VXUS

JenniferDanielsWind

FZROX and FZILX are totally reasonable in a Fidelity Roth еhe main tradeoff is broader coverage and portability with VTI/VXUS, not some huge fee difference

Cruian

Which frontier countries? I just checked the Vanguard page for VXUS and only saw developed, advanced emerging, and secondary emerging. https://www.lseg.com/content/dam/ftse-russell/en_us/documents/country-classification/ftse-country-classification-update-2025.pdf https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/etfs/profile/vxus

Cruian

Vanguard funds have in many cases become like a generic name (think Kleenex for facial tissue: if someone asks for a Kleenex, a Puffs does the same role). What they represent is far more important: now cost ways to cover the US risk market style (VTI) or ex-US (VXUS), though there are several competitors that should be considered on the same level (such as the Fidelity Zero funds in tax advantaged amounts).

Emotional-Power-7242

Monthy or every paycheck is fine. If you automate it that's even better. Buy VT, VTI/VOO + VXUS, or a low fee target date fund. Personally I would consolidate everything for simplicity's sake. I'd also probably use one of the major brokerages. Fidelity, Vanguard, Schwab. Not the biggest deal though, if you like Robinhood that's fine. The main disadvantage of Robinhood is just that they push gambling on you. In savings a good catch all is 6 months expenses + enough to cover any large known expenses that will come up in the next 5-10 years such as cars, moving expenses, deposits, etc. Basically you want enough so that when everything goes wrong at once you don't have to resort to debt or drawing down investment accounts. You could do 3 months expenses if your position in life is pretty low risk (in demand job, spouse who works, etc) or a year if it's high risk (kids, sole income, bad job market, etc). Some people even push it out to 2 years. Only you know what's appropriate. Tax advantaged accounts are free money. Investing money in taxable accounts before tax advantaged accounts are maxed is generally counter productive. Give the government as little as possible. As for how much to invest that really depends on you. I suggest going to a compound interest calculator, running some different contributions for 30 years at 5% interest (8% average returns-3% inflation), and seeing what you get. I have expenses, an amount I think is reasonable to spend every month on whatever I want, a little carve out to save for vacations and other short term goals, and then I invest everything else. And I'm confident that should be enough to retire on. I actually have similar income to you and I basically max all retirement accounts and then don't invest more so $23,500 + $7,000 + $4000 (minus whatever im getting from company match).

DoctorNezuko

Tell me about it. It is annoying. Especially since VXUS follows a kind of bad index. There is still premiums in international markets, and by getting AVDV+AVIV over VXUS, your return would be roughly 10% higher per year.

Jumpy-Imagination-81

Everyone online suggests VTI + VXUS You mean everyone on reddit, because reddit is a giant Vanguard ETF echo chamber.

MattieShoes

The tax drag from realizing capital gains means you might not want to switch away from VTI/VXUS. The what, 0.03% or 0.04%? even across a lifetime might not be enough to make up for it. Inside an IRA, no tax drag, but it's still like... the lag from when you sell to when you buy might eliminate the entire difference you'd see in decades. Ignoring the "switching" part -- if I had Fidelity, I'd be fine with those funds. I wouldn't scold anybody for not using them though. Even across 50 years, we're talking less than 2% difference.

The_JSQuareD

Though of course if it's the mutual fund / ETF distinction you care about, you can just opt for VTSAX / VTIAX instead of VTI / VXUS. I assume OP is asking primarily about the Vanguard vs Fidelity zero trade-offs, not mutual fund vs ETF.

TechnicalSleep7501

VXUS really nuts it even has frontier countries which are not in vt and vwo.

TechnicalSleep7501

I am VOO, VXF and VXUS till infinity. VBil for dry powder. VTip for inflation later in life. VIG, VIGI, SCHD, SCHY to generate some cash tax free because tax bracket is 12%. 

HystericalSail

Exactly why I've started allocating far more to VXUS than VT, and I've been prioritizing that over SPY.

InvestingNerd2020

Objectively, FZROX and FZILX. For people who change brokers frequently for minor issues or don't believe any broker can remain good over the long-term, VTI & VXUS are great alternative choices.

TheRealLeftClickMage

Okay, I am about to start investing in my IRA, everyone online suggestions VTI + VXUS, it’s cool that I recently found FZROX and FZILX though!

TheStrongTaint

It really depends if you want “total market” or fidelity’s definition of “total market” VXUS and VTI hold more. Whether that’s worth it is up to you You can look at the performance of both, it’s incredibly close. Just pick and stick with whatever

BeardedBadAzz

FZROX AND FZILX are similar to VTI and VXUS but have much higher fees

scottyk318

I'm a fan of keeping things simple, along with your age what I would do is something easy like 65% VOO 25% QQQM 10% VXUS

Mindless_Bicycle5091

I have VXUS too :D good call. I probably should add more, but I'm going to try to rebalance more into it next year.

EmbarrassedPart1256

Thanks for following up! I always love your insights. I'll definitely pay attention to the Thursday into the weekend timeline from now on. I just feel like we're being played & the next market-crashing development is right around the corner. As much as I want to, I can't justify holding $VTV for too long, even though it *is* composed of low-volatility US companies. **$IDVO**, **$VEA**, & **$VSS** (as well as **$VXUS** in another portfolio) are all showing rock-solid strength, though. I feel that an international rotation is upon us long-term.

HystericalSail

HA! Hell no. Debt is about to get savaged. Long term as well as short term. Dollar is about to get worked more too. We're talking relative risk, and long bonds are starting to look like a guaranteed assigned loss. I don't have a great plan for weathering the coming storm. I know I'm allocating fresh funds to VXUS and fading my TLT position. But that also doesn't mean I'm paying 38+ P/E for a retailer. TL;DR: Ponder this: the government doesn't owe old people just dollars. They owe medical services, end of life care. That'll inflate as fast as the dollar debases, faster even. Simply forcing debt holders to take a 30-50% haircut won't fix all of the underlying debt problem. A problem that's growing at 7.5% while receipts grow at 4%.

Spectralcolors78

I have never put money into my employers plan. It was up to 7k a few months ago, then dropped down to 6k. I was very glad I had never contributed. They use VOYA. I just buy VTI and VXUS every pay day. 

HystericalSail

Depends on the company. Companies with pricing power, like Microsoft, will be able to raise prices at will and keep up with inflation and then some. Fortune 500 can't possibly divorce themselves from the office and Windows suite. Ones without pricing power that are more discretionary spends? Perhaps not. Ad and marketing spend is the first to get cut when operating cash gets tight. I'm picking and choosing my equities. Oh, also beefing up my VXUS position.

stbloc

Just buy VOO or VTI and a bit of VXUS and you will beat the wealth management returns.

dooknuckduster

VT at 0.06% or 6 BPS, or FZROX (think VTI, ITOT, or FXAIX) and FZILX (think VXUS or IXUS), in say 65% / 35% at 0 BPS or 0.00%

HystericalSail

Time to mortgage my house and buy VXUS with the proceeds.

Boomerangslingshot

SPY SPXL XOP XLC and Amazon around 2020. Then lost a bunch in 22-23 following tips from some dude on twitter but was buoyed by WM and NVDA and COIN. Lately, 24-25, it’s been QQQ, VOO and VXUS.

Billy-Bob-Boner-92

Yes Roth 60% VTI 25% VXUS 5% VWO 10% FBTC

BluesFlute

Outcome #2 is most likely because this administration wants to appear in control. This may be futile, but could give insiders opportunity to find best position. I’m okay with portfolio gains this year. Time to slowly move to RISK OFF. SCHO seems a good hideout for awhile. Weakening dollar seems part of the strategy (though 47 will never say it out loud, or maybe doesn’t get it). VXUS , SCHY will stay awhile.

Dirkredblade

This is where i was in 2008- I only had like 25k in my Roth IRA, went down to about 15k. I never even considered selling the losses, but I lost my job, and from like 2009-early 2011ish I got laid off 3 times before finding a solid job. I'm a designer and advertising/marketing are one of the first things companies cut in a recession. National unemployment was 10ish %, but in the art/marketing field it was way higher. I went through most of my emergency fund- I was employed enough to not lose my house, but I had no extra money to invest more, all my extra money went to rebuilding an emergency fund for the next layoff. I remember looking at Bank of America at $5 and Microsoft in the high 20s and going, geez, if i had cash I would buy like 10k of each right now. If you don't have solid employment, you can't take advantage of the deals. I had another designer friend who came from a very wealthy family - he worked for something to do, not because he needed it. Well, he would have an all day BBQ at his house every Wednesday and we called it Loser Lunch Hour- there would always be like 15-20 people we knew that didn't have jobs and would come by for the free food and drinks. And these were successful designers - we went to Art Center College of Design and were employees at Disney, Blizzard, Mattel, Dreamworks- not the stereotypical worthless degrees. It's very humbling and scary when you go from making 100k (bigger money in 2008) as the UNO brand manager, to not being able to find a job for 6 months. I'm mostly VTI and VXUS, but I keep 25k in short term treasuries etf, so that the next time we have a huge recession, I have some cash so i can buy those deals, even if i lose my job. And I keep at least 6months in a money market fund for an emergency fund.

Original-Poet1825

You buy more than just US stocks basically. I personally do 60% VOO 20% VXUS 20% SGOV/BND and forget about it. If there’s a big drop I don’t mind rebalancing

bigmac9

What is your income? I’d recommend saving at least 15 percent of your income. 25 if you can swing it. VTI or similar index fund/etf and VXUS or similar index/etf.

foradil

And when you buy, buy VXUS

Sufficient_Habit5091

VEU or VXUS. US fiscal credibility and ability to address long term sustainability is rapidly deteriorating. The intervention in bonds this morning is just the latest in reaching for short term solutions while greatly increasing the fragility of US market and economy over time. Honestly it simply does not make rational sense to be 100% all eggs in US stocks without diversifying and hedging outside of it.

AirwickS

401(k) taking a beating this week. I’m 20% VXUS. Surging yields, volatile oil prices, AI/semi sell off in Japan hammered it.

ExcellentWinner7542

Don't do it. Fidelity instead and just place it in FXAIX until you can determine where you want to diversify. I have an old ML account in the $2 million range and I get terrible service relative to a newer Fidelity account with only $300k. Right now you'll see over and over again VOO, VTI, VXUS and your done. This isn't wrong but be 85% VOO, 10% VTI, and 5% VXUS.

GaylrdFocker

>I'm a new investor, what's going on? Should I dump my ETFs? You didn't pick good sectors or stocks. You should dump everything else and put it in VOO/VXUS

Hellingame

And even those who do pick stocks and somehow win eventually realize it's only short-term or not worth the effort. I was doing options for about 4-5 years after COVID, and annually beating the market by 3-8%, on top of my regular 9-5 job. I was also getting ~4 hours of sleep a night, and an emotional wreck whenever the market swung in unexpected ways. Nowadays all my exposure in the market is VOO/VXUS, with a portion in industry specific ones. I check my holdings at most twice every two months, adjusting as needed. My sleep schedule has never been better.

YourChildhood5762

RSP has served me very well this year, especially during the April correction and the June tech meltdown. I have 45% in it. I have 5% XLG so that I don't miss out entirely on those MAG7 riches. It's done well this year (within 2% of VTI and VOO) but 100% would be too much. It's down 20 points to VTI over five years. I don't see the point of balancing it against VTI or VOO. If AI crashes, RSP won't go down as much but it will still go down because those all cover the broad market. I have RSP as protection against a dominant sector correction, but I play it against themes and sectors that are counter to whatever is the dominant risk. So if AI crashed, RSP would go down less and my other holdings would pick up the slack. If you're just going to go VTI / RSP and a little bit of VXUS, I think you're better off just accepting the risk in VTI.

Low-Cartographer-429

Thanks. I also own NVDA, GOOG, and TSM; more than the value of my VXUS but a lot less than the value of my VTI.

bofoshow51

There are levels to investing, and not every level has the same success: 1. You know nothing about investing, you just invest in whatever people tell you to, often super popular things like Google, Amazon, Apple, maybe SCHD or VOO. For the most part you are fine, but risk falling for hype traps or listening to people that think they know better and are wrong. 2. You THINK you know investing better, you’ve watched some videos and heard some standard catchphrases, and believe you are ahead of the average investor now. When actually you don’t know how to read a prospectus, you just have “developed a sixth sense for the market”. You day trade and use options and margin borrowing to maximize your “edge”. Your portfolio is inflated with dozens if not hundreds of holdings, constantly buying and selling to try and stay ahead of what you perceive as market trends. You trick yourself for months or maybe years, but statistically will lose a significant amount of money this way. You are a gambler, and have a gambling problem that you have masked as financial investing. 3. You know enough about investing and financial literacy that you understand that the vast majority of investors, even those actively trying, do not consistently beat the market. You take it easy by investing in the total market, the 3-fund portfolio, and letting the chips fall where they may, with the solid trust that over years and decades you will grow at a comfortable rate and outperform 95% of active investors. You buy VT or VTI/VOO + VXUS or similar combos of broad market low-cost index funds, eventually rebalancing into bonds as you near retirement. You properly utilize Roth IRAs and 401ks to get valuable tax advantages. You barely ever have to look at your portfolio, because you know day to day market moves are nothing but noise. You are optimal. 4. You are Warren Buffett. You are the rare 2-5% with enough knowledge, enough understanding, enough time, enough money, and enough luck to consistently study the market and invest properly to beat the market average across the long term. You are a select few that is nearly impossible to reproduce, due to needing to be in the right place at the right time, having the knowledge base and resources to take advantage of what you see that few others do, and have the fortitude to stick through hard times and not panic. WARNING: even among this group, the extra work and effort to outperform the market is significant but doesn’t return a proportional extra profit compared to simply investing in the broad market and chilling. 5. You are an inside trader. You have special access to information about the market that no one else has, so you have an unfair (illegal) advantage. You can properly time your investments to fully maximize gains and minimize losses, and make significant profit that no one else investing is able to. You are a criminal, and if caught you will go to prison or have to pay out millions and be ostracized from society.

Professional_Cup7379

Your themes are tied to a few parts of the market, while VOO and VXUS own a much broader mix. So when those themes fall out of favor, your individual stocks can lag even as the ETFs reach new highs. That looks more like those stocks moving differently than the broad funds, not a reason to dump VOO or VXUS.

luckysharms93

1) Voo or spym over Spy. Same thing but lower fees. Spy is for institutions 2) diversify internationally. Buy some VXUS 3) if you're more conservative, add a bond allocation. Yields being as high as they are right now is real nice for bond investors And most importantly, never stop your regular DCA unless you lose your job or whatever. 40 years from now, it won't matter if you bought at 650 instead of 600

tiggerlgh

Or some VXUS

Intrepid-Wait-6102

70/20/10 VOO/VXUS/AVUV. I do that above and hold some individual stocks that I actually have genuine conviction in and are solid business to scratch that trader itch but definitely would trim most.

Wooden-Broccoli-913

You want a real hedge get VXUS

Bbz1130

Wow our situations are remarkably similar. I’m investing 75|25 VTI/VXUS. Before you invest it’s definitely important to have an emergency fund of at least 6 months.

Jericho3434

Thank god PYPL is getting bought out. I averaged down so hard on the buyout news a couple weeks ago. Might average down with the rest of my dry powder since this is such an easy play. When the new buyout number comes out I’ll finally be in the green then I can sell this shitter and unlock a lot of capital. I’ll move some of the proceeds to VTI, VXUS and SCHD and chill.

milkplantation

What I sense from you post is impatience and envy, both of which will crush you in investing. As the greatest investor of all time has stated, *"The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient."* Pay off your debt first as whatever interest you're paying on that will eat into your profit. Then build up 6 months of living expenses and put it in a HISA or purchase SGOV ETF (US short term treasuries). Don't touch that money unless it's an emergency. Then begin investing the $200 a month 90% ($180) in VOO and 10% ($20) in SGOV. In the event there is a correction of 10% or more, sell your SGOV and buy more VOO. If you want to diversify beyond just US holdings, buy 60% VOO and 40% VXUS or 100% VT. That's it. The hard part is being consistent, not tinkering, becoming impatient, or envious. It's simple but it's not easy.

_176_

I've explained my strategy elsewhere. My personal income is around $750k. My household income is $1m. I'm almost the exact same age as you. 90% of my money basically goes into $VT. I buy VTI and VXUS but it's the same idea. 10% of my money I pick stocks that I hold and never sell. I include BTC in that, I bought two for $3k total in 2017. I work in tech so I've mostly invested in tech companies. I bought AMZN and GOOG in 2010 or 2011. I bought TSLA in 2017. I'm still holding those. I bought AMD in 2017. Most of these were $2-5k investments at the time. But most of my money is in a total world index fund. It's sitting at around $8m today. I have a $1m mortgage left on my $3m house in SF. You can look through my account history. I've been saying the same thing for years. You haven't mentioned investing *at all* until 1 month ago when you basically said you can't afford a Porsche, don't have much money, but are starting to invest and have lots of time because you're only 39. Like, that's great, good for you. But maybe take a seat on how smart you are about what the market will do in the future. You sound like an idiot.

No-Math-5868

My portfolio, not including 529 money or home equity is fairly large, to the point where it is over 60X my annual expenses and over 22X my annual income which is pretty high to begin with. So it's not difficult task to build out a 10 year TIPS ladder which would be about 16% of my current portfolio. However, I need to average 3.4% assuming no more contributions until the first date I would even consider retiring to get the so called number I was looking for, which would bring that TIPS ladder to about 12% of my portfolio. I know I didn't answer your question yet, but I figured I would provide some background. I've been investing since my mother introduced me to IRAs (before there were Roth IRAs) when I 16, had working papers and she matched what I put into a CD up to the then limit of 2K (I put in 1K and she put in 1K). I've been a disciplined investor for decades... never panicked or changing my investing strategy. Up until about 2-3 years ago, I as 98.5%+ in equities with the rest in short term cash. I've been slowly transitioning to some fixed income to where I'm at 10% of which 25% of that is my TIPS ladder. My goal is to ultimately get to 20% fixed income. My equity portion is probably around 90% VOO, with a little bit of QQQ, ACN stock since I used to work there, and few other play ETFs like VXUS. I invested in VOO for over 30 years before VOO even existed as and ETF and there was a just a mutual fund. I've been auto investing twice a week the entire time never stopping. When I got pay raises, or other things, I increased the amounts (this was in addition to retirement accounts and 529 accounts). I guess you can say, I was FIRE before the caveman and VOO and chill before VOO was born.

Own-Event-5500

Go VOO/AVUV 80/20 Or VOO/AVUV/VXUS 70/20/10

flicter22

QQQ for straight Nasdaq exposure has been solid this year -- tech earnings season played out better than the tariff dread suggested. Beyond the obvious ones: SCHD for dividend growth, COWZ (cash-flow weighted, screens out junk balance sheets) has quietly been a nice complement to pure growth. And for international exposure without the currency headaches of individual ADRs, VXUS is genuinely underrated right now given dollar weakness. One thing I find useful is keeping a live view of the ETFs you hold so you can see them move in real-time alongside the market. I run MarketCast on my TV -- Fire TV / Android TV / Apple TV app -- just lets you see your watchlist ticking all day without being stuck to a phone screen.

why-not-honey

Thanks for your insights. After reading everyone’s take, I am pretty confident now that I over engineered this shit. I am more leaning towards VTI/VXUS/(smallcap tilt maybe?) as the way to go

flicter22

17 ETFs with overlap is almost certainly overcomplicating it. If most are US-focused you're paying multiple expense ratios to hold basically the same underlying positions. The mental overhead of rebalancing 17 things also tends to produce decision fatigue or inaction, which ironically leads to worse outcomes than a simpler setup. A core of VTI + VXUS (or VOO + VXUS) covers 90% of what 17 ETFs are trying to do. I keep the ETF side of my portfolio dead simple and use MarketCast to track the individual names I actually watch actively — keeps the two jobs from bleeding into each other. What's the actual thesis behind each of the 17?

HawofyOwl

Yeah this is the classic "analysis paralysis" that shows up here every week, bro. VTI/VXUS core with maybe one or two satellite positions gets you 95% of the way there, and the other 15 ETFs are just you paying fees to feel like you're doing something.

comps226

VOO and VXUS done.

Pndrizzy

Already started buying GLD and VXUS

Top-Woodpecker6696

Thank you for the response. What I am trying to get at is that diversification is deeply related to two assets being uncorrelated. Both VXUS and VOO went down by the same approximate amount during 2020, so where is the benefit of diversification. Like, this asset has cost you (in opportunity cost) 170% of your original investment over 10 years. VXUS is MASSIVELY underperforming so why pick the worst asset when it’s highly correlated with a much higher quality one. Why not buy the best in class within various classes that are uncorrelated rather than two assets with overlapping holdings?

Nadenkend440

There are explicitly international funds, which is what I assume u/InvestInTwinkies meant by an international fund. Something like VXUS.

icfrm

Was NOK bought on a whim, co-worker/friend/family/internet recommendation? Could you share with us the intent for investing in NOK? On the surface, NOK, wouldn’t have met my expectations from 2021 . . . unless it was sold at $8K profit time. Or, at least pulled your initial investment off the table at the time and invest in your mentioned VTI/VXUS stocks. Now, provide us what your initial investment into NOK compared to if it was a sole/mix of VTI/VXUS over the same time period.

Professional_Cup7379

RKLB, SMR, NASA and LUNR add up to about $5,047, which is over a third of the account. Selling NASA on its own barely changes that, since the space theme is still where most of your losses are sitting. The $300 of gains against the $1,054 of losses in those other names is fine to harvest, you just have to stay out of NASA for 30 days if you want to claim them. You've already said you don't love NASA or LUNR. Would you actually let the space exposure shrink, or does the urge to add another name back show up pretty fast? I'd probably let VOO and VXUS carry more of the weight and treat the space names as the smaller part.

InvestingNerd2020

Roth IRA is looking great. The taxable brokerage account you just need VOO and VXUS. Maybe add VBIL for emergency savings with tax protection perks (no city nor state taxes). Only downside is you can't access the savings on the weekends once the stock market closes.

user4443337

I would recommend \~15% maximum for a sector/thematic/factor tilt — large cap growth isn’t one of the most favorable factors. Small cap value is, but even I cap SCV at 10-15%. You want to diversify with international. Add VXUS, AVNM, AVNV, or DFAX. The latter three attempt to beat the benchmark VT and have so far, but you take tracking error risk. If you’d regret some underperformance then stick to the benchmark. If you believe in Avantis/Dimensional methods and implementations, try out the latter three funds, with AVNV being my favorite for a larger value tilt.

Top-Woodpecker6696

VXUS is up 83% over the last 10 years compared to the S&P 500 being up 253%. Why VXUS over S&P 500? When does the benefit of diversification kick in?

Dirkredblade

Go 65% VTI, 25% VXUS as your base. Then the last 10% for trading, speculation/fun, etc, examples would be gold, ibit, or single stocks, or if you want to tilt QQQ. That way 90% of your portfolio is responsible and balanced and automatic and you can ease some of the desire to "beat the market" with that last 10%.

NightlyNews

SPY + VXUS + VXF is effectively VT and if you were buying fresh and wanted that diversification you should just buy VT. It sounds like you don’t have a specific goal in mind and in that case just buy VT. If you did have a specific goal then you can make bespoke investment decisions. For example if you work for Nvidia and you have a lot of tied up equity, you no longer want to buy SPY as that is over-concentration. Maybe you direct index SPY with your employ excluded. Now that you are effectively cover the diversity of SPY through your employer stock and direct indexing you add VXUS and VXF to complete broad market international diversification. Young people rarely need multiple ETFs for exposure though. You have to have a strong argument not to just buy VT and it’s not something someone else can tell you. VT is the average of all investors. How are you different from the average investor and then make a plan accordingly. It’s completely ok if the answer is you aren’t that different from the average and can just buy the simplest diversified ETF.

JahMusicMan

When I started investing in 2019, I had no idea what I was doing so I was buying small (like a few hundred $) of VTI, VOO, QQQ, VUG, VT thinking I was diversifying. But it's too late for me to rebalance to a more simpler portfolio with just VTI, VXUS, and VB/VBR since I have sizeable gains. I'm Mag 7 heavy especially since I own META, MSFT, and some APPL too.

Unable-Mud-2065

Yeah that makes sense. I like the “each ETF should have a job” way of looking at it. The part I’m curious about is how you decide if that extra diversification is actually meaningful enough to justify the extra complexity. Like with SPY + VXUS/VXF, would you mainly look at the lack of holdings overlap or would you also want to see how much it actually changes the portfolio during different market conditions?

NightlyNews

If you’re buying broad market etfs like VT/VTI you have to have a reason to have multiple holdings as they are already strongly diversified alone. There are relevant cases to own multiple funds for diversification. Did you buy VOO/SPY young and want to have a more diversified holding like VT without selling and incurring taxes. Then you can buy VXUS and VXF. Those hold international and domestic non SPY funds respectively. They have no overlap with SPY, so increase diversification. You will have to manually rebalance. Even in that case is optimal diversity worth the extra effort to you.

milkplantation

This is a good answer and a good thread. Very few stocks or ETFs will avoid a sell off if/when the bubble pops. That said, here are some options: Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) is a good one. It will drop, but not by as much and will recover more quickly because they have cash for share buybacks. International (VXUS) is less exposed and less richly valued, though obviously would also take a major hit. Rails (CNI/UNP) and utilities are always a good place to park money. Waste management stocks (RSG/WM) And lastly, Canada (XIC/XIU). Canadas market has been quietly crushing the US the past two years. They’re resource rich (oil and gold), their interest rates are lower and more stable, and they’re not nearly as exposed to the AI play. A lot of smart money going to the Canadian market as a hedge right now. If you want the safest play, short term treasuries ETFs like SGOV will combat inflation and won’t drop. That said, minimal growth.

Uniquename34556

70% In S&P index fund (example: VOO) 20% International non-US fund (example: VXUS) 10% aggressive fund (example: QQQ)

InvestInTwinkies

What? SPY, VTI, VTV, VUG may as well all be the same fund. Just buy VTI 100% if you’re bullish on American tech. Throw in 20% VXUS if you want a little diversity and call it a day. If you must then you split up investments by market capitalization, not whatever you’re thinking. Could look at Avantis funds for the value tilt if you really want, but I don’t think that’s necessary. You have to look at what each fund invests in and how they play a part in your portfolio.

LAHAND1989

What would you recommend as a 30/30/30 split or 25/25/25/25? SPY, VTI, VTV, VUG, VXUS? My own portfolio is split 50/50 between SPY and VTI? Guess I knew there was significant overlap but I am and have been also bullish on tech so didn’t mind overweighting it a bit.

Professional_Cup7379

The thing I'd want to look at first is whether the brokerage account is really a second strategy or just the Roth account with a dividend filter on top. VOO and VXUS already give you broad US and developed international. SCHD and SPHD are both S&P 500 dividend or low volatility screens, so they're tilting inside the same large cap space the Roth account already owns rather than adding new ground. QQQI tracks the Nasdaq 100, which is heavily overlapping with the growth half of VOO. IWMI is the one sleeve that does something different. There's nothing wrong with wanting an income tilt on its own, but SCHD plus SPHD is roughly 27% of every new dollar in the brokerage account, and both pull from the same 500 names. If SCHD or SPHD dropped 30% in a year while VOO was also down, would you actually keep adding the full $500 a month, or would you start pulling back? Personally, I'd be more comfortable treating the brokerage account as a smaller satellite and letting the Roth do most of the work.

Mak333

I invest a brokerage account in individual stocks for the most part, so I'm not the best to answer. I wouldn't overthink it. Here are the 1-year returns on each ETF. VOO+23.7% VXUS+27.8% SPHD+14.1% to +14.3% SCHD+31.4% QQQI+24.0% IWMI+33.4%

IvoryTowerResident

we need [u/drew-gen-x](https://www.reddit.com/user/drew-gen-x/) back, all the stuff he buys are so bad $VXUS, $EWJ and $PHSY

Careless-Place-170

pretty much in line with the other recommendation, maybe a bit in VXUS, small bit in treasuries / bonds, could do gold too but it's kinda volatile these days, or even something like DBMF

kurai-tsuki

To rotate to defensive investments like consumer staples, should I sell my existing investments in VOO/VXUS to buy or should I just start investing all new money in those defensive ETFs and leave the existing money as is?

Few-Praline9810

A legit answer is to join bogleheads and passive investors, and realize most people will never beat the market (I learned this lesson too a year or so ago). Rebalance your portfolio into some market ETFs and passively invest. My current portfolio is like VTI (or VOO) like 60% or 65%, VXUS for international exposure (like 30% or so). And a bit of AVUV for small cap exposure. If you'd rather bet on tech rn, QNDX for the cheapest nasdaq 100 (or QQQM or QQQ, but these have higher cost basis). Then don't touch the money for years. Don't try to chase yield, dividends, or high risk high reward. You can claim up to $3,000 on your taxes for the losses btw. Actively traded funds are pretty bad. Play with the numbers, watch historical stock market videos on risk (Ben Felix maybe). Uhhhhh. Check out bogleheads. They're really risk averse, but they still get pretty good returns. About half that of top 100 nasdaq companies. The reason you get a lower yield is because the top 100 nasdaq companies (QQQ, QQQM, QNDX) are heavily skewed tech and US. Which opens you up to consentration risk. And they're all large caps, which means smaller growth possibilities (and potential dot-com bubble corrections). You'll sleep better at night if you just passively let your investments play out instead of chasing gains. It'll take you a few years to see significant growth. And tbh you are at the point where I definitely could see your portfolio increasing to 100k easily if you just don't gamble and surpass that. At 100k, you are 1/3 the way to 1 million in time. At 300k, you are 1/2 to 1 million in time. iirc "No one wants to get rich slow" - warren buffet or something. Anyway, yeah, I can't guarantee anything. Not financial advice, but I do think it is a better plan than whatever you're doing.

CD274

You may want some in VXUS, world except US, or VT, total world. And maybe SCHD Schwab dividend which has been way over performing. But yeah you're good

Senior-Preference678

You hit the nail on the head. That is exactly what is happening. To make it worse, you are paying a premium for that second jacket. When you buy both, you are paying two different management fees to hold the exact same top positions: \[[1](https://www.reddit.com/r/ETFs/comments/ummgke/why_is_fund_overlap_an_issue/)\] **VOO (S&P 500)**: Costs a rock-bottom **0.03%** expense ratio. **QQQ (Nasdaq-100)**: Costs **0.20%** expense ratio. By adding QQQ on top of VOO, you are actively paying **nearly 7 times more** in fees for QQQ's portion just to double-down on Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Amazon, and Meta. **The Same Fabric** **Top 5 Holdings**: Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Amazon, and Meta. **What happens**: These five stocks already make up roughly 25%+ of VOO. In QQQ, they make up over 40%. **The Result**: Your 50/50 portfolio isn't diversified; it is just a super-concentrated bet on a handful of tech executives **The Only True Difference** **What QQQ adds**: A tiny 6% sliver of Nasdaq-exclusive stocks (like mid-cap biotech or tech firms not yet in the S&P 500). **What QQQ drops**: You completely lose exposure to the S&P 500’s financials (JP Morgan), energy (Exxon), healthcare (Johnson & Johnson), and industrials (Caterpillar) on that portion of your money. **How to Actually Fix It** If your goal is to actually add a *different* fabric to your portfolio rather than just overlapping large-cap US equities, you have a few structural options: **For Small/Mid-Cap Exposure**: Pair VOO with an un-overlapped fund like **AVUV**or **IJR** (Small-Cap Value) to capture the bottom of the market. **For Sector Diversification**: If you want tech but want to avoid the exact same top 5 stocks, look into an equal-weighted tech ETF like **RSPT**, where every tech stock gets the same slice. **For True Diversification**: Keep VOO as your core, drop QQQ, and add international exposure (**VXUS**) or bonds (**BND**) depending on your time horizon. Source: Gemini Ai

dogs_gt_cats

You should have a "fun money' part of your budget, you're allowed to live, just be sensible about it. If you like to travel set some cash aside for it. I would make the following tweaks: 1. Modify the 401k contribution such that you can afford to fully fund a traditional IRA *POST TAX*, and then do a Roth conversion (backdoor Roth) in the new year. Keep it maxed. Reason being a 401k is limited to what funds are offered, an IRA you can invest as you see fit. 1. Once the IRA is fully funded, continue maxing out the 401k. 1. In addition to your plan for your emergency fund, I'd strongly recommend setting aside 1 month of bills worth of cash in a savings account too. SGOV is great (I use it myself for 6 months of bills) but sometimes you need cash immediately and can't wait for an ACH to process. Big ups for SGOV for maintaining a well of cash/deep emergency fund representing a few months of salary. It has treated me quite well. 1. VOO is fine, though I would strongly consider adding some international exposure as well (VXUS is great). Overall your plan looks great, more on the conservative side which is great for times like these (I also lean conservative in investing). Stick with this as the core of your account and it should treat you really well. Automate as much as possible so you don't fall out of your good habits. One thing to consider - I know housing in your area is abysmal price wise, but look up the term "house hacking". At your age it is realistic to pull off, it gets a lot harder once you set down roots. Being able to put down a few percent on a mullti-unit and have tenants pay most of your bills is not a bad deal, and equity is your friend. It's one of those investment strategies that gets harder as you get older with family you can't just relocate. Overall, really well done.

RickDick-246

I would lock in those gains and probably put it in ETFs. And I have. I don’t necessarily want it in SGOV. If I were just going to try to beat inflation and needed that cash in the near term, I’d probably just stick it in my HYSA. If it’s going to remain investment money, I’d de-risk it and go 80/20 VTI or VOO and VXUS. There are a million ways to cut it. You could take half and put it in ETFs, you could take a % and put it in SGOV or an HYSA, you could leave half in individual stocks. Just depends on your risk tolerance.

RickDick-246

I start from scratch every year when I update my allocation. I’d do the exact same thing I’m doing today. 80/20 VOO/VXUS. I just wish I had learned earlier. In my 20s I bought a lot of individual stocks and probably came out barely ahead but with a lot more stress.

Lioil1

So one of my stocks (PLTR) triggered and i have about 50k sitting in my IRA account. Currently my Stock:Entire savings(401k,brokerage,ira,hsa) is about 18%. Should I take the opportunity to rebalance by putting it in something like VTI/VXUS(my go to) or is there a stock that "i gotta get"?

Zealousideal-Bug-944

Absolutely not selling. More of my query is to create opinions, thoughts, etc. I am diversified international ETF, TIPS, BRKB, SGOV, FDGRX, AMZN, VXUS, KO to name a few.

Barcode_Griller

I'm going to give you some adult advice before letting you into the casino. What you should do is build up an emergency fund of 6 months of expenses not to be touched unless it's truly an emergency. Then invest enough to get your 401k match. Then max out your Roth IRA. Then invest a set amount of money every paycheck into a boring ETF or set of 1-3 ETFs (personally I'm 70% into VTI and 30% into VXUS). Really your 401k and IRA should be the same ETFs or something similar. After that find some play money and have fun in here.

fortheloveofghosts

VOO, VUG, and VXUS and chill.

Runsfromrabbits

Add a bit of VXUS maybe

Zach-12345

But no I don’t not want to mess with the IRS. From what it looks like with VTI and VXUS I really don’t neeeeeeeed to tax harvest. It seems like a big hassle for me since I’m wanting to put in 150 a week for 30 years and not worry about the account or touch it besides maybe rebalancing.

bobdevnul

\>And I guess if This is right, what’s the day that you need to sell your fund for it to count as a loss. For the loss sale to not be a wash sale you have to sell it more than thirty days after any previous purchase of a substantially identical security\* and not buy a substantially identical security within 30 days of the loss sale. The previous and subsequent purchase applies across all of your accounts. Your broker will catch it in the same account. They have no way to know about what happened in accounts elsewhere. As a practical matter the IRS won't know about wash sales across accounts. They only get info about security sales, not purchases. They would only catch it in a deep audit. It is not advisable to do this. I don't play catch-me-if-you-can with the IRS. The IRS has not clearly defined exactly what substantially identical means. We know from experience that brokers will not flag wash sales of securities with different CUSIPs. You can trade between two S&P500 funds without getting flagged for wash sales. It is probably ok because they have different managers, tracking error, and index sampling that makes them not identical enough. I personally would not do that, because, again, I don't play catch-me-if-you-can with the IRS. Trading between VTI and ITOT or VXUS and IXUS should be fine even though they are both total market funds. They follow different indexes. \*The wash sale rules apply to any type of investment, not just securities.

Spectralcolors78

I just put a set amount in every month.  I have VTI and VXUS. My only risky stocks are Hovr Aduro and Air Joule Technologies. I no longer add more shares of these. If they take off great, if not well I'm not losing alot of money. I learned some extremely harsh lessons from Crypto!! LOL 

Flayum

Why? Just do VT or VXUS

West_Lavishness6689

VTI/VXUS and chill but also a side hustle with some nuclear stocks

West_Lavishness6689

some VTI, VXUS, maybe nuclear as a small portion as my next gamble

Uatatoka

Global 3 fund. 70% US (VTI), 20% international (VXUS), 10% bond (BND)

InjuryEmbarrassed532

Eh, my apps are using Jan, 2 close date vs Dec, 30 for price. Just jitters. Look for VXUS to underperform as usual going forward. VXUS had its little run.

456M

According to Google Finance: >[VTI](https://www.google.com/finance/beta/quote/VTI:NYSEARCA?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjL96CRnIiWAxUmgf0HHczfGc4Q3ecFKAN6BAgcEAQ&window=YTD) >[VXUS](https://www.google.com/finance/beta/quote/VXUS:NASDAQ?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjtnq-WnIiWAxVG_7sIHRDdI8wQ3ecFKAN6BAgcEAQ&window=YTD) How many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man?

InjuryEmbarrassed532

VXUS is 12.95% YTD, sorry to burst your bubble. You have something set wrong.

456M

[VTI](https://i.imgur.com/2kpcZMD.jpeg) [VXUS](https://i.imgur.com/ktfZQ6B.jpeg) You were saying?

456M

Idk what charts you're looking at, but YTD as of writing: >VTI - 13.80% >VXUS - 14.69% This does not include dividends either which VXUS exceeds VTI.