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Clearly, Not Everyone Is Getting Rich Off The Stock Market

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Well, the NY Fed was out today with its Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit for Q4 2017. Clearly, Americans are in a lot of debt. Take a look. Just a couple of quick hits from the report. Total U.S. household debt rose $193 billion in the 4th quarter, to a new all-time peak of $13.15 trillion. That's 17.9% above the most recent trough in Q2 2013. Broken down by segment, what do you suppose was the largest gain in percentage terms? Credit cards, with a 3.2% increase. In the picture above, the widening gap represented by the red arrows reflects the fact that non-housing debt is rising at a faster pace than housing debt. Here's what's troubling about that. Below is a picture of the stock market, as represented by the S&P 500 index, over that same period; from the most recent credit trough in Q2 2013 to the end of 2017. And thus, the title of this article. Over that period, the S&P 500 index rose by 75%; from roughly 1,600 to 2,800. Apparently, ho...
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Presenting: The ETF Monkey Vanguard Core Portfolio

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NOTE: This article was written for exclusive publication on Seeking Alpha. Per their guidelines, I am reproducing approximately the first 250 words here, followed by a link to the source article for those interested in reading further.

Summary

  • This article is the "wrapper" that packages my first three articles for Seeking Alpha.
  • We will build and track the ETF Monkey Vanguard Core Portfolio.
  • The complete methodology used to build the portfolio will be outlined, as well as statistics outlining its contents, diversification, and weighted expense ratio.
  • Lastly, I will share details on how to use a cool, free tool to track the portfolio such that you can try it yourself, if interested.
  • In summary, all modesty aside, this is the article that you will want to share with any friends who are interested in trying out ETF investing for the first time.


This article is intended as the "wrapper" for the package containing my first three articles for Seeking Alpha.
The title of each article led off with the words "Building The Core With Vanguard." The reasons I selected Vanguard for my first efforts are enumerated in this article from my personal blog. The first article in the series featured domestic stocks, and introduced readers to the very first ETF ever offered by Vanguard, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (NYSEARCA:VTI). The second featured domestic bonds, and discussed the Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (NYSEARCA:BND). The third and final article in the series moved to foreign stocks, and highlighted the Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US ETF(NYSEARCA:VEU).

Beautiful Simplicity

What we will now do is build and track a simple portfolio using just these three ETFs. At first glance, this might seem overly simplistic. . . . 
Please continue to Seeking Alpha to enjoy the rest of the article: http://seekingalpha.com/article/3298415-presenting-the-etf-monkey-vanguard-core-portfolio. 

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Clearly, Not Everyone Is Getting Rich Off The Stock Market

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Well, the NY Fed was out today with its Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit for Q4 2017. Clearly, Americans are in a lot of debt. Take a look. Just a couple of quick hits from the report. Total U.S. household debt rose $193 billion in the 4th quarter, to a new all-time peak of $13.15 trillion. That's 17.9% above the most recent trough in Q2 2013. Broken down by segment, what do you suppose was the largest gain in percentage terms? Credit cards, with a 3.2% increase. In the picture above, the widening gap represented by the red arrows reflects the fact that non-housing debt is rising at a faster pace than housing debt. Here's what's troubling about that. Below is a picture of the stock market, as represented by the S&P 500 index, over that same period; from the most recent credit trough in Q2 2013 to the end of 2017. And thus, the title of this article. Over that period, the S&P 500 index rose by 75%; from roughly 1,600 to 2,800. Apparently, ho...
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