What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

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ElecEel
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What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by ElecEel »

Hi all,

Thought I ask the community how things have been working out since they started their Bogleheads plan. If you don't minding sharing

1. When you started. E.g. How many years ago?
2. How old you were?
3. Stock/bond ratio
4. Annual % return since the start.
5. Anything you would do different in hindsight.

Appreciate all of your responses.

Cheers. :sharebeer
bpp
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by bpp »

ElecEel wrote:Hi all,

Thought I ask the community how things have been working out since they started their Bogleheads plan. If you don't minding sharing

1. When you started. E.g. How many years ago?
14
2. How old you were?
Mumble mumble.
3. Stock/bond ratio
Age-10 in bonds.
4. Annual % return since the start.
IRR = 5.5%/year -- but this is a highly volatile number, has been negative at times.
5. Anything you would do different in hindsight.
Avoid PFICs.
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midareff
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by midareff »

Started "heading" about 15 or 16 years ago about age 50. Was probably in the 70/30 or 65/35 range at that time although the portfolio was not structured the way I wanted due to fund availability in deferred compensation plans requiring less tax efficient funds to be in taxable for a counterbalance. Retired about 2.5 years ago and reorganized/
rolled over things consolidating into Vanguard taxable and IRA with a Roth @ Fido. Am 45/52.5/2.5 now .. equities/bonds/cash and will be 67 in December. Do not intend to further glide path into FI.
Makaveli
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by Makaveli »

1. When you started. E.g. How many years ago?
2. How old you were?
3. Stock/bond ratio
4. Annual % return since the start.
5. Anything you would do different in hindsight.
(1) Less than a year ago.
(2) 25
(3) 85:15
(4) Don't look don't care right now.
(5) I jumped into the game before truly understanding the BH philosophy (still learning). This left me with a bunch of inappropriate funds in inefficient accounts. I would recommend if anyone is chomping at the bit to start investing to take 6 months and read, once you know what you're investing in (and why), then proceed. I have spent the last 3-6 months cleaning up old mistakes. I hope to be at the "lazy" point in the lazy portfolio soon!
bluejello
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by bluejello »

ElecEel wrote: 1. When you started. E.g. How many years ago?
2. How old you were?
3. Stock/bond ratio
4. Annual % return since the start.
5. Anything you would do different in hindsight.
I started investing 9 years ago, in 2005. I was 21. I didn't have a stock/bond ratio at the beginning — instead I was doing wacky things like handpicking stocks and trying to time the market with technical indicators. Oh, youth.

:oops:

Then the 2008 crash happened, I lost 50% of my portfolio and panic-sold at the bottom, and then I discovered bogleheads. Since 2009 I have had a 60% stock / 40% bonds portfolio. Less aggressive than you would expect given my age, but it's worked very well for me! I know it's the right portfolio for me because I have no regrets whatsoever about the gains that I would've gotten over the past 5 years had I been in a more aggressive portfolio.

What I would do differently — actually, nothing. Looking back I was actually very lucky that I experienced a market crash early in my investing career. The amount I lost was heart-breaking to me then but actually trivial compared to what I would've lost had I continued in my silly ways.
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by LadyGeek »

This thread is now in the Investing - Theory, News & General forum (general investing).

1. When you started. E.g. How many years ago?
2. How old you were?
I started saving when I was able to contribute to my employer's retirement plan. Just out of college. I'm a lot older now.

3. Stock/bond ratio
No idea back then, but everything got put into the Vanguard STAR fund when I quit. It looked like a safe thing to do.

Currently, I'm about 55/45.

4. Annual % return since the start.
No idea, but the last few years ran about 10%.

5. Anything you would do different in hindsight.
Kept it in the Vanguard STAR fund and not succumbed to handing it over to Ameriprise.

OTOH, I wouldn't have found this forum if I Ameriprise handled my account better (advisor not paying attention, Ameriprise lost a $$$ check during a fund transfer). I came to this forum for help (2008) and put everything back into Vanguard.
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by Call_Me_Op »

bpp wrote: Avoid PFICs.
Can you elaborate? Tax headaches?
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galeno
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by galeno »

Initial AA = 80/20. Started in 1984. Used managed equity funds (Frank Russell Funds) from 1984-1994. Fixed income = cash. We paid a 1% annual gatekeeper fee to access these funds.

1995-2005 switched equity from funds to 16 individual small value momentum stocks with zero yield. FI was cash.

2006-present. Became a Boglehead in 2005. Went 60/40 in 2006. Bought first bond fund and went to cheap indexed equity ETFs for stocks.

We are presently in the process of switching brokers. We want a 2-fund port = 60% VRLD (VT) + 40% IUAG (AGG) free of USA-NRA taxes.

CAGR (1984-YTD) = 13.3%. GSD (1984-YTD) = 11.7%.
KISS & STC.
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Sbashore
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by Sbashore »

ElecEel wrote:Hi all,

Thought I ask the community how things have been working out since they started their Bogleheads plan. If you don't minding sharing

1. When you started. E.g. How many years ago?
In the 1990's I began moving into index funds.
2. How old you were?
Quite a bit younger than I am now.
3. Stock/bond ratio
In the 1990's I was 100% stock on a glide path (interrupted by the dot com unpleasantness) to 70/30 Stock/Bond for retirement.
4. Annual % return since the start.
Since I retired in 2005 my median return has been around 10%.
5. Anything you would do different in hindsight.
Not be 100% stocks in the 1990's when I was less than ten years from retirement.

Appreciate all of your responses.

Cheers. :sharebeer
Steve | Semper Fi
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steve roy
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by steve roy »

I started, I guess, in my thirties.

And did everything wrong. No particular asset allocation (I had no knowledge of them), but I did have a "financial advisor" who took 2% off the top and under-performed the S & P 500. (I was nothing if not crafty in those days).

When I hit forty in 1988 and was pretty much broke, I told myself I would get serious about saving, and I did. I secured a steady job and started putting money away in earnest. I got rid of the financial advisor. I discovered Vanguard and the principle of "asset allocation" (what a concept!) in my early fifties and stopped buying individual stocks. Because I have a spouse who is allergic to losing money, and because we both have private pensions on top of Social Security, we've been more conservative with our asset allocation than many here. We follow a modified "Larry Portfolio" and have a bond/stock allocation of 70% bonds/ 30% stocks, with a small cap value tilt.

Our returns: 6% over ten years; 5.8% over five years; 8.5% over one year.

Because hindsight is 20/20, there is LOTS I would have done different. I had Disney Company stock options when I worked there in the '70s and '80s, and I wouldn't have sold all the stock after I left. I would have discovered indexing earlier. I would have dumped the financial advisor years before I finally did. I'd have gotten focused on saving for retirement sooner. Sadly, we are all as stupid and ill-informed as we are at any given point in time, and have to learn as we go. (No way around it.)

My rules of thumb NOW are: Think hard before you buy an investment, and keep it (if possible) after you buy it. (The idea of keeping stock and bond funds forever is stolen from Buffett, but it also tends to make me research what I'm purchasing rather than, you know, impulsively buying a "hot" mutual fund that I read about on the CNBC website.) Stay the course. Avoid sector funds.
Last edited by steve roy on Sun Oct 05, 2014 12:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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backpacker
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by backpacker »

1. Stock/bond ratio

90/10 and I plan to stay there (maybe even through retirement). That's a ways away though.

2. Annual % return since the start.

Dunno. I try not to know my rate of return or how I'm doing compared to the market because it wouldn't change my plan and only makes it harder to stay the course.

3. Anything you would do different in hindsight.

(a) Buy more APPL stock before they released the iPhone! :moneybag :mrgreen: :moneybag

(b) Worry less about my portfolio.

(c) Not track my portfolio. You read stories about investors remember that they have a forgotten account and discover that the forgotten account has done way better than their managed accounts. I try to get as close to forgetting that I have investments as possible without actually forgetting. So I only look at it maybe once a year to rebalance. :beer
Last edited by backpacker on Sun Oct 05, 2014 12:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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cfs
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by cfs »

My two centimos

1. When you started. E.g. How many years ago? -- Many moons ago

2. How old you were? -- In my twenties, became serious about investing in my forties

3. Stock/bond ratio -- At the start I was 100% percent in stocks, took a whipping during the tech bubble

4. Annual % return since the start --- Unknown, at the end of the year I look at my portfolio growth vice return, only negative year was 2008

5. Anything you would do different in hindsight --- Yes, I would have invested all in a single 50/50 balanced mutual fund instead wasting time and money on a large collection of mutual fund, etf, and individual stock
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by ruralavalon »

1. 10 years ago.
2. 59
3. 65/35 at start, now 50/50.
4. 7.1% per Vanguard
5. No.
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Rodc
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by Rodc »

1. When you started. E.g. How many years ago?

about 25

2. How old you were?

30ish

3. Stock/bond ratio

70/30 (very little thought or understanding went into this, just knew stocks had higher expected return and risk, being young could take decent amount of risk, but 100% seemed extreme. So, nearly out of this air, 70/30)

4. Annual % return since the start.

Have not checked in the last 6 months or so, but I think right about 7% (was a little over 6% last I checked and markets are up from there).

5. Anything you would do different in hindsight.

Nothing major. FWIW average annulized returns have been all over the map from much higher to much lower, near zero at the bottom in 2008. 7% is right about the historical average (especially given at some point I dropped to 60/40), but who knows what it will be in a few years.
We live a world with knowledge of the future markets has less than one significant figure. And people will still and always demand answers to three significant digits.
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SimpleGift
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by SimpleGift »

We started passive investing 20 years ago when we sold a business and decided to retire early and work for non-profits. I was 45 at the time. We had a large lump sum to invest in an all-taxable portfolio, and we decided on a 50% stock/50% bond mix, which we'll keep for our remaining years. Our average annual returns have been about 5% nominal, half of which we spend each year and half of which is unrealized asset appreciation, keeping pace with inflation. Our original financial plan has worked well — thank you, Bill Bernstein and your Efficient Frontier website in the 1990s!

In hindsight, if we were to start over again, we wouldn't invest in so many asset classes. We were influenced at the time by Roger Gibson's classic book, Asset Allocation — the more diversification, the merrier! Since then, I've come to realize that a simple 3-4 fund portfolio would have given us nearly all the diversification benefits and returns we needed, without the portfolio complexity.
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celia
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by celia »

1. When you started. E.g. How many years ago?
In the 1970s we went to hear an investment advisor speak. He mentioned that the yearly expenses were 8% (typical in the 1970s). I asked "We don't get any profit unless you make over 8% with our money? No thanks!" :annoyed Our first investment was in a bank CD for our traditional IRAs when they first started. The interest rate varied greatly over the 10 years or so until we moved it out of CDs, into whatever (don't remember).
2. How old you were?
25-30ish
3. Stock/bond ratio
My first real investment was in a 401k. I didn't know much but from the 5? available funds, I selected the one with the largest historic growth. I must have unknowingly worked with other Bogleheads, as some employees started to complain about the fees and fund choices. After 5 years or so, the company moved the plan to Vanguard. I still didn't know anything but kept adding money to my 401k. Eventually I was laid off and the company was bought out and that company was bought out. But Vanguard kept sending me statements.

Life moved along. Opened up more IRAs, 401Ks, 457s, accounts for kids who kept showing up in our family, :happy formed a trust, was an acting trustee/executor for a relative. Read Money, Fortune, Business Week, WSJ occasionally, Dan Wiener, Kiplinger, etc. Didn't really talk to other investors but started tracking our assets in a paper chart (before spreadsheets were invented) about 30 years ago with their year-end balances to see if we were making progress financially. (Kept a separate column in the spreadsheet for each year to show how much "new" money was going in or out of each account so growth could be calculated.) As long as we made progress, I was happy. Progress didn't always mean increased assets--it could be buying a house or paying for college or paying cash for a car.
4. Annual % return since the start.
I have no idea as we have probably had 30 accounts by now at 7 or 8 custodians (multiple custodians at the same time due to multiple employers, credit unions, types of accounts).
5. Anything you would do different in hindsight.
Not really. You have to go with what your priorities are in life at any given time.
A dollar in Roth is worth more than a dollar in a taxable account. A dollar in taxable is worth more than a dollar in a tax-deferred account.
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by bpp »

Call_Me_Op wrote:
bpp wrote: Avoid PFICs.
Can you elaborate? Tax headaches?
The taxation on PFICs can be pretty nasty, and even worse is trying to figure out how to do the paperwork involved.
Even the IRS does not understand PFICs -- they have not bothered to write human-readable instructions, and they refuse point-blank to answer questions about them. So you're really on your own with these things, left hanging in the wind.
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by grabiner »

I started in 1997, with an allocation of 60% US stock, 20% foreign stock, 20% bonds. I didn't know much about how to pick funds within the classes, so I made the mistake of International Growth in my taxable account (tax-inefficient) and Long-Term Corporate (highest yields, but I didn't realize the risk). I also started reading the Bogleheads forum (on Morningstar at the time) and Bill Bernstein's Efficient Frontier web site and books.

By 2000, I understood tax efficiency, so I had index funds in taxable, with Small-Cap Value Index in my IRA. I became a serious slice-and-dicer in 2002, and haven't changed my portfolio much since 2004, when I had 90% stock, overweighting small-cap, value, and emerging markets.
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by MnD »

1986, age 24, AA=50/50
Gradually increased to 75/25 in more or less a straight line between then and early-mid 2000's.
Wish I had selected a higher allocation to equity way back then. But at the time it seemed bold.
I'm retiring in a few years at age 56 with an nice income so I guess it worked out OK.
70/30 AA for life, Global market cap equity. Rebalance if fixed income <25% or >35%. Weighted ER< .10%. 5% of annual portfolio balance SWR, Proportional (to AA) withdrawals.
LongerPrimer
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by LongerPrimer »

About 35 yrs ago. Balanced funds. Did well till fall 2008 when I realized that We were almost out of time and precious little new money to reallocate and dollar cost average out of the depths of the Great Recession. :annoyed

Reallocate to 90/0/10, mitigated by 50% GWLI VA at high fees (I wanted high guarantees and returns), 25% growth equity indexes, and 25% trading in momentum companies (dailing down to cash and utility). 2013 guaranteed the success of the annuities. 2013 and 2014 has been good for trading. We will be OK with 4-5% SWR come first RMD in 3 years. :beer

I hope. :confused
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by noyopacific »

1. It was about 20 years ago, my wife and I left an advisor and went on our own.
The first tip off that indicated we might be paying the advisor too much was the annual reports he sent us. These were beautifully bound, full-color personalized reports. It dawned on me that we must be paying them handsomely if they spent so much on printing to report the very medeocre job they were doing.
2. I must have been close to 40.
3. Stock / bond ratio:
99% equities / 1% M.M. at first, then 75% / 25% when our balance went over 50% of our retirement goal. We went back to 99 % / 1% in 2009 when the balance dropped below 50% of our retirement goal and returned the 25% to bonds after we recovered to 50% of the goal. We plan to go to 60% / 40% next time we rebalance since the balance is currently above 100% of our retirement goal.
4. Annual % return since the start. 11.8% compounded over 20 years (this is approximate, I can only calculate on the rollover IRA because we never added any funds to this account but all accounts are managed the same.)
5. Anything you would do different in hindsight?
I guess I could have just bet it all in Oracle or something, but considering that the Rollover IRA is up over 10X from what we had 20 years ago, we are very pleased. I think Berkshire Hathaway is up about 5X what it was 20 years ago so it would be silly for us to have any regrets. We did include significant small & value tilts and several (low cost, mostly index) sector funds. Annual rebalancing between our unusual mix of funds resulted in a noticeable rebalancing bonus.
ElecEel wrote:How has that worked out?
Astoundingly better than we had any good reason to expect.
Do I recommend this path to others ?
Absolutely not! It took an exceptionally high degree of risk tolerance. I am amazed that my wife and I were both able to hang on.
The information contained herein, while not guaranteed by us, has been obtained from from sources which have not in the past proved particularly reliable.
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by DaleMaley »

I started investing at age 23 and stayed with 100% stocks until age 45. At 45, in Jan of 2000, I switched to 90:10 and stayed with it until age 53 in Jan of 2008, and went to 60:40. I plan on staying 60:40 through retirement as well.

I switched from actively managed mutual funds to index funds in 1990. I discovered index funds from doing a Finance paper in my MBA program.

No regrets with my AA decisions. I have achieved market returns since 1990 when I switched to index funds.
Most investors, both institutional and individual, will find that the best way to own common stocks is through an index fund that charges minimal fees. – Warren Buffett
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by packer16 »

I started when I was 28 and received money to leave the Air Force in 1992. At that point I had a combination of balanced and equity funds. I transitioned to 100% equity by the mid 1990s, primarily value funds and some individual stocks. Have stayed at 100% equities since then but will be transitioning to include some FI type securities over the next few years. Have been in individual stocks and value mutual funds since 2000. Didn't keep track of returns until 2000 but since then averaged about 26% per year with about 2.5x the volatility of the market. Things I would change. Learning mistakes from others rather than personal experience.


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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by Wagnerjb »

ElecEel wrote:Hi all,

Thought I ask the community how things have been working out since they started their Bogleheads plan. If you don't minding sharing

1. When you started. E.g. How many years ago?
2. How old you were?
3. Stock/bond ratio
4. Annual % return since the start.
5. Anything you would do different in hindsight.

Appreciate all of your responses.

Cheers. :sharebeer
I started investing seriously in 1983. I was 26 at that time. I had worked for two years after graduating from college, but I spent the savings from that job (and more) to attend graduate school.

My target asset allocation in 1983 was 75-80% stocks. I have been a passive investor since the very beginning in 1983 and my stock returns match those of the popular indices (S&P500, EAFE for international). I do not benchmark my fixed income since much of the return came from the Stable Value fund in our 401k plan and likely exceeded those of the bond indices.

I would not do anything differently. I set my AA according to my risk tolerance and I stuck with the strategy. I have been adjusting my AA as I approach retirement, which will be in early 2015.

Best wishes.
Andy
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by Matin »

1. When you started. E.g. How many years ago?

I was offered my first retirement account opportunity in 1992. Therefore, 22 years ago.

2. How old you were?

I was 31 years old.

3. Stock/bond ratio

100% Stock. Was at that ratio when I started investing in a retirement account. My current investment in my retirement account is the same except my situation has changed quite a bit.

4. Annual % return since the start.

Take a look at the SP500 return since 1992. Subtract high expenses when I started. Subtract much lower expenses now that I index.

5. Anything you would do different in hindsight.

I have stayed the course and will continue to do so. I think I would have worked harder to convince my corporation to go to indexing much earlier.

NOTE: My situation is uncommon. I do not recommend 100% stock allocation in retirement accounts for other people. Actually, I never give retirement account advise other than to buy index funds.
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by bigred77 »

1. When you started. E.g. How many years ago?

6 years

2. How old you were?

23

3. Stock/bond ratio


Started with random selection of active mutual funds in my 401k and random individual stocks. Now 75/25 AA. All index funds, although I'm a slice and dice guy who overweights Small, Value, and EM

4. Annual % return since the start.
Over 15+%!!! I had the dumb luck of becoming 401k eligible in Aug 2008 and I started my investing career at basically the bottom of the market and rode everything up.

5. Anything you would do different in hindsight.

I made my mistakes and feel i learned my lessons fairly quickly. Not much I would change. I'm lucky to have found bogleheads at 23, thats for sure.
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by Johm221122 »

ElecEel wrote:Hi all,

Thought I ask the community how things have been working out since they started their Bogleheads plan. If you don't minding sharing

1. When you started. E.g. How many years ago?
2. How old you were?
3. Stock/bond ratio
4. Annual % return since the start.
5. Anything you would do different in hindsight.

Appreciate all of your responses.

Cheers. :sharebeer
1.started 1999 with $700
2.29
3 70/30 now 80/20 at first
4.7%
5.Save more

John
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by Sheepdog »

I never had an allocation until I was about ready to retire at age 65 in 1998. I had no plans before then,...just a mixture. Why did I not have a plan? I didn't know anything about that. I just bought and sold, at random, individual stocks and a conglomeration of mutual funds. No planning was involved before that. 1998 was when the Morningstar Diehard forum was founded and I found it by accident during the first 6 months of existence. I started to learn about allocation, low cost investing (Vanguard in particular), staying the course, planned withdrawals, etc...
1. So, let 1998 be the beginning year, 16 years
2. Age 65 start
3. Age 65 55% stock,
Age 66 55% stock
Age 67 started a gradual reduction of stock allocation to 100 minus my age
Age 67 51% stock
Age 68 47% stock
Age 69 31% stock....reached the 100 minus age goal.
Age 70 and beyond I stayed at 100 minus my age until it reached 25% stock and I have remained there since.
4. Annual % return since 1998 6.62% which more than supported my 4.5% average annual withdrawal.
5. Anything I would do in hindsight?.....nothing since 1999. Before that? Learn how to invest intelligently, have a plan.
Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered you will never grow. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
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Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by WallyBird »

Started in my 20s, well over 2 decades ago, with 2 Fidelity managed funds and minimal concern for asset allocation. Added random funds over the years if I thought they would do well. Not exactly a rational approach.

About 5 years ago I started reading more about AA and expenses. I found that I could estimate my expenses easily enough, but some of my blended funds were making it difficult to determine my actual AA. I also realized that the managed funds were likely sitting on cash, which further complicated things.

As with others, it's worked out OK, mostly because the funds were no-load and my accidental AA was sufficiently stock-heavy to give me some long term market exposure. And because I never panicked.

I'm now at about 15% bonds, gradually ratcheting it up to 20%. Remainder is stocks, too embarrassingly sliced & diced to talk about much here, but I'm planning to simplify some more. ;-)

What would I do different?
1. Don't chase performance.
2. Don't buy anything with a 12-1b fee. Ever. (see #1)
3. Don't buy any mutual funds from Colorado (see #1)
4. Buy more I bonds.
5. Resist urges to dabble in individual stocks (fortunately, my lessons were relatively cheap)

What did I do right, however accidentally ?

1. Started early.
2. Maximized tax advantaged contributions.
3. Avoided non-mortgage debt.
4. Didn't panic, stayed the course.
5. Put as much in my 401Ks as I could and got whatever company match I could.
6. Dollar-cost averaged (pretty much a necessity when you do #5).
7. Didn't fret about the daily ups and downs (6 forced this; which helped with 4).
8. Found a workable balance between overspending and miserliness.

Few of us got off to a perfect start, but the most important thing is to get started. :sharebeer
"But let's be glad for what we've had, and what's to come." | -- Betty Comden & Adolph Green
Middle
Posts: 261
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2011 6:15 pm

Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by Middle »

Started investing in my late 20s but didn't find/learn about indexing until 2008 at age 45.

I was 100% equities for quite a while then at age 40 probably got to maybe 95/5 or so. Currently 78/22 eq/bond at 51.

I have no idea annual return since start, which was part of the problem for many years. I had no real idea of how I was performing compared to the market.

What I would do different, is PAY ATTENTION and not trust a broker with my money (duh). I even went to what seemed like good lengths to find an advisor that would act in my best interest and that also failed.

I also would have saved more in tax deferred accounts when younger. But no real regrets as I would rather look forward than behind.
asif408
Posts: 2616
Joined: Sun Mar 02, 2014 7:34 am
Location: Florida

Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by asif408 »

ElecEel wrote:1. When you started. E.g. How many years ago?
~ 10 years ago in a 401k through work
ElecEel wrote:2. How old you were?
24
ElecEel wrote:3. Stock/bond ratio
Don't have a clue, though I do know all the funds I owned were stock funds except for a portion in a balanced fund. So probably 80-90% stocks. Now I am 70/30 stock bond.
ElecEel wrote:4. Annual % return since the start.
I have no idea. I honestly payed no attention to my portfolio until last year, and it had a good return last year (since overall the stock market did well). It's probably best I didn't because I couldn't even tell you how much it dropped in 2008.
ElecEel wrote:5. Anything you would do different in hindsight.
Educate myself earlier (wish I would have know about Bogleheads then), learn how to invest for my risk tolerance, and be aware of expenses. I just somewhat randomly picked funds for the 401k and never checked it. :shock: In hindsight I made pretty decent choices considering how little I knew (I did remember hearing something about diversification, so I did pick a variety of funds). My parents persuaded me to contribute at least up to the match, so at least I was contributing, even though the investment choices I made were not ideal. I have no idea how much I was paying (wasn't even aware of expense ratios), but I did have a US stock fund, and International Stock fund, a balanced index fund, and two small positions in a small cap and mid cap fund.

Looking back now, I could have done a lot worse.
pascalwager
Posts: 2327
Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2011 8:36 pm

Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by pascalwager »

I started "investing" in 1980 at age 38 and bought 100% bonds (T-Bills) for the first 15 years. In 1995 I gradually sold all the T-bills and bought two DFA 85:15 stocks/bonds portfolios. Also, in 1995, I began to contribute (max and catch-up) to my workplace deferred comp using an S&P 500/small cap/int'l index 50:20:30 AA with no bonds.

In hindsight, I should have skipped the T-Bills and gone into a high stocks AA from the very beginning, but I was totally ignorant. I only became a true investor when a CFP at work ridiculed my ultra-defensive portfolio. He became my sub-advisor, provided me with MPT literature, and steered me into DFA funds. I liked the DFA funds, but the fees were too high: starting at 2% and finally reducing to 1.2% as the portfolios grew. I finally left the advisor and am now self-managing the DFA portfolios for zero fees. My ROTH IRA and (deferred comp) Rollover IRA happily ended up at VG.

The main thing I would do differently is to read some investing books before beginning investing!
VT 60% / VFSUX 20% / TIPS 20%
Dandy
Posts: 6701
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 7:42 pm

Re: What was your initial AA and how has that worked out?

Post by Dandy »

When I started work my Stable Value fund was paying 10+%. I put all my savings in that and ignored the two funds that I also could have invest in.

In 1983 or so IRA were born and I tip toed into equity mutual funds. By then I had a decent amount in Stable Value.

I took some of those surveys to determine your risk and then an allocation. I was considered moderate and so skewed my contributions to equities.

In the mid 90's I read the 4 pillars of investing and index funds became my focus. Stable value for fixed income and index funds for equities. Never got much above 55% in equities.

I have no idea what my portfolio return has been and would trust most people to calculate theirs. My wife's TIRA had spousal contributions of $5500 in the mid to late 1980"s - that is all - her TIRA is now worth over $130k. She was all equity for most of that time. We were lucky to live in mostly favorable times for equities.

Overall our retirement portfolio is substantial so it worked out very well. At 66 I have about 60 years worth of withdrawals (assets/yearly withdrawals) **and haven't collected my SS yet. ** that excludes large discretionary expenses like car purchases - just day to day expenses.
Understand that living below your means also tends to carry over into retirement - we aren't big spenders - but we are working on it!!
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