What are your portfolio allocation percentages?

[fenders53]

I thought this might be an interesting survey.  Rough estimates are fine as I know it changes for some of us that trade.  There will be overlap so keep it easy.  (You don't actually own AAPL for the dividend yield in the near future).  It doesn't have to add up to exactly 100%.  I kept the categories broad so feel free to add a category if I missed one.  Projected years to retirement mostly retired might add some context.  I'll go first of course.

Years to retirement-1
  
Dividend Stocks or ETFs (Minimum 1% yield)-40% 

Growth Stocks/ETS-15%

Mid to longterm bonds-0%   

Cash equivalents to include extremely short term ETF bonds- 15%

Trading- 10% swing trading and it usually includes 3-5% I regard as truly speculative gambling.  I could lose half the investment in a sharp downturn.  This is mostly stable DGI stocks that get beat down on earnings and the market over-reacts.  I enjoy playing the bounce.  

True Gambling- 0%  Anything highly leveraged.  Leveraged ETFs or inverse ETFs, buying potential big score out of the money options, shorting MOMO stocks, penny stocks etc.  Crypto is probably in here too but you can list it separate if you disagree.     

Real Estate- I'll call it zero although I collect contract payments on my formerly owned rental property.  It's still worth almost 10% of my portfolio and the yield is 8%. 

Conservative Option income strategy- 35%  This overlaps many of the above and assignment causes them to fluctuate from quarter to quarter.  Accounts for 75% of my overall income.  

As I enter retirement I need less options (time consuming) and a little more growth and DGI as valuations allow.       
 
I am going to guess most of you have less complicated ports?

[ChadR]

This is an interesting project.

Years to retirement - Goal is 5, but I could say I am there now since I have my own practice and work from home and work as much or as little as I want. Though I don't have 100% of our expenses covered by passive income yet. On the other hand, this will be something I do until I die so you could make the argument that I will never retire.

Dividend Stocks - 92%

Growth Stocks (less than 1% dividend) - 2% though to get technical, it's probably closer to 20% as my two largest holdings (MSFT & AAPL) are both under 1%. Both were purchased when their yields were above 1% so I'm keeping them in the top group.

Mid to long term bonds - 0%. This will most likely go up in the next few years as I do need to add some bonds.

Cash - 6%. Since I am self employed and my income is very sporadic during the year, I keep a larger amount of cash on hand than I would if I was working for someone else.

Trading - 0%. Never had much luck with trading in the past and it's just too time consuming to deal with right now.

True Gambling - 0%. See above. Before kids and marriage, I would be known to bet on a baseball game, football game, basketball game, or throw some money on a potential high flyer stock. Now not enough time to put the time in capping a game or researching to find the diamond in the rough of the penny stocks.

Real Estate - 0% in rent houses. About 7% of my dividend stocks are REITS. I also own 42 acres of ranch land that isn't included in my passive income projections. And then, some are considering that MCD is basically becoming a REIT.

Conservative Option Income Strategy - 0% currently. No current options outstanding, but I will occasionally sell some puts and covered calls. When work is slower, I will do more of this. Right now, this is one of my busy times so selling options takes a break.

So I would say that mine is less complicated than yours. The older I get, the less complications I want in life. The easier the better.

[Kerim]

Agree -- interesting exercise. I don't have my stuff broken down in quite than manner, but at a super high level, here's how my assets break down:


   

The real estate category includes my home and and the half interest in a commercial property I own with my sister. Among the individual stocks that I own are several REITs, but I keep those, mentally, in the stock bucket and not the real estate bucket.

Of the individual stocks category, I'd guess that 80 percent of it is core DG stuff, and the rest being growth/tech/more speculative (though I do consider AAPL a DG stock, even it is not the stock's best attribute!).

I know that I keep way more cash than almost any professional would advise, and I avoid thinking about where I'd be if more of that had been participating in the nearly unbroken bull run of the last 12-14 years. But I know myself, and it is a central "sleep well at night" decision for me. I love having the cash cushion and always having ample dry powder when opportunities do arise, even if I'm leaving some growth on the table. Once I've rolled over my 401(k), I do intend to work the cash portion back down to maybe 25 percent.

I'm still working on updating my individual stock tracker. When I get that done, I'll post more details about that.

My allocation to options / gambling / trading is essentially zero these days, but perhaps as I settle in to unemployment, I'll see if I can juice my return with a little more of that.

Oh, and as for retirement, I have absolutely no idea!

[crimsonghost747]

Well, for me, I count things a bit differently.

Basically 100% of my investment portfolio is in stocks. I would say that about 95% of this is solid long-term companies, and the 5% are significantly more speculative (often non-div payers) Some of those stocks in that 5% should probably be classified under gambling.

My option trades are all on 100% margin, so technically I have $0 dedicated to this. But in reality the total exposure to options is anywhere between 0% and 10% of my portfolio value at any given time.

My cash is something I consider completely separate from my investments. This is cash for a rainy day, living expenses when I feel like skipping work for a year or two, down payment for a house... honestly I have no idea, I just enjoy having some cash around just in case. Makes me sleep like a baby. Some of this money can (and will) be used for investment purposes if we get a real dip. But as I said, I don't consider this an "investment" by any stretch of the imagination.

Time remaining until retirement? Anything between negative two years and 40 years? I have no idea. Honestly this isn't the kind of world anymore where it's study-work-retire. I actually finished my first little retirement period, then went back to work, now I'm doing both work and somehow I also find myself enrolled in a university? And probably giving retirement another try before university is complete? Life just is different these days. But my portfolio is geared towards being able to support me starting tomorrow if I feel like that.

[fenders53]

Thanks for the replies. Apologies to the AAPL shareholders. It really is a DGI stock lol. The day will come when BIZ slows down and the yield will be higher.

My port will get far less complicated this year but I will do that in my retirement thread because it is going to take awhile. And by cash I meant cash that is available to be invested if you chose to. Any format you guys use is not a problem.

[NilesMike]

26% DGI

44% Real Estate

15% Options Trading

15% $$$

[ken-do-nim]

I compiled the data for all 4 accounts (Company stock, Taxable, ROTH, HSA). Does not include unvested stock or un-exercised options.

Years to retirement - 11 (minimum)



Notes:
1. Leveraged = double and triple leveraged etfs
2. Growth - all non-leveraged equities paying under 1% yield; includes Apple, Microsoft, and Sherwin Williams
3. Dividend - all equities paying between 1 and 5% yield
4. Income - all equities paying above 6% yield

I don't keep a large amount of cash; I have an emergency fund and some savings of course but nothing comparable to the totals above.

[fenders53]

Well so far Chad gets the award for full commitment to DGI strategy.  Seems appropriate here.  

I like Kerim and Mike's chances in a major meltdown because the real estate doesn't have to be sold.

I have been dumping some tickers that I don't love while they are up.  I intend to have a simpler than average port eventually.  When I showed up here I had two Index ETFs, a couple stocks and a rental property lol.

Ken, no need for you to keep  a lot of cash at your age but I do think you should have enough to grab shares on a good dip.  Those add up over time.

[Kerim]

(08-28-2021, 09:15 PM)fenders53 Wrote: Ken, no need for you to keep  a lot of cash at your age but I do think you should have enough to grab shares on a good dip.  Those add up over time.

I second this heartily. I wish I had understood this a bit earlier in my investing life. When you play the game long enough, you'll see a handful of times when the market gets temporarily and badly out of whack. If you have the powder and the conviction, how you handle those rare opportunities can make up a huge percentage of your overall returns.

[rayray]

26.05% cyclical
--1.50% basic materials
--9.91% consumer cyclical
--12.06% financial services
--2.58% real estate (reits)

22.93% defensive
--10.05% consumer defensive
--12.88% healthcare
--0% utilities

50.98% sensitive
--13.44% communications
--5.93% energy
--10.24% industrials
--21.36% technology

this is only my individual stock holdings--i didn't include etf's or mutual funds--the above consists of 57 individual stocks

overall summary:

divi yield 2.5%
YOC 3.37%
beta .98

just divi stocks by themselves

divi yield 2.95%
YOC 4.39%
beta 1.01

i'm pension eligible at a reduced rate next year at age 51

full pension will be at age 55

so let's just average it out to 5 years the earliest i'd retire

[fenders53]

(08-28-2021, 09:44 PM)Kerim Wrote:

(08-28-2021, 09:15 PM)fenders53 Wrote: Ken, no need for you to keep  a lot of cash at your age but I do think you should have enough to grab shares on a good dip.  Those add up over time.

I second this heartily. I wish I had understood this a bit earlier in my investing life. When you play the game long enough, you'll see a handful of times when the market gets temporarily and badly out of whack. If you have the powder and the conviction, how you handle those rare opportunities can make up a huge percentage of your overall returns.

The tech bubble and aftermath taught me most of the core investing lessons I would ever need in a few years in my taxable accounts.  "Stay 100% invested they said".  Well I'm not sure "they" meant I should keep adding at triple historical PEs and use some margin to make it even better.  

-always have a little dry powder- lesson learned, I was helpless (and depressed) .... check
-stay diversified, even if the returns aren't as good in the boring out of favor sector....  check              
-never sell.... well that only works if you don't build an entire port of companies at grossly high valuations in the first place.  Many people are doing that again today, and adding options, cuz YOLO.   

Most of the ports on this forum are balanced.  This isn't the Motley Fool forum of 1994-98.   

If not for my GOV 401K which limited me to a few index ETFs I would have been in trouble there too.  There I figured out what a bond fund was for actually for to a younger investor.  I hated that 5% yield but it would have been as good as cash when the Nasdaq corrected over 80%.  Just a little invested there would have been nice.  I was ready for the 2008 GFC, and the next one whenever that year comes.  

I can't imagine the market cancelling my retirement, but I've seen it happen to a few friends that got greedy past age 50, then cashed out and curled up in the fetal position.  

What were we talking about again.     Oh yeah, 90% max in stocks no matter your age unless the market has recently been destroyed.  That's not exactly conservative advice but it served me well when accumulating.  Recency bias makes me sound foolish now.  I can live with that.

[fenders53]

(08-29-2021, 12:41 AM)rayray Wrote: 26.05% cyclical
--1.50% basic materials
--9.91% consumer cyclical
--12.06% financial services
--2.58% real estate (reits)

22.93% defensive
--10.05% consumer defensive
--12.88% healthcare
--0% utilities

50.98% sensitive
--13.44% communications
--5.93% energy
--10.24% industrials
--21.36% technology

this is only my individual stock holdings--i didn't include etf's or mutual funds--the above consists of 57 individual stocks

overall summary:

divi yield 2.5%
YOC 3.37%
beta .98

just divi stocks by themselves

divi yield 2.95%
YOC 4.39%
beta 1.01

i'm pension eligible at a reduced rate next year at age 51

full pension will be at age 55

so let's just average it out to 5 years the earliest i'd retire

So you are 100% in equities now Ray?  That was the intended question posed in this thread.