What Can a Mullet Teach us About Portfolio Distribution? Ep #99

Are you ready to learn about portfolio distribution? I’ve got the perfect visual for you! Listen in to hear how to rebalance your portfolio in retirement. Thank you all for sending in your rebalancing spreadsheets! Several listeners sent in their own rebalancing spreadsheets and they all were fantastic. I’m working with an Excel wizard and I can’t wait to share the rebalancing spreadsheet we create with all of you. I think crowdsourcing in this way will be extremely helpful to our listeners since according to the listener survey, the majority of listeners are in their 50’s and 60’s. You’re all trying to figure out the answers to the same problems. So, if you have other ideas for DIY retirement tools that we could crowdsource, I’d love to see them.

If you have other ideas for DIY #Retirement tools that we could crowdsource, I’d love to see them. Click To Tweet

Outline of This Episode

[3:45] The Equifax data breach
[5:58] Kevin has a question about target-date funds
[12:15] What can a mullet teach us about portfolio distribution?

How can this episode put an extra $125 in your pocket?

In 2017 Equifax announced that it breached the data from 147 million people. The credit monitoring company reached a settlement and has agreed to pay up to $425 million to those affected by the breach. They have offered up to $125 to those affected or free credit monitoring for up to ten years. My name was on the list so I took the 90 seconds to fill out the claim. I’ll let you all know how it goes. Have you looked up your name on the Equifax settlement list?

Have you looked up your name on the Equifax settlement list? Click To Tweet

Target date funds: Set it and Forget it!

With a target-date fund, you can set it and forget it. This means you can set up the fund and then you don’t really have to think about it for years. The target date fund will automatically rebalance you from stock heavy allocations into a more balanced allocation as you reach retirement age. Target date funds are great for the accumulation phase of retirement planning but they aren’t the best for the decumulation phase of retirement. Accumulation is where you grow your nest egg and decumulation is where you spend your nest egg. Do you have target-date funds in your portfolio?

Target date funds and portfolio withdraws

Kevin asks: if the market drops 10% then selling a balanced fund is selling a balanced stock, right? The answer is yes. And this is exactly what we want to avoid when the market is down.

In retirement, we need to be much more tactical with the funds that we sell every month. We will rebalance, but not as frequently as we take money out. As you take money out each month you won’t rebalance each month, rather only once or twice a year. You’ll need to have anywhere from 6 months to 2 years of cash on hand. The longer you can last without rebalancing the better your compound interest will be. Find out what tactics to use in different markets by listening to this episode of Retirement Starts Today.

The mullet is the perfect haircut for portfolio distributions. Spend the front, grow the back. Click To Tweet

What can you learn about portfolio distribution from the infamous mullet haircut?

How can we remember taking the proper way to rebalance our portfolios? Do you remember the infamous 80’s haircut, the mullet? You know business up front, party in the back. The same thing works for rebalancing. The well-groomed business end of your portfolio is the front end, cash, treasuries, corporate and international bonds, maybe even some real estate trusts. In the back is the party, growth stocks, international equities, microcaps. You can really let your hair down with the back end of your portfolio. Spend the front, grow the back. The mullet is the perfect haircut for portfolio distributions.