Note that a market-cap-weighted total market index fund like VTSAX will have a fair amount of real estate (currently about 4%). This means that if you combine

Note that a market-cap-weighted total market index fund like VTSAX will have a fair amount of real estate (currently about 4%). This means that if you combine VTSAX and VGSLX, you end up overweighting real estate. If you also own a home, you're further overweighting that asset class. Such a strategy might make sense if you think real estate will outperform non-real-estate stocks in the long run (which, if you believe the Boglehead school of passive index investing, you shouldn't), or if you think the real estate market is not correlated with the stock market (which isn't the case), of course. Ben Felix has a good video about it [1]. A 50/50 split between US and international means you're overweighting international. By market cap, the US is about 60% of the world and ex-US is 40%. (Around 1990 ago it was 30% US, 70% ex-US.) If you want a "passive" approach, the solution is to buy VTWAX (Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund Admiral Shares), or its ETF version, VT. [1] https://youtu.be/IzK5x3LlsUU?si=DK6AfUi_8GvroO-R https://youtu.be/IzK5x3LlsUU?si=DK6AfUi_8GvroO-R