Author Topic: Found this 2011 Forbes.com article re: diversifying w/ just 3 Vanguard funds...  (Read 5307 times)

Fitzy

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innerscorecard

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As Buffett himself says, principles aren't principles if they change. You won't go really wrong with a portfolio like that.

dcheesi

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Vanguard's own Target Retirement funds are based on these, with the addition of small holdings in their international bond index.

kingma15

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Thanks for the article!

kyleaaa

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This advice has always been sound and won't be unsound anytime in the next 5 or 30 decades.

arebelspy

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Hell yeah.

Basically exactly what JLCollins advocates for in his stock series, just with more info/background: http://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/

(With minor modifications, maybe no international but a REIT total market, etc. - but same principle.)
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wtjbatman

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Notice it was written by the bogleheads.

Last I checked their forum is still active, and they still strongly advocate the three fund portfolio.

When it comes to index investing I'd say they give pretty sound advice.

soccerluvof4

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Thats exactly what i have with additional 2 , one for exposure to reits and a small portion of my bonds in international bonds. But all with in my overall Stock/Bond preferred ratio.  Same principal with the 3 but just a little more diversification. But all in Vanguard index funds!

Zoot Allures

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My portfolio has only two funds: Total US Stock and Total US Bond. Anybody else do this? I was comforted that JL Collins blesses the idea of having a portfolio that doesn't include international stocks, but the real reason for me was availability of funds through my employer. I could invest in one of Vanguard's packaged "retirement path" funds, which does include international, but the fees are higher for those. The expense ratios of Total US Stock and Total US Bond, on the other hand, are pretty close to zero.
« Last Edit: April 03, 2014, 06:49:23 PM by Spine »

bikebum

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I am using this 3-fund approach.

wtjbatman

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My portfolio has only two funds: Total US Stock and Total US Bond. Anybody else do this? I was comforted that JL Collins blesses the idea of having a portfolio that doesn't include international stocks, but the real reason for me was availability of funds through my employer. I could invest in one of Vanguard's packaged "retirement path" funds, which does include international, but the fees are higher for those. The expense ratios of Total US Stock and Total US Bond, on the other hand, are pretty close to zero.

I don't specifically do this, but I don't have a problem with it either. Many many American companies, especially the large ones (S&P 500), do a significant percentage of their business overseas. Some of them over 50%. You're fairly well diversified even with "just" that Total US Stock fund.

dcheesi

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My portfolio has only two funds: Total US Stock and Total US Bond. Anybody else do this? I was comforted that JL Collins blesses the idea of having a portfolio that doesn't include international stocks, but the real reason for me was availability of funds through my employer. I could invest in one of Vanguard's packaged "retirement path" funds, which does include international, but the fees are higher for those. The expense ratios of Total US Stock and Total US Bond, on the other hand, are pretty close to zero.
My plan doesn't offer Vanguard, so I had to cobble together what I could (thankfully they do have a cheap S&P index at least). The overseas offerings are pretty meager, so I chose to ignore them there. I do have some overseas fund holdings in my Vanguard accounts though.

 

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