Anyone use Betterment??

[dmbfan4life20]

Hello everyone,

I was on Bogleheads the other day and some people were talking about Betterment. Wife and I currently have a financial Advisor which we are going to dump because we are getting screwed and finally learned enough to realize that there is absolutely no reason to pay loads on funds and high ER's.

Wife likes the idea of having someone to bounce ideas off of if we need them. Some people were talking about Betterment which is an online brokerage and charges a .25% fee for our current holdings amount which drops to 0.15% fee when we hit 100K. I was leaning towards Vanguard and doing everything myself but they have the personal advisor service for 0.30%. Anyone use either service or is everyone on their own passive investing? I think she likes the security of knowing someone is there to speak with about options who knows more then we do but again, we don't want to give away all of our money for that service.

I am curious mostly about Betterment because it is all online and seems relatively new. Vanguard has been around for 40 years compared to the 5 years Betterment has been around for. Any thoughts?

[tj]

Go to Vanguard. The VPAS is reasonable. try it for one year, if you decide you don't need them then you can cancel the VPAS and just manage your own vanguard account.

[Mr. FI]

Hello,

I currently use Betterment and have been for about two years. I have enjoyed it--it's really simple, I believe in their investment strategy long-term (they have a heavier mix of Developed and Emerging stocks/bonds) and whenever I've had a question, they've been really responsive and helpful.

Lots and lots of people here use Vanguard, and for good reason, they're the cheapest. But I do like having Betterment do the investing, the rebalancing, the re-investing dividends, etc. and the small fee (which to some on these forums is abhorrent) is worth it to me.

Also, our great leader MMM uses Betterment. So that's a good endorsement too!

[tj]

Also, our great leader MMM uses Betterment. So that's a good endorsement too!

MMM has a token amount in Betterment because he gets paid an affiliate fee.

That is different than endorsing it by putting his entire taxable account in the platform.

[Mr. FI]

Also, our great leader MMM uses Betterment. So that's a good endorsement too!

MMM has a token amount in Betterment because he gets paid an affiliate fee.

That is different than endorsing it by putting his entire taxable account in the platform.

But we all know he doesn't endorse things he doesn't believe in, and $100,000 might be token to him, but not to me :)

[harshalpatel]

Betterment and Wealthfront do nothing more than invest you money in low cost vanguard ETFs.

Why not just invest directly in Vanguard?

The 0.25% fee for Betterment is lower than advisors is still not necessary if you invest directly in Vanguard.

Also look at Vanguard's Robo Advisor. They give you the option of talking to human as well.

[dmbfan4life20]

thank you all for the replies