final mix from money magazine makeover

[mathjak107]

after fine tuning our mix based on the portfolio makeover tips we got from being evaluated in this months money magazine ,heres our final mix...it was pretty balanced the way i had it and all they felt we had to do is fine tune a little.the article is still up on cnn money magazine website as well as the magaine itself..(my wife hates her pic,  ha ha ha )for those that havent seen it..anyway here we go
the mix consists of both ira/401k and taxable accounts all rolled into one total mix

   long term money
aim capital development 2.2%
fidelity export & multinational 10.5%
fidelity growth company  5.9%
fidelity internatinal growth & income 4.20%
merrill lynch eurofund 2.25%
fidelity pacific basin  1.00%                   
fidelity small company japan .16% just bought as its being closed to new money
fidelity natural resources 1.1%
fidelity select gold .50%
pimco commodities fund 1.80%
fidelity strategic real return 9.20%
fidelity value 6.15%
fidelity small cap stock 1.50%
fidelity small cap value 4.33%
merrill lynch s&p index fund 2.15%

   medium term money

fidelity asset manager income 7.22%
fidelity balanced 5.67%
fidelity floating rate loans 2.5%
fidelity puritan 3.20%
fidelity strategic dividend 4.5%

   short term
fidelity ultra short term bond 2.05%
fidelity money markets and bank 22.5%

 

[dex]

What are the goals for this allocation?

Did you research the top 10 holdings of each fund to see how different they are in practice?

 

[REWahoo]

22 funds/accounts, but 11 funds hold only 16% of your portfolio, an average of 1.5% of per fund. I'm a big fan of simplicity (call me lazy ), this seems overly complex.

Why so many funds with very small allocations?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Whats the overall expense ratio?

 

[mathjak107]

its really not alot of funds considering its 3 seperate portfolios,each geared for a specific time frame..1-3 years 3-5 years and 5years until i die....the volitility at this point has been reduced drastically.i used to see 20,000 a day swings when i was all stock...my return isnt much less because the drops are way less and the volitility is 1/2 of what it was.each fund in each catagory has been matched to the others as best as i could..very little overlap of holdings as well as style.. there is really only 4 funds i wouldnt have if i had the choice as i dont need them as they are duplicates of others but they are in my 401k and i dont have much selection...aim development,,,the s&p 500 index ,merrill euro are 401k,,,the fidelity japan small company is a speculative play really which is now a closed fund and i put the bare minimum in before it closed so when i feel its time again i can utalize it...

 

[mathjak107]

overall expenses are about 9,000 a year on 1.6 million

 

[Nords]

overall expenses are about 9,000 a year on 1.6 million

Does that sound better than 0.56%?

$9000 is also 22.5% of a first year's 4% SWR...

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Not to sound terribly critical, but you could get nearly the same functional bang for your buck with about half the funds, at about half the expenses.

An extra 4000-5000 a year in your pocket to spend or compound is a lot.

I have three separate portfolio segments for three different time frames too. 7 funds, and one of those is a money market. .18-.19% ER. When I sliced and diced to nearly the level you're showing, I had 12 funds, .26 ER.

Hope it works out for you though. That was a lot of work.

 

[mathjak107]

well the performance is the bottom line,,,,,
last few years are
the long term mix

1999 +29
2000 -10.8
2001 -6.4
2002 -17.1
2003 +46.1
2004 +12.4
2005 +11.2
2006 +3.1




medium term portfolio

1999 +12.2
2000 +2.7
2001 +1.3
2002 -6.4
2003 +33
2004 +11.5
2005 +8.2
2006 +3.1

i actually use 2 seperate newsletters for the 3 portfolios and try to keep them different from each other which so far has been working well for me....i track a hypothetical mix of index and etf's id thought about buying because of the expense issues but performance hasnt been close to my mix so for now im sticking with it

 

[modhatter]

Just curious, if you don't mind sharing, what newsletters do you subscribe to?