In The Market?

[Mister Imperceptible]

After the September 2019 repo interest rate spike to 9-10% revealed the real cost of money without constant Fed intervention, I immediately moved to liquidate $20k worth of 2-year Treasury notes that I purchased on TreasuryDirect.

It took a whole month to get the cash. I had to transfer the notes from TreasuryDirect to a brokerage, and the process moved at glacial speed. Treasuries held directly and not in funds are about as liquid as real estate. Showed me the structure of the market.

If you were going to buy Treasuries I would only use funds unless you were sure you were going to hold the Treasury until maturity.

Personally I have no interest in loaning the government money ever again.

[Nomad]

@anesde
The 'bonds' I have are actual mutual funds containing bonds with Vanguard.
US Government Bond Index
UK Government Bond Index
and Euro Government Bond Index.

[Seppia]

about 85-15 Stocks-Cash, not counting our small paid off apartment (conservatively worth around 8% of my total net worth).

[Scott 2]

Own home. Otherwise:

US Stock - 39%
Cash - 19%
Int Stock - 15%
US Bond - 15%
Int Bond - 5%
Alternatives - 2%
Unclassified - 4%

I am moving about 5% of cash into the other buckets each month. If we hit a big crash later this year, I'll accelerate that pace.

[wolf]

Gold 12%
Stocks 6%
Cash 22%
Bonds 16%
Residence 44%

[IlliniDave]

Curious to those of you holding bonds - what type of bonds? Investment/non-investment grade corporates? Or T-bills? Do you just hold for the (very low?) coupon or trade in/out on valuation?

In my 401k I have a chunk of a "Total Bond Market" fund, a legacy holding of Pimco Total Return (more/less a total market with apparently a little leverage and derivative trickery), and a growing balance of a very short-term bond fund that I think is all treasuries. Also have a little in a "guaranteed income fund" which is bonds plus some insurance product. In my non-retirement stuff I have a pretty good chunk of muni bonds that up until the recent rate lowering I was going to sell in favor of a generic bond fund as soon as I retire expecting my marginal tax rate to fall a bunch. What I have in "cash" is all in money market funds, mostly Vanguard Prime MM. And as far as I know all the bonds in all the funds are US-based.

[fiby41]

1/4th when going in. 1/5th presently.

[matchewed]

Based off of net worth I'm about 43% in Equities, 51% in real estate (rentals so I generally consider these from a cash flow perspective rather than a net worth perspective), and 6% Cash.

[plantingtheseed]

Mostly cash.

[giskard]

10% crypto, 20% gold miners, 5% gold / silver, 15% cash, the rest in tech stocks and international stocks.

[CS]

As of May 23
28% gold, 24% stocks, 30% bonds, 18% cash. It's probably closer to even splits into quarters atm but I'm too lazy to recheck everything.

[Forskaren]

60% stocks and 40% bonds with rebalancing once a year. I am using very low cost or free funds. No single stocks or actively managed stock funds.

[ScrewTheAverage]

We're 95% low cost funds and 5% cash.

[Nomad]

It looks like we are in for another crash... the NASDAQ is down over 5% today.

I will see what has happened by the middle of next week and may rebalance a little.

[Kipling]

One's own perfect allocation, as has been endlessly rehearsed on these forums over the years, is a matter of matching your investment allocation to your psychology.

Excluding (paid-for) house I'm 2.5% metals, 65% shares, 22.5% bond equivalents, 10% cash. This is an allocation that I feel comfortable with that I have arrived at over a twenty year investing timeline. Cash sometimes goes up to about 15%, but I invested it back down to 10% mid-March.

The shares are mainly held via ETFs: 12.5% Emerging Markets, 10% Dev World Ex UK, 5% FTSE100, 5% FTSE 250, 10% Europe Ex UK. 2.5% in a Brazil-focussed ETF. 10% BRK-B, and 10% in five individual shares. I am not a brilliant stock picker, but picking the occasional individual share scratches a particular itch and stops me trying to be clever with the big money.

None of this is investment advice.

[thedollar]

@Kipling and others who hold bonds

Do you mind sharing which bonds you invest in? The return on developed countries' bonds seem so low to me, so I've been trying to figure out a good strategy.

[Nomad]

@thedollar
The 'bonds' I have are actual mutual funds containing bonds with Vanguard.
US Government Bond Index
UK Government Bond Index
and Euro Government Bond Index.

There purpose is not to make massive returns, it is mainly to be a cash like pool of money to liquidate and buy equities when they drop.
AKA rebalancing. I prefer a mixture of bonds of difference countries to keeping this as cash as the pound may very well go down...

[plantingtheseed]

(moved) nothing to see here, move on, move on.

[liberty]

Currently
- 65% stocks
- 35% cash or short term bonds

I always keep ~55% in stocks. Then I do trend-following on ~40%, based on 200 days moving average. I also have a small amount on a house saving bank account, that we have here in Norway. But not sure if it's a good idea for me since I probably won't buy a house, and the tax advantage is earned back after 4 - 5 years of expected stock returns.

[WingsOnFire]

Currently I don't own any stocks. I have woodland, cash, gold, and some bitcoin. Percentages in that order but not sure exactly. I do plan to get into stocks but things being too huffed and puffed right now I'm leery of it. These don't generate any income so need to be re-allocated, but right now it's not a pressing concern as I have enough income. The woodland actually could be rented out as a CO2 compensator, it would generate 500 e /year. Which I could do if I was planning to keep it, it'd still be 5K in ten years so not nothing.