Asset Allocatioin for multiple accounts? (IRA, fund, trading, 401k)

[darrell2525]

Hello,

Is having one asset allocation (AA) across multiple accounts a must?

Me and the wife have 401Ks. Her accounts have index funds and mine as well. But her has the extended total stock market index and mine only the S&P500.

Its just too much hassle every year having to re balance both accounts as 1 AA

Is there something wrong with just having our AA of 80/20 set in each account and call it a day?? I will choose index funds for each account anyway. This will be soooo much easier for me and thinking on me and I can let the 401K system re balance each year automatically.

I don't see a problem with it, just wanted to check with more experienced first

Thanks,

[mathjak107]

my wife and i run 2 different model portfolios but we do them combined.

we run both the income and capital preservation model from fidelity insight and the growth and income model.

between the 2 of us we combine all our assets to make up the 2 portfolios. we don't break it down any particular way .whatever we need one of us will buy.
individually i don't think either of us own a complete model of anything.

[darrell2525]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

my wife and i run 2 different model portfolios but we do them combined.

we run both the income and capital preservation model from fidelity insight and the growth and income model.

between the 2 of us we combine all our assets to make up the 2 portfolios. we don't break it down any particular way .whatever we need one of us will buy.

Thanks, I will do the same. Just combine as one.

Do you know how to find the return accross multiple accounts?

I have the following:

his 401k
her 401k
his IRA

I am thinking I can just use the Change In Value.

[mathjak107]

it is a pain to start figuring. i just use fidelity and it does all the cmputations.

[icicles]

The return is (initial investment balance - Ending investment balance)/initial investment balance

you can add whatever accounts up that you want.

If you want to figure it out over multiple years, an excel spreadsheet is the easiest.

[mathjak107]

be careful of overlap though. having an extended market fund is not much different than just owning an s&p 500 fund so don't own both.

many fund families like fidelity will have funds with considerable overlap.

that is where i find subscribing to a newsletter is very helpful. they make it their business to know what the funds hold so they can try to avoid getting duplicate coverage.

it isn't to say it can't happen but usually if the funds objectives are different enough the holdings are different enough.

[darrell2525]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

be careful of overlap though. having an extended market fund is not much different than just owning an s&p 500 fund so don't own both.

many fund families like fidelity will have funds with considerable overlap.

that is where i find subscribing to a newsletter is very helpful. they make it their business to know what the funds hold so they can try to avoid getting duplicate coverage.

it isn't to say it can't happen but usually if the funds objectives are different enough the holdings are different enough.

Anywhere I can see how fidelity insight newsletter do this year?

[mathjak107]

i don't know if this year is posted yet but i can give you the numbers. they run 5 model portfolios based on the risk and volatility you want.

for comparison s&p 500 index fund 31%.

unique opportunities model 37%
very volatile

the select model made up of various sector funds 38%

growth model which is a balance of volatility vs reward and not 100% equities 27%


growth and income model 27% , 60% equities

income model 3% very very conservative , lots of fixed income. beat most banks with out tying up money in cd's. can be slighly volatile.

[darrell2525]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

i don't know if this year is posted yet but i can give you the numbers. they run 5 model portfolios based on the risk and volatility you want.

for comparison s&p 500 index fund 31%.

unique opportunities model 37%
very volatile

the select model made up of various sector funds 38%

growth model which is a balance of volatility vs reward and not 100% equities 27%


growth and income model 27% , 60% equities

.

This is impressive.

What about activity? How often are you trading?

[mathjak107]

there is no real trading . maybe 2 x a year we swap a fund or two.