Personal Investments • Assets (Retirement and 529) review and help with transfer to Vanguard

The current allocation on American funds is moderately aggressive and we would like to maintain the same in Vanguard.
Can you suggest what % should we allocate for below or need to consider other asset clauses for moderately aggressive?
For Domestic - VTSAX or VTI
International stock -  VTIAX or VXUS.
Bonds - VBTLX or BND

Moderately aggressive isn't really defined anyplace in financial literature. I'd suggest you do a bit of math and add up how many dollars you have exposed to US stocks / International stocks / US bonds and try to mimic that if you think the allocation is about right. This exercise is often done in percentages of the whole retirement portfolio. Something like 70% stock / 30% bond - with a qualifier that within that 70% in stock, that 30% of the 70% (e.g. 21%) be in international stocks. So the actual numbers would be 49% US stock / 21% international stock / 30% bond.

You can also read the Boglehead wiki pages on asset allocation and assessing risk tolerance.
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Asset_allocation
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Assessi ... _tolerance

For 529, the current plan is VA529 and offers State Tax deduction.
We both have a total of 4 accounts for 2 kids, contributing and deducting 16k per year.
What are our options on Vanguard since they don't have VA529 ?. We are not very keen on State Tax deduction and can consider one of the Vanguard plans if it gives better performance.
Also, an older kid is going to college next year, and has about 120k in his 529. Should we discontinue his monthly contribution and send it towards a younger kid who is about 5 years into college ?
Vanguard said since there will be no "in-kind" transfer for 529, they need to sell funds in American funds 529 and invest into a Vanguard plan. This seems to be considered a "rollover".
Any downside on rollover etc ?

You may need to check with the state of Virginia tax code. They may or may not disallow (i.e. recapture) previous income tax deductions if you rollover the 529 plan balance(s). I don't have much experience in switching custodians for 529 plans, but I do suspect it's possible.

Again, here you refer to "better performance". This isn't something that can be known in advance. My general suggestion for a 529 plan is to use the age based allocation model typically offered by these plans. They start out with higher percentages of stock, then slowly migrate to more bonds / cash holdings as the date of college attendance draws near.

I can tell you this much, Vanguard will certainly offer lower expense ratios for the 529 plan funds.

Regards,

Statistics: Posted by retired@50 — Thu Aug 28, 2025 9:18 am — Replies 9 — Views 807

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