Moving from sloppy investing to an all ETF portfolio

[Newventurer]

Would like advice on moving from my sloppy investing style to a simpler structured all ETF portfolio similar to Matt Hougan's "World's Cheapest ETF Portfolio" which uses mostly Schwab ETF's, since I am already a customer.

With all of the fear about Bonds and interest rates how does one transition to this new strategy efficiently? I suppose it sounds like (is) market timing, but if the obvious is in front of you do you ignore it and hope time takes care of the timing?

I have 3-4 years before fully ER.

 

[SumDay]

I have no answers, but I can't wait to read what others post! And welcome, by the way!

 

[pb4uski]

I guess it depends on how much you had in bonds to begin with - his portfolio is only 15% bonds. I rolled over my 401k to an IRA earlier this year and had a similar decision to make as to how to invest in bonds in the current low interest rate environment.

I principally looked at Guggenheim BulletShares and Vanguard bond funds.

I ultimately decided that the Bulletshares were too new for my tastes and went with 74% Intermediate Term Corporate, 16% High Yield Corporate and 10% GNMA. At the time this mix had a 3.75% yield and 4.8 duration (compared to a 2.17% yield and 5.1 duration for the Total Bond fund). If it appears that interest rates are going to increase, I may go shorter or switch to BulletShares as the interest rate risk of bond mutual funds scare me.

 

[Newventurer]

Thanks for the reply, clearly I have much to learn about bonds - duration was not something I had focused on. I found a thread that has a good visual for anyone else that is new to this concept.

https://personal.vanguard.com/us/insights/saving-investing/bond-fund-basics-duration