I am 43 and have been 100% stock for some time now, I've been lucky as of late but I'm ready to start on a glide path towards a target bond allocation that will grow in share of portfolio as a I age. I'm 43 and considering 13% today, 20% at 50 and 30% at 60, more or less.
I am familiar with the concept of asset location and want to keep bonds in the traditional, pre tax portion of my 401k. The equity portion of my 401k is a low cost Vanguard S&P500 index fund for what it's worth. My taxable is all VTSAX.
The only attractive bond option in my 401k (outside of 2 PIMCO bond funds with ERs of .59 and .22), is the Vanguard Short-Term Bond Index Fund Institutional Plus Shares (VBIPX) (expense ratio = 0.04). I am not very experienced with bonds, but research is telling me a short term bond fund is not necessarily the way to go for someone my age with a long time horizon due to lower total returns.
My question: Is VBIPX a reasonable choice for me? Or if it is my only low cost choice, is it that big of a deal?
I could use Fidelity brokeragelink, but that won't allow me to select by source as I understand it - and I don't want Roth 401k money invested in bonds.
Thanks for your input and guidance!
I am familiar with the concept of asset location and want to keep bonds in the traditional, pre tax portion of my 401k. The equity portion of my 401k is a low cost Vanguard S&P500 index fund for what it's worth. My taxable is all VTSAX.
The only attractive bond option in my 401k (outside of 2 PIMCO bond funds with ERs of .59 and .22), is the Vanguard Short-Term Bond Index Fund Institutional Plus Shares (VBIPX) (expense ratio = 0.04). I am not very experienced with bonds, but research is telling me a short term bond fund is not necessarily the way to go for someone my age with a long time horizon due to lower total returns.
My question: Is VBIPX a reasonable choice for me? Or if it is my only low cost choice, is it that big of a deal?
I could use Fidelity brokeragelink, but that won't allow me to select by source as I understand it - and I don't want Roth 401k money invested in bonds.
Thanks for your input and guidance!
Statistics: Posted by setitandforgetit — Thu Sep 12, 2024 2:26 am — Replies 0 — Views 14