Advice on my first portfolio

[ElPhoenix]

Hi guys,

This is my first finance post! TL;DR for you guys who don't want to hear a story:

I am 19, and I first started 'investing' 2 years ago when I started my Roth IRA with Vanguard. I basically maxed out in the 2005 year, and was only able to put in 1/4 of the amount in the 2006 year. Instead of keeping my money in my checking account, I had basically all of it in Vanguard's money market. I realized that I should probably attempt a higher return than that since I didn't need the money in the forseeable future, so I invested a portion in VMRGX, or Vanguard's Morgan Growth fund.

Since then, I have left my assets in basically the same place, withdrawing from the MMA as needed. I realized again that I could be getting better returns on my money, and mapped out my 6 month expenses and have sent the rest of the funds to Scottrade (My summer job/poker/outside source of money and the money I kept in the MMA for expenses will cover me for at least one year, most likely 2-3.

I talked with some friends, and they suggested ETFs. My current portfolio plan looks like this:

VB | 15%
VV | 10%
EFA | 15%
VWO | 15%
AGG | 15%
VNQ | 10%
VDE | 10%
QQQQ | 10%

I also plan to keep ~2k uninvested for now in my Scottrade account so I can learn/experiment with the market in the form of individual stocks, and hopefully once I gain experience options trading and more advanced investing practices. I'm pretty new to actually learning about investing, and have been devouring the information on www.investopedia.com and www.morningstar.com for the past week now trying to just get a basic understanding of the market and investing world.

Do you guys have any comments for me regarding my portfolio/general reasoning, as well as any suggestions for how/where to learn more about investing?

thanks,

phoenix

[mattnxtc]

DOnt exactly know what all the symbols are pointing to but I bet that most will tell you that you are way to over diversified and that you dont need to be in that many funds

[ElPhoenix]

hm ok

any other opinions

[Jeff W]

EFA - Better(Lower ER) International Funds out there. FSIIX for IRA or VGK+VPL for taxable.
VWO - Your concentration is too high here, IMO. The only reason to own emerging markets is for non-correlation with other funds(see Modern Portfolio Theory on wikipedia for more info). Ceteris paribus, they have poor risk/reward attributes relative to say a total stock market fund.

QQQQ - Redudant, why do you want more tech exposure?
EFA - Unnecessary, don't chase past returns.

VNQ - Make sure you don't have this in a taxable account.

IMO, You want a Large Cap Blend(like VV) or Total Stock Market(like VTI) fund as the core of your portfolio. Not to bust balls, but your allocation looks haphazard.

[ElPhoenix]

Thanks a lot Jeff, I appreciate the feedback. No need to apologize for busting balls, that was the exact reason that I posted in the forum [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

[MatthewRyan]

I would put the money back into Vanguard and pick a Target retirement fund until you have a lot more money when it will actualy matter if you slice & dice like that