XutvJet wroteThe part that worries me is the last paragraph. Wife and I are not yet on the same page about this side of the ledger in retirement. While she is not an extravagant spender, I think our expenses need to go down substantially as we approach and enter retirement. Much smaller house in a different, lower-cost area and more thoughful spending / budgeting (including how much we spend on our dogs!) are essential in my mind. Aside from bringing expenses in line with lower income, things like escalating and unplanned medical bills worry me. Aside from investing, this is where I need to invest time in planning, "alignment" and action over the next couple of years.Sweet!! A new money/investment thread.
My investment style remains as it has since around 2015 when I fired my financial advisor and took total control of my investments and went to Vanguard. I am 51 and would call myself a very simple, high risk, long-term investor. I don't screw around with my portfolio much at all. I don't do a ton of research nor track things closely.
I am heavily invested in stocks (90% and nearly all domestic) including largely S&P 500 index funds (75%), Berkshire Class B (17%), and the 8% in other stocks. The remaining 10% of my portfolio is short term reserves, cash (a bit over 1 year of gross salary), and bonds. My wife and I have a brokerage account, his/her Roth IRAs, a traditional IRA from an old 401K, and my work 401K (3% match, I only put in 3%). House was paid off 10 years ago. Cars are paid off too.
Our two kids have 529s. My daughter will be getting a full ride to play DI VB so now we need to figure out what we'll do with her 529 once she's actually going to school in 2027. Our son, who's in college now, should graduate with around $30K left in the 529. He's already managing his own Roth so I imagine he'll transfer over some of that to his Roth and go from there.
My overall expense ratio for the last 8 years has been 0.05% which is miniscule and a FAR cry from the whopping 1.7% I was spending with my financial advisor and high expense actively managed mutual funds with him. I didn't realize just how much of my portfolio was being crushed by fees until I peeled back the layers. It wasn't easy either as Morgan Stanley does one hell of a job hiding those fees.
I'm an odd ball as 60% of our portfolio is in the brokerage account. Odd? Yep. Ideal? Most likely not. I plan to retire in 2 years or so and see my brokerage account as a way to fund my retirement for a number of years until I want to tap into my retirement accounts.
Our portfolio has snowballed over the last 10 years. We are getting to the point that I will need help in re-evaluating our portfolio, redoing our will/trust, etc. I am about ready to post to Bogleheads for some input. I'm sure I'll be ridiculed for my investment strategy. However, it's been extremely lucrative, at least I think it has.
When I retire, our expenses should go down substantially with our daughter out of the house and we won't be playing $10-15K/yr on club volleyball and related expenses. The wife and I will downsize from our moderate 40 y/or 1900 ft2 home to something more like 1200-1500 ft2, lots of outdoor living space, a big garage for me, etc. We don't want to expand. We want to reduce and have less shit. I want LESS complication and stuff to manage. Not more. The most complication in my life I want is maintaining older German cars.
RickFLM4 wroteIf I might offer an idea.... Several years before I retired, while deciding if I could retire, I created a spreadsheet that would include income and expenses over time (ie until we'd be dead). That was all pretty easy until I needed the "what we spend each year" data, which didn't exist. We realized we needed to track our actual expenses for an entire year to get that number. Buy a candy bar, add it to the list. It was very accurate, and gave us the starting point for that one last piece of data. I had placeholders for emergency medical expenses, dog emergencies, periodically buying a new car, etc.The part that worries me is the last paragraph. Wife and I are not yet on the same page about this side of the ledger in retirement. While she is not an extravagant spender, I think our expenses need to go down substantially as we approach and enter retirement. Much smaller house in a different, lower-cost area and more thoughful spending / budgeting (including how much we spend on our dogs!) are essential in my mind. Aside from bringing expenses in line with lower income, things like escalating and unplanned medical bills worry me. Aside from investing, this is where I need to invest time in planning, "alignment" and action over the next couple of years.
tracknut wroteI’ve been tracking spending for years in Quicken so I have the data. The bigger issue is just coming to grips with reductions in discretionary spending.If I might offer an idea.... Several years before I retired, while deciding if I could retire, I created a spreadsheet that would include income and expenses over time (ie until we'd be dead). That was all pretty easy until I needed the "what we spend each year" data, which didn't exist. We realized we needed to track our actual expenses for an entire year to get that number. Buy a candy bar, add it to the list. It was very accurate, and gave us the starting point for that one last piece of data. I had placeholders for emergency medical expenses, dog emergencies, periodically buying a new car, etc.
That one spreadsheet was instrumental in deciding so many things about our future expenses, my retirement, when we'd start drawing from IRA's, etc. I can't tell you how valuable it was. I'd recommend anyone preparing for retirement go through that kind of analysis.
tracknut wroteGood advice.If I might offer an idea.... Several years before I retired, while deciding if I could retire, I created a spreadsheet that would include income and expenses over time (ie until we'd be dead). That was all pretty easy until I needed the "what we spend each year" data, which didn't exist. We realized we needed to track our actual expenses for an entire year to get that number. Buy a candy bar, add it to the list. It was very accurate, and gave us the starting point for that one last piece of data. I had placeholders for emergency medical expenses, dog emergencies, periodically buying a new car, etc.
That one spreadsheet was instrumental in deciding so many things about our future expenses, my retirement, when we'd start drawing from IRA's, etc. I can't tell you how valuable it was. I'd recommend anyone preparing for retirement go through that kind of analysis.
floridaorange wroteEvery person will have his/her own choices. No one size fits all in this regard.**For those with $50K+ in the market or designated for the market**
Are you buying, holding or selling right now?
Are you a long term investor or short term trader?
Are you investing in mostly etf's, mutual funds, individual co's, crypto or all of the above?
RockCrusher wroteThe host was Louis Rukeyser; I don’t recall the guest but I’ve heard that advice several times in my investing life - never sell. However I’m getting increasingly anxious about 2026 politics and political strife given the inability or unwillingness of Congress to simply pass a CR and work on anything else, and of course the midterms. That creates uncertainty which is not good for the economy and the stock market, so I am selectively selling down to hold more cash (15% now going to 30% or more).…
Years ago I watched a Wall Street Week show in which the host interviewed an elderly and very successful stock market investor. Think the gentleman was in his late 80s maybe in his early 90s. The host asked the usual questions about what/when to buy. Then he asked when do you sell your stocks? The guest replied never.
Added: I forgot to mention my mutual funds were held in retirement accounts, tax deferred.
I've never owned mutual funds in a taxable account. I understand that mutual funds in a taxable account are subject to capital gains even if the funds decline during the year after going up earlier in the year.
And dividends are taxed even if one gets into the mutual funds *after* the dividends are paid.
The Growth Act -- if it becomes law of course -- would eliminate this special taxation and tax mutual funds like other capital gains producing investments.
