Personal Financial Planning Series May 2011 FIU Employee Financial Literacy Program

Personal Financial Planning Series May 2011

Investing for Your Life StageAsset Allocation

Personal Financial Planning Series May 2011FIU Employee Financial Literacy Program

The Life-Stage Approach

The Life-Stage Approach the ability to tolerate risk lessens as retirement approachesHow do you determine your risk tolerance?Insurance deductibleHow much would you invest in an underwater salvage operation?100 54 (your age) = 46 (the percentage of your portfolio that should be in equity)??

Places to gowww.investopedia.comwww.financialengines.comwww.vanguard.com

Asset AllocationModern Portfolio Theory (Markowitz, 1952)The Brinson Studies (1986)Forces us to buy low and sell high!

For example$100,000 (20% large cap, 20% international, 20% small cap, 20% fixed income, 20% cash)$20,000 in the large cap bucket$20,000 in the international bucket$20,000 in the small cap bucket$20,000 in the fixed income bucket$20,000 in the cash bucket

The rebalancing!Our objectives have not changed, so we are still invested 20% each in 5 sectors.Six months later our portfolio looks like this:$27,000 in the large cap bucket$22,000 in the international bucket$18,000 in the small cap bucket$23,000 in the fixed income bucket$20,500 in the cash bucket

Our portfolio has grown to $110,500 or 10.5% in six months

Your gut tells you to leave your money in the large cap fund, but asset allocation forces you to rebalance, so that each sector once again has 20%, which now is $22,100.Remove $4,900 from the large cap bucketAdd $100 to the international bucketAdd $4,100 t0 the small cap bucketRemove $900 from the fixed income bucketAdd $1,600 to the cash bucket