While I’m slowly becoming known as a real estate investor, properties are really only one aspect of our portfolio. We own stocks as well; specifically, we own index funds, which are basically collections of stocks. The majority of our index funds are held in our retirement accounts: Roth IRA’s and 401k’s. We have a joint taxable brokerage account as well.
In the spirit of our Spaces session from last night (December 15, 2021) in which we discussed dividends, I figured I might as well share what my husband and I hold in our portfolio.
Roth IRA: retirement accounts which are “funded with after-tax dollars; this means that the contributions are not tax-deductible (Investopedia).” The investor pays the taxes up front and doesn’t pay any when withdrawn in retirement.
VDC (Consumer Staples)
VOO (S&P 500)
VXF (Extended Market)
VTI (Total Market)
VEA (Developed Markets)
VWO (Emerging Markets)
VUG (Growth)
VBR (Small Cap)
VIG (Dividend Appreciation)
401k: a retirement account that “allows an employee to divert a portion of their salary into long-term investments. The employer may match the employee's contribution up to a limit (Investopedia).” The investor pays income taxes when they withdraw the funds in retirement. The choices in 401k’s are generally limited when compared to IRA’s.
Mine: US Core Equity, US Large Cap, US Vector Equity
Husband’s: Moderate Aggressive Portfolio (international, growth, small cap, S&P, more)
Brokerage: “an investment account that allows you to buy and sell a variety of investments, such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and ETFs (Schwab).” In this case, you invest after-tax dollars, and pay taxes on gains when the stocks are sold, and money is withdrawn.
VOO
VTI
VXF
VUG
VBR
VHT (Health Care)
VTV (Value)
In laying these all out, you can see we’re pretty diversified. We hold international stocks, both emerging and developed. We hold different size companies, from small to large. We own growth, value, and dividend stocks. We have some sectors, like consumer staples and healthcare. In some instances, we hold whole indexes!
You may be wondering if what my husband and I have chosen for ourselves is what you should choose for yourself. The answer is: it depends! Everyone’s personal financial situation and risk tolerance is different.
BONUS: Check out The Frugal Expat's app recommendations for new investors.
Photo credit: Patrick Weissenberger
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