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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Long Term Investing & Retirement: The second best time is now
 
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Bigntasty
Oct 15, 2003
 I have an IRA account and I am trying to move my money out of a high expense mutual fund. I was looking at vanguard no load index tracking funds but they have minimums that prevent me from using them. So now I'm looking at ETFs. Here is the split I am leaning towards, they are all Vanguard, because they seem to have low expenses.

60% VTI- This one seems to follow the S&P500 could someone point me towards one that follows a larger index like the Wilshire 5000

10% BND Total Bond fund US

20% VT - Vanguard world market

10% VWO - Vanguard Emerging Market

Does this look alright, I know i'll have more difficulty dollar cost averaging with ETFs but I only contribute once per year so I think this is my best bet. Also my broker gives me $5 trades.

* # ¿ Jan 12, 2009 22:28
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# ¿ May 6, 2024 12:48
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Bigntasty
Oct 15, 2003

CobiWann posted:

I started with my current company in 2005 at the age of 28, and have been investing into my 401(k) at 12%, which they fully match.

Even though the economy is sauntering downward, my company's doing well enough that they're upping the matching rate to 20% starting January 2010. Now, I'd be a fool to pass up on 8% free money at the age of 32, BUT...I'm also trying to pay down $15,000 in credit card debt at the pace of about $750-$950 a month at this current time with 15% annual rate (minimum payment is $330 a month, but I'm well above that obviously).

My question is this - should I up my contributions in January and lower what I'm using to pay off my credit cards, which means taking longer to eliminate the debt? Should I up my contributions in Jaunary and keep my credit card payments the same, which means cutting out drat near everything fun?

My long-term goal is to kill my debt and then start taking that credit card money and splitting it into a mortgage down payment and a Roth IRA by January 2011.

If you have any assets see if you can consolidate the credit card by using what you have as collateral, maybe you could put your 401k up as collateral.

* # ¿ Oct 23, 2009 03:02
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Long Term Investing & Retirement: The second best time is now