Post your asset allocation

Well, if you retire early and do the roth conversion ladder, it’s much less of a mistake.

I give each dollar the same weight as well, no matter the type of account.

I stumbled across this site that was referenced in an article on Seeking Alpha:

Portfolio Visualizer

Notice the first box has a couple of links to backtest portfolios or asset allocations. I don’t know how accurate or reliable the results are. I was able to play around with the links without registering. You might find it interesting or helpful.

Disclaimer: I’m not affiliated with Seeking Alpha or Portfolio Visualizer. Just a former FW member trying to learn to be a better investor.

My allocation is roughly:

65% Vanguard Equity Income Fund
12.5% Vanguard REIT Index Fund
12.5% Mairs & Power Small Cap
5% Vanguard International High Dividend Index
5% Vanguard International Dividend Appreciation Index

Used the Portfolio Visualizer linked above.

I’ve done OK, but I could have used the Bernstein No Brainer and done almost as well with much less complexity.

What apps are good for tracking the performance of entire portfolios over time? Ideally, I’d like to be create a handful of portfolios with a few securities each and track the performance of each portfolio as its own entity against other common indexes (S&P 500, etc) in chart form.

Why not that portfolio visualizer linked above?

I originally interpreted the site to say it was mainly for comparing historical performance of user created portfolios. I’m looking to track and compare performance starting today and going forward. I’ll sign up and play around with it this evening. Thanks.

45% Index Funds (VTSAX + SCHB)
19% Individual Equities (US Technology Mainly)
15% Bank Bonus Deposit Requirements♠ (~5% Interest)
13% Fixed Income (8.25% Interest)†
4% Pension Cash Out Value (5% Interest)
2.5% Cash
1.5% BTC *

:spades: My current strategy is to keep some funds outside the market by doing back to back bank bonuses with them. This can probably be classified as cash. I’m pretty sure a lot of people with high cash balances are doing something similar.

†This is offered by my employer, I’m already maxing out every quarter

*I didn’t actively research this investment, I just bought a few a long time ago on a whim and well they increased in value substantially

I’m not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for… but Personal Capital has a nice feature allowing you to compare your current portfolio against the major indexes.

Just currently migrated there from Yodlee (since Yodlee shut down moneycenter). Other than a few annoying phone calls and emails (which I have not answered or returned) it’s been a great experience.

There are some studies out there about the best rebalancing frequency and the verdict is mixed. The only conclusion is not to rebeanlce to often because you lose the effect of momentum. I use a threshold similar to Vanguard though I use an absolute deviation of 6%.

Momentum goes both ways, right?

Yes, when you are out of balance you are overweighing the winners and underweighting the losers so if momentum continues you are beeting on it. In general, momentum on the short run is more likely to continue than not. But you are right every now and then you will lose.

Do you have any links? I’d be interested in seeing that in detail.

I like this thread, but isn’t much of this worthless if you don’t know how old the poster is?

I love your post, and definitely wouldn’t mind seeing it be discussed more here. My point was… traditionally the whole concept of this is to reduce risk by reducing your holdings in potentially volatile investments as you get closer to retirement, so that you are not hugely negatively impacted by a swing in the market right when you need your cash. In that context, it’d be nice to see the thought process behind why for example a 25 year old or a 55 year old would be allocating assets against the grain. If we don’t know someone’s age, what’s the point… is it just e-peen or what.

Valuations matter for sure, but just looking at historical P/E ratios for example miss the point that stocks are more or less attractive to bonds based on what bonds currently pay. In this time of much lower interest rates, you should be willing to pay more for stocks with the same 2% dividend yield despite the risk than you would if bonds paid 5 or 10%. consequently stocks have been bid up and while the P/E’s are higher, it’s not clear that the relative valuation is high or low without doing the math on adjustments, real rates vs inflation, etc.

I agree with this. If you have enough money and are disciplined enough not to sell during a turbulent market, having a set amount in a bond fund would be sufficient regardless of your age. Let’s say that you spend $X per year and expect a recession to last N years at worst. Having $XN set aside in a bond fund, would be sufficient, it doesn’t need to be a percentage of your net worth.

There are a few caveats though. As you age your medical expenses will increase and the US does have the most expensive out of pocket medical costs right now. People typically are terrible judges of how healthy they are, so at least one run away medical expense should also be factored in this calculation.

Her is the first that comes to mind, will post more later:
https://www.vanguard.com/pdf/icrpr.pdf

I read that document a while back and that was the first document I thought of with regards to rebalancing. It’s an interesting read, but to summarize, it basically made a case that annual rebalancing is the best option. Quarterly rebalancing is also not bad. The main factor you want to avoid is any cost associated in the rebalancing process, such as if you have to pay fees to buy/sell. I primarily invest in Vanguard ETFs which do not have costs associated for buying or selling so it doesn’t really matter for me, yet I practice annual rebalancing for two reasons:

  1. It is easier to do it once a year
  2. It plays in better with my buy/hold and forget it strategy. The less I look at my retirement portfolio, the easier it is to not mess with the working system.
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The article seems to focus on three main things, taxes , fees , and time and effort. For most of us these don’t really apply that much.

Taxes - probably the most importat case, but as long as you stagger your investments by a year, tax implications would mainly be related to the gains/losses of selling. You have a lot of control in this arena in what you choose to sell. In fact if you have a “buy to rebalance” strategy taxes are less of an issue since you wouldn’t be hit with any taxes until you sell. Factor in IRAs and Roths and you have even more flexibility in rebalancing without incurring any tax implications or even better while harvesting losses.

Fees - For a good chunk of us this can be ignored. No load mutual funds combined and free trade accounts (Merrill Edge 30/Month with 25k deposits & 100/Month with 100k deposits, Wells Fargo Grandfathered PMI Account 100/Year with 50k deposits) can usually keep your brokerage fees down to just fund expense ratios. I don’t think I’ve ever used even 30 trades a year.

Effort - I thought this was primarily for fun, not profit :joy: If you follow their strategies though, each of the three strategies can be completely automated, negating effort with a formula/script.

In my opinion you should re-balance your portfolio relative to its volatility. Does your ideal portfolio have a 50/50 stock/bond position? it’s probably fine to leave it untouched for years, you’ll have some natural drift towards stocks, but it wouldn’t be that substantial. But if you’re heavy into foreign investments, metals, or some of the new crypto stuff, you probably wanna rebalance at least quarterly

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