The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Investor Alley => Topic started by: h2ogal on April 14, 2015, 08:57:48 PM
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Is anyone using Fidelity Spartan funds for a lazy portfolio instead of Vanguard?
What comments do all you have on this set of funds:
10% FSIVX Spartan International Index fund
60% FSTVX Spartan Total Market (US)
30% FINPX Inflation Protected Bond Fund
(For now Im satisfied with the 60/10/30 mix and plan to keep a 'survival' level buffer in Cash also)
Oh, and another question regarding Cash - where do you stache your "cash"? Money Market Fund? Regular Bank Savings Acct? Leave it in Cash Reserves at your brokerage for convenience?
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There are quite a few on here that use Fidelity. I totally get why Vanguard is the leader, but I already had accounts with Fidelity, and as soon as I found their Spartan funds, I saw no reason to shift over as I really liked Fido in general.
I don't do international funds, but I do have a lazy Fido portfolio:
75% - Spartan Total Market Index advantage class (FSTVX)
10% - Spartan US Bond Index advantage class (FSITX)
10% - Spartan REIT advantage class (FSRVX)
5% - cash
I have most of the cash in an Ally savings account, but some of it is "dry powder" in a money market account with Fido (less than 1% tho).
The only comment I have on your choices would be if you had taken a look at Fidelity Spartan Inflation-Protected Bond Index Fund (FSIYX) in place of the FINPX you currently have. It has a lower expense ratio, and seems to be performing better than FINPX (if I am reading the comparisons correctly - 1 year performance is 3.17% vs. 2.74%, but FSIYX is a newish fund without enough history to compare further out).
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Fidelity
^ what I use to check Fido funds against Vanguard
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Hi FrankiesGirl - Thank you so much for the advice on the Spartan bond fund.
I will look into that! I have several IRAs and old 401Ks at Fidelity, and I use the fullview app and the budget and expense tracker which is really helping me get ahold of my spending.
I found this tool last night, which helps analyze fund fees. Going to try this out also...
http://apps.finra.org/fundanalyzer/1/fa.aspx
Regarding your comment on not being into International. I never was for years either, but very recently I started adding this, after reading some portfolio allocation theory. It seems to be an index that hasn't fully recovered all losses from 2008/9 and Im hoping there is still some upward trend left. I don't think I will ever go above 15% though.
thanks Again!
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I have my IRA with Fidelity, and I opened my wife's at Vanguard. Honestly, I much prefer Fidelity to Vanguard. They post contributions much more quickly then Vanguard and the trading platform is much more user-friendly. Since the fund fees are practically the same, I'll stick with Fidelity.
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For International, you might want to look at FSGDX instead of FSIVX. FSGDX includes emerging markets while FSIVX does not. I believe the total Vanguard International Index Fund holds about 13-15% emerging markets as well.
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For International, you might want to look at FSGDX instead of FSIVX. FSGDX includes emerging markets while FSIVX does not. I believe the total Vanguard International Index Fund holds about 13-15% emerging markets as well.
This^^^
I use Fidelity as well and invest the following funds:
FSTVX - Total Market Fund
FSGDX - International Fund
FSITX - US Bond Fund in tax-deferred accounts
FTABX - Tax Free Bond Fund in the taxable account (not necessary but I do like to have some bonds in taxable)
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For International, you might want to look at FSGDX instead of FSIVX. FSGDX includes emerging markets while FSIVX does not. I believe the total Vanguard International Index Fund holds about 13-15% emerging markets as well.
Thanks for the tip - I will look into it.
You guys are great. Since finding this forum in the fall last year I've added over $60K to the stache. Almost cant believe it.
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Nice work!
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Here is my portfolio:
FUSVX - S&P 500
FSEVX - Extended Market
FSIVX - Developed International
FPMAX - Emerging International
I guess I'm a bit different in that I split the US total market and Global market indices into 2. I could be convinced I'm wrong to do this, but my reasoning was that I could choose my own allocation among 500/extended and dev/emerging. I could also potentially gain on re-balancing if there is a divergence and return to the mean.