I have a brokerage account at Vanguard that I throw money into every month. I've been putting it all in VOO (index fund weighed in tech). My portfolio is down -2% on the year and I'm annoyed. What are some other options I should consider that might yield a better return. International/foreign stocks?

Keep in mind I'm self-managing this and it's a buy and hold type of deal…I prefer to not do a ton of trading.

Sidenote: Vanguard has been great as a trading platform. I have zero fees on commissions and I set up bi-weekly automatic investments so it kind of runs itself. My investment costs are like .03%.

Liquidity is King. US markets dwarf other markets in terms of liquidity.

AggieArchitect04 said:

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I have a brokerage account at Vanguard that I throw money into every month. I've been putting it all in VOO (index fund weighed in tech). My portfolio is down -2% on the year and I'm annoyed. What are some other options I should consider that might yield a better return. International/foreign stocks?

Keep in mind I'm self-managing this and it's a buy and hold type of deal…I prefer to not do a ton of trading.

Sidenote: Vanguard has been great as a trading platform. I have zero fees on commissions and I set up bi-weekly automatic investments so it kind of runs itself. My investment costs are like .03%.

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Just some ideas:

If you like Vanguard funds, consider 1/3 each of VOO, VOOV, and VTI. There's a lot of overlap in their holdings, but each has a different risk profile. Maybe layer in 5-10% of international and/or real estate, and call it a day.

Spaceship said:

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I don't understand how you're down 2% this year if all in VOO? It's up 15% YTD…

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Don't underestimate my ability to lose money. Lol

Honestly…I don't know what's going on. What am I seeing that's wrong? I did take some money out but I assumed the return didn't factor in withdrawals. Maybe I'm wrong…?

This is what I see on my login:





And on the performance tab…YTD…

AggieArchitect04 said:

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I have a brokerage account at Vanguard that I throw money into every month. I've been putting it all in VOO (index fund weighed in tech). My portfolio is down -2% on the year and I'm annoyed. What are some other options I should consider that might yield a better return. International/foreign stocks?

Keep in mind I'm self-managing this and it's a buy and hold type of deal…I prefer to not do a ton of trading.

Sidenote: Vanguard has been great as a trading platform. I have zero fees on commissions and I set up bi-weekly automatic investments so it kind of runs itself. My investment costs are like .03%.

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VOO is a s&p 500 weighted index fund. I guess you could argue the s&p 500 is overweight in tech, but that isn't the strategy of this fund

I don't understand how you can be a buy a hold guy and make trades to be down 2% this year. Assuming you sold after the tarrif scare and bought back in too late, this is exactly why I often push back against market timing. You have to be right twice, once when you exit and then again when you get back in. Most people panic sell when the stocks are down, feel good about it when the stocks go down further, but then are afraid to get back when they go even lower. So if they are lucky they jump back in at the point they exited and just had a stressful few weeks/months and they are no better off than if they had just held and done nothing.

You need to stick to buy&hold and stop trading.

IGM - invests in North American Tech

On your vanguard app, Scroll down a touch and click on the 'Cost Basis' bar. Then you can look at realized and unrealized gain/loss to see what really happened.

This is not where I'd be buying back in though.

LOL.

Next time use margin for emergencies.

I dollar cost average into VOO twice per month in my HSA. I'm up significantly for the year.

If you don't even have 10K in the account, don't worry about investment options.

Figure out how to save more.

10pct, 20pct returns on this amount is beer money in the grand scheme of things.

Figure out how to lock down thousands per month savings, post back next year when it's mid five to six figs about what it should be in.

Hint: The answer will still be VOO or similar.

I've been in both situations cash flow wise, so I ain't talking **** here. You need more before you worry about this.

TacoKitKat said:

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If you don't even have 10K in the account, don't worry about investment options.

Figure out how to save more.

10pct, 20pct returns on this amount is beer money in the grand scheme of things.

Figure out how to lock down thousands per month savings, post back next year when it's mid five to six figs about what it should be in.

Hint: The answer will still be VOO or similar.

I've been in both situations cash flow wise, so I ain't talking **** here. You need more before you worry about this.

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Strongly disagree.

While I think VOO is a good spot for investing near term, he is likely developing investing habits that will last him a lifetime. Size of bankroll is no reason to not allocate and invest soundly.

I'm pissed at Vanguard. I've had this error message for months. Mobile app says my performance is $77.01 which is stupid.