xricebunny wrote: Thu Sep 11, 2025 2:22 pm
Hi all! Wanted to get a portfolio review of how I’m doing – I’ve been doing a lot of DIY investing / researching on my own but wanted to be more rigorous / crowdsource some ideas and anywhere I can improve (particularly on tax efficiency and alternative investments).I earned my money through my career (finance – investment banking) and some small side hustles (career coaching / resume reviews) and have achieved $1M net worth a few weeks ago – life hasn’t changed dramatically since hitting the milestone but it definitely has a lot since I graduated college. My details are below. Thank you for taking a look and for your feedback!
Emergency funds: Three to six months of expenses; about $10k on hand (sometimes dips a bit lower depending on when my credit cards are paid) but generally do not try to keep more than that given most emergencies I can put on my card and tend to not engage in high risk activities anyways
Debt: $560K mortgage @ 6% on an apartment condo in San Francisco. Paid about maybe $10K of the principal
Tax Filing Status: Single
Tax Rate: 35% Federal, 10% State (estimates)
State of Residence: CA
Age: 28
Desired Asset allocation: 95% stocks / 5% bonds
Desired International allocation: 20% of stocks (flexible)
Total portfolio is a touch above / below ~$1M depending on the day in the markets.
Current retirement assets
My 401k from old employer – $330K
I quit this job in 2022 and haven’t bothered to roll it into an IRA or another account (there are some admin fees but I’m worried about any tax implications moving this out)
50% Blackrock mutual fund (forget which)
25% 2060 Target Date Fund
25% International growth fund
Expense ratios are relatively low (around 0.1-0.25%)
Roth IRA at Fidelity – $100K
5% FNILX (0%)
25% FSKAX (0%)
25% FZROX (0%)
15% QQQ
10% XLK
5% IVV
15% QQQJ
SEP IRA at Fidelity – $80K
2.5% ARTY
2.5% BTCI
10% FTEC
10% QQQ
5% QQQI
5% SPYI
10% TRTFX
30% VGT
20% VGI
Taxable Brokerage at Fidelity – $300K
2.5% ARTY
2.5% BTCI
10% FTEC
10% QQQ
5% QQQI
5% SPYI
10% TRTFX
30% VGT
20% VGI
_______________________________________________________________
Note: Total percentage of all the above accounts together (not each account individually) should equal 100%.
Contributions
New annual Contributions
Maximize $7K for 2026 Roth IRA (Backdoor)
Maximize $69K SEP IRA (half is employer match)
Available funds
Taxable Brokerage at Betterment – $150K
Automated robo advisor investing; returns on this have been abysmal but I can’t take it out without paying taxes given I’m still earning income
Private equity co-invest- $75K
Illiquid investment with a prior employer; probably will realize in 3-5 years but not sure what return (modestly a 15% IRR?)
Coinbase (Crypto) – $10K
$5k in BTC
$2k in ETH
$3k in random memecoins
Cost basis of this was about ~$8k
Questions:
1. I haven’t gone through other big life milestones (e.g. getting married, having kids) – is there anything I should keep in mind for expenses around those times? Honestly on the fence about having kids given the cost in this current day and where I live.
2. Is is realistic to retire early (e.g. at 40) and how much should I weight towards saving / investing today and when I can take my foot off the gas a bit? I was quite aggressive on saving in my early career years and feel like it has paid off and want to continue. However my career is demanding and I don’t see myself doing it forever, I would probably keep a similar level of expenditure (~$80-100k annual spending).
3. Is there anything else I can do to maximize my wealth building over time that doesn’t require me to work incrementally more / is somewhat or all passive? Was looking into real estate but feels high touch.
#2 would inform my planning. I like https://tpawplanner.com/ for planning my early retirement withdrawals. Answering “is it realistic” depends on how much you want (or need) to spend in retirement, anticipating the big milestones you list in #1. For instance, I retired at 37 around $1.6m that’s now up to around $2m but given the long time period of withdrawals am aiming at a low withdrawal rate, around 2.5% a year or less, which would be $$50k a year. But if you’re looking to spend $100k a year consistently then maybe you should shoot for north of $3.5 million, around $4.
As to the rest of the portfolio, I think it’s overly complicated. I’d try to have everything reduced down into 3-4 funds. You’ll get a lot of feedback on that from most other Boglehead posters – about keeping things simple. That could look like having 90% of your money in VTI (a total market fund) and a small amount in bonds. Although frankly when I was 28 I was 100% into equities knowing I’d be working for much longer.
On Betterment: Get clear on what you are actually invested in. I am actually a fan of Betterment. But their basic portfolio spreads money across like 7 different ETFs. If you wanted to quit roboadvising you could transfer those ETFs into another Brokerage and slowly exit out of the positions. But it probably isn’t that bad, probably a mix of US equities, international, and bonds. The terrible returns are probably because it was more diversified.
On some of your other investments: it seems like you are heavily weighted to tech, top 100 US companies and maybe crypto. That might work out or it might not. Most are going to tell you to diversify and not “bet” on one sector doing well.
On your old 401k: you aren’t going to have tax issues because it will roll into a Traditional IRA. I’d exit out of whatever that mutual fund is unless it’s something you are doing purposefully.
My guess is that overall the fees across all these funds are what will do you more harm than good.
