Rebalance? Most of my $$ is in a taxable brokerage account in stock index funds.

[Sudden Desu]

I'm 23 and in Texas. My only concerns are the following:

• If I need more than $10k for any reason, that means dipping into the taxable Vanguard account. (I don't have current plans to buy a house though I've considered it. There's a cheap condo next door I could buy outright if I wanted to and save money vs. renting my current apartment.)
• If the bull market ends, I'll eat some losses.

I'm planning at the moment to not play around with the Roth IRA and 401k investments since they're in target date funds. And therefore the question is if you think having the taxable account 80+% stocks is too aggressive.

Numerical details below.

Taxable account $70k
Stocks = 81.6% of the $70k

• $40k VFIAX (S&P 500-tracking Index Fund)
• $13k VTIAX (Total International Stock Index Fund)
• $4k VB (Small Cap ETF)

Bonds = 18.4% of the $70k

• $11k VBIRX (Short Term Bond Index Fund)
• $2k VCIT (Intermediate Term Corp Bond ETF)

Roth IRA $19k (Three years maxed out plus investment gains. Invested in target date 2060.)
401k $1200 (I just started it last month but it's at 16% contribution rate invested in target date 2055.)
Cash $10k. I basically live off of this money.

[seattlecyclone]

Consider your whole investment portfolio as a single unit. Trading appreciated shares in a taxable account is expensive. If you believe you have too much stock overall, consider doing any needed rebalancing in your retirement accounts.

[harvestbook]

At your age, I don't think that's too aggressive (unless you have a specific short-term need for the money such as buying that condo for sure.) I'm 90 percent stock at age 55. My wife uses the 2060 fund in her 401K at age 43, same as my daughter's Roth at age 18. The majority of my money is in taxable just because of the way the timing and space worked out, and I still stay aggressive.

If you feel squirrelly because of "high valuations" or "coming crash" or whatever future uncertainty may or may not occur, you can always dial back the target dates in your retirement fund to more conservative AAs. If you want more bonds in taxable, then tax-exempt intermediate term munis might be a decent choice, but personally I'd just buy new instead of selling out of taxable. I'm guessing you're not in a low tax bracket.

That's a nice start for your age. You don't have to do too many things perfectly as long as you don't make any big mistakes or panic. Good luck.

[Sudden Desu]

I'm guessing you're not in a low tax bracket.

It looks like I got moved down to the 22% tax bracket for 2018. I have a middle income, but I live below my means.

Consider your whole investment portfolio as a single unit. Trading appreciated shares in a taxable account is expensive. If you believe you have too much stock overall, consider doing any needed rebalancing in your retirement accounts.

The total is in the neighborhood of 75% stocks /15% bonds / 10% cash. I'm ignorant on some topics so thanks for pointing this out. Selling or trading from a taxable account would subject me to capital gains taxes right now whereas if I wait until I really need it, the capital gains taxes occur only then. And if I have short-term goals (1-2 years), that's what savings accounts are for.

This was a simpler solution than I thought it would be so I guess I have no more questions.

[retireatbirth]

Why do you not want to play around with the Roth "since they are in target date funds"? Right now, I'd probably put all the bonds in the Roth since valuations are quite high. Over time, I'd want the Roth to be 100% total market fund, though, to capitalize on it's tax free status in the long run. I don't like having bonds in the taxable. You're young enough that I think you can just put all of the taxable into equities.  So you'd have like $13k bonds in your Roth and everything else in equities. In the long run, you want the bonds in the 401k/IRA and total market in the Roth.