Anyone rebalancing?

[rks]

Given that market is almost 20% down, I wonder how many have rebalanced their portfolio? I am thinking about it, but it is hard knowing that market may very well fall another 20% down from here.

[livesoft]

Well, duh!

[Flyer24]

Given that market is almost 20% down, I wonder how many have rebalanced their portfolio? I am thinking about it, but it is hard knowing that market may very well fall another 20% down from here.

If it drops another 20 percent then rebalance again as necessary. Otherwise, you are trying to time the market. Many people do not balance unless their allocations are more than 5 percent off.

[Whakamole]

Still haven't hit my rebalancing bands. Coming close to hitting it in bonds+cash though.

[rebellovw]

Only with new money is my plan. My 401k future investments will be 100 % equities

[BoglePaul]

sticking with the usual asset allocation.

[delamer]

Given that market is almost 20% down, I wonder how many have rebalanced their portfolio? I am thinking about it, but it is hard knowing that market may very well fall another 20% down from here.

If you are rebalancing in a tax advantaged account, why would it matter if you have to rebalance again (other than the minor inconvenience)?

I rebalanced last week. If I end up doing so again, it is not an issue.

[cockersx3]

Just rebalanced from bonds to equities this morning via my 401k. This is on top of the "continuous rebalancing" I've been doing via normal contributions.

Not a market timer or anything, but man....just weird to watch the market tank this hard absent major issues with the economy. Seems like now would be the time to be greedy when others are fearful...

[CaliJim]

ugh.
Rebalance. Shmalance.
Doing portfolio analysis on christmas eve is not what I wanted to be doing today. Today I'm working on becoming a snowman!!!!

[vineviz]

My accounts have had enough inflows this year that I haven’t had to sell bonds, but I’ve definitely been buying lots of equines this month.

[metalworking]

I may have hit my rebalancing band today. Will check after the holidays. I will say that I will not lump sum all the way back to 50/50 but likely do it over a few months if the market stays down.

[Phineas J. Whoopee]

I continue carrying out my plan I carefully thought through and adopted. My plan does not say I rebalance today. There's no decision to make, other than the policy decision I already made years ago.
PJW

[bengal22]

I did. 5% change. Back to 55/45 equity.

[Mingus]

I re-balanced two or three times during the runup. And was almost, but not quite to a re-balancing trigger before the downturn.

Currently only off target allocation by a few tenths of a percent.

[Rwsawbones]

As a 77 year old still working I keep about 10 years of living expenses (assuming I stop working) in cash equivalents and short term treasuries. The remaining of financial assets are in stock funds largely index funds. I did rebalance the past several years but do not plan to do so in 2018 or in the future. The current portfolio is 44% in the short term and bonds and 56% in stocks. What do you think of this strategy??

[indexonlyplease]

I have been looking only in January to reballacne each year. But I think the mistake is you should do it during the year in taxed advantage accounts. Why, it's alot easier moving 10-20k into stocks during the year than 100+k in a bad year.

[indexonlyplease]

As a 77 year old still working I keep about 10 years of living expenses (assuming I stop working) in cash equivalents and short term treasuries. The remaining of financial assets are in stock funds largely index funds. I did rebalance the past several years but do not plan to do so in 2018 or in the future. The current portfolio is 44% in the short term and bonds and 56% in stocks. What do you think of this strategy??

I would be more interesting in what you are doing for work. Enjoying to work at 77 sounds like you found something you really enjoy. I enjoy my career but the high risk career will not let me work that long. Please tell.

[Rwsawbones]

I am a physician in private practice largely geriatrics

[are_cynic]

My accounts have had enough inflows this year that I haven’t had to sell bonds, but I’ve definitely been buying lots of equines this month.

I believe that betting on horses would be classified as speculating. Unless it’s in your IPS, in which case it’s fine.

[happysteward]

My accounts have had enough inflows this year that I haven’t had to sell bonds, but I’ve definitely been buying lots of equines this month.

I believe that betting on horses would be classified as speculating. Unless it’s in your IPS, in which case it’s fine.

[indexonlyplease]

I am a physician in private practice largely geriatrics

Ok to late to start. But glad you still enjoy working. Great career for long term.

[DrGoogle2017]

No rebalancing here, but I’m about to double of what I purchased today, if it drops some more. Continuing toward this path until I run out of money. More systematic approach.

[David Jay]

I have rebalanced into equities twice in recent weeks - the second time was today (I used the market indexes and determined that today’s 1.5%+ drop would put me at my rebalance point).

[MoonOrb]

Not time to rebalance for me yet. I was somewhat close to needing to sell equities to buy bonds there for a while this year but then the market solved that for me. Still within my bands. I just keep contributing on the normal schedule and don't worry about it.

[Earl Lemongrab]

I won't "run the numbers" until early January. We'll see then. With 5/25 rebalancing ranges, it's hard to hit an actual sell/buy point. I actually had a sell signal for US small blend not long ago, but after deploying some cash that went away.

[vineviz]

My accounts have had enough inflows this year that I haven’t had to sell bonds, but I’ve definitely been buying lots of equines this month.

I believe that betting on horses would be classified as speculating. Unless it’s in your IPS, in which case it’s fine.

Stocks may go up and down, but horses just go around and around.

[exigent]

My accounts have had enough inflows this year that I haven’t had to sell bonds, but I’ve definitely been buying lots of equines this month.

Giddyup!

[ryman554]

My next bolus of cash shows up on Dec 31. I will very likely be rebalancing then, as I almost always do, I may also take the opportunity to TLH from my S&P/extended market tilt into a total market portfolio, but need to re-compute portfolio distributions.

[Bungo]

I rebalanced a couple of weeks ago, may need to do it again before too long if the stock market keeps sliding. Will check in another month or two (normally I only check once or twice a year).

[ThePrince]

Given that market is almost 20% down, I wonder how many have rebalanced their portfolio? I am thinking about it, but it is hard knowing that market may very well fall another 20% down from here.

And this is why I have a significant amount of my money with Betterment—I can’t talk myself out of rebalancing because they do it for me.

[Quickfoot]

This is one of the reasons asset allocation funds are such a good idea in tax advantaged space, whether they be a TDF or something like a LifeStrategy they automatically rebalance for you without any investor action. The biggest threat to investing is the investor, using an asset allocation fund decreases your risk to yourself. TDF can be a LITTLE more expensive than building themselves but lower maintenance and better from a behavioral aspect. During good times everyone professes the value of rebalancing but historically people fail to rebalance during corrections, loss aversion is simply too hard wired into the human brain for most people to overcome.

[radiowave]

I won't officially close out my investment year until next Monday, but I did a quick update yesterday and I'm right on track for my IPS, slow glidescope in 5 years to 50/50 current at 55/45 so right on track. I looked to see if there was any opportunities for TLH, but at a few hundred $, probably not worth the effort.

So the answer to the question is no.

[Small Law Survivor]

Some people call that "one-way rebalancing" where you would still sell stocks when they get high, but not buy more when they get low.

One-way rebalancing is the McClung book (Living Off Your Money) recommendation - Prime Harvesting, he calls it. Sell stocks when they appreciate 20% above their value at retirement (inflation adjusted), and put them in your bond bucket. Use your bonds for living expenses. Link to book info below.

This has been discussed quite a bit here. 2017 was my first year of full retirement, and I sold stocks in January 2017 for living expenses that year. 2018 will be second year, and stocks are down this year.

I haven't decided with finality yet, but I'll probably follow McClung in our taxable account, and rebalance in our Roth IRAs, which is long term money - won't be touched for 10 years or more, maybe a lot more (and still adding to it). Whether to follow McClung in traditional IRA, I'm uncertain. I may use a "modified prime harvesting" there, and rebalance if/when stocks are down more than a specific percentage - perhaps 40%.

67 years old, semi-retired, 50/40/10 stock/bond/cash allocation. 4% withdrawals until age 70, 3% thereafter based on addition of social security to income stream.

http://livingoffyourmoney.com/

[dougger5]

Like others have stated, I too check annually for rebalance of the portion of our portfolio that is not in a VG TDF.

That rebalance would occur next week - but with the recent market movement, I did a quick check, and found that we're overweight in bonds by just 1%. That kind of surprised me. But it could be that equities are just back to about what they were around the last time I rebalanced, meaning I may have missed an opportunity to rebalance out of equities at their peak in the intervening period.

Meh...all good in the 'hood

[Kenkat]

I never got around to rebalancing out of equities from the 2016-2017 run-up, so even after all the carnage recently, I am still slightly over my target for US Large Cap. I will just leave that alone for now and check back sometime next year. I have been directing new money to International Stock and Bond asset classes for about the past year and a half.