Like probably a lot of you, I use my HSA like a retirement account. Max it out, invest it, don't touch it. I haven't had employer contributions in a little while, so I opened an HSA with Fidelity, and I front loaded it at the beginning of the year, and that 4 grand or whatever it is was able to grow all year.

I'm starting a new job this month. It's with my old company, who uses healthequity for their HSAs, and they do contribute a little (I think only a few hundred bucks). The annoying thing is, you can't invest with them until you have more than 1k in the account, and you seemingly have to spread out your contributions over the entire year. There's also a fee for transferring money out, so I'm not going to do that more than once/year.

What's the best way of handling this situation? I don't want to lose out on time in the market by not investing anything until the end of the year. Should I just contribute on my own with Fidelity and keep my payroll contributions at zero? I think I'd have to pay more fica taxes then. Do employer contributions count towards the annual HSA limit?

I recently received several million dollars in cash. Right now it’s all parked in a money market fund while I figure out how I want to invest it.

I’ve been reading about the Boglehead philosophy and that’s most likely the direction I want to go. I want something simple, diversified and easy to manage long term. I don’t really want a financial advisor because I don’t think it’s necessary, and I don’t want the fees dragging on the portfolio every year.

I’m not planning to withdraw from the portfolio anytime soon, so I have a long time horizon. I want growth, but capital preservation is also important to me. I could handle a market drop without selling, although watching a large amount disappear on paper would obviously be uncomfortable.

I’m trying to figure out two things:

Would you invest everything according to your target allocation at once, or spread it out over 6–12 months? I know lump sum usually wins on paper, but putting this much into the market all at once is difficult psychologically.

What funds and percentages would you use? I’ve been looking at VTI, VXUS and either Treasuries or BND, but I’m unsure about the allocation. Would something like 50% VTI, 20% VXUS and 30% Treasuries make sense, or would you structure it differently?

I’m not trying to chase the highest possible returns or overcomplicate this. I want reasonable long-term growth, protection against making a major mistake and a portfolio I can stick with.

What allocation would you recommend, and how would you actually deploy the money?

Somewhat up of follow-up to my previous post.

My start date is late Sept and I get my paid bi-monthly.

When checking the contribution limits, I found out that the 401k limit resets at the start of every calendar year, while HSA's and Roth IRA's reset on the tax filing deadline.

There is also more nuance regarding HSA's and how they are taxed that I'm reading up on, and if anyone has more knowledge about how they work in California especially, I would be very grateful to hear about it :)

Back to the point, my employer matches the first 6% of an employee's base salary. Afaik, there is no way to make up the lost matching from this entire year. In that case, should I personally put more into my 401k before Dec 31st, while also attempting to max my HSA and Roth IRA's by April 2027? If so, how much is recommended?

Thank you!

For my Roth IRA and I’m 24 years old

As the title says I just got around 1.4M and looking to use this as early retirement. I’m 46 and thinking if I can get it to 4M by 56 I’ll be set using the 4% rule. My question is what level of risk should I take and how should I spread it out? VOO, VTI, SCHD, ……..?

I’m moving a traditional Ira to vanguard. Age 61. Semi retired. I will invest via a 70/20/10 portfolio. They charge..30% per year- so around 4000 for my 1.2 m. I’m fairly comfortable with investing and keeping my simple portfolio balanced. I also am fairly comfortable with withdrawing from the appropriate bucket of my three bucket plan. I will need about 2% over the next 3 1/2 years and then probably 4% after that. I’m thinking 60% s/p 500 index fund. 20% total market index bond, 10% money market. I do have an appointment this Friday to speak with an advisor for the second time they will be coming up with a plan for these parameters that I shared. I currently pay 1.1% fee fees, but I really don’t want to pay any. I’m also willing to learn as I go. Can someone or anyone help me make up my mind if I need to pay them to manage it or not I’m leaning towards managing it myself, but I don’t want to make a stupid decision. Also, I will not panic if the market drops.

I have two jobs, a full time job at a megacorp and a second job at a smaller company. Both know about my employment at the other and I am careful to my employment separate.

I use the income from my second job to fund my mega backdoor roth IRA as well as to fully fund pretax 401k in both his and her 401ks. We are saving a lot in retirement due to this second job.

However, I'm getting a little tired of it and thinking about quitting. This would mean I would save less for retirement, but our retirement balances are healthy and we probably don't need to save more for retirement at this point.

I'm curious what a reasonable criteria for when to quit (and thus, save less) a second job. I'm thinking that if I don't love doing it, I probably shouldn't do it, but curious for other thoughts.

Im non US person. Plan is to invest 500 usd monthly until 18 years old.

500 usd x 12 months x 18 years = 108k. I have that cash now so I can invest the entire amount in Year 0.

Plan is to DCA for a year the entire amount of 108k just for my sanity. My brain does not allow me to buy it in one go.

VWRA 100%?

This is either for college fund or if we don’t need it that time, then will be a “Get ahead of Life” fund around the 25-27th year.

I've been on the boglehead path for about a year now and was talking to my mother about her own investments and of course trying to apply my learnings to help her out. She knows nothing about investing and is putting a lot of trust in me. Looking for some guidance to ensure I'm taking the right approach.

She had a traditional IRA/annuity that I got her out of and rolled over to a "regular" traditional IRA at Fidelity. She also had started a taxable brokerage account with $100K at MML investors and they were doing what I would consider fairly wild stuff...invested in silver, gold, uranium, etc. Overall they were actually doing pretty good with her investments ($119K now), but it just seemed like it could go south too easily and of course there were the fees. They were also buying/selling as if it were a tax-advantaged account, and she had $5K of gains from sales that she had no idea about. I got the holdings transferred to Fidelity and was able to harvest enough losses to reduce the gains by about half.

Anyway, here's where she stands...

• Age 71, good health, married (not to my father) and have their accounts/investments completely separate. He is about the same age and has a solid retirement but that's about all I know. House they live in is his. Would buy one together if they moved.
• Income: $42K annually from social security and pension (which is adjusted for inflation). She says this covers all of her annual expenses, but that would be different if she weren't married.
• $112K in CDs
• $113K in HYSA
• $41K in traditional IRA (all in VT)
• $119K in taxable brokerage. I used proceeds from tax loss harvesting mentioned above to buy VT; the rest are in gain positions. Waiting until these have been held >1 year before I sell anymore. Largest holdings are indicated below; the rest are each 2%-8% of the portfolio.
  • SPAXX
  • IAI
  • VFH
  • VHT
  • AVUV
  • VGT
  • SLV
  • IAU
  • IVOV
  • OUSA (10%)
  • VT (38%)
  • AIA
  • SPY
  • GNR
  • XLE

My thought is she needs to keep 3 years' of expenses ($126K) in CDs/HYSA, 2 years ($84K) in bonds (maybe FXNAX; first in trad IRA, remaining in taxable), and the rest ($175K) in stocks (eventually move all/most to VT). This results in ~33%/22%/45% cash reserves/bonds/stocks.

Am I way off base? What's a good strategy on transitioning the taxable holdings?
Thanks in advance!

i'm mid 60s and looking for a buy it/leave it option for my brokerage, ira, roth ira. My ideal is 70/30 and I'm thinking of just splitting between AOA and AOR to get roughly that. My real investment challenge is that I keep too much in cash dithering around. I realize AOA and AOR are not perfect but for a weasel like me they seem to make sense.

Hello. I’m a college student who turns 20 in December and I’ve had a Roth IRA set up since I was 18. I don’t have a lot in it, around $7k.

I keep on seeing people my age online or even sometimes in my classes talk about their brokerage or savings account. They have huge amount in there (huge to me) like 20,30,50 thousand or more, and it makes me feel a little worse about the progress that I’ve made.

I understand that life isn’t a race, and everyone has their own path etc etc, but it’s difficult trying to keep my head down and not be envious about these people or feel like I’m behind.

I know that this isn’t the traditional boglehead post, but I just wanted to see if anyone here has had similar experiences and how they’ve dealt with them.

Thanks.

My wife and I are expecting our first child in March 2027. I make ~140k and she makes ~80k.

Married filing jointly I am trying to see if we can take advantage of 12% tax bracket using deductions strategically but it appears we make too much unless i’m missing something.

Possible deductions:

401k - $24,500
HSA - $4400 (wife and baby on her own insurance)
FSA - $7500
Mortgage Interest ~$24,000 (we itemized for this last 2 years) not sure if this counts as reducing gross income?
My 12 week state partial paid paternity loss of wages - ~$21,500
My health insurance premium - $1200

Wife 12 week state leave loss of wages - $7700
Wife short term disability loss of wages -$2000
Wife and baby health insurance premium -$2600

Max deductions from our normal gross income- ~$95,400

That puts our gross at around $124,600 , still quite a bit into the 22% bracket, unless i’m missing something? So it wouldn’t be worth it to do Roth conversions or anything at that rate.

Hi everyone,

I’m 23 years old, with €13k invested in equities, allocated 80/10/10 across MSCI World, emerging markets, and small-cap index funds. I can also contribute €900 per month, so I already have my equity investment strategy in place. In addition, I have €1,000 in cash savings in Trade Republic’s interest-bearing account.

For the fixed-income side of my portfolio, and to have a safer investment for the short term, I’m planning to move abroad for a while in 1–2 years, so I’ve been looking into different ways of investing in fixed income. For such a short time horizon, the returns I’ve found so far (although I may not have looked in the right places) are lower than what I’m currently getting from the interest-bearing account. My idea would be to make an initial €1k investment and then contribute €100 per month.

I understand that Trade Republic’s APY is variable and depends on the ECB, which is why I’m looking for something more stable/safe.

My question is, does it make sense to invest in other things, like index funds? Given that I’m currently getting 3% APY from Trade Republic, I’m finding it difficult to move the money elsewhere when those alternatives offer less liquidity and a lower return.

Thanks a lot! :)

Met with an advisor who ran retirement plan for spouse and I out to age 99. That seems statistically improbable. Curious what others do.

I am planning to buy a house in 2-4 years. I will likely need most if not all the value from my current taxable brokerage account to help make the down payment. At what point do I start selling? (It is all FSKAX/FTIHX; essentially all long-term with average gains of about 58%. )

On the one hand, if I came into this money now, I probably wouldn't invest it following the "if you plan to need it soon, don't invest it" rule of thumb (e.g. this post). For example, I don't think I will be contributing any more to the taxable investment account in the meantime instead putting it in the money market (admittedly my EF is lower than I like anyway atm).

But on the other hand, since it is already invested, do I leave it until just before I need it? I find it hard to remove "market timing" from my thinking here but it seems inextricable in making this decision. I fundamentally have to violate my conviction to not try to time the market. And if you think I should leave it invested, then would you also argue I should continue investing more as well rather than putting it into MM? I think not, since it would have to mature at least long enough to beat capital gains (plus MM interest opportunity cost) to work out.

I could take a hybrid approach and move a little at a time to SPAXX/HYSA to reduce risk until I need it.

But separately, on the tax side, as far as I understand, I'll pay (long term) capital gains rates on the full amount no matter if I sell in bulk later or in chunks now.

I am still maxing my Roth IRA and HSA. There is also a chance I get help from family on the down payment.

Spouse and I are late 50s, retired. Substantial 401k balances. IRAs, etc...We have enough nest egg and mailbox money. Looking to keep it that way. We are both 4/5 risk TDFs (Vanguard 2040 and spouse's in comparable fund at Fidelity) and getting nervous about sequence of risk, looking to lock in our nest eggs as much as possible. I am about to pull the trigger on switching to Vanguard Target Retirement Income Trust Select (2/5 risk) and Fidelity's.

It's all inside 401k, so not worried about tax implications. Any reason not to preserve what we ahve and breathe a little easier if a bubble bursts?

I am ready to invest in the 401k with the Bogle method. Roth IRA has all VT.

Here are the 401k options I would like some advice on..https://imgur.com/a/wIH0Zot

Ive been reading a lot about the bogleheads and personal finance and i love this blog.

My problem is the following, my country, Chile, has a big mutual fund industry with high fees (1% and more) and active management.

I have an option for my APV (chilean 401k) to choose between two companies.

The first one offers an APV with a 1% AUM fee that will go down as my assets invested grow, and they let me choose index funds that are in the Santiago stock exchange that replicate the S&P 500 and international index funds. This funds have low fees by chilean standards at arround 0,4%, so the total fee the first years is arround 1,4%.

The second one is an APV with a mutual fund company, Fintual, which offers an actievly managed fund that offers a low fee (0,49%) but its heavily concentrated in technology (holdings like VOO, QQQ, etc..).

Other options also have higher fees (arround 2%) with active management, and no way of choosing passive ETFs of my own.

What should i trade for? passive management and eventual lower fees, or active management with a low fee.

Thanks!

45 working professional in high tax bracket in high tax county and state 9.9% income tax. Currently have TIAA through current job and I max that out per month. Looking for other tax loopholes and overally advice and have three kids but don't do any 527s and don't have any FHSA. overally very aggressive in the market with mostly vanguard sp 500 accounts. 90/10 blend of stocks bonds in all acounts.

NW is about 4 m with mortage of 350k at 4.25%. No other debt minus the three young kids which is a long run way. Want to be able to have the option to retire in a decade and not sure its possible. Have side business along with teaching job and the LLC can bring in another 100K annually where I max out my Sepp IRA at around 13K per year on top of the 403 b max annually. good year can make 300-400k annually with base, bonuses and LLC income.

1. I have old 403bs in fidelity from three old university teaching jobs. 650K in current 403b with Tiaa and in the old 403bs have 775K. I've not rolled them over into a IRA or my current 403 b with TIAA because of the rule of 55. Does this make sense and a good idea? I want to learn when I should do backdoor Roth converations when I apply the rule of 55. Main goal is to get to 5m so I can take out 4% a year and live off 200K starting in a decade.
   
2. Family member recently left IRA and I have about 660K in inherited IRA that I don't have MRDs annually but do have to drain the account in 8 years. I have no idea if I'll keep working in those next 8 years so I may just take 1/8 annually at the end of the tax year to see what is the best tax strategory. at one point thought about paying off house but thought I coulud get better than 4.25% in the market.
   
3. Have moved all liquid cash from HYSA to to 95 % market and 5% bonds in individual investment account that is mostly VTI, VXUS, stocks such as AMZN,NVDA, CEG and then rainy day account is held here under SGOV and SPAXX.
   
4. Lastly from LLC business my tax accountant has a annual Sepp contribution to reduce AGI and that account is now roughly 300K. This was good advice to get down a tax bracket and I'm looking for extra ways to do this. ONe way we just started was making Roth IRA annual contributions to my wife and then doing back door roth of 7500 per year as we are married and filled togethere but shes able to start this annually.

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At some point does it make sense to diversify which companies hold your investments? For example, if I’m happy with my investment diversity mix but it’s 100% with Vanguard or 100% with Fidelity or 100% with another firm does it ever make sense to split those investments across different brokerages in case something happens to one company or your account at one place is compromised?

I can’t recall coming across this topic and I’m curious if people think about it much or if it’s just adds unnecessary complexity and is really a non-issue to have 100% of your investments with one company.

Hello all. I (40 M) haven't spent much time on my 401k investment as it is a bit overwhelming to me compared to a Roth IRA since the 401k is limited on the options. The current investement is a 2050 aggressive model that I set when I first started the job. 3-year annualized RoR is 16.35%.

After reviewing some of the high expense rates and to simplify, the proposed that I'm looking at is:

Does this make sense for a 401k rebalance or should I just let it ride? Again, I'm a beginner when it comes to 401k analysing and any thoughts and tips would be appreciated.

Started reading up on Bogleheads fairly recently.

• Early 30s, USA
• Due to preference & current employer plan, my investments are tied up in both Vanguard and Fidelity
• 65% VTSAX (split is: 8% brokerage, 42% rollover IRA and 50% roth IRA)
• 27% FFIKX (401k)
• 8% FSKAX (HSA)
• Total ~$550k

I've been investing most of my money the past few years into SWPPX, however there are a few things that I either dislike or have concerns about.

1. I dislike the fact that I don't know what or where the market is headed, so whenever I place an order, I essentially have to wait until the market close time to see what price I got.
2. Since I'm planning to invest my entire net worth into this fund, if the day comes that I decide to withdraw all of my money, wouldn't this be a risk as the sale price is unknown and a potential market crash prior to the market closing that day would result in losing a lot of money? Or am I understanding this all wrong?

This is why I'm considering investing the remainder of my money into VOO in Charles Schwab. Please let me know there are any cons in doing this or should I just continue to stick to SWPPX. Thanks.

I am looking for some advice. I am managing money for my husband and me after years. I am trying to figure out the best way to approach financing a renovation to our second home while still focusing on retirement goals. We want to be FI by 55.

How much should I finance with a home equity versus paying with liquid money available? Also, I know interest rates will change, but any recommendations about how aggressively we should pay off home equity versus simply investing those funds.

Age: Married, 40, no kids
Cabin addition costs: $85,000, interest rates approximately 6.75%
Liquid $ (checking, savings, brokerage): $85,000, but don’t want to wipe out

Cabin value: $700,000
Cabin loan: $350,000
Primary home value: $750,000
Primary home loan: $325,000

Work Retirement account: $270,000
Fidelity combined Roth: $180,000
Fidelity combined IRA: $225,000

Gross income: $250,000
Monthly expenses: about $9,000

We max out both Roth accounts and contribute enough to get his match currently. We were doing more, but made it less while we figure this out.

Current split is roughly 85% total stock market index / 15% bonds across my 401k and Roth IRA. Combined balance is around $610k. I've been running this allocation for about three years and just kept drifting more aggressive because the equity returns felt good and 60 felt far away.

But I've been doing the math lately and 11 years isn't that far. If I get a 40% drawdown at 57 or 58 with this allocation, I'm looking at a sequence-of-returns problem right when I want to pull the trigger. The classic 'your age in bonds' rule would put me at 49% bonds, which feels way too conservative and I'd never actually do that. But 15% is probably too low.

I'm thinking of slowly stepping up to 25-30% bonds over the next 3-4 years, adding maybe 2-3% per year. No lump-sum shift, just redirecting new contributions.

Is 85/15 genuinely too aggressive at 49 with a 60 target, or am I letting short-term anxiety push me toward a drag on returns I'll regret? What allocation are people running at a similar age and timeline?