Just For DH

[Razors Edge ★]

...since she seems to be serious about this stuff (but which she may already be on top of it, too!).  More interesting is the brokerage "sweep account" info (but Vanguard does a great job on that):

Today, let’s talk about two simple things, both of which can be worth money to you if own index funds or have a brokerage account — or the two together.

I’ll show you how if you own an index fund, exercising a little financial discipline will let you make more money (or lose less money) than the index that your fund is based on makes or loses.

I’ll also show you how to avoid being lowballed by profit-hungry brokerage houses on the cash that you have in “sweep accounts.” Those are the accounts where brokerage houses put the proceeds from holdings that you sell or hold cash that you deposit.

Index funds first.

The difference between what the index makes or loses and the index’s total return — the index’s performance plus reinvested dividends — makes a serious difference if you hold your fund for the long term. The idea is to let the dividends in your account be reinvested rather than taking them out to get cash.

Rather than just giving you total-return statistics, let me show you real-world examples using Vanguard Admiral shares, the lowest-cost Vanguard shares available to retail investors.

At the end of last year, you would have had $955.72 of S&P 500 Admiral shares for each $1,000 you held on Dec. 31, 2017. That’s nothing to write home about — $955.72 is less than $1,000 — but it’s about 2 percent more than the $937.70 that you would have had without reinvested dividends.

Over five years, an initial $1,000 would have turned into $1500.65, Vanguard says, of which $142.12 was from reinvested dividends. Over 10 years, it would have become $3,424.72, of which $639.36 was from reinvested dividends. That’s serious money.

Please understand that I’m not here shilling for Vanguard index funds — my point is to show you the difference that personal financial discipline and long-term compounding can make.

(A brief aside: Vanguard, which pioneered and popularized index funds, currently charges a fee of 0.04 of 1 percent — 40 cents per $1,000 — on its S&P Admiral shares. Some of its competitors charge even less. In any event, absent unusual circumstances, if you go the index fund route you should own lower-cost ones, not higher-cost ones.)

On to brokerage accounts and cash.

....<more at the link>

****as a note, a simple article like this one can easily pay for a full year's subscription to the WaPo, NYT, or WSJ.  Scaling from $1,000 to $100,000 or $1,000,000, and the subscription becomes a no brainer.

[Dirtyhip]

Vanguard rules. Reinvesting dividends is how your investment is going to grow more efficiently.  I concur.  Although, I can't open the article.  I used up all my free articles.  Too cheap to buy a subscription.  Most of the important news hits some other financial stuff I read.

I'm long:  VTSAX, VTIAX, VFINX, VOE, VBR, VFIAX, VNQ, VNQI, VTABX, VBTLX, VTMFX

In regards to discipline, I even invest the rewards that come in on my Visa card.  ?  Keeping the purchases going isn't really a problem for us.  I love to save.

Oh, and CD's are paying better now too.  CD ladders are great.  Anyone who lets their e-cash languish in low interest accounts are fools.  The lowest return we get is 2%  

RIP John Bogle. 

[Razors Edge ★]

5 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

I used up all my free articles.

Do you have Amazon Prime? It's free with that too.

[Dirtyhip]

5 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

Do you have Amazon Prime? It's free with that too.

No.  I don't pay for those kind of things. I can wait for my gillette shavers.

[maddmaxx ★]

clear your  cache/cookies and get another batch of "free".  Don't clear all your passwords though.