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Curious how your holdings break down into type? Stocks / CEFs / ETFs / Mutual funds, CDs, etc
-5 single stocks. Two are much bigger than the others. 13% of total. -Junk bond ETF is still miniscule. Less than 1%. -5 mutual funds, 81% of total. -5% "cash" chosen by both myself and fund managers.
53 stocks 41 bonds, mostly still junk. My junk yields are quite productive: a) 7.09% b) 7.51% c) 7.17%
We have been retired 12 years with the anniversary date in June. We use what I refer to as 5-yr, Model Retirement Portfolios (MRP). We are thusly two years into our 3rd, 5-yr Model. Each has been significantly different in composition.
The FED started raising interest rates in June 2022 as we were creating our current 5-yr MRP for 06/2022-06/2027. We projected at that time that before long, CP CD interest rates would be over our 4% threshold for FI investments.
So we did two major structural changes starting around that time, (1) split our total portfolio into two distinct portfolios and (2) jettisoned ALL dedicated bond funds while significantly reducing bond holdings.
So currently we have a Market Portfolio (MP) and a 5-yr, CP CD Ladder Portfolio. Total port is 98 IRA/2 Txbl. We haven't paid any FIT/SIT since 2012 and don't plan to do so for about 5 more years. The two ports are similar in size, with the latter port designated as our LTC self-funding. It currently has an APY just over 5%.
The MP is about as basic and straight forward as they come: 12 OEFs with 10 Core and 2 Explore OEFs, and occasional trading of Blue Chip, individual stocks like NVDA and GOOGL.
The MP is: Stocks/Bonds/Cash: 88/12/Nil Domestic/Foreign: 90/10 Technology Allocation: 36 MAG 7 Allocation: 29 LC/MC/SC: 74/20/6 V/B/G: 16/34/50
The 12 OEFs are: 3 Domestic Stock Index 1 Domestic Sector 2 Domestic LCG 1 Domestic LC Value 1 Domestic SCG 1 Global LCG 1 Foreign LCG 2 Moderate Allocation (which provide our ONLY bond allocation)
2024 YTD TR of the MP is, well, um, never mind. That was not asked for by the OP and if given may very well be deemed bragging by my detractors.
@hank - I'll try to adhere to your original format. I'll likely edit this later to show what percentage might be in foreign holdings as the only targeted exposure that I hold there is in AVGE.
Stocks - 17 Preferred shares - 2 CEF's - 10, a mix of income and equity funds ETF's - 9, all equity 4 of which are indexes Mutual Funds - 5 one of which is sector specific and one MM.
All of these are spread fairly evenly between 2 accounts one taxable and the other a Roth IRA.
Nice job consolidating your holdings! I currently have 11 holdings across 6 accounts. I'd like to decrease the number of holdings but it would be counter-productive at this stage. Important factors for me include taxes, fund availability, and varying risk levels associated with different accounts.
I've held a LOT of individual stocks. Name a major company (some little ones too) and I've probably held it at some point over the last 35+ years. I've also had many CEFS and many various mutual funds. Over all that time I've read a ton of articles about index funds and always said I should do that, but never did. Well,,, dang it, now I'm (almost) doing it. Going to see how the next 5 years turns out being simplified. So far it's pretty dang good and I'm wondering if I'll be kicking myself for not doing it years ago.
5 accounts = 2 Roths, 1 IRA, 1 Joint Taxable & my wife's current work plan which is a savings annuity. I don't have access to a work plan or pension, most of my working life I never have.
2 mutual funds = 90.7% 1 ETF = 2.6% 2 stocks = 3.2% 1 MM Fund = 3.5%
60.2% Stocks 29.4% Bonds 10.4% Cash, MM, Other
Because I get bored, I allow myself a small part of the portfolio to play with but leave the overwhelming majority to people who are far more intelligent than I (think Giroux & team)...so far, it has worked well, we are blessed.
I didn’t state my allocation earlier. I’m currently at 40% equity, 30% bond, 20% short-term fixed income and 10% “other.” The equity stake usually fluctuates between 40% and 50%. Anywhere in that range is fine with me. Recently sold an equity heavy CEF and replaced it with a somewhat aggressive bond heavy CEF. So the percentages changed by 5% overnight.
All for simplifying / consolidating. A few years ago portfolio was at about 18 holdings. Down to 12 today plus cash.
My wife and I have been retired about 8 years. We both have pensions and are receiving Social Security, so we are investing more aggressively than many people our age (70). We haven’t had to tap our IRAs since retiring, but required distributions will start in a couple of years.
Currently, we are invested as such: - 45% in domestic stocks, virtually all in mutual funds - 11% in foreign stock funds - 32% in bond funds (including balanced and allocation) - 10% cash in CDs, Treasuries and money markets - 4% other options in mutual funds, such as REITs and convertibles
We own many funds, and I’m too embarrassed to count them up, generally at least 5% of total assets in each account. We have five separate accounts— two traditional IRAs, two Roth IRAs and a taxable brokerage account. I have no compulsion to simplify matters because I have no trouble keeping up with our accounts and I like each account to be well diversified. I don’t trust any fund or small collection of funds to invest most of our money in because I’ve seen many excellent funds falter or go through prolonged dry spells over the years.
About this allocation: 55% Moneymarket, 45% Fixed Income: 51% Treasury, 49% CDs
Note that while we have outrageously conservative investments at this time, I'm now 85. Our situation is almost identical to Tarwheel, and when we were at his point our investment spectrum was very much like his. It's only in the last couple of years that we've pulled in our horns. Why mess with a good situation?
There have been a number of threads/comments lately regarding investment simplification driven by a partner's lack of interest in financial affairs, and consequent inability to navigate within a brokerage website. My wife has always been interested in our financial situation, but has never really been comfortable with complex internet sites.
As a radio tech for SF 911 I was the "documenter" for our group. So I told myself that I needed to use that skill set to print a step-by-step for navigating the Schwab website.
I am both proud and happy to report that, armed with her new guide, my wife is now reasonably comfortable there and can now perform all of the basic operations. And she is eager to continue learning some of the more complex operations such as finding and purchasing CDs and Treasuries. That's next.
”I'm not sure what benefit anyone could derive from that …”
Oh, every bit helps.
Thanks for commenting. When I switched from investing at just a few fund houses to a full service brokerage 4 or 5 years ago it was as if a dark curtain had been lifted, uncovering not only a more extensive field of traditional OEFs, but also the ability to own individual stocks, ETFs, CEFs - a whole new universe of investments. My initial reaction was to broaden out into ETFs and even buy a few stocks. But now, a few years later, I find myself largely invested in a handful of good timeworn OEFs. I guess I like the manager having some additional latitude and not having to match every buy or sale of his investors tit-for-tat. The OEFs also tend to have a longer more extensive track record to research, having been around longer. And I have a sense that those in OEFs tend to be a slightly more stable bunch, less likely to be spooked (and sell) during market downdrafts - although that will vary by fund. I do understand that OEFs are more expensive, So fees are a good reason to move to ETFs or to own equities outright. One additional thing I’ve learned is that I tend to monkey around less with OEFs. There may be a psychological advantage to once-a-day pricing. But, of course, that depends on one’s own psyche.
So I wanted to double-check my current heavy use of traditional mutual funds (80% of portfolio) against how different members of the community invest. The biggest surprise has been how diverse the approaches are, ranging from some managing extensive portfolios of individual stocks to others zeroing in on just 3-5 broader investments. And, some like @racqueteer, appear to be active traders. Also a surprise is the extent to which some are predominately invested in cash. But it’s hard to quarrel with them taking advantage of 5%+ short term rates. All good. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks to all for sharing…… I am particularly interested in conflicting desires in portfolio design. Optimization vs simplification. Like many things in life one can make such changes too soon or too late. Hard to get the timing just right.
Comments
-Junk bond ETF is still miniscule. Less than 1%.
-5 mutual funds, 81% of total.
-5% "cash" chosen by both myself and fund managers.
53 stocks
41 bonds, mostly still junk. My junk yields are quite productive:
a) 7.09%
b) 7.51%
c) 7.17%
93.5% cash, tbills large majority under 2 year majority, some CDs
3 single family homes, two different states, one being a rental property
Will maybe be purchasing WMT Walmart, Chubb CB, CASY Casey and an infrastructure stock soon... maybe as a small percentage of portfolio
Zero debt
Works for me, it's understood that it's risky to a degree by being extremely conservative. Don't care, don't trust the casino
No debt, still working, sleep well at night
Baseball fan
ETFs - 3
CITs - 1, ~20% of portfolio
Stocks - 1, ~3% of portfolio
TIPS, ~4% of portfolio, purchased via Treasury auction
Asset allocation as of 05/17/24:
US Stocks - 40.55%
Bonds & Cash - 33.02%
Foreign Stocks - 26.44%
The FED started raising interest rates in June 2022 as we were creating our current 5-yr MRP for 06/2022-06/2027. We projected at that time that before long, CP CD interest rates would be over our 4% threshold for FI investments.
So we did two major structural changes starting around that time,
(1) split our total portfolio into two distinct portfolios and
(2) jettisoned ALL dedicated bond funds while significantly reducing bond holdings.
So currently we have a Market Portfolio (MP) and a 5-yr, CP CD Ladder Portfolio. Total port is 98 IRA/2 Txbl. We haven't paid any FIT/SIT since 2012 and don't plan to do so for about 5 more years. The two ports are similar in size, with the latter port designated as our LTC self-funding. It currently has an APY just over 5%.
The MP is about as basic and straight forward as they come:
12 OEFs with 10 Core and 2 Explore OEFs, and occasional trading of Blue Chip, individual stocks like NVDA and GOOGL.
The MP is:
Stocks/Bonds/Cash: 88/12/Nil
Domestic/Foreign: 90/10
Technology Allocation: 36
MAG 7 Allocation: 29
LC/MC/SC: 74/20/6
V/B/G: 16/34/50
The 12 OEFs are:
3 Domestic Stock Index
1 Domestic Sector
2 Domestic LCG
1 Domestic LC Value
1 Domestic SCG
1 Global LCG
1 Foreign LCG
2 Moderate Allocation (which provide our ONLY bond allocation)
2024 YTD TR of the MP is, well, um, never mind. That was not asked for by the OP and if given may very well be deemed bragging by my detractors.
Stocks - 17
Preferred shares - 2
CEF's - 10, a mix of income and equity funds
ETF's - 9, all equity 4 of which are indexes
Mutual Funds - 5 one of which is sector specific and one MM.
All of these are spread fairly evenly between 2 accounts one taxable and the other a Roth IRA.
10 CEFs, 20%
6 OEFs, 18%
4 ETFs, 10%
MM/Cash, 2%
8% of equity holdings are international or EM, the rest is US.
45% Fixed Income
Fixed Income:
51% Treasury
49% CDs
Across 6 accounts: (2 Roth, 1 IRA, 1 IIRA, 1 HSA, Taxable)
2 ETFS, 1 Mutual fund, 8 T-bills
Cash - 11% T-bills, 3% cash
Bonds - 37% PIMIX
Stocks - 33% VOO, 16% VONG
Nice job consolidating your holdings!
I currently have 11 holdings across 6 accounts.
I'd like to decrease the number of holdings but it would be counter-productive at this stage.
Important factors for me include taxes, fund availability,
and varying risk levels associated with different accounts.
1Stock ETF
6 Fixed Income Mutual funds.
1 MM fund.
43 stocks which are 60% of total.
No dedicated International.
2 mutual funds = 90.7%
1 ETF = 2.6%
2 stocks = 3.2%
1 MM Fund = 3.5%
60.2% Stocks
29.4% Bonds
10.4% Cash, MM, Other
Because I get bored, I allow myself a small part of the portfolio to play with but leave the overwhelming majority to people who are far more intelligent than I (think Giroux & team)...so far, it has worked well, we are blessed.
I didn’t state my allocation earlier. I’m currently at 40% equity, 30% bond, 20% short-term fixed income and 10% “other.” The equity stake usually fluctuates between 40% and 50%. Anywhere in that range is fine with me. Recently sold an equity heavy CEF and replaced it with a somewhat aggressive bond heavy CEF. So the percentages changed by 5% overnight.
All for simplifying / consolidating. A few years ago portfolio was at about 18 holdings. Down to 12 today plus cash.
Currently, we are invested as such:
- 45% in domestic stocks, virtually all in mutual funds
- 11% in foreign stock funds
- 32% in bond funds (including balanced and allocation)
- 10% cash in CDs, Treasuries and money markets
- 4% other options in mutual funds, such as REITs and convertibles
We own many funds, and I’m too embarrassed to count them up, generally at least 5% of total assets in each account. We have five separate accounts— two traditional IRAs, two Roth IRAs and a taxable brokerage account. I have no compulsion to simplify matters because I have no trouble keeping up with our accounts and I like each account to be well diversified. I don’t trust any fund or small collection of funds to invest most of our money in because I’ve seen many excellent funds falter or go through prolonged dry spells over the years.
Note that while we have outrageously conservative investments at this time, I'm now 85. Our situation is almost identical to Tarwheel, and when we were at his point our investment spectrum was very much like his. It's only in the last couple of years that we've pulled in our horns. Why mess with a good situation?
There have been a number of threads/comments lately regarding investment simplification driven by a partner's lack of interest in financial affairs, and consequent inability to navigate within a brokerage website. My wife has always been interested in our financial situation, but has never really been comfortable with complex internet sites.
As a radio tech for SF 911 I was the "documenter" for our group. So I told myself that I needed to use that skill set to print a step-by-step for navigating the Schwab website.
I am both proud and happy to report that, armed with her new guide, my wife is now reasonably comfortable there and can now perform all of the basic operations. And she is eager to continue learning some of the more complex operations such as finding and purchasing CDs and Treasuries. That's next.
- International Bonds: 4%
- US Bonds: 22%
- International Stocks: 4%
- US Stocks: 10%
- Alternatives: 46%
At the moment, there is a very narrow focus within US LC, and I'm effectively near my 'normal' allocation levels:
stock etfs: 61% (effective; some 2:1 leveraging)
ST Treasuries: 56%
Oh, every bit helps.
Thanks for commenting. When I switched from investing at just a few fund houses to a full service brokerage 4 or 5 years ago it was as if a dark curtain had been lifted, uncovering not only a more extensive field of traditional OEFs, but also the ability to own individual stocks, ETFs, CEFs - a whole new universe of investments. My initial reaction was to broaden out into ETFs and even buy a few stocks. But now, a few years later, I find myself largely invested in a handful of good timeworn OEFs. I guess I like the manager having some additional latitude and not having to match every buy or sale of his investors tit-for-tat. The OEFs also tend to have a longer more extensive track record to research, having been around longer. And I have a sense that those in OEFs tend to be a slightly more stable bunch, less likely to be spooked (and sell) during market downdrafts - although that will vary by fund. I do understand that OEFs are more expensive, So fees are a good reason to move to ETFs or to own equities outright. One additional thing I’ve learned is that I tend to monkey around less with OEFs. There may be a psychological advantage to once-a-day pricing. But, of course, that depends on one’s own psyche.
So I wanted to double-check my current heavy use of traditional mutual funds (80% of portfolio) against how different members of the community invest. The biggest surprise has been how diverse the approaches are, ranging from some managing extensive portfolios of individual stocks to others zeroing in on just 3-5 broader investments. And, some like @racqueteer, appear to be active traders. Also a surprise is the extent to which some are predominately invested in cash. But it’s hard to quarrel with them taking advantage of 5%+ short term rates. All good. Thanks for sharing.