Personal Investments • Portfolio Selection Advice

Hello boglehead community,

Emergency funds: $10,500 (about only 3 months expenses)

Debt: $322,000 mortgage is our only debt

Tax Filing Status: Married Filing Jointly

Tax Rate: 22% Federal, 8% State

State of Residence: California

Ages: She is 55/He is 66

I can only guess on my desired allocation after taking the Vanguard quiz. I think I want some international but now sure how to figure that out as it did not mention that in the Vanguard quiz.
Desired Asset allocation: 70% stocks / 30% bonds
Desired International allocation: xx% of stocks (not sure?)

We started too late but our portfolio is below.

Current Retirement Accounts

Her 457 Pretax account: $44,189.66
100% 2050 Target Date Fund
xx% fund name (ticker symbol) (expense ratio)
No match available.

Her 457 account ROTH: $59,478.14
100% 2050 Target Date Fund
xx% fund name (ticker symbol) (expense ratio)
No match available.

Same Target Date fund for both Pretax and ROTH 457 accounts.

Target Date 2050 has the following target allocations:

• Fund Target Allocation %
  Large Cap Index Fund 10.83%
  Large Cap Fund 15.47%
  Mid Cap Index Fund 4.50%
  Mid Cap Fund 5.62%
  Small Cap Index Fund 1.80%
  Small Cap Fund 2.24%
  International Index Fund 16.71%
  International Fund 20.87%
  Bond Index Fund 4.08%
  Bond Fund 6.81%
  Short Term Investment Fund 0.62%
  Short Term Investment Fund - Cash 0.62%
  RhumbLine TIPS Index Fund 4.04%
  Cohen & Steers Real Assets 5.79%
  
  Expenses are as follows:
  Expenses per $1000 investment (both Gross and Net) = $1.90
  Total expense ratio (both Gross and Net) = 0.19%
  Operating expenses (both Gross and Net) = 0.19%
  
  Her Vanguard Traditional IRA: $47,325
  16% Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND) (.03%)
  6% Vanguard Total International Bond Index ETF (BNDX) (.07%)
  78% Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) (.03%)
  
  Her Vanguard ROTH IRA: $74,396 total
  1% Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND) (.03%)
  1% Vanguard Total International Bond Index ETF (BNDX) (.07%)
  42% Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) (.03%)
  57% Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund ETF (VXUS) (.08%)
  <1% Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund (VMFXX) (.11%)
  
  IRAs are in a managed account at Vanguard and invested aggressively for growth.
  
  **He has no retirement savings.
  
  He is retired and only gets social security of a few thousand a month.
  She wants to try to work until 68 to 72 years old.
  
  Current contributions:
  Roth 457: 1400/monthly
  IRAs: None
  
  Increasing contributions this summer to:
  To ROTH IRA only (not putting anything in anything but ROTH now): $8000/year
  To ROTH 457: $30,500/year
  
  She will get a pension of about $5500 a month and hopefully social security too of about $2500 monthly.
  
  Questions:
  1. Is the target date fund I am in expensive? Can I do better on my own using one of the Bogleheads lazy portfolio recommendations. I am looking at the two or three portfolio. I want to stay pretty aggressive to try to get growth and grow the nest egg a little more before we go more conservative and try preserving because we are so far behind.
  
  For the three fund options I was considering getting ETFs or mutual funds at Vanguard in the following percentages:
  
  ETFs
  VTI 64%
  VXUS 16%
  BND 20%
  
  or other option
  Mutual funds:
  VTSAX 64%
  VTIAX 16%
  VBTLX 20%
  
  2. Is rebalancing something I can do if I keep it simple? Seems complicated.
  
  3. Vanguard IRAs are currently managed (and the fees are low but...) I want to keep my costs as low as possible so I want to know if with the IRAs should I just put them in Vanguard retirement target date funds or go on my own with one of the lazy portfolios?
  
  4. Do I leave everything as is? (although it does bother me to pay fees to someone to do something like rebalance when I am a really disciplined person and will do it if I know how).
  
  All of this asking for advice is that I am so worried if we will have enough when we need it. I am already 55 and so am I too late to get enough put away.
  
  Thank you for any help you can give me,
  
  Charlie

Statistics: Posted by ckirk55 — Thu Mar 28, 2024 11:16 pm — Replies 6 — Views 556

---