Over and over again, I've stressed the importance of building the core of your portfolio out of low-cost, passively-managed index mutual funds.  This is important enough that I wrote a seven-part series on it.

I've been telling you to do this and do that all month long, so in the spirit of full transparency I think it's only fair that I share what I actually do with my own money.

Put the money... there!  Definitely over there.

This is an article about how I follow my own advice.

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My Accounts

Step one is, has been, and always will be save as much money as reasonably possible.

I have a number of different types of accounts spread between Vanguard (my brokerage of choice) and Fidelity (my historical brokerage):

Vanguard
Roth IRA - the most important type of account to have; anyone with a wage can get one!
529 Plan - a stop-gap tax minimization measure for my stay in graduate school
Taxable Brokerage - a regular old taxable investment account; no limits and no requirements

Fidelity
Roth IRA - multiple Roth IRAs at different companies? sure, but no contribution limit increase
Rollover IRA - rolled over from the 401(k) retirement plan at my old employer
457(B) Plan - the retirement plan at my current employer; contributions are made pre-tax
Taxable Brokerage - a regular old taxable investment account; no limits and no requirements

Other
Lending Club - peer-to-peer lending investment experiment
Mosaic - solar installation investment experiment

Why haven't I consolidated all of my accounts at Vanguard?

1. My current employer utilizes Fidelity for their 457(b) plan, so I can't move that
2. I have a credit card that offers 2% cashback in the form of Fidelity brokerage contributions
3. I am loathe to pay Fidelity's transfer-out fees
4. Fidelity offers index mutual funds that are cost-competitive with Vanguard's offerings

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My Funds

Because my accounts have grown organically over a long period of time and I was learning all the while, I make no claim that these allocations are in any way optimized; in fact, a couple things are the way they are solely for historical, hard-to-change-because-of-taxes reasons.  This highlights the importance of having a plan from the very beginning and sticking to it!

Without further qualification, here is my current arsenal:

Brokerage	Account	Amount	Type	Fund	ER
Vanguard	Brokerage	$961	Total Stock Market	VTSMX	0.18%
Vanguard	529 Plan	$8,434	Total Stock Market	VTSMX	0.25%
Fidelity	Roth IRA	$19,846	Total Stock Market	FSTVX	0.06%
Fidelity	Rollover IRA	$17,454	Extended Stock	FSEVX	0.07%
Fidelity	Roth IRA	$16,238	Small-Cap Stock	FSSVX	0.09%
Vanguard	Brokerage	$406	Total International	VGTSX	0.18%
Vanguard	529 Plan	$3,614	Total International	VGTSX	0.25%
Fidelity	Brokerage	$18,042	Total International	FSGDX	0.18%
Vanguard	Brokerage	$6,543	Emerging International	VEIEX	0.33%
Vanguard	Roth IRA	$5,012	Small International	VFSVX	0.45%
Vanguard	Brokerage	$122	Total Bond Market	VBMFX	0.18%
Vanguard	Brokerage	$30	International Bond	VTIBX	0.18%
Fidelity	UC 457(B)	$7,659	Real Estate Trust	VGSNX	0.08%

I have $104,000 invested in mutual funds, plus an additional $7,500 in Lending Club and $500 in Mosaic.  I'm experimenting with nontraditional investments, but mutual funds are 93% of my total portfolio.  Note also that every fund on this list is a low-cost index mutual fund, and my averaged expense ratio is only 0.15%.  In other words: I eat my own cooking.

The table above is a bit of a mess, so let's break it down by the type of fund:

Type	Amount	%
Total Domestic Stock Market	$29,240	28%
Small- and Mid-Cap Domestic Stock Market	$17,454	17%
Small-Cap Domestic Stock Market	$16,238	16%
Domestic Stock Market	$62,932	60%
Total International Stock Market	$22,062	21%
Small-Cap International Stock Market	$5,012	5%
Emerging International Stock Market	$6,543	6%
International Stock Market	$33,617	32%
Total Domestic Bond Market	$122	0%
Total International Bond Market	$30	0%
Bond Market	$152	0%
Domestic Real Estate Investment Trust	$7,659	7%
International Real Estate Investment Trust	$0	0%
Real Estate Investment Trusts	$7,659	7%

If you read my article on asset allocation, you might be able to recognize that this is a very aggressive asset allocation: all stocks, a relatively heavy international weighting and a sizable helping of REITs, tilted toward small- and mid-capitalization domestic stocks and small- and emerging-market international stocks.  If you can't stomach a 40% drop in asset value like we experienced in 2008, don't try this at home.  Try something a little more conservative, or invest in a target-date fund and set it all to autopilot.

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Going Forward

I'll continue to keep doing what I'm doing, shoveling in as much money as possible to maintain approximately the same allocation.  Some funds will upgrade my shares as I hit certain minimum investment amounts, so my average expense ratio should continue to fall with time.  Starting next year, I will begin to increase my fixed income (bonds) proportion by 2% per year for the next fifteen years; by age 40, I should be 30% in bonds (and 100% retired!).

To avoid boring you with regular updates, I'll add a static page to the navbar and plot my progress every few months.