9 Questions I Get Asked Almost Every Day About Investing

[@PaulKelley2010]

Great Video and got hooked on your channel last year. Suggest a video - add on to your "lessons" video. " 5 things to do 5 years before planned retirement" or something like that or 9 things - lol.

[@justinmirche]

Thanks, Rob! The 4% rule explanation was on point-makes planning for retirement feel less daunting. Great content!

[@KimK-n6i]

Many of my top questions answered all in one post. Great content! Really appreciate the graphs to demonstrate each point as I’m a visual learner.

[@stevefiete]

Great video! I think the appeal of dollar cost averaging is a consequence of framing bias. If one invests the entirety of a windfall into risky assets which then drop in value a short time later, he will feel pangs of regret. But if puts in 1/12th of the money each month for 12 consecutive months and the assets steadily rise in value, then the gain which was missed out on does not sting. Either way there is risk the the portfolio value would be less than it would be if the alternative strategy had been chosen. Rationally, it should not effect how we feel about it, but we are wired to be loss averse, and missing out on a gain does not feel like a loss, subjectively. I like Rob's point that the most important thing is to have discipline to stick to whichever approach you choose, and not change mid-stream.

[@OlegScherbina]

Great video with so many good links. Thanks Rob!

[@johnbeeck2540]

Happy Holidays Rob! Thanks for all you do!

[@radiok2ua]

Great content as always, Rob, thanks.

[@70qq]

🤘🏻 great info as always, thanks !

[@Lukionest]

Thank you so much for this excellent Christmas present. I can’t wait to forward it to my adult children. It sums up all the great knowledge you have been 😂 on your channel for years.

[@mezjandallas1016]

Fantastic summary of so many important points ! Thank you !

[@Mick-ls8tq]

Great video-accurate, unbiased education.

[@erinh888]

@RobBerger ~Your wearing a different shirt😮😂...... useful info and appreciated, as always😊

[@stephenholcomb9278]

Wonderful video. It great to hear Rob reiterate things I've figured out for my own DIY retirement plan. Such as knowing your "Number" for beginning retirement. 4% rule gives you that conservative start! I'm 54 and STILL 100% stocks. Half of which are in the S&P 500. The rest in suitable index funds Large/Small Cap. Some Value and International. And TECH. I'm still largely invested in Tech/Growth as I just like it more and I believe in selling the Picks and Shovels of the 21st century gold rush that is AI. The big derailer for me would be a world war or a civil war. Possible things but not hugely probable. I'll move to a 70/30 portfolio like 6-12 months prior to retirement. Have a Bucket 1 that will last me for 5 years.

[@DumbUserName782]

Great video Rob. Thank you.

[@betterme479]

Great video! Happy Holidays!

[@Steve_SEC]

@RobBerger Why not replace BND with VUSXX which adds the stability of bonds without decreasing like BND?

[@LarkOfTheWoods]

Also the recently announced Vanguard Ultra-Short Treasury ETF (VGUS) and Vanguard 0-3 Month Treasury Bill ETF (VBIL).

[@martinomovies]

Very comprehensive. Thanks Rob!

[@sandylamba2546]

Great information as always

[@mikep-2552]

Another great video. Thanks ----- I've become a big fan over the last year or so, and very often add your suggested links to my "finance" favorites tab. ?? My wife and I "selected" to start an advisor managed account 6 months ago. Wondering if you have done a video on a ".....what to expect from an advisor...." ? -- I've run our portfolio's very aggressive over the years and it seems to have worked out. On our managed portfolio we are 40/60 as 60 year olds. Not sure we are getting full service from the firm we are with, hence the question.

[@angelalewis7868]

ALL CAPS LOVE THIS!! Thank you!!!!!!!!

[@tanyabischoff]

As an investment enthusiast, I often wonder how top-level investors are able to become millionaires through investing. I have a significant amount of capital to start with, but I'm unsure about the strategies and direction I should take to help me generate substantial profits like some people are this season.

[@garnold-l5p]

I’m not in a position to offer financial advice, but given the significant amount of capital you're working with, it would be wise to consult a financial advisor who can guide you in developing a strategy tailored to your goals and risk tolerance.

[@TheAblist01]

​@StephenRobello hey I think you forgot the part of the scam where you paste the part with the advisor's name.

[@LD-bb5xk]

Hello Rob, can you please tell me what is considered a long time ? No video that I can find tells me this. Is 15, 20, 25, 30 years considered a long time in stocks? I do not know how to allocate or what percent to put in these funds. I appreciate and thank you for your valued information.

[@Smart.IQ.Investing]

There is no one direct answer for this, I'd likely say anything that is greater than 10 years for stocks would be considered long term, but others may differ. For example if you are talking about retirement I would say the minimum to be considered long term would be 20 years. Hope this helps.

[@BobBennett-ve8hq]

I agree with your automation comments. My take is that people, almost always, spend 100% of their money. Poor people do, even rich people do. The main differntiator is what people defina s "my money". After tax? After 401(k)? After all savings and directed money (IRAs, utilities, mortage, etx.). It is very similar to "pay yourself first." But spending expands to the money available. Als, people should not be as obsessed with their money as I am. Automate it - savings, expenses, retirement, forget about it. The rest is yours. Enjoy.

[@nunuvyurbiz123]

Well, I DID invest in high school. It didn't go well - I'm looking at you, Phillips Petroleum.

[@jrs4101]

I'm not sure if you've done one in the past but I would really like a video where you discuss an investment strategy for someone that would like to retire early. My wife and I are 38 and would like to retire at 50. We currently invest about $2500/month in index funds hoping to have a portfolio of about 1 million by then. We're not really investing anything in tax free investments at the moment, not sure if we're making a mistake by not doing that. We would live off of dividends and more than likely live abroad

[@Smart.IQ.Investing]

One thing I would advise to do more on the goal setting side, is to understand what you think your expenses will be and work backwards, so you know what you need to make to cover your expenses plus some contingency. If you are US based the average dividend yield for the S&P 500 has been 1.82% over the last 10 years, so if you had 1 million just in this, your annual yield would give you roughly 18,200 USD. You should also consider that if you retire early your money needs to last longer. I don't know your circumstances so this is not personal financial advice, but hope it helps on your investing journey.

[@dianediliberto1876]

Wonderful video. Thank you.

[@ld5714]

You are out of your usual uniform today 😊

[@samrusoff]

Casual Friday (East of GMT at least)

[@jeffeason3599]

He’s mourning the death of Ohio States’s Championship hopes.

[@johnpawlak7484]

A much better look for him.

[@smallstate307]

How to value of accounts for purpose of allocation? In figuring out an allocation should you value a tax-deferred account and a Roth account equally. Suppose I have $10,000 in a tax-deferred account invested in bonds and $10,000 in a Roth account invested in stocks. Is that a 50/50 allocation between stocks and bonds or a 50/35 allocation because the Roth account is all mine but only 70% of the tax-deferred account is mine; 30% is really owned by the government?

[@smartart8182]

do you still feel confident in vanguard target date funds after the big tax issue that happened a little while ago?

[@prashanthlv]

Hi Rob, I hope you can answer my question in next Q&A session. My wife has simple IRA at work with capitalgroup and mutual funds there are not great. Can my wife create simple IRA account with Fidelity and transfer funds into Fidelity? If she can, does she still needs to keep capital group account so receives money from her paycheck and we do regular transfer from work simple ira account to fidelity simple ira account?

[@MrZarifkar]

Hi Rob. Great contents as always. I am wondering what your thoughts are regarding RILA (registered index linked annuity) product? I was thinking to put 1/3 of my IRA for 6 years with 20% buffer. I am 63 and thinking to retire at 65. Thanks in advance.

[@davidpowell3347]

Use your "employer match" and your Roth IRA space before paying on some of your debts.

[@thomaschew2191]

As far as when to retire. I'm not a financial honcho my any means, but I want two things. The first is to get close to the max monthly payment amount of social security, that is file closer to 70 than early. The second is to have our home value at as close to 20% of our total net worth as possible. For the meantime, we are throwing everything not nailed down at our investments.

[@9rows]

"honcho". massively underused and underappreciated word. congratulations.

[@MT-fh9qy]

As ever - a great video. I will also ask this question during the next live feed, but let me put this out there - appreciate any info. I see a lot of people talking about retiring abroad. Maybe Europe over the US. Does Rob (or anyone!) know if there are reciprocal tax agreements with other countries that means you can be tax resident in say France but still draw on your Roth IRA incurring no tax? I've tried to research but drawn a blank. thx in advance!

[@tedleber]

Pls explain how we can see links below this video….i can’t ever see…love you work.

[@noreenn6976]

Look for the "more" button above The channel name. All the links are listed there.

[@canyonoverlook9937]

I just put less than 2 percent of my porfolio in small cap because of all the hype and now it is down 10 percent. I already have the urge to sell. I moved it from bnd to small cap. I really like only 100 percent in SP 500 or Total stock market. It's much simpler and less urge to sell. There is still an urge to sell with that but less to keep track off. I had too many bonds at points in my life also.

[@70qq]

by the same token , if small cap was up 10% over the S&P 500 you'd be thinking of buying more already ... any portfolio you cant stick with if it goes down for a year or two is not for you ... a good portfolio (for you) is good no matter what the market is doing in any sector or size cap because you decided it makes sense for your long term goal , not because you think it will outperform the S&P 500 this week , month , or year ... something is always gonna be doing better and it never stays the same ... good luck with whatever portfolio you decide to stick with !

[@bkozulla5841]

Don’t give up on small cap. When it comes back, it will kill…I have 20% in small cap value and blend. It has done well for me.

[@Yette]

Hopefully many younger investors are not fixated on watching their money going up & down. Set it and forget it.

[@jeffeason3599]

Yes. This. ☝️

[@bdegrds]

Not fully agreeing, you should be on top of the quarterly and general activities that you are invested in, dips are good to buy in or upcoming bad news that could signal a strategy for a stop limit order etc

[@lg7728]

​@@RickMartinKZbin At least we were in the market for a very long time. I also chased hot mutual funds but I stayed the course since 1977. Now, I invest in index funds, T-Bills, CDs, and a money market fund.

[@Slader77]

what is your go to budgetting app? i used to used mint but they stopped existing and now i use just an excel sheet, but its so loathsome if i really want to break down my spending since i have to do so much manually. i havent found a good app yet.

[@davidperry2725]

Rob demo'd Lunch Money two weeks ago.

[@FlagstaffChief]

I just realized that this year we hit the thirty-year mark since Bentgen proposed the 4% Rule. It would be interesting to know how various portfolios have performed over that particular 30-year period. Not just various stock/bond allocations and initial withdrawal rates, but portfolios recommended by popular media financial “advisors.” How did they do following the 4% rule over the last 30 years? I know it is logically meaningless, but would still be interesting. 24:11

[@rick_vv7754]

It's a special day, Rob is not wearing an Untuckit shirt.

[@edorofish]

I started investment accounts for both my kids as soon as they started working. It will pay off in the long run.

[@ItsEverythingElse]

Only if it's funded well and isn't tapped before retirement.

[@michaelsd284]

I opened a Roth for each of my kids once they had their first Summer job. I also showed then a compound interest calculator and ran from scenario. Fun watching their eyes light up.

[@michaelsd284]

@@ItsEverythingElse You are preaching to the choir with this audience

[@70qq]

@@michaelsd284 100% correct ... some people will point out the taxes if you tell them you hit the lottery ... the world may explode if a negative person cant point out the obvious on a positive comment for no reason 😂

[@aaront936]

7:30 is the perfect example of why target date funds are trash. There is no reason someone with 45+ years should have 10% in bonds.

[@rdspam]

Schwab’s 2065 fund is 2.51% fixed income. 97% equities - 65% US, 32% non-US. No idea why Vanguard’s 2070 fund is 10%+. Research, as always, is required.

[@canyonoverlook9937]

I wonder if there are even any target date funds with only US stocks. They used to be available that way. I wouldn't get one even if they had only US stocks but I did have some years ago. I am glad I ditched them.

[@brandonj.9638]

Precisely. I tell my coworkers that all the time. With 30 years left til retirement you should have ZERO bonds. That's a five year out from retirement decision to make.

[@AlumniQuad]

I agree--I invested in TDFs between 2012 and 2016 and gave up a lot of growth in the process. If you're young, you should be 100% growth-oriented and only start getting conservative 10 to 5 years before retirement. I used to work with a guy (at the time in his 50s) who thought the only thing he could invest in was the TDF for his target retirement year (which could have actually been 2025). He pretty much gave up a lot of growth between 2012 and the year that he retired which I think was 2022. He would have been a lot better off if he had split his investments between TDFs or balanced funds for his initial retirement years and S&P500 for later retirement years (2030+).

[@AlumniQuad]

@@rdspam And Vanguard's VTINX (Vanguard Target Retirement Income Fund) which is the ultimate fate for all their TDFs is 70% bonds which is well above the max 50% bonds that Bill Bengen's 4% requires for a 30-year retirement.

[@p.c.h.6721]

I hope you make more videos like this one

[@canyonoverlook9937]

US stocks did well in the 80"s too. If you have international and US you kind of have to leave it. Many people moved out of international the last few years.. What if US now underperforms the next 10 years? Now they will underperform over 20 years.

[@johnbankston72]

Regarding the 80’s, some of the positive performance is attributed to Gordon Gecko’s dealings with Teldar Paper.

[@corner559]

How about REITs? Is a REIT index fund worth holding as part of your asset allocation?

[@brianmcg321]

No. If you already hold a total market index it included REITS. It is not a separate asset class like bonds or commodities. They are just companies that trade in the stock market.

[@EatLeadPal]

I retired at 62 last year and I invested quite a bit of money but I wish I would've invested more. My advice is to invest as much as you can possibly afford, even if it means tightening your belt a little. When you retire, you'll be glad you did. IMHO, international and bonds are a bad way to go. I have always invested in 100% stock index funds. Rob would disagree.

[@PassivePortfolios]

Sequence of returns risk. Many investors can't handle that risk. The solution is to own everything.

[@kw7292]

No diversification

[@EatLeadPal]

@@kw7292 My diversification is that I am invested in different index stock funds. The method has worked for me because I have made a lot of money. I've been investing this way for over 20 years. My returns over the past 12 months have been 33% and if you look at the S&P 500 over the past 100 years, it has averaged 9.8% returns.

[@EatLeadPal]

@@PassivePortfolios I understand.

[@johnbankston72]

@@kw7292…not true. There can be a lot of diversification within an all-stocks portfolio.

[@Markazoid6041]

There was a stock market crash about 86 to 87 so that may not be the best timeframe to look back to.

[@jjred233]

1987. I lost money. I got it all back in 6 months.

[@Markazoid6041]

@@jjred233 took me 4 years

[@adabamas]

For lump sum investing, Warren Buffet recommends DCA.

[@Kayla11113]

Lump sum investing is the opposite of dollar cost averaging

[@zhongpu1256]

I agree with your views on cryptos. I think planning to live off of dividends, interest and pensions is a good plan for retirement.

[@stevenobrien595]

Keep it simple.

[@jaysoncordrey4272]

I'm surprised you haven't broken what the S&p500 consists of and the weighting of stock. Everybody is always saying invest this sp500 index. That easy to say, but if you actually break down the sp500 index you might want to reconsider.....Very Very technology heavy. I would venture to say that its more a tech fund than a broad index. I haven't compared it to the NADAQ100 but i think that index might beat the sp500 in returns. Great idea for you next video

[@johnbankston72]

He’s shown the breakdown in many videos.

[@edorofish]

VTI has outperformed VT since 2008 by almost 3x.

[@LesterHess-t1x]

Investing in alternative income streams that are independent of the government should be the top priority for everyone right now. especially given the global economic crisis we are currently experiencing. Stocks, gold, silver, and virtual currencies are still attractive investments at the moment.

[@wmwoods-l4f]

It is recommended to seek the assistance of a financial advisor or broker to diversify your investment portfolio through the inclusion of commodities, inflation-indexed bonds, and stocks of financially stable companies, rather than relying solely on growth stocks with uncertain future earnings.

[@canyonoverlook9937]

The more sectors you have invested in (small cap, mid cap, international) the more moving parts and the more you get the urge to sell when that sector is down.

[@TonyCox1351]

Just hold a total market of target date fund. No sectors

[@canyonoverlook9937]

@@TonyCox1351 I don't like target date funds. I don't want international and don't want the bond allocation they have.

[@70qq]

true ... some days im thrilled and some days im bummed 😂 ... i do roughly 55% LCB , 15% LCV , 15% SCB , 15% SCV ...... i figure the large amount of LCB (S&P 500) should always get me through and be more stable , but the other three will hopefully give me a boost in returns long term ... mostly i just have the other three to diversify a bit so i have other places to pull from when the S&P is down hopefully ..... its a more mild version of Paul Merriman's U.S. 4 Fund Combo ... he does it 25/25/25/25 and the results are pretty good for the last 100 years , and history is all we got really to guess on the future

[@lg7728]

Very good point! Wevinvested in various sectors in the 80s until 2020. We have the majority of our investments in a total return stock fund, government securities, CDs, and money market.

[@mattball2700]

Everyone trying to be "conservative" close to retirement in the past 4 years by having lots of bonds was screwed and haven't gotten back at all.

[@ericj9011]

I think we all kind of suspected the bonds were a bad investment when interest rates were close to 0%, but the experts kept saying not to worry about that.😂

[@fsmoura]

Wait, we can ask questions?!? Gosh darn it, I've been watching it wrong all this time!

[@noreenn6976]

Join the Livestream to ask a question. Those are announced in the free weekly newsletter, link in the description box above.

[@davidmclifton1]

What is this shirt??? Has the world begun its descent into madness? What is happening? Is life real? If Rob Berger isn't wearing his normal shirt, is it still Rob Berger??

[@tjan4367]

I am just waiting for him to remove one of those Ohio footballs from the shelf with a Big Blue one. Won't likely happen anytime soon :)

[@sheilatorres1908]

🤣

[@joshua3196]

Love the information. Please consider shorter videos.

[@buyerclub2]

Target date funds are a rip off, and you showed part of it. the minor part. They i are a fund that invests in other funds. so you are paying fees, on top of the fees the funds paying on the funds that it is purchasing. But the bigger issue is that they change their composition based on a target date, related to the age of the owner usually. They dont take into account the interest rate at the time for making that change. So you kow what happens when they buy bond funds when rates are low and then go higher. The value of the fund DECrEASES. Keep away from this stuff. IMO they are a scam. Just buy a goo market index fund, and as you get older, ir mort importantly you do decide that market risk impacts you. Then migrate into interest rate funds when there is at least a 50/50 chane they might go down int the future.

[@veronicahoyos-leonard2459]

Stupid questions

[@AlejandroHernandez-cf2ed]

@RobBerger Mr. Rob, do you still recommend M1 Finance for simple investment option? TIA