I mean if every private investor switched to passive funds. Would it just mean every company went up and down at the same level? Surely eventually you lose the company price being linked to it's actual worth?

US based.

I just learned about something called "back door Roth IRA". It is a process that allows one to contribute non-deductible (after tax) funds to an IRA account and then do a Roth conversion into a Roth IRA account. This way, you are taxed on your income that you contribute to the account, but all your future earnings stay tax and penalty free forever.

I am confused by this so much! Why in the world would anyone put their after tax investments into a regular taxable brokerage account instead of doing a backdoor Roth conversion? There is no difference in immediate taxes -- you are still paying your current year marginal tax rate on your income before contributing to the account. I guess it makes a difference for people who have no ordinary taxable income (people living off of their investment income that has a lower capital gains tax rate). But for anyone who works a normal job or is self-employed and pays regular income tax, there is no difference.

There is no limit on how much you can invest. There are no income limits. You already paid income tax on the money you are contributing, so there is no additional taxable event. All your capital gains and dividends, etc. are completely tax free, which simplifies your tax accounting. You can withdraw original contributions any time tax free and penalty free. As long as you satisfy the 5 year rule, you can withdraw your earnings tax and penalty free once you are 59 1/2 years old. I guess this could be viewed as a limitation, but I think most people would not be affected by this because they are still working at that age.

You can make an argument that this is not available to everyone because many people already have pre-tax funds sitting in a traditional or rollover IRA account, so the Roth conversion will be taxed on the blend of your pre-tax and post-tax money. However, there is an easy way around it for many people with regular jobs -- just do a reverse rollover from all your post-tax IRA accounts to your employer 401k plan, assuming they support incoming rollovers from IRAs. Then, once you have zero pre-tax funds remaining in your IRA accounts, you can do the Roth conversion on just your nondeductible contributions.

Can anyone please confirm my understanding of this approach and try to poke holes in it? Thanks!

The 4% rule in retirement is theoretically meant to last you 30 years. But why is a robust retirement portfolio going to zero after 30 years of 4% withdrawals? If the remainder of the portfolio is in a 60/40 allocation, isn’t what’s left still growing to some extent? When we talk about coasting and boiling points, it’s because the portfolio is generating more in returns than you’re contributing. And over a long enough time horizon, the hockey stick goes more and more vertical. I understand sequence of returns risk and inflation, and certainly the market isn’t always going up and to the right. But if you amass a certain amount of money, aren’t the portfolio’s gains in a given year replacing at least some of what you withdrew? Maybe I’m dumb, so just tell me how and why I’m being dumb.

I have a family member that has 10-20 years of life expectancy left. I know you never truly know but this is a rough guess. They are in good shape for their age but won't be forever because that's life. They have $200k in total saved for retirement plus social security. What would you say is a good SWR for someone in this scenario? Right now they are mobile enough to travel and sightsee. Thanks.

Hello all,

I’m a lurker usually but I do have a question. I graduated in May and started working in June as an engineer for Jacobs Solutions Inc. who has a publicly traded stock. I already get my full match from my employer for my 401k and am 100% in on VT in my Roth. Currently aggressively paying off student loans as well as building up my emergency fund, so I put about $200 into my Roth a month currently.

With my current portfolio in mind, I have just been offered the ability to enroll in our ESPP. I get 5% off the stock price at purchase and I don’t believe there’s a minimum or maximum. Would this be something that I should pursue now or later into the future? I’m not very familiar with ESPPs so I just wanted to see if this was worth it long term. Thanks.

Here's my current investment breakdown:

All in all, I'm currently over target on Domestic Index Funds and trying to slowly rebalance over the next couple years by buying more International Index Funds and Bonds via my 401k.

Anything I'm missing?

Has anyone retired early in their 50s with about 1.5-2x the money they need, no children, and just called it a win and went all in on VTINX for the long run?

I get one can go high risk or low risk with the excess and it doesn’t really matter, but does anyone go low risk?

Dang it! I was automatically enrolled in the work 401k 4 years ago. I just never paid attention to it. I also have a Roth IRA that I max out annually, and a taxable brokerage account

The past several years I always buy VOO in my Roth IRA, then another $13k or so into my brokerage via check to Schwab twice per year

Just barely looked more into my 401k and regret not putting in more from the start. I changed it to 40 percent now which will put me at about $13k total for the year, nothing I can do about it.

Going forward I will change it to 30 percent from 2027 onwards. 40 now just to put in as much as I can for the rest of the year. But onwards 30 will be fine and close to the max anyway

Match isn’t a whole lot, I’m just more upset I missed out on the big contribution limit per year. I’m in an s and p 500 tracker with the expense ratio at 0.02%

Anyway, is this a huge deal to miss out on? Or is a taxable brokerage somewhat similar? Thank you!

Like a true boglehead, I would rather set and forget. My tax-advantaged accounts are all in VTWAX or TDFs. With these, I like that I don't have to re-balance to get some international exposure. My personal brokerage account is currently divided between VTIAX and VTSAX and I would incur a huge tax bill if I were to convert to VTWAX. It's mildly annoying to have to check the balances every once in a while.

Anyway, I'm just sharing this boring story in case it's a helpful perspective to new investors. My taxable investments have actually done well, but now that my finances are getting more complex as the years go by (mortgage, family, etc), I am craving more simplicity.

Until very recently I was thinking of moving back to North America so I had VTI/BND portfolio.

Now I need to change my portfolio entirely because I am never moving back to avoid the withholding taxes.

I am thinking

50%vwra, 20% cspx, 30% exus

Appreciate any opinions.

Has anyone had a good experience with Vanguard unilaterally selling their small biz account to Ascensus?

The transfer seems to have been done in-kind, but upon requesting it be transferred back in-kind they say it "cannot be done." I've submitted a request thru Vanguard twice and the transfer request is closed and (incorrectly) marked completed with zero communication until you call and even then the phone reps are as confused about what happened as I am.

Has anyone had better luck transferring it to another provider, such as Fidelity?

The idea of having the money out of the market for two-weeks while a paper check is mailed, or worse - the check is lost, is disconcerting and if I must do it I don't feel like rewarding Vanguard with my continued business.

Under Ascensus, in addition to the declared fund fees I am also charged an additional $20 per fund. I've consolidated the number of Vanguard funds to lessen the costs, but it still seems like alot for nothing.

Vanguard obviously made money on the sale, but do they continue to make additional money from it outside the declared fund fees? Vanguard SEC filings have previously identified positions registered directly to “Ascensus Trust Company FBO Vanguard,” [SEC Vanguard filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/34066/000168386324008416/f39981d1.htm)

I realize that the higher yield for US 10-years is a bad thing for the government, but why isn't this good news for a bond investor?

If I am looking for a safe "asset protection" kind of investment, why wouldn't investors buy these bonds or ETFs that hold them (e.g. FXNAX)? Seems like a good, safe place to put cash versus Gold or a HYSA. I believe my logic is wrong but not sure why.

Educate me, please.

I’m 39 and my husband is turning 38. I max out my retirement funds and as does my husband. Combined in retirement we have between 650-700k.

We own our apartment, so have a mortgage. Both our kids have 529s; we have 100k in a HSYA and 134k in a brokerage split between VOO and a gold ETF. We plan to just keep the 100k as is but are comfortable with that amount on hand in that account for emergencies and plan to contribute 3k-5k into the brokerage from now on. Thoughts?

In my 30s definitely some years from retirement

Plan for my holdings are

50-60% in VTI

30-40% IN VXUS

10% in GOVT

I am happy with vti+vxus but is govt the right bond choice for me? Or should I be looking at something else?

Is there any benefit to rolling this over to fidelity? I like my investment options with Vanguard better. I tried to get fee answers with phone support(subpar) and read the fee schedule and can’t find anything alarmingly expensive to keep it in Vanguard.

I’m 61 and semi retired. Tired of paying an advisor 1.1% fees to manage my traditional Ira. I’m thinking of self managing it with fidelity with simple index funds. I’ve recently learned of the the 3 fund strategy and believe it could work well for my situation. I’m leaning towards a 70-20-10 portfolio. 50%sp500 20% international stocks 20%bonds and 10% cash. I’m looking for some growth and 8-10% returns. Any advice would be appreciated. Do I need to pay fidelity. .89% or can I do just as well on my own. I’m comfortable rebalancing a simple portfolio. Whatever funds I buy I plan to hold for 20-30 years starting to take 4% at age 65 when I file for SS

Hi, I have $4k sitting in an HSA fund in Fidelity from an employer a couple of years ago.

What is a Fidelity stock that I can set and forget it in?

I haven’t invested in it anything, because I know California has more taxes than other states that make it. I came across something called TIPS in my research, but not sure if there is a symbol for it.

Hey! I am 30 based in the UK.

Looking for some feedback on my current portfolio.

I currently have £96k invested with Vanguard, split:

Life strategy 100% equity - £87k
FTSE Global All Cap Index Fund - £7k
FTSE Emerging Markets (VFEG) - £2k

My questions are:

Should I bother with having both Life Strategy and Global All Cap? Is there too much overlap?

I recently started investing in VFEG to reduce my US/UK exposure. I’m getting increasing worried about political instability in both countries and the AI bubble which I don’t see as an imminent issue but possibly going to crash in the next 5 or so years.

Any feedback / suggestion on my current portfolio?

Should I be increasing bond exposure? If so any recommendations for Vanguard bonds? I’m only 30 so would prefer to be primarily in equities but I also think I need to diversify a bit more.

I am an invest and forget type investor so don’t want to be actively managing my portfolio too frequently.

I just started with cal trans out of college as a transportation engineer, and I have access to a 457b plan. My question is should I open a pre tax 457b and have a Roth IRA? Or is there a better combination I can use? Also what would be the best way to split my money up into the accounts. Thanks in advance for the help