Has anybody changed their mind about their investing strategy going forward?

[NgineER]

Will get back up to 80/20. Was 95/5 until 2/4 when I sold to get to 60/40. On 3/31 i was at 50/50 due to the decline. I sold another chunk, so I’m at 35/65 currently.

 

[thepalmersinking]

I can stomach a 30% decline in my equity portion, I've done it every time since I started investing in October of 1987, just in time for the famous Black Monday drop.


What bothers me more is the 10% decline in the bond portion.


I am with RobbieB and will be rebalancing to more cash and less bonds. I'll keep about 3 years living in cash with the rest invested in 3 or 4 index equity funds at VG (including a reduced holding in a bond fund).

Ditto. I am willing to give up a little faux ‘yield’ for real safety.

 

[Retired2016]

Nope, using the Bogle model during these uncertain times, stand there and do nothing.

Ditto. I've been retired for a few years and haven't drawn down yet due to making some money on the side. Our AA has been ~65/35 index funds give or take.

What has helped tremendously, since retirement, is having 2-3 years of expenses available in cash. That money is used for my side business and to fund checking accounts for sign up bonuses. That helps offset the opportunity cost of it not being invested. Be able to sleep at night and not worry though is priceless.

 

[ESRwannabe]

If you plan to change, what was your strategy before and what changes are you planning to make?

From an overall strategy perspective, this downturn has reinforced that my "income strategy" is the one that works for me. It is the strategy that I am comfortable with and can sleep well at night relying on.

My overall strategy is that every asset I buy needs to generate income (with an emphasis on dividend growth) and that my withdrawal strategy does not rely on capital gains.

However, this downturn has made me tweak the specifics a little bit. My largest and main assets still consist of dividend growth stocks, but I have made some tweaks.

* Consistent foreign dividend growth ETFs are non-existent. If you want any consistency at all you will have to buy individual stocks. Alternatively, I am just going to decrease my weight in Foreign stocks and rely more heavily on the US. No more 50% foreign stocks for me. Foreign stocks will be around 10%-30% range, and added only for diversification, and done with the understanding that the income is not reliable.

* For US dividend growth ETFs, no more trying to find the perfect ETF to use. There are a lot of different dividend growth strategies available. The best thing to do is use them all.

* I have found that "covered call" ETFs are a great compliment/addition to div growth ETFs. The income goes up during crisis at the expense of doing not as good during bull markets. Hence, a great counterbalance to div growth ETFs. The best covered call strategy in particular are those based off of the Nasdaq. In particular I like ETF QYLD. For CEFs I like QQQX, STK.

* When it comes to div growth ETFs I have a strong preference for monthly income payers. In particular I like ETFs DGRW, DTD, DGRS, DHS, DON, PEY, SPHD, QDIV.

* Other good div growth ETFs I like: SCHD, DGRO, VIG

* Broad market ETFs can make great div growth assets. The total stock market ETF VTI has a fantastic div growth record, better than most div growth focused ETFs... Funny enough, at the same time a lot of div growth ETFs have better total returns than VTI...

* Stay away from the super high yield areas like MLPs, Mortgage REITs, and BDCs. They aren't worth it.

* Stay away from Exchange Traded Notes i.e. ETNs. The acceleration clauses on these will destroy you in a down turn.

* When it comes to CEFs stay away from the "fund of fund" CEFs like FOF, and ETFs PCEF, YYY, ALTY, etc. When it comes to CEFs you have to be extremely selective. Most CEFs are poorly managed and basically "sucker yields" to lure in the naive.

* Some CEFs I do like: HTD, UTG, QQQX, STK.

* Most debt ETFs are garbage for income. You will get declining income every year. When it comes to debt the only ETFs I still like are Senior Loans (in particular ETF SRLN). For other debt, I think you need to buy individual bonds or don't bother.

* Debt has actually become a place to invest for capital gains, not income....

* Consider taking a gamble on 3x leveraged Nasdaq ETF TQQQ once it feels like we have hit bottom.

 

[ESRwannabe]

Another comment on my 3x leveraged Nasqaq idea...

So to implement this you start off with:

1/3 TQQQ and 2/3 Cash

This is equivalent to holding QQQ un-leveraged.

Now... once we start to turn around you start to ease up on the cash side a little at a time, i.e. you start dollar cost averaging out of cash and into TQQQ.

If things reverse you start backpedaling the other way.

I don't think we have hit bottom, but I do think we are down enough where its worthwhile for me to put some new money into this gamble. If I can come out of this downturn with a descent amount of TQQQ its a good gamble.

 

[jimbee]

I have not changed my 50/50 AA investing plan. Rebalanced into stocks at the end of February and the beginning of April, per my investment policy statement.

 

[Ready-4-ER-at-14]

I find that I can only really concentrate on one thing at a time. So when the trend is down for me not to go bonkers I need at least something going green when rest is red. That's why I have had a small basket of puts (and calls) going through this. When I bought the basket of long term options it was long enough ago that volatility was low and about 1/4 of Calls gained enough that in hind sight I should have sold them. Turns outs the bears then had their field day and all the puts but about one made money. I still have many of the calls but even with all the time left on some of them winning on them is iffy.

I also had a fair amount in cash and fixed income. I even sold some stock. Now the trick is getting back into the market. Fortunately after I reset my indicators I only need about 15% up to consider it . Until volatility slows a lot I think a reduced stock exposure suits me just fine. I look at the cash as just part of what's available for the next 7 years of living expenses should we need it.

Josephs Pharaohs dream of the 7 fat years (fat cattle and plump corn) followed by 7 lean years is a strong visual image right now. I personally expect things to be better soon if we base stock prices by say 15x annual earnings, only problem is revving up the economy means they have to sell something we want. We need new life altering inventions.

I do remember how depression era people hated stocks when I talked finance with them.

 

[targatom2019]

I went from 60/40 to 96/4 last 2 weeks. 4% is about two years of emergency in a CD.