<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>Investor Junkie &#187; Asset Allocation</title>
	<atom:link href="http://investorjunkie.com/category/asset-allocation/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://investorjunkie.com</link>
	<description>My Business and Financial Freedom Journey</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Mon, 21 May 2012 13:31:10 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2</generator>
<image><title>Investor Junkie</title><url>http://cdn.investorjunkie.com/images/investor-junkie.png</url><link>http://investorjunkie.com</link><width>210</width><height>42</height><description>Investor Junkie - http://investorjunkie.com</description></image>		<item>
		<title>How To Manage Risk? Diversify!</title>
		<link>http://investorjunkie.com/3921/manage-risk-diversify/</link>
		<comments>http://investorjunkie.com/3921/manage-risk-diversify/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 May 2012 13:00:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Larry Ludwig</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Asset Allocation]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://investorjunkie.com/?p=3921</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Managing risk is a critical part of investing, but also in business. Let me explain. Most people get the idea of managing risk with investing. It&#8217;s one of the core tenants in investing. Don&#8217;t put all of your eggs in one basket. It&#8217;s obvious we don&#8217;t have control over many aspects with investing, so to [...]</p><p><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/3921/manage-risk-diversify/">How To Manage Risk? Diversify!</a> is from <a href="http://InvestorJunkie.com/" target="_blank">Investor Junkie</a> Copyright &copy; Empowering Media, Inc.</p><h4>Related posts:</h4><ul>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/9033/risk-free-investment/' rel='bookmark' title='There&#8217;s No Such Thing as a &#8220;Risk Free&#8221; Investment.'>There&#8217;s No Such Thing as a &#8220;Risk Free&#8221; Investment.</a></li>
</ul>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Managing risk is a critical part of investing, but also in business. Let me explain. Most people get the idea of managing risk with investing. It&#8217;s one of the core tenants in investing. Don&#8217;t put all of your eggs in one basket. It&#8217;s obvious we don&#8217;t have control over many aspects with investing, so to mitigate that risk we diversify. This includes not only by asset classes, but also within the U.S. and internationally. Many business owners, and employees for that matter, get tripped up with diversification with their career. They put all of their eggs in one basket, only for that basket to get crushed.</p>
<p><span id="more-3921"></span>When owning a business you have much more control over your destiny, but also risk. Though how many stories have you heard of a well to do businessperson, who had it all, only to lose it when the company they founded went bankrupt. They obviously weren&#8217;t managing risk very well since most of their net worth was within their business. The same applies if you&#8217;re an employee working for someone else. If were to lose your job, how long would you last with out it? Unfortunately for many, they are just two weeks away from bankruptcy. In the case of an employee, most only have a single source of income. So I consider it critical you go out and get a side hustle. Start up that business you always wanted part-time. </p>
<h2>Manage Risk In The Things You Cannot Control</h2>
<p>This is a key distinction. If you can control an issue, more than likely it&#8217;s not a risk. Risk is outside of your sphere of control (i.e. weather). Let me give you two personal examples. One I didn&#8217;t properly prepare for, and another I did.</p>
<h2>The Bad Economy</h2>
<p>I&#8217;ve owned my web hosting business for over ten years now. I&#8217;ve done pretty well with it, considering it&#8217;s a very competitive industry. We have a good niche in a crowed space. The problem is we cannot control the economy. As everyone knows, 2008-2009 was a horrible time to be in business. During that period we lost quite a few long term customers. It wasn&#8217;t because they went to other providers, or we were too costly, but they simply went out of business. </p>
<p>The ones who did stay with us, weren&#8217;t wanting to expand much online. Frankly from my discussions with them, many small business owners were terrified. Financially my business did ok during this period, but had very little growth. Pretty much during this period our growth was flat. Fortunately, I was one of the lucky industries that wasn&#8217;t hit too hard during our recession. As you know, many others weren&#8217;t so lucky, like independent building contractors, or employees in the financial sector.</p>
<p>The problem in my case is I didn&#8217;t manage my risk too well. I did&#8217;t have a business strategy to compliment my existing business income. So when the economy tanked, so did my business growth.</p>
<p>I decided to ask a great question, &#8220;What other business or service can I offer, that will do well if the economy does poorly?&#8221;</p>
<p>From my research I decided to find another niche that I was interested in, but also complimentary to web hosting. From this <a href="http://investorjunkie.com/">Investor Junkie</a> was born. Not only did I feel it was a missed niche, but could compliment my existing incomes.</p>
<p>From my research, I determined people become much more interested in finance when the economy tanks. Financial search queries increase during this time. People are looking for solutions to their problems. My goal is to create this site is a beacon for independent investors, and small business owners. To also educate people so the next time the economy is bad, you&#8217;ll not only survive but thrive! It&#8217;s critical to anticipate problems before they are critical.</p>
<p>So while I cannot control the economy, I can control my focus of the business niches I am in. So in the future should one business do poorly, the others should do well. In the past five years there have been many business that have done well because of the poor economy, such as:</p>
<ul>
<li>Collection agencies</li>
<li>Home cleaners  &#8211; To clear out the foreclosed homes abandoned by their owners</li>
<li>Grass painters &#8211; For foreclosed homes to make brown grass look green</li>
<li>Pawn Shops</li>
</ul>
<p>I&#8217;m not suggesting you should go into these businesses, but realize a business can thrive while the economy is doing poorly. It&#8217;s possible your existing business can thrive too, it&#8217;s just the fact you need to adjust your marketing and sales to target a new need.</p>
<h2>Data Center Failure</h2>
<p>We colocate our servers in two <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_center" target="_blank">data centers</a>. I always believed in having at least two of them. The reason is because disasters happen. No data center can achieve 100% uptime all the time because <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy's_law" target="_blank">Murphy&#8217;s law</a> applies. If a data center was down for long period of time (ie days), it could mean the end of my business. So I&#8217;ve always followed that belief, and was very fortunate on that infamous day in 2001.</p>
<p>At the time, we had a data center just a few blocks away from the World Trade Center. The data center wasn&#8217;t initially affected by the destruction on 9/11, but eventually went offline anyways. A power substation was downed because of the terrorist attack. A modern day data center can deal with a power outage like they experienced, so power continued to run while there was no electricity downtown.</p>
<p>For those not familiar with what happened after the buildings collapsed, downtown was locked down. No one was able to get in or out. All bridges and tunnels were sealed off, including the diesel truck that was to replenish the data center generator. So twelve hours later, all our computers went down.</p>
<p>Fortunately we didn&#8217;t have all our eggs in one basket, and only half of our customers were affected by the outage. The ones that were affected, we worked with them to help bring them online at our other unaffected data center. If it weren&#8217;t for our alternative data center, our business would have been dramatically affected, and more than likely would have lost some important customers. Instead we got praised how quickly we were able to bring our customers back online after the terrorist attack.</p>
<h2>Risk Assessment Exercise</h2>
<p>So with investing, and in business it&#8217;s critical you do a risk assessment every year. Know the possible risks, and possible outcomes. List out the:</p>
<ul>
<li>Risks &#8211; Go crazy with your list. Put even the absurd items, but be comprehensive</li>
<li>Chance To Occur &#8211; In percentage, what&#8217;s the chance of it happening within the year</li>
<li>Outcome &#8211; What will happen financially or future financial growth?</li>
<li>Hedges &#8211; What action(s) can you take to prevent this from occurring or minimize it&#8217;s impact?</li>
</ul>
<p>The best question I always ask &#8220;What&#8217;s the worst that can happen?&#8221; Once you created this list, attack the low hanging fruit first, the ones most likely to occur, or the easiest to mitigate. Creating this list won&#8217;t obviously help with the &#8220;black swans&#8221;, but they more than likely be on your radar. By planning ahead of time for possible risks, you will minimize the possible outcome should the occur</p>
<h4>Related posts:</h4><ul>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/9033/risk-free-investment/' rel='bookmark' title='There&#8217;s No Such Thing as a &#8220;Risk Free&#8221; Investment.'>There&#8217;s No Such Thing as a &#8220;Risk Free&#8221; Investment.</a></li>
</ul><p><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/3921/manage-risk-diversify/">How To Manage Risk? Diversify!</a> is from <a href="http://InvestorJunkie.com/" target="_blank">Investor Junkie</a> Copyright &copy; Empowering Media, Inc.</p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://investorjunkie.com/3921/manage-risk-diversify/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>What Is Tactical Asset Allocation?</title>
		<link>http://investorjunkie.com/11557/tactical-asset-allocation/</link>
		<comments>http://investorjunkie.com/11557/tactical-asset-allocation/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:00:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Miranda Marquit</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Asset Allocation]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://investorjunkie.com/?p=11557</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>When it comes to portfolio management, many experts recommend that you focus on asset allocation. Asset allocation is a strategy that involves building a portfolio around asset classes. You include certain percentages of stocks, bonds, cash, real estate, and other investments, depending on the goals for your portfolio. You don&#8217;t have to maintain static ratios [...]</p><p><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/11557/tactical-asset-allocation/">What Is Tactical Asset Allocation?</a> is from <a href="http://InvestorJunkie.com/" target="_blank">Investor Junkie</a> Copyright &copy; Empowering Media, Inc.</p><h4>Related posts:</h4><ul>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/61/asset-allocation/' rel='bookmark' title='Asset Allocation for Retirement'>Asset Allocation for Retirement</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/3611/correlation-asset-allocation/' rel='bookmark' title='Correlation: The Reason For Asset Allocation'>Correlation: The Reason For Asset Allocation</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/3374/asset-allocation-2/' rel='bookmark' title='Asset Allocation for Retirement (The Details)'>Asset Allocation for Retirement (The Details)</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/9918/5-steps-creating-financial-plan/' rel='bookmark' title='5 Steps to Creating a Successful Financial Plan'>5 Steps to Creating a Successful Financial Plan</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/10155/preparing-portfolio-year/' rel='bookmark' title='Preparing Your Portfolio for the End of the Year'>Preparing Your Portfolio for the End of the Year</a></li>
</ul>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>When it comes to portfolio management, many experts recommend that you focus on asset allocation. <a href="http://investorjunkie.com/3374/asset-allocation-2/">Asset allocation</a> is a strategy that involves building a portfolio around asset classes. You include certain percentages of stocks, bonds, cash, real estate, and other investments, depending on the goals for your portfolio. You don&#8217;t have to maintain static ratios of asset classes in your portfolio, though.<br />
<span id="more-11557"></span>If you are looking for a way to take advantage of changing asset values, and if you want to keep up with what&#8217;s happening in the markets, Tactical Asset Allocation is a strategy that can help.</p>
<h2>The Basics of Tactical Asset Allocation</h2>
<p>Basically, Tactical Asset Allocation (TAA) is a strategy that involves active portfolio management. This isn&#8217;t about buying specific asset classes in specific quantities and then holding. Instead, you rebalance the percentages of assets held in different categories so that you can take advantage of current market conditions.</p>
<p>For the most part, though, TAA isn&#8217;t considered completely active. When you create your investment portfolio you decide on your base asset allocation. You set up your desired percentages of each asset class. However, if the market experiences an anomaly, or if conditions change for the short term, the asset allocation is changed. Tactical advantage is used in order to maximize profits, as well as limit losses. Once the desired short-term effect is achieved and the markets settle down a bit, the original asset allocation can be returned to.</p>
<p>TAA is about dynamic portfolio management, and requires that you pay attention to what is happening so that you can change your asset allocation to take advantage of current conditions. For example, if stocks are dropping, and offering a good bargain, it might be worth it to shift to more stocks in order to buy when valuations are low. That way, you get more bang for your buck. Later, as valuations increase, you can shift your asset allocation, selling for profits since you bought while prices were low.</p>
<p>The idea is to switch your asset allocation when conditions indicate that one asset might soon outperform another. Rather than focusing on picking particular investments, the idea is to focus on an entire asset class or sector at one time. TAA works well when you understand how asset classes relate to each other, and how they generally move in response to market stresses. When you have this understanding, you are more effective in shifting your asset allocation to take advantage of the current circumstances.</p>
<h2>Bottom Line</h2>
<p>If you understand how different asset classes relate to each other, and if you can spot trends in the market, it is possible to use Tactical Asset Allocation to improve your portfolio performance. Realize, though, that TAA works best for those with the <a href="http://investorjunkie.com/2501/leave-investing-to-the-professionals/">skills and knowledge to make it work</a>. And, like all investment strategies, there is no guarantee of success. You can re-balance your portfolio so that it takes advantage of market conditions, and periodically adjust so that you stay on track. TAA is just one more tool that can help you manage your investment portfolio in a way that provides you with higher profits and limited losses.</p>
<h4>Related posts:</h4><ul>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/61/asset-allocation/' rel='bookmark' title='Asset Allocation for Retirement'>Asset Allocation for Retirement</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/3611/correlation-asset-allocation/' rel='bookmark' title='Correlation: The Reason For Asset Allocation'>Correlation: The Reason For Asset Allocation</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/3374/asset-allocation-2/' rel='bookmark' title='Asset Allocation for Retirement (The Details)'>Asset Allocation for Retirement (The Details)</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/9918/5-steps-creating-financial-plan/' rel='bookmark' title='5 Steps to Creating a Successful Financial Plan'>5 Steps to Creating a Successful Financial Plan</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/10155/preparing-portfolio-year/' rel='bookmark' title='Preparing Your Portfolio for the End of the Year'>Preparing Your Portfolio for the End of the Year</a></li>
</ul><p><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/11557/tactical-asset-allocation/">What Is Tactical Asset Allocation?</a> is from <a href="http://InvestorJunkie.com/" target="_blank">Investor Junkie</a> Copyright &copy; Empowering Media, Inc.</p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://investorjunkie.com/11557/tactical-asset-allocation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>7</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>5 Steps to Creating a Successful Financial Plan</title>
		<link>http://investorjunkie.com/9918/5-steps-creating-financial-plan/</link>
		<comments>http://investorjunkie.com/9918/5-steps-creating-financial-plan/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Sep 2011 13:03:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Miranda Marquit</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Asset Allocation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[finances]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[invest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Investing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[investment plan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[portfolio]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://investorjunkie.com/?p=9918</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>You probably know that one of the most important things you can do to build wealth is to invest. Investing can help you take advantage of compounding returns and grow your nest egg. However, in order to succeed at investing, it helps to have a plan. Here are 5 steps to creating a successful financial [...]</p><p><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/9918/5-steps-creating-financial-plan/">5 Steps to Creating a Successful Financial Plan</a> is from <a href="http://InvestorJunkie.com/" target="_blank">Investor Junkie</a> Copyright &copy; Empowering Media, Inc.</p><h4>Related posts:</h4><ul>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/10570/perry-tax-plan-choose-tax-rate/' rel='bookmark' title='Perry Tax Plan: Choose Your Tax Rate'>Perry Tax Plan: Choose Your Tax Rate</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/5128/2011-financial-goals/' rel='bookmark' title='2011 Financial Goals'>2011 Financial Goals</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/12866/529-plan/' rel='bookmark' title='Getting The Most Out Of Your 529 Plan'>Getting The Most Out Of Your 529 Plan</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/8666/fixed-interest-rates-game-plan/' rel='bookmark' title='Low Fixed Interest Rates Game Plan'>Low Fixed Interest Rates Game Plan</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/2354/monitoring-your-financial-independence/' rel='bookmark' title='Monitoring Your Financial Independence'>Monitoring Your Financial Independence</a></li>
</ul>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>You probably know that one of the most important things you can do to build wealth is to invest. Investing can help you take advantage of compounding returns and grow your nest egg. However, in order to succeed at investing, it helps to have a plan. Here are 5 steps to creating a successful financial plan:<br />
<span id="more-9918"></span></p>
<h2>1. Identify Your Goals for the Money</h2>
<p>The first thing to do is identify your goals. What will the money be used for? Figure out why you are investing. You can have multiple goals if you want, creating a different portfolio for each goal. Investing can help you reach a number of goals, from buying a home, to retirement, to saving for your child&#8217;s college, to creating a stable income stream. Decide what you want your money to accomplish.</p>
<h2>2. Decide on a Realistic Time Frame</h2>
<p>When do you think you will need the money? You will need a time frame to proceed, if you want to meet your goals. A retirement portfolio might have a time frame of 20 or 30 years, while your income portfolio might need a time frame of seven to 10 years to build up to the point where it provides a regular, substantial revenue stream.</p>
<h2>3. Figure Out the Best Asset Allocation</h2>
<p>Next, it&#8217;s time to research your investment options, and decide on an <a href="http://investorjunkie.com/61/asset-allocation/">asset allocation</a> that will help you reach your goals within your specified time frame. If you are looking to use your investments to buy a home in five years, you might want a more aggressive choice, to build up your fund as quickly as possible. An income portfolio would focus a great deal on dividend stocks, with some long term bonds to help matters. Your retirement account, or a college savings investment fund, might start out with heavy allocation in stocks and then shift to bonds.</p>
<p>You can also include cash products, real estate, commodities and currencies in your investment plan, provided you understand how they work, and how they might fit into your risk tolerance. Realize, too, that part of asset allocation is adjusting your allocation as you approach your goals so that you retain the appropriate amount of risk for your situation.</p>
<h2>4. Determine How Much Money You Need to Invest</h2>
<p>There are numerous calculators online that can help you figure out how much money you will need to invest each month in order to reach your goals. Using your asset allocation, and your time frame, estimate how much you will need to set aside each month to reach your goals. You have this money deducted from your paycheck, or automatically debited from a checking or savings account.</p>
<p>You can also integrate your other financial goals with your investing plan. You can plan to pay down debt while investing, and then, when your debt is paid off, take the payments you were making and invest the month.</p>
<h2>5. Stick to Your Plan</h2>
<p>Every investing plan will need some tweaking as you go along. You might even need to make substantial changes if something major and unexpected should happen with your finances. However, by and large, you should try to stick to your plan. Don&#8217;t stray from your plan when panic sets in; keeping with your plan during tough times, and not letting fear push you into discarding your plan will help you avoid making big mistakes that could negatively impact you later.</p>
<h4>Related posts:</h4><ul>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/10570/perry-tax-plan-choose-tax-rate/' rel='bookmark' title='Perry Tax Plan: Choose Your Tax Rate'>Perry Tax Plan: Choose Your Tax Rate</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/5128/2011-financial-goals/' rel='bookmark' title='2011 Financial Goals'>2011 Financial Goals</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/12866/529-plan/' rel='bookmark' title='Getting The Most Out Of Your 529 Plan'>Getting The Most Out Of Your 529 Plan</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/8666/fixed-interest-rates-game-plan/' rel='bookmark' title='Low Fixed Interest Rates Game Plan'>Low Fixed Interest Rates Game Plan</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/2354/monitoring-your-financial-independence/' rel='bookmark' title='Monitoring Your Financial Independence'>Monitoring Your Financial Independence</a></li>
</ul><p><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/9918/5-steps-creating-financial-plan/">5 Steps to Creating a Successful Financial Plan</a> is from <a href="http://InvestorJunkie.com/" target="_blank">Investor Junkie</a> Copyright &copy; Empowering Media, Inc.</p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://investorjunkie.com/9918/5-steps-creating-financial-plan/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>8</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Asset Allocation for Retirement (The Details)</title>
		<link>http://investorjunkie.com/3374/asset-allocation-2/</link>
		<comments>http://investorjunkie.com/3374/asset-allocation-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 11 Oct 2010 19:01:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Larry Ludwig</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Asset Allocation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[administration fees]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vanguard index funds]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://investorjunkie.com/?p=3374</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Previously I discussed our asset allocation for retirement at the high level.  This post is where the rubber meets the road. I&#8217;ll detail all the equities we own to achieve our goals. Like most things in life, planning asset allocation on paper is one thing, but implementing it is another story. The problem we have, [...]</p><p><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/3374/asset-allocation-2/">Asset Allocation for Retirement (The Details)</a> is from <a href="http://InvestorJunkie.com/" target="_blank">Investor Junkie</a> Copyright &copy; Empowering Media, Inc.</p><h4>Related posts:</h4><ul>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/61/asset-allocation/' rel='bookmark' title='Asset Allocation for Retirement'>Asset Allocation for Retirement</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/11557/tactical-asset-allocation/' rel='bookmark' title='What Is Tactical Asset Allocation?'>What Is Tactical Asset Allocation?</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/3611/correlation-asset-allocation/' rel='bookmark' title='Correlation: The Reason For Asset Allocation'>Correlation: The Reason For Asset Allocation</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/7630/smart-money-2011-broker-survey/' rel='bookmark' title='Smart Money 2011 Broker Survey'>Smart Money 2011 Broker Survey</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/5769/vanguard-review/' rel='bookmark' title='Vanguard Review'>Vanguard Review</a></li>
</ul>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Previously I discussed our <a href="http://investorjunkie.com/61/asset-allocation/">asset allocation for retirement</a> at the high level.   This post is where the rubber meets the road.  I&#8217;ll detail all the equities we own to achieve our goals.  Like most things in life, planning asset allocation on paper is one thing, but implementing it is another story.  The problem we have, like many families, most of our retirement savings is in company sponsored retirement plans.  In our case, most happens to be with my spouse.  I&#8217;ll discuss some of the issues we&#8217;ve had, reasons why I picked specific funds, and how we were able to work around limitations.  If you want to make a <a href="#comment">comment</a>, or suggest improvements to the funds selected, you are more than welcome to do this.</p>
<p><span id="more-3374"></span><br />
The allocation is from September 30th, 2010. Some may notice the totals do not equal 100%.  Equities under 0.5% are not mentioned because they are statistically insignificant, and in most cases is cash within the account.</p>
<h2>Account Breakdown</h2>
<table class="default">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Account Type</th>
<th>Holder</th>
<th>Percentage</th>
<th>Comments</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>403b #1</td>
<td><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/4110/fidelity-review/">Fidelity</a></td>
<td>26%</td>
<td>Cannot add additional funds</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>403b #2</td>
<td>MetLife</td>
<td>43%</td>
<td>Fund selection is limited</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Roth IRA #1</td>
<td><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/4110/fidelity-review/">Fidelity</a></td>
<td>8%</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Roth IRA #2</td>
<td><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/4110/fidelity-review/">Fidelity</a></td>
<td>2%</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Rollover IRA #1</td>
<td><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/4110/fidelity-review/">Fidelity</a></td>
<td>5%</td>
<td>Cannot add additional funds</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Rollover IRA #2</td>
<td><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/5769/vanguard-review/">Vanguard</a></td>
<td>16%</td>
<td>Cannot add additional funds</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>We&#8217;ve decided not to convert our two rollover IRA accounts at this time.  We might convert them over in another year where our tax burden is lower.  Otherwise from my estimates it&#8217;s not worth paying the taxes now.   I&#8217;m also concerned about government deficits, and would they somehow start taxing Roth IRAs.</p>
<p>We only recently created Roth IRA accounts, and something I wish we did 10 years ago.  With my <a href="http://investorjunkie.com/2898/tax-efficient-investing/">tax efficient investing</a> roadmap we now plan on maxing out our Roth IRAs every year.</p>
<h2>403b #1 (Fidelity)</h2>
<table class="default">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Category</th>
<th>Subcategory</th>
<th>Fund Name</th>
<th>Allocation</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Bonds</td>
<td>Government</td>
<td><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/f/FSTGX" target="_blank">Fidelity Intermediate Government Income</a></td>
<td class="column-4">7.4%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cash</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td>1.0%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Stocks</td>
<td class="column-2">International</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/f/FSIIX" target="_blank">Fidelity Spartan International Index</a></td>
<td class="column-4">6.3%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-5 odd">
<td class="column-1">Stocks</td>
<td class="column-2">Small Cap</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/f/FCPVX" target="_blank">Fidelity Small Cap Value</a></td>
<td class="column-4">5.8%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-6 even">
<td class="column-1">Stocks</td>
<td class="column-2">Emerging Markets</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/f/FHKCX" target="_blank">Fidelity China Region</a></td>
<td class="column-4">1.4%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-7 odd">
<td class="column-1">Stocks</td>
<td class="column-2">Growth</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/f/FCNTX" target="_blank">Fidelity Contrafund</a></td>
<td class="column-4">2.5%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-8 even">
<td class="column-1">Stocks</td>
<td class="column-2">Emerging Markets</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/f/FLATX" target="_blank">Fidelity Latin America</a></td>
<td class="column-4">1.2%</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>My wife&#8217;s has two 403b plans.  Both are through her current employer.   The first one is through Fidelity (see <a href="http://investorjunkie.com/4110/fidelity-review/">Fidelity review</a>), which is a great plan administrator.   Their funds have low administration fees, and offer a wide selection of funds.  At some point during my wife&#8217;s employment they decided to change plan administrators, so no additional money can be added to this account.  I contacted my wife&#8217;s HR department, and they explained to me we can&#8217;t perform an IRA rollover because she is an active employee.</p>
<h2>403b #2 (Metlife)</h2>
<table class="default">
<thead>
<tr class="row-1 odd">
<th class="column-1">Category</th>
<th class="column-2">Subcategory</th>
<th class="column-3">Fund Name</th>
<th class="column-4">Allocation</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr class="row-2 even">
<td class="column-1">Stocks</td>
<td class="column-2">Large Cap</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/f/VFINX" target="_blank">Vanguard 500 Index Fund<br />
</a></td>
<td class="column-4">16.0%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-3 odd">
<td class="column-1">Stocks</td>
<td class="column-2">Large Cap</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/f/DODGX" target="_blank">Dodge &amp; Cox Stock Fund<br />
</a></td>
<td class="column-4">0.5%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-4 even">
<td class="column-1">Cash</td>
<td class="column-2">Fixed Income</td>
<td class="column-3">None (earns 3.5% until March 31st 2011)</td>
<td class="column-4">7.9%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-5 odd">
<td class="column-1">Stocks</td>
<td class="column-2">International</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/f/JETIX" target="_blank">Artio International Equity</a>
</td>
<td class="column-4">5.7%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-6 even">
<td class="column-1">Bonds</td>
<td class="column-2">Government</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/f/VBTIX" target="_blank">Vanguard Total Bond Market Index</a>
</td>
<td class="column-4">10.0%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-7 odd">
<td class="column-1">Stocks</td>
<td class="column-2">Small Cap</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/f/ROFIX" target="_blank">Royce Opportunity</a></td>
<td class="column-4">3.2%</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>The MetLife account is where all new money from my wife&#8217;s salary, and unfortunately the weakest retirement account in our portfolio.  It&#8217;s something out of a <em>spaghetti</em> western:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>The Good</strong> &#8211; Their core funds are Vanguard index funds.  S&amp;P 500 (<a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/f/VINIX" target="_blank">VINIX</a>) and Total Bond Market (<a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/f/VBTIX" target="_blank">VBTIX</a>)  They also have a fixed rate fund that returns 3.5% until March of 2011.</li>
<li><strong>The Bad</strong> &#8211; Most of the the funds they offer are the brain-dead Vanguard target retirement funds.</li>
<li><strong>The Ugly</strong> &#8211; Actively managed integrated funds with no transparency.</li>
</ul>
<p>The actively managed integrated funds merge two funds into one fund option available within the 403b.  This means no stock symbol (unless you want to figure out how they are merged), and lacks transparency with fees.   In addition, the funds they merged together are average at best.  For example they offer a REIT fund that merges Cohen &amp; Steers with Morgan Stanley&#8217;s Global REIT fund. Same applies to their international fund, and growth fund.  So for these parts of our asset allocation we look towards our other accounts.  We will then fill up this account last to meet our allocation with their poor choice in funds.  The one positive thing I can say about MetLife is they offer is a decent (3.5% APY) fixed rate fund that will stay that way until March 31st, 2011.  I&#8217;ve allocated some our money into this fund since there is no interest rate risk, or the other issues associated with <a href="http://investorjunkie.com/3071/bonds-vs-bond-funds/">bonds vs. bond funds</a>.  What you see is what you get.  Even though it&#8217;s below my <a href="http://investorjunkie.com/377/the-4-percent-rule-to-investing/">4% rule to investing</a>, I&#8217;m investing in it since it&#8217;s in a tax differed account, and would be approximately equal to 4%+ return in a taxable account.</p>
<h2>Roth IRA #1 (Fidelity)</h2>
<table class="default">
<thead>
<tr class="row-1 odd">
<th class="column-1">Category</th>
<th class="column-2">Subcategory</th>
<th class="column-3">Fund Name</th>
<th class="column-4">Allocation</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr class="row-2 even">
<td class="column-1">Bonds</td>
<td class="column-2">Inflation</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/e/TIP" target="_blank">iShares Barclays TIPS ETF<br />
</a></td>
<td class="column-4">2.2%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-3 odd">
<td class="column-1">Bonds</td>
<td class="column-2">International</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/f/OIBAX" target="_blank">Oppenheimer Int Bond Class A<br />
</a></td>
<td class="column-4">2.4%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-4 even">
<td class="column-1">Commodities</td>
<td class="column-2">Gold</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/e/IAU" target="_blank">iShares COMEX Gold ETF<br />
</a></td>
<td class="column-4">3.7%</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>I have moved most of our portfolio to Fidelity.  I did this because of a number of reasons.</p>
<ul>
<li>Originally many of these accounts were with E*Trade.  At the time I was concerned about their viability (2007-2008)</li>
<li>Fidelity has low commission fees.  In some cases as low as $7.95 per trade. Fidelity also offers a decent amount of <a href="http://personal.fidelity.com/products/trading/What_You_Can_Trade/offer-faq-popup.shtml#included" target="_blank">commission free ETFs.</a></li>
<li>Has a large selection of investment options available.  CDs, bonds, mutual funds, and stocks, etc.</li>
<li>Wanted one location in which I can better monitor our portfolio than having to go to multiple web sites.</li>
<li>Offers a <a href="http://investorjunkie.com/2509/fidelity-investment-rewards-visa-card-review/">Fidelity Visa card</a> with cash back that gets directly deposited into one of our investment accounts.</li>
</ul>
<p>I picked the Oppenheimer Int Bond Class A for my international bond allocation.  I have yet to find a decent ETF or mutual fund that allocates into international bonds.  From my research this was so far the best I could find, and dislike the 4.75% upfront fee, and the annual 1.0% fee that comes with it.</p>
<h2>Roth IRA #2 (Fidelity)</h2>
<table class="default">
<thead>
<tr class="row-1 odd">
<th class="column-1">Category</th>
<th class="column-2">Subcategory</th>
<th class="column-3">Fund Name</th>
<th class="column-4">Allocation</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr class="row-2 even">
<td class="column-1">Stocks</td>
<td class="column-2">Value</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/s/XOM" target="_blank">Exxon Mobil<br />
</a></td>
<td class="column-4">0.4%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-3 odd">
<td class="column-1">Stocks</td>
<td class="column-2">Value</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/s/JNJ" target="_blank">Johnson &amp; Johnson<br />
</a></td>
<td class="column-4">1.1%</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>As part of our allocation for value stocks, I decided to pick specific <a href="http://www.dividendgrowthinvestor.com/2009/12/dividend-aristocrats-list-for-2010.html" target="_blank">dividend aristocrat stocks</a>.  It will be a small portion of asset allocation, but the goal of these stocks is to offer a considerable amount of annual income.  Since it will live within our Roth IRA accounts, it will grow tax free.</p>
<p>We currently have some dividend stocks in our taxable accounts, and will slowly start transferring them to our retirement accounts.  This is because the Bush tax cuts will end this year, and will more than likely end the current 15% dividend tax rate.</p>
<p>Dividend aristocrats are constantly raising their dividend, and haven&#8217;t missed (or lowered) a dividend payment in over 25 years. As the dividends increase, so does your annual income.  By using this strategy it&#8217;s reported that Warren Buffett <a href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/182326-warren-buffett-dividend-investor" target="_blank">now earns over 25% APY</a> with the Coca-Cola Company (<a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/s/KO" target="_blank">KO</a>) stock he bought in the 80&#8242;s and 90&#8242;s.</p>
<h2>Rollover IRA #1 (Fidelity)</h2>
<table class="default">
<thead>
<tr class="row-1 odd">
<th class="column-1">Category</th>
<th class="column-2">Subcategory</th>
<th class="column-3">Fund Name</th>
<th class="column-4">Allocation</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr class="row-2 even">
<td class="column-1">Bonds</td>
<td class="column-2">Corporate</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/e/CSJ" target="_blank">iSharesBarclays 1-3 Year Bond </a></td>
<td class="column-4">0.8%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-3 odd">
<td class="column-1">Stocks</td>
<td class="column-2">Emerging Markets</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/e/VWO" target="_blank">Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF<br />
</a></td>
<td class="column-4">1.0%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-4 even">
<td class="column-1">Real Estate</td>
<td class="column-2"></td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/e/VNQ" target="_blank">Vanguard REIT Viper ETF</a></td>
<td class="column-4">0.7%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-5 odd">
<td class="column-1">Stocks</td>
<td class="column-2">Small Cap</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/f/NAESX" target="_blank">Vanguard Small Cap Index</a></td>
<td class="column-4">2.3%</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h2>Rollover IRA #2 (Vanguard)</h2>
<table class="default">
<thead>
<tr class="row-1 odd">
<th class="column-1">Category</th>
<th class="column-2">Subcategory</th>
<th class="column-3">Fund Name</th>
<th class="column-4">Allocation</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr class="row-2 even">
<td class="column-1">Commodities</td>
<td class="column-2">Mining</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/f/VGPMX" target="_blank">Vanguard Precious Metals and Mining<br />
</a></td>
<td class="column-4">3.9%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-3 odd">
<td class="column-1">Stocks</td>
<td class="column-2">International</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/f/VPACX" target="_blank">Vanguard Pacific Stock Index</a></td>
<td class="column-4">1.1%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-4 even">
<td class="column-1">Stocks</td>
<td class="column-2">Emerging Markets</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/f/VEIEX" target="_blank">Vanguard Emerging Mkts Stock</a></td>
<td class="column-4">4.3%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-5 odd">
<td class="column-1">Stocks</td>
<td class="column-2">International</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/f/VGTSX" target="_blank">Vanguard Total Intl Stock Index</a>
</td>
<td class="column-4">1.4%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-6 even">
<td class="column-1">Stocks</td>
<td class="column-2">Small Cap</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/f/NAESX" target="_blank">Vanguard Small Cap Index</a>
</td>
<td class="column-4">1.5%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-7 odd">
<td class="column-1">Bonds</td>
<td class="column-2">Corporate</td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/f/VFSTX" target="_blank">Vanguard Short-Term Investment-Grade</a></td>
<td class="column-4">1.1%</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-8 even">
<td class="column-1">Real Estate</td>
<td class="column-2"></td>
<td class="column-3"><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/q/f/VGSIX" target="_blank">Vanguard REIT Index</a></td>
<td class="column-4">2.3%</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>I wanted to keep some money with Vanguard (see <a href="http://investorjunkie.com/5769/vanguard-review/">Vanguard review</a>.  They have some of the lowest cost and best index based funds around. If I had them within a Fidelity account, I would incur a fee with any transaction (ie buy or sell).  In the future we may additional Roth IRA accounts with Vanguard if I need to meet our asset allocation requirements with Vanguard funds.</p>
<h2>My Company</h2>
<p>I currently do not have any retirement plans within the company I own.  Though in the future may setup a SEP IRA account through Fidelity.  At the moment I&#8217;ve been maxing out our Roth IRA accounts every year as a substitute.  All other free cash goes into either our children&#8217;s 529 accounts or taxable investments.</p>
<h4>Related posts:</h4><ul>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/61/asset-allocation/' rel='bookmark' title='Asset Allocation for Retirement'>Asset Allocation for Retirement</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/11557/tactical-asset-allocation/' rel='bookmark' title='What Is Tactical Asset Allocation?'>What Is Tactical Asset Allocation?</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/3611/correlation-asset-allocation/' rel='bookmark' title='Correlation: The Reason For Asset Allocation'>Correlation: The Reason For Asset Allocation</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/7630/smart-money-2011-broker-survey/' rel='bookmark' title='Smart Money 2011 Broker Survey'>Smart Money 2011 Broker Survey</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/5769/vanguard-review/' rel='bookmark' title='Vanguard Review'>Vanguard Review</a></li>
</ul><p><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/3374/asset-allocation-2/">Asset Allocation for Retirement (The Details)</a> is from <a href="http://InvestorJunkie.com/" target="_blank">Investor Junkie</a> Copyright &copy; Empowering Media, Inc.</p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://investorjunkie.com/3374/asset-allocation-2/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>7</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Correlation: The Reason For Asset Allocation</title>
		<link>http://investorjunkie.com/3611/correlation-asset-allocation/</link>
		<comments>http://investorjunkie.com/3611/correlation-asset-allocation/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 05 Oct 2010 11:45:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Larry Ludwig</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Asset Allocation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[modern portfolio theory]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://investorjunkie.com/?p=3611</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Correlation is one of those things, if you were absent that day in statistics class, you should learn it now.  It will help you become a better investor.  As I mentioned in my previous post Asset Allocation for Retirement; I want to minimize my risks, yet maximize my returns.  It sounds paradoxical, but it&#8217;s true.  [...]</p><p><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/3611/correlation-asset-allocation/">Correlation: The Reason For Asset Allocation</a> is from <a href="http://InvestorJunkie.com/" target="_blank">Investor Junkie</a> Copyright &copy; Empowering Media, Inc.</p><h4>Related posts:</h4><ul>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/61/asset-allocation/' rel='bookmark' title='Asset Allocation for Retirement'>Asset Allocation for Retirement</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/11557/tactical-asset-allocation/' rel='bookmark' title='What Is Tactical Asset Allocation?'>What Is Tactical Asset Allocation?</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/3374/asset-allocation-2/' rel='bookmark' title='Asset Allocation for Retirement (The Details)'>Asset Allocation for Retirement (The Details)</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/7140/real-reason-bullish-stocks/' rel='bookmark' title='The Real Reason You Should Be Bullish On Stocks'>The Real Reason You Should Be Bullish On Stocks</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/9918/5-steps-creating-financial-plan/' rel='bookmark' title='5 Steps to Creating a Successful Financial Plan'>5 Steps to Creating a Successful Financial Plan</a></li>
</ul>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_and_dependence" target="_blank">Correlation</a> is one of those things, if you were absent that day in statistics class, you should learn it now.  It will help you become a better investor.  As I mentioned in my previous post <a href="http://investorjunkie.com/61/asset-allocation/">Asset Allocation for Retirement</a>; I want to minimize my risks, yet maximize my returns.  It sounds paradoxical, but it&#8217;s true.  It&#8217;s one of the main tenants of the modern portfolio theory (MPT for short).  When invested via the MPT way, your investments over the long term (20 &#8211; 30 years) get closer to what pension funds consider the average returns of 8%.  When one sector zigs, I want another asset class that zags.  The net effect is your investment returns are more stable.  The Wall Street Journal published yesterday an excellent <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704129204575505550134652416.html?mod=WSJ_PersonalFinance_PF4#project%3DIFCORRELATE%26articleTabs%3Darticle" target="_blank">article</a> on the different asset classes, and their correlation to the often benchmarked S&amp;P 500.  I suggest you read and learn from it.  I would like to add a few comments of my own.</p>
<p><span id="more-3611"></span></p>
<p>With the interactive graphs from the WSJ article, it shows what other research papers have shown and what anecdotally people have suspected.  We are becoming increasing an interconnected world.  Not only with things like the Internet, cell phones and Facebook, but with commerce.  The commerce that occurs in the United States affects China, as China also affects the United States.  It was said at one point (as late as the early 90&#8242;s) that if you invest in the European stock market (MSCI index) that you would be somewhat insulated from shocks in the US stock market.  This is definitely no longer the case.  In addition, their interactive graph shows, unless you held cash 2007-2009, you took a hit on your investments.  Typical investments that had either inverse or zero correlation to the S&amp;P 500 shot up to close to 0.50 correlation.  A 1.00 correlation means the asset class moves lock-step as if you invested in a single asset.  A negative 1.00 correlation means it move in the reverse direction, and a 0.00 correlation means it&#8217;s independent of the asset.  Some may say this shows MPT is dead because of the correlation and I disagree.  My observations are:</p>
<h2>The Past Does Not Equal the Future</h2>
<p>You&#8217;ve heard this standard investment disclaimer: &#8220;Past performance do not equal future returns&#8221;. <strong>One lesson to learn from the article is to understand what once had a zero or inverse correlation, may not in the future.</strong> Stocks, no matter the country of origin are increasing becoming related.  I suspect this trend will continue, but you cannot be so sure.  It is a compelling argument for investing in Europe and emerging markers.  Though they should be part of your total stock allocation.  Other assets (like bonds) that increased correlation in the 2007-09 years, I suspect will revert back to their long term trends. <strong>Correlation among asset classes change over time, and it&#8217;s important to understand this.</strong></p>
<h2>Invest in All Asset Classes</h2>
<p><strong>The second lesson to learn is you must not only be invested in the traditional stocks and bonds, but you should also include <a href="http://investorjunkie.com/category/alternative-investments/">alternative investments</a>.  This includes real estate, commodities, and yes even <a href="http://investorjunkie.com/21/should-i-buy-gold/">buying gold</a>. </strong> Regardless if you think gold is a bubble, there is a very strong reason to own at least a small portion in your portfolio.  According to <a href="http://investorjunkie.com/1446/morningstar-review/">Morningstar</a>, gold stocks have have correlation to the S&amp;P 500 of only 0.12 &#8211; meaning almost no relation.  Look at the past 10 years as an example.  The DOW and S&amp;P 500 pretty much had a net return of zero, while <a href="http://www.financialexpress.com/news/gold-yields-17-average-return/448287/" target="_blank">gold increased an average of 17% per year</a>. During the 1990&#8242;s we all knew stocks saw unprecedented returns, while gold was negative during this time.</p>
<h2>You Won&#8217;t Become Bill Gates</h2>
<p>Keep in mind diversification does not prevent you from a net loss on a a daily, monthly and even yearly basis.  It does help minimize your losses, and smooth out your returns for the long haul.  When investing in different asset classes you hope to lose less than investing in a single asset class, but you will never make a &#8216;killing&#8217; with your investments.  You&#8217;ll never blow up your investments via this &#8216;boring&#8217; way, but you&#8217;ll never become the next Bill Gates either.  You do have some options to spice it up a little. If you feel so inclined, you can take a portion of your portfolio (no more than 20%) and take on risky investments. That way, if the investments you select blow up, you won&#8217;t be eating cat food in your retirement years.  If you do make an investment and hit it big, it&#8217;s a big enough percentage to be statistically significant.  What else can you can you do to strike it rich?  Invest in yourself by starting a business.  Typically owners have a significant portion of their net worth within their business.  Since you have more control over a business you own &#8211; this is the primary method to decrease your risk, yet also can increase your returns.</p>
<h4>Related posts:</h4><ul>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/61/asset-allocation/' rel='bookmark' title='Asset Allocation for Retirement'>Asset Allocation for Retirement</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/11557/tactical-asset-allocation/' rel='bookmark' title='What Is Tactical Asset Allocation?'>What Is Tactical Asset Allocation?</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/3374/asset-allocation-2/' rel='bookmark' title='Asset Allocation for Retirement (The Details)'>Asset Allocation for Retirement (The Details)</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/7140/real-reason-bullish-stocks/' rel='bookmark' title='The Real Reason You Should Be Bullish On Stocks'>The Real Reason You Should Be Bullish On Stocks</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/9918/5-steps-creating-financial-plan/' rel='bookmark' title='5 Steps to Creating a Successful Financial Plan'>5 Steps to Creating a Successful Financial Plan</a></li>
</ul><p><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/3611/correlation-asset-allocation/">Correlation: The Reason For Asset Allocation</a> is from <a href="http://InvestorJunkie.com/" target="_blank">Investor Junkie</a> Copyright &copy; Empowering Media, Inc.</p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://investorjunkie.com/3611/correlation-asset-allocation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Asset Allocation for Retirement</title>
		<link>http://investorjunkie.com/61/asset-allocation/</link>
		<comments>http://investorjunkie.com/61/asset-allocation/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 21 Sep 2010 16:12:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Larry Ludwig</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Asset Allocation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[allocation strategy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[modern portfolio theory]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://investorjunkie.com/?p=61</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>As I&#8217;ve mentioned in my profile, we have a decent sized nest egg for retirement. The million-dollar question (pun intended), is what assets should we invest in? To me, good asset allocation is the most important thing you can do to ensure long-term success. For this post, I&#8217;m not going to go into the technical details [...]</p><p><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/61/asset-allocation/">Asset Allocation for Retirement</a> is from <a href="http://InvestorJunkie.com/" target="_blank">Investor Junkie</a> Copyright &copy; Empowering Media, Inc.</p><h4>Related posts:</h4><ul>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/3374/asset-allocation-2/' rel='bookmark' title='Asset Allocation for Retirement (The Details)'>Asset Allocation for Retirement (The Details)</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/11557/tactical-asset-allocation/' rel='bookmark' title='What Is Tactical Asset Allocation?'>What Is Tactical Asset Allocation?</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/3611/correlation-asset-allocation/' rel='bookmark' title='Correlation: The Reason For Asset Allocation'>Correlation: The Reason For Asset Allocation</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/9918/5-steps-creating-financial-plan/' rel='bookmark' title='5 Steps to Creating a Successful Financial Plan'>5 Steps to Creating a Successful Financial Plan</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/2898/tax-efficient-investing/' rel='bookmark' title='Tax Efficient Investing'>Tax Efficient Investing</a></li>
</ul>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>As I&#8217;ve mentioned in <a href="http://investorjunkie.com/about/">my profile</a>, we have a decent sized nest egg for retirement. The million-dollar question (pun intended), is what assets should we invest in? To me, good asset allocation is the most important thing you can do to ensure long-term success. For this post, I&#8217;m not going to go into the technical details of proper asset allocation. That is a whole other discussion, which I may talk about in the future. The purpose of this post is to discuss my current allocation, openly discuss the allocation strategy, and methods to help improve returns,  while reducing risk.</p>
<p><span id="more-61"></span>For those who wish understand the technical details, I recommend reading the following books:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/amazon/0071362363" target="_blank">The Intelligent Asset Allocator &#8211; William Bernstein</a></li>
<li><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/amazon/0071747052" target="_blank">The Four Pillars of Investing &#8211; William Bernstein</a></li>
<li><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/amazon/0470505141" target="_blank">The Investor&#8217;s Manifesto &#8211; William Bernstein</a></li>
<li><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/r/amazon/0393330338" target="_blank">A Random Walk Down Wall Street &#8211; Burton G. Malkiel</a></li>
</ul>
<p>I will mention that good asset allocation is based upon the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_portfolio_theory" target="_blank">modern portfolio theory</a> (or MPT for short), using indexed based funds, buy-and-hold, and minimizing expenses. During the 2008 &#8211; 2009 crisis, it was said that <a href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/106108-is-buy-and-hold-dead-hardly" target="_blank">buy-and-hold was dead</a>. During this period pretty much all assets went down in value; stocks, bonds, commodities, sectors, regions, etc. MPT has its disadvantages, and it&#8217;s critics. </p>
<p>Other investment strategies are available, but the topic of another discussion. For now it&#8217;s best to assume, while it won&#8217;t give you outstanding returns, you&#8217;ll lose less than most other professional investors during the long run. I will say our allocation is mostly index based, where we do have a percentage (under 20%) that is actively managed by me. If you feel you can do better than the market, it&#8217;s recommended to allocate no more than 20% for active investing (i.e. picking specific stocks). This means 80% of your investments are kept to the plan of proper asset allocation and buying index based funds.</p>
<p>A little background on our financials. I&#8217;m 40 years old, and have 3 children (5 years, 26 months and 14 months old). The asset allocation discussed in this post only includes our retirement accounts. It does not include any of our taxable accounts, our children&#8217;s 529 accounts, or other assets (i.e. rental property). Each has their own investment objectives and time lines, so in my opinion should be treated separately. As we approach retirement age (mid 50&#8242;s and early 60&#8242;s) I do plan on incorporating more of our taxable investments into our asset allocation.  For now they are separate.</p>
<div class="notice-center">
My asset allocation is simply meant as a guideline. What may make sense for our risk tolerance, financial objectives, and timeline might not be appropriate for you.
</div>
<h2>High Level Asset Allocation</h2>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="size-full wp-image-3342 aligncenter" title="Asset Allocation" src="http://investorjunkie.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/asset-allocation.jpg" alt="Asset Allocation" width="300" height="361" /></p>
<ul>
<li>62% Stocks</li>
<li>25% Bonds</li>
<li>7% Commodities</li>
<li>3% Real Estate (does not include primary residence or rental properties)</li>
<li>3% Cash</li>
</ul>
<p>Often in financial planning literature they recommend to allocate your bonds based upon your age. Meaning if you are 39 years old, you should allocate approximately 40% to bonds. I&#8217;ve decided to keep the stock allocation based upon our age, but add other investments such as commodities, real estate and some cash, which takes away from the bond allocation.  This was based upon a few factors from my research:</p>
<ul>
<li>Commodities and real estate have a much different <a href="http://investorjunkie.com/3611/correlation-asset-allocation/">correlation than stocks or bonds</a>.</li>
<li>Commodities and real estate have a higher beta than bonds, so therefore have higher returns for the long run</li>
<li>I wanted to have some cash on hand to help in adjustments and for possible purchases when markets are cheap</li>
</ul>
<p>The allocation will vary slightly over time, but this is the bird&#8217;s eye view of how the money is invested. As we get older I plan on adjusting our allocation, though stocks will be always at least 50% of our portfolio. Within the high level allocation of stocks and bonds, I sub divide the allocation into specific sectors.</p>
<p>Depending upon the amount you invest, it may or may not make sense to sub divide your allocations. The reason is simply because of statistical significance, and in some cases the minimum amounts required to invest. If you have only $10,000 to invest allocating 3% to international bonds means you would invest $300.00. On the other hand if you have $1,000,000 to invest, $30,000 of international bonds is a decent amount generate some returns.</p>
<h2>Stock Allocation</h2>
<p>Within stocks we divvy up the 62% into:</p>
<ul>
<li>32% Domestic (52%)</li>
<li>20% Foreign (32%)</li>
<li>10% Emerging Markets (16%)</li>
</ul>
<p>The percentages in parentheses represent their total allocation within stocks only. A common mistake for US investors is to think the world revolves around us. This is no different than an employee owning too much stock of the company they work for. You have too much invested into one asset class.</p>
<p>Based upon trends, and my opinion, our economic power is decreasing. We represent <a href="http://www.nationmaster.com/red/pie/eco_gdp-economy-gdp" target="_blank">27% of the world GDP</a> that has decreased since the 2006 data. Since this is the case, I have increased my emerging market allocation, to a higher percentage (initially it was 0%), but kept our foreign allocation pretty much the same.</p>
<p>The other aspect is we are truly living in a global economy. It was generally accepted notion if the USA was in a recession, other parts of the world be thriving during that same period. Some studies have shown in the past 20 &#8211; 10 years, correlation between international and domestic stocks has increased. This was also shown anecdotally during the 2008-2009 recession. Based upon this, I&#8217;ve decided it&#8217;s best to spread my stock investments throughout the world.</p>
<p>Mind you, it&#8217;s almost impossible with today&#8217;s multinational companies to get completely accurate percentages invested in each of these areas. For example, companies like Coca-Cola (KO) have operations in all parts of the  world. They in fact, have business is in each of the sectors mentioned. So when owning an S&amp;P 500 fund, most people consider it domestic only. When in fact, over the past 10 years S&amp;P 500 stocks have dramatically increased into international and emerging markets. Like I mention in my <a href="http://investorjunkie.com/1446/morningstar-review/">Morningstar review</a>, I recommend their X-Ray service to determine if your asset allocation is on target. Not just your bond/stock ratio, but also geographic regions and sectors.</p>
<h2>Bond Allocation</h2>
<p>Most books on asset allocation discuss stocks only. Little is mentioned about bond allocation (I guess because most consider bonds &#8216;boring&#8217;). The questions I&#8217;ve had with bond allocation:</p>
<ul>
<li>How much do you allocate for inflation-based bonds (i.e. TIPS)?</li>
<li>How much for corporate bonds or foreign bonds?</li>
</ul>
<p>William Bernstein in his latest book &#8220;<a href="http://investorjunkie.com/24/review-of-the-investors-manifesto-by-william-bernstein/">The Investor&#8217;s Manifesto</a>&#8221; mentions total bond allocation, but did not go into much detail. He does state when investing in bonds, you should be mostly short-term (i.e. 5-10 years or less). Very little of your asset allocation should be in long-term bonds. Based upon his research, I&#8217;ve setup our bond allocation as follows:</p>
<ul>
<li>10% U.S. Long Term Bonds.  5 &#8211; 10 year maturity (40%)</li>
<li>10% U.S. Short-Term Bonds. 1 &#8211; 5 year and includes TIPS (40%)</li>
<li>2% U.S. Short-Term Corp Bonds (8%)</li>
<li>3% International Bonds &#8211; 3% (12%)</li>
</ul>
<p>I&#8217;ve recently added a small percentage to international bonds, for the same reason I&#8217;ve increased my stocks into emerging markets.</p>
<h2>Commodity Allocation</h2>
<p>With commodities, since it&#8217;s only 7% of the allocation I currently do not subdivide into other asset classes. At the moment it&#8217;s comprised of only metals and mining stocks. Mutual funds and ETFs that own things like <a href="http://investorjunkie.com/21/should-i-buy-gold/">gold</a>, silver and copper. I currently do not own agriculture, oil, natural gas, or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_commodity" target="_blank">soft commodities</a>. This may be adjusted in the future as the portfolio grows in value, but don&#8217;t plan adjusting the overall 7% allocation.</p>
<h2>Real Estate Allocation</h2>
<p>3% is allocated to real estate, and it is not divided into sub categories. This part of the allocation is invested in REIT funds that cover the entire market. Real estate does not have a strong correlation to stocks or bonds, and should be part of your asset allocation. Often times, your personal residence is a big part of your net worth, and should be taken into consideration how much to invest in REITs. In our case we have a primary residence and a rental property, so our allocation into real estate is small. I did want some coverage in commercial real estate by owning REITs. I suspect in the next year I will increase this to 5% while decreasing overall stock allocation to 60%. Others may want to increase/decrease their allocation accordingly.</p>
<h2>Cash</h2>
<p>This allocation may range from 0% &#8211; 10%, but no higher. This is somewhat of a misnomer as it&#8217;s not really cash, but investments in cash-like equivalents. They are short-term instruments that don&#8217;t vary. Things like money market accounts, short term CDs, etc.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s meant to keep some reserve for rebalancing. Should a major stock market correction occur use it to add to stock investments. I&#8217;m not really timing the market per se; I&#8217;m simply increasing our stock funds when stock corrections of 10-20% occur. When these do occur it becomes more obvious stocks are a bargain, and use to increase our allocation.</p>
<h2>Rebalancing Rules</h2>
<p>Common questions I had with MPT: when do you adjust; how often do you adjust?  Based upon some research, and my own opinion I&#8217;ve setup the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>Adjust once or twice a year. This is based upon the size of our portfolio, and how much your portfolio has gotten out of whack.</li>
<li>Adjust if the allocation is greater than 3% different than what you are shooting for.</li>
<li>Over the years we have somewhat modified our allocation of stock/bond ratio but plan on doing it birthdays of the youngest in the couple (that&#8217;s me). Then only adjust the ratio on birthday&#8217;s that end in zero (i.e. my soon to be 40th birthday)</li>
<li>I sometimes tweak the bond, and stock ratios slightly to increase the amount of cash.</li>
</ul>
<div class="notice-center"><strong>Read the follow up article: <a href="http://investorjunkie.com/3374/asset-allocation-2/">Asset Allocation for Retirement (The Details)</a></strong></div>
<div class="notice-center"><strong>I will post updates to my asset allocation.  <a href="http://investorjunkie.com/feed/" target="_blank">Subscribe to my blog</a> for updates.</strong></div>
<h4>Related posts:</h4><ul>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/3374/asset-allocation-2/' rel='bookmark' title='Asset Allocation for Retirement (The Details)'>Asset Allocation for Retirement (The Details)</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/11557/tactical-asset-allocation/' rel='bookmark' title='What Is Tactical Asset Allocation?'>What Is Tactical Asset Allocation?</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/3611/correlation-asset-allocation/' rel='bookmark' title='Correlation: The Reason For Asset Allocation'>Correlation: The Reason For Asset Allocation</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/9918/5-steps-creating-financial-plan/' rel='bookmark' title='5 Steps to Creating a Successful Financial Plan'>5 Steps to Creating a Successful Financial Plan</a></li>
<li><a href='http://investorjunkie.com/2898/tax-efficient-investing/' rel='bookmark' title='Tax Efficient Investing'>Tax Efficient Investing</a></li>
</ul><p><a href="http://investorjunkie.com/61/asset-allocation/">Asset Allocation for Retirement</a> is from <a href="http://InvestorJunkie.com/" target="_blank">Investor Junkie</a> Copyright &copy; Empowering Media, Inc.</p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://investorjunkie.com/61/asset-allocation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>20</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

