ETF Monkey

ETF Name:  iShares Core U.S. Value ETF Asset Class:  Domestic Stock Index Tracked:  Russell 3000 Value Index Expense Ratio:  .07% Assets Under Management:  $687.8 million Number of Holdings:  2,035 Price/Earnings Ratio:  13.67 Price/Book Ratio:  1.53 SEC Yield:  2.49%

"Save and invest." This is advice we commonly hear from our earliest years; either from our parents, a teacher, professor, mentor, or adviser. And with those words, we are introduced to the subject of investing . Later, you may hear about the market . As in, "The market was up (or down) today!" Finally, sooner or later you will likely hear someone either bragging about, or bemoaning the state of, their portfolio . But what, exactly, is investing ? What is the market ? What is a portfolio ? What does it all mean? There are many highly technical definitions of investing  to which I could point you. In fact, I just did, via the link in the last sentence. Here, though, is a very simple one to ponder: When you commit a dollar today with the expectation of receiving more than a dollar tomorrow. I hope that simple sentence captures the basic essence of investing. If you have no expectation of that dollar being worth more tomorrow, you might as well spend it toda

ETF Name:  iShares Core S&P 500 ETF Asset Class:  Domestic Stock - Large Blend Index Tracked:  S&P 500 Index Expense Ratio:  .07% Assets Under Management:  $63.5 billion Number of Holdings:  504 Price/Earnings Ratio:  17.11 Price/Book Ratio:  2.50 SEC Yield:  2.05%

ETF Name:  Schwab U.S. Large-Cap Value ETF Asset Class:  Domestic Stock - Large Value Index Tracked:  Dow Jones U.S. Large Cap Value Total Stock Market Index Expense Ratio:  .06% Assets Under Management:  $1.65 billion Number of Holdings:  355 Price/Earnings Ratio:  17.40 Price/Book Ratio:  2.10 SEC Yield:  3.12%

ETF Name:  Schwab U.S. Large-Cap Growth ETF Asset Class:  Domestic Stock - Large Growth Index Tracked:  Dow Jones U.S. Large Cap Growth Total Stock Market Index Expense Ratio:  .06% Assets Under Management:  $2.4 billion Number of Holdings:  430 Price/Earnings Ratio:  21.38 Price/Book Ratio:  3.78 SEC Yield:  1.09%

ETF Name:  Vanguard S&P 500 ETF Asset Class:  Domestic Stock - Large Blend Index Tracked:  S&P 500 Index Expense Ratio:  .05% Assets Under Management:  $40.4 billion Number of Holdings:  503 Price/Earnings Ratio:  20.5 Price/Book Ratio:  2.8 SEC Yield:  2.12%

ETF Name:  Schwab U.S. Large-Cap ETF Asset Class:  Domestic Stock - Large Blend Index Tracked:  Dow Jones U.S. Large-Cap Total Stock Market Index Expense Ratio:  .03% Assets Under Management:  $4.8 billion Number of Holdings:  763 Price/Earnings Ratio:  19.11 Price/Book Ratio:  2.69 SEC Yield:  2.11%

ETF Name:  Schwab U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF Asset Class:  Intermediate-Term Bond Index Tracked:  Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index Expense Ratio:  .05% Assets Under Management:  $2.1 billion Number of Holdings:  2,640 Average Duration:  5.3 Years Yield to Maturity:  2.70%

ETF Name:  Schwab U.S. Broad Market ETF Asset Class:  Domestic Stock - General Index Tracked:  Dow Jones U.S. Broad Stock Market Index Expense Ratio:  .03% Assets Under Management:  $5.3 billion Number of Holdings:  2,082 Price/Earnings Ratio:  19.08 Price/Book Ratio:  2.58 SEC Yield:  2.10%

ETF Name:  iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF Asset Class:  Domestic Stock - General Index Tracked:  S&P Total Market Index (TMI) Expense Ratio:  .03% Assets Under Management:  $2.8 billion Number of Holdings:  3,786 Price/Earnings Ratio:  17.78 Price/Book Ratio:  2.48 SEC Yield:  2.02%

ETF Name:  Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF Asset Class:  Intermediate-Term Bond Index Tracked:  Barclays U.S. Aggregate Float Adjusted Bond Index Expense Ratio:  .07% Assets Under Management:  $27.2 billion Number of Holdings:  7,746 Average Duration:  5.8 Years Yield to Maturity:  2.4%

ETF Name:  Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF Asset Class: Domestic Stock - General Index Tracked: CRSP US Total Market Index Expense Ratio: .05% Assets Under Management: $58.1 billion Number of Holdings: 3,791 Price/Earnings Ratio: 22.5 Price/Book Ratio: 2.7 SEC Yield: 2.00%

This article is an update to the following articles: On July 1, 2015, I wrote an article for Seeking Alpha introducing The ETF Monkey Vanguard Core Portfolio . On August 26, 2015, following the severe market decline culminating on August 24, I wrote a follow-up article both evaluating the performance of the portfolio as well as executing a rebalancing transaction to bring the portfolio back in line with my target weightings. In this article, I will report on the performance of the portfolio between August 24 and the end of the year on December 31. I have decided to move this and future updates for this portfolio to my personal blog so that Seeking Alpha readers do not get confused between this portfolio and The ETF Monkey 2016 Model Portfolio I introduced at the end of the year. As a convenience to readers of this article, here is a graphic of how the portfolio stood on 8/24/15 after my rebalancing transaction ( Note: You can click on any picture to see an enlarged versi