I want 1 year of expenses in cash, 2-4 years of expenses in bonds and the rest in stocks. Then I will have the courage to wait out (or buy into) the inevitable stock market crashes. This is my ideal retirement holding--while I have labor income is a different story.
I don't buy bonds for the return, I buy them for safety of principal. So, the risk of lower return is absolutely acceptable to me.
PS Please don't take investment advice from random people on the internet, definitely including me.
>> I don't buy bonds for the return, I buy them for safety of principal.
Stocks and bonds are not as anti-correlated as you might hope. The main benefit is diversification, and in that regard, it's really just lightening up your load of stocks - not actually the introduction of bonds. You may want to consider additional instruments for safety purposes.
My personal theory is that there are currently a lot of people waiting for the stock market to crash. Which is why it might not going to crash anytime soon (see the dips beginning of the year).
People often write this as if investing in a "crashed" market is something trivial to spot. Sure you might be able to see prices today are lower than a week ago, but how do you know they aren't going to continue decreasing yet another month?
Dollar cost averaging is a decent strategy in a bear market. You basically buy more and more shares for the same money as it goes down. You’ll have bought more shares at the bottom them at the top.
In other words, set up buying on a schedule and stick to that schedule, purchasing the same dollar amount each month. Don't deviate from your schedule because you cannot time the market.
Why does it matter if they are decreasing next month? The goal is not to buy at the bottom of the market (if I knew how to spot market bottoms, I'd be on my private Caribbean island), but rather to keep buying into the productivity of the entire economy.
I am aware. I have been buying them ever since I ran out of tax deferred retirement space. It's as much for expanding my effective tax deferred space as it is a secondary cash reserve.
Secondary cash reserves all have similar problems.
It's not odd, from what I can tell that's the current standard investment advise: safety cushion in cash, then a mix of stocks and bonds, with the proportion of stocks being inversely proportional to one's age.
I want 1 year of expenses in cash, 2-4 years of expenses in bonds and the rest in stocks. Then I will have the courage to wait out (or buy into) the inevitable stock market crashes. This is my ideal retirement holding--while I have labor income is a different story.
I don't buy bonds for the return, I buy them for safety of principal. So, the risk of lower return is absolutely acceptable to me.
PS Please don't take investment advice from random people on the internet, definitely including me.