taxable investing

[siralynn]

Happy New Year!

As I've been reanalyzing our finances preparing to eventually pay for double daycare (2nd child due in a few months), I realize we have FAR too much of our net worth sitting in cash. Given that we've got two healthy Roth IRAs as well as solid family backing with temporary loans if crap really hit the fan, I'd like to put more of the cash to work. I'm looking at about $35k available immediately, with another probably ~$15k available in two months when my 2014 bonus pays out.

We just began taxable investing a couple of years ago, and currently have $16.5k in Vanguard Total International Index Fund Admiral Shares (VTIAX) and $28k in Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Admiral Shares (VTSAX). What I'm wondering is, should I just keep plowing money into those two funds? Or should I consider branching out? DH in particular is interested in municipal bonds. Opinions?

(Assume retirement is fully funded each year with fairly healthy balances. Ages 36 (me) and 38 (DH). Large portions are in VTSAX and Vanguard's Target 2050 fund (VFIFX). Some of the smaller balances are spread over half a gazillion funds, which I'm hoping to consolidate and simplify in 2015. Since retirement is pretty healthy, taxable investments are mostly for potential future spend - home renovations, college, etc.)

[resolution]

I am not knowledgeable enough to give good advice, but if you are looking to keep things simple than the VTSAX looks good to me. I have my taxable account all in S&P 500 and I kind of wish I had gone with VTSAX. However it would create too many taxes for me to move it between the funds right now.

If you want to reduce risk then the bonds might be a good idea, but depending on the type of bond they may generate more taxes than an index fund.

I have been trying to simplify our retirement by doing rollover IRAs into Vanguard when we change jobs. We are down to the Vanguard account and my 457 plan at a different brokerage, but when DH qualifies to start putting into a 401k at his new job we will be back up to three brokerage accounts to monitor for our asset allocation plan.

[Deleted]

I'd suggest reading the Long Term Investors thread.

[Deleted]

DW and I started our taxable investing about the same time with the same type of funds, a total international and a total US, we eventually moved all taxable savings to Vanguard in the same two funds you are in, but ultimately decided to move to their Total World fund, VTWSX for simplicity and to be able to tax loss harvest because we have the same Vanguard total us and total international in my 401k (total world is slightly more expensive). This year we added VWITX, Intermediate term tax exempt bond fund. A person has to make their own decision on which parts of the market they want to invest in and at what allocation, if you have decided total us and total international are it IMO you are doing very well with your current selections. If you want to add bonds to taxable, Vanguard has several options including the one I mentioned VWITX.