What portfolio mix do you have given current situation

[Gatordoc50]

60% real estate
25% stocks
8% bonds
7% cash
We have an investment property for sale which represents about 10 % of our NW that I plan to buy bonds with.

 

[Hamlet]

95% stocks
5% cash

 

[M Paquette]

My current situation is "retired, no pension or SS". The Outside World doesn't really affect my plan.


Gross Allocation:
55% equities
45% fixed income

Equities are split 70% domestic, 30% international. Domestic equities are split 80% total stock market, 20% small cap value, in case that Fama-French 3 factor boost is real. Fixed income is split between a year's worth of cash and a half and half combination of Treasury Inflation Protected Securities and an intermediate term bond fund. (The bond fund is the lease efficient taxwise, and is mostly in an IRA. The TIPS are exempt from state tax, so they're OK in the regular taxable account, as my effective Federal tax rate is about zero.)

The Fiddly Details, ignoring cash and rounding to two places because more precision is just silly:
23% Intermediate Term Bond Fund
23% TIPS fund
31% Total Stock Market Fund
8% Small Cap Value
17% FTSE All World Ex-US


I rebalance once a year if any of these get below 75% of the target percentage, or above 125%. That is, most years I don't rebalance, and I don't need to obsess over the current allocation on a daily basis. I'm lazy... Cash is raised if needed as part of the annual check, selling off whatever is closest to the top of the band to bring it closer to my target. The portfolio is managed for total return, not dividends. My policy document says to tax loss harvest when the opportunity presents itself, so I did that as part of the 2009 rebalance. I won't have to worry about paying taxes on capital gains in my lifetime...

 

[Russman]

Thanks everyone, again...and Photoguy, your comments are spot on..if I have to ask whether I should try to time the market, then I probably shouldn't.
I think I was just getting nervous reading all of these daily "doomsday" articles about the market corrections.

Seeing how most everyone on this board basically stays with their long term portfolio allocation mix (along with the occasional rebalancing) - reassured me that I need to stay on my original path and be better at ignoring the day to day media blitz.

It's also helpful to see the various diversification strategies that folks have come up with in their portfolio mixes.

Appreciate it !!!

 

[easysurfer]

I think the zig zag of events surrounding Syria is a good example of not trying to time the market based of current situations.

 

[truenorth418]

25% bonds (mostly iBonds)
60% equities
10% REITs
5% cash

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Over 66 here, still working. Maybe stop at the end of the year, maybe next year, maybe not. Today, 100% equities (50/50 US/other).

By the way, I am closer to Syria than you are, but I don't care. Iran is my next-door neighbor and they have vowed to attack Western Interests in the Caspian (i.e., us/me) if ANYONE attacks them. (Guess who they are talking about.)

And you have portfolio anxiety? Stop reading the paper and turn off the TV. Pick an AA and stick to it.

 

[pb4uski]

.....I know you'll probably counsel me to not try to time the market and stick with the long term plan, but given the gains we've already seen since October of last year, would it not be prudent to pull back some equity for cash ?....

S&P at time of OP on 9/4/13 1653.08
S&P 500 close today 1689.13
% change +2.2%

Probably not.

 

[sengsational]

I'm with Ed. Just say no to media hype. I don't even listen to the radio in the car...I bring mp3's of podcasts on cool topics I'm interested in. I de-friend FB people that put too much news and politics in there, but news leaks into my life mostly through FB, but even that I try to ignore. Until it's time to join the revolt, I'll be ignoring the whole ball of wax.

 

[grasshopper]

About 60/40

 

[brewer12345]

Considering the historical suggestions of firecalc for higher equity allocations for long retirements, I am surprised at the relatively modest allocations in this thread. I am running at 65% equity and that seems about the lightest I can get away with.

 

[pb4uski]

Considering the historical suggestions of firecalc for higher equity allocations for long retirements, I am surprised at the relatively modest allocations in this thread. I am running at 65% equity and that seems about the lightest I can get away with.

+1, I'm surprised by the modest equity allocations but am more surprised by the liquidity many posters carry.

 

[SumDay]

62% Stocks, 22% Bonds, and 16% cash.

100% of my monthly 401(k) contributions are going into Wellington.

In 2008, when things were tanking, I handled it by not logging onto our 401(k) accounts for about 11 months. I also didn't open our snail mail statements until things began to turn around. I've made back lots more than I lost. (does that even make sense?)

 

[Jsore13194]

I'm 56, and I'm 60% equities, 25% bonds, and 15% cash. I use to be way too heavy in stocks, until I read an excellent book by Ken Fisher that explained that most of your portfolio performance is driven by asset allocation. The one critical factor to keep in mind is, over the last 20 years bonds have outperformed stocks, so it's very easy to say that a strong bond allocation works well. That trend will not continue, so if anything, I'd suggest a slightly stronger bias toward equities than fixed income going forward. With interest rates at historic lows, bond prices have only one way to go, and that is down.

 

[ERPRECY]

I'll be 58 in a few months. Husband is still working & plan to retire in 2 years. Currently have non-COLA'd pension/annuity of $5K a month. We both plan to take SS at 62. So AA is 80% Equities & 20% Cash/Bonds.

 

[Mulligan]

I live solely on a semi cola pension now, and continue to save 20-25% each month. I built up a cash base large enough that I felt ensured long term safety in relation to all unplanned or unexpected expenses. After I reached that base a few years ago, I am now pumping money monthly into an index fund. Current allocation is around 70% CD- IBonds and 30% stock. Though that ratio will narrow as the years go by. I never plan on touching the stock portion of assets, and hopefully none of the other allocations either.

 

[RobLJ]

56 and planning to semi-retire in a few years. Interesting to see the diversity of allocations, most of which I suspect are well-considered. .

I'm now
58% stocks (60%% US; 40% Intern.; 34% large cap; 7% small cap; 17% international)
22% bonds
17% cash
3% alt

I allow myself a 10% sliding band from 50-60% stocks with a 3% trigger over max to rebalance, so if the stock allocation gets to 63%, I'll rebalance.
My ostensible bond allocation is 30% bonds, but I've allowed it to steadily decrease (from 33%) and stocks to increase (from 48%) the last 2.5 years. That's based on my sense that stocks were a steal 3 years ago and a lot better mid/long term value than bonds. Got rid of long-term bond funds then and slowly moved to shorter and alternatives like TIPS and Floating. Sold TIPS fund in May concluding they were grotesquely overvalued. Moving slowly to a higher mix of international bonds and wish I had enough money in taxable to construct a bond ladder and Guggenheim Bulletbonds, but won't happen for a while.

If I think a sector is overvalued, like tech/S&P in 2000, or housing/stocks in '06, I'll reduce down to the minimum value (or a bit lower, like now in bonds). I adjust monthly 401/403 contributions to buy back into the sector slowly, but that won't work as a strategy after retirement in the next few years, so I'm mulling over that piece. Quirky, but it's worked so far since 1998.
Past returns are not predictive of future gains, TBS.