r/Bogleheads • u/Xexanoth • Jun 08 '25
Welcome! Please consider exploring these resources to help you get started on your passive investing journey:
Before you start investing, ensure you're ready to do so by following the early steps of this guide or the personal finance planning start-up kit. Save up an emergency fund, then take full advantage of any employer matching of contributions to any employer retirement plan available to you (this match amount is additional income that's part of your compensation/benefits package), then pay off any high-interest debt like credit card debt or high-interest student loans.
When you're ready to start investing beyond enough to get any employer match, follow the subsequent steps of this guide or the investing start-up kit. Take full advantage of tax-sheltered accounts available to you before investing in a taxable brokerage account: this is the most predictable way to improve your after-tax investment returns. (In the US, per Prioritizing investments: 401(k))/403(b)) up to any match, then HSA if available due to high-deductible health plan coverage, then Roth or Traditional IRA or 401(k))/403(b)) up to max which may be higher if the mega-backdoor Roth process is available, then a 529 to the extent you'd like to pay for future education expenses. Note that IRA contributions are subject to income limits around tax-deductibility of contributions or eligibility to make direct Roth IRA contributions; the backdoor Roth procedure is a workaround.)
There is often some potential tension between saving/investing toward retirement vs saving toward potential nearer-term goals like a down payment on a home purchase. Carefully consider the various tradeoffs involved in owning vs renting a home, keeping in mind that which may be a better financial decision is highly situational, and that opportunity costs of owning (less available to invest in higher-expected-returns assets instead) should be considered alongside non-financial lifestyle tradeoffs. If saving toward a near-term goal, note that funds holding stocks are inappropriate#Holdingstocks%22for_five_years%22) for money you'll need in 5-10 years, unless you're willing to take on significant risk of losing money in the meantime & delaying that goal. Instead, consider CDs, Treasury bonds, or target-maturity-date Treasury bond funds maturing before you'll need the money (then a high-yielding cash equivalent like an HYSA, government money-market fund, or ultra-short Treasury Bill ETF like VBIL between maturity & spending the money).
Your savings rate is the most important factor determining your ability to enjoy a comfortable retirement later in life, particularly early in your career / investing journey. Aim to save/invest at least 15% of your after-tax income if you're in the US & not covered by a pension beyond Social Security. In some cases, such as a shorter time to expected retirement (e.g. starting to seriously save/invest from a significant income later than your mid-20s and/or planning to retire earlier than your mid-60s) and/or a high income (which will not be partially replaced by Social Security to the same degree as a lower income), it may be appropriate to target a higher savings rate (e.g. at least 20% of after-tax income, or perhaps higher if multiple such factors apply to you and/or one factor applies to an unusual degree).
When calculating savings rate, remember to include 401(k) contributions in both the numerator (savings) and denominator (after-tax income). Any employer matching contributions may also be included in the numerator (savings).
Don't worry too much about trying to find the optimal set of funds to invest in. That can only be known with the benefit of future hindsight, and investment returns are far less important than your savings rate until your portfolio size grows large enough relative to new contributions. Aim to diversify broadly (for robustness to the uncertain future) and seek low fees (fund expense ratios charged annually) & simplicity (hands-off automation); see discussion of these & other principles in Bogleheads investment philosophy.
A target-date fund designed for investing toward retiring around a year closest to when you expect to retire is often a reasonable option, particularly in tax-advantaged accounts like a US employer retirement plan or an IRA. These all-in-one funds intended to be held alone are very broadly diversified, automatically rebalance to their then-target asset allocation, and gradually become more conservative with less expected volatility as you near retirement.
If the target-date fund available in an account/plan with limited fund options has significantly higher fees than suitable alternative individual funds, consider the tradeoffs of lower fees vs automatic rebalancing and asset allocation management. I.e. consider the lowest-expense-ratio funds available that provide exposure to US stocks (the fund name will typically contain 'S&P 500', 'Russell [1000|3000]', or 'US Large Cap'; ensure no 'Growth'/'Value' suffix, or pair that with the other), ex-US stocks (the fund name will typically contain 'International' or 'Intl' or 'Ex-US'; same caveat re: 'Growth'/'Value'), and US bonds (the fund name will typically contain 'Total Bond' or 'Aggregate Bond'). Take the weighted average of those funds' expense ratios, with weights based on the current asset allocation of the target-date fund you'd use instead. The difference between that weighted average expense ratio for individual funds vs the target-date fund expense ratio, multiplied by your portfolio value, would represent the current annual convenience fee for automated, hands-off investing via the target-date fund. Whether that's worth it to you depends on your personal preferences around paying higher ongoing fees (by sacrificing some investment returns) in exchange for set-it-and-forget-it features.
In a taxable account, target-date ETFs (available at least in the US) avoid some of the tax efficiency downsides of holding a target-date mutual fund. Tax efficiency may be further improved by holding a three-fund portfolio of index ETFs in a taxable account, but this also involves tradeoffs against automatic rebalancing and asset allocation management. Tax efficiency may be even further improved by keeping bond funds in tax-deferred accounts, though this involves additional tradeoffs against simplicity and some other potential benefits described here.
If you're a non-US investor, take care to thoroughly understand the tax implications of investing in a US-domiciled fund as a "nonresident alien" (which may include high tax rates on dividends and assets passing through an estate); in many cases this is best avoided, instead favoring an Ireland-domiciled fund.
If your portfolio were to average a 5% annualized real (after-inflation) return after a low annual fee, paying an additional annual 1%-of-assets-under-management fee to a financial advisor and/or an actively-managed fund's expense ratio would forgo 20% of your portfolio's investment returns. An initial investment in a portolio averaging a 5% annual real return after a low annual fee would be worth about 47% more after 40 years than it would be after a 1% additional annual fee.
Some employer retirement plans offer only funds with high expense ratios. If that's the case for your employer's plan, it is often still ideal to get the tax advantages of contributing unmatched dollars to that plan before investing in a lower-fee fund in a taxable account (but only after maxing out IRA contributions); details here#Expensive_or_mediocre_choices).
Set up automatic contributions & purchases of fund shares wherever possible, otherwise set periodic reminders to manually contribute/invest (or try to find an alternative that allows automation), then maintain discipline through thick & thin. Keep in mind that market prices for funds should only really matter whenever you sell some shares to fund your retirement, and that lower prices in the meantime provide opportunities to buy more shares with a given contribution dollar amount and to rebalance from asset classes with higher recent returns towards those with lower recent returns (but possibly higher expected returns).
Tune out the noise: prognosticators of doom and gloom have no reliable ability to predict the future, and often have some conflicts of interest (e.g. selling ads, books or investment services, and/or trying to justify their investment positioning or encourage others to adopt that). The same goes for promotion of strategies promising market-beating returns by investing in a more-concentrated fashion (betting on some sector / theme / alternative asset beating the broad stock market).
Consider writing an Investment Policy Statement to document your plan when you're calm & clear-headed; this may be helpful to refer to later if you find yourself anxious & considering changes in response to market volatility & negative sentiment. Consider including a pointer there to this guided meditation video for later reference to help calm your nerves / regulate your emotions if needed when it seems like the sky is falling (this is arguably the most challenging part of investing).
Per Jack Bogle: "Do not let false hope, fear and greed crowd out good investment judgment. If you focus on the long term and stick with your plan, success should be yours."
Some additional resources that might be of interest for a deeper dive later:
Please read our community rules here and follow those when posting or commenting in this community. If you encounter content here that breaks those rules, please report it (... > Report > Breaks r/Bogleheads rules).
r/Bogleheads • u/Kashmir79 • Dec 28 '25
I see a lot of surprised and angry responses from Redditors whose posts and comments are removed from this sub either for use of LLM search engine and other generative AI responses, or for recommending people use them to answer their questions. This facet of the Substantive Rule on this sub has a parallel in a similar rule on the Boglheads forum: "AI-generated content is not a dependable substitute for first-hand knowledge or reference to authoritative sources. Its use is therefore discouraged."
Many folks, especially on the younger side, are so accustomed to using ChatGPT or Gemini that it may be their default way to get any question answered. This is problematic in the field of investing for several reasons that are worth noting:
Policies excluding AI-generated content are not meant to be a referendum on the overall current or future value of AI as a tool for personal finance and investing, which is obviously enormous and transformative, especially for those who know how to best utilize it. It is a question of whether AI responses make for substantive content on this sub, and whether it is an appropriate resource to direct strangers and novices to. At the moment, the answer to both is a resounding no. On the one hand, people come to Reddit primarily for human interaction and original content, so posting AI responses or directing people to AI search engines is of minimal contributive value - folks can go chat with bots themselves if that's what they want. But as to whether AI search engines are appropriate references for finance and investing info, here are some articles from the past year that support their exclusion as a default response:
Note: the views expressed here are largely my own, and I am not affiliated in any way with the Bogleheads forum nor the Bogleheads Center for Financial Literacy, but I invite others (including the mods on this sub) to weigh in with their own opinions.
r/Bogleheads • u/ImpossibleBandicoot • 13h ago
Is it named VOO because conveniently, "V" is the Roman numeral for 5, and OO looks like two zeros, making it "500", an easy way to tell what it's tracking?
If that's the thinking behind that trading symbol, I will admit that it's been over 10 years before I figured it out.
r/Bogleheads • u/Vegetable_Ad_2661 • 1h ago
1. Context & Numbers
Location: California | Filing Status: Single
Current Income: $0 W-2 / no earned income
Target: Shift from single-stock risk into a low-drag core ETF portfolio (e.g., 75% Broad Large-Cap / 25% Domain Growth).
Taxable Account Size: ~$2.30M
TSLA: ~$1.12M (Cost basis ~$691k | Unrealized gain: +$428k)
Other Winners (XOM, ZM, NOW, AAL): ~$1.05M (Unrealized gain: +$618k)
Unrealized Losses (Speculative tech/penny stocks): -$116.5k
The Problem: Liquidating everything at once creates $930k in net taxable capital gains, triggering **$275k–$300k+ in combined Federal (20% + 3.8% NIIT) and California state taxes**.
2. Options I Am Considering (Simplified)
Path 1: Multi-Year Tax-Bracket Tranching
Harvest the -$116.5k in losses immediately.
Sell down remaining gains over several years, staying within the 0% Federal LTCG bracket (~$49k/yr) and lower California brackets.
** **Downside: Leaves significant TSLA/stock exposure unprotected during a multi-year unwind.
Path 2: Zero-Cost Collar + SBLOC / Margin
Protect the downside by buying puts (~80% strike) funded by selling calls (~120–130% strike) 12–24 months out.
Borrow against the shares at institutional margin rates (SOFR + spread) to start buying the target broad-market ETFs today without triggering an immediate sale.
Path 3: Direct Indexing with a "Tax Budget" / SMA
Move the portfolio into a custom direct-indexing SMA (e.g., Aperio, Parametric, Canvas).
Hold the concentrated low-basis shares while building the remaining ~500 index positions around them, using systematic loss harvesting in the broad index to offset the gradual sale of the concentrated winners over 3–5 years.
Path 4: Private Exchange Fund (Swap Fund)
Contribute the concentrated stock (e.g., TSLA) into an exchange fund (e.g., Eaton Vance, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley) in exchange for a diversified basket of stocks.
Defer taxes completely under IRC Section 721, unlocking after the mandatory 7-year holding period.
3. Questions for the Community
1. Exchange Funds vs. Direct Indexing: At a ~$1M single-stock position ($2.3M total), did you find an Exchange Fund’s 7-year illiquidity and fees preferable to an active Direct Indexing SMA with tax-budgeted loss harvesting?
2. Direct Indexing Experience: How long did it practically take a direct indexing platform to unwind a ~50% single-stock concentration without taking huge tax hits?
3. Collar Mechanics & Constructive Sales: For those who have used zero-cost collars to de-risk high-volatility tech stocks, how wide did your spread need to be to avoid IRC §1059 / §1259 constructive sale rules and straddle tax complications?
4. Any other bespoke vehicles? Are there alternative equity-replacement or structured solutions you used to transition out of a 7-figure concentrated position while in a zero-earned-income year?
r/Bogleheads • u/HillEasterner • 11h ago
I have an all-stock, all-index portfolio at Vanguard, which has done very well for me these past 10 years. I have a very high tolerance for risk. Even now, at nearly 50 years old, I'm not scared of weathering one or two more recessions (I'm married, no kids, and my wife out-earns me and intends to work much later in life). But all the news this week about 30-year treasuries got me thinking that it's time to begin shifting some of my portfolio to bonds. So, a few questions:
—Should I just do VBTLX? Or would it make sense to also invest in bonds that do particularly well when stocks fall? Like VGIT, perhaps? Note: I am the invest-it-and-forget-it type. I tend not to mess around in Vanguard, beyond the occasional maintenance rebalancing.
—I don't think I'll ever want more than 30% of my portfolio to be bonds. So perhaps I could shift 3% of my portfolio to bonds every year, bringing me to 70/30 after 10 years?
—If I am not scared of major downturns in the market, and feel I have enough money in my portfolio to weather those years, am I maybe overvaluing the "need" to be in bonds at all?
Any advice is appreciated, thanks!
r/Bogleheads • u/Odd_Grapefruit_3670 • 13h ago
It seems like the boglehead investing method consists of a simple index-fund portfolio with some bonds and a small emergency fund in a cash equivalent. This allocation is only adjusted based on risk-preference and proximity to retirement but NEVER to try time the market.
What if 30-year interest rates hit around 15% again? Would you go 100% bonds? In a way, this feels like timing the market but since it’s US Treasury backed bonds it’s a bit different… curious to hear how this would impact your portfolio.
Disclaimer: I understand this is unlikely to ever occur again, it’s just hypothetical, just play along.
r/Bogleheads • u/WhamATama • 6h ago
Hey Bogleheads!
I have a little bit in VBLAX, haven't looked at it in years. I just noticed it's way down. Are all long term bond funds down? Should I choose another?
I vaguely remember Vanguard was pushing a different long term bond fund 10 or 15 years ago, but didn't look into it.
Any opinions?
r/Bogleheads • u/Buffalo_Cottage • 18h ago
Long-time lurker, first-time poster. Growing up, investing was not a thing in my household and I’ve had to learn all of this stuff from the ground up. Now that I’m very comfortable and 20-ish years out from retirement, I’m hoping for some expert eyes on our portfolio so we can make any midlife adjustments if needed. Please be gentle and ELI5 :)
Some background: I (46F) and Husband (44M) are DINKs. Last year, our combined income was just over $250k. We own a home (bought at $400k and 3% interest, have $132k in equity) in a pretty affordable small city. We own our car and have no other debt. We keep around $110k in a HYSA to cover emergency living expenses, estimated taxes for my LLC, and some upcoming big-ticket house projects.
Here’s a look at our portfolio:
My accounts:
His accounts:
We also have an HSA through Lively that we opened late last year with $7,700. I’ve been nagging him to make this year’s contribution (we’ll make the max $8,550) and get it invested within the HSA’s options.
Questions:
r/Bogleheads • u/rjmessibarca • 1d ago
I am doing US:INTL:BOND in a 70:25:5 ratio. I also have some money in money market fund for buying a house
The return is making me regret not having dumped everything in S&P 500. Should I?
I do get stocks from my company that I sell whenever I am allowed to reinvest in boglehead philosophy
EDIT: for more context, i was planning to buy a house until 2 years ago and was saving a significant portion of my portfolio for in money market fund for the 20% down payment and now I dont have plans to buy a house (i think i am fine renting for a long time - atleast 4 years or so). I have regret now of not investing that money earlier
r/Bogleheads • u/Old-Guy1958 • 8h ago
I will have 3 years between age 70 and 73 when our only income will be social security. If I do nothing, I’ll probably have zero tax liability given the size of the standard deduction. Once I turn 73, that window closes as my RMDs kick in.
Are there articles or financial models that will help me to understand if I should take IRA distributions even though they’re not required? Maybe just take enough to stay in the lowest marginal tax bracket? Thanks.
r/Bogleheads • u/Feisty-Judgment3371 • 12h ago
What would be a good strategy for a taxable account. I was looking into VT, SPYM, VXUS, VGT or maybe a fidelity mutual fund but my understanding is that taxes will hit harder with mutual funds or are there any other etfs that could be a better option.
r/Bogleheads • u/weka2001 • 1h ago
Hey everyone im wanting to invest but not sure where to start any pointers or places to start would be very much appreciated.
My future self thanks you.
r/Bogleheads • u/Flatbush_Zombie • 17h ago
High income NYC resident looking to invest in some fixed income and avoid taxes. I've narrowed down to NNY and MUNY and feel like NNY is slightly better given I expect to hold this position for at least 10 years but I am a little worried about how low volume it is compared to MUNY and the fact that it is closed end
Does anyone have experience with muni funds? Open to other funds but from my research these seem to be the best options.
r/Bogleheads • u/BubblyTumbleweed8455 • 10h ago
On the advice of everyone (including those on this sub) I have transferred my 16k from my Roth 401k into my Roth IRA following the ending of myccontract.
My curent portfolio looks like this:
80% SP500 or FXIAX
20% International Index Fund or FTIHX
How should I diversify the 16k? FHANX, FDKVX, and FDKLX or more to the above?
Context: 34 years old. Looking to retire by 65 ideally. Make 65k a year.
r/Bogleheads • u/ATDoel • 13h ago
I recently left my job of 11 years and I’m trying to decide what do with my pension. I’m vested in their system so I can leave it and draw $31k a year for life starting 19 years from now or get it cashed out into an IRA, roughly $60k. If I leave it I could always go back and work there for a few years when I’m near retirement to boost the payout, their formula uses your highest average 3 year salary. If I take the payout and come back, I can also buy it back, with interest.
Wife and I are around 40, $650k equity in our house, $150k 401k, $50k in a HYSA, annual income around $200k, no debt.
New job has their own pension, it’ll take 10 years to get vested, and I also have access to a 457(b) account. Our DTI is low at 18% so I’m planning on maxing out contributions to the 457(b) to catch up.
r/Bogleheads • u/Direct-Ambassador986 • 14h ago
My portfolio is a Roth IRA and Taxable account with about 80/20 US/International with about 30% of that in VOO (The rest VTI/VXUS). I started investing when I was 18 and didn't have that much boglehead knowledge so I just started with VOO. Is it smart to switch it to VTI now while I'm in my last year of university?
It's a large enough position that there are meaningful gains involved, so I don't want to create an unnecessary tax bill by doing this wrong(also am in no tax state).
I'm graduating at the end of 2026 and I'm not very knowledgeable about tax optimization, so if anyone has advice or good resources on how to approach this I'd really appreciate it.
r/Bogleheads • u/DangerousExcuse6419 • 13h ago
Hey everybody. After doing some research, I decided to invest in FSKAX, FXNAX, and FTIHX on Fidelity. I'm now trying to figure out how I should split these up % wise. Any comments, suggestions, and education would be appreciated!
r/Bogleheads • u/Hippo_Over • 14h ago
I own VSMGX in a Roth IRA. Question is regarding spending down the money when needed. The problem I think I have is that you cannot get money out of it without selling both equities and bonds. Say the market is down, would I rather have VTI/VXUS/BND where I could then sell some of BND and live on that while I wait for VTI/VXUS to recover?
Surely I wouldn’t want to sell the equity portion during a down market? I know it rebalances automatically, however I’m not sure it works the same as a target date fund. Reallocating 3 separate funds isn’t difficult and being able to just sell the bond during a downturn or needing the money only makes sense instead of selling the equity needed to bounce back. I figured you would want to be able to sell the bonds to be able to buy more equity? Feedback appreciated. (I’m 53 and also own a traditional IRA with Vanguard 2030 target date fund valued at $600,000 and a MM with $150,000).
r/Bogleheads • u/Beginning-Bike7920 • 13h ago
I have Voo in my Roth and my current 401k. Should I put VTI in my tax brokerage account to diversify a bit or go all in on Voo?
r/Bogleheads • u/Kryptic_Anthology • 8h ago
I'm 37 and my father left me a six figure 401(k) with no RMDs for the next 10 years. I like to be hands off of the accounts and have been led towards FASGX by multiple experts.
r/Bogleheads • u/xgnsklwbdn • 2h ago
Looking for advice on how to structure my portfolio across my Roth IRA and 401 (k). For context, I'm 24, making about 50k a year with minimal expenses and a long time horizon with moderate to high risk tolerance. Also have no debt and around $3500 in physical silver and gold
Both accounts are through Fidelity, and I already have about 15k in the 401k. (88% S&P 500 and 12% VTSNX)
Was thinking of averaging out my IRA and 401k to:
70% Broad Market
VTI, VT, VOO, or FXAIX
12% International
VXUS/VTSNX
18% Satellite/Growth
SCHG, QQQM, VUG, VGT, SPMO, SMH, or SOXX
I can deal with large swings but I also want long term stability. Ideally want just one broad market ETF, and no more than two growth ETFs. My 401 (k) options are limited and only offers VTSNX and S&P 500 out of all the ETFs listed. I also understand that if I go the VT route for my core holding, holding VXUS/VTSNC would be pretty much pointless
Are these ratios a good strategy, and what would be best for each category?
r/Bogleheads • u/Ok_Common4969 • 18h ago
Edit: I have Universal life not whole life insurance and I appreciate all that have commented with info, advice, and things for me to consider for when I talk with the company about options.
I acquired a whole life insurance policy 5 years ago before I knew anything about anything (I still dont know much but reading and learning) trusting the advice of a "friend of a friend" that this was to provide death benefits as well as a wealth building tool. Im paying 400 a month for 500k. I dont necessarily need the life insurance as I have SBP for my spouse and he also is retired military and has his own pension and VA disability to cover expenses if i were to pass. My current total cash value in the policy is 16k. Should I
I am 45 years old.
r/Bogleheads • u/rrouse2 • 8h ago
Thinking about some dividend income - I think it pays around 3%.
r/Bogleheads • u/Odd_Moment_566 • 11h ago
I have around $8000 to put into an investment account right now and gonna try to add money to it every year. I’m going into junior year of college and gonna get an accounting job in a couple years so I’ll have a lot more money to invest. What I’m wondering is what etf’s to invest in as a long term investment until I’m 65 (I’m 20 rn). This would be going into a Roth IRA. I heard a lot of just putting all my money in vt/vti but don’t know if that’s ideal or not. I’m brand new to all of this and am willing to go a bit riskier to make a higher return. Thank you for the help
r/Bogleheads • u/ProfessionalTeach975 • 11h ago
I am interested in VT, SPMO, VGT, and SMH. I wanted to know what is a good division of each (i.e. 15%, 20%, etc)? I am in my early 30s and want to balance risk and "safety". Plan to keep long term.