@nightglider wrote:
@mongstradamus wrote:
@Kenny wrote:
No need to feel bad. We all have to start somewhere. It gives me an idea of where to investigate when the time permits. I've had very limited experience with managing my 403b with my work retirement account. (I've actively changed the percentages of the funds/stocks and have done well, I think! 7-9% returns on that before the stock market plunged down recently.)It's not best idea to check stock market daily. Just I vest in whatever you want to invest in and check maybe every quarter imo. Should be looking long term
Agreed. I only started investing in Dec of last year and was keeping up with the markets constantly. That fell to hourly, then to the end of the day. Now I no longer feel compelled to do so, but I get the itch every so often (seeing my balance go up is pretty nice). Fortunately, I've already prepared myself for the long term and never sold out of fear (though I have yet to experience a crash...).
Oh no, I don't keep up with the market constantly. I do a quarterly analysis of the performance of the funds that I have in my account and adjust the new moneys into the most profitable funds..
@Kenny wrote:
@nightglider wrote:
@mongstradamus wrote:
@Kenny wrote:
No need to feel bad. We all have to start somewhere. It gives me an idea of where to investigate when the time permits. I've had very limited experience with managing my 403b with my work retirement account. (I've actively changed the percentages of the funds/stocks and have done well, I think! 7-9% returns on that before the stock market plunged down recently.)It's not best idea to check stock market daily. Just I vest in whatever you want to invest in and check maybe every quarter imo. Should be looking long term
Agreed. I only started investing in Dec of last year and was keeping up with the markets constantly. That fell to hourly, then to the end of the day. Now I no longer feel compelled to do so, but I get the itch every so often (seeing my balance go up is pretty nice). Fortunately, I've already prepared myself for the long term and never sold out of fear (though I have yet to experience a crash...).
Oh no, I don't keep up with the market constantly. I do a quarterly analysis of the performance of the funds that I have in my account and adjust the new moneys into the most profitable funds..
It sounds like you're chasing past returns. This is typically a bad idea and usually results in underperformance. Have you compared the returns of your current strategy with a benchmark to gauge your progress? If you haven't, I suggest you look into rebalancing. If you have, then feel free to tell me to shut my mouth. 
I also suggest you extend the analysis to every 6 months.
@nightglider wrote:
@Kenny wrote:
@nightglider wrote:
@mongstradamus wrote:
@Kenny wrote:
No need to feel bad. We all have to start somewhere. It gives me an idea of where to investigate when the time permits. I've had very limited experience with managing my 403b with my work retirement account. (I've actively changed the percentages of the funds/stocks and have done well, I think! 7-9% returns on that before the stock market plunged down recently.)It's not best idea to check stock market daily. Just I vest in whatever you want to invest in and check maybe every quarter imo. Should be looking long term
Agreed. I only started investing in Dec of last year and was keeping up with the markets constantly. That fell to hourly, then to the end of the day. Now I no longer feel compelled to do so, but I get the itch every so often (seeing my balance go up is pretty nice). Fortunately, I've already prepared myself for the long term and never sold out of fear (though I have yet to experience a crash...).
Oh no, I don't keep up with the market constantly. I do a quarterly analysis of the performance of the funds that I have in my account and adjust the new moneys into the most profitable funds..
It sounds like you're chasing past returns. This is typically a bad idea and usually results in underperformance. Have you compared the returns of your current strategy with a benchmark to gauge your progress? If you haven't, I suggest you look into rebalancing. If you have, then feel free to tell me to shut my mouth.
I also suggest you extend the analysis to every 6 months.
Chasing returns isn't always the best strategy. Just reblance once or twice an year and you should be fine. This is my view on investing in mutual funds, you can't control what the market does, but you can control the fees you have to pay.
@heyitsyeh wrote:I am going with a single index fund that covers S&P 500 until I have enough to afford two of their Spartan/FidelityAdvantage class funds (which require 10k minimum investment each). It's a bit harder with Fidelity funds but you can't just straight up buy Vanguard funds because of the external transaction fees.
If you are doing it in an ira , you could try something like this buy one of their fidelity freedom index funds or their four in one fund. Just keep on investing till you have 40k then you can buy the funds seperately and slice and dice whatever asset allocation you want to go with?
My investments are with Vanguard (IRA and taxable), so I have no experience with Fidelity (maybe that makes me biased? ). I'm using the aggressive allocation/balance from Charles Schwab's book. This is 50% Large cap, 20% Small cap, 25% foreign (developed markets in my case), and 5% cash. There are 2 problems with my attempts to keep that balanced, though: my small overall portfolio, and the fund minimums with Vanguard. I'm currently rebalancing every two months (based on Vanguard's policies to prevent market timing), but as my portfolio grows, I'll be able to extend that to 6.
ETA: I'm not a financial advisor, either, just some guy on the internet.
@nightglider wrote:My investments are with Vanguard (IRA and taxable), so I have no experience with Fidelity (maybe that makes me biased?
ETA: I'm not a financial advisor, either, just some guy on the internet.
I am using vanguard also for ira and taxable. In my IRA keeping it simple with TR fund 90-10 stocks to bonds. In my regular taxable i have some Etfs. Vanguard total market (VTI), total international (vxus), Healthcare (VHT), and small cap (VB). Small caps and international aren't doing so hot this year haha.
@mongstradamus wrote:
@nightglider wrote:My investments are with Vanguard (IRA and taxable), so I have no experience with Fidelity (maybe that makes me biased?
ETA: I'm not a financial advisor, either, just some guy on the internet.
I am using vanguard also for ira and taxable. In my IRA keeping it simple with TR fund 90-10 stocks to bonds. In my regular taxable i have some Etfs. Vanguard total market (VTI), total international (vxus), Healthcare (VHT), and small cap (VB). Small caps and international aren't doing so hot this year haha.
I'm holding only Index Funds, but I've been toying around with the idea of converting them to ETF's. The tax efficiency provides no appeal because I already have that accounted for. The only benefit I would see is the lower management fee, but even those are matched by the Admiral Shares.
My current holdings are VFINX and NAESX. My foreign holdings are in my TSP (the lack of minimums there gives me a break on balancing...kinda), but next year I'll be putting money (IRA and taxable) into VDVIX.
I just checked out those funds' performances YTD. You're not kidding about small caps and foreign.
@nightglider wrote:
@mongstradamus wrote:
@nightglider wrote:My investments are with Vanguard (IRA and taxable), so I have no experience with Fidelity (maybe that makes me biased?
ETA: I'm not a financial advisor, either, just some guy on the internet.
I am using vanguard also for ira and taxable. In my IRA keeping it simple with TR fund 90-10 stocks to bonds. In my regular taxable i have some Etfs. Vanguard total market (VTI), total international (vxus), Healthcare (VHT), and small cap (VB). Small caps and international aren't doing so hot this year haha.
I'm holding only Index Funds, but I've been toying around with the idea of converting them to ETF's. The tax efficiency provides no appeal because I already have that accounted for. The only benefit I would see is the lower management fee, but even those are matched by the Admiral Shares.
My current holdings are VFINX and NAESX. My foreign holdings are in my TSP (the lack of minimums there gives me a break on balancing...kinda), but next year I'll be putting money (IRA and taxable) into VDVIX.
I just checked out those funds' performances YTD. You're not kidding about small caps and foreign.
my TR fund is made of us stock , total international, us bond , and international bond. International stock is killing me i am barely up for the year :-( . I basically have been using etf in my taxable because of lower expense ratios since i don't have nearly enough to get admiral shares which are 10k each i think. Also its more for fun where i can slice and dice which funds i want.