The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Investor Alley => Topic started by: dandypandys on February 26, 2016, 09:31:23 AM
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HI,
I have a case study going in another thread. 42 yrs old edit- I'm 40!!! I had to ask my husband how old i was hahahah, ( see i really need help with numbers!!!!) don't mind working until 59.5 because I have such a jammy job. But need a little handholding on finishing up housecleaning in my retirement fund.
Thanks to this forum, that led me to jlcollinsnh site, where I am jreading the stock series.. then to watching youtubes with Jack owner of Vanguard, I have changed my future allocations to 75% VTSAX- so glad my work has this as an option.
They don't however have vbtlx on their list.. so wondering about how much and what to do about Bonds.. there is 1 Vanguard one. Then i don't know what to do about my 17k in international.. should i move it to VTSAX? This seems to be what Jack suggests, or should i choose one of the 2 Vanguard international options my work has? I will post my options below with their fees and then what I have currently. I did a whole bunch of transferring already- it was scary fun, as I don't know what I am doing but moving it all out of the various options into VTSAX felt great. I need you guys to give me confidence and hold my hand for the international and bonds :) Thanks in advance!!!!!
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Among people who put most of their money in index funds, very few have 0% international. I think John Bogle is one of the greatest figures in the investment world, and like you prefer the Vanguard Total Stock Market index. But many people feel diversification to international markets makes sense.
If you just want diversification benefit, and you're scared of international stock, then 20% might make the most sense. The world wide market caps, by country, have the U.S. stock market at 53% of the world total. So the other end of the spectrum is to invest 50% U.S. and 50% international. Either U.S. or international could perform better in a given decade, and it's not possible to predict the winner in advance.
Most retirement plans through work are 401(k) plans that deduct from taxes. That's a good place to put bonds, since otherwise you pay tax on the income from the bonds / bond fund.