Negotiating raise and bonus!

[ETBen]

My new boss was so easy to talk to about it and open the discussion. My old boss was fantastic (the two best over had in my career) but she did not really care about money. So she never advocated for me the way she should. I negotiated a 5% mid year bump last year Bc I did so much extra and she almost seemed embarrassed to have to go to leadership for me.

New boss was totally reassuring that I would find the yearly increase acceptable, noted my minimum $ figure, and didn't give me any pushback. Final numbers pending but certainly on the right track.

I want to put the increase away automatically. Use the bonus to fill my EMERG fund and then set an automatic transfer each pay to betterment. : )

[GrowingTheGreen]

Congrats! Looks like you've got a good plan for the money.

Why are you choosing to use Betterment? I think most people can handle their own investments without too much trouble. If you can do it yourself, you'll avoid their fees. Fees are a huge deal. Ask Warren Buffett. Even that small .35% adds up! Look into setting up auto transfers with Vanguard. Same idea, just as easy, cheaper.

[ETBen]

my understanding is that betterment's fees were low compared to competitors. Wouldn't I have fees with vanguard too?

[GrowingTheGreen]

Yes, but Betterment tacks on an extra fee for managing your funds. So you have the fund/ETF fee plus their management fee. If you go through Vanguard you just have the fund fee. I don't use betterment, but from what I gather on their site, they charge a .35% fee on top of the ETF fees.

As an example, Vanguards Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) charges a .05% fee. Betterment fee is 7x that amount extra.

Betterment shows you exactly what they invest in so you could easily create your own portfolio. If you're worried about rebalancing, Vanguard offers Life Strategy mutual funds which have an expense ratio in the .15%-.17% range. Still more 50% less than that of Betterment.

Betterment does have low fees in the sense of being an robot-financial-advisor compared to a human.

[ETBen]

Ah that makes sense. Thank you!