Hi Steve and I², Re: Retirement.............
Thanks for sharing your own activities re retirement.
Here's my IRA up through recent times:
This portfolio is a mix of stock and bond funds blended together. As you can see, even being diversified globally during a PANIC isn't a pretty thing. I do diversify further than most folks in that I include Cash as part of the portfolio.
I use the cash to buy into market declines and rebuild the cash reserve later when markets are friendlier. (the + means a buy and a - indicates a sell) In this case, I'd started to restructure the account in late '07 and got caught with the project unfinished and way too small a cash reserve. That left me pretty much at the mercy of the markets when the Panic started. I'd been able to buy most of what I wanted in the account, but didn't get what needed to be sold done before the markets started downward. It's no fun being underfunded when so many things are on "sale."
I finally finished the reallocation early this year (longer vertical lines on the graph) and the account is beginning to show signs of coming out of its coma. My first post-Panic sale just happened last Friday. 7 of the 10 positions in this account are still begging me to buy more while a couple have risen enough to be close to the point where I'll start to trim back a bit.
The income portion has been throwing off cash which has allowed me to do small buys once in a while as the cash accumulates. The name, UBAHS, stands for "Ultimate Buy and Hold Strategy" as described here:
fundadvice.com
Of course I couldn't leave it alone, so "manage" the buy-and-hold strategy! Personally, I like to buy things at a discount and sell them when they're more precious and that's basically what I do with the investments. The B&H strategy #6 is pretty close to what I now use in my portfolio. However, I picked components from various ETF suppliers that closely match the various categories.
I funded my IRA while I had a salary but didn't add any fresh money except for about two years since the early '90s. So, it has to fund itself via the cash it self-generates.
Going forward is where the portfolio should be interesting. Now that the holdings are tuned in properly the account should do okay. I still have several years until I have to start drawing on this, so it should have a fair chance going forward.
Best regards,
Tom |
