convergent
Dryer sheet aficionado
A little background...
- 55, as is my DW
- Earliest I'll retire is 60, but likely to keep working part time after that.
- $1M in total retirement savings, although 20% in a pension cash earning about 1%
- $100K in cash
- Paid for $330K house
- Largest retirement amount is $680K in a 401K with 200 fund choices
- Never rebalanced, currently:
48% Large Cap Growth
16% Large Cap Income
15% International
13% Small/Mid Cap
8% REIT Funds
I'm at the point where I want to divest from International... most Large Cap companies are global companies.
I'm thinking of:
30% Large Cap Growth
20% Large Cap Income
15% Small/Mid Cap
15% REIT (some international)
10% LT Muni Bonds
10% LT Commercial Bonds
I'm OK with market ups and downs and haven't sold a share in any of the downturns.... just ridden them out. I know this is aggressive, but have 20% of retirement in stable/fixed pension fund.
My question is on the last two... I've never invested in bonds, primarily because I've had about $200K in the pension fund. I'm thinking of taking that as a double life annuity payment because they offer a premium if I do that which pushes it to a guaranteed ~8%. Either way, I'm thinking I should start moving some into Bonds.
I'm looking at two Vanguard funds, VWETX and VUSUX... LT bond funds. My concern is they seem a bit "too good to be true" in that they've returned big returns for the life of the funds and are up about 15% this year.
Is this a bad time to be moving to bonds? From my reading, it seems that people have been saying its a bad time for years.
- 55, as is my DW
- Earliest I'll retire is 60, but likely to keep working part time after that.
- $1M in total retirement savings, although 20% in a pension cash earning about 1%
- $100K in cash
- Paid for $330K house
- Largest retirement amount is $680K in a 401K with 200 fund choices
- Never rebalanced, currently:
48% Large Cap Growth
16% Large Cap Income
15% International
13% Small/Mid Cap
8% REIT Funds
I'm at the point where I want to divest from International... most Large Cap companies are global companies.
I'm thinking of:
30% Large Cap Growth
20% Large Cap Income
15% Small/Mid Cap
15% REIT (some international)
10% LT Muni Bonds
10% LT Commercial Bonds
I'm OK with market ups and downs and haven't sold a share in any of the downturns.... just ridden them out. I know this is aggressive, but have 20% of retirement in stable/fixed pension fund.
My question is on the last two... I've never invested in bonds, primarily because I've had about $200K in the pension fund. I'm thinking of taking that as a double life annuity payment because they offer a premium if I do that which pushes it to a guaranteed ~8%. Either way, I'm thinking I should start moving some into Bonds.
I'm looking at two Vanguard funds, VWETX and VUSUX... LT bond funds. My concern is they seem a bit "too good to be true" in that they've returned big returns for the life of the funds and are up about 15% this year.
Is this a bad time to be moving to bonds? From my reading, it seems that people have been saying its a bad time for years.