The Rokslide Stock Traders Thread

[Poser]

One of my ETF's is ok at 14% - VTI

The other, not so much - SCHD. I bought it several months ago and it has continued to not impress me. It was supposed to be a long term hold and dividends are supposed to be good, but I'm not so sure.

Anyway, I got into this late in life and don't know what I'm doing.

I'm thankful for the information shared here and I continue to learn...and then forget.

SCHD should be a reliable long term play, but it is a inflationary sensitive ETF so its not going to start performing well until inflation actually eases. The dividend reinvestment will bring your average buying price down between now and then.

 

[Pafarm]

True story.. I've never done well with mutual funds. Seems like anytime I buy into a solid fund, its performance tanks and I loose money.

I've had much better luck with ETF's

Remember you didn't loose that money till you sold. Mutual funds and ETFs hold many different positions(diversified), so as a general rule a good fund performs overtime. Playing the buy sell game has less than a 1% success rate. It’s time in the market not timing the market.

Another tip is make sure you are holding more bonds/cds things like that in your retirement accounts if you are concerned about capital gains. Then equities(etfs) in Non-retirement accounts. The reason for that being is your retirement account think of it as closed bubble not kicking off onto your taxes. The non retirement does. So let’s say you want a roughly 70/30 portfolio hold the mfs/bonds in retirement so you don’t get the tax for those now. If retirement is much greater than non-retirement figure add some more equity to retirement. Adjust as you go.

Last thing is make sure you are tax diversified. Many people only have traditional type plans. However Uncle Sam has his arm around your shoulder. Having a mix of traditional retirement, Roth retirement, and non retirement dollars gives you big advantages when you do retire. I can’t stress enough making sure things are setup correctly from the start because correcting later is sometimes difficult. Don’t build the bridge while you’re walking across it.