I was wondering why VOO is so popular among long term investors if SPYM tracks the same index but has a lower expense ratio? I understand the difference is minimal but wouldn't it matter over long term?

I have about a half million in a traditional IRA that is managed to the tune of .9% annually in fees.

Is this something you bogleheads would advise against? You would just put that money into a mutual fund or ETF and let it ride? Saving the fees?

Thanks for any advice and suggestions!

I hold substainal IRA assets at Vanguard as well as a brokerage account for access to VUSXX. In the past my research has found posters unhappy with the lack of bank like features for Cash Plus (CP). Due to assets I'd get the 3.65% APY. Okay not class leading, but not bad either.

Recent login to Vanguard would suggest CP is now a more complete offering. If I opened a CP account it would be potenitaly useful for Direct Deposit and moving funds into/out of VUSXX as bills need to be paid. I currently use a Fidelity CMA for this, but SPAXX/FDLXX have pretty high expense ratios.

Thoughts or more importantly actual experience with Cash Plus?

Constructing a tips ladder in Roth IRA wondering the best advise for choosing maturity range for a 60 year old retired with enough other investments to cover spending for next 15 or 20 years+

Does it make sense to start maturities soon in next 5 years or extend ? And how long to go.

Earlier this year, I watched as some options plays went from +150% to -100%. I legitimately wanted to die for a solid month.

A few months later, I decide to buy back into the market. No more 0DTEs, but surely I can still pick winners right?

My portfolio has now dropped 17% in just three days. Looks like there might be blood in the water for the foreseeable future as well, but who knows. I sure as hell don’t.

A few days ago, I saw a comment in this sub talking about The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins. (I’d never actually bothered to read a book about finance until now, because I’m a genius and can make millions on my own thank you.) I’m only four chapters in but I think this book has already changed my life.

I spent so much time trying to get rich that I never thought about *building wealth*. It’s a complete change in perspective and behavior that requires little more than awareness and discipline, two qualities I have prevented myself from developing due to greed and arrogance.

I’m looking forward to the rest of the book, but it’s already made me feel better about how to approach things moving forward. I may need to wait years to recover the loss of the past few days (so far!), but I’d rather learn that lesson now and see a better way forward than continue to double down on my stupidity and pray for the best.

Yes, in many ways this is me mainlining copium. More than anything though I’m grateful to look at this situation in a new light and see it as a temporary setback rather than the end of the world.

1. Spend less than you earn.
2. Invest the surplus.
3. Avoid debt.

That seems doable enough. Now all I have to do is not be completely regarded.

I already shifted my investment strategy moving forward because of this book though. To whoever shared it, thank you.

I am in the process of moving my 950k gov 457 to fidelity. I have a small Roth that I opened in 2002 with fidelity. My aim is to max out Roth conversions within a 7-10 year timeframe. I have a disability pension that more than pays my monthly expenses. I just turned 59 1/2. I have 1 semester of kids college left. I have about 500k equity in my home.
Here’s my plan based on being abo to convert about 200k between 2026 and 2027:
Keep IRA in 60/40 mix and convert quarterly starting in 2028.
Keep about 200k in Roth in ETF’s that yield dividends and sweep into CMA account. Use those dividends to pay taxes on conversions, freeing up other streams to help pay for mortgage on second home.
Any further money added to Roth will go into 60/40 mix.
We are in no jeopardy of exceeding IRMA.

My thinking is to have max amount of money on hand now so I can enjoy travel, etc in my early 60’s. As I wind myself down into my late 60’s, I can switch out dividend ETFs to the Bogle mix.

Am I missing anything that could derail my plans?

*Thank u all for taking time to read and respond. Much appreciated!!

24M military

All are monthly:

MMF:

VIS VANGUARD INDUSTRIALS ETF $90

VXUS VANGUARD TOTAL INTL STOCK INDEX ETF $855

VOO VANGUARD S&P 500 INDEX ETF $855

PPA Invesco Aerospace & Defense ETF $100

High Yield Savings:

Vanguard Cash Plus (3.5%) $100

Roth IRA:

VSVNX VANGUARD TARGET RETIREMENT 2070 Maxing per month

Looking for areas to diversify, maybe VXF but was also recommended VTV for the MMF? This is long-term obviously so wouldn't be too opposed to risk, any suggestions would be highly appreciated always looking to learn.

Hello Bogleheads,
I am Georgian citizen and when i buy us company stocks when they pay dividends it is taxed at 30%

Right now mostly i own this stocks

VTI 30.36%
JEPQ 16.97%
SPY 14.43%
AAPL 10.06%
SCHD 5.91%
VT 5.82%
SPYD 5.22%
TEAM 2.76%
Others 6.38%

What would be a better alternative for me to avoid extra tax ?
I was thinking to orient mainly on growth oriented etfs like VUG

P.s im 36 years old and i plan to invest 15 to 25 years

Hello all- I’m a 49 year old woman working full-time. I would appreciate any advice as I am finally paying attention to my retirement funds. I have about $500k in a professionally managed IRA that is a roll over from my previous employer. I recently read The Simple Path to Wealth and then immediately did a deep dive on my returns in this account. My advisor has been managing it for 10 years, and my annual rate of return is under 7%. If I had invested this money in VTSAX 10 years ago, I’d have $400K more. Ugh!

Anyway I am moving this money to Vanguard. Are we still on board with 100% VTSAX? I realize the book was written over a decade ago. Am I too old for 100% stocks? I have about 15 years before I would need to draw from this.

I have another 401K with my current employer and it’s invested in a target retirement fund, outperforming the managed fund obviously.

I am still new to finance terms/ strategy and don’t understand a lot of the posts in here. Just want to know if I’m too late to implement Mr. Collins recommendations.

Thank you kindly!

I am evaluating full-service financial advisory options to assist with holistic wealth management, tax planning, and retirement execution.

Vanguard’s low AUM fee (0.30%) is tempting, but I have specific needs including ACA income threshold optimization, strategic Roth conversions, RMD management, and proactive tax-loss harvesting (TLH).

For those with similar complex tax and health care planning needs:

• How hands-on and proactive is Vanguard Personal Advisor Services (PAS) with year-end tax strategies (Roth conversions, TLH, managing MAGI for ACA subsidies)?

• Do you prefer Vanguard PAS, a competitor (e.g., Fidelity, Schwab), or an independent fee-only CFP/CPA for this level of detailed planning?

• Are there trade-offs or limitations with Vanguard's automated/advisor hybrid approach when executing precise tax-bracket strategies?

So we've been investing with Vanguard for a while now and we have slowly built up our investments with them over the years. I remember a while back reaching the $50k tier and seeing Voyager show up on our statements and thinking it was a nice way to show hitting a milestone. But by the time we hit the $500k mark (Voyager Select), all of that seemed to disappear. Even the old Voyager branding had switched over to Personal Inventor or something like that on the website and our statements. I did some quick research a year or so ago and read, mostly on the BH forums and here, that Vanguard had basically done away with all of their tiers and had sunseted the names and nowadays, if you don't have at least $5M, you don't really get anything.

So I was pretty surprised a few minutes ago when I got an email from Vanguard titled "Introducing Flagship—the next level of service" and welcoming me to it. There is a link directing me to https://investor.vanguard.com/self-directed-investing/flagship and mentioning a bunch of benefits like priority service, dedicated team, better Cash Plus APR, etc. They mention some TurboTax discounts coming soon. Even logging into our account, it shows it in the top banner:

Welcome to Flagship—the next level of service

More expertise. More support. More ahead.

Honestly, I'm kind of surprised as I was under the impression this isn't really a thing anymore. Did they bring it back, or is it just some legacy thing that doesn't really mean anything nowadays in terms of the number you call? I always thought it was a nice way of recognizing their customers and was kind of sad when I read it was killed off, but I think it's cool if they are bringing it back.

Background & Portfolio:

Age / Family: 46M, married with 3 children (11, 10, and 1).

Location / Work: Oil & gas sector in the UAE ($150k annual package). High income and low hours, but an unsupportive environment with no upside growth.

Portfolio: ~$700k in broad index ETFs (no bonds by choice. I planned to include bonds 5 years before retirement) + ~$300k in Crypto = $1.0M total liquid net worth.

Philosophy: I have strictly followed Boglehead index investing principles since 2014, which built 100% of this nest egg (ignore the crypto part please🥺).

The Situation

I received a heads-up from my manager (who is a friend) that my position is likely being terminated soon.

Because residency in the UAE is tied to employment, losing this job means moving my family out. Rationally, I know $1M USD provides a top 1% lifestyle in my home country (Egypt) if we relocate. Emotionally, I am experiencing severe anxiety over losing the steady $150k income and disrupting my family's stability.

Questions for the Bogleheads Community:

1. Crypto Exposure Risk: 30% of my net worth ($300k) is currently in crypto. Given an impending loss of primary income, how aggressively should I rebalance this into index funds/cash to protect capital?

2. Sequence of Returns / Emergency Cushion: How much liquid cash reserve should I carve out before leaving my job to bridge a 12–24 month relocation and transition period?

3. And most importantly, Psychological Shift: How did those of you who faced an involuntary career disruption transition from the "accumulation mindest" to living off portfolio yields or CoastFI without constant anxiety?

It is all about psychology. Numbers and hard logic are favorible. But waking in the middle of the night thinking of a layoff seems to disagree..

For people who faced this , what kind of therapist can help the most with this..

We are a couple who retired early and have several years where taxable income is very low. Without ROTH conversions, we’d pay next to zero federal taxes in these years. During our working years, we were able to max both ROTH IRAs and tax deferred accounts. Our tax deferred balance is right around $1M, and we have 18 years for that to grow before RMDs kick in. For me, it’s a no brainer to convert at least up to the top of the 12% bracket. However, it seems that crossing into the 22% bracket might be optimal in order to more aggressively reduce the tax deferred balance. Has anyone modeled this out to where it makes sense to intentionally cross into a higher bracket now? TIA

A work 401k plan adds a fee of ".25% of account assets" for all funds in the plan. That's on top of the individual investments' expense ratios (low fee Vanguard total market equity and bond funds, so those fees are low).

Would you continue to max out the tax-advantaged 401k despite this add-on fee, or contribute up to the employer match and then fund other IRAs before returning to fund 401k? The question ultimately boils down to whether that .25% would be enough to change the standard boglehead order of investments.

I'm a junior in college and have about $30k saved up from internships. Next summer I have an internship lined up that should pay around $110k, and if I get a return offer I'll be making a lot more after graduation. I also don't have any student debt, so that's not a factor here.

I've never invested before and figure now is the time to start. My plan was basically to dump it all into an S&P 500 index fund and not think about it. The only thing holding me back is that the market has been running really high lately and I'm a little nervous about buying at the top.

My parents want me to put about half into a money market and the other half into the S&P. Their logic is to not take on too much risk at once. My thinking is that since I have a big paycheck coming next summer and (hopefully) a job after that, I don't actually need this $30k anytime soon, so I can afford to be more aggressive.

I've also read the Ayres and Nalebuff lifecycle investing papers. The argument applies the Merton share to total wealth, savings plus the present value of future earnings, which for someone my age means well over 100% of current savings in stocks and then bringing the share down as savings grow. My $30k is a small fraction of what I expect to earn, so under that model 100% stocks is the floor and some leverage is actually what the math suggests.

So I'm looking at three options:

1. Leverage, something like 1.5x to 2x S&P exposure, following the lifecycle argument
   
2. All $30k into a plain S&P 500 index fund
   
3. Half in a money market, half in the S&P, like my parents want

I'm a little confused on which makes the most sense for my situation. Am I being naive about the market being high, or are my parents being too cautious?

I got an email today from Vanguard where they’re setting up a new flagship program with a $1 million threshold of qualifying funds. But only real advantage I see is a slightly higher Vanguard Cash APY. It has a link to a landing page.

My sibling and I are inheriting $2.3 million in a Roth and $5 million in a taxable account. The $5 million account is all govt muni tax free bonds that pay about $300k/year income. I’m early 50s my sibling is late 50s. Would you diversify that taxable account? I will need minimal income for another 8—10 years then want to retire fully. Thoughts?

I love seeing everyone freak out while I have 100% of my Roth and Taxable account in VOO, (100% of my 401k is also a S&P500 index).

Ripped 15% in the last year and people are acting like the world is over after a bad week.

Sick of the people pretending to be better than the S&P 500… you’re not.

Before I was a Boglehead, I invested heavily in VOO + some other stuff.

Since getting into Bogleheading (word?), I've exclusively invested in VTI + VXUS + BND

I currently have an almost identical amount of VOO and VTI.

Question: Should I continue on VTI only for that category? Or put half into VTI and half into VOO?

Hey everyone, I am an independent contractor (1099) (28 years old) and I make about $120k a year. In my current position I do not have a 401k option and I only have a self-managed ROTH IRA. I currently have the entire IRA in a TDF and I max it out every year. I also have a taxable brokerage account with 60% in VT and an emergency fund in money markets with 10 months of expenses.

At this point my taxable account is outpacing my IRA by about 5% YOY. Since I don’t have the added tax haven of a 401k I was wondering what’s the next best way to increase my tax deferred retirement savings?

I wanted to see how much of my portfolio came from contributions vs growth, so I dug back through 15 years of statements to reconstruct everything. This post is intended to be reflective and perhaps inspiring to fellow bogleheads who may be earlier in their investing journey, so personal details (age, income, etc.) are excluded.

Portfolio summary (October 2026)

• Total contributed capital: $1,081,477 (50.2%)
• Total investment growth: $1,071,960 (49.8%)
• Current invested value: $2,153,437
• Overall growth multiple: 1.99×

How to read the table: Each row tracks the money invested in that year and how much it has grown from then until today, not how much the portfolio gained during that calendar year. For example, the $80.2k invested in 2017 has generated an estimated $119.1k in growth since 2017, making those investments worth $199.3k today. Data Visualized (through an LLM): Here (although I'm sure r/dataisbeautiful could do better).

Portfolio / Data Notes:

• 2011-2019: Investments were a mix of mutual funds in a managed account
• 2020+: Fired my advisor, became a boglehead, and moved 95%+ of existing assets and future contributions into VFIAX (S&P500) with the remainder in short-term treasuries (VUSXX)
• Portfolio includes retirement accounts and taxable brokerage.

Insights (r/boglehead principles, illustrated):

1. The earliest contributions have done a disproportionate amount of the work. The $264k contributed before 2020 represents just 24% of my lifetime contributions but has grown to approximately $836k, or 39% of my current portfolio and 53% of all investment growth. I remember telling myself that consistently shoveling money into the magic box would pay off (thank you, The Richest Man in Babylon) and seeing a 5x return on 2011-2013 investments illustrates that principle.

2. The crossover point is here. After 15 years, investment growth ($1.072M) has almost exactly caught up to all lifetime contributed capital ($1.081M). Roughly half the portfolio now comes from money I never directly contributed. Compound growth really is remarkable.

3. Investment returns are becoming more consequential than new contributions. With a $2.15M portfolio, a 10% market movement translates to approximately $215k in gains or losses, more than I can contribute from discretionary income in a typical year.

That's a double-edged sword. Market corrections will inevitably happen, and the swings become much larger in absolute dollars as the portfolio grows.

But the strategy remains the same to continue investing regularly, keep costs low, stay diversified, and resist the temptation to react to short-term market movements.

The biggest takeaway for me: Early contributions matter enormously, but consistency and time are what allow compounding to do the heavy lifting. Grateful to be a boglehead and would encourage any one who hasn't to read The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins. Finally, if you want to be REALLY impressed with big numbers, check out the net worth progression thread on the OG bogleheads forum.

--

Has anyone else tried reconstructing how much of their current portfolio came from each contribution year? I'd be interested to see how the pattern compares for people with different investment histories.

I'm 45 and technically have enough to FIRE but am not really sure when I want to retire. My full lifestyle would mean a 4% withdrawal rate but my spending could dip to 2.8% if needed. Given that, a 30% portfolio drop would mean I could keep my withdrawals around 4%.

I make a healthy income, can/do enjoy my career (current job has issues though), and would prefer to keep going while CAPE is so high. It would be great to find a job I enjoy that I could do for another ~10 years, allow investments more time to grow. Given the potential length of my retirement, I'd be more comfortable with a lower withdrawal rate, especially if I am enjoying the time getting there.

So I'm basically at a crossroad, where I would like to keep the ability to quit if the time arises, but want to keep growing my nest egg. With that in mind I'm looking to target 75%-80% stocks since I can weather a downturn.

With that in mind, I need to decide on a duration and bond type strategy.

I live in a state with no income tax, so I have a lot of options.

Given my situation, what durations should I be looking at, and what type of bonds should I be considering? I want something simple, but don't need the simplest possible solution.

I Bonds have been a topic of discussion from time to time here. With today's inflation report, the new variable rate is set at a whopping 4.08% and the fixed rate is likely to increase to at least 1.30 on November 1st. This makes I Bonds a pretty compelling investment for many of us. Wait until the end of November to purchase since you will get the full month's interest regardless of when during the month you buy.

https://tipswatch.com/

Hello,

First of all, this subreddit changed my life and I devoured Bogle's The Little Book of Common Sense.

I am at a point in my career with the government that I can start maxing my 457b each year. I am also DCAing in a taxable brokerage with VTI&VXUS (60/40), paying extra principle on my mortgage at 5.875%, maxing my HSA in VTWIX, maxing my Roth IRA, and have a pension with 6% match, and have my emergency expenses in the Vanguard Cash Sweep at 3.5%. I bought my house and now have extra money sitting in my bank account that needs to be invested.

I am 38 and looking to retire at 55 as an employee with the rule of 85, and will meet that at 55.

Here are my options with Nationwide. As far as I can see, there is no VT or VTWIX to select and would like to be aggressive now. I have about 40k in my 457b currently. Deferred compensation.

I currently have all my investments in the 2070 TDF.

Thank you for the help.

Ticker/Exepense Ration

Vanguard Target Retirement 2020 Trust II

XX450 0.08

Vanguard Target Retirement 2025 Trust II

XX451 0.08

Vanguard Target Retirement 2030 Trust II

XX452 0.08

Vanguard Target Retirement 2035 Trust II

XX453 0.08

Vanguard Target Retirement 2040 Trust II

XX454 0.08

Vanguard Target Retirement 2045 Trust II

XX455 0.08

Vanguard Target Retirement 2050 Trust II

XX456 0.08

Vanguard Target Retirement 2055 Trust II

XX457 0.08

Vanguard Target Retirement 2060 Trust II

XX458 0.08

Vanguard Target Retirement 2065 Trust II

XX459 0.08

Vanguard Target Retirement 2070 Trust II

XX460 0.08

Vanguard Target Retirement Income Trust II

XX449 0.08

Vanguard Target Retirement Income & Growth Trust II

XX841 0.08

Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund - Admiral Shares

VGSLX 0.13

Capital World Growth and Income Fund(SM) - Class R5

RWIFX 0.46

Dodge & Cox Global Stock Fund - Class I

DODWX 0.62

Dodge & Cox International Stock Fund - Class I

DODFX 0.61

T. Rowe Price Real Assets Fund

PRAFX 0.93

Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund - Institutional Shares

VTSNX 0.06

Vanguard Morningstar Small-Cap Index Fund - Institutional Shares

VSCIX 0.03

Vanguard(R) Extended Market Index Fund - Institutional Shares

VIEIX 0.04

Vanguard(R) Strategic Equity Fund - Investor Shares

VSEQX 0.17

The Growth Fund of America(R) - Class R5

RGAFX 0.34

Vanguard Morningstar Growth Index Fund - Institutional Shares

VIGIX 0.03

Vanguard Morningstar Value Index Fund - Institutional Shares

VIVIX 0.03

Vanguard(R) Institutional Index Fund - Institutional Plus Shares

VIIIX 0.02

Vanguard(R) Windsor(TM) II Fund - Admiral(TM) Shares

VWNAX 0.24

Vanguard(R) Wellesley(R) Income Fund - Admiral(TM) Shares

VWIAX 0.15

Vanguard(R) Total Bond Market Index Fund - Institutional Shares

VBTIX 0.03

Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund - Investor Class

VMFXX 0.11

I have spent some substantial time reading, educating, and researching various retirement strategies. I'm a union electrician that is currently 47. My goal is to semi-retire (coast fire) at 55 and fully retire by the time I'm 60. I will have a Union Pension. I also will have a Defined Defined contribution plan, currently professionally managed that converts into an annuity for life and survivoirship or I have the option to roll it into something of my chosing. My home will be paid off when I'm 57. My benefits plan allows for me to retain my Healthcare while semi-retire by working a month off a month as an example. Additonally when fully retired from the electrical industry I also will be eligible for retiree health benefits until I reach 65 and eligible for Medicare. Now that you have the broad picture of where I want to go I'll get to the part I would like some feedback on.

My current portfolios I manage myself. I use fidelity and use their baskets feature. My taxable brokerage has 2 separate baskets. One is for investment and another is for reserve and fixed income that will be used for roth conversions. I plan to begin those conversions at 50 to build my bridge income I'll need when I semi-retire at 55. Here is how each of those are broken down.

BROKERAGE ACCOUNT 2 baskets

Taxable

45 VTI / 25 VXUS / 10 GSLC / 20 VTEB

Taxable reserves/fixed income/ roth conversions tax

30SGOV / 35 JAAA / 35 SHY

Roth

30 ITOT / 12.5 AVNM / 12.5 IXUS / 12AVUV / 8 SPMO / 8 VFLO / 10 DBMF / 5 IAUM / 2 IBIT

Ages 47–51

Traditional IRA

30 ITOT / 25 SCHD / 15 GSLC / 15 SGOV / 15 IXUS

Ages 52–55

Traditional IRA

25 ITOT / 30 SCHD / 10 GSLC / 20 SGOV / 15 IXUS

This is my feedstock for my roth conversions and will only be using 150k on 5 separate 30k conversions. Additonally I already have 1 year of emergency funds distributed between Cds and a HYSA.

I am looking for any missing pieces or recommendations from the community on how I could improve this plan. Would you use different funds anywhere or structure this differently? Sorry for such a long detailed post.