Ages 55/52
Fuzzy retirement date in future.
Own 2 rental properties in addition to portfolio as allocated below. Emergency fund not counted, nor checking/ cash in safe/ etc.
According to the Portfolio Watch (I think that's what it's called?) tool at Vanguard:
58% equities
39% bonds
3% cash or other
I think an ideal AA for us (me, mostly; my wife is more sensible about "how much is enough" and also is more debt-focused) is probably 60/40, BUT... I have a high tolerance for variation (do BHs still use the term "guardrails"? Mine are very wide I suppose, up to 10% or more)
I try not to market time, but have felt, based on historical PE trends and the continued binge of free money since the GFC, that equities may have gotten ahead of themselves in the 2010s. So starting in 2018 I trimmed back from 60/40-ish to closer to 54/56, thinking that an eventual 50/50 would be a nice zone for a while, especially as I dreamed of early retirement and the rising equity glidepath. That low equity allocation served us well in March 2020; and in fact, I would have backed up the truck and brought us back to 60/40 but lockdowns meant business went to zero. So I "just stood there"...
Additionally, new small-company pension contributions go into Wellesley and my spouse's Target Date 403(b) is getting more bond heavy, so we have been tilting more towards bonds (broadly) in the last 4 years.
I had made some small purchases ($35K-ish) across 2021 in VTSAX, in taxable, based on some profit-taking from my business; obviously I feel just a twinge of regret as now it looks like the current cycle's peak, but whatever. That money is meant as a bridge from early-ish retirement to RMDs, so certainly not to be used for another 5-10 years. The reason I put it in VTSAX was I noticed our AA had dipped below 50% equities, and being in taxable, I wanted a tax-efficient vehicle. Now, since the downturn of 2022, we had gone even farther below 50%. So I decided to buy a little on the dip. Hope it works out
We have some Roth money in Wellesley, so I took half of each account and moved it into VTSAX this past Thursday. That was good enough to bump us into the high 50%s.
So again, I seem to have a tolerance for variation in AA.
FYI, the "cash or other" category includes the 2 remaining 529s and a Coverdell; as our middle is halfway through college, and youngest halfway through high school, all the college money is basically in MM-type funds. The "alt" is deminimis, principally being 2 pieces of art and a small stash of gold, silver, and coins of numismatic value (all of that adding up to less than 1%, and certainly less than our emergency fund)
Too much detail for this thread I expect, but there it is...
Cheers