Author Topic: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)  (Read 14812 times)

TheFirstMan

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Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« on: January 21, 2015, 04:09:19 AM »
So I was surprised that I couldn't find much here about Wise Banyan (Wisebanyan). Someone please point me to where this conversation is happening if I missed it.

I got off the waitlist, and signed up with just a bit o' cash. I'm waiting for my account to actually be ready, though, after the deposit.

I'm wondering who else is in, what you're seeing, if you're convinced and placing a substantial portion of your portfolio there, etc.

Thanks.

wtjbatman

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #1 on: January 21, 2015, 08:32:36 AM »
It's just like Betterment, only "free", right? There is a bit of a divide on these forums between those that think Betterment is providing a service and those who think people are crazy to invest with them and pay any additional fees. I'm not surprised other robo-advisors aren't popular here either.

Dodge

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #2 on: January 21, 2015, 10:10:06 PM »
We hear more about Betterment, because they advertise. I'd love an in-depth thread on Wise Banyan and Schwab's free ETF investing service when it launches.

I envision these services being like Mint.com. Providing a useful service for free, in exchange for ads and upselling us on products. Unfortunately, it shares a lot of the disadvantages of the other Robo Advisors. What makes Wise Banyan better than a LifeStrategy fund at Vanguard?

Wise Banyan gives you a complex portfolio with 9 ETFs, making it difficult to leave, as you'll either have to liquidate and have a big capital gains tax bill, or move the funds directly to a new broker, where you will be stuck managing/rebalancing it for the rest of your life.

arebelspy

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #3 on: January 22, 2015, 10:28:55 AM »
We hear more about Betterment, because they advertise.

+1.  They pay bloggers to write about them, so you hear about them nonstop. Personal Capital is the same way.
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
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Dodge

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #4 on: February 10, 2015, 08:02:40 PM »
Anyone have any experiences to share?  Wisebanyan is a great option, would be great if more people heard of them.

Maxman

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #5 on: March 29, 2015, 07:24:26 PM »
I just signed up for WiseBanyan and deposited $100 to test them out. I am told it will take about 5 business days to transfer and set up the account. The only fee structure that I have seen is a $75 transfer out to another financial institution. There is no fee to transfer to a bank checking account.

They say that they plan to charge for tax harvesting, and various yet to be mentioned additional services.

Generator515

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #6 on: March 30, 2015, 08:25:01 AM »
I just signed up and funded with $100. The account opened this weekend and I was left with the following with an 8.0 risk score:

VTI - 43.3%
VEA - 24.1
VWO - 5.3
LQD - 7.4
VCSH - 2.7
SJNK - 2.7
VGIT - 6.6
TIP - 5.3
VNQ - 2.5

BeerBeard

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #7 on: April 01, 2015, 01:29:46 PM »
I like them, performance so far seems to be about the same as betterment(For the last month at least). I like the wisebanyan interface better, but I do like some of the tools betterment has for goals but neither makes one better than the other. Both sites are easy to use and I can just use a compound interest calculator to replace the betterment goal graph. If performance stays the same with identical allocation models I'll just use wisebanyan as it is free.

If anyone wants to skip the waitlist they can use my referral link.

https://www.wisebanyan.com/referral/kcEwwywuD

Also when your account is setup you can post your link so other can skip the wait-list.

 My account's allocation is very similar to Generator515:

VTI   48.4
VEA   26.9
VWO   6.1
LQD   5.1
VCSH 0.6
SJNK 2.9
VGIT 4.5
TIP   3.6
VNQ   1.6
USD   0.4

Maxman

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #8 on: April 03, 2015, 01:29:15 PM »

tj

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #9 on: April 03, 2015, 04:54:05 PM »
Looks like WiseBanyan supports fractional shares. Good to know.

Maxman

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #10 on: April 03, 2015, 05:07:47 PM »
I know this forum is mostly anti Betterment as I read in an old thread. What is the consensus on WiseBanyan. Since there is no external fee involved is this a viable alternative to Vanguard Life Strategy? Does the spread over other areas such as Reit's make WiseBayan's choice of funds less risky?

tj

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #11 on: April 03, 2015, 05:24:13 PM »
I think folks question the long term sustainability of the platform. They're going to run out of venture capital eventually.

Maxman

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #12 on: April 03, 2015, 05:27:41 PM »
They have hinted that in the future they will make money off of tax harvesting, financial planning, and an IRA option.

Dodge

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #13 on: April 03, 2015, 05:31:58 PM »
I know this forum is mostly anti Betterment as I read in an old thread. What is the consensus on WiseBanyan. Since there is no external fee involved is this a viable alternative to Vanguard Life Strategy? Does the spread over other areas such as Reit's make WiseBayan's choice of funds less risky?

In general I disagree with WiseBanyan's investment strategy, but because they include REITS, and it's at a low enough percentage to not matter.  WiseBanyan being free really makes me question their long term viability, but that only matters if you're using WiseBanyan in a taxable account.  The worst case scenario is probably having to incur large capital gains if WiseBanyan goes under, and you need to either sell all your holdings, or move them to another broker and be stuck with manually managing a 10+ fund portfolio for the rest of your life.

If you're considering WiseBanyan for your IRA money however, it's a great option.  It's actually the cheapest option currently available for an automatically rebalancing stock/bond world fund, which is quite impressive.

thanks

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #14 on: April 27, 2015, 04:13:17 PM »
Hey peeps. I am new to the forum. Let me just say that my user name is 'thanks' because I appreciate all the advice and insight I have learned from MMM and his community.

I will chime in here about WB.

I am using wisebanyan for two accounts currently. One is a Roth IRA which I contribute to weekly via automatic deposits. Then I have a taxable account also which I let sit, without auto deposits. I use that one as sort of a second level emergency fund, allocated conservatively, so I don't have to keep all my E-fund in cash.

I'll admit that the interface isn't as nice as Betterment's, but the two things I like with WB as opposed to Betterment are the lack of added fees, and the ability/option to let funds sit if you want without auto deposit on smaller balances without a penalty fee.

That said, I'm also using Betterment for non-retirement goal based saving, because it is well suited for that purpose.

FYI:
If you want more VNQ (REIT ETF) or another ETF focus in your Roth IRA, you can always get that directly via Vanguard, or it is also on the list of commission free trades at TD Ameritrade, and they do not have the minimum that Vanguard has.


akstarr

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #15 on: May 01, 2015, 02:58:20 AM »
Thanks for the link for the account set up. I just opened one tonight and will see how it goes.

lovesasa

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #16 on: May 04, 2015, 11:31:24 PM »
I also just signed up for WiseBanyan. I was looking for an alternative to my Roth IRA with American Funds which was high fee anyway, and I recently learned I wasn't eligible to contribute to anyway due to the Foreign Earned Income Exemption (FEIE).

From what I've been reading online, a lot of companies are making it much harder for expats to invest in mutual funds due to some recent 2012/2013 law changes. Additionally, I don't yet meet a lot of the minimum requirements for the Vanguard Admiral Shares unless I neglect my desired asset allocation. Another poster on here recommended Vanguard ETFs instead, so I'd been looking into that and had done some reading and come up with my desired asset allocation. I was excited, but it seemed like a LOT of work, and I still wasn't sure how much trouble it would be to open a Vanguard account from overseas, as I've read of people having trouble with them (as well as other brokers).

In my looking around, I stumbled across WiseBanyan. I signed up for the waiting list and in the interim did some reading. WiseBanyan seemed to have more or less the same breakdown of ETFs that I was looking into buying, but for way less trouble than trying to manage them myself, and without the partial share issue I was going to run into with my desired strategy of monthly buys (yeah yeah Dollar Cost Averaging may not be so helpful, but it helps my budget and makes sure I actually contribute SOMETHING instead of waiting forever).

The only snag I've run into so far was that my employer does not have a US address (I do, so I legally fit all of the requirements for signing up for their accounts and from what I've researched for buying ETFs). E-mailed customer support over the weekend and got a helpful reply Monday morning US time. Currently waiting on my account to finish processing.

I put in $1000 to start with and see if I like it. I thought that was fairly conservative, though now that I see you all putting in $100 maybe it's not as conservative as I thought.

lovesasa

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #17 on: May 04, 2015, 11:32:45 PM »
They assessed me with a risk score of 7.1, but I pushed it up to 7.8 to get a 70/30 stock/bond ratio, which is still a bit more conservative than I'd like. I may change it in the future.

dragoncar

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #18 on: May 05, 2015, 01:28:15 AM »
I can't get past the name, honestly.

ferz980

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #19 on: March 13, 2016, 10:09:26 AM »
I have been a WiseBanyan user since March 2015, and I also tested Wealthfront.  I've since decided to move my entire portfolio to WiseBanyan due to the savings in fees compared to other services, and I like the asset allocation better than the other services.  I use a risk score of 9.9.  I'd be happy to answer any questions about the service.  The new app and website design are great and they have caught up to Betterment and Wealthfront in every way now that they have inexpensive tax loss harvesting.

If you're interested in skipping the WiseBanyan waitlist use this link: https://www.wisebanyan.com/referral/Xh2ioXl6v

rc_banyan

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #20 on: August 25, 2016, 10:31:18 AM »
I signed up to find out more about other people's Wisebanyan experiences.
I've been using it since April 2016 and have 3.84% return so far with a 74% stock allocation, not bad so far!

Does anyone use the tax harvesting function? Is it worth it?
Why does anyone use the likes of betterment instead of this, if betterment charges fees, and Wisebanyan doesn't? Is it just less know right now?

If anyone wants to sign up and skip the wait, but more importantly and get a free 15 bucks, you can use my referral link!

MOD NOTE: Link removed.  PM poster if you'd like to use his referral.
« Last Edit: August 25, 2016, 09:27:30 PM by arebelspy »

richschmidt

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #21 on: February 02, 2017, 11:33:57 AM »
Is this really the only WiseBanyan thread on the MMM forums? Does no one else have experience with them that they want to share?

I've been using Betterment as a replacement for CapitalOne 360 for targeted savings accounts (for our next car, vacation, home reno, etc) because they make it simple and it gets me better returns than having the money sit in my checking account or CO360. For that use, it seems great.

But it sounds like WiseBanyan will do the same thing for me, with no fees at all. And, from what I'm seeing in other places, the returns are essentially the same.

I saw WiseBanyan mentioned in the comments on MMM's latest blog post and came to the forums to see opinions on it & learn more... and found only this thread (plus one other fleeting mention of it in a thread about something else).

So... anyone else want to chime in on why it's great or stinks or whatever?

richschmidt

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #22 on: February 02, 2017, 11:35:04 AM »
I forgot to mention... I found this site pretty helpful in comparing the robo-advisors...

https://senzu.io/investing/robo-advisors

arebelspy

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #23 on: February 02, 2017, 02:17:04 PM »
Is this really the only WiseBanyan thread on the MMM forums?

No.

Here's a few others, from a quick search:
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/investor-alley/anyone-using-wisebanyan/
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/investor-alley/wisebanyan-robo-advisor-now-supports-tax-loss-harvesting-fee-capped-at-$20-mo/
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/investor-alley/wisebanyan-opinions/

There's more, those were just the first 3.  Do a search to find more.

Not much discussion in any of them though, most of us DIY, for good reason.
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

richschmidt

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Re: Wise Banyan users thread (Wisebanyan)
« Reply #24 on: March 14, 2017, 10:38:32 AM »
Is this really the only WiseBanyan thread on the MMM forums?

No.

Here's a few others, from a quick search:
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/investor-alley/anyone-using-wisebanyan/
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/investor-alley/wisebanyan-robo-advisor-now-supports-tax-loss-harvesting-fee-capped-at-$20-mo/
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/investor-alley/wisebanyan-opinions/

There's more, those were just the first 3.  Do a search to find more.

Not much discussion in any of them though, most of us DIY, for good reason.

Thanks. I did a search before I posted that and only found 2-3 mentions, often in threads about other things. This was after I bumped into the search feature failing on the huge database, finding a thread on how to limit searches by forum and/or date, etc. I spent more time on it than I should. Too weird that I didn't find any of the threads you linked to (or that are showing up for me when I search now). I don't know what was going on that day... but I'm glad it's not happening now. :D

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!