When to diversify savings to include Bonds
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Anonymous
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Spouse and I are in our early 50's. Up to this point we've allocated all of our retirement funds to stock indexes and some mutual funds. Market value is around $2.6M.
We are about to receive ~$200K from a close relative that recently passed. Given our current ages, I'm thinking it may be time to start diversifying our portfolio by using this $ to add some bonds. We plan to work to around 65 years old. Our risk tolerance is moderate to slightly aggressive. Does that make sense to those of you who may know more about investing? Thanks |
Anonymous
| Yes - I’m in m 30s and allocate 10% to bonds. I’d consider closer to 20% for your risk profile (and would personally look at adjusting to a more conservative risk profile at your age and desired retirement range). |
Anonymous
If you are 100 percent in equities in your 50s then no, your risk tolerance is not moderate, it is very high. 120 minus your age in equities is moderate… |
Anonymous
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Bonds are trash.
If you want to protect yourself against having to sell stocks at low prices in the event of a market crash in retirement, start buying high-dividend stocks. An ETF like SCHD has the same yield as the 10-year Treasury bond without being a piece of sh!t. Or just keep some cash instead. Or pay off your mortgage. Pretty much anything apart from buying more of the S&P 500 index would be better for your goals than buying bonds. |
Anonymous
Tell me you don’t know anything about finance without telling me you don’t know anything about finance. |
Anonymous
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This is a decent online questionnaire for this. My guess is it will suggest 30% bonds. Note that $20k a year could be done through ibonds.
https://investor.vanguard.com/tools-calculators/investor-questionnaire/questions |
Anonymous
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We're in a similar position, mid to upper 50s.
I think of terms of a traditional 60% stocks/40% bond portfolio. But then I don't put the 40% just in bonds, rather think about what bonds are supposed to do and then diversify that. So of that 40% about 20% is in bonds--through bond etfs, treasury ladders and ibonds. The remaining is in dividend etfs and a few "safe" stocks that provide a dividend. I would normally think of REITs as a small percentage of this category too, but they feel too unpredictable right now for me to put much in them as companies are reckoning with. I keep somewhere between 5-10% in cash for opportunities, but I may do less as interest rates go down. |
Anonymous
| Do what you want but dividend etfs are not the equivalent of bonds for purposes of asset allocation |