It seems I have read myself blind through the countless posts on investment locations, companies, techniques and strategies. Despite my best effort to do otherwise, I find myself following others who read those same comments, became somewhat overwhelmed with choices, and end up posting their specific scenario in hopes of getting tailored advice.
Here is my situation -- likely more info than is needed:
- No consumer debt
- Mortgage-free in two months
- Maxing contributions to traditional 401k (Fidelity Freedom 2040)
- Maxing my Roth-IRA (Vanguard Target 2050)
- Maxing wife's traditional IRA (Vanguard Target 2040)
Once the mortgage is done in two months we will have ~$1500/month to assign a home and I have been trying to decide between Betterment and Vanguard.
Betterment was/is attractive to me for the following reasons:
- I love simplicity and am willing to pay a small fee for it
- I assume auto-balancing is beneficial given my preference for simplicity
- Technology is pretty -- I like graphs and buttons (not a deciding factor, but it's hard to deny my inner geek)
Questions:
- Do I assume correctly I have a highly likelihood of triggering wash sales given active monthly contributions to the two IRAs already with Vanguard?
- If wash sales are a factor, is Betterment still useful (for lack of better word) without the TLH+ enabled?
I am currently leaning towards dumping all $1500 into VTSMX every month and being done with it but have this nagging feeling I am overlooking something in pursuit of a super-simple, set-it-and-forget-it approach.
Many thanks for any input.