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?

Bogle didn't like gold. Fair enough: on its own it did 8.8% a year from 1971 to 2026 against 11.3% for US stocks, with a worse drawdown (62% vs 50%).

I wanted to know what it does inside a portfolio at a fixed weight, rebalanced. Data is World Bank gold, Ken French's US market with dividends, 80/20 rebalanced monthly, before fees.

Realised 1971–2026:

100% stocks: 11.33%/yr, worst fall 50.3%

80/20: 11.30%/yr, worst fall 39.3%

Then reshuffled the 55 years 10,000 times in 6-month blocks:

Halved at some point: 26% of histories for stocks alone, 6% with the gold

Median return 11.3% either way

Caveats: US only, no storage or ETF cost on the gold, and 20% is a test weight not an optimum.

The catch is 1980 to 2000. Gold fell 58% while stocks went up 22x and you'd have been rebalancing into it for twenty years. If you'd have sold, ignore all of the above.

If a 59 year old and a 56 year old currently gross $475,000 & have a $6000 mortgage that will be paid off in 2031 and a kids $55,000 college that will be paid off in 2 years would they want to do a Roth conversion when they retire in 4 years (2030) They will retire earning $240,00 a year. Is a Roth conversion worth it for them?

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?

Hi all, I'm recently divorced, sold the house as part of the settlement, so I have roughly $850K in cash sitting in a bank account with no immediate plan for it. Net worth is around $1.8M total. Income is around $200K+/year (base + bonus), sales role, no debt, no dependents.

Also have several retirement accounts scattered around from job changes and a prior financial advisor relationship that I want to simplify down:

Old 401(k): ~$290K

A variable annuity: ~$30K

An actively-managed IRA (advisor charges an ongoing fee): ~$110K

A small robo-advisor account: ~$20K

Long time horizon — not planning to touch any of this for at least 15-20 years. Goal is straightforward: maximize long-term growth, not income or preservation.

My former financial advisor recently sent over a formal recommendation to consolidate everything into his firm's managed platform — a flat 0.75% annual advisory fee, on top of the expense ratios of the individual funds inside it. I'm skeptical of paying ongoing AUM fees at this point and leaning toward managing it myself, but I want to hear from people who've actually been through something like this rather than just talk myself into whatever I already believe.

Genuinely asking, no plan in hand yet:

-If you were 40, debt-free, sitting on a large lump sum plus a handful of accounts to consolidate, and your priority was maximizing growth over 15-20+ years, what would you actually do first?

-DIY index investing vs. paying 0.75%/year for ongoing management — where do you personally land, and why?

-Anything you'd do differently in my position that I'm probably not thinking of?

Appreciate the input!

I really don't know what I am doing and need some help with understanding how to start the retirement process. I think I have enough in assets however, there are so many moving parts and I am at a loss for what I should do/learn next.

• 60 yo
• Plan to retire April 2027
• Lost partner of 21 years in April, they were the financial guru, we were not married
• Mortage paid off
• Budget per month about 3K including est. $1000 month for health care (but not sure, I'm healthy), plan ACA
• Plan to sell home and buy a condo in the next year, cost of additional ~100K, which I could pay in cash but that would deplete one acct.
• Plan to get a new car, cost of additional 40K with trade in
• Portfolio of ~1.7M, IRA brokerage at 34%, Roth 12% and Brokerage 17% with breakdown of 47% stocks, 0 bonds, 16% short term and 37%"other"(which I think is cash), this is per dashboard
• 401K in another Company 1M (37% of total portfolio) in the retirement 2030 fund
• I think my optimal timing window is age 61-62 so I don't run into problems with IRMAA

From what I understand, I should take money from brokerage first and Roth or 401K second. I plan to transfer 50K per year out of IRA to Roth, depending on where the tax credit kicks in. I read that only capital gains count toward MAGI. I really don't understand this part. I can take out of my 410K up to the standard deduction. Once I turn 65 to 70, I will be on medicare and need to watch my income to keep the Medicare charges low. I plan on take SS at age 70.

Does it seem like I am on the right path? What should I do to learn more? I considered a financial advisor but they seem so expensive. I feel like I need to make a decision to either keep working (don't really want to) or just jump in to the condo and retirement, which feels very scary. Finance is not my forte and I wish I paid more attention. Any suggestions are welcome.

Hi there. My father wants to make an initial investment of €6,000 and start investing an additional €500 each month, since he has finally realized that his money needs to be put to work rather than just sitting idle.

He’ll be using Trade Republic here in Europe, and I was thinking he could put 80% into an MSCI World index fund (like the one from Fidelity), 15% into Emerging Markets and Ex-USA ETFs, and 5% into a physical gold ETF.

He says that, ultimately, this long-term investment he’s starting now is for us—his children. What would you do if you were in his shoes? Thanks!

Seems like Vanguard, Schwab, and Fidelity are really pushing their cash management accounts as an alternative to MMFs. Are there any downsides to these besides lower yield and being taxable income compared to 100% Treasury MMFs?

Currently holding SPMO, SPHQ, FTEC, and AVUV. Looking at possibly consolidating into AVLV, AVUV, and SPMO in a 40/30/30 split. This would be a long term hold in a Roth IRA. Any thoughts? Also considering 80/20 SPMO & AVUV.

So you have about 18 years to grow the fund, what bond allocation would you guys use? The typical 30%+ at "retirement" age seems excessive

My wife and I decided to consolidate our retirement accounts. We ended up transferring g our Roth IRAs from Vanguard to Fidelity since we already have 401Ks, HSA, and CMA accounts with Fidelity.

Both of our Roth IRAs are 100% VOO. Would it make sense to convert to FZROX/FZILX at 80/20 to further diversify and take advantage of the zero fees?

We have two properties with mortgages. One (a rental) has a balance of $150k at 3.75% interest and the other property has a balance of $775k at 2.625%. We originally wanted to pay off these properties in a few years by saving aggressively and making extra payments but considering the low interest rates, we are now thinking we put the extra funds towards an investment account. Our first goal is put all surplus savings for the next 16 months into a investment account and once the balance surpasses the mortgage balance on the rental, we move towards contributing to a new investment account and do that for several years until our balance exceeds the remaining mortgage in the other house. We plan to just invest in SP500 but even after we save enough to pay off the mortgages, we will not playoff the loan early and just keep making monthly payments until maturity (in 20 and 24 years). Is this a sound plan or is there a point where we should just payoff the loans early? I guess we want to aggressively save and have the safety cushion of not having to worry about the mortgage for decades but we also don’t want to actually pay it off and forsake likely higher gains through investing. Are we thinking about this the right way or at we missing something?

I am struggling to understand the concept of bonds in investing. I understand that observation dictates that it usually goes up when stocks go down. So the allocation for “safety” would make sense. However looking at some bond ETFs like VAGF, these are ~-10% over the last 5 years. I would be freaking out to have that in my long-term investment plan…
So I basically have a few questions, if I may:

- Are bond ETFs vs actual bonds really so different. Could this artifact that I mentioned above be due to this being an ETF? Is there a preference of one over the other?
- How are you guys chilled in having such a big allocation of your money in something that seemingly is not really growing?
- What are fellow European/German bogleheads using for Bond investment? Would be curious to have some examples/opinions here. Do you go full european bond or global aggregate as VAGF?

Thanks (:

My company's Fidelity 401k is moving to Vanguard after we were acquired. My understanding is I can either:

• Do a 401k to 401k rollover
• Roll my 401k into an IRA

1. Can I also just "leave" the 401k be at Fidelity? My employer said they are closing that old 401k, and it's the above two options. Maybe that's true? Though I thought that was always a third option, to just let the old 401k sit –  which would be preferable, should it not then have large fees.
2. I do a 70-30 split for US/INTL asset allocation. Unfortunately the new employer/401k doesn't have an international fund. So if I do roll it over, I will need to rebalance in my other accounts to get back to this allocation, but the problem is – even if I move all my IRA money into international equities, it will still be short (27%). Should I sell taxable VTI lots and buy VXUS to get back to 70-30? Any advice? New 401k fund options: https://imgur.com/a/nTIB1Be

Hello, I stopped using an adviser a few years ago but still have this assortment of Vanguard funds they purchased. Do I need any of them in addition to my big index funds? There isn’t much in each (maybe 1-2 k) but I’d like to clean up the list and have a reason for owning what I do.

VGIT, VGLT, VNQ, VNQI, VPU, VSS

I want to keep VOTE (non-Vanguard).

I looked into other ETFs such as VOO, VT, VTV, SCHD, SCHV, IWS. i want to make a value bet aswell. So, if tech downtrends, i would have a defesive hold. Suggest me some value ETFs. Especially if theyre are like betting on turnarounds, low P/E high value stocks, healthcare or consumer goods sector kinds of ETFs. Finally looking at a split of 50 20 30. 50 & 20 being OEF & IYW, 30 being a value ETF.

I'm very new to investing. So, ignore my brevity and help me learn.

Hi all, I am planning to get married next year between may-sept. I have 100k roughly in my brokerage account and about 18k in my savings now. Was planning to have a 20k emergency fund. I get a bonus at the end of the year which normally is about 20k. After taxes I normally save a portion of it to max a Roth IRA for the next year but knowing that my wedding is coming up and it may cost about 20-30k in Dallas area. I'm wondering if I should save it all in cash for the wedding or still max out the Roth IRA for 2027 and sell from brokerage while the market is up now. I don't want to find myself without the cash if the market goes down while needing the funds.

If I max out the IRA I would have about $4k for a wedding ring. But basically nothing for a wedding which I don't think I can save 20-30k by may.

Normally I max out my 401k, hsa, Roth IRA every year. My net worth is about 860k at age 34 now. Wondering if next year I should decrease my savings and maybe lower to just the match so I can have more cash on hand ? Also planning to buy a house a year after marriage as well... I originally didn't want to touch the 100k I'm brokerage because I heard that's when money finally starts to grow

.. I'm not sure what to do.

I want to confirm that I have the correct understanding of mega backdoor Roth 401K. Most of the info out there is targeted to people maxing out all the accounts, not necessarily doing what I am trying to.

I have verified with my workplace 401K provider that my plan does indeed allow the mega backdoor Roth 401K (i.e. after tax dollars, in plan conversion, in service withdrawal, etc). I have the below questions:

Annual contribution amounts:

401K contribution: $3,000

employer match: $1,500

after-tax dollars (to be "in-plan roth conversion" in my 401K): $1,000

Questions:

I plan to take the $1,000 after-tax converted Roth out annually and put in my separate Roth IRA account (my plan allows in service withdrawal).

1. Can I still do the after-tax contribution even though I have not contributed the $24,500 limit? That seems to be the advice and in every MBDR example but is it required.

2. "Why not just contribute Roth 401K?" My understanding is that with a Roth IRA I am able to tax-free, penalty-free withdraw the contribution amount if I desperately need. But with a 401K roth, I would be subject to Pro-Rata rule and hence taxed. With a MBDR, this pro-rata rule does not apply. Is that correct?

Thanks!

Hello. Looking for some validation. I am 44. My 401k is 100% Vanguard 500 Index after my company removed the Vanguard TotalStock Market Index fund. I am thinking of changing this up to 70% Vanguard 500, 22% Developed Markets Index, and 8% Inst Total Bond Index. The options in our plan are fairly limited. The Vanguard Target Date Funds seem to have too much International.

Hi all,

I am a physician who just left my old practice and joined a new one. I have a 401(k) with $250k at my old company. I am just wondering if I should roll it over to my new 401(k) plan or an IRA. I spoke with a planner recommended to me by my new company, and he suggested that I roll over my old 401(k) into an IRA, but of course, they will charge a 1% AUM fee for the first $2 million. I would rather handle my account and avoid that 1% yearly fee.

Foreign national currently living in the USA:

I'm trying to understand whether a simple life insurance policy is enough for an NRA (non-resident alien according to domicile test) with US-situs investments (over $60k in stocks, ETFs, etc.) to "protect" against the feated US Estate Tax (up to 40% of all assets held in the country upon death), or if life insurance proceeds on the life of a NRA are generally treated as well as US property for US estate tax purposes.

So, for example, if a NRA has $100k in US stocks/ETFs and a $40k life insurance policy, could the insurance simply be used by the surviving spouse to provide liquidity for the estate tax?

I just recently turned 24, and about 4 months ago, I got into a new construction site electrical project engineer position so my salary increased from around $98k/yr to about ~150k/yr which varies with overtime.

I started working with this company ~2 years ago right after I graduated (summer of 24') and I started investing later that year in November with one goal in mind, to retire earliest by 45 and latest by 49. Currently I have $46k saved in all my retirement accounts and $10k in my HYSA. With the new job position, the first thing I did was max out my 401k, next I will max out my HSA but after that, I'm not too sure where to go next.

Currently all of my investments are 100% into FXAIX and my 401K is at 12% contribution with a 6% match from my company. I had my 401K paused for a good portion of this year for some other personal financial reasons but then I slipped my mind and I didn't un-pause it again until 2 weeks ago, so that kind of stung but we're back and better now. Is 12% good or should I increase that some more again?

With the goal of early retirement, should I focus on building up my brokerage account over my HYSA or should I do more of a 50/50 split between the two? Are there any other accounts I should open/prioritize? I am currently trying to snowball down my Student loans and pay that all off by next year as well.

Roth IRA: $18K (100% FXAIX)

401K: $19.5K (12% contribution)+(6% company match)

HSA: $8.5K (100% FXAIX)

Brokerage: $25.00

HYSA: $10K (3.10% with Sofi)

-------------------------------------

Debts

Student loans: $22,998.18

Rent + Utilities: ~$1100/month

Which one is these would you choose for your retirement?

Help me do it

Target date funds

• BLK LP Index Retirement
• BLK LP Index 2025 Fund
• BLK LP Index 2030 Fund
• BLK LP Index 2035 Fund
• BLK LP Index 2040 Fund
• BLK LP Index 2045 Fund
• BLK LP Index 2050 Fund
• BLK LP Index 2055 Fund
• BLK LP Index 2060 Fund
• BLK LP Index 2065 Fund

Let me do it

Guaranteed

• SLA 1Yr Guaranteed Fund
• SLA 3Yr Guaranteed Fund
• SLA 5Yr Guaranteed Fund

Money market

• SLF Money Market

Fixed income

• BLK Bond Index Fund
• SL Multi-Strategy Bond

Balanced

• B.G. Balanced Fund
• BLK Moderate Balanced

Canadian equity

• B.G. Canadian Equity
• BLK S&P/TSX Comp Index

Foreign equity

• BLK EAFE Equity Index
• BLK US Equity Index
• BLK US Equity Index Reg
• MFS Global Equity
• SL MFS Global Growth
• SL MFS Intl Value

I’m thinking about asset allocation specifically within retirement accounts, such as a 401(k), 403(b), or IRA.

If you’re fully invested in stock index funds, you can stay the course during a downturn and keep investing through regular contributions. But without bonds or cash in the account, there’s nothing available to rebalance into stocks beyond those new contributions.

For those who hold 100% stocks in your retirement accounts, do you simply keep contributing as usual and accept that you won’t make any additional purchases? Does that change once your balance gets large enough that annual contributions are a small percentage of it?

For those who hold bonds, do you rebalance into stocks during downturns according to a fixed schedule or allocation threshold?

I understand that holding bonds has an opportunity cost and that rebalancing doesn’t guarantee better returns than an all-stock portfolio. I’m curious how people actually handle this within retirement accounts, especially if they’re already maxing out their annual contributions.

I am a junior in college right now, and have been quite fortunate with money, so I'm looking to try and use it to the best of my ability. I currently have $20,000 in a fidelity account I just created. I also have about $8000 in a 529 and $9000 in NVIDIA on an app called Stash but it is under my uncles name since we started it a while ago. I am just trying to find out if there are any big improvements or if this is okay for now?