90/10 Strategy

  

Well, they really coulda named this anything...like an 80 / 20 or a 50 / 50 or a 25 / 75 or just...Bob. In this investing strategy, the first amount is invested in something safe; think: shorter term bonds usually A-rated or better. The second number refers to something short-term-riskier, like a stock or an equity index fund, which is almost certainly more volatile than the bond piece. So why'd they name this one a 90 / 10? They didn't have Shmoop around to help them name things. Losers.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What is a Strategic Asset Alloc...6 Views

00:00

finance a la shmoop what is strategic asset allocation all right well it's

00:08

being smart investing wisely diversifying betting on tailwind and [Pie chart showing portfolio areas]

00:13

avoiding headwinds and that's about it that's what the way cooler and fancier [Definition of strategic asset allocation]

00:18

sounding strategic asset allocation term actually means

00:22

yeah strategic so what does that imply well think about it in context if you're

00:27

92 years old and you have 300 grand your name and you're still able to run a 20 [Old guy holding stacks of money]

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minute mile well then you can't risk investing in equities at least not all

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your money in them in the short run they're way too volatile they go up [Value of equities going up and down]

00:40

there to go down they go sideways they go bankrupt and it's likely that your

00:43

remaining run is well short you'll need the money so you can't handle the risk [Gravestone for the old guy]

00:48

of equities dropping if 40% in value over a two-year period which seems to [40% drop shown on the chart]

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happen to them every decade or two instead you need to be strategic about

00:58

the dough and the time you have left and if you're 19 and you just inherited dear [Clock ticking]

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old uncle Earl's oil fortune he calls it Earl over very long periods of time the [Kid walks up to a vault full of money]

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market has historically gone up and about 8 9 10 percent a year or something

01:13

like that and especially given that you don't need the money today

01:16

well you strategically almost can't afford to not be invested in equities ie [Kid holding bags of cash]

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the stock market no reason to hold almost any bonds at this stage in your [Kid throwing the bonds into the bin]

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life you don't need the cash you don't need the safety you don't need the

01:30

liquidity because your timeline there is endless like you probably have half a

01:34

century or more before you even begin to feel old being strategic about your

01:38

investing at this stage is the difference in compounding over say a 50

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plus year period at only four or five percent or eight nine ten maybe twelve [Graph showing balances after different compound interest rates]

01:47

percent if you get a little bit lucky and at the very end when Kingdom Come

01:51

comes well the winner as you know is the one who can buy the most toys [Angel rescues rich kid]

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