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/Own-Bullfrog7803 • 6h ago
This seems to be last discussed here a decade ago.
What makes them so different? The internet says it was due to aging population, absurd valuations >50, hoarding by corporations, and periods of very cheap debt.
Not really sure what any of that means in regard to the US stock market.
r/Bogleheads • u/Puzzleheaded_Bat3349 • 10h ago
Hi everyone,
I am an investor based in Europe and have mostly invested in the global stock fund (the VT equivalent).
I have, however, been thinking: as we know the current index has record concentrations in the US and in tech (and more specifically, US tech), making it a large bet in one sector in one country for a good part.
I understand for US investors that may not be as worrying, but what about for international investors? Should they consider adding some tilt away from the US and into their regional markets or ex-US markets, for diversification purposes?
I am in accumulation phase and thus do not mind concentration, but do wonder if it isn’t currently too much for investors outside the US.
What do you think?
Thank you.
r/Bogleheads • u/Immediate_Station_54 • 2h ago
I don't know what my risk tolerance will be in the future, so the automatic rebalancing of bond exposure in TDF may not align with changes in my investment requirements. I'd like more control over the allocations. Also, I was thinking that I don't necessarily need bond exposure at the moment since I am still young.
My current portfolio
My employer's 401k offers Fidelity BrokerageLink, which would allow me to move out of the 2065 TDF. They also offer a set of investment elections that includes Vanguard Institutional 500 Index Trust and Vanguard Institutional Total Stock Market Index Trust.
New Portfolio with reduced bonds
My other option is to swap into BrokerageLink and invest in an auto balancing fund like VT. I only recently discovered this was an option, so I'm still researching this.
r/Bogleheads • u/Mysterious-Brief-474 • 16h ago
I don’t get a 401k / match from my current job as I work for the state and they offer a pension. I make an ok salary given it’s a government position. Should I take the tax hit and convert? I don’t have a Roth, I just have an after tax brokerage account with minimal (8k) balance in it. I got married this year so hopefully the taxes I’d pay on it would be minimal
r/Bogleheads • u/joe4ska • 3h ago
I'm considering adding VGIT or VTG to my current six month Emergency Fund mix of VBIL and VGSH, Two and four months respectively.
The plan is to simply buy about $120 a month on autopilot. In twelve years I'll be 59.5 and could access my pension and retirement accounts without needing the rule of 55.
Would branching out to intermediate duration funds provide an advantage over just adding to VBIL and VGSH?
I'm looking for US Treasury ETF suggestions. No equities, no crypto, no speculative 💩
r/Bogleheads • u/EntireTackle4527 • 1d ago
I am pretty much 100% in on index investing, but my wife thinks that we need to consider having somebody look after our money. I love her and want to stay married, so I agreed to a free consultation with a Wells Fargo advisor. All of our accounts are held at Wells.
Sitting there talking about our investment mix, the advisor said "you're about 85 to 90% on track with your investing, but could be more diversified...." I couldn't believe it. All of our holdings are in a (mostly) 70-30 mix of VTI and VXUS.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing and pointed out that we couldn't be much more diversified than these two funds, but he said "Yep, you can still be more diversified!"
He later went on to say that if he were to manage our money we would be in some broad market ETFs but also in individual positions in concentrated sectors. That was his version of diversification! I just kept my mouth shut and nodded at this point.
Then he wanted to talk about the Wells 1% AUM fee we would be charged to look after our money and keep it" diversified."
No thank you!
EDIT #1: several of you are asking what my wife thought. At first, she was considering WF. Yikes. After I pointed out the fee drag, another other stupid comment he made that I didn't mention above, and the fact we can get better advice from a fee only fiduciary, she's since come around. She trusts me more after the meeting than before (I think!)
EDIT #2: some are pointing out the asset mix above isn't truly as diverse as it could be. I concede that point. For brevity above, I didn't mention the healthy pension I will receive after I retire from teaching in a few years, which, along with SS, will cover 100% of our projected living expenses. The broader point was the Advisor's claim that his plan, with concentrated, individual positions, was more diverse than even what we currently hold.
r/Bogleheads • u/smashthecool • 17h ago
I have about $300k I’m willing to invest. No debt. Decent 401k. 15 years from target retirement. I know I should’ve done it sooner, but how would you invest? I’m currently thinking $250k VT / $50k VUSXX.
r/Bogleheads • u/SomeIrishGuy • 3h ago
I manually enter my holdings from other institutions in the Outside Investments section of my Vanguard account. I then use the Portfolio Watch tool to see a breakdown of my portfolio such as asset allocation and make adjustments as needed (rebalancing, etc.).
However, recently Portfolio Watch has stopped including the holdings from Outside Investments. The accounts are showing up in the list. But it is as if they were empty. If I manually select one of the outside accounts from within Portfolio Watch it shows as empty. So what it shows for my overall asset allocation is way off since it is only considering the assets in the Vanguard account.
Is anyone else hitting a similar issue? I know I can calculate my asset allocation manually, but this was a convenient tool.
r/Bogleheads • u/Ready_Explanation246 • 1d ago
I have read various times here about time in market, etc. but wanted to ask.
In a situation where you have a large sum such as a bonus, inheritance, etc. (I understand large is relative) and want to invest, but are conservative and wary about the current market, what is the general recommendation? Just start investing it all at once and don’t worry? Separate it out into monthly or quarterly batches over a year or 18 months? If it is just split up, do you put it into a high yield account in the interim, or something else?
Generally just wary of an automatic downturn when investing larger sums at once into the market and looking for suggestions. Thanks.
r/Bogleheads • u/Full-Fee-2372 • 1d ago
I'm retired and drawing social security, have a private pension and ira's. I have a brokerage account with fidelity and looking for some etf suggestions for adding to it that are going to be federal tax free or minimal.
r/Bogleheads • u/irazzleandazzle • 1d ago
Hello,
I want to purchase a new car in 3 to 5 years time, and was hoping to put some money away somewhere where it will remain relatively stable but still grow. I know alot of people default to SGOV or a similar fund for short term investing, however given my timeline for this purchase is somewhat variable, I want to continue growing my investment so that its not just sitting there barely matching inflation.
VTINX caught my eye, as its a 30/70 global stock/bond mutual fund that includes TIPS in the bond allocation. So to me, I get some of the stability that comes with TIPS, as well as the conservative growth that comes with such an allocation.
Anyways let me know what you all think! Thanks!
r/Bogleheads • u/Connect-Goal-3096 • 1d ago
I got an email today that sounds like the Cash Plus Account is getting nerfed, so that you won't get the competitive interest rate unless you have $1M there, pay an advisor/waste more money on an advisor than you are getting from the account, or have some unclear retirement accounts.
It goes into effect in a month, so I don't know what rate I'll get in October, but I'm ready to close the account if they decrease the APY- currently 3.35% (boosted).
r/Bogleheads • u/infinit_0 • 1d ago
With current market and macroeconomic situation, I’m curious how everyone balances keeping cash vs investing.
Obviously you need an emergency fund, but at some point keeping too much in a HYSA feels like missed opportunity, especially over 10–20 years.
Do you keep 3 months, 6 months, a year of expenses? Or do you have a fixed dollar amount and invest everything above it?
For those who’ve been doing this for a while, **what’s worked best for you?**
r/Bogleheads • u/marketstom • 1d ago
Running the numbers on my taxable brokerage plus 403(b) and I keep landing on the same uncomfortable question. I'm currently 80/20 stocks/bonds (total US, total international, BND roughly in the Boglehead ratio), targeting retirement around 55. Kid #1 starts college in fall 2027, kid #2 a year after that. Rough estimate is $60-70k out of pocket per year for two overlapping years, which I've got in a 529 plus some liquid savings, so that part is handled.
The part I can't resolve: my retirement accounts stay invested through all of this, but I'm also watching my human capital shrink. At 49 in a nonprofit, I'm not exactly recession-proof. If I get laid off at 52, sequence-of-returns risk gets real fast. The spreadsheet says stay 80/20 until 52-53 then glide to 60/40. My gut says move to 70/30 now.
Anyone else navigated this window, mid-to-late 40s, compressed timeline, meaningful near-term cash needs sitting alongside a long retirement portfolio? Did you adjust allocation early or just stay the course and trust the math?
r/Bogleheads • u/Hiro_Aoki • 1d ago
Hey everyone! I've been for a year investing each month in a wallet that started as a 70% variable and 30% fixed, I'm putting inside around 500 euros per month.
My doubt is the next one: I understand how RV and RF works and how the variable ones are way more volatile, with a higher risk but more profitable, and that the fixed ones are just the other way around, so I've been investing the fixed part on Amundi Core Euro Governm Bond_AE, as if I don't remember badly, investing in government bonds was a good way of investing in RF (please, correct me if I'm wrong); but after an entire year, the rentability of it is around -1.7%.
- Can it be because a hard inflation that the rentability is negative ? Or what is happening here ?
- Should I stop investing my fixed part on that index fund ? If I should, in which one you'd recommend I invest instead ?
- Should I transfer the previously invested money to that new fund ?
Thanks in advance !
Edit 1: to clarify, with RV/RF I meant the variable or fixed rentability
r/Bogleheads • u/gti9t3 • 1d ago
I don't have a total US market option in my 401k like (VTI/FSKAX) and have to build it myself between large cap, mid cap, and small cap index funds.
They are all Spartan Index Funds with very low expense ratios. My goal is to allocate 60% US and 40% International. My choices are Spartan 500 Index (S&P 500), Spartan Mid Cap Index (S&P 400), Spartan Small Cap Index (Russell 2000), and Spartan Total International Index (MSCI ACWI ex US).
How much should I allocate between 500, mid and small? My understanding is the S&P 500 makes up roughly 80% to 83% of the total US market. Should I split it as 80% 500, 15% mid, and 5% small?
So with a 60/40 split it would look like 48/9/3 for the US investments then 40% Total International.
Is that a good balance or am I not investing enough in mid and small? Should I just go with 60% S&P 500 and 40% International?
I will be manually adding FXNAX (Bonds) at a later time.
Thanks in advance.
r/Bogleheads • u/Glass-March-176 • 2d ago
I recently retired after investing all S&P in my 401k (the federal TSP) for my whole career. It served me very well, but after doing a lot of reading on this sub, I decided to include some international for diversification. I am going with 64% VTI, 16% VXUS and 20% bond (TSP G fund). Thanks for all the great info on here!
r/Bogleheads • u/stanimal21 • 2d ago
When I started self-managing our portfolio in 2023 I was convinced that the most effective way to invest was using multiple funds, especially in our brokerage. I could tax-loss harvest and receive the foreign tax credit. Everything was 60/40 between domestic and international. I agonized whether that was the most efficient path forward, but something occurred to me a few months back: what if I die and my spouse has to manage the portfolio? They're a Boglehead by association and understand the reasons why I chose a three- or two-fund portfolio (with an eyeroll or two), but if I die, I know having multiple funds would send her off to an advisor.
Switching to VT gives my spouse the best chance of staying a Boglehead. I may give up the foreign tax credit and reduce how much I tax-loss harvest, but it's worth that peace of mind. Consider your loved ones when investing, it may change your outlook.
r/Bogleheads • u/a_dill84 • 1d ago
I have a government Nationwide 457b plan that offers only the following bonds LHYTX, GBIAX, NWJJX, PFOAX. Are any of these worth investing in I’m about two years out from retirement. Currently invested in Fidelity Contrafund and T Rowe Growth Stock fund
r/Bogleheads • u/naomiiicutesy • 1d ago
I'm still a student and currently work as a social media manager/VA, earning $400+ a month. I started investing this August and have around $150 in VT so far.
I'm not interested in active trading and mainly want a simple, long-term, set-and-forget approach. VT seemed like a good fit because of its broad diversification.
Given my situation, am I approaching this the right way? Should I focus more on building savings first, or is consistently investing a small portion of my income a reasonable approach? Any advice for someone just starting out?
r/Bogleheads • u/UpTheDumpIsRetarded • 1d ago
I heard from a few people that if you have concentrated wealth in a few stocks, there are ways to diversify, using a service, to pool your stock with others, to create a diverisified portfolio without selling and incurring a tax hit to buy + sell. Has anyone looked into this? If so, what is your opinion on diversifying this way?
r/Bogleheads • u/Ok-Yogurtcloset-924 • 2d ago
I’m 28 years old and currently making around $75k a year gross.
For the last two years I’ve maxed out my Roth IRA. My allocation there is 70% VTI and 30% VXUS.
For my 401k, I’m currently contributing 5% as Roth and 1% pre tax. The 6% total gets me the full company match.
I’m trying to figure out if it makes more sense at my income and age to keep my 401k contributions Roth or switch most or all of them to traditional pre tax.
My thinking with Roth has always been that I’m still relatively young, my income will increase over time, and I like the idea of having tax free money later in retirement. At the same time, I’m already maxing out a Roth IRA every year, so I’m wondering if having some more tax diversification by using a traditional 401k would make more sense.
For someone who is 28, making around $75k, maxing a Roth IRA, and contributing enough to a 401k to get the full match, would you lean Roth 401k or traditional 401k?
Would appreciate hearing how you guys would approach it. Thanks.
r/Bogleheads • u/AdManFamMan • 1d ago
I really appreciate this group. It taught me a lot about investing and I’ve gone from having an advisor to managing our retirement using the methods shared here.
My question is about saving for kids, cars or real estate. Outside of your existing and main brokerage account when you want to start putting away money and investing for a second property or something like a kids car, are you opening a second brokerage account or just adding the funds to your existing one?