It is time again to rebalance - and also an opportunity to evaluate my fund choices. Recently, I have been reading Bogleheads and have started putting a lot more focus on Expense Ratios of mutual funds. So here goes the current state of affairs:
Spartan International Index 20% ER 0.17%
Spartan Emerging Markets Index 20% ER 0.35%
Spartan Extended Market Index 10% ER 0.07%
Spartan 500 Index 10% ER 0.05%
Fidelity NASDAQ Composite Index 10% ER 0.58%
Fidelity Long Term Treasuries Index 10% ER 0.10%
Fidelity Investment Grade Bonds 10% ER 0.45%
Fidelity New Markets Income 10% ER 0.87%
As we can see above, most of the fund choices are reasonable in their Expense Ratios. The only one that seems quite out of line is the Fidelity New Markets Income and to some extent, the Fidelity NASDAQ Composite Index. Really, there is no reason why an index fund should cost more than 0.50%. So I need to look for replacements for these two.
Fidelity makes it really difficult to find low cost funds. The list of funds do not show their ERs - you need to go to the specific fund's page to find that out. There is no way to sort funds by their ERs. You can screen funds by a maximum ER threshold - if you can find your way to the advanced screening option. Well - these are small roadblocks - I don't know why Fidelity bothers putting them up (just bad design perhaps) - but half hour on the website is enough to unravel these. I have spent the time - and have emerged with the following conclusions:
- Fidelity New Markets Income is gone. I will replace it with Spartan Real Estate Index Fund (FSRVX). This fund has an ER of 0.20% and it follows the DJ Real Estate Index - the corresponding ETF is IYR. I did want to have an exposure to RE.
- Fidelity Investment Grade Bonds is gone. I will replace it with Fidelity Corporate Bond Fund (FCBFX). The two funds have the same ER - but I get bonds with much longer duration (and hence higher yield) with FCBFX.
- Remove NASDAQ Index Fund. Its 10% allocation will be taken by the REIT fund.
- To continue to have a 70-30 Stock-Bond split, the two bond funds will now have 15% allocation each.
Spartan International Index 20% ER 0.17%
Spartan Emerging Markets Index 20% ER 0.35%
Spartan Extended Market Index 10% ER 0.07%
Spartan 500 Index 10% ER 0.05%
Spartan Real Estate Index Fund 10% ER 0.20%
Fidelity Long Term Treasuries Index 15% ER 0.10%
Fidelity Corporate Bonds Fund 15% ER 0.45%
That looks reasonable. I wish I had another bond fund candidate so that all three could have a 10% allocation.
Update: I have another candidate fund - Spartan Global ex-US Index Fund - has a low ER 0.28%. It is about 78% Developed ex-USA and 22% EM. I can put 10% here and bring down the two bond funds to 10% each.
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