What is your asset allocation, if any?

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Robert Muir
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Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2010 10:15 pm

Post by Robert Muir »

Mine is a bit extreme. I'm currently at approximately 60% equities and 40% cash/short term investments. I'm expecting the market to drop and want some liquidity to catch some deals if they crop up.
I don't care for precious metals and due to my military pension, I don't need a bond allocation. So I'm an outlier.


Maus
Posts: 505
Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2010 10:43 pm

Post by Maus »

@Robert Muir

I never thought of using my future pension as a "bond" allocation, but it makes sense. Thanks for giving me something to mull over.


HSpencer
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Joined: Wed Jul 21, 2010 11:21 pm

Post by HSpencer »

I am not in the markets at all. I sold those on retirement, and am invested in the four rental properties I am associated with. These cash flows provide all living expenses. Wife and I receive cash from retirement pensions (School and Military), and we are both receiving social security. We have some IRA activity with the cash, and a couple other small investments. I am beginning to see that I am keeping too much cash, as I am not getting above 3 percent at best. However I am not too interested in looking at more investments at this time. I am more interested in tax shelters, and will go that way as time progresses.


George the original one
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Post by George the original one »

It all depends on how you look at it, so I'll give an overview and then zero in on where the effort is going:
Home equity: 17% (17% of total holdings, >20% equity)

****

Pension: 24% - no investment choices available, yields 8%

401K-like-thing that replaced the pension: 11% - no investment choices, 6% of pretax

IRAs: 10% - self-directed dividend equities

Roth IRA: 9% - self-directed dividend equities

****

Taxable: 29% - self-directed dividend equities

****
The Taxable portfolio is where the action is, as it's now growing 6x or 7x faster than retirement section.
Inside the Taxable portfolio there are a dozen or so equities:

Cash - 8.5%

Bonds & bond funds - 16.0%

Stable dividend equities - 10.2%

Dividend growth equities - 40.3% (matches or beats inflation)

Variable dividend equities - 25.0%
The Taxable portfolio currently yields over 7%. My reallocation goals are to increase "Dividend growth" to >50% and reduce "Variable dividend" to <10%. The end result should be a portfolio that increases income at a pace well above inflation, yet is stable enough that it will withstand significant market collapse. After analyzing the Taxable portfolio, I realized the current income is too likely to fluctuate, which is what prompted me to create a balance.


Q
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Post by Q »

I don't know the break down per se, but at least 20k cash, and the rest in investment accounts of various types (see journal - which I need to update too, sigh)
Close to 100k in various non-cash investments


Macs
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2010 10:30 pm

Post by Macs »

16% cash

8% precious metals

1% premium bonds (a UK thing, like a perpetual lottery ticket with 100% capital guarantee - for that 'random' element ;-) )

2.5% equities (just started and will be focus of savings going forward)

25% private pension (no more contributions going in)

45% life assurance about to mature

1% peer-to-peer lending

A garden ... priceless
- I haven't done a check-sum, if it's not 100%, bite me :-)
I don't count property - this is a place to live, not a financial asset, IMHO. 90% equity, to be 100% when life assurance matures, and "The Great Re-balancing" can begin :-)
My rationale:

cash - just in case

PMs - just in case something WAY more serious happens

PBs - well, you never know

equities - focusing on high dividend yields to build an income stream, lot of work yet to do (and yes, I did buy BP at the 14 year low ;-) )

pensions - I was young and drank the KoolAid

life assurance - at least it pays out before the pensions :-)

P2P lending - I like the idea, cuts out the middleman (the banksters), risky and rewarding
Most of the cash and equities are tax-sheltered and I have a couple of trivial income streams now which go purely into investments. Mortgage is the only debt, and that is covered.
Watching that 'number' - passive income vs actual expenses. A way to go yet, I might be able to retire early by retirement age ;-) Mind you, I managed to avoid (needing to) work for quite a few years when I was younger, and it was worth it...


Steve Austin
Posts: 177
Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2010 12:17 am

Post by Steve Austin »

55% dividend yielding stocks

(REITs, financials, telecons, energy)

36% cash / equivalents

09% municipal bonds (ETFs)
I don't have an explicit asset allocation strategy, but I am aiming to increase the municipal bond %, as well as start a precious metals position down the line...not even close to doing so now.


KevinW
Posts: 959
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2010 4:45 am

Post by KevinW »

I have a chunk in a 4x25 permanent portfolio and a chunk in a 70/30 total world stock / total bond portfolio. I want to merge them into one portfolio to rule them all, but first I have more mulling to do.


Matthew
Posts: 391
Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2010 6:58 pm

Post by Matthew »

401k

Dodge & Cox 10%

Dodge & Cox International 20%

Vangaurd 500 50%

Columbia small cap 10%

Tweedy Browne 10%

Note: I recently transferred half of the above to this during a rebalance in an attempt to time the market (Well Fargo Stable Return 50%) Today was not a good day to make me feel savy, but I am confident the future is bleak.
Roth IRA

Index for all us stocks 33%

Index for all non us stocks 33%

Index for REIT 33%
I have about another 20% of the amount above in cash which is always growing that I will eventually buy stocks with in a taxable account.
Eventually, I look to do a 401k Rollover into an IRA to have better control.


George the original one
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Post by George the original one »

@ The Dude - LOL, whoever believes in efficient market theory needs to ask themselves what was different about today compared to yesterday that would be worth a 3% jump in the indexes! And if the trend reverts to the mean, then which mean are we trending to when there's a 3% discontinuity?


jacob
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Post by jacob »

I say a jump of 3 IQ points in the collective intelligence! Seeing that my stocks went up today, I for one feel much smarter already.


Matthew
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Post by Matthew »

@George
LOL. The president was on TV. Isn't that normally worth 3%:) After all, according my recent post in "higher taxes" we just recently got done working for the government this year!


CestLaVie
Posts: 54
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2010 4:24 am

Post by CestLaVie »

Currently: 29% cash (some in CDs but mostly dry powder for bargain shopping), 31% bonds (munis/TIPS/corporates), 34% stocks (lots of dividend payers), 6% alternative investments (real estate, commodities, precious metals).


photoguy
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Post by photoguy »

"whoever believes in efficient market theory needs to ask themselves what was different about today compared to yesterday that would be worth a 3% jump in the indexes!"
Investor sentiment changes in response to news. From cnn: "Stocks rallied right out of the gate as investors welcomed a rebound in Chinese manufacturing and robust economic growth in Australia. The advance kicked into high gear following an unexpectedly strong report on U.S. manufacturing activity."


photoguy
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Post by photoguy »

My portfolio is roughly 10% cash, 10% bonds, 80% equity. The equity portion is further divided into
10% US Large Caps

15% US Large Cap Value

10% US small cap

15% US small cap value

10% US Reit
10% Foreign large cap

10% Foreign large cap value

10% Foreign small cap

10% emerging markets
All in a variety of low cost index fund and ETFs from vanguard and iShares. Have absolutely no complaints about performance (even in this past decade).


Marius
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Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2010 1:39 am

Post by Marius »

Mostly cash, some PM.

Mulling day and night.


erickonghl
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Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2010 4:20 pm

Post by erickonghl »

My allocation is 95% equities and 5% cash for expenses. Equities are Asian small cap value stocks.

I have had this allocation for the last 5 years.


RobBennett
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Post by RobBennett »

I've been at 0 percent stocks since the Summer of 1996. My money is in TIPS and IBonds paying 3.5 percent real. I am waiting for stock valuations to return to reasonable levels or something lower than that before getting back into stocks.
Rob


Carlos
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Location: Southeastern USA

Post by Carlos »

Using living expenses as a basis I have:
3 years cash

6 years investments (70/30 stock/bond)
This means I have 9 years saved or 36% of a goal of 25 years (or 25% if I target 35 years).


jacob
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Post by jacob »

@Carlos - I love how you put it in 'years'!


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