Being a 60 yr old guy who was lucky enough in 1998 and Move most of my $ out of All Equity Indexes into Balanced Funds 5 yrs before my Retirement yr. goal and it saved my Butt by doing so.....
I take a different approach vs all this Diversification stuff and ending up with alot of different Funds in different sectors and different % allocations = Trying to Guess which will do better and it's just guessing vs. just Invest Equally & the Hell with it..>KISS
Unless your Pretty good at Selecting Which Sectors to be in every yr? I'd just go with OAKBX, OAKGX & FAIRX ....and with the past 5 ( Bull Market) yrs ave about 17%+ from them and No downside and even very good odds are making Gains in a Bear Market? Let them decide and Why take on more Risk with Such an Important Amt. of $ for retirement?
Unless your Not making and able to save enough, to Have enough when that time comes? I wouldn't take on more risk..
If After I have funding my Retirement Plans and Have extra $? Sure, do some gambling and have some fun vs going to Vegas, The Track or otherwise..
I remember in 87' going thru Black Monday and worse yet? 2000 thru the 1st qtr of 03' and I was never so happy to have moved into those Balance & Bond Funds..while my Buddies were Loosing $, even though they had an ave of a 80/20 Port of Index Funds and Active Managed Funds.. It took them about all of the 03' recovery just to get back to even, thus they were miserable all those yrs.. Granted they didn't Loose That Much with that % allocation mix, but they still Didn't MAKE money either while watching Treasuries and Bond Funds make all the $ ( tot. Ave of +33% over those 3 yrs on Bonds and ended up with a total of "0" from their Equities )
And throw in owing Tech Funds/stocks? They were Miserable, while I had to just keep my mouth shut and not brag about my Balanced Funds Making $..
and "Plan accordingly" , meaning? If those 3 funds ave out to say only doing 12-14% APY? And you figured you Need More to meet your Financial Planning for Retirement? Then you Just add More $ to them and not take more risk to make up Not saving more $..(Again, if you can )...even adding an extra 10% to your Retirement funding can make the difference..over a period of 20-30 yrs.....
At least that's the way I was given advice and Thus I just bit the bullet and set aside more $ for Savings and spent alittle Less on Everything else...And if you can have it done thru payroll deduction? You( and the Wife) won't even see it and she will adjust to spending alittle less too.. or force You and Her to be more conservative in spending habits..
Especially if have Kids, inwhich they want to spend way too much on them ( btwn $50k+on College and $20-$50k on Weddings ) and sacrifice your retirement Funding in the process...Kids have to too much of this " Self Intitlement" attitude , alot ofwhich comming from The Colleges marketing that attitude , since they Are For Profit businesses and HS teachers supporting their own Profession as well..
