Vanguard - I am throwing in some towels

It has been fun developing the basket strategies and it has been good for our future retirement since we have had a long bull run, but it takes a lot of time. Today Kathy and I filled out three in-kind transfer forms to close the following baskets:

• Dividend
• eCommerce
• Long term holdings

I am please to report that each of them grew in value 20% or more, (eCommerce was up 35%). When these assets get to Vanguard our financial advisor there will liquidate them and place them in large ETFs or mutual funds.

Kathy and I have run through a number of financial calculators trying to to the retirement spending and will we outlive our money type of analysis. We have not arrived by any means, but in addition to the time it takes to manage my investments, I do not need to keep taking that level of risk.

If it sounds like I think I am smart, it is not so. We just happened to have some cash available right after the great recession and it would have been hard not to do well.