Retirement portfolio question

[Broken Arrow]

Originally Posted by jIM_Ohio

That web site had annoying pop ups which got by my pop up blocker.

Uh oh. I've never had pop-ups from Investopedia before. They have ad banners and those annoying roll-over bubbles, but not pop-ups that I am aware of. And no pop-ups also means no triggering of my ad-blocker.

Are you sure your computer is not infected?

[jIM_Ohio]

Originally Posted by Broken Arrow

Uh oh. I've never had pop-ups from Investopedia before. They have ad banners and those annoying roll-over bubbles, but not pop-ups that I am aware of. And no pop-ups also means no triggering of my ad-blocker.

Are you sure your computer is not infected?

It was those ad bubbles- not pop ups per se I guess. I am at work, just about everything is blocked.

[mrpaseo]

ALCON,
Please excuse my delays as our internet access has been serverly limited over the past few weeks with no hope of being opened up again. I will do my best to keep this thread active as I want to develope/research this portfolio before February.

Thanks for all your help,
Ray

[mrpaseo]

I added some funds that I will start to research. Feel free to coment on any of the funds on the list.

Ray

[jIM_Ohio]

Originally Posted by mrpaseo

I added some funds that I will start to research. Feel free to coment on any of the funds on the list.

Ray

I'd suggest reposting deeper into thread- I don't want to re-read old posts and try to distinguish what is old and what is new.

[Broken Arrow]

I don't normally do this, but since I have some time to kill right now, and since you've gone through the trouble of organizing a very detailed post for us, I'll take a look at it.

43% Large Cap:
a. FCNTX
b. VHCOX
c. JSVAX

Performance-wise, they all seem like good funds, and despite the differences in the top ten holdings, they appear to trend roughly the same. And if they're all about the same, my personal preference would be towards the Vanguard fund since it sports the lowest expense ratio of them all.

14% Mid Cap:
a. JORNX
b. FCNTX

FCNTX is already in your large cap, which essentially leaves only JORNX in the list. The only thing that bothers me is that the fund manager, John Eisenger, has only started managing it since the beginning of this year. I didn't bother to look up his background, but in terms of allocation, if there are better funds, even if it's a different cap, I would pursue that first before settling into this fund....

14% Small Cap:
a. FSCIX
b. JATTX
c. DFEVX

I can't find much information about DFEVX's holdings, and I'm too lazy to find and read the prospectus right now. And anyway, MorningStar rates it as a mid-cap value. So, I think it's probably not a good choice in this category.

Janus Triton (JATTX) is interesting. The fund is only $155 million and change. Plenty of room for growth. Unfortunately, where it goes, I don't know. The fund also hasn't been around long enough to even historical performance to look at.

That leaves Fidelity's FSCIX as the possible tried-and-true choice here.

14% International Large Cap:
a. (FIGRX) Fidelity International Discovery
b. (FICDX) Fidelity Canada Fund

Off hand, I don't see anything unusual with two funds, you know, besides the obvious markets they play in. I also see that both are listed in your international small cap. Perhaps you could just stick with something like FIGRX and call it a day? Unless there's something particular you want to puruse with Canada....

5% International Small Cap:
a. PRLAX
b. FICDX
c. FIGRX

That leaves with PRLAX, which focuses in Latin America. I'm a simple guy, and I'd probably just get FIGRX, or if you wish, a combination of PRLAX and FICDX, if you want to diversify your international holdings by market.

5% Emerging Markets:
a. FSCDX.LW
B. PRSVX
C. TMCGX

Ok, the first choice is a 5.75% front load whereas the rest does not. That immediately puts me off. TMCGX is much smaller and perhaps prone to wilder swings, but also has more room to grow. PRSVX, however, does sport a lower ER, and has been out-performing the other fund since 2001. This is important because the fund manager that did that, Preston Athey, is still there.

So, that's my very quick take on it. I think you could also consolidate some of your fund choices there.

[jIM_Ohio]

BA has many many good points.

To add to what has been discussed before- you need an allocation defined and the allocation should point you to the right funds.

For example if a person wanted 70% large cap, 20% mid and 10% small, that whole allocation is available in a total stock market fund. 70-20-10 IS the allocation of the whole market (as defined by wilshire 5000).

Another example is risk tolerance. CGMFX is a great growth fund and probably is large cap. But the fund is much different than an S&P 500 fund, which is different than a large cap dividend fund. All 3 would be large cap as you have outlined your chart, but just having a list of 3 funds and suggesting to an investor to "pick one" is not a good method to do.

In addition most sector funds tend to be large cap. For example we own T Rowe Health Sciences, Financial Services and Science and Technology. All 3 probably show up as a large cap based on their overall holdings and top 10 holdings. But to hold one sector as your large cap allocation is not a good idea.

Extend this to emerging markets. Is the intent of this allocation to pick one country or region and concentrate on it (like Latin America or Africa) or hold a single fund which will invest some in Europe, some in Asia, some in Latin America and some in Africa? There is more than one way to fill in the sector. If you use regions, then you will need more than 3 identified emerging markets funds to choose from.

I know we e-mailed some on this. IMO you are over analyzing, over simplifying and misguiding the comments I made via private e-mails.

[jIM_Ohio]

To add to my previous post, and to give more detail, my portfolio will evolve as my risk tolerance changes.

A portfolio will go through 5 phases
1) starting out
2) accumulation
3) growth
4) stability
5) draw down

When accumulating (where I am now), I generally choose an allocation which overweights small and mid caps in an attempt to have a better overall return than the market over my accumulation period (1998-~2014).
Between 2014 and 2026 I expect my portfolio to enter growth. In that phase my allocation will probably lower the small and mid cap holdings, as well as reduce my emerging markets holding.
I enter stability when I retire around 2026. Again I will lower my small and mid cap holdings.

When accumulating I have some diversified holdings and some concentrated holdings.
In growth phase I will lower the concentrated holdings and keep the diversified holdings.
In stability, I eliminate the concentrated holdings completely and probably reduce the diversified holdings.

Different funds for different risk profiles. The diversified fund is a constant through all 3 phases, but the concentrated funds are not something I want when stability is the goal, as the volatility of the individual fund might destroy an otherwise sound financial plan.