Archives for December 2004

Now that I have chosen my Asset Allocation, I want to implement it and be fully invested in the stock and bond market by 1/31. This might be tricky, as I am moving some assets away from E*Trade and according to the paperwork it can take up to 4-6 weeks. But I should be able to do the rest by the end of January.

As a side note, I am vacationing to warmer weather for the next week, and may or may not have internet access. I am bringing along Common Sense on Mutual Funds: New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor by John Bogle, as well as some Vanguard prospectuses for the plane ride. Happy New Year!

After some thought and reading, I have decided on the following asset allocation ratio for my current age and position:

70% Stocks / 30% Bonds

Although since I am only 26, some people say I should be more aggressive, I am being realistic in the amount of volatility that I think I can endure and still stick to my plan. Would you really keep your positions if they dropped 35% in one year? That would mean about $20,000 for me, enough to cause some serious heartburn.

However, I am saving for a house as well, and since I’ll need that money in less than 5 years, I think of it as a separate “basket” of money. I am going to handle it much more conservatively. More on that later, but that will allow me to change the rest of my portfolio to:

80% Stock / 20% Bonds, or more specifically:

40% Large Cap / 20% Mid&Small Cap / 20% International / 20% Bonds

This is very similar to my current 401k Asset Allocation. My Monthly Goal due 12/31 is now complete. I thought about putting some in REITs, but I personally think they are a bit inflated right now, and I will get exposure to Real Estate when I buy a house.

Not quite 2005, but I’m going on vacation on Friday, so here is my monthly snapshot:

My net worth increased by $3006 since last month’s snapshot, which is pretty nice but a little skewed since I get paid bi-weekly and I got 3 paychecks this month. My non-retirement funds now total $25,411, an increase of $2045. Not bad considering since this includes my holiday damage. More analysis on these results later…

After setting my Short-Term Goal for this month, I am now setting my Mid-Term Goal. As I have mentioned, I plan to buy a house in an area with insane real estate prices for the long term for family reasons. As we are planning to move in mid-2007, that is the target date. $100,000 in non-retirement accounts will be enough for a good-sized downpayment, as well as other incidental costs.

Let’s check on the current status – If I contribute $14,000 to my wife and I’s Roth IRA in January for 2004/2005, my net worth will look like:

Non-retirement: $23,366
Retirement:        $32,384

Thus, I am 23% to my goal, with 2.5 years remaining. That means my required savings and earnings pace will have to amount to $2555/month. That’s going to be tough, the stock and bond markets will hopefully help me out. If I assume a certain earnings rate, then my monthly savings amount may be more reasonable. I will have to consult my economics-trained friends! My other option is to put less into retirement.

Whew, I am glad this week is over. And I just lost my whole entry just now, so here goes retyping it: As in work, it’s good to have a target to work towards. First, I will assign myself short-term monthly goals, due at the end of each month. Since my initial goal this month was to start this blog (done already on 12/6), my new goal will be to decide on an asset allocation strategy for my non-retirement and retirement dough. Here is my current asset allocation for my 401k:

That is, the breakdown between different asset-types is 40% Large-Cap stocks, 20% Mid-Cap stocks, 20% International Stocks, and 20% Bonds. This breakdown was based loosely on a bunch of different websites such as MSN MoneyCentral, CNN Money, and SmartMoney, but I think I can do more research and get a more solid answer.