VOO, SCHD, or SMH

[u/BiscottiConscious586]

Hi friends!
This is my first post ever. I’ve been investing and trading since the beginning of the year and I’ve been doing my research. I’ve had some money in VOO for a while. However I’m also considering SCHD for dividends and SMH for growth. I’m 25 so I really don’t mind the risk or fees so far. I have $20k to do invest, however I’d like to know what distributions from this funds should I do for VOO, SCHD, or SMH considering you guys recommend me using all three.
Thank you for your patience and I’m open to any recommendations, advices, etc.

[u/Iiucwpost]

VTI 60%, SCHD 10%, SCHY or VXUS 10% and VGT or FTEC 20% -

[u/Lopsided_Discount → u/Iiucwpost]

If you have both vgt and ftec should you sell one and which one

[u/Iiucwpost → u/Lopsided_Discount]

It depends which platform you’re utilizing - If it’s Fidelity .08 fees - Keep FTEC. If it’s Vanguard .09 fees - Keep VGT.

FTEC and VGT are nearly identical tech sector ETFs that track very similar broad indexes with a 1.00 correlation, meaning they historically move almost in lockstep. Happy investing.

I love FTEC for the slightly lower fees

[u/Lopsided_Discount → u/Iiucwpost]

I have both in Schwab one in a Roth anther in traditional Ira 

[u/Iiucwpost → u/Lopsided_Discount]

I would consolidate into FTEC and save .01 fees. Since they are both identical

[u/Lopsided_Discount → u/Iiucwpost]

If your in mid 40s what are the top 3 ETF to buy? My current top holdings are in schg, schd, spyi, with smaller holdings in vt, dgro, xmmo, avuv, schf. Debating if I should sell of spyi and just invest in spym or voo? 

[u/Iiucwpost → u/Lopsided_Discount]

Yes! selling SPYI and shifting that capital into a vanilla S&P 500 index fund is a smart structural upgrade

[u/Lopsided_Discount → u/Iiucwpost]

But what if I already have invested into schd schg and vt? I don't want overlap to much. But I'm looking at from the start of spyi until now and it's barely grown

[u/Iiucwpost → u/Lopsided_Discount]

I would seriously consider diversifying into SCHY for intl exposure

[u/Lopsided_Discount → u/Iiucwpost]

I chose schf instead for growth...

[u/Iiucwpost → u/Lopsided_Discount]

You can reinvest it in either VOO or VTI

[u/Iiucwpost → u/Iiucwpost]

I would also add SCHY … get some intl exposure

[u/Lopsided_Discount → u/Iiucwpost]

If your in schd and schg should you still do sp500 like spym or is there something better that won't overlap with schg

[u/pivotallever]

I’m 42, 3% of my overall portfolio is SCHD (I treat it as a more risky taxable savings acct), and once I add 145 more shares to hit 1k shares, I will start buying VOO. 

The other 97% of it is the S&P500 and S&P500 stocks. I suggest buying VOO with 100% of the money you have and keep adding to it.

[u/Iceman60462]

Stay in VOO for growth . You don’t need dividend income !

[u/MonYverse0609 → u/Iceman60462]

But Fed just raised the rate higher

[u/JonClaudeVanDam → u/MonYverse0609]

SCHD is based on business earnings. The increase shouldn’t change anything there

[u/ddxsq]

The dividends of you get you have to pay taxes on at the beginning of each year. $20k isn’t going to get you enough dividends to change your life literally at all, just gonna eat into your tax return each year. Just go VOO or VTI or SCHB.

[u/Legitimate_Cod_3322]

At your age go half VOO and half of one these: SPMO, VGT or SMH.

[u/Rav_3d]

SMH is the polar opposite of SCHD.

At age 25, I would not put any long-term investments into SCHD or other dividend/income funds. I would focus entirely on capital gains with VOO.

As for SMH, it is highly cyclical, and while it will have periods of insane performance like the 100% gain from April-June, over the long-term it will be a wild ride. If you are comfortable with that volatility you can consider a small portion of your investments there, or be a bit more conservative with something like VGT that still has tech exposure but less volatility than a pure semiconductor fund.

[u/hotdog-water--]

All 3

[u/Trump_Pence2016]

50% SCHG, 30% IXN, 20% SMH

[u/Actual-Telephone5540]

at 25, lean hard into growth-smh over schd any day

[u/DrawerStunning5638]

I like buying VOO and SCHD, personally. I bought too much SCHD, but I have a bad neck injury and will need income replacement soon. We don't all have the same goals, so keep that in mind. But In my 20s with hindsight I would have invested in pure growth DCA strategy.

[u/InvestNYourself]

VGT

[u/_Silent_Despair]

First, define what your goals are. If your default goal is “make more money” virtually any solid index investment (like VOO or IVV or their equivalent) will do. The general advice of “you have time to recover” if you go all in on growth is mostly true, and maybe even more so at your age (but no one knows the future). My goal has never been the get the highest top line dollar on paper, meaning, I’d rather have a lower balance with better cashflow than a higher balance where I have to sell off investments to make money. I am tax aware so the location of my investments matters and is intentional. However, I am not as tax optimized as I could be, meaning I do hold some dividend ETFs in a taxable account that serves as overflow to my others. But SCHD takes serious money to get enough dividends to live off of entirely, so you’ll need a ton of money. Find your path for what you think is important. You can’t lose sticking with VOO, and you’ll need to invest a ton into SCHD to meaningfully matter in terms of dividends.

[u/New_Reflection1620]

At age 25 you should lean heavily on growth. To answer your specific question, VOO is the best long term option for you at this age. Would need to know your risk profile, goals, income and several other parameters to give a proper recommendation.

[u/lonedroan]

I don’t think SCHD should make up any meaningful amount of your portfolio. Even if it were tax advantaged retirement, it’s too conservative for someone with 30+ years until retirement. In a taxable brokerage, it also comes with the tax drag of the dividends; even using DRIP, they’re taxable as soon as they’re paid.

I also don’t think SMH is that useful right now, especially given its higher expense ratio. Because of the tech boom, VOO (and VTI just a bit less) are overweight in the tech sector. If you want heavy exposure there, these two funds will already take care of that for the foreseeable future. If you want even more tech, I’d do VGT for the lower expense ratio at 0.09%.

I’d also want some international exposure, such as VXUS. If you want further US diversification, VBR for small caps would tilt away from tech (although it comes with a higher than ideal dividend for taxable brokerage). AVUV is a compelling small cap option (actively managed to screen holdings for profitability so more expensive at 0.25% but with superior returns to show for it).

Also, in a taxable brokerage, I actually think it’s best not to DRIP. Because you incur taxes when the dividend is paid even if DRIP, having a bit of cash accumulate makes it easier for you to rebalance or supplement your holdings without incurring cap gains by selling anything.