Hi all,
I'm early 40s and have a decent start on retirement savings, but still a long way to go. My former plan for picking funds to put in my retirement account was to look for mutual funds that had high return rates. I also picked a small handful of stocks that I thought would do well. I do realize that I'm probably not smart enough for this to be an effective strategy. :-)
So, last month I tried rebalancing everything - adding index funds, selling some of the wacky and underperforming mutual funds I'd bought, and reducing the amount of individual stock shares I had. I think it's better, but probably still needs work. Here's what I have now in my employer-run retirement account:
-- 16% in individual stocks (3 companies. I didn't intend to have this high a percentage, but the three have done surprisingly well, which has made the percentage go up. I did sell off a bunch last month to bring the % down to this.)
-- 24% in AMAGX (a growth fund which seems to do well, but I'm realizing the fee may be too high)
-- 10% in SAGYX (a growth fund that's done well so far)
-- 5% in SSMVX (a small cap value fund that's done well, but has higher fees)
-- 9% in NAESX (vanguard small cap, just bought this last month)
-- 18% in VIMSX (vanguard mid cap, have had this awhile)
-- 16% in VFINX (vanguard s&p500, just bought this last month)
I'm also opening a Vanguard Roth IRA next month with $3000. Haven't bought anything in there yet.
So my questions:
1. Is the above portfolio still as complicated and fiddly as I feel like it is?
2. If the answer to 1 is "yes", since I just made a bunch of trades to get it this way, and since I have to pay for trades, am I better off letting it sit for now, and reconfiguring it next year, so as not to pay another round of trading fees? Or is it better just to suck it up and rework it now? I usually try to do trades only a few times a year to minimize the fees.
3. I would probably have been better off going with a total market fund, instead of small/mid/500 individual funds. But since I've bought those, and paid the trading fees, should I just stick with them, essentially rolling my own total market fund? Or should I transition it all to a real total market fund?
4. What should I do with my pristine Vanguard Roth IRA? I'm starting it with $3000 and I hope to max out my contribution to it each year. International? Bonds? I have neither of those things right now.
TL;DR: How can I make this particular portfolio better going forward while avoiding unnecessary additional fees?
Thanks for any advice you guys can give.