steady saver
Recycles dryer sheets
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2013
- Messages
- 496
Hi,
I am 50, married with two sons (college and high school) and planning to retire in 2017. I have a Fidelity account through my spouse's work which houses our 401K and an individual account for my hobby of stock picking. In looking at this individual portfolio, I'm embarrassed to say that it is cash heavy and company stock heavy (due to a stock option redeemed). I will have about $325K to work with (I'll keep the other roughly 100K in my chosen stocks) and I've decided to just buy index fund ETF's through it. Here is what I'm looking at:
Vanguard Total Market Index Fund (VTI), Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund (BND), Vanguard REIT (VNQ), and Vanguard Small Cap Growth (VBK).
I know I need to look at the overall picture, but I am feeling like I really need to park this money now. I'd like to buy it in the same percentages that I'll eventually do for my entire portfolio. Am I making sense here?, ha. That is, what percentage would you suggest that I allocate to each of these funds and are there any that you would suggest me not even buying? I've never owned bonds before but I figure I need to get my feet wet with those. We recently went to a financial planner who is familiar with the company's benefits, etc. simply to get a big picture idea of where we are at and if early retirement in 4 years really is realistic and it is, whew! Of course he wants to manage our funds but I am insistent on doing it myself. We've been steady savers for the past 25 years and have made some sound financial decisions. (House is paid off, no other debt) Right now I am just wanting to do something constructive with this money and then I'll go from there.
Thanks for any and all suggestions.
I am 50, married with two sons (college and high school) and planning to retire in 2017. I have a Fidelity account through my spouse's work which houses our 401K and an individual account for my hobby of stock picking. In looking at this individual portfolio, I'm embarrassed to say that it is cash heavy and company stock heavy (due to a stock option redeemed). I will have about $325K to work with (I'll keep the other roughly 100K in my chosen stocks) and I've decided to just buy index fund ETF's through it. Here is what I'm looking at:
Vanguard Total Market Index Fund (VTI), Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund (BND), Vanguard REIT (VNQ), and Vanguard Small Cap Growth (VBK).
I know I need to look at the overall picture, but I am feeling like I really need to park this money now. I'd like to buy it in the same percentages that I'll eventually do for my entire portfolio. Am I making sense here?, ha. That is, what percentage would you suggest that I allocate to each of these funds and are there any that you would suggest me not even buying? I've never owned bonds before but I figure I need to get my feet wet with those. We recently went to a financial planner who is familiar with the company's benefits, etc. simply to get a big picture idea of where we are at and if early retirement in 4 years really is realistic and it is, whew! Of course he wants to manage our funds but I am insistent on doing it myself. We've been steady savers for the past 25 years and have made some sound financial decisions. (House is paid off, no other debt) Right now I am just wanting to do something constructive with this money and then I'll go from there.
Thanks for any and all suggestions.