Some Real Portfolios

I thought it might be helpful to discuss some real portfolios that I've been involved in developing. I'll start with the simplest portfolios, and then move to the more complex. The idea is to expose you to a variety of asset allocations, each having been designed based on the willingness, ability and need of the investor to take risk, along with ability and willingness to handle portfolio complexity.

Since the most important asset allocation decision is the allocation between stocks and fixed-income (fixed-income is cash and bonds), the stock/fixed-income allocation is presented first for each portfolio; this is referred to as the top level allocation. Then, the stock and fixed-income allocations are further subdivided into lower level asset classes. By stocks I actually mean mutual funds that invest in stocks, and by bonds I mean mutual funds that invest in bonds. By cash I mean savings accounts, CDs, money market accounts, and similar cash-like assets.

In this post, I'll simply present the portfolios. In subsequent posts, I'll discuss the stories behind the portfolios; i.e., the design, construction, maintenance and performance of the portfolios.

Portfolio 1: Simple, aggressive, global equity portfolio

Investor: 20-25 year old individual
Investment horizon: 40-70 years

• Top level allocation
• 100% Stocks
• 0% Fixed-Income
• Stock Allocation (100% of portfolio)
• 50% Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (US stocks)
• 50% Vanguard Total International Stock Index (non-US stocks)

Note that this portfolio is 100% in stocks (aggressive), and 50% in non-US stocks (global).

Portfolio 2: Simple, moderately conservative portfolio

Investor: younger retired couple
Investment horizon: 20-30 years

• Top level allocation
• 40% Stocks
• 60% Fixed-Income
• Stock Allocation (40% of portfolio)
• 65% US (Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF)
• 35% International (Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US ETF)
• Fixed Income Allocation (60% of portfolio)
• 80% Bonds (Vanguard Short-Term Investment-Grade Bond, Vanguard Intermediate-Term Investment-Grade Bond)
• 20% Cash (Vanguard Prime Money Market and savings/checking accounts)

Note that the stock portion of the portfolio above consists of ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) rather than index mutual funds.  They function basically the same in the portfolio.  I'll discuss why we used ETFs when we delve into the story for this portfolio.

Portfolio 3: Moderately complex, conservative portfolio

Investor: older retired couple
Investment horizon: 10-15 years

• Top level allocation
• 20% Stocks
• 80% Fixed-Income
• Stock Allocation (20% of portfolio)
• 60% US
• 80% Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (US stocks)
• 20% Vanguard REIT Index (US Real Estate Investment Trust stocks)
• 40% International
• 75% Vanguard Developed Markets Index
• 25% Emerging Markets Index
• Fixed Income Allocation (80% of portfolio)
• 40% Bonds (Vanguard Short-Term Investment-Grade Bond, Vanguard Intermediate-Term Investment-Grade Bond, Vanguard Inflation-Protected Securities fund, and a few others)
• 60% Cash (Rewards checking account, high yield online savings account, money market accounts)

Note that as we get into more complex asset allocations, as above, I break down each sub-asset class so that the components equal 100%. I prefer to think about a sub-asset class as a percentage of its "parent" asset class, rather than as a percentage of the total portfolio. For example, t

his is why I list Total Stock Market Index as 80% of US stocks, but keep in mind that it makes up 48% of all stocks (80% of 60% = 48%), and only 9.6% of the entire portfolio (48% of 20% = 9.6%).

Portfolio 4: Moderately complex, aggressive, global portfolio

Investor: high school age individual
Investment horizon: 50-80 years

• Top level allocation
• 80% stocks
• 20% fixed-income
• Stock Allocation (50% of portfolio)
•  50% US
• 50% Total Stock Market Index or Large Cap Stock Index (large blend)
• 25% Value Index (large value)
• 25% Small Cap Index (small blend)
• 50% International
• 75% Developed Markets
• 25% Emerging Markets
• Fixed-income allocation (20% of portfolio)
• 80% bonds (Vanguard Intermediate-Term Investment-Grade Bond)
• 20% cash (money market and rewards checking account)

When I get into the story behind this portfolio, I'll talk about why I've listed Total Stock or Large Cap for the large blend holding. It has to do with tax loss harvesting, which is beyond the scope of this article.

Also, I want to note that the international portion could be in only the Vanguard Total International Stock fund, since this fund currently has about 75% developed markets and 25% emerging markets. However, the actual portfolio also holds the Developed Markets Index and Emerging Markets Index. One reason is tax loss harvesting, but another reason is that it enables rebalancing the portfolio to the target 75%/25% mix of developed and emerging markets if the percentage of emerging markets in the Total International fund diverges significantly from our 25% target.

Portfolio 5: Complex, aggressive portfolio

Investor: 25 year old individual
Investment horizon: 40-70 years:

• Top level allocation
• 80% stocks
• 20% fixed income
• Stock allocation (80% of portfolio)
• 60% US
• 55% large blend
• 15% large value
• 15% small blend
• 15% small value
• 40% International
• 60% developed markets
• 25% emerging markets
• 15% international small blend
• Fixed-income allocation (20% of portfolio)
• 100% cash (rewards checking account)

I haven't listed specific funds for the above portfolio, because quite a few funds are used in several different accounts (e.g., traditional IRA, roth IRAs, 401(k)), and more than one fund sometimes is used within the same asset class. The reasons for this complexity will be discussed when we delve into the story for this portfolio.