Nice post. I could put total world in taxable but there is a tricky IRS rule I want to avoid. I reworked my asset allocation this year, because I think that my portfolio size now also allowes for some more granularity. So thanks again for the post, we now have something to work towards to simplify things when we do retire. I show a 100% VTSMX outperforming going back to 1997. Ironically, that’s when my card tool started earning more money so rather than use the cash to live on, like I had expected, I started accumulating more cash. But we got rid of all of them, the last one a few months before the outbreak. No regrets about the debts! I think over all, I did well, and I actually sold some bonds to buy stocks (rebalance/market time) and I also upped my 401k contributions and maxed out, rather than waiting on end of year. Apart from 1-year emergency fund (kept on high-yield saving account), this Vanguard ETF states for 100% of my investments. Have you ever thought of simply following a robo advisor portfolio or one based on the underlying modern portfolio theory? Most cards make you spend a certain amount within the first x months to get the signup bonus so you need to make sure you’ll be able to hit that amount without spending more than you normally would. Website . That was March 31st. I’ll explain how they trick me into doing the right things at the right times (and keep me from doing the wrong things). The thing is, you never know what’s going to happen or what bad things are already priced into the market. Honestly… The timing of everything this year has been such an incredible blessing. Namely, I had some cash on the side and used about 50% of it after the 15% dip. It will be tough to keep up to date with the latest and greatest offers, especially the more hidden public links. That way I can implement your bear market strategy mentioned above in down markets and build it back up to 5% during good times. 2) You mention using thepointsguy for valuation. If we open a new card, our utilization % will go down and this will look good on our credit score. The allocation numbers are different (I’m more conservative in my FI portfolio), but other similarities: – Rebalancing with new money Something about momentum. Keep em coming. Like if I had done it on Thursday last week, today they would already be out of whack. Thanks for the recommendation. Wish I had that – ooooohhhh – say around 2-3 months ago…?? Thank you for this. Create New Account. I actually felt quite a bit uncomfortable with such a flash crash. Do you have a recommended way of keeping track of all of the requirements and such. Thank you for making and sharing this! Set it up when you’re thinking clearly, then follow the rules! But then wouldn’t you know it the market started going back up. Thank you for this awesome tool and for the post and email! The good thing about this plan is that I’m happy anywhere in my range so if markets don’t revisit the March lows, I at least deployed a big chunk of my cash and will benefit from the recovery. All you need to do is fill in the green boxes with your settings and the spreadsheet will automatically calculate the price targets and number of shares to buy at each target. Thanks for taking the time to create The Mad Travel Cards tool, totally awesome. I behaved exactly like you, except maybe that I caught your 2008 version of the falling knife :). But…. I am guilty of trying to time the market this time round. So I met her while I was studying over here. If stocks hit new lows before this virus is finished, I can sell bonds until I hit 10% and then, when stocks start increasing again, I can slowly build up my bond balance until I hit 20% (hopefully right when the stock market tops out again next time). … I do something very similar. Hello, I have a small correction for the formulas in column F on the No-Sell Rebalance sheet: =MAX(IFERROR($D$2/$B$2,0),IFERROR($D$3/$B$3,0),IFERROR($D$4/$B$4,0))*B2. I can understand the current year’s expenses in cash if you don’t have income. I usually prepay my bills when I have a big spend requirement I’m trying to hit so that way, I’m just front-loading my expenses rather than increasing them. I’ve read other FIRE bloggers state up to 3-4 years worth of expenses in cash. So I wonder if this is the right fund to use for efficient frontier purposes. When using the spreadsheet No-Sell Rebalancing tab, I noticed if you put in a large “To Invest” amount (anything over the total “To Fully Rebalance” column) the spreadsheet gave inaccurate “To Invest Now” amounts. That’s why I now set up limit orders whenever I expect a volatile open. Object serialization used by black lace. I have a great credit history and I’d love to take advantage of travel hacking, but I’m not sure if Canadians have the same great options you guys do down south in this case. Would I ever pay that much for a drink? At inception, in 2008, VT share price was $50, to give you some perspective. I did not see how your system can deal with this. Limit orders are great because often, especially in extremely volatile times like these, your orders can get filled at prices even lower than the limit price you set. I’ve also set limit orders for VT (I mostly invest in a world stocks ETF, being myself a non-US resident), and constant monetary amounts for each purchase (like DCA). Or, if investors think things aren’t improving as fast a expected, stocks could take a big dive even when things in the economy are getting better. Great article! There is one minor difference, historically an 80% stock and 20% bond portfolio has had the highest overall returns. Make sure you have Javascript enabled! As Mike Tyson famously said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Now that you know how it feels to get punched in the mouth, where has your plan fallen over? Website . Always love the articles and podcasts! I’m just getting into this for the first time, hoping to get 100k United miles! Mad Fientist. How do you make sure your bonds are available when you need them? I am a big fan of your allocation set-up, as I follow a very similar % in my portfolio. Added it to my list so thanks for the recommendation! I’ve gone with the view that the USD is the reserve currency, and as such VT will be fine, just go global and stop trying to pick shares, countries, indices. I’d keep at least a year’s worth of expenses in cash, in case our income goes away, but I’d be fine using the rest of it to buy stocks. What a perfect addition to the website, Brandon. WEBSITE DESIGN PORTFOLIO. Ever think about creating an online application for Travel Hackers to track and manage the credit cards they’ve signed up for (i.e. I’ll explain more later about why my allocations are ranges (and why this has been beneficial recently). Each month, I plug my numbers into a spreadsheet and it tells me how out of whack my allocation is and what I need to buy to fix it. It looks like it’ll be a pretty cheap trip once I get this whole thing figured out. However, I decided to move my HSA from HSA Bank to Fidelity because they offer much lower maintenance fees. Sorry to contradict, but it sounds like you’re not fully understanding equities and equity risk vs bonds and fixed income risk. The Netherlands? I let the taxable account float with world market cap. I plan to slowly dial that up to 20% over the next 10 years. There are lots more options open now to New Zealanders to buy small amounts, regular investing, access to Vanguard funds etc than there were when I started out 8 years ago. It shouldn’t be hard to find a referral link around the internet that will let you try the premium version free for 6-months. I will definitely be revisiting this post as we determine our way ahead. By way of reference, I manually rebalance once, maybe twice, per year excluding the minor monthly rebalances I perform when I sell assets to fund my living expenses. A lot of people talk about the THEORY of living off investments in early retirement, but how do early retirees actually pay their bills? Thank you so much for this and making it even easier to evaluate credit card bonuses. Sometimes the cards also offer additional points or miles for authorized users, so some people also put their kids or spouses on that as well. But what if a new COVID-19 treatment gets approved tomorrow or something else happens that causes markets to keep going up from here? I have a slightly different approach to accumulation but we have less opportunity to travel. If you have a specific trip coming up you want to use miles for, it makes sense to research the best points to get where you want to go. We got to choose anything we wanted to study that involves chemistry. It’s easy to just throw a random number at a mortgage payment when markets are high. A lot of people will say to never pay down your mortgage and invest instead, but I want the peace of mind that comes with a paid for house. “No big deal”, I thought. Glad you enjoyed it, Art! I actually have over $18,000 worth of miles/points still sitting in my accounts that I can use for future travel. This and a few other articles got me started in the travel hacking game a little while back. So that money was going in but some of my reserves that I wanted to invest didnt get in like I wanted. I’ve accepted that I’m a fallible human. I’ve read a ton about travel hacking and started off VERY against opening many different lines of credit, but after all my research I’m convinced to start travel hacking. If the market ends up going below 40% the February highs, that’s when I start selling even more bonds to buy stocks. This is a very important and valuable article. 46 talking about this. I studied over here my junior year of university and I met my wife now. I settled on 72%/28% US/International for myself because 2s and 8s are nicer-colored numbers in my mind than the other options (I’m actually serious…this is why I try to take my ridiculous brain out of my investing decision-making as much as possible). Success! While today’s FI number might make it possible to maintain a comfortable, somewhat minimalist lifestyle indefinitely, I’m worried that one day I wish there was more money available for X that I hadn’t planned for. Create New Account. I’m assuming this is due to regular rebalancing? ~30% MSCI World Take a look at which miles the various travel bloggers recommend for your trip and if you see any posts from the travel blog, Travel Is Free, click those articles first because he’s the best when it comes to maximizing the value of miles/points. The basic version is probably enough for your average points collector though. I love the site but does it work with google chrome? It allows me to feel good about my actions (or inaction), even in times when my brain is screaming that I’m doing it wrong. Sadly, I don’t know much about the UK card scene, other than that the signup bonuses are nowhere near as high as they are in the States. I read/hear everywhere “buy the dips!” but also “don’t try to time the market, dollar cost average”. Maternal sensitive period? I love the structured rules based approach. Because I was buying 100-300 dollars at a time, I had lots with very few stocks. In March, I was wishing I had something similar in place. Wie Cyberrisiken die Industrie gefährden. A more innocuous point is that a few fantastic days can more than make up for many bad ones. Success! That “strategy” seems to have preserved my portfolio and my mental health. I sell stock or buy stocks, the price is what it is. https://secure.bankofamerica.com/applynow/initialize-workflow.go?requesttype=ICAO&campaignid=2121825, The currency stored in the portfolio isn’t taxed at all, It reduces the amount you need to withdraw from your investment portfolio during early retirement, Only apply for cards with spending requirements I can hit with normal spending, Accumulate flexible points unless I have a specific trip planned, Only pay annual fees when the benefits outweigh the costs, Keep at least one card from each issuer at all times, Which card I’d recommend you apply for at that time, The reasoning behind the card recommendation, Alerts for limited-time signup bonuses and offers. Madfientist! Travel hacking is something that interests me a lot, but I live in Canada, where there are fewer airlines and credit card companies. Great post! And somehow letting go of the illusion of any other control makes me much more relaxed about not having income from a job or an entrepreneurial pursuit. 03 Okt 2016. What if I told you there’s another portfolio you should also be managing? I got paid $23,000 by insurance, for a house that was already in need of some fixing up anyway. Do you slowly close them? Any future plans to have a Canadian version? The Vanguard website has all you need to know, but there are plenty of other convincing sources as well. I attempted travel hacking several times in the past (because of the lucrative returns) but find it too complex/confusing because of all the options and I think I don’t have the knack for it! If I run a backtest using VTSMX and VGTSX. And is it harmful to have several no-fee, downgraded cards (e.g. Some brief outperformance if you stop at 2008-2010, but not much. You can easily find the best flexible points cards with my credit-card search tool by clicking the buttons in the Flexible Points section at the top of the page. Bonds (VBTLX/BND) 5% Success! I’ve been on the Boglehead forums, but didn’t find anything to convince me otherwise. For my life situation: young child, full-time student, full-time employment and parents to care for, it is too much to manage with my limited time. Is is simply because you still have all your bank accounts based in the US so it is easy enough to open a credit card account? This is especially true once you’re no longer rebalancing by investing new money (i.e. The tail wind we have achieved from stock picking, mixed with some ETFs, has achieved a nearly 3% advantage over the S&P 500 benchmark, which leads to healthy compounded gains when we reach FI. I’ve been travel hacking for about 4 years now :). But your point of view makes inveting also a lot more complicated and also more expensive to invest. Instead of buying $80K of VTI at $109.50, I set a new target price of $107. I was about to comment the same, with the addition that given Brandon is living this side of the pond now he could add whatever he learned to the CC tool he built. I feel like I could have written this post. How could I buy stocks in this environment when things are looking worse than they were in early February? I just started travel hacking recently. Now just check your email to get your spreadsheet download link! Then it crashed and I momentarily forgot that was my plan. Note: Limit orders are stock buy/sell orders that specify a price target (e.g. Where do you park your money for the 2nd fund in your portfolio ( real estate/ large purchases). It kept going up and I kept waiting for the markets to make new lows. I have always followed JL Collins that its time in the market not timing the market and I should have stuck with that creed. I felt it maybe made me spend more than I wanted to as I bought things I wanted but didn’t need to meet the spend requirements, but I ended up with tons of points. 5% in mid and small companies is not enough to have any real diversification effect. Thanks Brandon! 6027479386 Replaceable nylon shin deflector plate. I figured they were just example numbers. Especially here in Germany we have many smaller companies (the US would call them micro companies ;) ), and probably the majority of them are not listed on the stockmarket. I don’t have fancy formulas for my rebalancing sheet like your example, but I have a simple setup that shows what my asset allocation ought to look like, what it’s at as of the 1st when I update my sheets, and the difference. I wish it was available before black Monday in 1987 when the market fell 22.6%. Looking forward to adding more points to my travel wallet! I was never down more than 13%, which really helped me stay the course when S&P was down 30%. 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