[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lsbcal Hi Nords, would you like to share your alternatives to the "beever-cheeze"? I'm always interested in different portfolio options.

In another thread I noted that all portions of our AA seem to be dropping with equal acceleration, so this may not be for the faint of heart. We recently rebalanced by selling some of our Berkshire Hathaway and buying a Dow dividend ETF.

Disclaimer-- I have a military COLA pension, and spouse will get hers in 2022. As a result we spend less than 4% of our ER portfolio and we feel comfortable with a high equity allocation. We've actually tested our volatility tolerance during the 2000-2002 markets so we're not sweating it this time. We also keep a couple years' expenses in cash so that we don't have to sell off our ER portfolio into a bear market. So, having said that, our ER portfolio is:
23% Berkshire Hathaway (currently selling at a 52-week low)
24% Powershares International Dividend ETF (PID, down 13% YTD)
22% Dow dividend ETF (DVY, down 18% YTD and 28% off its high)
22% small-caps made up of 16% S&P600 small-cap value ETF (IJS) plus a few percent each of spouse's TSP "S" fund, a regional bank ETF (KRE), and a couple individual stocks. KRE is getting hammered particularly hard; down about 30% in the last eight months.

The other 9% is in a money-market fund and long-term CDs. We go for 3-5 years when interest rates make sense, and we hope that we don't have to break them. We're good for a while yet.

Our 15-year-old has been putting her salary into T. Rowe Price's International Equity Index (PIEQX, about the only fund company that'll custody a minor's Roth IRA). She'll max that contribution this year, and she's also considering starting a taxable account with Fidelity's Spartan Extended Market Index fund (FSEMX). Not sure how we're going to work around Fidelity's minimums, but this is a chance for them to catch a customer young and hold her for a very long time. I hope they take what she's willing to give...