I finally got out of Betterment today and I feel a massive sense of relief. They have done nothing but lose money for me since I opened it, and when I finally educated myself to what index investing is all about I realized I don't need them at all. In fact the idea of allowing them to choose funds on my behalf and charge me for it, while moving around my assets as they see fit, is now ridiculous and infuriating.

I didn't have my IRA fully funded yet, and I wanted a larger buffer in my savings account to account for a potential large business expense. So I took a $1,000 loss from my $12,500 betterment account and just withdrew my $11,500. I wanted to wait until I got some of the losses back but just leaving it there stressed me out. There is no guarantee I will get it back and I'm not willing to let them manage my money anymore.

So I am using this to finish funding my savings account and this years IRA contribution. After that I will use upcoming pay checks to fund my after tax index investments directly with Vanguard. There are other similar index funds but I went with Vanguard because I really appreciate Bogle's books, which do a great job of explaining market index investing. I decided this is the right investing path for me. I already know which funds I want and my risk tolerance once it's in a tax advantaged account.

So yeah I hate that I lost $1,000 to Betterment's investing experiment, but I guess everyone has to learn their lessons. Instead of leaving it in there indefinitely until I regained my money somehow I decided to just go with the investments, savings and cash allocation that suits me now instead of later. And it was definitely the right decision. I feel relief already knowing they aren't handling my money anymore.