I have been thinking what I might do if I were Pete's age in terms of an asset allocation for my biweekly contributions from my employer's T-C Plan. It is difficult to do as I know that what I say here will not materially affect my well being given my current position as having been retired, partially for eight years and fully for three years, and now at age 70.

Considering I got by for about 25 years, from 1969 to the mid to late 90s with an allocation of 25% Traditional and 75% Stock Account, I believe I would  - if I were now in my 30s and tenured - go with a more conservative allocation now than I had in my real life at that age. That is, I believe i would increase the allocation to the Traditional Account to a minimum of 30% and perhaps as high as 40% and invest the rest in equities.

If I were to do it literally in today's markets were the REA is performing exceedingly poorly, and faces the possibility of a negative quarter, I probably would move to a 40 to 50% Traditional Account with the remainder in equity and none in the REA. I would hold this allocation until I was convinced the current bear market was finished and another investment cycle was about to beginning. Then at that point I would probably replace 20% of equity with the REA, assuming it showed indications of improving as it did in 2003 and 2004.

But of course this is pure speculation as my real life current situation is entirely different!