Bogle is excellent for the vast, vast majority of people. This is very much my strategy.
0. Make sure you have, at a minimum, a 6-month emergency fund in 100% liquid accounts (cash, savings, etc. Accessibility and zero risk are the primary concern here.)*
1. Take free money via company matches into your 401(k) and/or Roth 401(k)**
2. Contribute your annual medical costs to HSA
3. Contribute to Roth IRA***
4. Contribute max to HSA
5. Consider dumping more into your 401(k)****, *****
6. Have a non-tax-advantaged account (standard brokerage, like Fidelity) that invests in broad, inexpensive funds like VTSAX or FZROX.******
* - I'm also looking to convert some/all of my liquid emergency fund to I Bonds. Something I had never heard of until recently. It's kinda complicated, but essentially it is an inflation protected US bond. The catch is you need to hold for 12 months minimum. So it doesn't qualify as emergency funds until after this 12-month window. Anyways, I'll be contributing a certain amount every year until they start to cross the 12-month threshold. After that, I can start to draw down my savings/cash accounts and treat the bonds as the cash emergency fund that isn't earning shi-t for interest.
** - Roth is generally the best bet if you're young and have time to grow, you expect your income to grow, etc. One catch, see ****** below.
*** Though, 3 and 4 could be flip flopped because you don't get phased out of HSAs as income goes up. But, if you're family planning, it might be worth maxing the HSA first.
**** - I think that the fund offerings we have kinda suck relative to Vanguard and Fidelity. So, ymmv. If your 401(k) has very high fund expense rates, you almost need to do the math long term to find out where your best bet is over time. Too complicated for the vast number of people though.
***** - One thing to note, 401(k)s are generally completely off limits to creditors, bankruptcy, lawsuits, etc. IRAs are not completely protected. So, something to think about in terms of risk.
****** - Diversify through funds AND tax liability if you can. The reason you diversify your tax exposure is because we have no idea what the government will do to retirement tax laws between now and 2040-2060. So you don't want to get screwed because you had all your eggs in one tax bucket. A Roth 401(k) is becoming more widely offered. Works just like a Roth IRA but with a few differences. I currently split around 50:50 for Roth vs. Traditional across all of my accounts (401(k), IRAs). A Roth account doesn't tax gains. A traditional account does. French has that backwards above. So with a Roth IRA or 401(k) you pay taxes on that income now and you don't pay later. With a traditional IRA or 401(k), you don't pay any taxes on that money and you pay income taxes on what you take out later.
This table is the best I've seen describing the differences.
