SEP
Seprod Group
stock NYSE

Just roll over any trad or SEP IRA into an employer 401k/403B/457B to dodge the tax penalty then start the Roth conversion.

I've been considering investing in FIPFX 100% for my Roth IRA. Is this a good choice? I don't love bonds in Roth IRA and FIPFX is a target date with bonds. Roth IRA space is precious and it's best to use Roth IRA space for 100% equities/stocks and no bonds. You can also do VTI, VT. If you have Fidelity, zero funds like FZROX and FNILX are also good.
Now that I have a Roth IRA, is it better to make my 401k 100% traditional? I would probably go traditional 401k (not Roth 401k) but max out Roth IRA for both spouses. You are probably at a 22% federal marginal tax bracket as MFJ with household gross income of $172k.
Is it more important to max out my 401k first before opening a brokerage account? Yes. Standard recommendation is to max out tax-advantaged space like 401k and Roth IRA before a taxable brokerage.
If I open a brokerage account, how much to divert there? I would keep around 6-12 of living expenses as an emergency fund, plus buckets for future anticipated home repairs, and car purchase. Let's say a new HVAC system is $15k and car replacement is $25k. That is around $40k total. You could keep $60k in your emergency fund and $40k for the HVAC/car fund. You could put the other $190k in the market. You could lump sum, or dollar cost average over the next 6 months ($32k per month) or 12 months ($15k per month). You could set aside $15k for Roth IRA for January 2027 for both spouses. You can max out Roth IRA on January 1, 2027 for both spouses ($7,500 x 2).
Are there other types of accounts I should consider? Spouse should also max out Roth IRA. Spouse can also contribute to 401k or other similar plan if available through employer. If spouse is self-employed, spouse can open a simple IRA, SEP IRA, or solo 401k. You can look into HSA during open enrollment, but only if it makes sense in your sitaution.
Note: With a mortgage of 5.5%, you could put some of your $290k in cash in principal mortgage payments. That's like getting a guaranteed 6-7% after taxes. You could also split the difference such as: (1) keep $100k for emergency fund/HVAC/car purchase; (2) invest $100k in the stock market in spouse's Roth IRA and taxable brokerage; (3) pu $90k in extra mortgage payments.
You are doing really good. With $477k in current retirement savings (keeping $100k for emergency fund/car/HVAC), if you contribute 15% of your $172k household income ($26k per year) for 25 years, with a 6% real return, you could have around $3.5 million in current dollars at age 65. With a 4.5% withdraw rate, that could be around $157k in current dollars that would replace nearly 100% of your current household income for both spouses, plus no mortgage at some point and any Social Security.
If you max out 401k for both spouses and get your taxable income under $100k as MFJ, you could have some space in the future for 0% long-term capital gains within a taxable brokerage.

$24,500 401k, $2400 SEP and $7500 Roth

Good for you for starting to take control of this.
Some suggestions:
1. Build an IPS. there's some good stuff here: [https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Investment\_policy\_statement](https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Investment_policy_statement)
* mine is super simple:
* Retirement: Bond/Stock 15/85 (I'm 46)
* Retirement: Sticking to Standard Bogle Head 3 Fund Portfolio Stock funds 60-70% US (VTSAX), 30-40% Int(VTIAX); Bonds VBTLX
* Short Term Investment 60% Stock, 40% Bond
* But my dude build your plan even if it's just VT and chill. I know your question is how do I arrange my investments, but we need to understand if these are for long term or short term, and what your risk tolerance is etc
2. Once you've identified funds/etfs that are not part of your simple plan, turn off dividend reinvesting on all those funds
3. liquidating that mess of ETFs in your brokerage is a good plan, and your strategy of making changes that minimize your taxes is good. if they have all been held longer than a year I would also just consider selling them all at once and take the tax hit. at your age, if you are planning on using this for retirement VT and chill is a good option. [https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund\_portfolio](https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund_portfolio)
4. if you aren't maximizing your SEP IRA contributions and your Roth IRA contributions, use that brokerage to fund those, and keep maximizing them for as long as you can. Fill up all the tax advantaged spaces you can
5. roll that old 401k over, no sense keeping that 11k on it's own, it's just a burden to keep track of
you are doing a good job and making good choices you got this

Hi Bogleheads. Long time lurker, first time poster. Trying to make sense of my brokerage portfolio and seeking advice from this community!

Long story short, years ago a grandparent passed and left me some money. My parents gave that money to a financial advisor, who had managed that money with a 1% annual fee over the years.
I'm 34. In the past few years, I've gotten comfortable investing in ETFs and Index Funds on Vanguard (thanks Bogleheads!). I maybe spoke to my financial advisors two or three times in about ten years and didn't see the point of paying 1% in fees in perpetuity. So, I finally pulled the money out of the financial advisor's hands and transferred it over to Vanguard.
The financial advisor had split my portfolio across 13 ETFs and one Mutual Fund. I had already had purchased VOO in a Vanguard Brokerage before I made this transfer.
I'm attempting to re-balance the portfolio into something that's easier to manage.

**Current holdings:**
Just under $11K of VT in a SEP IRA (contributing about $1700 monthly to this)
Just under $124K of VTWAX in a Roth IRA.
Just over $11K in a former Company's 401K that I might eventually transfer to the SEP IRA.
Vanguard Brokerage holdings (\~ $138K across 14 ETFs and 1 Mutual Fund). Deep breath...
|Fund|Unrealized Gain/Loss|Current Balance|
|:-|:-|:-|
|VTEB|\-$795.08|$18,970.14|
|HMOP|\-$60.53|$1,832.25|
|IJT|\+$89.34|$644.53|
|IJS|\+$259.82|$1,161.56|
|IJJ|\+$317.28|$1,669.33|
|VTV|\+$464.77|$1,088.20|
|IJK|\+$842.83|$2,522.25|
|SSPIX|\+$1,322.11|$1,661.54|
|VOO|\+$1,678.01|$17,860.61|
|IJR|\+$2,418.62|$3,971.80|
|VO|\+$3,615.62|$5,993.74|
|IEMG|\+$3,803.13|$7,434.25|
|IEFA|\+$9,581.22|$18,960.83|
|SPYV|\+$13,086.46|$22,515.45|
|SPYG|\+$22,305.76|$32,396.34|
**HERE'S MY PLAN**:
I was planning of selling off the ETFs with the lowest unrealized gains / loss. So, that would be VTEB, HMOP, IJT, IJS, IJJ, VTV, & IJK.
I'm planning re-invest that money (about $28K). I was planning on splitting that money into something international (whether adding to my existing IEFA and IEMG or buying a Vanguard International ETF like VXUS) and then I was planning on adding something domestic (ie, VOO or VXF or VO).
Is this the right direction? I truly just want to simplify my brokerage and slowly rebalance over the years so that I'm not holding so many dang ETFs! My head is just spinning a bit with all of the options here. Is there a simpler option I'm missing here? Any thoughts would be appreciated!
Anyway, I really do appreciate any and all thoughts here! Thank you, Bogleheads!

MARKET TODAY 29 SEP 26

MARKET TODAY 29 SEP 26

With 100% commission income, 6 months of cash is the right floor, and a strong year is a reason to top it up a little, not to stop, since one slow quarter burns through it fast. Beyond that, a high-income year is when pre-tax space is worth the most (the 401(k) limit is $24,500 for 2026), so I'd fill that before the taxable account. The 3% mortgage is cheaper than what your savings earn right now, so no reason to pay it down early. Are you already maxing a 401(k) or SEP?