should I adjust retirement investments?

[Snydley]

I have neglected adjusting my retirement accounts since COVID hit and I could use some advice. I'm 49, DH is 55, we have one daughter who will be heading to college fall of 2025. Current retirement accounts total 966K. We have an additional 215K in savings accounts/IBonds (we will use for DD's college and is EF). We have no debt except one year left on our mortgage, home is worth ~780K.

Retirement accounts are currently 34% bonds and the rest a mix, mostly large cap stocks. Should I adjust ratio of bonds/stocks? How about Large/Med/Small cap vs international?

[disneysteve]

Your current asset allocation is 54% stock/46% fixed income. Is that where you want to be? None of us can really answer that for you. Personally, I'm a bit more aggressive than that even though I'm 10 years older than you. We are currently right around 60/40 and I plan to stay there for the foreseeable future. It all depends on what your overall situation looks like and what your risk tolerance is. Are there pensions in your future?

[Snydley]

I had not considered the savings accounts in the total- hmm, maybe we should go a bit more aggressive with the investments. No pensions in the future. We have been piling into saving accounts and paying ahead on the house which might not have been the best way to build net worth. I'm not maxing retirement contributions (I know, I should be)..I think DH feels better with all the savings so we can write checks for DD's college etc, but once the CD/savings account interests rates go back down we will be losing $ there.

I think I'd like to stop working full time in 5 or 10 years and go to 1/2 time for a while before I'd fully retire.

I really don't know what DD's college is going to cost. I'm guessing in the range of 30-50K a year. I assume we won't get any financial aid, but maybe she will get some small merit scholarships and/or go to state school.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Depends on what your risk tolerance is. Your cash of $215 could end up being used up. I think you've mented the DD college is soon? If that's the case then why not wait and see how you feel after? What size is the ef? If given a choice, what would your risk tolerance be?

Currently I think we are 7% cash and that's high for us. We are pretty much 100% invested in stocks (well etfs). Mostly even VOO and QQQ and IJR, IJH, VBR, stuff like that. Some diversification in ETFs, like some real estate but DH's 401k is about a million with 80% VOO and 20% International. Our other stuff is all mostly VOO. Lots of boring overlap. I've gotten lazy and did I mention the kids are entirely in VOO? I mean 529, ESA, and Taxable? I showed my DK1 today and was like sorry kid you are all the same boring ETF.

I'm cool since I don't plan on touching the money. Until I do then i'll worry about it. But my guess is that we'll build a moat by building our cash 3-5 years before we retire and do some movement at that time. But for the most part I think we are going to stick to the lazy 3 fund portfolio and I don't even have BND or VXUS.

[srblanco7]

I had not considered the savings accounts in the total- hmm, maybe we should go a bit more aggressive with the investments. No pensions in the future. We have been piling into saving accounts and paying ahead on the house which might not have been the best way to build net worth. I'm not maxing retirement contributions (I know, I should be)..I think DH feels better with all the savings so we can write checks for DD's college etc, but once the CD/savings account interests rates go back down we will be losing $ there.

I think I'd like to stop working full time in 5 or 10 years and go to 1/2 time for a while before I'd fully retire.

I really don't know what DD's college is going to cost. I'm guessing in the range of 30-50K a year. I assume we won't get any financial aid, but maybe she will get some small merit scholarships and/or go to state school.

As others have said it's not a "fair" to have others dictate how you should invest your money. On another note - congrats on your success - net worth of close to $2M.

FWIW, I'm the same age as your husband and we're about 76% stocks, 18% bonds, and 6% cash (based on an approximate bucket strategy of 20x living expenses in stocks, 7.5x living expenses in bonds, and 2.5x living expenses in cash) and I'm planning to go 1/2 time in 2024 for approximately 18 months before completing our transition to ER.

We're nearing getting our first thru college and our second is in his freshman year. Noting that we were not going to receive any financial aid, we did have a conversation with both of our kids as to what we were willing to pay for their college education (and we also weighed in with our feelings on student loans). It may be reasonable for you to do the same with DD to "firm up" your anticipated college expenses.

[myrdale]

It looks like you're in a really great spot. If you have 10 more years to work, it could potentially be doubled. I'd personally say go more aggressive. Even if the market took a down turn for a couple of years, you could easily live off your savings until the retirement bounced back.