Need advice on Charles Schwab ROTH IRA

[rob1124]

Hello All,

I am 34 years old and have been investing very little in my ROTH IRA for a few years. I am almost done paying all my debt except my mortgage and would like to start investing more aggressively now and would like some advice on my Charles Schwab portfolio. I would like to keep it simple but at the same time want to make sure I have a well balanced portfolio. I currently have 15K and my portfolio looks like this:

40% Large Caps (SWLGX)
40% s&P 500 (SWPPX)
10% REITT ETF (SCHH)
10% Small Caps (SWSSX)

[AlanStache]

Those are probably very low expense ratio = good
with schwab you should have no transaction costs = good

SWPPX and SWLGX are very highly correlated and nearly the same thing.

poking around the other day schwab has a profolio builder that will suggest a set of etfs.  for agressive folk it had 50% large cap and 30% international, and 25% us small cap, 5% cash or something like that.  you may want to try to find it and see what it sais

[terran]

Why both a large cap fund and an S&P 500 fund? They're pretty much the same thing.

Schwab's Total Stock Market Index Fund SWTSX seems like it would be a good replacement for both of those and the small cap fund.

[Car Jack]

My taxable, and a Roth are at Schwab.  I use ETFs only because I've been with Schwab from before they lowered the ERs on mutual funds to match.

Honestly, I'd replace everything you have with SCHB and be done with it.

[rob1124]

Why both a large cap fund and an S&P 500 fund? They're pretty much the same thing.

Schwab's Total Stock Market Index Fund SWTSX seems like it would be a good replacement for both of those and the small cap fund.

I bought those funds a while back when I did not know much about investing I just wanted to get started. That is the reason I am asking for advise as I would like to make sure I have a more efficient portfolio. So do you suggest to throw everything at SWTSX? Thanks for your advice.

[rob1124]

My taxable, and a Roth are at Schwab.  I use ETFs only because I've been with Schwab from before they lowered the ERs on mutual funds to match.

Honestly, I'd replace everything you have with SCHB and be done with it.

Thanks for the advice. I will definitely look into this.

[terran]

Why both a large cap fund and an S&P 500 fund? They're pretty much the same thing.

Schwab's Total Stock Market Index Fund SWTSX seems like it would be a good replacement for both of those and the small cap fund.

I bought those funds a while back when I did not know much about investing I just wanted to get started. That is the reason I am asking for advise as I would like to make sure I have a more efficient portfolio. So do you suggest to throw everything at SWTSX? Thanks for your advice.

I would. It's basically the Schwab version of Vanguard's VTSAX which you'll see recommended everywhere. You might consider a total international fund like SWISX as well if you don't have international investments elsewhere.