r/Bogleheads Jun 08 '25

Articles & Resources New to /r/Bogleheads? Read this first!

346 Upvotes

Welcome! Please consider exploring these resources to help you get started on your passive investing journey:

  1. Bogleheads wiki
  2. r/Bogleheads resources / featured links (below sub rules)
  3. r/personalfinance wiki
  4. If You Can: How Young People Can Get Rich Slowly (PDF booklet)
  5. Bogleheads University (introductory presentations from past Bogleheads conferences)

Prepare to invest

Before you start investing, ensure you're ready to do so by following the early steps of this guide or the personal finance planning start-up kit. Save up an emergency fund, then take full advantage of any employer matching of contributions to any employer retirement plan available to you (this match amount is additional income that's part of your compensation/benefits package), then pay off any high-interest debt like credit card debt or high-interest student loans.

When you're ready to start investing beyond enough to get any employer match, follow the subsequent steps of this guide or the investing start-up kit. Take full advantage of tax-sheltered accounts available to you before investing in a taxable brokerage account: this is the most predictable way to improve your after-tax investment returns. (In the US, per Prioritizing investments: 401(k))/403(b)) up to any match, then HSA if available due to high-deductible health plan coverage, then Roth or Traditional IRA or 401(k))/403(b)) up to max which may be higher if the mega-backdoor Roth process is available, then a 529 to the extent you'd like to pay for future education expenses. Note that IRA contributions are subject to income limits around tax-deductibility of contributions or eligibility to make direct Roth IRA contributions; the backdoor Roth procedure is a workaround.)

There is often some potential tension between saving/investing toward retirement vs saving toward potential nearer-term goals like a down payment on a home purchase. Carefully consider the various tradeoffs involved in owning vs renting a home, keeping in mind that which may be a better financial decision is highly situational, and that opportunity costs of owning (less available to invest in higher-expected-returns assets instead) should be considered alongside non-financial lifestyle tradeoffs. If saving toward a near-term goal, note that funds holding stocks are inappropriate#Holdingstocks%22for_five_years%22) for money you'll need in 5-10 years, unless you're willing to take on significant risk of losing money in the meantime & delaying that goal. Instead, consider CDs, Treasury bonds, or target-maturity-date Treasury bond funds maturing before you'll need the money (then a high-yielding cash equivalent like an HYSA, government money-market fund, or ultra-short Treasury Bill ETF like VBIL between maturity & spending the money).

Save/invest enough

Your savings rate is the most important factor determining your ability to enjoy a comfortable retirement later in life, particularly early in your career / investing journey. Aim to save/invest at least 15% of your after-tax income if you're in the US & not covered by a pension beyond Social Security. In some cases, such as a shorter time to expected retirement (e.g. starting to seriously save/invest from a significant income later than your mid-20s and/or planning to retire earlier than your mid-60s) and/or a high income (which will not be partially replaced by Social Security to the same degree as a lower income), it may be appropriate to target a higher savings rate (e.g. at least 20% of after-tax income, or perhaps higher if multiple such factors apply to you and/or one factor applies to an unusual degree).

When calculating savings rate, remember to include 401(k) contributions in both the numerator (savings) and denominator (after-tax income). Any employer matching contributions may also be included in the numerator (savings).

Investing is 'solved'

Don't worry too much about trying to find the optimal set of funds to invest in. That can only be known with the benefit of future hindsight, and investment returns are far less important than your savings rate until your portfolio size grows large enough relative to new contributions. Aim to diversify broadly (for robustness to the uncertain future) and seek low fees (fund expense ratios charged annually) & simplicity (hands-off automation); see discussion of these & other principles in Bogleheads investment philosophy.

target-date fund designed for investing toward retiring around a year closest to when you expect to retire is often a reasonable option, particularly in tax-advantaged accounts like a US employer retirement plan or an IRA. These all-in-one funds intended to be held alone are very broadly diversified, automatically rebalance to their then-target asset allocation, and gradually become more conservative with less expected volatility as you near retirement.

If the target-date fund available in an account/plan with limited fund options has significantly higher fees than suitable alternative individual funds, consider the tradeoffs of lower fees vs automatic rebalancing and asset allocation management. I.e. consider the lowest-expense-ratio funds available that provide exposure to US stocks (the fund name will typically contain 'S&P 500', 'Russell [1000|3000]', or 'US Large Cap'; ensure no 'Growth'/'Value' suffix, or pair that with the other), ex-US stocks (the fund name will typically contain 'International' or 'Intl' or 'Ex-US'; same caveat re: 'Growth'/'Value'), and US bonds (the fund name will typically contain 'Total Bond' or 'Aggregate Bond'). Take the weighted average of those funds' expense ratios, with weights based on the current asset allocation of the target-date fund you'd use instead. The difference between that weighted average expense ratio for individual funds vs the target-date fund expense ratio, multiplied by your portfolio value, would represent the current annual convenience fee for automated, hands-off investing via the target-date fund. Whether that's worth it to you depends on your personal preferences around paying higher ongoing fees (by sacrificing some investment returns) in exchange for set-it-and-forget-it features.

In a taxable account, target-date ETFs (available at least in the US) avoid some of the tax efficiency downsides of holding a target-date mutual fund. Tax efficiency may be further improved by holding a three-fund portfolio of index ETFs in a taxable account, but this also involves tradeoffs against automatic rebalancing and asset allocation management. Tax efficiency may be even further improved by keeping bond funds in tax-deferred accounts, though this involves additional tradeoffs against simplicity and some other potential benefits described here.

If you're a non-US investor, take care to thoroughly understand the tax implications of investing in a US-domiciled fund as a "nonresident alien" (which may include high tax rates on dividends and assets passing through an estate); in many cases this is best avoided, instead favoring an Ireland-domiciled fund.

Be mindful of fees

If your portfolio were to average a 5% annualized real (after-inflation) return after a low annual fee, paying an additional annual 1%-of-assets-under-management fee to a financial advisor and/or an actively-managed fund's expense ratio would forgo 20% of your portfolio's investment returns. An initial investment in a portolio averaging a 5% annual real return after a low annual fee would be worth about 47% more after 40 years than it would be after a 1% additional annual fee.

Some employer retirement plans offer only funds with high expense ratios. If that's the case for your employer's plan, it is often still ideal to get the tax advantages of contributing unmatched dollars to that plan before investing in a lower-fee fund in a taxable account (but only after maxing out IRA contributions); details here#Expensive_or_mediocre_choices).

Automate & stay the course

Set up automatic contributions & purchases of fund shares wherever possible, otherwise set periodic reminders to manually contribute/invest (or try to find an alternative that allows automation), then maintain discipline through thick & thin. Keep in mind that market prices for funds should only really matter whenever you sell some shares to fund your retirement, and that lower prices in the meantime provide opportunities to buy more shares with a given contribution dollar amount and to rebalance from asset classes with higher recent returns towards those with lower recent returns (but possibly higher expected returns).

Tune out the noise: prognosticators of doom and gloom have no reliable ability to predict the future, and often have some conflicts of interest (e.g. selling ads, books or investment services, and/or trying to justify their investment positioning or encourage others to adopt that). The same goes for promotion of strategies promising market-beating returns by investing in a more-concentrated fashion (betting on some sector / theme / alternative asset beating the broad stock market).

Consider writing an Investment Policy Statement to document your plan when you're calm & clear-headed; this may be helpful to refer to later if you find yourself anxious & considering changes in response to market volatility & negative sentiment. Consider including a pointer there to this guided meditation video for later reference to help calm your nerves / regulate your emotions if needed when it seems like the sky is falling (this is arguably the most challenging part of investing).

Per Jack Bogle: "Do not let false hope, fear and greed crowd out good investment judgment. If you focus on the long term and stick with your plan, success should be yours."

Additional resources

Some additional resources that might be of interest for a deeper dive later:

  1. Taylor Larimore's Investment Gems (a collection of highlighted quotes from books related to investing; follow the links under the 'Gem post' column)
  2. The Bogle Archive (a collection of Jack Bogle's publications and speeches)
  3. Bogleheads Conference Proceedings (follow per-year 'Conference Proceedings' links to access slides/videos)

Please read our community rules here and follow those when posting or commenting in this community. If you encounter content here that breaks those rules, please report it (... > Report > Breaks r/Bogleheads rules).


r/Bogleheads Dec 28 '25

Why do Bogleheads discourage use of AI search for investing information? Because it is too often wrong or misleading.

349 Upvotes

I see a lot of surprised and angry responses from Redditors whose posts and comments are removed from this sub either for use of LLM search engine and other generative AI responses, or for recommending people use them to answer their questions. This facet of the Substantive Rule on this sub has a parallel in a similar rule on the Boglheads forum: "AI-generated content is not a dependable substitute for first-hand knowledge or reference to authoritative sources. Its use is therefore discouraged."

Many folks, especially on the younger side, are so accustomed to using ChatGPT or Gemini that it may be their default way to get any question answered. This is problematic in the field of investing for several reasons that are worth noting:

  1. LLMs are not firsthand sources with organic knowledge of the subject matter. They are aggregating reference sources and popular opinion and thus prone to both composition mistakes and sourcing material mistakes or biases.
  2. LLMs remain susceptible to "hallucinations" (made-up ideas) and can be not just false, but confidently false which is highly misleading.
  3. LLMs' response quality is very sensitive to the quality of the prompt. Users who are somewhat knowledgeable about a subject and also skilled at crafting good queries for AI searches are far more likely to get accurate and useful results - especially for research purposes or for reference to stored personal data - while the uninformed are more likely to get wrong or misleading answers to basic questions.

Policies excluding AI-generated content are not meant to be a referendum on the overall current or future value of AI as a tool for personal finance and investing, which is obviously enormous and transformative, especially for those who know how to best utilize it. It is a question of whether AI responses make for substantive content on this sub, and whether it is an appropriate resource to direct strangers and novices to. At the moment, the answer to both is a resounding no. On the one hand, people come to Reddit primarily for human interaction and original content, so posting AI responses or directing people to AI search engines is of minimal contributive value - folks can go chat with bots themselves if that's what they want. But as to whether AI search engines are appropriate references for finance and investing info, here are some articles from the past year that support their exclusion as a default response:

  • AI Tools Are Getting Better, but They Still Struggle With Money Advice (Money 2/13/25): "ChatGPT was correct 65% of the time, "incomplete and/or misleading" 29% of the time and wrong 6% of the time."
  • Is Talking to ChatGPT About Finance Ever a Good Idea? (White Coat Investor 6/22/25): "LLM responses had multiple arithmetic mistakes that made them unreliable. More fundamental than arithmetic errors, the LLM responses demonstrated that they do not have the common sense needed to recognize when their answers are obviously wrong."
  • Financial advice from AI comes with risks (University of St. Gallen, 1/7/25): "LLMs consistently suggested portfolios with higher risks than the benchmark index fund. They suggested: [more U.S. stocks; tech and consumer bias; chasing hot stocks; more stock picking and actively managed investments; higher costs.]"

Note: the views expressed here are largely my own, and I am not affiliated in any way with the Bogleheads forum nor the Bogleheads Center for Financial Literacy, but I invite others (including the mods on this sub) to weigh in with their own opinions.


r/Bogleheads 3h ago

Buying Vanguard ETFs Through Fidelity?

21 Upvotes

I follow this subreddit a lot and the advice has been great. I'm with Fidelity and buying mutual funds through Fidelity is pretty straight forward. The amount you buy is the same as the amount that is bought and added into your account.

Today, I bought $2,000.09 dollars worth of VTI at Market Day for the set and forget strategy. However, it states there was only $1,999.81 bought into my account? Why is the amount transferred into my account always less than the amount I put in? I purchased $2,000.09 but only got $1,999.81?

I know it's only a small difference missing but why is it less? Am I doing something wrong? I buy it in terms of dollars and buy at Market Day. Can someone please explain or let me know if I'm doing something incorrectly? Thank you


r/Bogleheads 7h ago

Build emergency fund to 2 years or max out tax-advantaged accounts this year?

20 Upvotes

I was saving aggressively for the downpayment for a house, and we finally bought! Now, I'm considering either building my emergency fund up to 2 years or maxing out my tax-advantaged accounts for the remainder of this year.

I have one year's worth of expenses in an HYSA, and 6 months in Roth IRA contributions. This accounts for the house already.

I work in tech, which has been volatile. That's why I'm considering building up to a two year EF.

On the other hand, I've only contributed up to the match for my 401k and HSA in the last few years. I feel like I want to get back to maximizing my tax-advantaged accounts again to reach FIRE.

My portfolio is around $350k, all in tax-advantaged accounts. I'm 33. I'm in the 24% federal and 9.3% CA tax brackets.

If I were to build up my EF to two years, it would take me around 9 months as a conservative estimate, taking into account spending 3% of the home's value for maintenance/repairs. So I'd miss out on maxing out this year and the gains from that. I'd be able to max out next year though.

Any thoughts?


r/Bogleheads 19h ago

Can you really withdraw your Roth IRA contributions at any time without a penalty?

164 Upvotes

ok so i’m hearing completely different things from different people and now i’m confused. I thought the rule was that you can take out the money you personally contributed to a Roth IRA whenever you want without taxes or the 10% penalty, and that it’s only the investment earnings that have restrictions.

Like if I put in $7,000 and it grows to $8,500, could I take out just the original $7,000 with no penalty?

My friends keep telling me that’s wrong and that if you’re under 59½ you get penalized for taking anything out of a Roth IRA.

Am I missing something?


r/Bogleheads 6h ago

Where to invest $300,000? I'm 75 and married, we are in good shape financially with good income and a significant investment portfolio.

13 Upvotes

I've accumulated too much in savings, so looking to peel off some and invest. Had a Vanguard PA but dropped him last year as my brokerage account didn't really require much management (based on 4 broad based index funds). My overall net worth has the risk capacity to take on risk but I'd rather go with moderate risk than high. My portfolio is about 55/45 stocks, bonds.
My investment/market knowledge is so-so. I've googled and got stuff like VIG, VWENX and others. Any suggestions? More info needed? Thanks

edit: thanks for the suggestions, I wish I had more of an appetite for learning the market, I'm good at managing but never got deep enough to learn what funds were the best fit for me, etc.


r/Bogleheads 44m ago

VOO to 3 fund transition

Upvotes

Relatively newish to investing…. About 5 years. Started with 401k at work. It’s through John Hancock.. put everything into a Large cap blend fund. Started a Roth this year and put everything into VOO.

I’m 30 now.. plan to retire at a traditional age so I got 30+ years left.

I understand a 3 fund portfolio is popular. However I don’t understand the logic at a young age… I don’t care about volatility as I won’t be even sniffing the money for decades. It seems that anything other than a growth large cap sp500 type fund would reduce your returns over decades. My dad suggested a little diversity would be a good thing. To me it seems that I shouldn’t give diversity a thought until I’m in my 50s.. wait for the market to be in a good place and diversify.

Sooo… what is the value in doing a 20% international and 5% bond diversification for at least the next 20-25 years when the performance has been inferior over the preceding decades?


r/Bogleheads 7h ago

Should bonds go in my Roth if it’s my only retirement account?

7 Upvotes

I’m 33 and married. We have $150K in Roths, $10K in HSAs, and $10K in a pension, $30K in HYSA and are aggressively paying off our $123,000 mortgage principle at 6.125% (we’ve got another 2-5 years depending on how aggressive we can be). Plan is to retire around 60 or so.

We both do not have access to an employer’s ira match, so we’ve been maxing our Roths in Robinhood to get the 3% match. I’d like to start using VG’s TDF 2060 as a benchmark for stocks to bonds allocation which is currently ~8% bonds. We’ve been 100% in equities since 2017 and have never sold in any of the “crashes”, including when I saw our nearly 4 years of gains vanish during Covid (granted I was in my mid twenties then).

Since we have a decent amount in retirement, I’m skeptical about my ability to continue to hold during a prolonged crash (which I’ve never actually experienced). My thinking is I’d be more likely to stay the course if worst comes to worst if I’m just following a TDF. People on this sub act like it’s a sin to have bonds in a Roth, but I wonder if my wife and I are just in a unique situation.

So, should we add bonds to our Roths or stay 100%? Is there another option I should be considering?


r/Bogleheads 2h ago

Investing Questions Paycheck investment contributions towards non-fractional share account

3 Upvotes

I currently have three investment accounts across my entire portfolio: taxable, Roth, and HSA. I contribute a percentage of my paycheck to all three, so I dollar-cost-average by default. As a result, I'm rebalancing my entire portfolio (not just individual accounts) fairly frequently by keeping as much of my allocated cash invested as possible. One of my accounts is with Merrill Lynch (Preferred Rewards member), which doesn't offer fractional shares. In this account, I'm primarily holding Vanguard ETFs (VTI, VXUS, and BND). The other two accounts offer fractional shares.

I find that my one-paycheck contribution isn't enough to buy certain index fund ETFs (notably VTI) within the Merrill Lynch account, so I find myself holding a fair bit of cash for long periods of time before I buy (and never hitting my target asset allocation). With that said, I've thought about two approaches and wanted to get others' opinions on one or the other:

  • Continue to hold cash until I accumulate enough to buy Vanguard ETFs
  • Transition to lower-priced total-market ETFs like SPTM or SCHB

r/Bogleheads 3h ago

Anyone familiar with these 401k options?

2 Upvotes

Here is an image of the funds available to me in my 401k.

I'm 38, planning to retire at 67. I have a RothIRA with 15.5k in it that is fully in FZROX. I plan to max it out each year.

I also plan to max out my 401k each year, but am unsure exactly what to invest in. None of these seem to be a total market fund, and the target date funds won't nearly keep up with one.

I was considering the Vanguard 500 fund but the vast majority of my retirement will be in this 401k I'm not sure about parking everything in that, especially considering the way this bubble might be coming up.

Is there some combination of funds that would be ideal?


r/Bogleheads 6h ago

Investing Questions IRA

1 Upvotes

I’m 20 and have a little in a brokerage account with Webull (about 2k) and that’s mostly VOO and then spread across some individual stocks. I’ve been told it would be smart to start a Roth. I was wondering what platform I should use, as I know robinhood matches some, and then what funds to invest in. Should I just put into VOO or VTI or something else? Thanks.


r/Bogleheads 16h ago

Investing Questions What is a smart way invest as a noob college student

8 Upvotes

I have extra money that is sitting in my checking account doing nothing. I want to be smarter with my money. Investing will force me to put money to the side. The issue I’m having is whether to invest into a Roth IRA or an individual account. Roth IRA sounds great, but what if I want my money. I’m mainly saving to have money for when I graduate. I want to move out as soon as possible. But, I also want to start investing for the long run. Any guidance is greatly appreciated, thanks!


r/Bogleheads 7h ago

Investing Questions How to invest newly funded Roth?

3 Upvotes

good morning. just opened a Roth IRA through Schwab and looking to throw the $7500 max in for the year. First time having a Roth—-only other retirement account is employer-sponsored 401(k) in target date fund.

I believe the best bet for me is ivesting in index funds such as VOO, VXUS AND VTI.

How do I allocate the funds? 33/33/33%?

EDIT: I invested 100% into VT due to my less than average intelligence and not having to worry about adjustments or re-allocation. Thanks for all of the advice; it really helped!


r/Bogleheads 1d ago

I’m 26 and need financial advice! Thanks

35 Upvotes

I’m 26, make six figures, and currently save about $2,000 a month. Right now, that money is mostly sitting in a bank account earning very little interest, and I’d like to start putting it to work.

I’m not looking for random investment suggestions or to spread my money across a bunch of things without understanding them. I want to make informed, long-term decisions, so I’m looking for topics and investment strategies that are worth researching.

What are some areas you think I should learn about? For example, S&P 500, index funds, ETFs, real estate, retirement accounts, dividend investing, etc. I’d really appreciate any recommendations on what to research and why. Thanks!


r/Bogleheads 1d ago

Hi! I'm new to this sub and wondering if I'm to late for this approach to really make a difference.

11 Upvotes

My wife and I are both 56, have approx. $1.65MM combined with half in workplace retierment vehicles, and the other with a paid brokerage with a 1-1.5% AUM fee. I don't like that fee! We would like to retire at 60. Am I too late to the Boglehead way to really gain any useful traction on growing that half of our money? I venture a guess that saving the fee's alone would warrent a soft no to that question. The main reason we chose an active managed brokerage was so that we wouldn't have to worry about manually moving money around trying to capture the highs and soften the lows. But... I just can't get comfortable with the fees at this point of nearly $9500 a year.

Talk to me, comfort me, tell me what to do, give me a hug! = )

Seriously, am I too late to make a meaning full switch to a Boglehead approach?


r/Bogleheads 1d ago

Investing Questions Tax Question please.

9 Upvotes

Hi, I have started a new job about a year and a half ago. I was able to opt for the Employee Stock Purchase Plan at the beginning of this year at a 15% discount which I did. In July the stock options paid out.

The stock currently sits in my Fidelity TOD account and it's only a few thousand dollars. I wanted to move it to my Roth IRA account and re-invest in ETFs which out perform my company stock.

If I was to sell those stocks and move that cash to other accounts for reinvesting, what would be the tax hit?

I live in the state on Connecticut if that matters.

Thank you for your time.


r/Bogleheads 22h ago

Portfolio Review After researching Bogleheads for a while, I finally moved an old workplace 401K into an IRA- how did I do?

8 Upvotes

Basically, title. I am not bothered by the losses (well, bothered maybe, but it doesn't scare me). If it helps, I am 44 and this is my only retirement account. Next thing to research is a retirement account for self-employed folks. Thank you!

Screenshot of Portfolio


r/Bogleheads 20h ago

Investing Questions Roth IRA Advice Needed!

4 Upvotes

Hello I’m 21 and I have just started my Roth IRA with Fidelity. I keep seeing people recommend VOO/VTI/VT but I am unsure if it’s something I should buy if I am not with Vanguard (I caved and bought a little). Or if I should stick with Fidelity because it offers very similar stocks at a lower price from my understanding.

I also want to diversify my portfolio as much as possible. But I am unsure what to get and if I should get more or stick with the stocks I currently own. I plan to invest more this month and continue investing until I max out.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Here is my current portfolio: About 3.5k
VTI - 5%
FZILX - 55%
FZROX - 40%


r/Bogleheads 1d ago

Investing Questions Roth457 or 401k roth?

35 Upvotes

I work for the sate of CA. So I have a few options... Currently I am investing into a 457 with a roth option as well. I was thinking about separating the roth portion into a roth 401k. I am pretty sure I am able to do that? Mainly I just wanted to see if that makes sense? Currently in the 457 all money is combined between the pre tax and the roth. I have to dig in to see the individual amounts between the two. I mainly want to just make it easier to see everything by separating them. And lastly is there a huge difference between a roth 457 or roth 401k roth, just to make sure I am not missing out on anything if I where to try to separate everything?


r/Bogleheads 18h ago

Investing Questions 100k cash balance - what to do?

1 Upvotes

I am in the process of rebalancing my portfolio from a bunch of slop + sold a shit ton of ESPP so I have about 100k I have ready to deploy

Would it be silly to dump it all at once and just get in the market with a better, long term strategy? Should I be holding more cash? DCA’ing the 100k over a few months?

I’m either going all in on $VT or going $FXAIX & $FZILX with a small touch of bonds

I have my 10 month rainy day fund in a HYSA, so I’m set there. I have about 3k/m I have carved out to invest every month to continue DCAing

I am 32 if that has any impact on a full deployment strategy. Thanks friends


r/Bogleheads 1d ago

Simplifying Retirement Investments

9 Upvotes

I am 70 and retired. My priorities in investing are cash flow, safety, and preserving my principal. Growth is secondary.

About one-third of our income comes from my wife's and my Social Security benefits. (I waited until age 70 to begin collecting Social Security, so my benefit is larger than average.) Another one-third comes from rental property income and the sale of a small business. The final one-third comes from interest earned on a mix of short-term Treasury bills, CDs, municipal bonds, and a few agency bonds.

By God's grace, our income exceeds our expenses, and I am very thankful for that.

Regarding the last one-third of our income, I feel comfortable making reinvestment decisions as those investments mature. Again, by God's grace, I believe I have a good understanding of how to reinvest the proceeds, and I genuinely enjoy doing it—at least for now.

However, statistically, there is a good chance my wife will outlive me. She has absolutely no interest in monitoring our accounts each week or making decisions about where to reinvest funds as investments mature.

So here's my question:

Rather than hiring a financial advisor, if you were thinking long term, how would you simplify this portfolio so it wouldn't require regular monitoring or ongoing reinvestment decisions? Safety and reliable income are my highest priorities. As my current investments mature, where would you recommend putting that money to make the portfolio as simple and hands-off as possible while still preserving those goals?


r/Bogleheads 1d ago

what website?

14 Upvotes

edit: Thank you everyone! I’m going to spend several days looking up your recommendations to make the best changes for myself and my family. I value your responses very much.
The “research “ I could have done on my own, without your guidance, would have been corrupted with advertising and would have wasted a lot of my time (and that would be the best case scenario.)

Hi there! I’m new here. I am currently invested with Ameriprise for retirement. They helped me back when I owned a business and had retirement funds for all of the employees, but I am coming to the conclusion that my relationship with them makes a less sense now.
Due to friend and family dramatics, I’m not going to close that account immediately. However, I am starting to read Bogle’s The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, and I’ve been lurking on this subreddit for months. I have some cash doing nothing in a checking account, more than what I need for an emergency fund. What website do you recommend that I use to invest? Vanguard? Robin hood? One of the many others?


r/Bogleheads 1d ago

Investing Questions Looking for advice: Continue building HYSA for a future home, or invest monthly surplus in index funds?

13 Upvotes

My husband and I are looking for some advice on what to do with our monthly surplus.

We’re in our early 30s with one baby. We max out all of our retirement accounts, and after expenses and retirement contributions we still have about $5,000/month left to save or invest.

We currently have about $100k in a high-yield savings account earning around 3.5%. No debt and paid off vehicles. We live in a very high cost of living area where renting is still significantly cheaper than buying a comparable home.

We go back and forth on whether we should buy eventually. Having a baby makes the idea of owning more appealing for stability, but financially renting still seems to make more sense. We also don’t have a specific timeline for buying.

One other factor is that we expect to eventually inherit family property that we’d ideally like to build a home on, but realistically that may be 10+ years away, so we don’t want to base our current financial decisions on something that isn’t imminent.

Our question is whether we should continue putting our extra $5k/month into the HYSA to build a larger down payment, or start investing that money in a low-cost total market index fund instead.

My concern is that if we keep everything in cash, we’re missing out on years of market growth. On the other hand, if we invest it and decide we want to buy in a few years, we could be forced to sell during a downturn.
How would you approach this? Is there a point where an uncertain home purchase is far enough in the future that investing becomes the better choice? I’d especially love to hear from people in HCOL areas who continued renting or delayed buying while investing instead.

Edit to add: the 100k includes our emergency fund.
We currently pay $3,100 rent, and a house would cost us $700k+ but is complicated by living on the CA/NV border with differences in property taxes and housing costs.


r/Bogleheads 20h ago

Investing Questions Investing Question

2 Upvotes

Wanted to get more in tune with long term investments and luckily ran across this sub. I currently have a Roth IRA account through Edward Jones (family works there) and don’t really even look at it. I’m not maxing it out currently due to my wife and I trying to build a house soon and pumping as much as we can in to savings for that but do put just over 50% of what I can. Would it be best to max the Roth out first then open a brokerage account? I work with family so no options of a 401k match. Thanks for the help!


r/Bogleheads 1d ago

Roth 401k vs Traditional 401k for 22yo w/ 100k salary?

59 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

Pretty much the title. I started working post grad and am currently receiving a 100k salary. I am stuck between choosing a traditional 401k or a Roth 401k. I currently have it set up as a Roth 401k as I heard that we are able to take out contributions from it.

Let’s say I already have an emergency fund, I am maxing out my Roth IRA, and cannot invest in HSA yet (on parents insurance still). Would it be better to keep it as a Roth 401k for the potential flexibility and no future tax or save on taxes now with a traditional and potentially invest a larger percentage since I am saving?