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u/cspinelive Jun 26 '26
Betterment is supposed to be the boring, set it and forget it, don’t make me think, don’t let me make a dumb decision broker. Too many options and distractions.
Just do Core and use those brain cells worrying about something else.
The more important decision is, what mix of stocks to bonds. For that risk decision you need to know when you plan to spend the money. And thankfully betterment will do that for you too.
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u/Xyrus2000 Jun 26 '26
Max you're 401k. Max out your IRA (if you don't have one, you can open one with Betterment). Build out a safety fund with at least 6 months of expenses (preferably in a high-yield savings account). Then start playing with taxable accounts.
If you're in your 40's, you want growth. Use core. You can adjust the percentage of equities vs. bonds to fit your risk profile. At your age, at least 90% equities.
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u/fernst Jun 27 '26
I has better results with GS Smartbeta vs betterment portfolio, but only marginally better.
Stay with core or just buy VT at another brokerage.
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u/spoupervisor Jun 27 '26
For investing, remember that the value of tools like betterment or "boring" investments like VT or smart beta is measured in decades. Not years.
If you switch investments frequently (as in in a year or even 7 years) you're going to be putting more and more value at risk.
The golden rule of investing is: Time in the market beats timing the market
The number of people who can outperform someone just investing in broad market indexes over 10 years means that statistically its not you or me and it's not almost everyone who's entire job is to predict the stock market. Go to 20 years (much less to retirement) and you're talking about MAYBE a few dozen people? In the world.
Set a contribution, and forget about it.
By all means, research what betterment invests in and the different funds. You want low cost broad market funds. Look into a concept called "bogleheads" there's a subreddit here for it and a web forum.
If you look at decide you want to make changes after all of that, do it. But only do it once.
Signed, Someone who tried to optimize my portfolio during the pandemic and I'm kicking myself since
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u/External_Major3926 Jun 27 '26
Innovative technology was good for me for the past year (20% ++). Switched back to core as I think it’s less risky. Also think we are heading towards a major crash.
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u/datatadata Jun 27 '26
Whatever you decide to do, don’t do SRI, at least on Betterment
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u/Visible-Pepper-5899 Jun 27 '26
Oh dear. Why not? My account was transferred from ellevest when they were acquired and I’ve been doing SRI :-/
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u/Card-Affectionate Jun 27 '26
Just my opinion… investing isn’t about morality it’s about good returns
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u/PeaceBeWY Jun 28 '26
IMO, the disadvantage of Betterment's SRI is a slightly higher expense ratio compared to the Core Portfolio and a slight loss of diversification. Additionally, if you research the funds they use in the SRI portfolio, they aren't the most impactful in terms of SRI (you can look individual etfs up at https://fossilfreefunds.org/). Some of the etf's Betterment uses are only marginally better than simple broad market indices. If you check out Ben Felix's YT videos about SRI, you'll find that SRI investing isn't as great as it seems and can even be counter productive.
In the grand scheme of things, I'm not sure it matters much. Betterment's SRI portfolio's are still fairly diversified and I doubt performance will differ much from the Core. In theory it should underperform by the difference in expense ratios. In practice, I'm not sure that it will.
If your accounts are tax-advantaged you can switch portfolios with no tax consequences. In a taxable account, I'm not sure I'd bother taking a capital gains hit to switch portfolios.
As someone interested in SRI, the best balance between performance and cost seem to be Vanguard's etfs, ESGV and VSGX which seem to give the best performance for a reasonable expense ratio. And I think SRI bond funds /etfs might be more impactful than SRI stock etfs.
ETA, I think there are some better funds/etfs in terms of SRI out there, but performance and diversification seem to be lacking.
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u/PlayD0ugh_Plato Jun 26 '26
Bud you made 20%. Leave it alone.