Re-balance Cycle Reminder All MyPlanIQ’s newsletters are archived here.
Regular AAC (Asset Allocation Composite), SAA and TAA portfolios are always rebalanced on the first trading day of a month. the next re-balance will be on Monday October 2, 2023.
As a reminder to expert users: advanced portfolios are still re-balanced based on their original re-balance schedules and they are not the same as those used in Strategic and Tactical Asset Allocation (SAA and TAA) portfolios of a plan.
How To Fully Utilize Self-Directed IRAs For Retirement Investments
Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) represent specialized investment accounts within brokerages. Presently, virtually all major brokerages, such as Fidelity, Schwab, and Vanguard, offer no-fee IRA options. Over the past decade, IRAs have grown significantly more appealing, largely owing to the accessibility of commission-free ultra-low-cost (index) ETFs. In this newsletter, we will delve into the details of harnessing IRAs for retirement investments.
IRA Types
Briefly, there are three major types of IRAs: Traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, and SEP IRAs that have distinctive features and benefits:
Traditional IRAs: Traditional IRAs are one of the most prevalent retirement savings vehicles. They operate on a tax-deferred basis, allowing individuals to contribute pre-tax income, reducing their current taxable income. This tax advantage can be particularly beneficial during your working years when your income is typically higher. As the funds grow within the account, they remain tax-sheltered until you begin withdrawing them in retirement. At that point, you will pay income taxes on your withdrawals at whatever tax rate you have at that time. Ideally you would hope to have a lower tax rate than during your earning years (which is not always the case if you have large sum of investment income and IRA withdrawals). Traditional IRAs are well-suited for those who anticipate a lower tax bracket in retirement and wish to take advantage of tax deductions during their working years. Normally, a typical 401k account is rolled over to a traditional IRA.
Roth IRAs: Roth IRAs, in contrast, focus on tax-free growth. Contributions to a Roth IRA are made with after-tax dollars, meaning there is no immediate tax deduction. However, the major advantage lies in the fact that qualified withdrawals from a Roth IRA, including both contributions and earnings, are entirely tax-free in retirement. This makes Roth IRAs an excellent choice for individuals who anticipate being in a similar or higher tax bracket when they retire, as they can enjoy tax-free income during their golden years. Additionally, Roth IRAs offer flexibility by allowing penalty-free withdrawals of contributions at any time, providing a measure of financial security and versatility. However, stringent restrictions exist regarding the amount and manner in which contributions can be made to a Roth IRA.
SEP IRAs (Simplified Employee Pension IRAs): SEP IRAs are designed primarily for self-employed individuals and small business owners. These accounts enable employers (or so called solo entrepreneur) to make contributions to their own retirement accounts, as well as those of their employees, in a tax-advantaged manner. Contributions to SEP IRAs are typically tax-deductible for employers, making them an attractive option for businesses looking to provide retirement benefits to their staff. SEP IRAs are relatively easy to set up and maintain, with flexible contribution limits that can scale with the business’s financial performance. Compared with a typical 401k account, SEP IRAs offer higher limit of contributions and flexibility of investments in an IRA brokerage account.
All of these IRAs share one major benefit or feature: they are brokerage accounts that can invest virtually into all of the major ETFs (other than some highly risky leveraged and inverse ETFs), mutual funds and stocks.
Rollover from 401k to IRAs
In Pros and Cons of Rollover from a 401(k) to a Self-Directed IRA, we have detailed some of tor pros and cons of rolling over (moving) your 401k account to an IRA when you leave your job (note: you can’t rollover your 401k account with your current employer when you are still with the employer). We want to emphasize that there are two somewhat obscure benefits for remaining in your old 401k account:
- Legal protection: while your 401(k) or other employer-based retirement plan may enjoy federal protection in a lawsuit, it’s important to note that IRA protections are subject to state regulations, potentially leaving your retirement funds vulnerable to being used for covering damages in a lawsuit.
- Loan: Another advantage of remaining within a 401(k) plan is the potential ability to secure an emergency loan when necessary (Note, this is subject to your former employer’s approval). In general, IRS doesn’t allow you to take a loan from your IRAs. On the other hand, notice that the maximum loan you can borrow from your 401(k) account is $50,000.
- Special investments from a 401(k): aside from some close to new investors mutual funds such as T.Rowe Price Capital Appreciation fund that was closed to new investors in 2017 (but still open to a 401(k) investor if it’s available in that plan), another frequently mentioned advantage of a 401(k) is the potential access to stable value funds, which are insured to ensure higher interest returns while preserving cash value. However, with the availability of some excellent Treasury bill ETFs, this advantage may no longer hold true. We’ll delve into this topic in more detail later on.
How to fully utilize IRAs for retirement investments
Let’s explore how to leverage the resources within a brokerage IRA to build better investment portfolios for retirement:
Ultra-low cost (index) ETFs or mutual funds
Certain sizable 401(k) plans have the capacity to negotiate remarkably low costs for specific funds, particularly pooled separate accounts or collective investments. In essence, fund management companies like the Capital Group craft such investment vehicles, often mirroring their existing mutual funds but with significantly reduced expenses. Nevertheless, in the present landscape, it’s entirely possible to assemble a portfolio with expenses as low as 0.03% that’s almost impossible to match by any separate account or collective investment instruments in a 401(k) plan:
Ultra low-cost ETFs that cover major stock and bond asset classes:
Ticker | Fund | Expense Ratio | AUM |
VTI | Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF | 0.03% | $288.78B |
VOO | Vanguard S&P 500 ETF | 0.03% | $286.59B |
BND | Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF | 0.03% | $88.98B |
AGG | iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF | 0.03% | $86.60B |
ITOT | iShares Core S&P U.S. Total Stock Market ETF | 0.03% | $42.13B |
SCHX | Schwab U.S. Large-Cap ETF | 0.03% | $32.13B |
SCHB | Schwab U.S. Broad Market ETF | 0.03% | $22.13B |
STIP | iShares 0-5 Year TIPS Bond ETF | 0.03% | $13.09B |
SCHO | Schwab U.S. Short-Term U.S. Treasury ETF | 0.03% | $13.06B |
SCHR | Schwab Intermediate-Term U.S. Treasury ETF | 0.03% | $7.83B |
For example, you can construct a 60% VTI 40% BND balanced portfolio that only pays 0.03% expense. This is actually lower than 0.07% of Vanguard Balanced Index Fund Admiral Shares (VIBAX) or 0.18% of VBINX!
Simply put, there isn’t much cost advantage for 401k plans, compared with IRAs.
Much more availability of good active ETFs
It used to be that mutual funds from famed investment managers such as Capital Group or Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) only provide their mutual funds to certain 401(k) plans, as well as to investment advisor managed accounts (taxable or tax deferred). However, now that these funds start to become available as ETFs (see February 27, 2023: Dimensional Fund Advisors and Capital Group ETFs), investors can only get a lot more good funds from a brokerage in their IRA account. For example, one can utilize CGXU (Capital Group International Focus Equity ETF) and DFAE (DFA Emerging Core Equity Market ETF) in a portfolio in an IRA. In a 401(k) plan, it’s more likely that only Capital Group funds or DFA (Dimensional Fund Advisors) funds are accessible, but typically not both.
Speaking of good active ETFs, in fixed income, in a major brokerage, you can find many excellent actively managed bond funds available. For example, in an IRA in Schwab, you can invest in these funds
This used to be one of the advantages offered by certain 401(k) plans, providing access to exceptional fixed income funds. However, this advantage has largely diminished or disappeared.
Excellent short-term investments
In a 401(k) plan, one often sees the availability of retirement income funds or stable value funds. These funds usually provide higher interests than one usually gets from a fund available in a brokerage account. Stable value funds usually guarantee or preserve their value, thus basically are cash-like. However, as what we have repetitively pointed out in the past, there are so many excellent money market ETFs or mutual funds available in an IRA (see Cash And Money Market ETFs Review). In fact, just for Treasury Cash-like ETFs, the latest yields are:
Symbol (Name) | Expense | Asset Size | Maximum Drawdown | SEC Yield |
---|---|---|---|---|
BIL (SPDR Barclays 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF) | 0.14% | 29B | -0.14% | 5.21% |
SGOV (iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF) | 0.03% | 10B | 0% | 5.34% |
USFR (WisdomTree Floating Rate Treasury Fund) | 0.15% | 15B | -0.05% | 5.38% |
TFLO (iShares Treasury Floating Rate Bond ETF) | 0.15% | 5.8B | -0.06% | 5.35% |
CASH (CASH) | N/A | 0% | ||
VMFXX (Vanguard federal money market) | 0.15% | 238B | NA | 5.29% |
SPAXX (Fidelity Government Money Market) | 0.42% | 256B | NA | 4.98% |
So one can see that with extremely low expense: 0.03% vs. 0.42% of SPAXX or 0.2%-0.5% a typical money market fund charges, these cash-like ETFs are almost unrivaled.
Lastly, it’s difficult to resist commenting on the high expense ratio of a money market mutual fund. It’s somewhat astonishing to think that money market funds, such as Vanguard’s VMFXX, charge considerably higher fees than those associated with broad-based stock index funds like VTI or bond index funds like BND. Well, generating a favorable spread from cash remains a significant revenue source for brokerages like Schwab!
Excellent general purpose fixed income investments
As alluded above, one can often access to excellent fixed income mutual funds from an IRA in a major brokerage, It’s also possible to get many similar ETFs. Using these funds, one can construct a good fixed income portfolio. For example, the portfolios mentioned on our Fixed Income Investors page utilize excellent total return bond funds (or ETFs) as candidate funds and employ a tactical strategy. They have consistently outperformed even the best total return fixed income funds such as DoubleLine total return fund or PIMCO Income or PIMCO total return bond funds for more than a decade!
The following funds are available in Schwab and used as candidate funds for the Schwab Total Return Bond portfolio:
Intermediate-Term Bond | PBDAX | PIMCO Investment Grade Corp Bd A |
Intermediate-Term Bond | PDBZX | Prudential Total Return Bond Z |
Multisector Bond | PONAX | PIMCO Income A |
Intermediate-Term Bond | DLTNX | DoubleLine Total Return Bond N |
Intermediate-Term Bond | WABRX | Western Asset Core Bond R |
Intermediate-Term Bond | TGMNX | TCW Total Return Bond N |
Intermediate-Term Bond | PTTAX | PIMCO Total Return A |
Intermediate-Term Bond | MWTRX | Metropolitan West Total Return Bond M |
Multisector Bond | LSBRX | Loomis Sayles Bond Retail |
Constructing sound balanced asset allocation portfolios
In an IRA, investors have the opportunity to build a portfolio using the following approach:
For stocks, they can employ excellent ultra-low-cost stock index ETFs and, with some discretion, consider active stock ETFs offered by Capital Group or Dimensional Fund Advisors (It’s important to note that strictly speaking, DFA funds are still considered index funds, or they can be viewed as enhanced index funds rather than actively managed funds. The only difference is that DFA does not open its indexes to other third party).
For bonds, they can make use of outstanding total return bond mutual funds, managed by managers who have been recipients of the Morningstar Manager of the Year award, or opt for their ETF counterparts. One can create either a standalone fixed-income portfolio or design a blended stock and bond portfolio using a strategy like MyPlanIQ’s asset allocations strategies (such as Asset Allocation Composite (AAC) or Strategic Asset Allocation (SAA).
In summary, by fully utilizing the resources available through a brokerage in an IRA, including a wide array of ETFs and possibly some mutual funds, individuals can structure a significantly improved investment portfolio compared to a typical 401(k) account.
Market Overview
One of the prominent developments in financial markets is the recent swift ascent of the 10-year Treasury yield:
With short-term interest rates reaching as high as 5.5%, the notable increase in long-term bond rates, currently at 4.5% for 10-year Treasury yields, has led to a substantial rise in borrowing costs for businesses. Many businesses depend on long-term borrowing to fund various activities, including capital expenditures and long-term leases for buildings and machinery, among others. Additionally, consumers are feeling the pressure as well, with 30-year fixed mortgage rates reaching their highest levels since 2000, soaring as high as 8%:
We believe that the simultaneous increase in interest rates at both the short and long ends carries immense significance, and it has the potential to severely decelerate the economy. The key question at this juncture is whether the slowdown occurs too swiftly before the Federal Reserve can pivot and reverse its tightening policy. If the economy experiences a sharp derailment, it could have detrimental effects on equity markets, particularly considering their current highly overvalued levels.
As always, we claim no crystal ball and we call for staying the course which is guided by the well defined and sound strategic and tactical strategies:
- For strategic allocation (buy and hold) investors, ignore the current market behavior. Remember, as we have emphasized numerous times, when you choose and commit to a strategic portfolio, you essentially know and commit that your investment horizon (or the time you need to utilize this capital) is 20 years, preferably much longer, given the current high valuation. As we pointed out, if your investments are those diversified (index) funds such as an S&P 500 index fund (VFINX, for example), you know your money is in some solid ‘business’ that eventually (20 years later and preferably many more years later) will deliver some reasonable returns. As long as you are comfortable with this thesis, you should sit tight and forget about the current gyration.
- For tactical investors, again, you have to ignore the current market noise. Furthermore, you should follow your strategy rigorously, especially during this time. Human emotion, both optimistic and pessimistic, and human desire, both greedy and fearful, are your worst enemies. This is true time and time again.
Stock valuation has dropped, and now valuation is becoming less hostile. However, it is still not cheap by historical standards. For the moment, we believe it’s prudent to be extra cautious. However, how serious a correction might be, we have confidence in the US economy in the long term and thus in the stocks in aggregate. We just need to manage through interim losses carefully.
We again would like to emphasize that for any new investor and new money, the best way to step into this kind of market is through dollar cost average (DCA), i.e., invest and/or follow a model portfolio in several phases (such as 2 or 3 months) instead of the whole sum at one shot.
Struggling to Select Investments for Your 401(k), IRA, or Brokerage Accounts?
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- March 6, 2017: Asset Classes for Retirement Investments
- February 27, 2017: Fidelity Total Bond Fund Review
- February 20, 2017: Long Term Stock Timing Based Portfolios And Their Roles
- February 13, 2017: Alternative Investment Portfolios Review
- February 6, 2017: Tax Free Municipal Bond Investments Review
- January 30, 2017: Brokerage Specific Conservative Portfolios
- January 23, 2017: Fixed Income Portfolio Review
- January 16, 2017: Long Term Trend Following Portfolio Review
- January 9, 2017: Tactical Asset Allocation Review
- January 3, 2017: Strategic Asset Allocation Review
- December 12, 2016: Enhanced Index Funds
- December 5, 2016: Review Of Broad Base Core Mutual Funds For Brokerages
- November 28, 2016: Core Index ETFs Review
- November 21, 2016: International Exposure Of U.S. Large Companies
- November 14, 2016: Asset Trends After The Election
- November 7, 2016: Rising Rate And Current Bond Trend
- October 31, 2016: Economy Power And Long Term Stock Returns
- October 24, 2016: Current Commodity Trend And Managed Futures
- October 17, 2016: Investment Mistakes And Good Or Bad Investment Strategies
- October 10, 2016: Momentum Investing Review
- October 3, 2016: Survey & Feedback
- September 26, 2016: Fixed Income Investing: Actively Managed Funds vs. Index Funds
- September 19, 2016: Stock Investing: Actively Managed Funds vs. Index Funds
- September 12, 2016: Newsletter Update
- September 5, 2016: Overvalued Markets And Long Term Timing Strategies
- August 29, 2016: Your 401K Finally Draws Attention
- August 22, 2016: Inflation Protected Securities TIPS For Current Overvalued Markets
- August 15, 2016: Risk On: Emerging Market Stocks And Small Cap Stocks
- August 8, 2016: Portfolio Construction Using Stock ETFs And Bond Mutual Funds
- August 1, 2016: Adding Value To Your Own Investments
- July 25, 2016: Tactical Asset Allocation Funds Review
- July 18, 2016: Strategic Asset Allocation & Lazy Portfolio Review
- July 11, 2016: Asset Trend Review
- June 27, 2016: Secular Cycles For Tactical And Strategic Investment Strategies
- June 20, 2016: A World of Debt
- June 13, 2016: Managed Futures For Portfolio Building
- June 6, 2016: Newsletter Summary
- May 30, 2016: Swensen Portfolio And Permanent Portfolios
- May 23, 2016: AAII Article And Some Web Changes
- May 16, 2016: The PIMCO (Dis)Advantages
- May 9, 2016: Boost Your Dull Summer Investments
- May 2, 2016: Low Cost Index Fund Investing
- April 25, 2016: Tax Free Municipal Bond Funds & Portfolios
- April 18, 2016: Asset Class Trend Review
- April 11, 2016: Construction of Sound And Conservative Portfolios
- March 28, 2016: Total Return Bond ETFs Review
- March 21, 2016: Small And Large Company Stock Performance In Different Economic Expansion Cycles
- March 14, 2016: Are Tactical And Timing Strategies Losing Steam?
- March 7, 2016: Defined Maturity Bond Fund Analysis
- February 29, 2016: Smart Strategic Asset Allocation Rebalance When Market Trend Changes
- February 22, 2016: Be Cash Smart
- February 15, 2016: Bond ETF Portfolios
- February 8, 2016: Newsletter Collection Update
- February 1, 2016: Total Return Bond Fund Portfolios In A Volatile Period
- January 25, 2016: Alternative Portfolios Review
- January 18, 2016: Strategic Asset Allocation: A Cautious Outlook
- January 11, 2016: Review Of Trend Following Tactical Asset Allocation
- January 4, 2016: What Worked And Didn’t In 2015
- December 21, 2015: Distressed Assets
- December 14, 2015: High Yield Bonds And Their Correlation With Stocks
- December 7, 2015: Diversification And Global Allocation
- November 30, 2015: Investors and Speculators Combined
- November 23, 2015: Active Stock Fund Performance Consistency
- November 16, 2015: Permanent, Risk Parity And Alternative Portfolios Review
- November 9, 2015: Broad Base Core Mutual Fund Review
- November 2, 2015: Broad Base Index Core ETFs Review
- October 26, 2015: Total Return Bond Fund Review
- October 19, 2015: Advanced Portfolio Review
- October 12, 2015: What About Commodities?
- October 5, 2015: Core Satellite Portfolios In A 401k Account
- September 28, 2015: Risk Managed Strategic Asset Allocation Portfolios Revisited
- September 21, 2015: Quest For The Best Investment Strategy
- September 14, 2015: Core Satellite Portfolios In Market Turmoil
- September 7, 2015: Market Rout Creates An Opportunity to Reposition Your Portfolios
- August 31, 2015: Review of Asset Allocation Funds and Portfolios
- August 24, 2015: Market Rout And Your Portfolios
- August 17, 2015: ETF or Mutual Fund Based Portfolios
- August 10, 2015: Updated Newsletter Collection
- August 3, 2015: Slippery Asset Trends
- July 27, 2015: Performance Dispersion Among Momentum Based Portfolios
- July 20, 2015: Global Balanced Portfolio Benchmarks
- July 13, 2015: Pain in Tactical Portfolios
- July 6, 2015: Fixed Income Total Return Bond Funds In Strategic Asset Allocation Portfolios
- June 29, 2015: Core ETF Commission Free Portfolios
- June 22, 2015: Secular Asset Trends
- June 15, 2015: Giving Up Bonds?
- June 1, 2015: Summer Blues?
- May 26, 2015: Cash, Bonds and Stocks In A Rising Rate Environment
- May 18, 2015: Portfolio Update
- May 11, 2015: Pain in Fixed Income?
- May 4, 2015: The Balanced Stock and Long Term Treasury Bond Portfolios
- April 27, 2015: Long Term Treasury Bond Behavior
- April 20, 2015: 529 College Savings Plan Rebalance Policy Change
- April 13, 2015: Total Return Bond Funds As Smart Cash
- April 6, 2015: The Low Return Environment
- March 30, 2015: Brokerage Specific Core Mutual Fund Portfolios 2
- March 23, 2015: Investment Arithmetic for Long Term Investments
- March 16, 2015: Brokerage Specific Core Mutual Fund Portfolios
- March 9, 2015: Newsletter Collection Update
- March 2, 2015: Total Return Bond ETFs
- February 23, 2015: Why Is Global Tactical Asset Allocation Not Popular?
- February 16, 2015: Where Are Permanent Portfolios Going?
- February 9, 2015: How Have Asset Allocation Funds Done?
- February 2, 2015: Risk Management Everywhere
- January 26, 2015: Composite Portfolios Review
- January 19, 2015: Fixed Income Investing Review
- January 12, 2015: How Does Trend Following Tactical Asset Allocation Strategy Deliver Returns
- January 5, 2015: When Forecast Fails
- December 22, 2014: Long Term Asset Returns: How Long Is Long?
- December 15, 2014: Beaten Down Assets
- December 8, 2014: Implementing Core Asset Portfolios In a Brokerage
- December 1, 2014: Two Key Issues of Investment Strategies
- November 24, 2014: Holiday Readings
- November 17, 2014: Retirement Spending Portfolios Update
- November 10, 2014: Fixed Income Or Cash
- November 3, 2014: Asset Trend Review
- October 27, 2014: Investment Loss, Mistakes And Market Cycles
- October 20, 2014: Strategic Portfolios With Managed Volatility
- October 13, 2014: Embrace Volatility
- October 6, 2014: Tips For 401k Open Enrollment
- September 29, 2014: What Can We Learn From Bill Gross’ Departure From PIMCO?
- September 22, 2014: Why Total Return Bond Funds?
- September 15, 2014: Equity And Total Return Bond Fund Composite Portfolios
- September 8, 2014: Momentum Based Portfolios Review
- September 1, 2014: Risk & Diversification: Mint.com Interview
- August 25, 2014: Remember Risk
- August 18, 2014: Consistency, The Most Important Edge In Investing: Tactical Case
- August 11, 2014: What To Do In Overvalued Stock Markets
- August 4, 2014: Is This The Peak Or Correction?
- July 28, 2014: Stock Musings
- July 21, 2014: Permanent Portfolios & Four Pillar Foundation Based Framework
- July 14, 2014: Composite Portfolios Review
- July 7, 2014: Portfolio Behavior During Market Corrections
- June 30, 2014: Half Year Brokerage ETF and Mutual Fund Portfolios Review
- June 23, 2014: Newsletter Collection Update
- June 16, 2014: There Are Always Lottery Winners
- June 9, 2014: The Arithmetic of Investment Mistakes
- June 2, 2014: Tips On Portfolio Rebalance
- May 26, 2014: In Praise Of Low Cost Core Asset Class Based Portfolios
- May 19, 2014: Consistency, The Most Important Edge In Investing: Strategic Case
- May 12, 2014: How To Handle An Elevated Overvalued Market
- May 5, 2014: Asset Allocation Funds Review
- April 28, 2014: Now The Economy Backs To The ‘Old Normal’, Should Our Investments Too?
- April 21, 2014: Total Return Bond Investing In The Current Market Environment