it would be what... 80k or so? I could have read like 50 books instead.
Depends on your goals and risk tolerance. You already have some exposure in VTI so closer to 17%. Generally don’t want to be more than 10% in any one company but everyone has their investment strategies
This is a terrible portfolio. Just go 100% VTI and focus on your education/career income growth instead of stock picking.
At 19 I'd be putting all my money in QQQ or VTI or VT for the next 30 years. If the market crashes in the next few years put half of it into SSO
If you can sleep at night, keep it. If not, rebalance back to your VTI core.
Hey man, you’re really being taken for a ride on fees. You can save a lot of money by just buying an ETF like VTI to cover all US stocks and VXUS to cover international stocks. There’s really no point to investing in all these smaller narrowly defined funds when a couple bigger funds will accomplish the same thing for a fraction of the cost. If the advisor is referring to Tax Loss Harvesting, plenty of roboadvisors accomplish the same thing for cheaper. Side note: you should ask if your advisor is a fiduciary, because it sure seems like they are trying to make bank off of you.
Yup. I bought VOO and VTI when it was at ATH . However, I don’t want to miss 10x on individual stock because I missed the initial 5x
Pull out a calculator. What is your ROI on those 5 years versus putting that money into VTI or VOO?
WVCE Top 10 (22.40%): NVIDIA, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Broadcom, TSMC, Meta, Tesla 26.41% in tech VTI Top 10 (32.04%): NVIDIA, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Broadcom, Meta, Tesla, Berkshire 36.30% in tech WEBN Top 10 (23.38%): NVIDIA, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Broadcom, TSMC, Meta, Tesla 27.32% in tech Am I reading this wrong? Across the board, at least 4 of the top 10 holdings are heavily invested in AI, while 2 are manufacturers for the AI industry
VTI is considered a growth etf, around 3600 stocks in the pot, large, mid, and small caps. I have a individual acc as well
VTI was doing so poorly it was below the S&P for the last 2 years in a 10-year backtesting against S$P. VOO matched the S&P. I had VTI for a long time but after accepting it's an underperformer in the long run I dumped it all for a slightly better (aka a WAY better) ETF. I even stopped suggesting VOO/VTI to people, and will suggest SPMO/VGT (80/20) from now on until I find a better suggestion. I dumped all my VTI this past week because of this. Reinvested, and hardly any capital gains tax to worry about because after 5 years it had barely any real profit to worry about.
Depends on the industry. I work in tech. My pay has more than tripled in that time as well ($600k -> $2M). I also now have $15M in VTI to fall back on.
Its annualized total return (including dividend reinvestment) is 9.44% since inception. 6.74% annualized when adjusted to CPI. https://totalrealreturns.com/s/VTI?
VT or VTI + VXUS. If you plan to only hold in Fidelity and a non tax account then you can use their 0 fee mutual funds FZROX + FZILX. If you only hold VOO then you’ll miss small/mid cap and international. I personally just hold VT because it’s a simple and covers everything.
VTI and VXUS is a great combo. They give you exposure to nearly everything in the US and out of it.
My plan that has significantly less expenses/fees: 100% stocks until 50-55 (VTI ~80% and VXUS ~20%). Once I'm in my 50s, I'll start adding bonds like SGOV and BND (my emergency fund is in them already). Probably be around 60% bonds and 40% stocks in retirement (plus cash).
This is way too complicated and is how you get screwed. 1.Self mange your money. 2. If you want a 70/30 split, do so, but know that is conservative for you age unless you are wanting cash flow from the bonds. 3. Keep it simple. For equities maybe 2-4 funds. VOO, VTI, and maybe a European fund or a China/Asia fund. 4. For bonds, also keep it simple. Some basic muni or corporate bond fund should be it..once again maybe just 2 at most.
My 700+ shares and VTI says… will see you in Valhalla
Investment firms want to make a portfolio of stocks you have never heard of so that you feel completely overwhelmed and stuck with them because you're too afraid to go on your own. My advice, for what it's worth, is 100% VTI and just know that you aren't paying any fees and your money is just going to follow the market up or down.
If your portfolio looks like a grocery list, you're not diversifying; you're just collecting expense ratios. A solid VTI/VXUS/BND combo beats these 'over-engineered' institutional traps 9 times out of 10. The best edge in 2026 isn't more tickers, it's less friction
The 510% over 25 years works out to 7.5% CAGR (the formula is (final/initial)^(1/years) - 1, not final/years), so that lines up with the 8-10% expectation you've heard. The reason it feels off is that the difference between "average" and CAGR is huge once you stack 25 years of compounding, but it can also be misleading the other way. A fund that returns +50% one year and -33% the next has 0% CAGR but a +8.5% arithmetic average. Once you also account for dividends being reinvested in the 510% number (VTI publishes total return separately) and inflation eating roughly 2.5-3% of that real, you're at maybe 4.5-5% real return after inflation. Which is still good but a different number than 20%. For planning purposes that means using real CAGR, not nominal averages. 4-5% real is what your purchasing power actually grows by, and that's the number to work backwards from for retirement modeling.
Others have already pointed out that this is an absurd portfolio. Why? (1) Fees—you’re paying 1.5% on the portfolio and probably an additional 0.5-1% on the actual holdings, (2) complexity—this accomplishes with ~20 positions what can be achieved in 3 positions. If you go this route, you will be much worse off than if you did it yourself. You could replicate this portfolio almost exactly by buying: - 51.3% VTI (or ITOT if you prefer, basically the same)—this includes a very similar breakdown of large, medium, and small cap. - 22.5% VXUS (or IXUS if you prefer, basically the same)—this includes a very similar breakdown of developed and emerging markets. - 23.5% VTEB (or MUB if you prefer, basically the same)—this includes municipal bonds. Others have recommended BND, which is fine, but BND is not municipal bonds which have some tax advantages if you are in a high tax bracket. - 2.7% cash This entire portfolio represents the same investment mix that your idiot advisor recommended and will cost around 0.05%. 1.5-2% doesn’t sound like much, but if your expected return on your portfolio is about 7%, you give up about 1/4th of your gains to Fidelity. This sub will generally not consider anything other than a 3-4 fund portfolio mostly because it does actually make sense, but in reality, some people are scared of doing even that. If that is you, that’s okay! Just buy something like FFNOX—it bundles these funds together so you just have to buy one thing, at the cost of a very slightly higher price (but still WAY cheaper than what your advisor recommended). As for your advisor, he is not acting in your best interests. I would run.
Got a question from my brother-in-law this weekend that I've been chewing on all morning: with oil at $99 WTI and Brent over $111, should he be rotating any of his retirement allocation into energy or defensive names? What finally clicked for me on this is that "rotation" is the wrong frame for someone holding a target-date fund or a 3-fund portfolio. The energy weight in VTI is already \~4% — it's there. If oil keeps ripping, you're already participating. The actual question to ask is whether your cash drag is appropriate given the inflation re-acceleration risk. Persistent $100+ oil for 3–6 months would push CPI back up and the Fed would have to delay cuts — which hits long-duration assets like growth and real estate disproportionately. The framework I've been using is to score my individual holdings across a few dimensions instead of just sector tilts: – Pricing power (can the company pass through cost increases?) – Cash flow durability (recurring vs. cyclical) – Balance sheet strength (low leverage matters way more in a high-rate, high-oil regime) – Valuation discipline (am I paying a growth multiple for what's actually a cyclical?) There's a screener app I've been using that breaks this kind of analysis into separate pillars instead of a single "buy/sell" signal — it's been useful for not getting whipsawed every time a macro headline drops. Lets me see why a name screens well, not just that it does. Tactical answer for the BIL: don't rotate. Make sure his allocation can survive sticky inflation, then let the energy weighting in his index funds do the work.
Got a question from my brother-in-law this weekend that I've been chewing on all morning: with oil at $99 WTI and Brent over $111, should he be rotating any of his retirement allocation into energy or defensive names? What finally clicked for me on this is that "rotation" is the wrong frame for someone holding a target-date fund or a 3-fund portfolio. The energy weight in VTI is already \~4% — it's there. If oil keeps ripping, you're already participating. The actual question to ask is whether your cash drag is appropriate given the inflation re-acceleration risk. Persistent $100+ oil for 3–6 months would push CPI back up and the Fed would have to delay cuts — which hits long-duration assets like growth and real estate disproportionately. The framework I've been using is to score my individual holdings across a few dimensions instead of just sector tilts: – Pricing power (can the company pass through cost increases?) – Cash flow durability (recurring vs. cyclical) – Balance sheet strength (low leverage matters way more in a high-rate, high-oil regime) – Valuation discipline (am I paying a growth multiple for what's actually a cyclical?) There's a screener app I've been using that breaks this kind of analysis into separate pillars instead of a single "buy/sell" signal — it's been useful for not getting whipsawed every time a macro headline drops. Lets me see why a name screens well, not just that it does. Tactical answer for the BIL: don't rotate. Make sure his allocation can survive sticky inflation, then let the energy weighting in his index funds do the work.
It’s a great diversified portfolio by “glide path” but they broke it down to different market caps, developed vs emerging, etc.. (iShares has a marketing agreement with Fidelity .. the iShares “core” especially is competitive with Vanguard) … but you could simplify your life if DIY. U.S. stocks is 51% in total.. > Asset Class |Percentage Domestic Stock |51.3% Domestic Large Cap Stock |35.2% Domestic Mid Cap Stock |10.0% Domestic Small Cap Stock |6.1% - IShares ITOT has the large cap, medium cap, and over half the typical small cap; functionally very similar to Vanguard’s VTI that especially r/bogleheads loves. Just keep this one ETF af 51.3% unless wanting to change it with age .. or later going with just the S&P 500 for great returns mostly/less volatility. International (non-U.S. stocks): - IShares IDEV (developed ex-US) contains Canada while the recommended EAFE doesn’t. Probably performance chasing on their part. - iShares IEMG is their emerging mkts etf like VWO in Vanguard. Many combine developed and emerging into one etf IXUS
So this is a really complicated way to build a simple portfolio. The percentages are all fine, but the only reason he has so many categories is to make it seem difficult to justify his commission. You could make a portfolio with 3-5 holdings that tracks almost exactly the same, and saves you a ton of fees. It’s pretty common for fees (expense ratio plus advisor fees) to come in around 1.5%. It might not seem like a lot, but assuming 6% returns, that’s 25% of our profit. 7.5% returns, it’s still 20% of our profit. You could just invest in VTI for your domestic stock, VXUS for your international stock, and a total bond fund like FXNAX (and FBIIX if you want international bonds). I’m not sure why he put you so heavily in municipal bonds - assuming these holdings are in a taxable account, so you could use something like FTABX to cover the municipal bonds. So set to round numbers (because all the tiny percentage differences essentially account for a rounding error and none of us really know what is going to perform the best for a given year), something like this. VTI - 50% VXUS - 25% FTABX - 15% FXNAX - 5% FBIIX - 5%
No this is stupid and a 1.5% fee is criminal for that. You can do a 70/30 stock/bond portfolio with like 2 ETFs instead of this needlessly complicated list if you wanted to. I'm not a professional, just some random 43 year old guy...but I would say you don't need 30% bonds now or maybe ever. Look up the 3 fund portfolio if you don't want to pay 1.5%. Or just buy all VTI or VT, they are indexes for the US market or the world market. Add bonds if you want.
This is a HARD NO, 1.5 percent is a big fee. My advice (non financial advice disclaimer) is to pick a few etfs like VOO, and VTI put half in right now and dca the rest. Yes some years it may go down, but by the time you retire all of this should be up by a lot and that’s what matters. Don’t get scammed!
Absolutely not. Run the difference between a 6.5% compounded rate of return vs a 8% compounded rate of return through an online compound interest calculator over 30 years, for example, and see how massive the difference is. Buy funds such as VOO, VTI, VT, and research simple portfolio allocations. In reality, it’s excessively simple to make money in the market over the long term. Asset managers intentionally make things complex so you think you need to pay their fee.
depends on the lookback window. VTI's long-term average since inception is closer to 10% nominal, you're probably picking a period that includes the post-COVID rebound. the 20% number repeats across ~3-year rolling windows in good cycles but the multi-decade average is roughly market-historic
Typical humpty dumpty advisor portfolio, with an extra dash of fancy stuff (SMA) to get you to pay more fees. I'm going to assume this is a taxable account based on their proposing municipal bonds and a tax-managed fund. If this were my money, I would just go buy 100% AVMA, which is a 70/30 balanced fund with very low tax drag. Alternatively, use the 30% to buy CGMU or VTEB and with the 70%, buy DFAX and a broad market US fund such as SPTM, VTI, or SCHB in the percentage split of your choice. No 1.5% fee taken out of your returns!
Here you go - VTI 60 VXUS 30, BND 10. Done
1.5% advisory fee is a BIG NO. Thats $750 today, compound that over 25 years and you wont like the number. You're better off buying low cost index funds like VTI or VT, they will outperform this portfolio and save you the fees.
LOL fuck advisors just put it in VTI or VOO
This is why the majority should stick to investing only in VOO or VTI
Everything does not cost three times the same Are you going to sit here and say to me that I am not better off today by my 2016 401k going from 500k to 1.5 million today To put into perspective the amount of gains you lost by not having stayed in the market during this period- if VTI suffered a 70% decline tomorrow- literally the Great Depression level of decline- I would by UP! 100k from 2016 Buying power can be literally measured!!!!! The domestic buying power of the solar is not three times less today in 2016- hell before Iran gas prices where nearly at the Dane price as 2017, virtually no increase over 10 years! Also, cash out? What are you saying? The shares I hold of VTI are triple 10 years ago- I have only gained People like you need to just set you a target date fund with auto contribution and lock it away
That’s not how you calculate CAGR (compound annual growth rate). Just use this tool: https://testfol.io/?s=7Eh3TWCATvG VTI’s nominal CAGR since inception is 9.47%.
There are no garbage companies in the SP500. The 500th and 501st largest companies switch places all the time, so it’s already “modified” to ignore garbage companies. Historically, the SP500 has never included IPOs, but spaceX may change that. Theoretically, you can buy a SP500 index with low fees like VOO, and then short sell fractional shares of companies you don’t like in the SP500 bundle. This would be a pretty ineffective, and inefficient, way to mitigate risk. You’re better off just buying VOO, or if you want more diversification, buy VT, or VTI+ VXUS, or VOO+ VXUS + SGOV etc the proportion you short sell
This is correct. It's like trying to wheel VTI. Bad idea. It's a buy and hold.
I just bought some VTI because I expect non-US companies to do better over the next couple years. It's not a large percentage. VTI or VOO is still a good option. But I'm an idiot, so don't take my word.
I think it's pretty good right now with the USD continuing to lose value and the diversity that it provides. You want it. Your safest "bet" is just to own everything and that's about 60% VTI and 40% VXUS traditionally. You have an inherited IRA so don't forget you only have 10 years to empty it.
This, VTI has tripled in 10 years Anyone who listened to the people on here have lost out on life changing wealth because “Trump Bad and Gaza!”
VTI tripled from 2016 to today - so literally anyone who invested regularly just experienced the greatest access to global wealth in human history You you are over 35 and living paycheck to paycheck right now you can only blame yourself
Broad indexes are the answer (imo) - VTI, VT, VOO, VXUS etc. can’t beat the diversity of exposure. Slow and steady wins the race
Unfortunately $150k is way too low by today's numbers. As others have replied, it does depend to some extent on how old you are. Like if you're 18 and you've got 150k sitting in VTI, then yeah you're good, even if you only contributed a couple hundred a month for the rest of your life you'd still retire a multi millionaire. But that's a very extreme case, nobody's got $150k invested as a kid unless their family is rich, in which case, you were gonna be fine anyway. So it's not really worth considering that case. The vast majority of the time, $150k isn't going to do you much good, interest-wise. The real way to answer this question for yourself is to just google "compound interest calculator" and spend 10 minutes tweaking your inputs around and observing the results. It's not complex or anything, these calculators are quick and easy to understand. The only part that is a slightly complex is the idea where your income will change over time, probably increasing due to inflation and/or career advancement, so your monthly contributions should theoretically increase as life goes on. Anyway, for my part, having messed with those calculators before, the spectrum looks something like this: * Mid 20s - About 200k is pretty safe. Even if you contribute very little from then on (like a couple hundred a month tops), you'll still have millions in your 60s. * Mid 30s - You want more like 500k if you want to be retiring relatively well-off on mostly just the interest. * Mid 40s - Getting up there, about a million will do it * Mid 50s - Ideally you want to be pretty close already, you need like 2.5 million at this point Again those numbers would be for, as you were saying, getting basically solo carried by compounding interest. As you'll see when you play with the calculator, what's really key is just staying consistently lucratively employed such that you rarely or never need to reduce your contributions. For example, if you're in your mid 30s and you have a career, so you can expect to pretty reliably contribute say, 3000 a month (a growing 401k yearly max, let's say) for the next 30 years, then you're going to retire as a multimillionaire even if you've got $0 invested today.
You’re not really telling us your overall allocations of each investment, so it’s not much of a plan, but my thoughts are that this is a terrible plan. I wouldn’t bother with gold or fundrise personally, but if you just, don’t make gold and fundrise more than 5% of your portfolio each. Just do VTI and VXUS for your ETFs.
I'm avout years out and my Roth is now all JEPI/Q, and 1/2 of my 401k is SPYI. That way if there's another recession coming, I'll be fine. The other half of my 401k and my personal brokerage is target date funds, VTI/VTSAX/VTWAX, and a few individual companies. I worked too hard for my money to put it in anything riskier than that just for the sake of greed. Will i miss out on some gains? Probably. Will i also not get set back from retirement by 10 years if theres a crash? Yup. Totally worth it IMO.
Bump VTI 10% and VXUS 5%. Depending on how risk adverse you are, you could put 5-10% into bonds. That leaves the rest for fun money and speculation.
I like compounding gains, that's why the CAGR for VOO and even VTI is higher than any dividend index. Plus I get to realize gains whenever I want instead of being forced to. Enjoy deluding yourself, bud.
> cash emgenency funds only earn enough interest to keep up with inflation. So once you get albove 6 months of money your are better off investing the money into a dividend fund or grwoth funds. Uh, sure? I guess that's not the argument. If we can agree that an eFund is necessary (and sufficient), then we can confidently invest the rest in the market directly: dividend, growth, or just broad index funds. > Money I can use to... All these things I can just do with my own income, without causing an additional taxable event. A worst-case example: in the event I can't refill my eFund with income because I've lost my job (and may have 0% LTCG), then you'd have to show dividends funds (despite the tax drag) would outperform something as simple as VTI in this scenario. Much of this might depend on your tax brackets. But dividends for mine (~28% for qualified, ~48% for non) don't check out. Hell, that would potentially push me into higher brackets depending on the year because I'm forced to receive income I otherwise wouldn't have to. That's also why I keep my eFund in BOXX.
Why 10% SMH if you want to hedge against AI? Your VTI already holds plenty of semis, so adding SMH just tilts you more towards mega cap tech Rest of the build looks solid with a lean towards small caps. Here’s a breakdown of your plan: https://insightfol.io/en/portfolios/report/c45b32cfab/
Last year I went cash gang in February, actively traded in March/April and then stuck everything in a boomer ETF for the rest of the year. Pretty much did the same this year. I just put everything into VTI so pretty much done trading for the year.
VOO focuses on top 500 US companies, VTI is the whole stock market. If I had to choose one, I would just go to VOO ( SPYM is my preferred version just because the expense ratio is a little less ) . But they literally hold the same exact companies.
VTI includes small and mid cap companies. Those can be more volatile than the industry juggernauts in VOO, but you can’t go wrong with either.
Curious what the differences are... I am in VOO for a portion of my self-managed account and it's been good to me. What's the advantage of VTI over VOO? Comparing their charts over the last month they are practically identical.
Do you know the easiest way to make a million dollars in the stock market trying to day trade? Start with two million. Pick a few (or even 1) ETFs you like like VTI or VOO and you’re golden if you’re young. If you are old or risk adverse put 10% in BND If you want to hedge against the US economy, add VXUS at no more than 25-35%. If you really want to tilt into one or more sectors (AI, infotech, robotics energy, healthcare etc.) research those sectors and pick one or two index funds that’s performing well to put no more than 10% per fund into. Again, DO NOT try to “short” a stock or day trade. You’re basically gambling and will lose money. Best strategy is to buy and hold and do the opposite of what everyone else does in a bear market and buy the dip in sectors you know won’t collapse totally. For example, if we manage to develop easily and cheaply produced electric cars and can move that tech to larger vehicles, “buying the dip” in oil is a dumb move. But buying the dip in say healthcare or tech is a solid bet that the market will grow and make you money.
No way not with QQQ as volatile as it is. If OP is over 60, I’d say do 40% VTI, 60% bonds or the inverse of that and maybe sprinkle in some REIT for dividends.
This might depend on your tax bracket then. For me, using something like DRGO/SCHD/VYM all lag versus a broad index fund (eg. VTI) when backtesting using my own tax bracket (~28% for qualified, ~48% for non). Broadly like 10.6% CAGR for VTI vs 9.75%, 9.1%, and 8.6% respectively for the others. And that's assuming I don't decide to liquidate in an advantageous (eg. low income) year or if moving to a lower tax state.
Yes. If you want to be more diversified go VT and chill but VTI is a nice middle ground between VOO and VT that I personally find comfortable for a retirement account
Stability and reduced volatility for bonds. Also gives a reserve of stable assets on hand in the event of a bear market for opportune investing. That being said I’m probably gonna reduce bonds to 10%, sell QQQ, and drop REITs entirely to up my VTI/VXUS commitment and tilt into tech and healthcare with VGT and VHT when I do my next allocation in a week. I think the info I used to build my initial portfolio was dated and more geared toward people closer to retirement who want more income and stability rather than growth.
It’s different because they are choosing a forced taxable event and losing part of the gains they otherwise wouldn’t lose had they invested in VTI.
My downside is significantly lower than VTI
VTI has ~13.63% CAGR for the past 15 years. How is your strategy different than just buying VTI?
Guilty but only for a chunk of my portfolio - my wife’s visa for residency in one of the places we live requires 80k in passive income. I shifted some assets to an account solely in her name for this purpose. We’re already retired and have about 10-11m nw so capital preservation is a concern as is steady income. I’d rather just make a steady 10-15% than chase all our gains with higher risk. We do have a big chunk in standard VOO/VTI/FDGRX type total market funds that have definitely served us well but the dividend story is becoming a larger portion of our story. We have a business that still operates and brings in about 1.1-1.2m a year but I’m seeking to replace at least half of this income with passive means. So far in the last few years since retiring from the business, we’re at about 300k a year in dividends and rental income. Options premiums make up another 150-200k a year which helps out. At any rate we’re nearing the near term goal of not really having to care about the business income any more and being able to sell it or turn it into an employee co-op.
What stops you from just making a new HYSA? Otherwise, send 50k to me, rest into VTI.
I mean it’s just time and consistency. I started in my 20s as a software engineer at MSFT and got my stock grants. They’ve 10x since then. I bought TSLA when I 37 (2017) and sold a bunch off in 2020 to pay off one of our mortgages after it too 10x. But most of my investing is mundane basket of VOO, VTI, and a few high yield covered call funds for income. Portfolio is at about 11m now as I turn 51 - half real estate and half in stocks. The stocks produce about 20k a month in dividends and I kick in another 5-10k in options premiums a month. We also have a business that brings in much more than this but my goal is to grow our monthly dividend and options about 2-3x from here in the next 5 years to balance out us giving more of our business to our employees since we don’t really contribute much to in any more.
I hit 1 mil at 35. I'm almost 36. The whole investment is in VTI. Not much has changed, I can't retire until MAYBE 2m, most likely 3m. When I hit my 4% SWR number I plan on meeting with some sort of accountant or fiduciary advisor to confirm that yes, I can actually retire and at my age. My issue is I've been laid off for 8 months now and while I'm still looking for a job very actively I am still burning through my cash fund so I might have to start selling stock soon, which I really hate the idea of doing. My mental health is not that great since I am out of work and somehow cannot seem to get work despite being present and active and well experienced. In reality my mental health should not be that bad, looking at my $1m+ account should make me feel good but it doesn't.
My suggestion is ETFs in taxable account since they are more tax efficient. You can also do ETFs like I do in my IRAs as well, but that’s good to have mutual funds in since you can buy however much you want in dollars since there is essentially no minimum investment amount so it’s good to remove cash drag. I have Charles Schwab for all my personal brokerage accounts. I am currently in SCHG (Schwab US large cap growth etf), IYW (iShares US technology etf) and SMH (VanEck Semiconductors etf). People also seem to like VTI, VOO, QQQ and others. I did recently put some spare cash in my IRAs into SNXFX (Schwab 1000 index fund) to remove cash drag and I think it’s a good index fund. The ETF version of SNXFX is SCHK.
Just buy VT or VTI or VOO
Actually good part of my port is VTI+VXUS, which gives me buying power to then sell naked puts as a responsible degenerate
Max out your 401K. Then your IRA. That will suck up a huge chunk of your free cash. You don’t appreciate it now, but the tax deferment at 30 will be great. Then 50% DCA into VTI and QQQ (50/50). 10-20% into a bond like USFR or SGOV. Keep the rest cash for when you want gift shopping Slowly move to a more interesting portfolio. Keep that 50% in equities and shift out of bond funds. 1. Tax deferred 2. Index funds for total markets 3. Blue chip stocks (blue chip to you, not everyone else) 4. Buy a Tesla. Save on registration and gas in NJ
When I do my weekly DCA into “real” investments like VTI / VXUS I do a flat amount of $$$ which never lines up with a round number of shares
The common advice is to max out tax-advantaged accounts first, then do personal/taxable investing. In 2026 you can contribute $24.5k to 401k and $7.5k to IRA. If your health allows and your employer offers, you can also switch to an HDHP healthcare plan with an HSA which gives you another $4.4k of tax advantaged investing. Once thats maxed its time for a taxable portfolio. Its smart to start with passive investing and only move to active if you want to and after youve learned a lot. For passive investing, pick your "___ and chill": * VT and chill: VT is a total global market index fund. The fund basically follows the global market capitalization distribution of ~60/30/10 US/international/emerging. * VTI and chill: VTI is total US market index fund that roughly follows the US market capitalization distribution of ~75/20/5 large/mid/small cap companies. * VOO and chill: VOO is an S&P500 market index fund that invests in the 500 largest cap companies in the US. Will have to do some reading to decided which of the above you prefer.
Just owning more or less of either depending on your desired allocation. Right now I’m 70/30 VTI/VXUS. If I decide next year that I want more international exposure, I’ll start investing more of my recurring contributions towards VXUS and less towards VTI until I get my desired allocation.
Can you elaborate what rebalancing means for VTI and VXUS?
On the flip side, tax loss harvesting. You can harvest losses in just VXUS during an international downturn while holding VTI. With VT, you’d need a global selloff to do the same
Put 40k in your taxable brokerage, start maxing out a Roth IRA and make sure your HYSA is only 3-6 months of money needed to survive (bare essentials) The other 69k I have no idea maybe ttreat yourself to a vacation then the rest dump into a nice etf as well like VTI or VOO
This is my formula. This is what I do. Maybe it will work for you as well. 1) Emergency fund - 6 months of expenses = $29,700 This should be invested in treasury. A good option is SGOV. Ok also to keep it at a HYSA. Not a regular savings account, but a HYSA. 2) Open a roth IRA and fully fund it to the max allowed = $7,500 Everything here should be invested in broad stock ETF, something like VOO or VTI. If you want, put 20% on international stock - VXUS. So 20% VXUS and 80% VOO or VTI. Invest the max allowed every year. 3) Open a brokerage account and invest the rest Follow the same formula as #2. So 20% VXUS and 80% VOO or VTI. Invest a little every month. It doesn't matter if the market is up pr down. Just keep investing a little every month. If you can invest $50, ok. If you can go to $500, great. But keep investing. 4) Check your emergency fund at least once per year. If you conclude that your cost of living went up, top it up. Add more money to it. 5) As you get older age 45 or so, start adding Bonds to your portfolio to reduce volatility. You don't want to retire with 100% of your investments in stocks. On your Roth (and 401k, if you have one), you can sell some of your stocks and buy bond ETFs like BND or IGIB. In Roth, IRA and 401k these movements are not taxed.
VTI and VXUS if you don’t mind checking in like twice a year to potentially rebalance. VT only if you just want to chill and never rebalance.
\> you're paying two expense ratios to own the same 30 mega-caps twice. To think that is to literally not understand arithmetic. $1000 of VOO plus $1000 of VTI is the same .03 expense as $2000 of VOO or $2000 of VTI.
Can't get more passive than a low cost, well diversified etf investing in the world's best companies. VOO VT VTI ITOT Pick one, keep adding, and enjoy retirement when you get there.
I ran some benchmarks and I think I’m gonna update my portfolio to this: VTI 50% VXUS 25% BND 10% VGT 15% When compared to the benchmark of Berkshire Hathaway over the last 3 years it has had a Sharpe of 1.12 compared to BRK’s .66 and a CAGR of 18.5% compared to BRK’s 14%. It also has a Sortino ratio of 2.03 compared to BRK’s 1.06 and a Calmar Ratio of 1.81 to BRK’s 1.4. So it seems to outperform BRK.A in nearly every metric from a risk to growth perspective. I noticed my REIT percentage was pulling down growth and I don’t need high dividend payout at this stage and I don’t like the tax drag so I’m dumping this as well as QQQ. I’m also dropping BND to 10% which exposes me to more risk from tech exposure but also lets me have more growth over the long term.
Generally speaking, you have one or two cores that could be VOO, VTI, or, if you want a bit more control, something like VOO and VEU. Then, depending on your risk profile and goals, you can add 10-30% of your total asset allocation to tilts. This could be some sector-specific ETFs, small caps, em markets, alts or even single-name stocks. Tilts will require more research and a more active management style, as they may not work in all markets. When your core should be pretty much set and forgotten.
What specifically is the problem with overlap? When I buy more VTI to add to my portfolio that is 100% overlap with my prior VTI holdings.
How about someone that suggests VTI and more VTI together? That is 100% overlap.
You specifically said VOO + VTI were constantly recommended.
Who recommends VOO+VTI? That's not a typical suggestion. It's either one or the other. You are preaching to the choir here, but there's zero value added. While we are stating obvious things, the sky is blue. Good luck on your investment journey.
>I see SCHD + VYM and VOO + VTI recommended constantly Allegedly. Please show your examples. I actually haven't seen those recommendations, and if anyone did say that, they'd be shot down immediately. It's always SCHD **or** VYM, and VOO **or** VTI. Your statement is called a strawman. It's easy to prove that you're right and they're wrong, except that nobody actually recommends that. And no, I'm not going to visit your website.
left US at 1/1.1 mil in May 2021 to canada. basically didnt add anything to it. coasted. left for SE Asia 10 months back. now its at 2.1. just took out 40K to pad a 2-3 yr emergency fund when we do actually retire, retire. but coasting is so easy right now. may just let it double one more time over the next 7-10 years. Stuck to our guns VOO/VTI/VTI/VEU ... lots of overlap. don't care, haven't looked at percentages. likely staying that way? May switch more to VT in retirement accts.
Yeah the overweighting angle is fair, VTI + QQQ for a tech tilt is a real strategy as long as you know that's what you're doing. On the expense ratio thing you're right, it's basically a wash if both funds are 0.03 to 0.06%. The real cost isn't the fee, it's opportunity cost. If your intent was to diversify and you ended up with two funds that move together, you spent that allocation on something that didn't do the job. That same money in VXUS or BND or AVUV would've actually reduced your correlation to the US large-cap bet. So the downside isn't what you paid, it's what you didn't get. The portfolio looks diversified on paper but behaves like one position when the market moves.