Unlike many investors, I don’t buy or trade individual stocks. I explain in detail why I’ve bypassed this new trend in a previous blog, but the main reason I don’t buy or trade individual stocks is because the price of stocks changes too quickly. It’s hard to predict if a stock will go up or down. Since stock prices are so volatile (and change so often) there is an increased risk that I might lose money. My goal is to invest in a way that increases the chance I’ll make a profit but has a low risk that I may lose money. The main way I maximize profit and minimize risk is by investing in index funds.
Index funds are groups of many different stocks that follow a certain index. For example, one index fund may follow the S & P 500 index and purchase hundreds of stocks from American companies. Another index fund may be filled with thousands of stocks from all around the world. There are many different choices. When you purchase an index fund you are buying a fund that has purchased a percentage of all the stocks in that index. By purchasing a percentage of hundreds or thousands of stocks, you have better diversification in your investment portfolio with much lower risk of losing money.
There are many different choices of index funds to choose from. I have accounts at Vanguard and Fidelity (which are two of many different types of brokerage firms). Through these companies I have chosen 5 main index funds:
1. Total Stock Market Index Fund I invest in this fund at Vanguard through my employer-sponsored retirement account at work (called a 403b which is very similar to a 401K). I also invest in this fund through my Roth IRA at Fidelity. This index fund has a portion of over 3,600 stocks from small, medium, and large sized American companies. With this fund, I own a portion of all the stocks in the United States. The greatest percentage of money in this fund is invested in Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Tesla. It also has much smaller percentages of thousands of other companies. Altogether, this fund has made over 20% in profit over the last year and 15% in profit over the last 5 years.
2. Total International Stock Market Index I also invest in this fund at Vanguard through my 403b and through my Roth IRA at Fidelity. Unlike the previous index fund, this particular fund has over 7,000 stocks from all over the world. 38% of these stocks are from European countries. 24% of these stocks are from emerging markets in developing countries. 26% are from countries in the pacific and about 6% are from countries in North America. This fund has made over 11% in profit over the last 5 years.
3. Total Bond Market Index Fund I invest in this fund at Vanguard through my work 403b. This fund buys almost all of the bonds in the United States. Since these are bonds, there is much less risk that I will lose money but because of this extra caution, the returns aren’t as great. This fund has over 10,000 bonds with 63% of them being US Government bonds. It has made a return of about 5% over the last 5 years.
4. Total International Bond Market Index Fund I invest in this fund at Vanguard through my work 403b. This fund buys bonds from all around the world. This fund has over 6,000 bonds with over 57% of them from Europe. It has made a return of about 4% annually over the last 5 years.
5. Real Estate Index Fund I invest in this fund through my Roth IRA at Fidelity. This fund is filled with lots of smaller real estate funds that are full of many smaller real estate deals. I chose to invest in this fund in an effort to add some real estate investments to my portfolio. Over the last 5 years, this fund has had an average annual profit of 5%..
Overall, about 20% of my money is in real estate index funds, 5% in bond index funds, and 75% is in stock index funds. What is the makeup of your investment portfolio? Are you using index funds?
4 Steps to Balance Investments in your 403b (or 401K) and your Roth IRA
Last year, I prioritized contributing to my 403b. Nowadays, I use the income from some of my side gigs and other jobs to contribute to a Roth IRA as well. If you are considering doing the same thing (by contributing to your employer-sponsored retirement plan and your own Roth IRA), here are a few steps you can follow:
Step 1: Have a plan for all your retirement investing. My investment portfolio is overwhelmingly filled with stocks. As someone who is [relatively] young with plenty of work years ahead of me, I’m decades away from retirement. Since I won’t retire for a while, I can include a high percentage of stocks and take more risks with my investments. By taking more risk, I increase my chances of making a profit on my money. Even if I “lose” money intermittently by taking so much risk, I have plenty of years to make up the losses, if they occur.
The percentage of stocks you have in your investment portfolio may be different. There are various investment allocations for people of all ages and stages of life with various risk tolerances. Some younger people choose to only invest in stocks, some choose to invest in stocks and bonds, and others like to have some real estate, commodities, or other alternative options. I’ve decided on a retirement investment allocation that fits me best: 75% in stocks, 15% in real estate, and 10% in bonds.
Step 2: Determine the type and percentage of investments to add to the Roth IRA. Now that I know what percentage of my retirement portfolio I want to allocate to each category, my next step is to determine which investments and how much of each investment I need to add to my Roth. Because I already have some of my investments in my main job’s retirement plan, I now need to add the remaining investments to my Roth IRA. When adding the remaining investments to my Roth IRA, I must make sure that the total value of all of my retirement investments remains at my desired allocation of 75% stocks, 15% real estate, and 10% bonds.
In my main job’s retirement account, I am invested in a target retirement index fund that invests my money in 90% stocks and 10% bonds. This means I need to add real estate index funds to my Roth IRA and also invest in some stocks and bonds in my Roth IRA to maintain my desired investment percentage. (Side note, although I plan to invest in actual real estate through the purchase of apartment buildings and multifamily homes, I like my retirement real estate investments to be in REITs aka Real Estate Investment Trusts - which are like giant real estate index funds that invest in many different properties). Also, keep in mind that since Roth IRA investments are made with money you already paid taxes on and never have to pay taxes on again, it’s often wise to make sure that you use this Roth account to make investments in things that pay dividends so you can avoid paying taxes on the money you make from those investments.
Step 3: Have the money automatically withdrawn from your account each month. Once I know how much of each investment I want to have in my Roth IRA, I just need to make sure I actually place the money into my Roth account. Although some people like to contribute the max allotment of $6,000 per year at one time to get their money invested sooner rather than later, I invest it in small pieces each month. Doing it in small pieces instead of all at once has two benefits for me.
First, it gives me more flexibility so that I can decrease the allotment one month and make up for it the next month if I need to. Secondly, contributing periodically each month gives me a greater chance of buying stocks at a “discount.” (The prices of stocks and index funds fluctuates. If I buy all of them at one time with by investing one large sum of money in my Roth IRA at once, then I buy all the stocks (or index funds) at the same price. However, if I invest a little each month then I increase my chances of buying stocks (or index funds) when they may be a lower price. Although there is also a chance I could buy the stocks (or index funds) at a higher price, doing it a little bit at a time has been shown to save people more money overall. This is known as “dollar cost averaging”. Each person is different, but I prefer to have the money automatically withdrawn from my account each month and invested into my Roth IRA. (When my salary increases, I’ll likely have the $6,000 taken out over 3 months instead of over the entire year)
Step 4: Adjust the investment percentages periodically. The prices of stocks, bonds, and REITs can fluctuate. Sometimes the prices change by only a small amount and thus stay at around the same price. Other times the prices of the investments can change by a lot and remain at this new level for a few months or even years. For example, when the coronavirus pandemic hit, the price of many stocks decreased and stayed low for a couple months before they started to come back up. When these fluctuations occur, they can change the balance of my retirement investments.
If stocks (or index funds) decrease then that means the value of the stocks in my portfolio have decreased, which means that instead of having 75% of my money in stocks this percentage may decrease to around 70%. In order to get back to my target of 75% I will need to buy even more stocks in the future (increase the percentage of new money I have going towards stocks) to make up this difference. Although different people have different preferences for how often they plan to adjust their investments, I plan to do it once a year.
Tell me, do you have a Roth IRA? If so, how are you investing it?