Tag Archives: vanguard

Investing, Retirement

Vanguard Admiral Funds: Rebalancing for Lower Fees

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One of the things I realized recently that I’ve been spending more than I have to on fees inside of my IRA accounts. While Vanguard funds are low fee to begin with, did you know that Admiral funds (which require $10k minimum investment per fund vs $3k) still have significantly lower fees?

Fees can significantly eat away at your investments, especially over time in your retirement accounts. I know for a fact my old 401k that I haven’t rolled over is wasting money with some of its funds at .90% fees or higher! I’m holding off on rolling that over in the case I will do a Roth IRA conversion if/when I go to grad school on about $100k of other IRA investments, but for all my other accounts I want to be as fee-efficient as possible.

Expense Fees Add Up Fast!

Here’s a little experiment… (try your own out in this expense ratio calculator) say I invest 100,000 today and plan to keep that money invested for 30 years. I earn an average of 10% each of those 30 years (woohoo.)

If my fund has a low .10% expense ratio then I’ll see a 2.96% reduction of my future value due to fees (costing $51,596.) This sounds like a lot, but it really isn’t compared to the cost of most funds.

Say you have a still relatively low-cost fund at .20% expense ratio. You are then spending 5.83% of your future value on fees ($101,716!)

Some funds have high expense ratios too. If you are investing in a fund that has an expense ratio of .80%, 21.51% of your future value is gone thanks to this fee ($373645.77!!) So you see how a little expense ratio can quickly add up.

After reading a bit more about taxes and what funds to hold in Roth IRAs vs traditional IRAs I decided to shift around funds in my Vanguard accounts. I also changed things up over at Sharebuilder because my $10500 basis Roth over there is significantly underperforming, but I’ll cover those changes in another post.

Also, I read that high-dividend funds make sense in your Roth IRA but not in your traditional IRA. Why?  Because dividends have two purposes — to provide you income today at low(ish) capital gains tax rates, or to compound over time in your investments and to be taken out tax free upon retirement (in a Roth.) Going high dividend in a traditional IRA is silly because you have to pay income tax on it when you retire and take it out — i.e. those proceeds would be cheaper today in a taxable account!

Until today, my Vanguard IRA accounts looked like this:

Traditional IRA

VDAIX / .20%
VHDYX / .19%
VGSIX / .24%
VTTSX / .18%
VGTSX / .22%

Roth IRA

VFIFX / .18%
VTSAX / .05%

Updates to my Portfolio

While there was nothing wrong with this breakdown, per se, I had high-dividend REIT and dividend growth funds in my traditional IRA while I had index growth funds in my Roth. I also had certain funds split between my Roth and Traditional IRA where because I had $10k split between two accounts I couldn’t qualify for the lower admiral fund rates.

Luckily at Vanguard it’s free to trade your funds inside your account, so rebalancing is easy (unlike at Sharebuilder where I’m wasting tons of money trading and will eventually give in and just move my “fun money” to Vanguard.)

I made quite a few (free) trades at Vanguard to fix my portfolio. Here is what I have now, which, as you can see is greatly simplified:

Traditional IRA

VIGAX / growth index fund admiral shares .09% expense
VTIAX / admiral version of VGTSX — .14% expense vs .22%

Roth IRA

VDADZ / dividend appreciation index fund — .10% expense ratio
VGSLX / admiral REIT fund — .10% expense to .24% of VGSIX

I also killed off all of my “target retirement date” funds because I’ve read they are too conservative and at my ripe young age of 30 I want to be aggressive but not stupid (working on the not stupid part.)

Why keep my Sharebuilder account open at all?

Good question! Mostly I keep it open so I can trade precious metals in my Roth IRA (i.e. GLD) since they are taxed at a collectible rate (high tax) unless they’re in an IRA, and I can’t buy gold or silver in my Vanguard fund. I also have some specific REITs which I like to watch to learn more about REITs because they are interesting — especially since I do not actually own any tangible real estate. More on that later.

Investing

A Look at VGMIX (Vanguard Mid-Cap Growth Fund)

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While I have a fairly good idea of what’s going on in my Sharebuilder account, it makes me uncomfortable to have no idea of what stocks my index funds are invested in. So every once in a while I plan to research my funds and see what stocks are in them.

I randomly decided to invest in VGMIX in a taxable account. Maybe a bad idea. Since I’m maxing out my Roth IRA currently with two vanguard accounts — Retirement 2050 and the Total Stock Index funds, I needed some place else to put my money. Perhaps all the rest of it should somewhere else.

VGMIX lost 47% last year (yikes.) So much for growth.

As of Dec 31, 2008…

VGMIX had:

231 stocks
$4.0B Median Market Cap (what does this mean?)
Price/Earnings Ratio 13.0x
Price/Box Radio 2.3x
Yield:
Investor Shares: .6%
ETF Shares .8%
Return on Equity 20.2%
Earnings Growth Rate 26.0%
Foreign Holdings 0%
Turnover Rate 54$

Sector Diversification

Consumer Discretionary 13%
Consumer Staples 3.9%
Energy 8.1%
Financials 5.0%
Health Care 17.5%
Industrials 22.8%
Information Technology 19.5%
Materials 4.9%
Telecommunication Services 2.1%
Utilities 3.1%

Largest Holdings (approx 1% each):

C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc (air freight)
Fluor Corp (construction and engineering)
Laboratory Corp of America Holdings (healthcare)
Expeditors International of Washington (air freight)
Humana Inc. (managed healthcare)
Rockwell Collins (aerospace and defense)
AutoZone Inc. (automotive retail)

Apparently a fund provides a complete list of its holdings four times a year, as the quarter ends.

I hold a very little bit of a lot of different companies. Then there is a lot of other information that I do not understand. Hmmph.

Even if investing in single stocks freaks me out, I do like knowing what I’m investing in.

Speaking of investing in solo stocks and ETFs, I just bought more of COMV and IHI today. I hope that was a good idea. I feel like COMV maybe has great potential but I just don’t know enough to say. It’s in a good space that I believe has potential, but when it comes to the company’s ability to make a profit – I have no idea. I do know that they were down to $3 a share a few months ago and now they’re at $7. I’m still upset that I didn’t buy more when they were at $3.

Investing

How My Stocks are Faring

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In short… not so well.

In long… ignoring the $7500 I’ve “lost” in my Roth and Vanguard index funds, I’ve lost another $1051.99 thus far. I have invested in 11 different stocks and ETFs in my Sharebuilder account ranging the gamut from a gold index to a natural foods supermarket, and everything in between. Not one of them is in the “green.”

The best performing is my gold ETF (GLD), which is down $10.95 on a $533 investment. Not bad, but it’s also not making money.

Everything else is doing really shitty.

Here’s my investment list, and losses:

Comverge (COMV) – Invested $205.51 thus far, it’s currently worth $115.96 (loss $89.55)
Wisdomtree India Earnings (EPI) – Invested $482.59, now $262.56 (loss: $220.03)
iShares Brazil Index (EWZ) – invested $251.72, now $104.30, (loss: $147.42)
SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) – invested $533.67, now $522.72, (loss: $10.95)
iShares Medical Devices (IHI) – invested $150 recently, now $146.58 (loss $3.42)
Market Vectors Coal ETF (KOL) – invested $120.26, now $32.76 (loss $87.50)
McDonalds Corp (MCD) – invested $296.74, now $273.41 (loss $23.33)
Powershares Global Clean Enegry – invested $462.31, now $195.88 (loss $266.43)
Procter & Gamble – invested 100.00, now $89.03 (loss $10.87)
Whole Foods Market (WFMI) – invested $121.23, now $36.33 (loss $84.90)
Financial Select Sector (XLF) – invested $148.29, now $41.20 (loss $107.09)

For a grand total of…

-$1051,59.

or -36.61% of my total investment.

For what it’s worth, I’ve invested $14,950.00 into my Roth IRA and Vanguard Index Funds, and I’m currently down $6849.33 on that account, or 45%.

So even though my stock picks are doing crappy, they’re still doing better than my basic index funds for now. I wonder how they’ll all look in a year from now.

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Risk vs Reward

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I always thought that when it came to risk, I’d avoid it at all costs. Skydiving of the body or the spirit was not for me. Sure, I moved a lot and took tiny little risks like living on my own with no job, but nothing beyond riding a roller coaster known for its safety record.

Now that I’m getting into the stock market, albeit very slowly, I’m ever-so tempted by risk. Yesterday I found the blog of Timothy Skyes who is famous for turning his $12k of Bar Mitzvah money into more than $1 million. He loves the thrill of day trading and obviously it has paid off for him.

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to take my entire savings and make some educated guesses about where to place my bets on Wall Street, but I am getting more and more interested… and risky… when it comes to my relatively small stock and ETF purchases.

It surely is an addiction. A year ago, I finally took the “leap” of putting a huge chunk of my savings into a Vanguard index fund to open a ROTH IRA. But index funds, especially ones that cover multiple industries with no specific focus, have already started to bore me. Additionally, with the way the overall stock market is performing, watching my “less risky” investments tank makes me want to take more risks so I feel like the failure is, uh, much more deserved.

I started out a month ago buying a few shares of GLD, the Gold ETF. Everyone is screaming “gold” these days, as with the recession such commodities seem to thrive. GLD is the main gold ETF available for purchase. I started out buying about 4 shares of GLD and adding some more funds to that ETF. I’m not sure if I should buy more.

This purchase was followed by investing in McDonalds and Comverge (COMV). I figured why not start with one large cap, and one small cap. They ought to balance out in the middle, or something like that, right? Comverge was a company I had covered in the past as a cleantech reporter while they were still private, and I liked what I knew about them. However, I also acknowledged the fact that I had no idea whether they could turn their good idea into a profit for the company. But I always wanted to buy shares in them just because, well, I felt like it was one company I had been following from near-birth, and if anything I wanted to watch them grow (or fail) with a small amount of my money attached.

Meanwhile, McDonalds, I read, was a good buy because it offers yearly dividends to investors AND its price right now has gone down with the current recession.

After a few days it became clear that my Comverge purchase, although not the end of the world, should have been spread out over time so I could have “cost dollar averaged” and saved money. I bought a few shares of the stock for $23 each and since then they’ve gone down to $18 a piece. Now they’re at about $19.50. I’m considering waiting (hoping) they go back up to $20-something again and then I’ll sell them so my loss isn’t that huge and instead invest them in another stock or ETF that might actually perform well. Or I can keep the $100 in COMV and watch it disappear. Who knows, maybe the stock will soar one day. I’m waiting for the quarterly earnings to see how they’ve done, and see what that does to my four shares.

Meanwhile, I found that I’m now hooked on investing. I quickly signed up for Sharebuilders “$12 a month” 6 “free” trades plan and started to pour about $300 a month into a variety of stocks and ETFs. This time I did a bit more research and picked the following three stocks/ETFs to invest in:

KOL, EWZ, WFM

What do all those letters mean?

KOL: An ETF of coal. Why coal? It’s terrible for the environment. Yet with the prices of oil rising, and other cleaner alternatives far from being able to provide the energy needed in the world, I think coal has (for better or worse) a pretty strong future. I was excited to find the fairly new ETF that would allow me to get into coal with a little less risk. I plan to keep putting about $60 a month into the ETF to see if I can prove myself right. Also, a lot of the ETF is invested in Asia (coal is huge there and growing), so this gives me the Asian diversification I’ve been seeking.

EWZ: This stock symbol doesn’t give one a clue of what the stock is! It’s actually an index fund of companies in Brazil. A lot of advisers seem to be recommending it, and I want to diversify my overseas investment so it’s not all in coal and Asia. Brazil has a lot going for it and the ETF has performed quite strongly in the past. Will it perform as well in the future? Beats me. I’m investing most heavily in this index fund right now, putting in about $150 a month to EWZ.

WFM: Whole Foods. I spend enough money shopping here! This is another dividend-paying, large cap stock. Not that interesting. I doubt I’ll make a fortune on it, but it might at least grow slowly and calmly. Or I’ll lose some money but I’ll try to get out before it tanks.

One thing I’ve learned is that in order to make a stock purchase worth it, I eventually need to own a lot of that stock. Even if the stock goes up $10 from $10, a 50% increase, if I only own one share and have to pay $9 to sell it back, that amazing performance will only make me $1. So I’ve decided to try to focus on these six stocks for now, and if needed to sell one of them and replace it with another. Six seems like a good number to start with, and I’ll let my portfolio grow as needed or merited by my income and thirst for risk.

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Holding My Breath — Investment Pains

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I know the economy is suffering lately, and had I not been paying attention to the news I would have figured it out by looking at my bank account. My Roth IRA, which had $4000 in it, is now worth $3762, and my regular Vanguard mutual fund, which had $5100 invested in it, is now worth $4662. Ok, so I’ve lost about $700 thus far on my investments. Ouch.

I’ll stick it out because I know investments have to be a long term sort of deal, and hopefully at some point our economy will recover and so will my piggy bank. It’s just tough to watch $700 disappear so quickly, and I’m sure this isn’t the end of the downturn. I’m prepared to lose all the money I invested, although it will surely SUCK to lose $9100. But if I lose all of that money, you can bet that I’m done with the stock market and mutual funds for good.

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Labor Day Wrap Up

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Investments: I’ve been avoiding checking my Vanguard accounts for a few days. My losses, however temporary, were too painful to look at on a daily basis. After checking a few minutes ago, I’m happy to report Wall Street’s latest recovery has brought my losses to an amount I can deal with.

Career: Has its ups and downs. My job is, quite frankly, amazing. I’m still not sure I’m right for it. Then again, I’m not sure if I’ll ever be “right” for anything that could be described as a “career” or a “job,” even. Figured out my biggest problem with my current job is not my inability to fact check properly (although that’s a huge problem that I’m going to fix, hopefully with the help of ADD meds that I might be getting this week), it’s my massive issue with social anxiety. It’s not ideal to be a journalist with social anxiety. Can I overcome my fear of talking to strangers? Can I find confidence in my intellect so I can stop spending my life apologizing for my errors and worrying about future ones, and focus on just doing a good job? Tune in next time…

Love: I’m lucky in love. I think. I’m just stressed out about life, overall, and that’s affecting my relationship. It isn’t fair to my boyfriend. He’s a great guy. I used to think that happiness meant being successful, ie, figuring out some way to lead a life that would make my parents go “wow.” Now that I realize this is impossible and/or unimportant, I’ve almost given up at that dream. Instead, I now understand that happiness in life is about the people who we meet along the way, especially the person (or people) who we love. I need to figure out how to live love. I’ve spent so much of my life finding security in the dramatic, and I’m tired of it. My parents’ relationship is a joke, despite that they’ve been married for more than 25 years. I’ve grown up to believe marriage is a joke as well. I’m not sure I still believe that. It’s odd that I can see myself one day having a husband and a family. It sounds really, really weird to hear myself think that. I’m not sure if my current boyfriend will be the guy I end up with forever, but I wouldn’t want to be able to foresee that clearly now anyway. On my Labor Day vacation, a bunch of strangers kept asking if we were married, or calling us husband and wife. It was weird. I still feel like I’m 16 years old, even though I’m really pushing 24. Geez, 24. You know, I hadn’t even thought about the significance of turning 24 until just now. That’s old. I mean, not old, old. But old enough that I’m no longer a young adult. I’m, well, an adult. Plain and simple. And I need to start living like one.

Sleep: Lacking. I need more sleep. Insomnia is destroying my already limited ability to focus and function properly.

Budget: Spent $125 on six pairs of shoes while on vacation. Yes, six. That includes California tax. Did I need six pairs of shoes? Probably not. But outlet stores plus a need for new shoes and finding shoes that actually fit me (a rarity) equals buying a lot of shoes. I find shoes are a worthwhile investment, especially if they’re good quality footwear sold at a relatively cheap price. At the Nine West outlet store, I actually bought a pair of shoes I already own. They are pretty gross right now and my gut instinct has told me throw them out for months. Finally, I found their replacement. The same exact pair, for $15 on a sale rack on extra sale. There is something orgasmic about walking into a shoe store that has a sale rack where prices are already marked down about 50 percent, and then there’s a giant sign that says “take 50 percent off already reduced prices.” Sometimes I think I could live on the thrill of buying $70-$100 shoes for $20.

Travel: Labor Day weekend in Tahoe was great. I felt bad that I ended up spending so little on the trip. My boyfriend’s father footed the bill for our motel and my bf covered most of the gas, so I ended up spending about $200 on the trip for food and a show. (And then I spent $125 on shoes (see above)). I’ve got a few upcoming trips that will pinch my wallet a bit… a roadtrip to LA coming up in a few weeks, and then I’m off to Miami for my childhood friend’s wedding. Overall I expect travel to cost me another $400-$500 over the next two months. My mother still wants me to take a trip to Vegas to visit my grandmother, but I’m not sure it makes sense to spend even more money on that. And then there’s the possibility of taking a trip home to the east coast for the holidays, though I might just not go home this year. There’s not much left for me there. Being around my parents, in my childhood home, just depresses me. It reminds me of all the things I’ve been trying so hard to get away from (and failing, but trying nonetheless).

Investing

Ashes, Ashes, Her Finances Go Down

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The stock market is still performing poorly. I went ahead and bought $100 more dollars worth of my mutual fund, because I’m upset that I’ve lost $400 and I figure if I buy more now, when the the fund is cheap, maybe I’ll make my money back. At least my CDs that are making interest have made about $400 total over the last two and a half years, so, I’m at break even, for now.

I’m not too concerned about my Roth IRA. It kind of sucks to watch my Roth depleting. That’s going to have quite some time to recover. Afterall, I’m only 23. The mutual fund is really worrying me, and it probably should be. As I’ve written before, I’m not going to pull my funds out right now. I’m keeping them in for a while. A few years probably. I have other money not tied up in investments so I’m doing fine financially. It’s just it’s really upsetting to think that there’s a possibility the $9100 dollars I now have tied up in mutual funds — $4000 in my Roth and $4600 in my index fund buy – will be down to… much less than that the day I decide I want to buy a house or take a year off of life and become a reclusive writer traveling the world.

In happier financial news, my freelance career is sort of, kind of taking off. Thanks to my uncle, who hooked me up with some folks who needed writing help, I managed to make about $300 extra this month. That’s really nice, considering I’ve spent about that much to get to and from my show and work in gas and that lovely $170 car key incident.

I’m also excited about getting my first paycheck for my new job tomorrow. I’m not sure how much my check will be after taxes are taken out, but I know I’ll be making more than I was the last time I was taking home money. And my new company even has direct deposit, so I don’t have to deal with going to the bank twice a month. I hate going to the bank.

Really what I need to focus on is doing good work at my job. I’m trying, I really am, but my new position is pretty hard. And I love the challenge, but I’m terrified of failure. I’m even more terrified of failure because I’m not really sure what it’s defined as in a job like this. There’s no way to quantify what a good job means. Obviously if everything I do is great and gets a lot of positive feedback from the blogosphere, I deserve a pat on the back. But otherwise? I don’t need constant praise or criticism but once in a while it’s nice to know where I stand – especially when I’m so new at something. I do hope I’ll get better. I like that my company does offer a bonus incentive to work towards. That’s certainly not the reason to do a good job, as really, the reason to do a good job is the reward of knowing that I’m contributing something to a larger conversation… but, the extra cash incentive doesn’t hurt.

Investing

The Markets Are Doing Crappy, eh?

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I watched my money in my Vanguard account gain about $300 and then lose $400 in the past month. Today was the worst. It was apparently the worst day on the stock market since Sept 11. Oy. Maybe I picked the wrong time to start investing.

“Worries that have been out there for the past couple of years are coming to a head right now,” said investment strategist Edward Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research Inc., told the Associated Press. “It’s show time.”

Show time?!? Um. Should I be worried?

While I’m starting to be ok with the fluctuations in the markets, it’s STILL tough to lose money. I’d prefer to make money first, and then if I end up losing what I made through my investments, that’s fine. I just don’t like being under what I put in. And right now I put in $5000 into my mutual fund and $4000 into my Roth IRA. And now I’m at $8839.20. I realize that tomorrow that might be at $9010, or it might be at $7000. I’m a little nervous. This is kind of a test, I guess. But I really ought to balance out my investments a bit better. The rest of my cash is stored safely in low-interest CDs. Watching my investment turn from $9000 to $9300 was really exciting. But that excitement was short lived. I’m trying really hard to stick it out a year. I’m hoping that my money will have, um, made money by June 2008.

Investing, Retirement

Investment Advice From Y’all…

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I received quite a few comments on my last post regarding my freaking out about losing $100+ on my Roth IRA and mutual fund investments. Thanks to goldnsilver, enoughwealth@yahoo.com, glenn, savingdiva, wanda, and hazygrey (and “anonymous”) for your words of wisdom. Here are some highlights from the comments, and my responses…

hazygrey said…

“This is your IRA – you shouldn’t be pulling out money for 40 years. Don’t worry about it and leave it for now. I know it’s easier said than done. Also remember that there have been double digit gains in the stock market for several years now, and a correction or crash could happen soon. When that happens, don’t panic and don’t touch the money!”

response: I’m less concerned about my Roth IRA and more concerned about my mutual fund investment. I’m terribly confused about what I should be investing in with my “extra” savings right now. I have $12,000+ tied up in average-rate CDs, which I consider my stable, low-risk investment. Then I decided to be somewhat(?) risky and put $4,500 into the Vanguard Mid Cap Growth Index Fund. While the thought of losing that $4,500 isn’t exactly one of a happy sentiment, I could deal with losing the money. I don’t want to lose the money. That $4,500 might be a long term investment. I’m only 23 now, so I’m hoping I’ll make enough money in the coming years to keep at least $5000 away in a long-term, non-IRA investment account. But I also would like to save for a house and/or grad school. I’m not sure if that’s a year out or ten years out. My life is rather in flux right now. Therefore it’s hard to plan financially. My Roth IRA is fine. It’s in the 2050 retirement account for a reason. I don’t plan on touching it until then.

Wanda said…

Don’t look at your investments every day or even every couple of weeks. Unless you are a day trader, there’s no reason to. …If a 2050 fund & a mid-cap makes you sick at night, then it’s not the investment for you. Like goldnsilver said, pick something that pass the stomach test. Pick something with 20% bonds. You’ll have less risk (of losing your money), but you’ll be giving up the rewards (or potentially larger returns).

So what’s the difference between “bonds,” “money market funds,” and “CDs.” I get the index fund versus stock thing, but beyond that I’m lost. Is a CD a bond?

Anonymous said…

How much do need the money in the other [non roth] account? Were you depending on a quick gain to pay the rent this month? If not, give it atleast a year. These are supposed to be long term investments, not quick capital gains.

I’ll gladly leave my money in the mutual fund account for a year or more. I just don’t want to be losing $100 a week on this account. I guess that’s unlikely, but looking at the performance thus far I’m just a tad bit nervous.

SavingDiva said…

I understand your frustruation with your loss. I don’t like to lose any money. I’ve had to stop checking my retirement accounts every day because of market fluctuations causing fluctuations in my blood pressure! 🙂

Thanks for understanding. I probably should stop checking my accounts every day as well. I’m sure I’ll be fine once my account starts to grow past my initial investment. It’s just now I’m down $100. And that’s not a good feeling.

Glenn said…

Take a step back and look at the big picture. If you are young and you will not need the funds for over 10 years don’t panic. You will be adding to your investments over time. If they funds are still lower when you make your next investment, you will be buying the same companies at a lower price. When you go shopping would you rather buy the same product at a lower price or a higher price? The same goes for mutual funds and stocks.

Good points indeed. As I noted above, my Roth IRA fund is for 2050. But the mutual fund account could be needed sooner. In 10 years I’ll be 33 years old. I have absolutely no idea what my life will look like at 33. Maybe I’ll already have kids. Maybe I’ll have decided kids aren’t for me. It’s just so hard to plan when I can’t figure out when I’m going to need this money. I’d like to invest so I can obtain enough cash for grad school in a few years. Or at least so I don’t have to take out tons of loans, I really like the idea of paying up front for as much as possible. But it’s also likely that I’ll never go to grad school. How can I plan my finances based on a life I’ve yet to figure out?

enoughwealth@yahoo.com said…

If a drop of more than 10% would make you feel like liquidating your investment, then your current asset allocation doesn’t match your risk tolerance. — Enough Wealth

I’m not going to liquidate my investment, I’m just not all that comfortable with the idea of losing my money. But I doubt anyone is really comfortable with losing cash when it comes to investing. I mean, sure some people are more risk averse than others, but the way I see it is I’m young now and I have time for my cash to recover if the market gets wonky. If anyone should be making risky investments, it’s people like me who are young with no debt. Right? I know I can survive without that $4,500. But it sure would be a shame to lose it.

GoldnSilver said…

Market fluctuation is normal. It has only been 2 weeks. Generally if you are investing for the long term, the advice is not to check your balance everyday. However, people have different habits, no one can make you do or not do something. Compare your funds to its peers or industry benchmark, that’s how you can judge your funds performance. That being said, if you are risk adverse, (seeing a drop with turn your stomach upside down). CD or bond funds are not bad options. So many people focus on time horizion…if you are young you should invest more agressively. There’s truth to it. However, just as important, one should know one’s risk tolerance. There are many investment/savings vehicles out in the market place that can help achieve your goals. Pick one that you can stomach.

You know, I’ve never been a gambler. Maybe that’s because I’m female. Maybe that’s because I was raised by a risk adverse family. But I don’t want to be dumb about it. If lots of people invest in somewhat risky mutual funds, they can’t all be “wrong.” Not that there’s really a “wrong” in index fund investing, but, I mean, it’s not like I’m rushing to trade individual stocks.

Investing, Retirement

Vanguard Woes

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Ok, I know mutual funds are rather safe when it comes to an investment, but I’m really bothered that my $8500 invested in a Roth IRA and index fund has turned into about $8338 over the course of two weeks. I know I have to deal with fluctuations in the market, but it’s no fun to lose over $100 in two weeks. The only thing that keeps me from pulling my money out is knowing that if it lost $100 in two weeks, then it certainly could gain $100 in a similar time span. But that’s not really the point of investing. I’m supposed to be making money, not watch it all sink down the drain. Maybe my investments are bad. Or maybe the market just isn’t doing good for the time being. At what point should I be worried about my investments? When my $8500 is $6000?

Vanguard Mid-Cap Growth Index Fund Investor
Shares 180.505
$24.56 –$0.14 *$4,433.20
Subtotal $4,433.20 (Bought for $4,500)

Vanguard Target Retirement 2050 Fund
$24.06 –$0.07 $3,955.61
Subtotal $3,955.61 (bought for $4,000)