Implemented the ETF Investment Strategy

With the market decline the past week, I made my initial investments for ETF portfolios in all our retirement accounts that we manage.  I decided to go with the low cost Schwab ETFs and Vanguard ETFs, which are both commission free depending on the brokerage accounts we use.    Based on the articles identified in Using an ETF Portfolio, I have decided to use the following two portfolios:

	Traditional IRA
Category	Percent	Schwab ETF	Vanguard ETF
U.S. Stock Market	40	SCHB	VTI
International Stock Market	30	SCHF	VEA
Emerging Stock Market	5	SCHE	VWO
Bond Market	15	Cash/SCHZ	Cash/BND
Real Estate	5	SCHH	VNQ
Commodities	5	SGOL*	DJP**

* No commission free Schwab ETF.  Using a gold ETF, which is commission free in the same brokerage account. May switch to a commodity ETN which is commission free.
**No commission free Vanguard ETF.  Using Powershares DJP, which is commission free in the same brokerage account.

	Roth IRA
Category	Percent	Schwab ETF	Vanguard ETF
U.S. Stock Market	50	SCHB	VTI
International Stock Market	20	SCHF	VEA
Emerging Stock Market	15	SCHE	VWO
Bond Market	15	Cash/SCHZ	Cash/BND

For now, I am either maintaining the current small bond position or staying in cash for the bond portion of the account, since I expect bond prices to decline over the next year.  Although I have bought some gold ETFs, I have not yet purchased the commodities ETF (DJP).   Also, I decided to have less diversification and use fewer ETFs in our Roth IRAs.

At this point, I am about 2% invested since the indices fell about 2% last week.

Disclosure: No compensation was received for this post.  At the time of publication, our retirement accounts are have positions in SCHB, SCHF, SCHE, SCHH, SGOL, VTI, VEA, VWO, and Cash.  We have no positions in BND and DJP.

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This is not financial or investing advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

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