Investment portfolios should be boring. It’s widely known that the more people tweak and tinker with their investments, the worse off they do. With that being said, I tend to think my portfolio mostly fits the bill, and the few complicating bits that are left-overs from before I really knew what I was doing.

401(k) [~43% of portfolio]

I have a traditional 401(k) and 2019 was the first year in which I fully contributed ($19,000). My employer also contributes 3% of my salary (this isn’t a match, so all employees enjoy this benefit, whether they contribute or not).

If we had access to super-low-cost target date funds, I would invest all of money into them. While the target date funds that are offered don’t have terrible expense ratios (~.4%) they also aren’t as low as I’d like. For this reason, I’m doing a 60/40 mix between Fidelity 500 Index Fund (.015%) and American Funds Target Date 2045 (.38%).

Contribution Plan [~11% of portfolio]

My employer also deposits 6% of my salary once a year into a separate Contribution Plan account. I get to pick the investments in this account in the same way I do for my 401(k).

All of this money is invested in American Funds Target Date 2055.

Roth IRA (Vanguard) [~10% of portfolio]

I’ve been contributing the maximum to my Roth for the last several years, and 2019 was no exception ($6,000).

All of my Roth IRA is invested in Vanguard Target Retirement 2045.

Rollover IRA (Vanguard) [~26% of portfolio]

This was a rollover from my previous employer’s 401(k) (the 401(k) was also housed as Vanguard, which made the rollover procedure extremely easy).

I rolled from two lower cost Vanguard mutual funds to the same Target Retirement fund I use for my Roth IRA.

Taxable Brokerage Account (Acorns) [~5% of portfolio]

I really love Acorns… I pay a buck a month for the basic brokerage account. While some people might prefer to just open a brokerage account with a discount brokerage like Vanguard or Fidelity, Acorns just makes things so darn simple, and they offer all kinds of automations to help encourage additional contributions (like Round-Ups).

Acorns recommended the Moderately Aggressive asset mix when I signed up, and I’ve left it at this level. I plan on really ramping up my contributions here in 2020.

Taxable Brokerage Account (E*Trade) [~5% of portfolio]

This account would not exist if not for the fact that I really wanted to buy some Apple stock back when I thought investing was buying individual stocks. I have done pretty well here: I bought my (fairly small) amount of Apple back before they did a 7:1 stock split. I’ve seen the price go up several times since my initial purchase. Honestly, it’s pretty cool.

That being said, I’m not letting what is mostly dumb luck influence my future investment choices. If you really want to buy individual stocks, I think that’s wonderful… take a small amount of money and designate it as “for fun” investment money. Just don’t make it a primary pillar in your journey to FI.

I currently hold Apple and 3 shares of Facebook.

Key Takeaways

1. Target Date Funds are great. They automatically adjust as you get closer to their target to become more conservative.
2. Look for low fees. Fees can eat away at your earnings. Run away from anything over about 1%.
3. KISS