With US inflation today at around ~2-3%, you can expect x dollars today to lose 10% of their value over the next 5 years.
What have you invested in for 3 years or longer?
What is the return % over time?
What makes the overall strategy safe to you?
S&P index funds - 7.25% inflation adjusted & dividends reinvested over the last 15 years - S&P 500 Return Calculator, with Dividend Reinvestment
Also some funds in a stable value fund that returns 3.25%. (Principal is guaranteed)
- Index funds, mostly Vanguard’s S&P, and also a small amount in their Equities Income Fund and NY Tax Exempt Bond Fund.
- Real estate
- A small number of equities that I like
Do the multiple boxes worth of dust-gathering Magic cards count?
Mostly index funds, my house, and a few targeted funds.
This was creepily familiar, except for the real estate (unless you count my primary residence).
Stocks are managed by Wealthfront (robo investing).
Real estate (beyond primary residence)
Precious metals (inflation hedge)
I’m in retirement, so my allocations will be much different than people in the accumulation phase. This allocation applies only to my rollover IRA.
I keep two years worth of money in certificates of deposit. I have eight separate two year CDs maturing every three months over the next two years. This is around 11% of the total IRA portfolio.
I have five years worth of money in Vanguard bond index fund VBTLX. It amounts to around 26% of the total IRA.
The balance of the money is divided up between three Vanguard index funds, 9% in the REIT index VGSLX, 18% in the international stock index fund VTIAX, and 37% in the US stock index fund VTSAX. There’s around 12 years worth of withdrawals in this bucket.
There’s some other money in Vanguard, a Roth IRA, a brokerage account, some individual stocks, but they only amount to around 15% of what’s in the IRA, so I’m not sorting out what goes where in those accounts. Peanuts really.
According to Vanguard my return over the last 4 years is 8.7%. It seems safe to me because in a worst case scenario I don’t have to sell stocks for at least seven years. That’s what it would take to exhaust my CDs and bonds. In normal conditions I generate enough income to purchase a new two year CD every three months so that pipeline stays refreshed.
Mostly in ETFs.
Majority in US equities. Some in global and developing markets. Small amount in bonds.
ROI averaging 7.25% per year over last 5 years.
US equity ETFs in $US have consistently been the best performers. My positions in cash and equivalents has dropped down to about 5% of my portfolio. Really, just enough to jump on a bargain if something comes up.
Vanguard funds for our taxable accounts.
I just starting taking investing seriously in the last year, unfortunately. So other than 401k, my money was all in savings accounts or CDs. Now I’ve got some money stashed in a few ETFs and a few individual stocks. In the last calendar year, that portfolio has grown 25%. I don’t expect that every year, but damn I wish I would have done this sooner.
Beanie Babies!
- Maxing out 401’s and Roth IRA’s in a wide variety of classes of investments.
- Vanguard index funds for excess long-term investing
- High-interest (relatively) money market fund for short-term (saving up capital to buy more real estate) - 1.6%
- Real estate. Our house is paid off and we are getting ready to purchase some land
I have no idea on long-term percentages.
Man, you guys are amateurs!
I, like all truly well-to-do persons and waterfowl, invest my money in coin form in gigantic drifts and swales within my primary vault. The vault is equipped with diving boards, and there is a special swimsuit for when the urge to “check on my investments” might strike.
All this talk of “index funds” and “retirement accounts” is just silly, I mean really, who does that??
All the folks who were too afraid to invest in Beanie Babies and Commemorative Plates 
I put it in the bank.
The bastards have devised a global economic theory in which they help themselves to a percent or two of everybody’s wealth, and it is locked in solid, and anybody who even questions the awesome beauty of the machine is called a fucking communist or something.
Move on and worry about things that you CAN change.
Don’t those same bastards just use your money to invest in their name while paying you a less-than-inflation interest rate? It insures that you are the loser and they are the winner.
What do you let them use your money like that?
Also retired now. I’ve moved a lot of money to income producing stock funds, which pay high dividends and are more stable than say tech stocks. Less of an upside for more aggressive investments (which I did when I was younger) and better returns than bond heavy funds.
I’m expecting a crash fairly soon.
Just before I retired my adviser did a Monte Carlo simulation showing I had a very good chance (over 60%) of basically living on income and having more or less the same amount of capital at age 90. As it turns out I’m well ahead of even the best case of the simulation at this point.
I’m also fairly well diversified, and due to inheritances and the like have a reasonable amount of cash. All in all I’ve been retired for 2 years and have more than I started with and have not dipped into my annuity yet and am waiting until 70 to get Social Security.
I made some small investments in the past but now we put our money into my wife’s 401K because she gets an incredible return on it. Our other investment is our house.
I use dollar cost averaging. I’ve been putting a few hundred dollars a month in a broad index mutual fund for almost the past 20 years, without worrying about short or even medium term changes in the market. Once I get closer to retirement age I plan to shift most of my money to a low-volatility alternative.
The OP asked:
and I think iiandyiiii nailed the answer to that question.
To the timid investors in this thread, inflation will eat away at your cash savings. Regular, low cost investing is the best thing you can do for your future.
I have a spreadsheet that has tracked my investments for 30 years. Only 5 of those years showed a smaller balance than the preceding year. I have been living in retirement, with no pension for close to 10 years and my accounts have grown for 9 of those years.
I sold only to diversify or reallocate, never because I was afraid of a crash. I once saw a 35% decline but it all came back in 18 months.
Mainly because they have secure vaults, and there is a certain guarantee of the safety of the money in a bank. But I don’t mind keeping large amounts in the house, either.
“Why do you let them” is because we are locked into a system that enables them, and there is never a name on a ballot of someone who questions the myth of free enterprise. Which ensures that we are the loser and they are the winner.
-Rothschild Brothers’ of London communiqué to associates in New York June 25, 1863
“The few who understand the system, will either be so interested in its profits, or so dependent on its favors that there will be no opposition from that class, while on the other hand, the great body of people, mentally incapable of comprehending the tremendous advantages…will bear its burden without complaint, and perhaps without suspecting that the system is inimical to their best interests.”