Managing our retirement funds is not really a mental burden. In fact, I enjoyed doing it myself for more than 25 years before signing on with Vanguard Advisors.It seems you've reached the boundary of how customizable their portfolios can be. You should detail your goals and entire portfolio plan to this forum if you want detailed feedback on your ideas. I would think about how much more work and mental burden it will be for you to manage it yourself, and whether it's worth the effort for the potential upside you think you'll get by customizing it. You may want to look at Digital Advisor since you may be able to customize your allocation a bit more there, although the fund vehicle choices will probably be more limited.
My wife and I are retired, so our goal is monthly income to supplement Social Security. All we need is 4-5% annual returns, but we've been averaging >6% since 2016. Before 2022 the average had been >8%. But our eight years with VPA certainly could have been better without international funds holding us down, and being able to draw from a MM fund during bad times, instead of selling beaten-down stock and bond funds.
The 4-5% withdrawal amount I mentioned above varies with how much we're spending. For example, paying for a trip to Europe. We just now took on a new car payment, so we may go back up to 5%.
A portfolio that I'd manage myself? How about a modified couch potato portfolio of 45/45 Wellington and Wellesley, and then how about 5% in a MM fund and 5% in the short term investment grade bond fund? I'd re-balance every quarter, but I'm not sure when I would replenish the MM & short term bond "spending" funds. Ideas?
BTW, a 50/50 Wellington/Wellesley combo (both Admiral funds) outperformed my VPA portfolio over the last 3, 5, and 10 years by anywhere from 0.4% to 3.1%. My VPA portfolio did win in 2023 -- 7.9% to 7.0%. Those numbers are before the 0.3% management fee.
Comments?
Statistics: Posted by mbr2000 — Mon Apr 29, 2024 10:25 am