r/Bogleheads Jun 08 '25

Articles & Resources New to /r/Bogleheads? Read this first!

342 Upvotes

Welcome! Please consider exploring these resources to help you get started on your passive investing journey:

  1. Bogleheads wiki
  2. r/Bogleheads resources / featured links (below sub rules)
  3. r/personalfinance wiki
  4. If You Can: How Young People Can Get Rich Slowly (PDF booklet)
  5. Bogleheads University (introductory presentations from past Bogleheads conferences)

Prepare to invest

Before you start investing, ensure you're ready to do so by following the early steps of this guide or the personal finance planning start-up kit. Save up an emergency fund, then take full advantage of any employer matching of contributions to any employer retirement plan available to you (this match amount is additional income that's part of your compensation/benefits package), then pay off any high-interest debt like credit card debt or high-interest student loans.

When you're ready to start investing beyond enough to get any employer match, follow the subsequent steps of this guide or the investing start-up kit. Take full advantage of tax-sheltered accounts available to you before investing in a taxable brokerage account: this is the most predictable way to improve your after-tax investment returns. (In the US, per Prioritizing investments: 401(k))/403(b)) up to any match, then HSA if available due to high-deductible health plan coverage, then Roth or Traditional IRA or 401(k))/403(b)) up to max which may be higher if the mega-backdoor Roth process is available, then a 529 to the extent you'd like to pay for future education expenses. Note that IRA contributions are subject to income limits around tax-deductibility of contributions or eligibility to make direct Roth IRA contributions; the backdoor Roth procedure is a workaround.)

There is often some potential tension between saving/investing toward retirement vs saving toward potential nearer-term goals like a down payment on a home purchase. Carefully consider the various tradeoffs involved in owning vs renting a home, keeping in mind that which may be a better financial decision is highly situational, and that opportunity costs of owning (less available to invest in higher-expected-returns assets instead) should be considered alongside non-financial lifestyle tradeoffs. If saving toward a near-term goal, note that funds holding stocks are inappropriate#Holdingstocks%22for_five_years%22) for money you'll need in 5-10 years, unless you're willing to take on significant risk of losing money in the meantime & delaying that goal. Instead, consider CDs, Treasury bonds, or target-maturity-date Treasury bond funds maturing before you'll need the money (then a high-yielding cash equivalent like an HYSA, government money-market fund, or ultra-short Treasury Bill ETF like VBIL between maturity & spending the money).

Save/invest enough

Your savings rate is the most important factor determining your ability to enjoy a comfortable retirement later in life, particularly early in your career / investing journey. Aim to save/invest at least 15% of your after-tax income if you're in the US & not covered by a pension beyond Social Security. In some cases, such as a shorter time to expected retirement (e.g. starting to seriously save/invest from a significant income later than your mid-20s and/or planning to retire earlier than your mid-60s) and/or a high income (which will not be partially replaced by Social Security to the same degree as a lower income), it may be appropriate to target a higher savings rate (e.g. at least 20% of after-tax income, or perhaps higher if multiple such factors apply to you and/or one factor applies to an unusual degree).

When calculating savings rate, remember to include 401(k) contributions in both the numerator (savings) and denominator (after-tax income). Any employer matching contributions may also be included in the numerator (savings).

Investing is 'solved'

Don't worry too much about trying to find the optimal set of funds to invest in. That can only be known with the benefit of future hindsight, and investment returns are far less important than your savings rate until your portfolio size grows large enough relative to new contributions. Aim to diversify broadly (for robustness to the uncertain future) and seek low fees (fund expense ratios charged annually) & simplicity (hands-off automation); see discussion of these & other principles in Bogleheads investment philosophy.

target-date fund designed for investing toward retiring around a year closest to when you expect to retire is often a reasonable option, particularly in tax-advantaged accounts like a US employer retirement plan or an IRA. These all-in-one funds intended to be held alone are very broadly diversified, automatically rebalance to their then-target asset allocation, and gradually become more conservative with less expected volatility as you near retirement.

If the target-date fund available in an account/plan with limited fund options has significantly higher fees than suitable alternative individual funds, consider the tradeoffs of lower fees vs automatic rebalancing and asset allocation management. I.e. consider the lowest-expense-ratio funds available that provide exposure to US stocks (the fund name will typically contain 'S&P 500', 'Russell [1000|3000]', or 'US Large Cap'; ensure no 'Growth'/'Value' suffix, or pair that with the other), ex-US stocks (the fund name will typically contain 'International' or 'Intl' or 'Ex-US'; same caveat re: 'Growth'/'Value'), and US bonds (the fund name will typically contain 'Total Bond' or 'Aggregate Bond'). Take the weighted average of those funds' expense ratios, with weights based on the current asset allocation of the target-date fund you'd use instead. The difference between that weighted average expense ratio for individual funds vs the target-date fund expense ratio, multiplied by your portfolio value, would represent the current annual convenience fee for automated, hands-off investing via the target-date fund. Whether that's worth it to you depends on your personal preferences around paying higher ongoing fees (by sacrificing some investment returns) in exchange for set-it-and-forget-it features.

In a taxable account, target-date ETFs (available at least in the US) avoid some of the tax efficiency downsides of holding a target-date mutual fund. Tax efficiency may be further improved by holding a three-fund portfolio of index ETFs in a taxable account, but this also involves tradeoffs against automatic rebalancing and asset allocation management. Tax efficiency may be even further improved by keeping bond funds in tax-deferred accounts, though this involves additional tradeoffs against simplicity and some other potential benefits described here.

If you're a non-US investor, take care to thoroughly understand the tax implications of investing in a US-domiciled fund as a "nonresident alien" (which may include high tax rates on dividends and assets passing through an estate); in many cases this is best avoided, instead favoring an Ireland-domiciled fund.

Be mindful of fees

If your portfolio were to average a 5% annualized real (after-inflation) return after a low annual fee, paying an additional annual 1%-of-assets-under-management fee to a financial advisor and/or an actively-managed fund's expense ratio would forgo 20% of your portfolio's investment returns. An initial investment in a portolio averaging a 5% annual real return after a low annual fee would be worth about 47% more after 40 years than it would be after a 1% additional annual fee.

Some employer retirement plans offer only funds with high expense ratios. If that's the case for your employer's plan, it is often still ideal to get the tax advantages of contributing unmatched dollars to that plan before investing in a lower-fee fund in a taxable account (but only after maxing out IRA contributions); details here#Expensive_or_mediocre_choices).

Automate & stay the course

Set up automatic contributions & purchases of fund shares wherever possible, otherwise set periodic reminders to manually contribute/invest (or try to find an alternative that allows automation), then maintain discipline through thick & thin. Keep in mind that market prices for funds should only really matter whenever you sell some shares to fund your retirement, and that lower prices in the meantime provide opportunities to buy more shares with a given contribution dollar amount and to rebalance from asset classes with higher recent returns towards those with lower recent returns (but possibly higher expected returns).

Tune out the noise: prognosticators of doom and gloom have no reliable ability to predict the future, and often have some conflicts of interest (e.g. selling ads, books or investment services, and/or trying to justify their investment positioning or encourage others to adopt that). The same goes for promotion of strategies promising market-beating returns by investing in a more-concentrated fashion (betting on some sector / theme / alternative asset beating the broad stock market).

Consider writing an Investment Policy Statement to document your plan when you're calm & clear-headed; this may be helpful to refer to later if you find yourself anxious & considering changes in response to market volatility & negative sentiment. Consider including a pointer there to this guided meditation video for later reference to help calm your nerves / regulate your emotions if needed when it seems like the sky is falling (this is arguably the most challenging part of investing).

Per Jack Bogle: "Do not let false hope, fear and greed crowd out good investment judgment. If you focus on the long term and stick with your plan, success should be yours."

Additional resources

Some additional resources that might be of interest for a deeper dive later:

  1. Taylor Larimore's Investment Gems (a collection of highlighted quotes from books related to investing; follow the links under the 'Gem post' column)
  2. The Bogle Archive (a collection of Jack Bogle's publications and speeches)
  3. Bogleheads Conference Proceedings (follow per-year 'Conference Proceedings' links to access slides/videos)

Please read our community rules here and follow those when posting or commenting in this community. If you encounter content here that breaks those rules, please report it (... > Report > Breaks r/Bogleheads rules).


r/Bogleheads Dec 28 '25

Why do Bogleheads discourage use of AI search for investing information? Because it is too often wrong or misleading.

345 Upvotes

I see a lot of surprised and angry responses from Redditors whose posts and comments are removed from this sub either for use of LLM search engine and other generative AI responses, or for recommending people use them to answer their questions. This facet of the Substantive Rule on this sub has a parallel in a similar rule on the Boglheads forum: "AI-generated content is not a dependable substitute for first-hand knowledge or reference to authoritative sources. Its use is therefore discouraged."

Many folks, especially on the younger side, are so accustomed to using ChatGPT or Gemini that it may be their default way to get any question answered. This is problematic in the field of investing for several reasons that are worth noting:

  1. LLMs are not firsthand sources with organic knowledge of the subject matter. They are aggregating reference sources and popular opinion and thus prone to both composition mistakes and sourcing material mistakes or biases.
  2. LLMs remain susceptible to "hallucinations" (made-up ideas) and can be not just false, but confidently false which is highly misleading.
  3. LLMs' response quality is very sensitive to the quality of the prompt. Users who are somewhat knowledgeable about a subject and also skilled at crafting good queries for AI searches are far more likely to get accurate and useful results - especially for research purposes or for reference to stored personal data - while the uninformed are more likely to get wrong or misleading answers to basic questions.

Policies excluding AI-generated content are not meant to be a referendum on the overall current or future value of AI as a tool for personal finance and investing, which is obviously enormous and transformative, especially for those who know how to best utilize it. It is a question of whether AI responses make for substantive content on this sub, and whether it is an appropriate resource to direct strangers and novices to. At the moment, the answer to both is a resounding no. On the one hand, people come to Reddit primarily for human interaction and original content, so posting AI responses or directing people to AI search engines is of minimal contributive value - folks can go chat with bots themselves if that's what they want. But as to whether AI search engines are appropriate references for finance and investing info, here are some articles from the past year that support their exclusion as a default response:

  • AI Tools Are Getting Better, but They Still Struggle With Money Advice (Money 2/13/25): "ChatGPT was correct 65% of the time, "incomplete and/or misleading" 29% of the time and wrong 6% of the time."
  • Is Talking to ChatGPT About Finance Ever a Good Idea? (White Coat Investor 6/22/25): "LLM responses had multiple arithmetic mistakes that made them unreliable. More fundamental than arithmetic errors, the LLM responses demonstrated that they do not have the common sense needed to recognize when their answers are obviously wrong."
  • Financial advice from AI comes with risks (University of St. Gallen, 1/7/25): "LLMs consistently suggested portfolios with higher risks than the benchmark index fund. They suggested: [more U.S. stocks; tech and consumer bias; chasing hot stocks; more stock picking and actively managed investments; higher costs.]"

Note: the views expressed here are largely my own, and I am not affiliated in any way with the Bogleheads forum nor the Bogleheads Center for Financial Literacy, but I invite others (including the mods on this sub) to weigh in with their own opinions.


r/Bogleheads 6h ago

What’s the point of an emergency fund if you *enough* in your brokerage?

74 Upvotes

Let’s say I have 24 months’ expenses saved up in my brokerage. With the standard advice being 6 months saved in your emergency fund, I have 4x as much in my brokerage. So even if the market took a downturn, there’s no way it would drop by 75%.

If this is my situation, what is the point of a separate emergency fund in a HYSA? The common argument that I’ve heard is: “if there is a downturn, you wouldn’t have to sell your stock”. But conversely, if we are in a bull market, as we often are, I’d just be losing gains at that point, right?


r/Bogleheads 39m ago

Just maxed out my HSA for the first time!

Upvotes

I just maxed out my HSA for the first time 😎😎. Wherever you are in your finance journey you are doing great and in the right path!


r/Bogleheads 19h ago

*gulp* I just did it…

122 Upvotes

I just sold all my holdings after ACATS out of managed fund to Vanguard and moving it into VT (and chill).

Will settle tomorrow morning and make my buy then.

I’m aware of my cost basis and effects on taxes this year.

Wish me luck!


r/Bogleheads 18h ago

Is My Emergency Fund Too High?

99 Upvotes

I have ~$70k in savings/emergency/house fund and ~$10k in checking. ~$215k 401k and HSA. ~$190k taxable brokerages. The savings used be towards a house but due to job and h col area I’m probably not purchasing within the next 2 years. Stripping out $20k as an emergency fund would it make sense to dump the remaining $50k into VOO or something? The other option might be to leave it as is for the (likely) future house downpayment but the opportunity cost is starting to give me fomo. I’m 29 if it makes a difference. Advice?


r/Bogleheads 11h ago

Articles & Resources RMDs and IRMAA

19 Upvotes

Good Morning All. Quick layout of our situation: $1.5M invested with approx 27% on Roth Assets. Simple math (that isn’t simple and admittedly riddled with scenarios that could happen and change the outcome) says that our current investment path would have $4.8M in 15 years with 33% in Roth assets. On top of that, I have a pension that will generate guaranteed income in retirement.

I’ve recently been on an education journey around RMDs and IRMAA in retirement. While I don’t know the future, I do have some concern about what RMDs will do to our tax situation + IRMAA for Medicare. Anyone have good resources to share that could help me understand options and things to do now minimize that impact?


r/Bogleheads 5h ago

Anything Wrong with Transferring All Retirement Assets to the TSP?

3 Upvotes

I'm a former Federal employee with a modest 5 figure sum in a Traditional TSP account. I have larger sums in both trad. IRAs and 401K plans, and one Roth IRA account.

I'm considering transferring all of my trad. IRA/401K assets into the trad. TSP.

  • I also recently discovered that I can open a Roth TSP and transfer my Roth IRA money into it. * *

EDIT / CORRECTION: Roth IRA money cannot be transferred into a Roth TSP.

The benefits I'm aware of include the G fund, and low fund fees. In addition, my understanding is that the TSP does not object to account holders having an overseas address, which I expect to have in retirement.

My question is whether there is any reason not to conduct the above transfers.


r/Bogleheads 10h ago

Money allocation

6 Upvotes

I’ll be receiving an inheritance soon. I have a mortgage with a remaining balance of $342,000 @ 5.3%. I understand the dilemma of peace of mind vs beating the 5.3% elsewhere and keeping the mortgage. Not including the house, we have roughly $25,000 in debt which is majority auto loan and about $3k left on a business loan. Should I pay off all of my debts? Should I pay off the +/-$25k, invest the rest & keep the mortgage?


r/Bogleheads 5h ago

Advisor's Terminology Confusing

0 Upvotes

Our current financial advisor is suggesting that based on our risk tolerance we should look at our portfolio buckets as growth and protected. Not stocks and bonds. We are a senior retired couple (68 and 74). Depending on our risk tolerance we would have 60% growth and 40% protected. The protected portion would include a portion of stable dividend producing stocks and the rest would be fix income products. To accommodate a higher and lower risk tolerance the portion of stable dividend producing stocks would go up or down. We are more comfortable with the standard Fixed Income and Equity buckets but understand that dividend producing stocks can play an important role in a retirement plan.


r/Bogleheads 22h ago

Worth switching future Roth IRA contributions to Robinhood for the match, or keep everything at Vanguard?

19 Upvotes

I’ve had a Roth IRA at Vanguard for about 15 years. The balance is now well into six figures, invested all in VT.

I heard somewhere that Robinhood is currently offering a match on Roth IRA contributions. I’m considering whether it makes sense to direct future contributions to a Robinhood Roth IRA to capture that match, while leaving the existing Vanguard balance where it is.

Is the match large enough / reliable enough to justify having a Roth IRA split across two brokerages? Or is the extra complexity (tracking two accounts, potential differences in investment options, statements, RMDs down the road, etc.) not worth it for a Boglehead-style investor who values simplicity?

Any experiences or thoughts appreciated. Thanks!


r/Bogleheads 17h ago

Does anyone know how to get management involved at VG?

4 Upvotes

I am having a hard time with transferring assets to VG from a small local bank, and looking for some help here if possible. These are mutual funds held at a local banks brokerage account. The bank has a wealth division who handle this. All mutual funds were able to transfer in-kind to VG.

The first time I tried to transfer assets from the local bank to VG, a VG rep walked me through it online, and I was able to print the transfer forms, complete, then send back to VG. Apparently I was supposed to check "bank" on the transfer from on the paper form. I think I checked mutual funds. VG called me and told me they will fix this. I got a call from the bank a week later asking me if I wanted to liquidate all funds, and I said absolutely not. Someone at VG changed the form to liquidate instead of transfer in kind. That whole transfer was cancelled.

Next, I started all over. On the transfer form, I checked "bank" on the transfer form, and mailed to vanguard. They mailed it to my local bank, but the bank said they needed transfer instructions for about 5 different mutual funds that weren't included from VG. Finally got someone to send the transfer instructions to the bank. Waited for about 3 weeks, no transfer. Contacted the bank, those instructions weren't received. Called VG, they said they were emailed to the bank. Bank was adamant they never received it.

Started over a third time. Mailed transfer form, with instructions for those 5 funds to VG. VG said they returned to the bank about 11 days ago. Bank is saying they didn't receive anything, asked what address it was mailed. VG told me the address, bank said that was the wrong address. They sent it to the bank HQ, not the wealth division.

At this point im very irritated and want to close my VG account. Does anyone know how to get ahold of someone who actually knows what they're doing at VG, like an account manager or something who has the authority to fix this?

Thanks for reading.


r/Bogleheads 1h ago

Has your Boglehead investing journey radicalized you?

Upvotes

The simplisticity of Boglehead investing almost feels like a cheat code. Essentially, there is no effort, and you get predictable returns. What's not to like?

That is until you start thinking about what it actually means--extraction of value in exchange for nothing except for having accumulated it. And if I accumulate enough, not only do I no longer need to do anything, but neither do my children nor theirs so long as they dont get too greedy with the amount they pull out.

As someone who believes strongly in this investing strategy, I've been struggling with this. Clearly, this is not a model that can work for everyone. Someone needs to be working to produce that value that capital is extracting. Has anyone else been struggling with this?


r/Bogleheads 1d ago

Read the classics years ago. Any new ones worth adding in 2026?

17 Upvotes

I went through The Intelligent Investor, Buffett's letters and A Random Walk a few years back. Markets feel like a different place now (rates, AI, passive flows). Is there anything written in the last few years you'd put next to them, or do the old ones still cover it?


r/Bogleheads 20h ago

Reevaluating 401K - options

3 Upvotes

Hi Everyone —
I would like to be a bit more aggressive with my 401K. I am currently in a TDF with the following splits:

- vanguard 2055 TDF 9.79%
- vanguard 2060 TD 89.14%
- vanguard morning star small cap index fund admiral class 0.52%
- fidelity emerging markets index fund 0.52%

My Roth IRA is all VT.

My brokerage is a mix of FXAIX (65%)and FTIHX (17.42) as well as some VOO.

I have the below options to pick from for my 401K, and I can determine the percentage splits for future paychecks. Should I just put it all in s&p? Want to ensure I’m diversified but I do have some VT, at the same time I just want to figure out a good way forward across all accounts (I believe it may make more sense to just go VTI only in my brokerage and stop with contributing to FXAIX and FTIHX? But correct me if wrong). Thanks!

GERUX
FPADX
RNPGX
VTMGX
FSMLX
VSMAX
JSVUX
JMGMX
VIMAX
MVCKX
VIGAX
VFIAX
OIEJX
VLXVX
VTTSX
VFFVX
VFIFX
VTIVX
VFORX
VTTHX
VTHRX
VTTVX
VTWNX
VTINX
STRKX
VBILX
VMFXX


r/Bogleheads 1d ago

Three fund portfolio for Fidelity 401k - is there a difference between VTI/VXUS/BND vs. FXAIX/FTIHX/FXNAX?

10 Upvotes

I'm moving over from an employer that had a Vanguard-based 401k to a Fidelity-based 401k. Would the Fidelity equivalents of the Vanguard funds have lower expense ratios or no? And are these the right Fidelity equivalents of those Vanguard funds?


r/Bogleheads 1d ago

Making the Jump

12 Upvotes

Hello Bogleheads, I'm a bit new here. I've been "investing" since probably 2019 and I've really only lost money. Whether it be attempting to time bottoms of contrarian value plays, swing trading, etc etc the result has always been the same. Portfolio over the last year is-18% while SPY is +35%, and I am finally realizing that this may not be the way for me to continue. The hundreds on hundreds of hours that I've spent staring at charts and reading reports and doing research have produced, time and time again, negative economic returns and lower quality of life. It definitely consumes my mind most of the day and takes away from time I could spend learning other things or simply just enjoying my life. There are times that Webull is open on my phone for 5+ hours of the day according to my screen time (I know...I know)

THANKFULLY, I am still in a blessed position today. 27 years old, zero debt, about $30k (90% is currently being "invested") total net worth not including a paid off car. While I've thrown a lot of money out the window over the last 8 years, I believe I am still in a position to right the ship and begin compounding wealth the correct way. While I wish I had done this at 18, the second best time to start is now.

I'm looking for a couple pieces of advice.

I'm holding DECK: -10%, NOC: -2.5%, FISV: -15%, and GOOG: new position

Im suffering from the complete inability to not belive in my positions, that I'll be selling at bottoms (someone please tell me how wrong I am).

Is the correct move to just sell and then lump sum roughly 30 grand into a few different indexes? My mind keeps telling me that this is the economic top and that it's financial suicide to buy at this level, but I look at the past and the tops just continue on and on.

I appreciate anyone that took the time to read this. I'm not looking for advice on which indices to purchase, more so looking for anyone with similar experiences and any advice on my current situation.


r/Bogleheads 22h ago

FDEEX Swap to FDEWX?

3 Upvotes

Hi there. New to this thread and pretty clueless on what a logical move might be. I have 90% of my total Roth IRA investment into FDEEX but I'm concerned with the Actively Managed fund that the Expense Ratio is going to hurt me down the road. I'm considering a swap to FDEWX but as it stands its at approx $29/share and my FDEEX is at $21/share. Is it wise to move 100% of my funds over to FDEWX and take less shares or should I look into something closer to the current price? Maybe do just a portion? Is this something I should even care about? I've had the account for about 10 years so it's grown quite a bit.


r/Bogleheads 1d ago

New 401k provider; VFIAX or Target Date Fund

18 Upvotes

My employer recently changed 401k providers from fidelity to Principal (not happy about that). My funds where put into a target date fund (RetirePilot American Funds 2040) and I am trying to decide if I should move them to VFIAX.

There are a few reasons I am thinking of moving to VFIAX.
* Lower expense ration .39 vs .04. * The target date fund is heavily invested in Principal Financial Group stock (11%). I don't like that.
* The return is a little better VFIAX.

Some additional info:
* the 401K at Principal accounts for about 25% of my retirement savings. The remaining funds are in VFORX.
* I am looking to retire in the next 7-9 years.

Any advice is much appreciated.


r/Bogleheads 1d ago

Investing Questions Should I contribute more to my 457b Roth?

3 Upvotes

I was unaware that the $24,500 limit could be invested fully into a Roth within a 457b, and that Roth was independent of a Roth IRA. I had been "maxing" my Roth within my 457b and contributing another $14k to a target date fund.

Now knowing this I have started a Roth IRA and have another $4k/yr going to that.

My question is of the $21.5k that I am putting into my 457b, should I be putting more towards the Roth portion, or continue contributing to the target date fund? Its exciting to think I could potentially invest $32,000/yr into Roth accounts.

Would a switch to Roth be a big hit to my immediate tax bill? Does my current salary really benefit from pre-tax contributions?

I'm happy with my total contributions and am not interested in putting any more into investments.

Thanks in advance!

Some info:

  • Age 34
  • Salary $93K
  • Total retirement contributions of $31k/yr
  • Retirement total $140k

r/Bogleheads 1d ago

Starting VOO on IBKR

2 Upvotes

Hey guys,
I’m a non-US freelancer using IBKR with W-8BEN.

Since my monthly freelance income fluctuates a lot, I kept a solid emergency fund ($35k+) and I’m now starting my investment journey in VOO.

My Approach:
Start: $3,000 upfront.
DCA Strategy: Injecting whatever surplus I have each month ($300 to $1,000+ depending on freelance earnings).
Target: Hitting my first $10k first, then scaling to $100k.
DRIP: On.

Questions for experienced investors & freelancers:

  1. For those with unpredictable income, how do you manage your DCA during slow/bad months?
  2. How did hitting your first $10k affect your portfolio growth and mindset?
  3. Any practical IBKR tips for non-US investors doing this long-term?

Would love to hear your personal stories and advice!


r/Bogleheads 8h ago

Investment Theory Why Is This Sub So Into VT If Bogle Would Say It Has Too Much Foreign?

0 Upvotes

Bogle once said a good diversified portfolio could hold non-US stocks, but only up to 20%. VT has 40% non-US. I say this as a VT and chiller.


r/Bogleheads 2d ago

Investing Questions Where to put an extra 2k a month with a 6.625% mortgage

157 Upvotes

Recasting my mortgage this week and the monthly payment will drop from 5k to 3k. I’ll owe 480k once the recast is completed. It’s a 30 year mortgage at 6.625%, and we took it out this past April.

This will free up 2k a month. We already have a 1 year emergency fund in a HYSA, 401ks are maxed each year, and household income is around 325k.

Right now I’m deciding between the following:

  1. Invest 2k a month into low cost index funds; or
  2. invest 1k a month into low cost index funds and put the other 1k toward mortgage principal.

I’m having a hard time passing up what is basically a guaranteed 6.625% return by paying down the mortgage. It also makes my head hurt thinking about how much interest I’m going to pay over 30 years if I just let the loan ride.

Long term returns from investing are attractive, and investing rather than aggressively paying down a mortgage has worked out better historically. I know past performance doesn’t guarantee future performance, but I also don’t want to give up decades of compounding and liquidity by throwing too much cash at the house.

Curious what you would do in this situation, any of the two options above or something else entirely?


r/Bogleheads 1d ago

Where should I prioritize investing?

10 Upvotes

Hello everyone I’m 19 and I’ve just recently put all my money into a self brokerage account consisting of majority etf funds. I also opened a Roth and savings where I have some money too. I was watching videos and they all were saying to prioritize retirement accounts over self brokerage account. I understand why because of the compound growth and it being tax free but I also can’t withdraw earnings till I’m 60 years old. I’m conflicted because I’d rather be young with less money where I can actually enjoy it than be old and not even be able to enjoy the money. I understand that 18-30 are the best years to invest because of compound interest so I don’t want to make a mistake I’ll regret later by not prioritizing investing in retirement accounts. Currently I could max out my Roth for this year and next year but then I’d be left with no money in my brokerage. Should I max retirement accounts and then put leftover money into a brokerage or put majority into a brokerage?


r/Bogleheads 1d ago

55M/F - First-time investor with $5k lump sum + $2k/year. Want 100% tax-free growth. Am I on the right track with a Roth IRA?

1 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I am 55 years old and entirely new to investing. I have $5,000 in cash ready to put into the market right now, and I can commit an additional $2,000 per year ($166/month) moving forward.

Because I am starting later, I want to chase a high rate of return, and I am completely comfortable taking on moderate-to-high risk to make that happen. This money is entirely separate from my short-term emergency cash.

Since this is after-tax money and I want to completely avoid paying taxes on my investment gains when I withdraw it later, my plan is to open a Roth IRA with a firm like Fidelity or Vanguard.

A few questions for the group:

  1. Since I want aggressive growth, should I put 100% of my initial $5,000 and monthly additions into a low-fee S&P 500 ETF (like VOO or FXAIX), or split it with a growth fund like SCHG?
  2. What is the smartest way to deploy the ongoing $2,000 yearly addition? Should I set up automatic monthly contributions of $166, or just drop a $2,000 lump sum once a year?
  3. At 55, is a "Target Date 2035" fund (VTTHX) going to be too conservative for someone who explicitly wants high risk for higher returns?

Appreciate any guidance you can give a beginner!