charliekunkel t1_jac0rp2 wrote on February 28, 2023 at 10:03 AM

VTSAX and VTWAX make up 50% of my portfolio. You really can't go wrong with them. If they do go wrong, the entire market is screwed anyways. Once you're over 50 you might want to rotate some of it into bonds though, just to be safe....

stanolshefski t1_jac6uu7 wrote on February 28, 2023 at 11:28 AM

A fair warning with those two fund, the Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund is basically the equivalent of owning 50% VTSAX and 50% Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund.

Ok-Construction-7727 t1_jaebjuv wrote on February 28, 2023 at 8:39 PM

VTIAX has some tax benefit too. If you want this control, you'd probably want to do VTSAX/VTIAX.

HereForTheNerves t1_jaebvjn wrote on February 28, 2023 at 8:42 PM

This is a good point: how important is it to ensure that index funds are not overlapping? For instance, is it asinine to fund both VTSAX and VFIAX given that one is a subset of the other?

stanolshefski t1_jaefu2d wrote on February 28, 2023 at 9:07 PM

It's not important per se in these types of highly diversifed funds.

When the funds overlap, you're not changing diversification -- you're changing asset allocations.

I use Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTSAX) along with Vanguard Small-Cap Index Fund (VSMAX) to get more mid-cap and small-cap exposure. My investment plan calls for taking more risk (and hopefully returns) by increasing my exposure to mid-cap and small-cap stocks.

However, all of the stocks in VSMAX (1,486 stocks) are in VTSAX (3,969 stocks).