A list of (relatively) low cost index ETFs and mutual funds, their tickers, benchmark index, provider, current fee and yield (as of 12/31/2015 in most cases), dividend payment schedule and link to the fund fact sheet. I haven’t ascertained the dividend schedule for most of the funds yet.
Google Sheets: ETF and Mutual Fund List
I am writing a post on tax loss harvesting and this can be used to find close substitutes to purchase after realizing a tax loss, all the while avoiding a wash sale. See here. Just look for a fund in the same category but with a different benchmark index, which should make the fund no longer “substantially identical.”
Feel free to share and suggest funds I might have missed!
Hi, I’m enjoying your blog overall for just getting started it is good. You’ve got some good subject matter. I just wanted to add a little constructive criticism to help you speed up the process of bringing in new readers.
I found your site from a comment you made at GCC about keeping rentals in retirement. Anyways, I’d like to know more details overall. You paint broad stokes but I’d like some detailed stokes also. What I mean by this is you started to reveal a little here and there in you posts but I still find myself trying to figure out why you feel or think the way you do. More details both about you and about the subject matter really draw the reader in.
GCC for example has very detailed information and numbers about his topics when posting. I also feel like they give quite a bit of detail about there past and life in general, or why they are doing something a certain way. It helps the reader understand some concepts better when there is more context. For example I enjoyed the little bit you mentioned about your father and how you decided to pursue early retirement because of him. It’s a story I would have liked to hear more about. I’d also like to hear more about your asset allocations are, what your plan is or was to achieve ER, etc…
I have children also and that was my motivation as well. You mentioned leaving your daughter every morning to go to work. I have that same struggle and really identified with you there. I just don’t want to miss out on there life. Anyways, I really enjoy your writing style but find myself wanting to know more. I’m sure you know the feeling, when you read other blogs you almost start to feel like you know the people personally (which you sort of do) and it keeps you coming back for more. Maybe an “about us” page would help? Hope this banter is useful feedback.
You can delete this post as it was meant for you privately but I didn’t know another way to contact you. Looking forward to reading more!
Hi Wes,
Thanks for visiting our blog, and thanks even more for your very detailed feedback. Here’s some more info on where we’re coming from:
I was never big on writing. When you say that you like my writing style I was most flattered and I will bring a printout of that comment to my 25 year high school reunion to show to my English teacher. 🙂
I am more a finance geek and I am still fine-tuning some of the detailed finance quantitative analysis that I’m working on. Since I’m in the field I am hesitant to publish anything that’s half-baked. Still, our asset allocation is here, at least in % terms: http://earlyretirementnow.com/2016/03/23/asset-allocation-32016/
I am not yet 100% certain if I want to reveal that much about the exact $ amounts, but we’re in about the same (maybe even slightly higher) ballpark as the GCC. The reason why we haven’t retired yet is that I still enjoy work and my boss and my colleagues. I still got projects, long-term projects, to finish that I love working on, that I want to leave my footprint on. I am also a bit cautious about the 4% rule. I prefer the 2.5-3% rule at least in the beginning. More on that in a future post, stay tuned.
On the personal things, it’s sometimes hard to open your heart to the general public. I did that a little bit the post you read, but it’s still hard. We also have a post here: http://earlyretirementnow.com/2016/03/23/welcome/ with some info on our background. Again the reason why we don’t (yet) publish any more specific information is that we don’t want to jinx anything. A lot can go wrong between now and 2018.
Thanks again Wes!
Thanks for taking the time to respond. I completely understand the reluctance. I’m a private person myself and prefer not to reveal my person finance information to my closest friends let alone the world. Same with very personal life details. This is probably why I’ll never start a blog. 😉 But I certainly enjoy reading the blogs of you brave soles who do. I’m looking forward to reading your future posts.
On a side note, do you have rental properties? You’ve mentioned rentals in your posts and provided the comment I mentioned previously. This is what prompted my to visit your site initially. None of the ER bloggers I frequent seem to have rentals. Or at least not on purpose or currently. I have several properties and would like to find a blog that discusses it in more depth. Strategies on using them in retirement is what I’m really curious about. I don’t think I’ll be able to get a $0 tax return because of the rental income. That’s not a bad thing especially since it’s because of income. But it would be nice to hear others thoughts on minimizing taxes. I’m also trying to see how I can utilize the Roth IRA latter since I’ll have rental income to contend with. Maybe these are some topics you’re familiar with and can shed some light on?
Have a great night.
Meant to reply directly to you:
Hi Wes,
Currently we don’t own rental property directly, but we shifted a pretty good chunk of money (almost 10% of our net worth) into real estate through private equity funds. They buy and maintain multi-family properties. These funds cannot advertise very aggressively because investors have to be accredited investors (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accredited_investor) to get in, so these are not for the general public. In the placement documents it says that you pretty much sign away your money and hope for the best: No investor protection. You invest in a non-traded share of an LLC.
But I am personal friends with people who work at the 2 funds where we invested, so I am confident that they are legit and not run away with our money (though Madoff was also friendly, so I am aware of that, so I will never invest it all with one guy). I will keep looking around for other opportunities like that. And hopefully have a ladder of different investments in different funds with different buildings in different states/cities, so I get good diversification
Currently, I don’t want to invest directly and become a landlord. Too much hassle with a day job
I like Real Estate in general as diversification and for stable income. The guys who run the funds where we invested also buy stuff at a discount, event driven sales where they buy stuff on the cheap, fix it up, hold it 7-10 years for rental income and then sell again.
I could be tempted to do direct real estate once I’m retired. But then I’d be stuck there as a landlord. I also like the idea of the GCC nomadic life, haha. So keep the private equity and let the pros run everything. Best of all worlds!!!
This guy: http://frugalenginerds.com/ is someone I met in a GCC forum. He has real estate, but he also just started his blog, so hasn’t written much about it. I will keep checking occasionally.
Cheers!
Hi Wes,
Currently we don’t own rental property directly, but we shifted a pretty good chunk of money (almost 10% of our net worth) into real estate through private equity funds. They buy and maintain multi-family properties. These funds cannot advertise very aggressively because investors have to be accredited investors (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accredited_investor) to get in, so these are not for the general public. In the placement documents it says that you pretty much sign away your money and hope for the best: No investor protection. You invest in a non-traded share of an LLC.
But I am personal friends with people who work at the 2 funds where we invested, so I am confident that they are legit and not run away with our money (though Madoff was also friendly, so I am aware of that, so I will never invest it all with one guy). I will keep looking around for other opportunities like that. And hopefully have a ladder of different investments in different funds with different buildings in different states/cities, so I get good diversification
Currently, I don’t want to invest directly and become a landlord. Too much hassle with a day job
I like Real Estate in general as diversification and for stable income. The guys who run the funds where we invested also buy stuff at a discount, event driven sales where they buy stuff on the cheap, fix it up, hold it 7-10 years for rental income and then sell again.
I could be tempted to do direct real estate once I’m retired. But then I’d be stuck there as a landlord. I also like the idea of the GCC nomadic life, haha. So keep the private equity and let the pros run everything. Best of all worlds!!!
This guy: http://frugalenginerds.com/ is someone I met in a GCC forum. He has real estate, but he also just started his blog, so hasn’t written much about it. I will keep checking occasionally.
Cheers!
I am so looking forward to this post, I did a quick search and didn’t see it yet. Investing is the hodgepodge weakness for sure and I know we can’t get to financial independence without it.
Sorry, forgot to update the link: https://earlyretirementnow.com/2016/03/26/be-your-own-diy-zero-cost-robo-adviser/
Thanks, not quite sure how I missed this
My favorite fund of all time is probably The Growth Fund of America (AGTHX). With about the same amount of volatility/risk as the overall S&P 500, but with much better performance (inclusive of ALL possible fees) for the last 40+ years. (And you get professional advice via your Financial Advisor with it, if you’re modest enough to admit you can always use some professional insight.) But it’s the fund itself that is awesome. I know in the FI community we don’t typically like actively managed funds as most of them are turds, but every single one of American Funds american equity funds has beaten the index over the last 40 years (The S&P index fund VFINX was created about 40 years ago). Take a look at the long track record and see what you think!
Interesting! Thanks for sharing! I’m still more of an index fund kind of guy. But I heard good things about American Funds,too.