So here is my review of The Ivy Portfolio:
I thought it would take longer to read this book, but there were a number of chapters that I decided to more or less skip. The book is based on following the principles laid out by some of the best Ivy League Endowment Managers around. He does this specifically modeling after the Yale and Harvard funds. Both Yale and Harvard used a strategy of investing heavily in real and alternative assets.
Both of these endowments are actively managed, Harvard invested heavily in lumber (Harvard had 3 lumberjacks on staff at one point), Yale more so in Real Estate. Some of the strategies they employ are unavailable to the average investor. Both Yale and Harvard take on private equity investments and hedge funds.
The author attempts to filter this down into an easily managed portfolio for the individual into 5 major sectors: Domestic Stock, Foreign Stock, Bonds, RE, and Commodities in equal proportions. The author mentions as many here did, that the investors biggest source of failure is inflation. So 80% of the portfolio is designed to help combat that:
stocks - have done well in times of low inflation
RE and Commodities - have done well in times of high inflation
bonds - hedge against deflation
The parts of the book I skipped was him going over a market timing strategy, hedge fund picking, and private equity. I just, I just know I don't have the desire to do that stuff.
The crux of the book though is his table of suggested ETF's that represent this portfolio (attached). A simple 5- fund portfolio, 10-fund, and 20-funds
If I end up deciding to implement this, I would probably look at somewhere inbetween the 10 and 20. I'm not sure I'd be on board with all of those ETF's or necessarily see the need to split up all the stock positions into different funds.
Nest up is the 7-twelve book, though since I couldn't find that one online, that will have to wait a bit longer to read.