What I am hearing here is basically.
If you have a full stash, still making money, AND have an extra $50k to add into Taxable investments (instead of withdrawing).
Then yes.
If you are pre-Financial Independence then you are not ready for something like Betterment.
Is that accurate?
Maybe half-accurate. Your financial independence, or whether you're in the accumulation or withdrawal stage is not really relevant (having $50k in taxable investments is not really connected to being financially independent). So I would modify your statement:
"If you have a full stash, still making money, AND have an extra $50k to add into Taxable investments (instead of withdrawing).
Then
maybe. (if you believe the value tilt premium combined with TLH will outweigh the increased expenses over a direct Vanguard all-in-one-fund).
If you are
have less than $50k to invest then you are not ready for something like Betterment."
It just seems incredible that the exact same query would be reposted so many times.
Nah, people post the exact same "what's wrong with 100% stocks?" and "how do I get money from my 401(k) without penalty?" queries even more frequently. Betterment is just good at marketing to Internet-connected financial novices, so that's why they come with questions.
I get the feeling that a lot of people ask specifically about Betterment simply because they've
heard about it but have not (yet) heard about Vanguard.
I can see some value in Betterment for the novice investor. If I were starting out as a tentative newbie, I would be inclined to use Betterment.
...
My suggestion is you read the MMM post and the Betterment posts on Miles Dividend's blog and decide for your self.
I think those things are a bit of a contradiction, and part of why there is a conflict over Betterment on the MMM forums. MMM's endorsement of Betterment comes largely because he is *not* a newbie investor, and thus, can take advantage of their TLH service. Without the TLH, I doubt MMM would have endorsed them. So we get a lot of newbie investors seeing "ooh, MMM likes Betterment!", but he wasn't really talking to them.