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I feel like the best thing to do is put your money into wealthfront, enjoy the tax loss harvesting and portfolio rebalancing while the portfolio stabilizes and

I feel like the best thing to do is put your money into wealthfront, enjoy the tax loss harvesting and portfolio rebalancing while the portfolio stabilizes and then about 4 months after deposit, transfer your account entirely to vanguard. Wealthfront (under 100k) just uses available index funds as investments anyway.

oli5679 10y ago
Can you explain 'tax-loss harvesting'. I'm not familiar with the idea.
- notadoc 10y ago
  Here is a good explanation with examples https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Tax_loss_harvesting https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Tax_loss_harvesting
vehementi 10y ago
What are you getting out of that at all? Someone doing the balancing math for you?
- fullshark 10y ago
  I guess you could do it yourself if you can do commission free trades in the ETFS they use, but that's a fair amount of work to monitor the market and execute the optimal tax loss harvesting trades (or at least good enough trades to get you to at least 3k) and do the re-balancing math. Wealthfront charges 0.25% a month so I guess it depends on how much you are investing if you think it's not worth it.
  - harryh 10y ago
    0.25% a year FWIW. 0.25% a month would be really really high!
    - fullshark 10y ago
      Ahh yes thanks my mistake, they collect (0.25/12)% each month.
      - schrodinger 10y ago
        Isn't it actually (1+.0025)^(1/12) - 1, not 0.0025/12?
        fullshark 10y ago
        That makes more sense. They are very close practically speaking but you are correct I believe.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
shostack 10y ago
I've heard it isn't super easy to transfer your account like that. Have you or anyone done so?
- fullshark 10y ago
  I transfered my account TO wealthfront and that was easy, now I'm thinking it's time to do what I've described and I'm assuming it's not challenging. Does wealthfront do anything to prevent you from leaving easily?
  - shostack 10y ago
    I've heard the challenge is that since they buy individual stocks, and constantly change the holdings, it isn't easy to keep changing that and you'll be stuck with whatever stocks you had last and can just rebalance within those. I could be making that up though.
    - fullshark 10y ago
      That's accurate if you are doing tax optimized direct indexing (https://www.wealthfront.com/tax-optimized-direct-indexing https://www.wealthfront.com/tax-optimized-direct-indexing) which doesn't involve just using index funds. Their basic level of service just involves purchasing index funds.
- chrisbolt 10y ago
  I had no problems transferring stocks held in Wealthfront to Fidelity, using an 'in-kind transfer'. https://support.wealthfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/209353226-Can-I-transfer-securities-to-and-from-my-Wealthfront-account- https://support.wealthfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/209353226-... The securities appeared in my Fidelity account, and the cost basis information populated a few days later. It also doesn't trigger a taxable event, and there were no fees for transferring out of Wealthfront.

oli5679 10y ago

Can you explain 'tax-loss harvesting'. I'm not familiar with the idea.

notadoc 10y ago
Here is a good explanation with examples https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Tax_loss_harvesting https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Tax_loss_harvesting

vehementi 10y ago

What are you getting out of that at all? Someone doing the balancing math for you?

fullshark 10y ago
I guess you could do it yourself if you can do commission free trades in the ETFS they use, but that's a fair amount of work to monitor the market and execute the optimal tax loss harvesting trades (or at least good enough trades to get you to at least 3k) and do the re-balancing math. Wealthfront charges 0.25% a month so I guess it depends on how much you are investing if you think it's not worth it.
- harryh 10y ago
  0.25% a year FWIW. 0.25% a month would be really really high!
  - fullshark 10y ago
    Ahh yes thanks my mistake, they collect (0.25/12)% each month.
    - schrodinger 10y ago
      Isn't it actually (1+.0025)^(1/12) - 1, not 0.0025/12?
      - fullshark 10y ago
        That makes more sense. They are very close practically speaking but you are correct I believe.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

shostack 10y ago

I've heard it isn't super easy to transfer your account like that. Have you or anyone done so?

fullshark 10y ago
I transfered my account TO wealthfront and that was easy, now I'm thinking it's time to do what I've described and I'm assuming it's not challenging. Does wealthfront do anything to prevent you from leaving easily?
- shostack 10y ago
  I've heard the challenge is that since they buy individual stocks, and constantly change the holdings, it isn't easy to keep changing that and you'll be stuck with whatever stocks you had last and can just rebalance within those. I could be making that up though.
  - fullshark 10y ago
    That's accurate if you are doing tax optimized direct indexing (https://www.wealthfront.com/tax-optimized-direct-indexing https://www.wealthfront.com/tax-optimized-direct-indexing) which doesn't involve just using index funds. Their basic level of service just involves purchasing index funds.
chrisbolt 10y ago
I had no problems transferring stocks held in Wealthfront to Fidelity, using an 'in-kind transfer'. https://support.wealthfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/209353226-Can-I-transfer-securities-to-and-from-my-Wealthfront-account- https://support.wealthfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/209353226-... The securities appeared in my Fidelity account, and the cost basis information populated a few days later. It also doesn't trigger a taxable event, and there were no fees for transferring out of Wealthfront.