Bummed out, should i be?

[mrfeh]

I don't do metals, energy (oil), commodities at all. I do buy broad-market index funds such as Total US Stock Market Index fund and Total International Stock Market Index fund according to my asset allocation plan. The latter fund would include Europe and emerging markets as well as Asia, Canada, Latin America, Africa, etc.

+1

OP - just use a target date fund if you don't have time. If you're willing to spend a few hours, look at the 3 fund portfolio.

3.2% is low for 2014, although I could see it being explained by the management fee and if they had a bunch of your equities in ex-US funds. It was a bad year for international.

 

[Sarah in SC]

5 accounts in my wife’s name, 5 in mine. a couple were bond type accounts. I see your point about overlap
I really appreciate everyone’s thoughtful feedback and encouragement. I will spend time learning about vanguard over the next couple of days.

what are you guys thoughts on funds weighted in metals, energy (oil), emerging markets/Europe? Buy, Sell, hold, wait?

Ah, okay, so you need one IRA for you and one for your wife, held at the same custodian, be it Fidelity or Schwab or Vanguard or whoever. That will simplify things a lot for you to self-manage. And of course keeping out the SEP or Simple if you are still contributing (and don't close a Simple within 2 years of your first deposit).

Don't overcomplicate things at first with stuff like specialty and exotic funds. You just need some simple broad-market things to start with, perhaps doing a DCA into them to spread your purchases over a 6 month period or so. Then, as you learn more, you can add small holdings in the more sexy stuff. Lots of good performing funds never make the front cover of the magazines.

Good luck to you!

 

[hlfo718]

I ran the numbers using 68% Vanguard Total World, 8% Vanguard Total Int'l Bond, 8% Total Bond Index, and 16% cash earning 1%, the weighted return was 4.00%. So yes he underperformed but not by a huge margin. But not sure if that was before the FA's fees.

As others have pointed out, you can just put all your $$$ into Vanguard Target Retirement 2025 Fund, which also has 68% in equities. It returned 7.17%.

It really doesn't take a lot of time to manage your own money. Go to Vanguard and roll your accounts over to one of the Target funds and you are done. Just make sure you stay away from CNBC, Market Watch and other such sites. If you want to learn more, come to this site and Bogleheads.org. Tons of information and not looking to rip you off.

 

[audreyh1]

what are you guys thoughts on funds weighted in metals, energy (oil), emerging markets/Europe? Buy, Sell, hold, wait?

Avoid.

Just buy a simple diversified fund (including target funds), or less than a handful of broad index funds that cover most things. Don't get tripped up by all the small categories. It's not worth it unless you are a very experienced investor.

 

[2B]

what are you guys thoughts on funds weighted in metals, energy (oil), emerging markets/Europe? Buy, Sell, hold, wait?

Read Millionaire Teacher.

 

[Options]

+1 Just move to a Vanguard target fund

+2
BTW, I've made similar mistakes in the past. Ouch.

 

[INTJ10]

I agree with index fund investing but I couldn't resist allocating a portion of my equities to vgenx (energy), vgpmx (precious metals) because they have beaten down lately.


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[Jmlstocks]

I would disagree with anyone recommending target funds. He said he was 60, and a target fund for that age group is going to be very bond heavy-not where you want to be with interest rates at all time lows

 

[Animorph]

I would disagree with anyone recommending target funds. He said he was 60, and a target fund for that age group is going to be very bond heavy-not where you want to be with interest rates at all time lows

No problem. Just choose a later date to get the bond allocation that you want. It is a bit of a moving target, but it's slow.