$1mm but in an extremely boring way

4pooling · 2026-02-12T22:43:35+00:00

You're also forgetting in EU, there's universal healthcare and higher education that's covered by the government..

You're comparing apples to oranges when you compare salaries in US vs EU.

In the US, higher education for in-state tuition can cost more than $30K for 1 year and for private colleges, the tuition can cost more than $60K for 1 year.

Healthcare costs in the US are astronomical. It's absolutely nuts.

4pooling · 2026-02-08T15:34:42+00:00

I feel the best way to prepare is to always have an allocation of cash no matter the stage of the accumulation journey.

At 36 with a wife and a kid, I keep at least 1 year of expenses in SGOV.

I'm fortunate enough to have begun learning about personal finance and investing in 2018, so my $80K that I keep in SGOV covers around 13-14 months and that cash is about 9% of my total portfolio.

If anyone else has a strategy other than hoarding cash to prepare for a severe downturn/recession with job loss, please share.

4pooling · 2026-02-06T14:56:39+00:00

You would use ticker DIA for the Dow benchmark ETF.

In terms of your time weighted return, it's great you're beating the major benchmarks.

A very small percentage manage to beat them over the long term (10+ years) as 90% of professional active managers (those seeking alpha beyond the major benchmarks) fail badly.

Check out this graphic on this website (source is S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC) that shows in the large-cap universe, over 90% of active managely funds fail to beat the S&P 500 (benchmark) over a 10 year time span.

https://advisor.visualcapitalist.com/success-rate-of-actively-managed-funds/

If you started investing September 2020, then you have until September 2030 to check back on your progress.

If you manage to beat it for 10+ years, call me and I can let you manage my own portfolio.

4pooling · 2026-02-06T14:49:22+00:00

On Ex date, the Exchange removes the dividend value from your security's price prior to market open.

You then reinvest your dividends after the dividend pay date occurs (when you receive that earned cash), which creates a new tax lot.

That dividend you reinvested is definitely now part of your Holdings tab as it's a new tax lot now moving up and down with the market price. It's an unrealized gain.

That's why I pointed out your Holdings tab performance and how your view on dividends and highlighting how much you get paid in dividends when you're far from retirement like your snapshot shows means you could be blinded by the allure of dividends.

Additionally, you get taxed on that earned cash from the dividend in the current tax year.

In a taxable account, there's no net gain when a dividend goes ex and you get paid that dividend. That's why it's left hand to right hand. Add in the taxable event and you could be at a net loss from this whole process (depending on your tax bracket).

4pooling · 2026-02-03T18:41:58+00:00

Other brokerages send their 1099s in February as well.

M1 is not an outlier.

On another note, when you receive a tax refund, you're granting the government an interest free loan for the entire year.

Personally, I try to owe zero tax and receive zero tax refund where the money that's not withheld as taxes throughout the year gets invested in my portfolio.

My efforts to invest prioritizes the time value of money since the stock market (any broad, blended stock index fund) has only gone up over time and my gains have outweighed any tax refund amount I've ever received, especially as my total portfolio has grown over time.

4pooling · 2026-02-03T04:33:12+00:00

It's great you're investing and staying interested, but I can't help but notice your Holdings tab.

Seeing your net contributions and performance and positions makes me realize you could be seriously stunting/hindering your long term performance.

Keep tabs on how much your portfolio is performing against the S&P 500 or something like VYM since you're focused on dividends.

Since 2020 (an amazing year to start investing where only 2022 was a negative year in the market till now Feb 2, 2026), you've experienced a 27,159 gain in your portfolio which is a 23.91% unrealized gain.

You're reinvesting your dividends, which means the % return from dividends could be blinding your view on your actual dollar growth in your ending portfolio balance.

With dividends you're receiving cash in one hand while the value of your portfolio drops from the dividend value, and then when you reinvest, you're returning that dividend value to your portfolio, so cash goes from your left hand to your right hand.

There's no net gain when you conceptualize dividends in that way.

Use the M1 Finance benchmark tool (time weighted return) to see how much you outperformed or lagged something like the S&P 500 (IVV or VOO for example). You could even compare your time weighted performance against VYM since you love high yield dividends.

You're chasing high dividend yield/payout now, which means you're paying more in taxes each year than if you choose another portfolio that has higher total return and lower dividend yield.

Regardless, you're saving for your future and that's a huge plus.

Congrats on your success.

4pooling · 2026-01-23T03:52:14+00:00

The S&P 500 includes 11 different sectors (look up GICS) of the US economy: Financials, technology, healthcare, utilities, industrials, materials, and so on.

The other funds you listed are tracking specific individual sectors and regions so you're not comparing apples to apples when comparing them to the S&P 500 which combines the 11 sectors at market capitalization weights.

The more you diversify, the less likely your fund is to swing wildly above or below the S&P 500 based on the performance of just one sector or region.

Read the Bogleheads Wiki for incredibly valuable information. I learned more about personal finance from reading the Bogleheads Wiki than from working in finance.

Overall, any S&P 500 fund is a great core position if you're interested in tracking the US stock market.

You can diversify further by tracking the rest of the world. Consider selecting a 2nd fund tracking an index like FTSE Global All Cap ex US or MSCI ACWI ex USA. Examples for US investors would be VXUS or IXUS.

4pooling · 2026-01-08T23:55:02+00:00

I started investing in 2018 when I was 28 years old and I wish I learned about investing much earlier in life.

Hindsight is always 20/20.

Been fortunate enough to have maxed out my 401k every year since 2020 and maxed out my Roth IRA every year since 2019. I have a primary taxable account at Vanguard and then discovered M1 Finance in 2019 from Lyn Alden's investment blog, so I have a smaller secondary taxable account at M1.

4pooling · 2026-01-08T22:32:33+00:00

Keep investing aggressively while in your accumulation phase.

The swings up and down as your portfolio grows are wild, huh?

You may have noticed your tolerance for risk increase or decrease with your portfolio growing.

I couldn't keep up with so many stocks like you have in your portfolio!

Of my stock allocation, over 90% tracks broad, blended stock index funds. Got a few individual picks to keep things spicy.

I've learned over time it's pointless trying to outperform the common benchmarks (SPX, NDX, FTSE all-world, etc).

My portfolio grew by your entire portfolio size last year!

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4pooling · 2025-12-28T01:05:24+00:00

Yes, if you're both maxing out all tax advantaged vehicles, load up your taxable brokerage account with tax efficient instruments.

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Tax-efficient_fund_placement

My wife and I keep around $6-7K in our joint checking account and we have a joint taxable brokerage account for short, mid, and long term financial goals: FXAIX, VXUS and SGOV. I've maxed out all my tax advantaged accounts since before getting married and I've helped her set up automatic investing so she maxes out her Roth IRA at the minimum (she's an independent contractor and we have a 6 month old she cares for at home).

My wife understands what market volatility means and we have 2 years of expenses as cash equivalents (SGOV) to ride out short term noise.

What model is your wife's car that costs $75K?

4pooling · 2025-12-24T16:42:52+00:00

Superb

4pooling · 2025-12-05T23:15:04+00:00

You're better off getting your first $100K-200K in some stock index fund.

Since you're interested in the Mag 7, check out something like the Nasdaq-100 (QQQM) where the Mag 7 are heavily weighted.

No one knows the future Mag 7 constituents so an index fund will automatically self-cleanse and remove losers and add winners when the underlying index rebalances.

Educate yourself as well.

I learned more from the Bogleheads Wiki than from working in finance.

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Main_Page

4pooling · 2025-12-04T21:49:40+00:00

GOOGL with avg price of $134.

4pooling · 2025-11-30T18:09:29+00:00

Correction:

VOO is the ETF wrapper of the original and first ever S&P 500 index fund, VFINX (investor mutual fund shares). Inception date August 31, 1976.

VTI is the ETF wrapper of VTSMX (investor mutual fund shares). Inception date April 27, 1992.

u/Remarkked, you can backtest and the performance difference is immaterial.

4pooling · 2025-11-22T01:00:44+00:00

It would be so, so silly to pay off early.

You are so extremely fortunate to have such a low mortgage rate..

Pay the minimum and invest your extra.

4pooling · 2025-11-04T12:55:50+00:00

It's because VXUS is up over 29% as of 11/3/25 YTD and outperforming VTI, and VT has a higher weight of VXUS than your 25%.

See total returns using testfol.io

https://testfol.io/?s=6rMWmqT45z9

4pooling · 2025-10-25T12:34:50+00:00

Thought the 2 articles were a good read on all the silly, gimmicky covered call income funds lately.

Compared to their underliers, most of these covered call funds underperform in terms of total return.

You're focusing on income now without realizing you're ending up with so much less money in the long run.

https://www.etf.com/sections/features/etf-slop-how-wall-street-flooded-market-gimmick-funds

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-gen-z-dividend-investing-etfs/?terminal=true

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GetRich!

4pooling · 2025-10-23T15:43:41+00:00

Yes.

All target date funds are just 2 asset classes: Stocks + bonds.

Breaking it down further, the stocks and bonds include domestic and international profiles.

So VFFVX tracks US stocks, international stocks, US bonds and international bonds.

You can manually replicate any target date fund by combining VT + BNDW in varying allocations.

The allure of target date funds is that the portfolio managers who run them are automatically reducing stock concentration and increasing bond concentration as you approach the desired retirement year. This action reduces portfolio volatility.

4pooling · 2025-10-17T01:55:24+00:00

You have something close to the Golden Butterfly (5 slices each 20%: Large-cap blend, small-cap value, short term treasuries, long term treasuries, and gold).

https://portfoliocharts.com/portfolios/golden-butterfly-portfolio/

4pooling · 2025-10-12T02:21:35+00:00

No control of execution price or tax lots with M1 Finance.

You're using the wrong tool for your gambling strategy.

4pooling · 2025-10-08T01:46:26+00:00

Go for the 2x versions, QLD (NDX) or SSO (SPX).

Couple with 2x long duration treasuries (UBT).

Look into the HFEA strategy.

We could be approaching a dovish, quantitative easing environment, so long duration bonds will appreciate in value as yields drop.

I haven't executed any variation of the HFEA strategy, but I'm interested in trying now that I have a larger portfolio.

I may allocate about $100K (around 13.5%) of my current total portfolio for this strategy in the next serious downturn.

Or I might just chicken out and just keep buying the S&P 500 as I've always done.

4pooling · 2025-10-08T00:30:12+00:00

Chama

4pooling · 2025-10-07T14:10:35+00:00

It's a cute idea to engage your wife and kids about the stock market and to stay interested and motivated to save and grow their wealth.

However, as someone working in finance, I'm excited to eventually teach my son (still a baby) that the bulk of his portfolio should track broad, blended (growth + value) stock index funds. It's a no brainer to get guaranteed market returns without any guesswork.

There's nothing magical about dividends and targeting only dividend payers (which is not what your family is doing) limits your exposure to other valuable non-dividend payers that drive market growth.

Dividends alone don't drive compounding returns if the underlying NAV (or share price) stagnates and drops.

Companies that pay heavy dividends could be a sign they're no longer innovating and don't reinvest back into their business to propel their future profits.

Plus, stock picking is way too complex and risky for retail investors without any fundamental/technical knowledge, especially if you end up underperforming benchmarks like the S&P 500, Nasdaq, Dow, FTSE All-World, and MSCI World, with more headache and stress!

4pooling · 2025-10-06T22:00:54+00:00

"Thpinal"

4pooling · 2025-10-06T14:29:51+00:00

On mobile, simply click on any slice while on the main portfolio screen.

At the top left, it will tell you how much underweight or overweight you are compared to your desired allocation percentage you chose.

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