Since I moved from EJ to Ameritrade, I'm cash heavy and need to get it back in the market. Would appreciate your recommendations on ETFs to keep for the long term. Thanks for any advice/recommendations!
Not nearly enough information provided to answer your question. What funds were you in at Edward Jones? Why did you "cash out" when you moved to TD Ameritrade? What is your desired asset allocation (stocks vs. bonds, domestic vs. international, etc.)?
The stocks that I sold could not be moved...they might have been proprietary...or TDAmeritrade just doesn't handle them. I want to be in stocks only as I have a pension that replaces the 'bond' portion of my portfolio...I probably need an international ETF...I'm in:
DGRO
EFA
FFICX
MFEKX
MFRKX
MKDVX
OEF
SFCWX
VBR
VIG
VO
VTV
VUG
I can't figure out how to get the name of the fund with the ticker...sorry.
Congrats on escaping Fast Eddie's clutches. For a buy and hold invesor, IMO there's nothing much special about ETFs vs conventional mutual funds. Maybe small tax advantage if held in a taxable account.
That said, we've achieved what I consider to be passive investor nirvana -- 95% of our equities are in one fund, VTWAX. We own the world, market cap weighted. No home country bias except by the cap weighting. VT is the ETF flavor. We don't expect to need any other equity fund going forward/forseeable future.
Since I moved from EJ to Ameritrade, I'm cash heavy and need to get it back in the market. Would appreciate your recommendations on ETFs to keep for the long term. Thanks for any advice/recommendations!
You had funds at EJ and now have cash. Is this in a taxable account? If so, you'll owe taxes on the funds you sold. Some of the cash should be set aside to pay taxes in that case.
If this is in an IRA, that's too many ETFs. For example, VUG and VTV are value and growth - together they're the same as buying the market. I'd replace them with VTI. I'd actually replace all of your ETFs with VTI and VXUS, starting over with just US and international.
Then buy or rent a book on investing that uses historical data. "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" is the first one I read, and has been in print for decades. You need to see for yourself what happens in a crash, and how soon the recovery happens. Once you "get it", hopefully you will be more comfortable holding your ETFs when the market crashes.