steady saver
Recycles dryer sheets
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2013
- Messages
- 496
DH plans to retire after the first of the year.
We are attempting to balance our portfolio for the first time. We've gotten into the weeds with this in the past and also with numerous trips to our Fidelity advisors.
We really want to keep things simple.
We are in a high tax bracket so I've tried exploring how best to minimize our tax burden but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of wiggle room. Honestly at this point, I still don't quite see how best to do that. Fidelity was suggesting a Separately Managed Account but I couldn't see a big savings for the hassle.
So here I am, looking at picking 3-4 index funds and calling it good for now.
Like many people, we have money parked here and there. I want the cash we have for cash flow for when DH retires. He will be 56 at the time.
That leaves our Fidelity individual account and our 401K. The Individual account consists of roughly 1/3 VTI, 1/3 company stock, 12% cash and the rest scattered among a dozen stocks, all of which have done very well over the years except one that I need to sell (Viacom). I'm stumped on rebalancing this account at the moment because I don't need the money and I don't want to pay a tax on stock sales. I can't tax loss harvest because I don't have any losses except for Viacom. I'd appreciate your thoughts on this.
So that leaves our 401K in which to apply our 60/40 allocation. Right now that is in mostly aggressive growth stock index funds that I picked years ago based on company provided information that I didn't really understand. It has done well enough. I thought I would start in this 401K account and take my first stab at getting rid of what I have and introducing 3-4 Vanguard index funds (Total stock market, total international and total bond?).
I've let fear of making a wrong move lead to inaction and we'd really like to move forward in having a more balanced portfolio. Does what I'm proposing even make sense? I'm aware that it's not perfect but I need to make a step in the right direction.
Thank you for your thoughts.
We are attempting to balance our portfolio for the first time. We've gotten into the weeds with this in the past and also with numerous trips to our Fidelity advisors.
We really want to keep things simple.
We are in a high tax bracket so I've tried exploring how best to minimize our tax burden but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of wiggle room. Honestly at this point, I still don't quite see how best to do that. Fidelity was suggesting a Separately Managed Account but I couldn't see a big savings for the hassle.
So here I am, looking at picking 3-4 index funds and calling it good for now.
Like many people, we have money parked here and there. I want the cash we have for cash flow for when DH retires. He will be 56 at the time.
That leaves our Fidelity individual account and our 401K. The Individual account consists of roughly 1/3 VTI, 1/3 company stock, 12% cash and the rest scattered among a dozen stocks, all of which have done very well over the years except one that I need to sell (Viacom). I'm stumped on rebalancing this account at the moment because I don't need the money and I don't want to pay a tax on stock sales. I can't tax loss harvest because I don't have any losses except for Viacom. I'd appreciate your thoughts on this.
So that leaves our 401K in which to apply our 60/40 allocation. Right now that is in mostly aggressive growth stock index funds that I picked years ago based on company provided information that I didn't really understand. It has done well enough. I thought I would start in this 401K account and take my first stab at getting rid of what I have and introducing 3-4 Vanguard index funds (Total stock market, total international and total bond?).
I've let fear of making a wrong move lead to inaction and we'd really like to move forward in having a more balanced portfolio. Does what I'm proposing even make sense? I'm aware that it's not perfect but I need to make a step in the right direction.
Thank you for your thoughts.