Help with choosing ETF's for my 401k

[halv45]

Hi all
Just found this forum and there's a lot of great info here!

I was hoping for some help with my portfolio:

I'm 42, married, 2 kids in grade school
I make 70k year
Wife makes 10k year part time
I’d say I won’t retire for another 20 years.

House paid for recently, no other debts
Emergency fund 3k, but I also have a HELOC with a $0 balance
Additional 3k cash waiting to invest

I put 5% into my 401k and get a 5% company match. We can buy most ETF’s, even some of the leveraged ones.

401k balance $160k
20% NCV
20% SDIV
15% DVY
10% XLU
5% SCHV

5% Stable value fund (I think it pays ~ 2% right now)
20% Cash (pays 0.1%)

I’d like to get this 25k invested. Or at least some of it and I’m looking for ideas. Right now with the markets I’m not seeing much to my liking. Bond prices are high with low yields. I’m more of a 100% stock guy anyway, but that’s high also. I was looking at natural gas (NAGS or FCG) or maybe even some precious metals as they’ve come down recently. SIVR or SGOL or maybe even some physical PM’s (with the 3k). I do like ETF’s with yield though. I figure in a downturn, I at least get a dividend.

Any help is appreciated!

 

[nun]

I'm a "couch potato" Vanguard type investor so my advice might not match your outlook, but as you asked I'd choose the lowest fee ETFs I could and go with 34% US equity, 33% International equity, 33% bond index.

VTI 34%
VXUS 33%
BND 33%

 

[jerome len]

I haven't looked up what each of the above funds represent, too lazy I guess, but I'd invest in Vanguard total stock fund. It's a core fund, so I'd have at least half of my portfolio in that core low cost index fund or ETF. Good luck!

 

[LOL!]

nun's picks are the best: VTI, VXUS, BND. If you want to tilt to small-cap and value, then add some VBR and VSS. If you want shorter duration bonds, add VCSH, but I would think your stable value fund would be a better choice than VCSH.

Please do your own research on all these ticker symbols. I can't figure out why you picked the ones you listed at all.

 

[halv45]

I can't figure out why you picked the ones you listed at all.

Dividends.

 

[Animorph]

Not very diversified with what looks at a brief glance to be all US dividend payers.

Try EFV, DEM, DLS, or RWX to branch out just a bit. Not specifically dividend payers, but on the value side and not US.

 

[pb4uski]

I didn't look up the tickers, but do you have any international stocks? I target ~25% of my equity allocation to international equities.

Is what you have more value oriented? If so, you may want to add some growth funds to even things out.

Have you looked at all your investments through MS X-Ray or some similar tool?

 

[LOL!]

Dividends.

I don't believe dividends give one an edge. Here's a discussion on the subject:
Bogleheads • View topic - Why do investors chase dividend paying strategies

 

[heeyy_joe]

I'd be patient and hold the cash.