Late to the investing game - need some input

Investing
#1

Just to refresh your memory, went through a divorce, thought I’d get crushed financially, but turns out, the financial bomb was dropped, but the damage wasn’t nearly as wide spread as I’d anticipated.

I’m now saving each month what I thought I would be paying my ex (50% of my income) with a target of 30K by year end and to start my investing in January. With that being said, and being so late to start my investing, do you think I should still use a Target Date Index fund, or manually split my money into a 3 fund portfolio, so I have a much more aggressive split of funds early on when I don’t have much money invested and watch my portfolio on my own mange the allocation on my own?

My thought process is while my dollars are small (early on) be aggressive via a three fund portfolio, but once I accumulate a decent amount of money in my account, say mid six figures, I start to move to a larger bond allocation? Or, do I just do a target date index fund and purchase a fund that would have my retirement date at 70 to be aggressive early on?

#2

Can’t go wrong with either strategy, just depends on how hands-on you want to be with your finances. With the TDIF it’s the ultimate set and forget strategy. You will only ever have to buy into one fund, and it automatically rebalances and adjusts your asset allocation over time based on your age/retirement year. If you’d prefer to be more aggressive and have some flexibility, then you can manage your own 3 fund portfolio but keep in mind you’ll have to manually rebalance yourself. You could also enroll in Vanguard’s personal advisor service once/if you have $50K invested with them and they’ll manage a 3 fund portfolio for you for .3% annually for assets under management. Other brokerages offer similar services, just have to watch the fees. Either way looks like you’ll be in good shape, more just a matter of how hands-on or off you want to be.

#3

Thanks for the reply Tom - love this community and I really appreciate you taking the time to reply.

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