Poll

What percentage of your stash is in stocks?

0
0 (0%)
10
0 (0%)
20
1 (1%)
30
4 (3.8%)
40
1 (1%)
50
7 (6.7%)
60
5 (4.8%)
70
3 (2.9%)
80
28 (26.7%)
90
30 (28.6%)
100
26 (24.8%)
Other (explain)
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 104

Author Topic: Asset Allocation Poll  (Read 4310 times)

metaphysik

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Asset Allocation Poll
« on: January 09, 2016, 07:55:48 AM »
Please only include funds that will be used for FIRE. Do not include defined-benefit pensions, Social Security, home equity, 529 plans, or anything like that. Round to the nearest multiple of 10 if required. Feel free to reply with more detail on your specific allocation, I love seeing portfolios!

As an avid follower of both MMM and the Bogleheads forum, I'm interested to see how the two groups differ in terms of their asset allocation. Bogleheads on the whole tend to be quite conservative and my sense is that the FIRE community is more aggressive, but I couldn't find any data to back this up. Hence this poll.

Go Curry Cracker recommends 100% equities for FIRE. I don't think MMM himself has made a recommendation but in his post on Betterment he said he was 90% equities in that account.

Here's my 80/20 portfolio, feel free to rip it apart:
20% Total Stock Market (VTSAX)
20% Small-Cap Value (VSIAX)
20% Total International (VTIAX)
20% Small-Cap International (VFSVX)
20% Long-Term Treasuries (VLGSX)
I can explain how I arrived at this if there is interest.

Looking forward to hearing from everyone!

metaphysik

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Re: Asset Allocation Poll
« Reply #1 on: January 09, 2016, 01:17:53 PM »
Wow seems like almost everyone is 80% and up! I was not expecting that.

turketron

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Re: Asset Allocation Poll
« Reply #2 on: January 09, 2016, 01:52:04 PM »
I'm pretty much 100% VTSAX at this point, except for some RSU shares in my company's stock. My IRA and taxable accounts are all VTSAX, but my 401k doesn't have the Admiral Shares so it's all in VTSMX.

Indexer

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Re: Asset Allocation Poll
« Reply #3 on: January 09, 2016, 01:55:28 PM »
My retirement stash:  60% VTSAX.  40% VTIAX. 

I do have some money in a more conservative allocation for a sooner goal, but its a smaller amount.

JZinCO

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Re: Asset Allocation Poll
« Reply #4 on: January 09, 2016, 02:03:37 PM »
85% equities with a smallcap, reit, value tilt
10% p2p
5% "bond" that right now is actually taken up by hi-yield cash (in a 100% vested fund without enough service credits to confer a pension benefit)
I've been toying around with what to do regarding maintaining 5% "bond".. I can't add to the hi-yield cash so I'll have to go for publicly traded bond funds. I might just open a myRA and purchase G fund as a top off. Chasing additional reward from risk in the bond market isn't important for me given it's small allocation.
« Last Edit: January 09, 2016, 02:08:59 PM by JZinCO »

effigy98

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Re: Asset Allocation Poll
« Reply #5 on: January 09, 2016, 02:34:13 PM »
Here is mine for accumulation phase. I re-balance when two get 1500 apart.

VYM (Large value, dividend 3%): 30%
VBR (Small Value, dividend): 10%
PNQI (Internet growth): 15% I feel (no logic here) like Amazon is taking over the world, I did not want to hold them directly, but this seems like a good compromise.
VNQ (REIT): 15%
VWO (International Emerging): 10%
BND (Bonds): 20%

I'm a red panda

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Re: Asset Allocation Poll
« Reply #6 on: January 09, 2016, 04:03:11 PM »
80/20 with a plan to be more conservative as I age.

AZryan

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Re: Asset Allocation Poll
« Reply #7 on: January 10, 2016, 12:12:49 PM »
A HUGE part of making this poll useful is knowing ages and sizes of 'staches (or % of the way to hitting 25-30X of your annual spending).

I mean, if a LOT of people here are mostly stocks, but pretty young and not really very close to retirement, that's pretty expected and broadly considered 'reasonable'.

100% stocks, teetering on retirement and middle aged might be a LOT more rare and considered FAR riskier -despite registering the exact same way as the rest in your poll.

Broadly speaking, I think most here know the clear stats that Stocks just make the most $ long term and bonds are mostly there to tamp down fear. Real Estate or other diversifiers like Gold or peer-to-peer lending seems popular with some, but not a very large part of the overall if you added up all our investments.
People here are probably bolder and less afraid than the national average (who are often too afraid to invest in stocks at all), so you're likely to get higher than a generic 60/40-70/30% stock/bond balance.

AZryan

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Re: Asset Allocation Poll
« Reply #8 on: January 10, 2016, 12:25:55 PM »
BTW, metaphysik,
I like your investment balance. Kinda' Similarish to the Golden Butterfly version of the Permanent Portfolio.
http://portfoliocharts.com/portfolio/golden-butterfly/

I like how Long Term Bonds seem to almost perfectly inversely correlate with stocks. Hopefully that still continues and you can watch them jump up whenever stocks crash. But with rising interest rates, LT bonds'll get hurt the most so I've held back jumping in.

Personally I'm 60% Midcaps, a goldilocks and overlooked index sector IMO. But I know that's weird and unconventional. In so many articles and discussions of ass.allocations, though they don't even seem to exist. It's usually just Large Caps or Small Caps.

arizonawildcats

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Re: Asset Allocation Poll
« Reply #9 on: January 10, 2016, 07:51:07 PM »
At the end of December 2015, I rebalanced and went 40% stocks / 60% bonds.   The primary reason is I believe the risk/reward for equities at current valuation levels is concerning.   My normal asset allocation is 60% / 40% but I do make adjustments based on valuation levels.  For example, in early 2009 I did change the asset allocation from 60/40 to 100% equities.   I focus the bond allocation to shorter/intermediate durations to minimize the impact of rising interest rates.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!