Do you rebalance your retirement portfolio?  Many studies have shown that you should. The folks at Hartford Funds compared the results of a 70/30 buy-and-hold strategy with annual rebalancing of an $100,000 lump sum investment from 1999 through 2023. The asset manager found that the rebalanced portfolio produced a nest egg over $13,000 greater than simple buy-and-hold.
But rebalancing does much more than just improve performance. It encourages you to sell high and then buy low,

My good friend Irving was about to open a Roth IRA with a $10,000 lump sum he had squirreled away in a savings account at his local bank. At thirty, he had just been promoted to manager of the production division of Widget Sure Repair, a manufacturer of easy-to-use tools for do-it-yourself homeowners. The promotion came with a large salary increase and my friend felt confident he could afford to make monthly contributions of $250 to the plan.

We’re probably financially independent (FI).  Based on multiple retirement calculators and hours upon hours of studying the issue, I’m confident, if my wife and I were to quit making money today, our nest egg, along with Social Security, would provide us a comfortable living for the remainder of our lives.  The only reason I’m still working is because my wife has the desire to travel more frequently and spoil our grandchildren in various ways.  I’m not certain we could safely generate the kind of income that would allow enough travel and spoiling to suit her. 

I TOOK MY FIRST cross-country car trip in 1972. It was the summer of my junior year in college. I’d be graduating the following year and embarking on working life. This would be my last chance for a while to take a long trip. I was traveling by myself, so I had the freedom to decide exactly what I wanted to do.
That’s what brought me to Pikes Peak near Colorado Springs, Colorado. One of the greatest auto races in America is the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.

The August 3rd Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on target date funds in 401k plans. The article notes:
”Target-date funds are a professionally managed portfolio of stocks and bonds that recalibrates the mix as we hurtle toward retirement age. These funds now attract 64 cents of every dollar that flows into 401(k) plans, Vanguard Group data shows, and hold trillions in assets.”
The article says some people reject these funds as too conservative and sometimes too expensive.

BONDS MAY NOT BE the most interesting investment, but they generate their fair share of debate. Especially after 2022’s rout, when total-bond market funds dropped 13%, many investors wonder how best to proceed. An open question: Does it make more sense to buy individual bonds or opt for bond funds?
To answer this question, let’s start with a simple example. Suppose you’d invested in Vanguard Group’s total-bond market fund (symbol: BND) on Jan. 1,

Of my first investments beyond CDs. Bought into a mutual fund in mid-1987 not understanding front-end loads and high expense ratio, not to mention residing in the bottom quartile. Invested in a REIT that immediately and constantly fell in value. Then Black Monday happened to the mutual fund, and the REIT had no secondary market I could sell to.
But the investments were small and the lessons learned huge. I learned that the market came back pretty quickly and that mutual funds are not created equally,

Of the four advantages of index fund investing—cheapness, flexibility, tax efficiency and transparency–I had long thought the last to be the most straightforward to implement. Just define your criteria, find stocks that qualify for inclusion and remain fixed forever.
But two weeks ago I found myself frustrated trying to reallocate my portfolio by size and position along the growth-value continuum using the ubiquitous Morningstar Style Box. Did the creators of our beloved indices not succeed in validly classifying stocks into their correct category?

Investors who desire a broader market index fund than is offered by the 500 large-cap stocks in the S&P Index Fund often opt for the 3,500 or so stocks in the ostensibly more encompassing Total Market Index Fund. But are these two funds—among the largest on the mutual fund landscape– really all that different?  Let’s find out.
The Portfolios
It makes sense to begin our investigation of just how alike the S&P surrogate and Total Market Index are by comparing several characteristics of their portfolios.

You’ve gone long-term the S&P 500 and you think you’re diversified. Lots of luck. Others of you are smug because you opted instead for a total market fund. At least you guys had the right idea. Truth is, neither of you is adequately spread out. Why not? Because you are horribly underinvested in small cap stocks
 
The S&P has absolutely zero small stocks represented, according to Morningstar’s definition. And small companies make up only 8% of the broad market alternative’s holdings.

I was an independent advisor for Charles Schwab but have always entrusted my money to Fidelity. I’ve been spoiled by the elite service, very knowledgeable telephone reps and emphasis on mutual funds.  I see Schwab more as a bunch of swashbuckling stock enthusiasts offering mutual funds merely to have a presence.
I’ve snubbed Vanguard despite its reputation as the hands-down low-cost provider because of its notorious service shortcomings—insufficient online tools, limited telephone hours, poorly trained agents and no local branches.

SUPPOSE YOU WANTED to construct as simple an investment portfolio as possible. What would it look like?
Many argue that, for stock market exposure, you could go with a single fund, one that tracks the S&P 500 index. The S&P index offers broad diversification and tax efficiency, plus it includes the largest and most successful companies, making it a popular choice. But it’s not perfect.
The S&P 500, like many market indexes, holds stocks in proportion to their size,

The new kid’s back in town and he’s a bully. Remember active mutual funds? Get ready because here come active ETFs. In 2019, there were only about 350 of those guys, but now that number has ballooned to almost 1,500. Remarkably, active ETFs gobbled up over 20% of the net asset flow into stock ETFs in the first half of this year.
According to one active ETF advocate, actively management has become more popular as heavyweight asset managers have entered the fray.

Anticipating that I would soon be starting the decumulation phase, I recently set up a five year CD ladder, using brokerage CDs bought through Vanguard. Yesterday I ran Vanguard’s Portfolio Watch. Aside from finding that my stock percentage had gone from 50% to 54%, and my international stock percentage from 20% to 10%, I found that Vanguard counted my CDs as bonds, not as “short term reserves”. Can anyone explain that?
Also, since I need to do some rebalancing,

Years ago I bought some Gold Eagles. Now with gold trading at near historic highs, I figure it may be a good time to sell. If you have sold your gold, I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts on the process, especially in regards to maximizing the sales price.