Wellesley Fund

[ducky911]

I surprised how well this fund is doing compared to Total stock market. Up 9.47 one year. Must be doing well in the bonds(just a guess). Bonds are supposes to be their future down fall. Anyway I'm about 30% into them and happy for now.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I surprised how well this fund is doing compared to Total stock market. Up 9.47 one year. Must be doing well in the bonds(just a guess). Bonds are supposes to be their future down fall. Anyway I'm about 30% into them and happy for now.

That is pretty impressive. I have about 10% in it, but very much more in the Wellington (+7.55% YTD) and am pretty happy with both of them.

 

[ponyboy]

When you say wellesley fund...is that the VWINX one?

edit: it must be...its the only one I could find. I also own that fund and yes...it has treated me well.

 

[krldrummerboy]

Wellesley (VWINX) at 40-60 stock to bond and Wellington (VWELX) at 60-40 stock to bond results look better and better the farther out in time you compare with total stock market and the S&P. With much less volatility.

I wonder if folks on this board would recommend this as an all-in-one, put-everything-into, fund as opposed to creating their own 40/60 or 60/40 2 fund. Then simply add some Total International (VGTSX) for a 3 fund type allocation?

 

[target2019]

When you say wellesley fund...is that the VWINX one?

edit: it must be...its the only one I could find. I also own that fund and yes...it has treated me well.

VWIAX is the Admiral Shares version.

 

[fritz]

Wellesley (VWINX) at 40-60 stock to bond and Wellington (VWELX) at 60-40 stock to bond results look better and better the farther out in time you compare with total stock market and the S&P. With much less volatility.

I wonder if folks on this board would recommend this as an all-in-one, put-everything-into, fund as opposed to creating their own 40/60 or 60/40 2 fund. Then simply add some Total International (VGTSX) for a 3 fund type allocation?

Both are a serious portion of our investment portfolio. We are retired, and find them a very good approach to a set it and forget it approach (wife is not interested in managing nor cares to learn). They are great balanced funds (little to no maintenance) . FYI - they both have foreign exposure (Wels 6.3% and Wel 8.16%).

 

[ejman]

I have been very tempted over the years to put everything into 50/50 Wellesley/Wellington instead of the slicing/dicing/rebalancing with multiple funds I've been doing since I started investing in 1987. According to Quicken this would have resulted in about a 1.6% annual compounding advantage.

A good portion of this difference comes from having a significant performance drag from a cash allocation that has varied between 10-15% of assets due to my overly conservative nature and to an overallocation in early years to actively managed funds with relatively high fees.

Currently I have 41% of my liquid NW in VWINX/VWELX but have decided after much soul searching against going higher for no other reason than my bias against having all of one's eggs in the same basket. They share the same management company and investment philosophy (Large Cap Value stocks and longer duration corporate bonds) and although this has worked very well for a long time, past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results...

 

[W2R]

I love Wellesley.

My love affair with Wellesley began before I ever heard of this forum. My financial plan specifies 30% in Wellesley, and that is what I have always owned. Right now that is enough to qualify me for Admiral shares, VWIAX.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

Except for some CD's at PenFed I'm 100% into VWIAX (IRA) and VWINX. I'm there based on recommendations of W2R and other members of this forum. I'm not one to do my own research. I'm a "park it and forget it" investor. Been there a couple years and I'm happy. Maybe I should be more diversified but haven't looked much.

 

[panacea]

I love Wellesley.

My love affair with Wellesley began before I ever heard of this forum. My financial plan specifies 30% in Wellesley, and that is what I have always owned. Right now that is enough to qualify me for Admiral shares, VWIAX.

+1

I'm a ways from retirement so it's a bit conservative for me but I have my retired parents invested in it. Thinking I should by a little for myself now in case it closes to new investors when I really want it as I approach my retirement date.

 

[MBAustin]

Thanks to the folks here I put both my pension buyout and the IRA I inherited from my mother in Wellesley two years ago, which also helped move our AA more conservative which was another thing to do on my list that year. Definitely have been happy with it.

 

[grasshopper]

All of our retirement funds are in Wellesley/Wellington except for a little Total Bond to balance the portfolio a little as needed.

 

[Doughpile]

Great fund, love it.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[friar1610]

There are lots of discussions on the Bogleheads web site about Wellesley. Most people are pretty high on it although pure indexers don't always like it because it's managed. A big concern seems to be that it's had such a long stretch of excellent returns that they may not be sustainable in the future. This is particularly true since rising interest rates (if and when they ever come) are likely to hurt bond prices, particularly in the near term.

Disclosure: although I have been late to the party, I recently "goosed" our previously 100% VG Total Bond Index IRAs by moving 1/3 to VWIAX. We had previously owned only index funds.

 

[tennisplyr]

Retired and own about a dozen Vanguard funds, Wellesley is one of my best performers over the past 10 years.

 

[JP.mpls]

ejman,
I somehow ended up giving financial advise to my wife's best friend. She was retiring, and didn't know what to do with her 401k account. (15 years earlier I convinced her to start participating in her companies 401k plan at least up to the corporate matching level.)
I'm not a financial expert by any means, so I recommended that she contact a financial advisor. I told her if she didn't want to do that, I would recommend rolling it into Vanguard, and investing it 45/45/10 in Wellesley, Wellington and money market. She has been very happy with that approach. I'm glad it worked out. I was somewhat uncomfortable that she was listening to me on this topic.


Take care,

JP

 

[Koolau]

Uncle Mick would have just said...Pssstt!..... And, as usual, he would have been right. But, DW got scared late last year and made me take her funds out of Wellesley/Wellington. She runs her own financial stuff and I run mine. With this exception, she hasn't done too badly. Still...

 

[unclemick]

The 'value premium'. Not to mention Dividends!

After 22 years of ER I'm now a lazy all in indexer with Target Retirement.

heh heh heh - But but back in the day when the male hormones were stronger - dividend stocks and and pssst- Wellesley.

 

[FireBug]

I hope I'm not exposing my ignorance here but aren't the Wellesley and Wellington funds similar in most respects except for their AA approach (40/60 vs 60/40 aprox)? So my question for those of you that have commented about having your monies in both funds, how does that reconcile with your OVERALL AA philosophy? Wouldn't you tend to pick one or the other?

 

[UpAnchor]

I'm not a financial expert by any means, so I recommended that she contact a financial advisor. I told her if she didn't want to do that, I would recommend rolling it into Vanguard, and investing it 45/45/10 in Wellesley, Wellington and money market. She has been very happy with that approach. I'm glad it worked out. I was somewhat uncomfortable that she was listening to me on this topic.

You'd have been even less comfortable to discover she'd been outperforming you...

 

[Floridatennisplayer]

I'm thinking of throwing all my stuff 50/50 into these two funds and quit overthinking stuff!

 

[Sunset]

If I were to buy some of this Wellesley fund, I am thinking it would be best within a tax sheltered account since so much of it is bonds ?

 

[REWahoo]

If I were to buy some of this Wellesley fund, I am thinking it would be best within a tax sheltered account since so much of it is bonds ?

You are correct.

 

[Masquernom]

Check out the Vanguard tax managed fund for taxable accounts.

 

[target2019]

I hope I'm not exposing my ignorance here but aren't the Wellesley and Wellington funds similar in most respects except for their AA approach (40/60 vs 60/40 aprox)? So my question for those of you that have commented about having your monies in both funds, how does that reconcile with your OVERALL AA philosophy? Wouldn't you tend to pick one or the other?

1) In equal portions, this produces a 50/50 mix.
2) Not sure about the exact equity overlap, but I recall it is not so great. So you end up with more equity diversification. Edit: about half of companies in VWINX are in VWELX.
3) If you have tax-advantaged account, Wellesley would be preferable there. Opposite for Wellington.

In my simple view, those are 3 reasons why you might go with both, instead of just one.