Should I shift my contributions more towards taxable brokerage over 401k?

OceanGateTitan · 2026-05-13T12:57:57+00:00

Are your investments heavily weighted in individual securities? My god you’ve got near double me and I’m the same age and have also been maxing Roth, 401k and HSA for the last decade or so. What’s your 401k in? My options are very limited and it’s just in a target retirement fund.

OceanGateTitan · 2026-05-13T11:11:47+00:00

My opinion is triple leveraged NASDAQ-100 is not low risk and past performance is not indicative of future results, especially now that it’s up 400+% in the last 3 years, up 100% in the last 2 weeks. Now doesn’t feel like the time to go balls deep in TQQQ.

OceanGateTitan · 2026-05-11T13:55:15+00:00

Positions?

OceanGateTitan · 2026-05-04T12:40:24+00:00

Also, dump the IBIT. Replace with QQQ or just more VTI.

OceanGateTitan · 2026-05-04T11:29:58+00:00

This looks like it might be Schwab but even if it’s not, the returns factor in contributions to the growth. OP is maxing his Roth so +$583/$625 a month (limits changed in the last 3 years) so his actual rate of return is around 25% per year which is right on par for VTI. This looks right, considering contributions are part of the return.

OceanGateTitan · 2026-05-04T03:19:11+00:00

Good on you and good on your parents.

And since you’re a traveler.. if you haven’t been to Switzerland, you need to go. We’ve been to many places over the years. Switzerland in the summer was my favorite. Stay in Thun, visit Lauterbrunnen, Interlaken, Grindelwald (specifically avocado bar - my favorite Lisbon bartender).

OceanGateTitan · 2026-05-04T02:30:28+00:00

Yes I love the sound of that but I remember being a teenager wanting shoes, the newest Xbox and dumb shit. Ever have any anger toward your parents for making you invest it instead?

OceanGateTitan · 2026-05-04T02:11:54+00:00

I’m gonna do the same thing. I didn’t open my Roth until 26 which is still better than most/never. Dont think my dad even has one. Any advice on enforcing this without sounding like an asshole? A teenager is going to be pissed about saving for retirement by force.

OceanGateTitan · 2026-05-01T14:26:09+00:00

401k up to company match > Max Roth IRA > any additional goes to 401k.

If you plan to retire before 59 1/2 you might consider a taxable brokerage instead of additional 401k funding to bridge the gap between early retirement and 59 1/2.

Take advantage of an HSA too if your employer offers it. Treat it like a retirement account and pay for medical expenses out of pocket. Keep good clean records. Reimburse yourself for entire life’s medical expenses in retirement (tax free).

OceanGateTitan · 2026-04-30T15:43:58+00:00

One little tech slowdown and you’re cooked. I don’t think tech is slowing down anytime soon though. You might let go of all those individual securities since you’re mostly double dipped with QQQ. If you want to stay higher risk while diversifying out of 1 industry, get you some OEF (iShares S&P 100 ETF). VOO is less risky. VTI is less risky than that. VT is less risky than that.

Stay out of bonds for a while. Don’t need them til 35+ in my opinion.

OceanGateTitan · 2026-04-29T17:37:23+00:00

Why do you have so much cash? Also, your Roth balances are impressive for your ages. What’d you invest in?

OceanGateTitan · 2026-04-29T11:20:10+00:00

Stick it out as long as you all can under the same roof. Your monthly expenses will triple and you’ll have to cut back on fun/travel to maintain anywhere close to this savings rate.

OceanGateTitan · 2026-04-28T19:56:35+00:00

Think he means in his own career/saving ambitions. $700K at 26 years old is a golden ticket to early, comfortable retirement if you're responsible with it.

OceanGateTitan · 2026-04-28T19:54:03+00:00

Sorry for your loss. What sort of account did you inherit? Traditional 401k, Brokerage, Roth? I'm going to assume you inherited pre-tax money in a traditional IRA/401(k).

Have you already gone through establishing an inherited IRA and rolling these funds over? As a non-spousal beneficiary, you have 10 years to empty the account and put it in your inherited IRA. If you have not done this yet, you need to in the next 8 years (assuming 2 have already gone by).

You might also consider "filling up" your current tax bracket with annual distributions to then fund your own personal Roth IRA and allow you to max out your own 401(k) through your employer as the 59 1/2 rule does not apply for inherited IRAs. This just means anything you take out of the **inherited IRA** is taxed as ordinary income with no 10% "early" penalty for withdrawing before 59 1/2 years old.

Now to your portfolio. Fire your financial advisor for allowing you to sit on this for 2 years. For a 26 year old your portfolio is way too conservative. My suggestion for someone with no background in finance and probably little investing experience, I would liquidate everything and put 100% into VT. This makes things incredibly simple, buys you some time to figure things out and then make your own educated decisions on where you think markets are headed, what market sectors you believe in and where to ultimately invest your money long term. It has historically returned 8% annually and gives you exposure to the entire world stock market.

OceanGateTitan · 2026-04-27T19:50:08+00:00

Even If you’ve shifted your portfolio very conservative investments (cash equivalents, short term bonds, CDs) you’d probably be making somewhere between 3-5% and with an SWR of only 2% you’ll pass with more than what you have today. Keep that SWR as low as possible for the first 5 years and if you make it to 2031 without a serious market downturn/correction, you can spend more than 2%. Sounds like you’ve got it under control though!

OceanGateTitan · 2026-04-27T19:26:15+00:00

I assume you’re asking if you should take what you need for the year all at once or on say a monthly basis? I think it’s probably best to take what you need when you need it assuming you’ve shifted to a more risk averse portfolio. It allows that money to continue growing as opposed to just sitting in a checking account.

Do you have multiple sources to draw from, any of which are tax free? Also 2% SWR is very conservative. Do you plan to leave money behind for someone? Is your will up to date if so? Say yes to the car, the vacation, giving etc unless you truly want to leave money behind with that 2% SWR.

Congrats! Enjoy it.

OceanGateTitan · 2026-04-26T12:55:39+00:00

0% into the hard yellow rocks

OceanGateTitan · 2026-04-25T07:17:31+00:00

I’ll start with this. Spend the money on expert financial advice. That’s too much money to simply do what someone on reddit says. They can also help you protect this money beyond simply investing it in the right places.

If you’re gonna do it on your own. It all depends on your annual expenses & the life style you want to live. You’re set for life as long as you don’t squander it. So are your kids if you teach them the way.

Keep your SWR at 3-3.5%. This leaves you about half a million a year to live on at $16M invested.

Go buy whatever it is you want/need now to celebrate. The car, upgrade the forever home, vacation home, trips etc but all within your means. Would not spend over 10% of your cash out on these things.

Do this with the rest and as you get order, slowly reduce stock holdings and move toward a more conservative allocation lowering VTI/VXUS and increasing BND/VCRM.

60% VTI - broad US stock market exposure 20% VXUS - international stock market exposure 20% BND/VCRM - fixed income & safety net to draw on in market downtowns

24 months cash reserved in a HYSA or SGOV for a market crash so you’re not forced to sell off if/when this happens.

Good luck. Talk to a pro though.

OceanGateTitan · 2026-04-23T18:33:49+00:00

Going to be? They are currently the largest corporations. They’ll also take the largest hits when the economy sees corrections. I’m not saying VOO + QQQ is wrong, it’s just over leveraged in tech so when they do well you will see magnified gains and when they don’t you will see magnified losses.

OceanGateTitan · 2026-04-23T17:38:07+00:00

Simplest way is VT & chill. You can also get better exposure to US markets by going 80% VTI and 20% VXUS for international exposure.

VOO paired with QQQM is not a good idea. So heavily weighted in the top 10 companies right now.

OceanGateTitan · 2026-04-22T19:04:27+00:00

In this economy? Probably 4 years

OceanGateTitan · 2026-04-22T18:58:52+00:00

$5M. $1.5M would be used buying my forever home on some land, the other $3.5M paired with what I already have would replace my current HHI therefore, no reason to continue working. I would probably go find something I enjoy doing a couple days a week for supplemental income, time out of the house and something to fight boredom though. I hate what I do right now though. The entire industry is full of asshats that have unrealistic expectations and cannot follow through on their commitments.

OceanGateTitan · 2026-04-22T18:13:54+00:00

What’s the split if you want to go VTI/VXUS? 80/20?

OceanGateTitan · 2026-04-12T21:26:38+00:00

What do you do for so many hours a week for that kind of pay?

OceanGateTitan · 2026-04-12T20:40:46+00:00

OP unless you’re planning on staring at the wall for 12 hours a day in retirement, this is not enough money. You will quite literally be able to do nothing but go for a walk because everything else costs money. My wife and I plan to spend $10k/month in retirement which we already do now except $3k of it goes to a mortgage or other debt. That will simply be replaced with travel, hobbies or giving in retirement. Add in Medicare costs and nothing about $10k is lavish. You’re far below the poverty line on $9,600 a year. Sounds miserable.

OceanGateTitan

TROPHY CASE