ETF's at my age?
 

I've got a couple Hundred thousand from a house sale sitting in a MM Fund at 4.39% currently

Have been waiting for a correction to jump back in.

I am looking at 2 or three ETF's to put it in but at 68 is that a good Idea?

I have always been in Mutual Funds but ETF's after a lot of research sound like a Much better Idea.

any advice appreciated

I have always invested in Vanguard index mutual funds. Now, they also sell ETFs, but I don't see much difference. Vanguard's expense ratios for their mutual funds are so low that any savings on ETFs would be insignificant. I think mutual funds are more appropriate for buy and hold investors than ETFs. ETFs are more appropriate for investors who like buy and sell often.

EFT's quicker in & out than MF's.

ETF is more tax efficient. Might be good for a portion of your assets

From my limited experience, a mutual fund and an ETF that both claim to track the same index will hold very similar if not the identical basket of equities in about the same percentages. The biggest difference between the two is how they are bought and sold. A mutual fund buy or sell order executes AFTER the market closes while a buy or sell order of an ETF executes as the open market allows. Stop loss and limit orders “work” on an ETF, for example.

Again, I am not an expert in this topic and I don’t even play one on television.

I think you are correct, but none of those differences should be of concern to the average investor. I still invest in mutual funds, not ETFs.

Due to the ETF tax efficiencies, the general rule of thumb is ETFs for taxable accounts and mutual funds for tax deferred IRAs/401Ks

The advantage of ETFs is that an individual can create an age/risk appropriate diversified portfolio which can return similar performance to active mgmt mutual funds, with the biggest advantage is controlling risk and tax implications. With a mutual fund, you are subjected to the portfolio managers tax decisions and costs.


If you want to see a simple, but well balanced, ETF portfolio at work is here
https://www.jpmorgan.com/content/dam...Report_JPM.pdf

you can follow along as well, and make this your benchmark portfolio to track your portfolio against.

good luck

I'm 74, and got very burnt in the "Dot Com" rage. Since then I've tried to obey something a finance professor said to us in class: "Don't invest beyond the sleeping point", in others words, if you so much invested you can't sleep, you have too much invested. That being said, I've gone with SCHD, with an expense ratio of only .06. You might not get rich with it, but you won't lose your shirt either.

It is nearly impossible to time the market. You could dollar cost average your money market fund into ETF'S.

Thanks. My stock portfolio consists almost entirely of the S&P 500 Index. Most of it is in the Vanguard S&P 500 index fund. I don't know much about ETFs, but it seems to me that, in the event that a volatile stock market event occurs, it could cause ETF investors to cash in large portions of their ETF investment, which would require the fund manager to sell off many stocks to raise the required cash. This would cause a disruption in the S&P balance and create a large capital gains distribution. I think this is less likely to happen with mutual funds because many investors are buy and hold investors, not active traders. My opinion. But, in any event, my portfolio has so much capital gain built in, that it would be foolish to convert to ETFs.

Not an advice, but just what I did... I'm 65 and I got rid of all my stocks and mutual funds (except for FAGIX; I'm just fond of it,) and switched to ETFs. My trio of ETFs are VOO, SCHD, and SCHG. I've bought some JEPQ just to see how it does.

There are treasury and corporate debt ETFS as well, giving dividends, not interest, different tax structure.

That's One ETF I am thinking of putting a 1/3 in along with another 1/3 in VTI
Still looking for one for the final third that does not have a lot of overlap of the first two

Just not sure if I should get in now or wait for a correction of some sort since I am 68

Thanks,

That is what I am staring to do slowly

I think that you will find the best strategy for putting a large sum into the market is to invest the whole pile at once. See this analysis from Vanguard published last year: https://corporate.vanguard.com/conte..._your_cash.pdf

In addition to the tax advantage of ETFs, call options can be sold on the underlying position to generate additional income.

Well, if you can time the market, then go ahead and wait. I'm looking at 10 years +, so I just went all in.

I don’t know what your financial situation is, but all investments carry some type of risk. You might win or lose or be stuck in something waiting for your pot of gold.

At a certain age what you have to figure out is how to secure what you have so it will last for the rest of your life.

Banks at the moment are returning 4%+ and are FDIC insured, though I’m sure that is not what you’re looking for if you have a big enough savings pot where you can live comfortably on secure stock dividends and bank interest, that might be the way to go.

I wouldn’t rely on any suggestions on this site not even mine, this is something you should carefully look into on your own since only you know what position you’re in.

I have been holding QYLD and RYLD for a while. And EDF not as much. They pay monthly dividends and have worked well for me.

Always best to check with your tax advisor about these matters.
Expense ratios for mutual funds are higher than ETF'S. Plus you have to deal with capital gains on mutual funds, even if you have lost money in the fund.
ETFs: Expense Ratios and Other Costs | Charles Schwab
"Typically, ETFs have lower expense ratios than mutual funds. Generally, low-cost equity ETFs will have a net expense ratio of no more than 0.25%. Low-cost equity mutual funds will have expense ratios of 0.5% or lower."

ETFs at my age
 

i am 85 and still invest in Vanguard’s S&P 500 Index ETF (stock symbol: VOO). It has had a phenomenal return, as has its companion mutual funds (VFINX & VFIAX). Research it on Yahoo Finance or CBS MarketWatch, or any other similar source. Returns the past 2 years have been significantly over 20%.
Now with 4 years of Trump ahead of us, we should see S&P 500 results similar to 2016-2020. At your age, you have many years to weather any market volatility. Your choice, but I would not hesitate to invest in VOO.

This is critical. "Due to the ETF tax efficiencies, the general rule of thumb is ETFs for taxable accounts and mutual funds for tax deferred IRAs/401Ks."
I know someone (not me) who invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in mutual in a taxable account. Had huge losses and still had to report the capital gains distributions on their tax returns. That's why it is better to speak with your tax advisor before making investment decisions on your investment accounts.
ETF'S are a better option than mutual funds for both taxable and non-taxable accounts, IMHO.

The expense ratio for the Vanguard S&P 500 index mutual fund is 0.04 percent. You can't get much lower than that.

Capital gains taxes must be paid either now or later. In some cases, they may be deferred, but not eliminated.

ETFs vs Mutual Funds
 

I think you will find most competent CFPs. today advising their clients who want to invest in S&P 500 Index funds, in particular, to choose ETFs over MFs, because of their advantages.

It’s funny when people talk about generic etf’s like they are something magical, and they aren’t. It’s better to talk about managed funds vs index funds.
You can buy thousands of different etf’s or thousands of indexed funds or from thousands of managed funds.
No matter what you buy, you have to do your own research on which fund matches your investment goals and criteria. ETF’s can go down in value just like any other fund, so don’t think you can throw a dart at a wall of ETF’s and expect to make money.
I never use managed funds for a number of reasons: expense costs are huge, the turnover % are higher because the analysts are always trying to either balance the fund or chase it (you pay each year for this turnover), and I trust the broad index instead of what the analyst thinks. Index funds always outperform managed funds over the long haul.
The benefit of ETF’s are that you can trade them like a stock instead of waiting for the close of the market before they will buy or sell them. If you want to sell/buy stocks the same day, I can do this in the same trade with no problem, no need to wait multiple days for the trade to clear.
As for the person who lost a lot of money during the .com era, why? The only reason you lost money is because you sold low and probably bought high. If you didn’t need the money, let it ride and keep buying more if the stock/fund is good quality, any loss by a downturn is on paper. This is where dollar cost averaging comes into play: when you constantly put money into the market no matter if it’s on a high or on a low.
Since I dollar cost averaged most of my purchases during my career, I wanted the market to be really low so I can purchase more shares whereas if the market is high, it’s ok to brag about your portfolio but each monthly purchase of new shares will buy less.

I have many etfs at 84 years old. Index etfs are a good investment that are not speculative . Mutual Funds are also a good investment, they are not so easily traded, whereas, etfs are stock trades.

I understand that you can trade ETFs like stocks, but, to a long term investor, I don't consider that to be a benefit at all. I can sell mutual fund shares at 3:30 pm, and lock in the 4 pm price.

ETF Mutual fund redemption diference
 

Not quite. A mutual fund creates shares when you buy it, and destroys shares when you sell it. You are buying from and selling to the company itself. An ETF has a (nominally) fixed number of shares bought by investment companies to resell to investors. When an investor buys or sells, s/he is buying from or selling to another investor, NOT the ETF itself.
So in the mutual fund case, there may be a need to sell off some underlying investments in order to meet the cash demands of redemption demands, which could ripple through the market or have a negative impact on the remaining fund investors in that they would pay tax on any resultant capital gains.
With an ETF, cash for a sale comes from the other investor who buys, so there is no need for the fund itself to meet cash redemption demands, so no sale of underlying investments, hence no impact on the remaining investors other than normal market fluctuation of the ETF price, as would happen with any stock.
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If you have the time watch a movie called the BIG SHORT, it’s a somewhat funny movie about the true housing crisis of 2007/2009 that almost took down the whole world economy. If you get anything out of it, you’ll learn even the experts don’t have a clue. If you want to invest, get as much information as you can and trust your own gut, there are no guarantees

I would say that ETFs are better than Mutual Funds. Mutual Funds usually have high loading (the % of expenses and profit for the issuing company - compared to ETFs, which are MUCH, MUCH lower.)

This is little more than a personal opinion (or guess) , but I expect a correction in about June.

Not Vanguard Investments. See Post No. 23. And, all of their mutual funds have extremely low expense ratios, and no loads to purchase.

So, the expense ratio for the Vanguard SP 500 index stock mutual fund is 0.04 percent. The expense ratio for ther Vanguard SP 500 index ETF is 0.03 percent. I wouldn't call that MUCH, MUCH lower.

I agree with the last sentence/statement.

The best explanation as to why ETFs are superior to mutual funds.

Yes ETF's. My reason is you can buy or sell them at a price you pick and not the price (mutual funds) on the day you want to buy.
I think you will find a lower expense ratio and probably a little better on taxes you pay on capital gains.
You could live to 100 so yes you need to be in the market.

I always liked Vanguard. I made up my mind a long, long time ago to choose ETFs over managed funds. So, I am NOT an expert on Managed Funds. I know most have high management loading , but if ANY managed funds would be worthwhile, it would likely be Vanguard. Also, I am aware that my investment knowledge is NOT at the high level of some of those that respond to these investment questions. And I like to learn from THEIR responses.

As pointed out by many, ETFs offer the ability to trade at intraday prices (with that comes premium and discount pricing). But the issue is really whether you are looking for active management or index investing. There isn't much difference between ETF and mutual fund if you are doing index investing. If you want active management then the trick is to pick the best manager or management team. Most do not beat the indexes but there are some that do so consistently until the management changes. Takes research to sort that out. If you have a sense that a particular segment of the market is going to outperform over the next several years but don't feel confident to bet on only one company, then maybe put some into a well-managed ETF or mutual fund that covers that segment. Decide how much cash you want to keep on hand and liquid and leave that in the MM. Dollar cost average the rest into an ETF or mutual fund as discussed above. Keep it diversified and balanced and you will sleep well at night regardless of your age.

Another precinct heard from……
 

If your situation is such that you can spare a part of that 200,000, like maybe 20,000 - 25,000 dollars and would like to invest it in a bit of education, why not make your own “fund” of boring dividend stocks, maybe 10-ish.

Look up the Dividend Aristocrats and the Dividend Kings. Go to Fidelity and check the top ten holdings in some of their many funds managed for growth and income. Learn what you can. There is a wealth of info about individual stocks on sites like Fidelity. (Copy their homework. :))

Find a utility, a consumer staple, and some other boring stocks. Try to catch them on a bad day. You will not be able to live off the dividends for just that amount of investment, but you can take them or reinvest them.

The stock goes up and the stock goes down and the stock goes up, but you will get paid 4 times a year and quite a few of them will raise that dividend annually. Meanwhile, the right stocks can just plug along, their share price increasing significantly over time. Solid dividend stocks pay you to wait.

If in a taxable account, you will be taxed on the dividend, of course, and if you sell with a gain, you will get a tax on that — or take a loss if you can’t stand the stock anymore. You can be your own fund manager. You decide all of it. Some people do not think this is fun though.

But the thing right now is that I really do believe we could be in some seriously uncharted waters. That T-word is scaring the heckouta me. I mean T for Tarriffs. If those take hold, we ain’t seen nuthin’ yet when it comes to inflation.

Anyway, if taking some of your cash and setting up your own fund to manage appeals to you, do your homework now — and make a list and check it twice — and probably wait a while and enjoy being over 4 on money market for the time being. (There could be some opportunities right around the corner to begin to dollar-cost average in. But, of course, I don’t know. And nobody else does either.)

Boomer

If you want a dividend fund, then pick 1 out of hundreds. If you create your own fund, you are probably taking about a few stocks to a dozen or so stocks. If you buy an index fund for dividends, the index will hold hundreds of companies.

Mutual funds are usually active managed by a team of analysts, this is why a mutual fund costs more to manage than an index fund. A mutual fund usually has a high turnover (I’ve seen over 400% turnover) and you pay for this each year, buying and selling isn’t free.
Index funds are managed by a computer, very little turnover, so much cheaper. Most of my funds have an expense of .02-.04%, mutual funds are .5% to 1.3%.

You want some decent mutual funds, I haven’t been in these for years but these have made 21-27% gains during the last year and expenses are between .5%-.7%: dodfx, dodgx, flpsx. If I was going to get into a mutual fund, I would look at dodge and cox funds.
21-27% gains are pretty low during the last year plus you are paying expenses 1/2% or more for these funds. I have the equivalent of these funds but in index funds all making more than 35% with expense of .02-.04%. Plus, index funds are cheaper at tax time because the index funds don’t have the turnover

Pretty please... Specifically, which index funds?