Like the others have stated, it all depends on your situation and more importantly, your ability to sleep with the decisons you make*
For me/my wife, who will be retiring within the next 2 years (at age 60), and have been investing "exclusively for retirement" the last 25 years, we've "evolved" over time.* Starting out from CD's 25 years ago, "putting our toe in" the mutal fund market, later to REIT's (that was a bust - of course that was 15+ years ago!), further into sector funds (our largest holding being Vanguard Health care, and a great long-term investment).
When I finally realized that I "could retire" about two years ago (4 years from planned retirement), I moved from an 80/20 portfolio gradually to 60/40, today.* Within the last few months, I reduced my Health Care (33% of my retirement portfolio; a bit less of my wife's) by 22%.* VGHCX (closed to new investors) is still the largest component of our combined portfolio (at around 11-12%) and at the same time, I increased our international fund exposure (where I believe, the future resides*
.* I'm planning on "being free" the end of next year*
and I don't see any major changes till then.
IMHO, it's not something you do quickly, nor make changes untill you understand what YOU want for the current/future.* I'll be managing our investments (hopefully for a long time in the future) and understand that retirement is just an extension (investment wise) of what you have been doing over the long term.* I don't see reducing my 60/40 mix in early retirement, untill (more specifically if*
) I reach my early 80's.* At that time, my plan (as of today) is to go to a 50-50, or 40-50 mix.