Thanks for your comments. I keep full tabs on my portfolio and there are many reasons why the portfolio looks like this today. Reasons are varied, including legacy funds that are no longer no-load (so I had to find something similar with good performance). As I wrote in my post, there are also tax hit related reasons that had held me back from reducing the funds down to a reasonable number. Plus. 401K has different good fund choices than IRA, versus funds available for a taxable a/c etc.

In terms of AA (Asset Allocation), I am reasonably well spread across on different asset classes and includes foreign funds in good amount. 

AA: Cash 37% (30% was in MMs & 7% in funds) - This includes some of the JUNQ (Just Under iNvestment Quality) bonds of very short (1-2 year maturity) that I will hold to maturity. They are yielding almost double digit yields.

Bonds, 12.6%, Domestic equities - 26.7%, Foreign equities - 20.7% and "other" mostly convertibles etc at 2.8%. The expense ratio is at 1.0% .... Not bad, but not great.

On asset classes: LCV/LCG: 31.1/28.1%,  Small/Mid cap Value/Growth:22.5 /18.1%.

On high (30%) MM holdings: With the 30% cash many folks may feel I am timing the market, but part of has a reason and part of it was fortutous as I will explain below. I rolled over my former employer 401K into a rollover IRA on Jan 3 this year. With all of former employer 401K funds could not be moved in kind, so had to sell them out and rolled the cash over. With equity markets looking shaky from Jan on, I have not felt the need to be aggressive in reinvesting the rollover cash at a very high rate. The high cash amount has actually helped my YTD returns by ~2% (my bogey is a FFNOX, four in one index fund at Fidelity which shows a loss of 2.27% YTD). Anyway, these are some of the reasons for my portfolio as we see it today. Cheers ..... Anil

your ytd looks good, you've been doing something right..

I'm one of those constant fiddlers, kerryvan. If my investments are down, I try to see what I can do fix it... rebalance and/or a lumpsum infusion for my mutual funds and, possibly, selling at a loss *or* buying more to average down my cost/share for my stocks. Recently, it's more of a case of getting out at a loss, watching for a while and then getting back in when it stabilizes (AWP); buying at a steep discount meeting all of my most stringent value criteria [price/sales and price/book below 1, price near the 52-week low, a solid & growing dividend (CHMP)]; or just being certain-sure in my own mind that it is a good longterm buy at the IPO (V). In the case of CHMP, the only thing I don't like about it is its less-than-consistent daily volume of sales. Then again, I think it is a really good slightly longer-term play.

31% cash?  hope it is due to funds or recent trades, getting 5% on idle cash will hurt in the long run.

I used to feel the way you do, kerryvan.  The steepest dives of the '00s and then 9/11/01 changed my mind. You can't take advantage of anything if you can't sell at a reasonable price to raise cash.

foreign looks low,  but you know why I'm saying this from other posts...

I know my foreign looks low, but I am at least 1/3 international in all of our retirement accounts --and actually over 60% in my Sharebuilder Roth. The cash skews the appearance of the overall weighting, too.

you appear to have a higher risk tolerance than me,  I won't invest in stocks unless I can get them at a discount..

LOL! Really? It depends on one's definition of risk, I guess. For my part, I'd say your high level of international is riskier. As for getting stocks at a discount, if you mean commissions, I recommend a steep-discounter like Sharebuilder.com, Buyandhold.com or FolioFN.com. I am biased toward Sharebuilder, of course, but you might like the more varied investment programs available at the others. If you mean a fundamental discount, just figure out which value criteria you like to emphasize and go for it! If nothing else, a little dab'll do ya to start with at a steep-discounter.

Why is Ricks investments lower than your's? (see my detailed response below)  Does one person manage all the investments? (yes, me)  Or is it the options available in the 401K? (Bingo! You're a smart cookie, kerryvan.)

If I was Rick, I'd be asking you questions about how come you're making money and I'm not.What's goin' on, women? How do you 'splain dat?

Mike

1. Rick's employer's retirement plan has always been much, much more restrictive --a fixed and limited universe of a single mutual fund/insurance family.
2. Rick's Simple assets were rolled into his Principal 401k and it took forever... Time and the market worked against his funds in January and February.
3. Caution on my part... this is Rick's money and I prefer to tread carefully in how I manage his assets. I am more comfortable DCAing his very large cash balance between now and November 2008...  I am comfortable with the funds and the allocation I have chosen for him:  80% SAIPX, 10% PEPSX and 10% PIIIX. This combo achieves, in effect, 1/3 each in bonds, domestic equity and international equity.

You don't ask, kerryvan, but I'll tell you anyway. I have been investing since 1981, emphasizing stocks. I did not start to really work seriously with mutual funds until the '00s --and that, I think, is self-explanatory.

Regards,

Susan

 

I knew Anil's cash/MM was high from his other posts in the past, but have never expected this set of funds just purely judging from Anil's expert comments on energy. I am also surprised to see other people's holdings.  I am now convinced even more that investing is very very personal. Happy investing everyone! KM

Susan,

We've been investing about the same amount of time, we just took different paths.  Just like KM said in a post, it is a very personal experience.  We are very similar, fiddlers but in different ways.

I wasn't trying to pick on you, I just didn't understand why so many people have high cash positions.  I'd rather have it in the market and take the chance I'll get better than 5%.  I can always sell a mutual fund easier than some stocks...  I think your down side with stocks is far greater.

Stocks at a discount, meaning employer sponsored discounts of 10-20%.  These are the only stocks I'll buy, an automatic no lose scenario.

I'd rather invest in PRLAX, Flatx, eurox, letrx, tremx, mypmx with a track record of 3-5 yrs of 40% than pick a single stock,  or etf and bet on getting 40%..  Esp picking a US stock, whose success right now is based on global growth, instead of US growth.

You made a statement about 1/3 in each but 60% in share builder, bla bla bla,  Don't you look across all your accounts/ holdings as one big account?  That all that matters, right?

My 'mad money' picks are in the FEMEX and TRAMX market space.  I'd bet these are less risk than many stocks that you are picking,  but I'm biased.

Hopefully you are getting Rick up to speed on you thoughts and actions, just in case.  I've been working on my family, but then again I won't be around to get all excited with their decisions.

thanks for sharing

kerryvan, I don't think you're picking on me any more than you think I'm picking on you!

I have always used the money markets as a bond proxy. If anything's going to fluctuate, it'll be whatever the MM will pay. Using the MMs as a bond proxy allows me to have "dry powder" when opportunity knocks while offering a nice ballast when the markets stink. IOW, I use our MM to help contain the Whole Banana's potential downside risk. We do have some bond positions held in various CEFs and OEFs but it is minimized since I prefer to emphasize equity-income total return. Our cash is higher than usual right now, but I expect to invest a lot of that soon.

You are correct that the downside of owning an individual stock can be generally much, much greater than owning a mutual fund --but your "comfort zone" will depend on the stock and the actual price you paid for it. There are some types of mutual funds that I view as exponentially much riskier than owning an individual stock:  sector, asset and international. I like my sector, asset and international funds but in terms of risk? I would always first choose to buy my CHMP at 4.55 and 4.50 (as I did in Dec'07) before I would even entertain the thought of investing the same dollars in a frontier fund... but I confess that I am much more sanguine about my RYTRX Royce Total Return or my RYDVX Royce Dividend Value than my CHMP.

You made a statement about 1/3 in each but 60% in share builder, bla bla bla,  Don't you look across all your accounts/ holdings as one big account?  That all that matters, right?

Yes, I look at the Whole Banana as a whole and try to keep our various accounts, together and separate, according to my preferred asset allocation. However, after years of trying to make every account adhere to my preferred allocation, I have reached the conclusion that it ain't a-gonna happen. The "problems" are our Sharebuilder accounts and my Royce Roths. Our taxable Sharebuilder account is 100% US blue chips for buy-n-hold. That's what I've wanted from the start and that's the way it will stay. My Sharebuilder Roth is more experimental. Back in 2001, it started out as 100% sector ETFs, morphed into lab-testing my international and CEF ideas and is now in transition again. Since my Sharebuilder Roth is my incubation station, I decided to just let it go its own way. My Royce Roth assets are held roughly 1/3 in RYDVX, RYFSX and RYTRX. (Note... RYDVX is considerably more focused than RYTRX but has similar goals.) Happily, Royce now has 2 foreign funds to choose from:  RISCX and RIVFX. I am watching them for now.

It would be nice if Rick chose to learn more than the basics from me, but he has no interest in finance and investing. I am happy to say, though, that he has learned from me despite himself and does understand more than he gives himself credit for.

Regards,

Susan

wow, I finally got it..  You are happy with a 10-12% return..  I was in some royce funds and dropped them for greener pastures.

I manage risk by geography, different places, different currencies.  I guessed that your view point would be more global being an army brat...  I think there is always a bull market somewhere.. In case you haven't noticed,  most the fund companies have been pushing more global investing..

best of luck in your investments.