Anyone 100% in Index Funds?

[spazz]

Currently sitting at 80% Index funds, with the hopes to make the switch to lower ETF's in the near future.

 

[martyb]

Yes, I'm currently 100% Index funds. That's my whole portfolio. Only other thing I have going is the 2 govt. pensions I'm building. I am about to open a ROTH IRA with Vanguard for 2007, though. Probably will use a Lifecycle type fund for that, most likely a 2015 version.

 

[ladelfina]

Cool. Turns out I can transfer up to $2 million in assets to my non-citizen spouse estate tax free at my death.

As long as you die before 2011.

 

[Trek]

As long as you die before 2011.

What happens then? I don't recall reading about a change in the tax law then?

Edit: Just looked it up and saw it goes back to $1M. That's ok, I'll probably never even get there.

 

[Eagle43]

No I am not 100% index funds. But, the serious money is in Vanguard index funds. I made the move from my 401k and another IRA shortly after I retired. I believe it is the way to go if you are not inclined to research everything or trust a financial guru to make all your investments.

 

[FANOFJESUS]

index

What was your total return last year on this mix? It looks like a good mix.

100% of my portfolio is invested with the following Vanguard funds:

Total Stock Market Index-50%
Total Bond Market Index-9%
Intermediate Term Treasuries-23%
Inflation-Protected Securities-12%
Prime Money Market-6%

 

[mathjak107]

im not 100% in index but my etf mix is

24% shy
15% tip
21% pwb
15% vti
15% ivv
10% pid

 

[growing_older]

Moving to all index funds, except a couple active funds which are holdovers for one reason or another (big cap gain, restricted account, sentimental attachment, etc) but will move if ever it makes sense. About 90% index at this point. Oh, and a tiny pot of "mad money" for goofing around with individual stocks.

 

[WilliamG]

We are about 2/3 indexed. The 3 Total Market funds and we recently re-added the REIT index. The other 1/3 is in Vanguard's income oriented balanced fund. Thus we have some managed stock and bond to go along with the indexed. Also like having the on-going rebalancing of the balanced fund to complement the infrequent rebalancing we try to maintain with the index funds.

 

[redduck]

It's about 50% managed funds, 30% index and the rest ETFs. (I'm guessing that's around 20%). The managed funds were basically the first funds that I bought and I've had them a long time. Then, I started buying the index funds, and now, more recently, ETFs. It's something about ETFs--they just give me a freedom from all sorts of rules that come with mutual funds.

 

[Buckeye]

100% of our mutual funds are index funds.

 

[lawman3966]

Index Funds should be the default selection

I haven't used Vanguard products much, but will likely do so in the future.

I bought and have done well with EEM, which is a Barclay's ETF, tracking the EAFE index. But, Vanguard has an ETF called VWO that tracks the same index at a lower management cost. When I've compared the two on the Yahoo finance site, VWO has generally won out. For various reasons, including your location, ETFs may be preferable to mutual funds.

VTI is Vanguard's ETF for the total U.S. stock market index (the Wilshire 5000 index). This has an expense ratio of only 0.07% - which I think is the lowest on record.

I think index funds should be the default selection. On certain occasions some new shining start of a fund manager may catch your eye, but I think those are the exceptions not the rule.

I also own some Berkshire B shares, which I treat as a balanced fund of sorts. It's good for taxable accounts since it does not pay any dividends and has usually exhibited less volatility than the market as a whole.