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@mona, Fido AM40 FFANX and VG LS-Conservative VSCGX would be appropriate for that mix (34% Cash, 34% US Stocks, 6% Non-US Stocks, and 26% Bonds). Clearly, no benchmark would have that much cash but you can evaluate later how your decision to hold that much cash turned out. BTW, does that cash include some SVs?
YTD it has been the right decision as my portfolio is down 3.96% vs 4.80% in FFANX an 4.81% in VSCGX. Longer term, holding 34% cash can only be the wrong decision.
Good that you are doing better than your benchmarks.
Those SVs may be helping. My rule of thumb is to prefer SVs when their rates well exceed the 30-day SEC yields of bond funds under consideration. Which SV do you have? I have some TIAA Traditional (SRA) that is paying 3%+.
The 30-day SEC yield is the potential future total return for bond funds.
At close on 3/15: Thought I'd update progress on some of these benchmarks. Over all I'm at about -6.5% YTD with about 45% in equities. My total is spilt between the hands-off robo, Schwab Intelligent Portfolio, -6.0%, and my self-managed, -7.1%. It appears I'm not as intelligent as Schwab. Go figure...
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Those SVs may be helping. My rule of thumb is to prefer SVs when their rates well exceed the 30-day SEC yields of bond funds under consideration. Which SV do you have? I have some TIAA Traditional (SRA) that is paying 3%+.
The 30-day SEC yield is the potential future total return for bond funds.
https://www.optimizedportfolio.com/ultimate-buy-and-hold-portfolio/
FWIW, TRP retirement funds YTD 3/15:
TRRIX 38% stock = -7.0%
TBLPX 41% stock = -7.3
TBLQX 45% stock = -7.8
TBLSX 48% stock = -8.2
TSBAX 52% stock = -8.6
TBLVX 60% stock = -9.6
VTWAX vanguard total world stock index -12.9%