Hello, new to forum, couple posts.
I will give a fly over of my portfolio.
I will give percentages based on total (SEP,Roth,401K,Regular account,IRA(wife)and a Variable Annuity)
I currently hold 38 individual stocks mostly in a Regular account with a rating of A,B or C. In addition there are 5 stocks with no ratings due to mergers. All stocks are S&P 500 stocks.
There are 9 mutual funds with fee's from .29% to .69% (no up front and no 12 B fees)divided between regular account and retirement accounts.
The variable annuity is @ (.10%+.25% mortality) mutual fund
My 401K is the pi$$er it was like try to pickup a piece of dog poop from the clean end. The best choice i could find was at 1.1% and terrible choices. The broker that handles the company hates me, and to be honest my complaining got them to reduce fees and there still hoggish. If you hear Morgan Stanley run away.
My next plot is to try to have the company establish an in service roll over. Were you still work for the company put money in your 401 K, Yet you can take money out of your 401K as a roll over into an IRA. So say you have 100,000 in 401 K you roll over all your money to IRA (NONTAXABLE EVENT) You still deduct from payroll to your 401 K. Your only allowed to roll over once a year.
Sorry for the side track.
In addition to the 43 individual stocks and 9 mutual funds There are also 9 ETF's.
70% Large Cap Equities
15.5% Small/Med Cap Equities
13.9% International
No individual stock is more than 4% of portfolio
My 5 largest individual holdings are in Financials, Industrial, Energy and IT.My current break down is:
Communication: 3%
Consumer Discretionary: 12.9%
Consumer Staples: 8.5%
Energy: 8.8%
Financials: 19.9%
Health Care: 9.7%
Industrial: 11.7%
Information Tech: 16.1%
Materials: 5.8%
Real Estate: 1.6% (does not include home/75% paid off)
Utilities: 2.0%
total 100%
Plus another 6% based on above total in cash
No Bonds.
All retirement accounts reinvest dividends, Regular account I use the dividends to buy more individual stocks or ETF's if i see opportunity..
For the last 10 years I have averaged 14.34% return, yes I was down major 40% in the crash, but i did not sell, I bought more with my rainy day fund.
Individual stocks are interesting and profitable, but they can be an alligator also waiting to bite your hand off.
I have won big and vise versa.
The reason for my title and questions about moving all to ETF's is I'm ready to FIRE, I'm just working to put my last child (of 3) thru college debit free May 2018.
I could go sooner, but my boss is a nice guy and pays me well. I work from home as they are out of state and I may talk to him 1-2 a month for 5 minutes and time off is easy to do.
Going all ETF's would be easier to manage, however portfolio may not perform as well. Retirement accounts are easy to convert, but the bulk of my $$ is in a regular investment account.
Remember, its easy to buy High and sell Low.