[Peter Batsoulas]

I would like to follow the traditional investing advice of investing 90% of my portfolio in stocks and the other 10% in bonds. I also like the ETF approach to investing. My idea is to put 10% into VGV the vanguard bond market ETF, 45% into VFV, the vanguard S&p 500 ETF, and 45% into XRE, the ishares REIT ETF. What is everyone's thoughts on this decision?

 

[MarcoE]

A few things.

First -- lots of risk here. It's an aggressive portfolio, so you have to be comfortable with this level of risk. 90% in risky assets might be okay if you're very young, have time to ride out recessions, and can tolerate seeing these assets drop by a lot during a bad year. Many investors think they're comfortable with risk, but when their stocks drop by 30%-50%, they panic and sell.

Also, any reason you want to dedicate so much to REITs? Seems like a lot of real estate in there.

Finally, do you want any stocks outside of the USA?

 

[Spudd]

Why not just buy VGRO and VEQT in equal amounts? That will give you a globally diversified 90/10 portfolio.

 

[P_I]

I would like to follow the traditional investing advice of investing 90% of my portfolio in stocks and the other 10% in bonds.

Where did you find the suggestion that this asset allocation was 'the traditional investing advice'? Approximately what is your age?

 

[Juggernaut92]

I would also put some developed markets(Europe, Japan, etc) into your portfolios. Two ETFs you can look into is XEF and VEA.