Ditto, but not as many index funds. At Fidelity;
SPAXX for cash
FSKAX for Dow
FTIAX for international
FXAIX for S&P 500
FXNAX for bond
VTRIX | Vanguard International Value Fund |
*VEMIX | MSCI EM Indexed Equit |
*VTMGX | Developed Markets Index |
*PEOPX | EQ/Equity 500 Index |
*UMAFX | USAA Managed Allocation (S/D IRAs) |
VTSAX | Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Adm |
VGSTX | Vanguard STAR Fund |
VWIAX | Wellesley Income Fund Adm |
VGSLX | Vanguard REIT Index Fund Admiral Shares |
*VEXAX | Small/Mid Cap Index Eq Fund |
VSIAX | Vanguard Small-Cap Value Index Fund |
*VASGX | Taxable Brokerage |
VBTLX | Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund Adm |
VNJTX | Vanguard NJ Long-Term Tax-Exempt Fund Inv |
*BSV | Stable Value Fund |
*VWSTX | Guaranteed Interest Account |
@albireo13 (OP), one of the problems with building a portfolio is knowing how it is doing compared to some alternative portfolio. If you don't do this, though, you really have no idea how your strategy is working.
One of the ways I check various portfolios' equity portion performance is a home made benchmark. On 1/2/2015 I bought $35K of SWISX, an international fund, and $65K of VTSAX, a total US market fund. Since then there has been no rebalancing and all dividends and interest reinvested. Hence, total return. The funds were picked without much thought other than low cost and to make sure that I was not using them anywhere else in our portfolios. That way I can just transfer the $ totals from my brokerage reports to a spreadsheet. I do that quarterly. Here is the data:
My suggestion is that you pick some simple benchmark and backtest your portfolio ideas against it at portfoliovisualizer.com. You can use this one if you like; just start portfoliovisualizer on 1/2/2015 with the 35/65 ratio.
The complexity comes because rather than plain international, specific countries are used (freedom investmenting, as I warned about).I had never heard of this, so I did as you suggested. His suggestions seem, ummm, unduly complicated to me:
This is equivalent to saying "it's complex because the plan was designed to be complex." Nearly a tautology.The complexity comes because rather than plain international, specific countries are used (freedom investmenting, as I warned about). ...
It's only a problem if you want to assess the performance of the equity portion of your investment. You can't.