AV8,
There are many roads to ER, and there are probably at least twice as many asset allocations as investors-- the AA you have and the AA you wish you have. I think the most important part of an asset allocation is being able to sleep with it at night and not selling in a panic when the market drops 20%.
With a military pension, you're right about zero bonds. [warning-- soapbox rant follows] However, are you certain that you're five years away from that pension? It only takes one nasty tour to make you submit those resignation papers, and you shouldn't feel that you have to gut it out until retirement. By far my last five years were the hardest, ironically at one of my best duty stations. If I have one regret about my military career, it's that I stayed when I probably would have been happier going. When my spouse pulled the plug on her active duty and joined the Reserves, just short of 18 years, her happiness factor shot through the overhead. Keep that Reserves/National Guard option in your back pocket and don't hesitate to threaten it during assignment negotiations. Navy assignment officers feel that they own you and that you'll do anything once you enter that 15-year zone. I've done the math at the O-5 paygrade and it's not worth risking your life or your health for ~$750K over 18 years (the difference between a pension at age 42 vs age 60). It'll make your family feel better, too, knowing that you're not making yourself crazy on active duty when you could be employed just about anywhere else. [/rant]
I think the TSP is absolutely germaine. Presuming that you're going to make it to a 20-year retirement, your biggest advantage over other investments is the TSP. The contribution limits were just raised to the IRS limit ($15K/year) and if you can max out the TSP first then you should do so. In fact it's a sneaky way to shift even more of your assets away from taxation-- contribute all of your pay & bonus to the TSP (minus the FICA and the allotments, of course) up to the limits. If necessary, cash in some taxable investments at long-term cap-gains rates for living expenses. You can deal with the TSP tax-deferral issue after retirement (see below). TSP's expense ratios are competitive with (if not lower than) Vanguard and we've been very happy with the small-cap "S" fund.
Your AA is as good as anyone else's. The rise of the large-cap sector (and the demise of small-cap stocks) has been predicted for several years now, so you're poised to benefit from either. Most of the large caps have an international presence today so you're covered on that as well. We favor value, and growth has lagged historically, but that's history-- again you may catch the growth wave just as it jumps ahead. We don't know. No one should claim to, either. When we were working we kept all our investments in equities with no bonds and no cash stash, either. In retirement we've kept the equity allocation with two years' expenses in cash.
Others will thump the drum about REITs, commodities (including precious metals), hedge funds, and other niche investments. I'm not sure they're necessary, especially when (as you point out) you're already invested in real estate. Again there are many suitable AAs and yours will probably do the trick without a little of everything. But if you're absolutely thrilled about the idea of holding a niche investment, then bring in 5-10%.
Vanguard has the edge on index management, as long as Gus Sauter is in the business, but Fidelity has recently decided to mark their own index territory. Some of Fidelity's expenses are as low as (or even lower) than Vanguard's and there's talk of making those loss-leader fees permanent. You may decide that Fidelity's index funds are as good as Vanguard's, and Fidelity may cut you a better deal. Personally I think Fidelity's customer service is much better than Vanguard, but perhaps Vanguard has recovered from their earlier problems. At the right level of assets you may not have to choose between expense vs customer service, so you should definitely consolidate your funds with one company to reach their breakpoints. You don't necessarily have to cash out a fund if you transfer it "in kind"-- Fidelity holds our Tweedy, Browne shares for free even though TBGVX is not one of their NTF funds. We haven't had a complaint in 20 years with Fidelity. TH, I mean (Cute Fuzzy Bunny), can tell you more about how he's treated by Vanguard. He's one of the world's worst customers so if they can please him then they can please us, too.
Grumpy makes the best point about rebalancing in your tax-deferred accounts. But if you're buying tax-efficient index funds (and not bonds, either) then it shouldn't matter too much which account your asset allocation goes into. If you want to nit-pick on taxes, you could argue that it's better to hold the international investments in a taxable account so that you can take the foreign-tax credit... but that's probably less than $1000/year. In the accumulation phase, you have the additional advantage of being able to rebalance by directing your new DCA money into the accounts & allocations where you want to. Instead of moving things around, you put your new savings into the investments that need new money the most. It's probably more important to max your TSP & IRA contributions than it is to worry about which allocation they go into.
When you retire from the military, your income will drop low enough that you'll be able to contemplate Roth IRA conversions within the 15% tax bracket over a period of several years. So although you might accumulate a pile of money in the TSP & conventional IRAs, you'll have at least a decade to convert to Roths before starting Social Security. Of course it may make more sense to stay in the TSP instead of rolling to a conventional IRA and converting, but you'll have to do the math on that when you retire.
A thought about kid's college funds-- the board is pretty evenly divided on how much a parent should contribute to a kid's college costs. If you decide to put money in their college funds, as they leave elementary school that might be a good time to start buying bonds. You can buy EE & I bonds and redeem them tax-free for education, although the program has quite a few caveats. (Like holding I bonds for five years to redeem without a penalty. And EE bonds can suck when their interest rate floats.) You might not be very happy about the costs of 529 plans, and I think that the lower expense ratio of a taxable index fund will beat out even the cheapest 529 plans. Then there's the issue of the change in 529 tax status in 2010, the question of whether you want to restrict your college savings for education (or have it available to help your kids buy a home & start a business), and what to do if your kids don't need the college fund (scholarships, military academies). With three kids and probably over a decade in college investing, though, you'll have to read all the fine print and crunch the numbers.
I think that covers the big picture. Ask more questions if there are other details.
I have a question-- do you literally fly AV-8s?
Ah, the sleepy teenager stirs. Surf's up! See you tomorrow...