My retirement portfolio

Ken

I am retiring in May. Can you give your opinion on my portfolio. I am trying for a 3% yield. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Ken

Vanguard Balanced Index Adm VBIAX 7.75
Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF VIG 34.02
Vanguard LifeStrategy Moderate Gr Inv VSMGX 7.36
Vanguard Prime Money Market Investor VMMXX 7.54
Vanguard Short-Term Bond Index Adm VBIRX 6.72
Vanguard Shrt-Term Infl-Prot Sec Idx Adm VTAPX 5.96
Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Adm VBTLX 6.59
Vanguard Wellesley® Income Admiral™ VWIAX 24.06

Old_Skeet

Hi @Ken: I see that you are a relative new poster on the board. With this, I say welcome.

In review of the funds you have listed I am finding that only one has better than the 3% yield goal that you seek for your portfolio. This fund is VWIAX which has a yield of 3.14% according to Morningstar. So, working within the confines of what your have and if you are ok with putting most all of your eggs in one basket, so to speak, then you can get there through putting 96% into VWIAX along with keeping some cash with 4% going into VMMXX.

This asset allocation bubbles in Xray at 5% cash, 60% bonds and 35% stocks; and, it has a yield of 3.02%.

Perhaps some other members might know of some other Vanguard funds that you might consider switching into that will help you to better achieve your portfolio's 3% yield goal.

Old_Skeet

davidrmoran

v conservative and bond-heavy, won't hit 3% but of course you can also draw on principal depending on age and cashflow need and SS and maybe taxes.

I myself, and many others, would seriously suggest you consolidate and downsize, say everything into VWIAX or everything into VBIAX depending on the preceding variables, or 50-50 into each.

Sven

Concur with davidmoran's assessment. Several funds are overlapping, perhaps from different sources, 401k and IRA - something can be done in the next 6 months or so. Consolidating them would simplify the management going forward with respect to the target allocation and the desired 3% yield.

msf

Also agree, with a couple of interrelated comments.

You have virtually no foreign securities (3%). Certainly Buffett and Bogle would applaud this; others (myself included) would differ. Regardless, if that's your intent, then why bother with VSMGX? Like VBIAX, it's 60/40, the main difference being that 40% of its equity if foreign.

Personally, I'm a fan of VWIAX and so agree that this would be a good fund to use to consolidate all your balanced (allocation) holdings. You could then use one or two (if you want some foreign exposure) equity funds to boost your long term returns.

Dividend appreciation (VDADX /VIG) doesn't mean high dividends. It's just a particular strategy for selecting equities. Right now, its 30 day SEC yield is 2.02%, which is less than VFIAX's 2.05%. And it has 5x the turnover.

(If you're seeking high dividend yield, there's VHYAX /VYM, though that invests in a narrower, value-oriented slice of the market.)

My own view (YMMV) is that for long term investing, I'm not going to bet on any particular strategy. I would just buy the whole market and be done with it: VTSAX (or VTI if you really insist on a fund's ETF share class).

For another perspective, here's M*s latest column on Vanguard 3-bucket portfolios:
https://www.morningstar.com/articles/882670/how-our-vanguard-model-bucket-portfolios-have-perf.html

joe74

Don’t know what your tax situation is or whether you’re talking about a taxable account, but how about VWAHX or VTMFX?