VTI

IntolerantModerate

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.

pass-me-that-hoe

My 700+ shares and VTI says… will see you in Valhalla

D1rtyH1ppy

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.

Smart_Food_4823

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

Saffuran

Just do VTI/VOO, maybe with 10-20% as JEPQ for dividend/income flow to compound on top of itself.

ReelTech

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.

MidnightMiasma

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

Deep-Bench-2016

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.

Deep-Bench-2016

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.

IronyElSupremo

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

sailphish

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%

shit_fucks_you_up

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. 

A10cc

Bro just do VTI/BND or VT/BND. It's so simple.

Legal_Peak9558

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!

mrjones50k

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.

BeuTaude588

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

PashasMom

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!

RJ5R

Here you go - VTI 60 VXUS 30, BND 10. Done

BaconGreaseShot

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.

Strange-Ad420

LOL fuck advisors just put it in VTI or VOO

Zerkron

This is why the majority should stick to investing only in VOO or VTI

Beautiful_Club_6061

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

thewarrior71

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%.

Buntatricky46

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

rcmtt

This is correct. It's like trying to wheel VTI. Bad idea. It's a buy and hold.

mentosbreath

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.

ltzt

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.

Beautiful_Club_6061

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!”

Beautiful_Club_6061

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

BananasGorilla_

VTI

rollin20s

Broad indexes are the answer (imo) - VTI, VT, VOO, VXUS etc. can’t beat the diversity of exposure. Slow and steady wins the race

GameOfThrownaws

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.

horseman5K

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.

charliekunkel

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.

ATPsynthase12

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.

Flayum

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.

Flayum

> 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.

micha_allemagne

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/

Loan-Pickle

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.

_Spyder-Man

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.

bmgarcia20

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.

KID_A26

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.

ATPsynthase12

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.

ATPsynthase12

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.

Flayum

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.

DatsMaPurse_IDKU

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

DatsMaPurse_IDKU

VTI and chill

ATPsynthase12

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.

jt1994863

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.

PutinBoomedMe

My downside is significantly lower than VTI

Competitive-Teach675

VTI has ~13.63% CAGR for the past 15 years. How is your strategy different than just buying VTI?

Retired-Yam8988

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.

pain474

What stops you from just making a new HYSA? Otherwise, send 50k to me, rest into VTI.

Retired-Yam8988

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.

deafgamer_

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.

Ecstatic-Tank-9797

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.

Ok-Sheepherder7898

Just buy VT or VTI or VOO

TheGoluOfWallStreet

Actually good part of my port is VTI+VXUS, which gives me buying power to then sell naked puts as a responsible degenerate

Qs9bxNKZ

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

Bob_the_peasant

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

Seref15

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.

rufio313

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.

CaptainR_S

Can you elaborate what rebalancing means for VTI and VXUS?

rufio313

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

Miggysmalls801

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

AskPatient1281

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.

rufio313

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.

SnS2500

\> 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.

Sirspender

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.

ATPsynthase12

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.

James161324

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.

Over-Computer-6464

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.

Over-Computer-6464

How about someone that suggests VTI and more VTI together? That is 100% overlap.

AlfB63

You specifically said VOO + VTI were constantly recommended. 

CornerOne238

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.

rufio313

I’m 70/30 VTI/VXUS

Careful-One5190

>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.

throwaway8237987

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.

Infnits

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.

Fun_Pay_992

Spot on. That phrase 'indecision dressed up as strategy' is a top-tier reality check for many investors. People often confuse 'quantity of tickers' with 'quality of diversification.' Holding VOO and VTI together is essentially just tilting your portfolio slightly toward Large Caps while paying for the illusion of a broader net. Real diversification is about zigging when the S&P 500 zags. Adding uncorrelated assets like VXUS for international exposure or AVUV for that small-cap value factor is where the actual risk management happens. Great breakdown of the correlation traps!

Cruian

>VOO and QQQ around 30% By count, over 80% of QQQ is inside VOO. Not quite (since it isn't 100%), but nearly the same situation as VTI & VOO.

AntiqueProfessor5134

It makes sense in some cases if you want to specifically overweight something…. Such as if you believe that US tech will continue to outperform, owning VTI+QQQ would make some sense. I do agree that the benefit is overweighting something and not diversification in most cases however. I’m not sure I understand what you mean by paying two expense ratios however. VOO+VTI for instance you’d pay the same expense ratio owning both or just one. So there also isn’t a lot of downside for going this route, the benefits are just unclear.

InvestingNerd2020

Get out of Primerica as soon as possible and count the $1200 USD loss to ignorance. Get with Fidelity if you don't travel or rarely travel outside of the USA. Assuming if this is for taxable brokerage account, look into ETFs. VTI is a great ETF for people with large sums of money. If you travel often, especially outside the USA 1+ time per year, go with Charles Schwab. You can invest with VTI or SCHB. They do the same thing. The only difference is trade volume, which benefits those with large sums of money. VTI is better if you will have large sums of money routinely. SCHB is basically the middle-class ETF version of VTI.

Space_Pilot1

I could see VTI and VXUS for someone willing to specifically derisk from US equities given the current political environment. Or just do VT long term and call it good enough since the overall returns are roughly similar. For Bonds I believe IUSB, BND, or AGG are pretty close too with about 17k basket holdings according to Fidelity Investments. Anything else is simply increased decreased diversification and increased risk at the benefit of potentially higher returns or greater losses

micha_allemagne

VTI already holds the QQQ stocks at meaningful names. Adding 10% QQQ on top means those mega caps become a larger part of your portfolio. Here’s a breakdown of your idea: https://insightfol.io/en/portfolios/report/20cfa93195/ . If you want that tech tilt, why QQQ specifically over a real sector ETF like VGT?

Infnits

That's a pretty presumptuous take. Plenty of people hold VOO and SCHD together and that's a 50% overlap, are they all newbies too? The whole point of the post wasn't VOO and VTI specifically, it was the broader pattern of people stacking overlapping ETFs and calling it diversification. If you think the conversation isn't worth having, scroll past. Calling it engagement bait because someone raised a question you don't like is lazy.

Infnits

Yeah agreed, VOO and VTI is the extreme case. The interesting question is where the line actually sits. VOO and SCHD overlap around 50%, VOO and QQQ around 30%, VOO and VXUS basically zero. My rough rule, above 40% overlap you're mostly buying the same bet twice, below 20% you're genuinely diversifying, and the middle is the gray zone where it depends what you're actually trying to do. Where do others draw the line?

cdude

The *vast* majority of people on investing subs will not recommend VOO and VTI together. Just because you found one or two newbies recommending it does not mean that's the common recommendation. This is just engagement bait for his stupid site.

AlfB63

Anyone that suggests VOO and VTI together shows their ignorance and does not understand the investments. 

RisingPenguin

Im thinking of selling PLTR. I have 100 shares. I got it roughly at $30 per share and it’s at about 143. I don’t plan on buying any more. It’s not like I’ll get rich off of it. I’m still new to investing. I’m considering using that money by putting into VTI. I could also do options on PLTR? Should I sell or keep it in Pltr and if I sell does it make sense to put that money into VTI. Would appreciate advice

upper-writer

I'm a big believe in VTI and chill, or simple index funds at low costs. I'm also invested in a number of K-1 partnerships (think PE and similar) and while it's all nice and fancy....VTI or S&P really is hard to beat. I plan on DCA into it for the foreseeable future until I can live off my portfolio. Stay liquid. Don't chase wealth. Don't try and get rich quick. Focus on career, earning money, then save a lot of it and invest most of it.

Animag771

Beta and correlations are two different metrics. Also metrics change based in the time period you're looking at. **1-Year Period** | Portfolio | Real Return | Beta (vs VTI) | Correlation (vs VTI) | |------------------|------------|---------------|----------------------| | VTI (benchmark) | 27.95% | 1.00 | 1.00 | | 60/40 | 17.24% | 0.637 | 0.984 | | VT | 28.52% | 0.953 | 0.963 | | Perennial | 26.29% | 0.689 | 0.840 | **10-Year Period** | Portfolio | Real Return | Beta (vs VTI) | Correlation (vs VTI) | |------------------|------------|---------------|----------------------| | VTI (benchmark) | 10.95% | 1.00 | 1.00 | | 60/40 | 6.09% | 0.605 | 0.979 | | VT | 8.76% | 0.918 | 0.976 | | Perennial | 7.60% | 0.641 | 0.952 | **25-Year Period** | Portfolio | Real Return | Beta (vs VTI) | Correlation (vs VTI) | |------------------|------------|---------------|----------------------| | VTI (benchmark) | 6.89% | 1.00 | 1.00 |

ateranol

I'm pretty sure the only subreddit where the the average person makes money is bogleheads. And that whole subreddit boomer autists indefinitely arguing wether to get VT or VTI+VXUS to save 0.00001% on TER.

ManhattanTime

It becomes a game rather than thinking about a secure future. It allows you to put money into extremely conservative accounts so that you have that future security you need but then the rest rides (for me) on VT, VTI and VXUS which isn't going to make stratospheric returns but slowly and solidly builds wealth. I have the Vanguard app and it has a nice little feature where you open it and from FaceID it just shows your total without going into the actual app. It takes two seconds to view it. I find myself looking at that a lot. The nasty day of the start of the Iran War or right thereafter I recall looking at it during a work meeting and I was down $650K. I just laughed. I had no idea what the news was because I was in a meeting but I knew something drastic had happened to the markets. Because I don't need it and am a Bogelhead I don't micromanage it. In fact I don't even manage it. Set it and forget it. Four weeks later it gained it all back and is another $100K or so above the previous high. So it's just a game - something fun to look at. I won't touch that money for a dozen years. But I do find that I don't want to spend money. At least on frivolous things. Material things. Porsche 911 GTS, Vacheron Constantin watch, second house out of state, blah blah blah. None have the appeal they did when I was younger. Basically we spend our money on very nice vacations and comfort on overseas flights and that's about it. No new kitchens, whole-house remodels, expensive jewelry. There's nobody to impress. Our neighbors have no idea we're "wealthy". They live way larger than we do but thankfully I don't have a Keeping Up with The Jones' wife. Makes for a nice life. TLDR: Life is great! Stay the course. Don't extravagantly spend. Keep building as long as you are enjoying the things you have. Comparison is the thief of joy.

merckx3697

Because VOO outperforms VTI.

sql1njection

ETFs. VTI for international markets stocks and VXUS for US market stocks

AnalyticalAlpaca

I don't get this sub's obsession with VOO over VTI.

ATPsynthase12

So I am currently getting into investing and learning the basics but would appreciate some input on my current portfolio distribution. The goal is long-term sustained growth over 30 years or so with a “buy and hold” mentality. I like the Bogleheads mentality, but got a 3 day ban from their sub for even mentioning investing in QQQ. Currently my distribution is based on a standard 3 fund portfolio with tilts in tech and real estate because I think those markets will continue to improve over the next 30 years. My distribution is: 40% VTI 20% VTXUS 20% BND 10% VNQ (REIT) 10% QQQ Any input or changes you’d recommend? I’m aware the REITs aren’t the most efficient in a taxable brokerage, but with my income tax bracket, it would be negligible bump. I like them as an inflation hedge and the extra investable income via dividends. If I were to cut something, I’d sell my. Shares here and move it to VTXUS for more foreign market involvement. I am also aware that tech and QQQ is volatile in the market, however, I do not think we are going to see tech become less of an integral part of our society or economy especially with the rise of AI. It seems silly to not tilt your portfolio to tech a little given that we are closer to colonizing the moon than going back to analog clocks and dialup i

agentictribune

VTI is US-only though. you might want to try VT with the same patience.

edWurz7

Sell all and get VTI or VT.