What would be "good" return on a diversified portfolio for the last 66 months? (mutual funds, investor)

[Montana Griz]

Given information:

Age of Investor is 82; retired now 20 yrs after working for 40 years.; debt free; all funeral exp prepaid; widowed and one heir who is the Living Trust recipient.

Portfolio composed of 43 instruments: (Mut Fds; Closed End Mut Fds; ETFs; REITs; Stocks.
.....and catagories are: (80% Equities; 4% Debt Instruments; 6% REITs; 2% MLPartnerships; 8% Cash)

Held by a "self-educated amateur investor"; not an active trader; did not sell anything in 1987 or 2008/2009; believe in patience and "Buy & Hold". Started investing (in a very small way in 1977.)
May make 3 or 4 "adjustments" per year to the total portfolio.

No pension of any kind...All income is from Soc Sec and "Interest & Distributions" --I take approx 4%/yr.

Total portfolio value has increased 69% from 1984 to present --.

Total return, per year, has averaged 16.29 % for the last 66 months (1/1/09)

QUESTION:......What should I do???.......I hope to be around for another 5 to 10 years

A/...Make no changes and just "keep-on-doing what I've been doing"

B/...Reduce my percentage of Equities from 80% down to 40%.

C/... Take the money from the Equity reduction and put it in Gov't securities of some type?

Thanks for any constructive comments, suggestions an opinions.

[stoutboy]

Seems to me like you have overcomplicated your portfolio. 43 instruments? Those MLPs are extremely complex. Do you understand how they work? If not, consider shedding them. I think you might benefit from seeking advice from someone like Rick Ferri:

Rick Ferri

[LordSquidworth]

Can't really give an opinion without knowing how much you have and how much you need at least. If you're account is really big, I'd stick with what you're doing.

[stoutboy]

Also, I'd suggest posting this at the Boglehead Forum. You can get some really spot on advice there.

[LordSquidworth]

Yes and no.

Boggleheads can be a little too Mutual Funds/Index Funds heavy. I haven't noticed much verse in everything else, and there's a lot more.




But probably better than city data in general, yes.

[Larry Siegel]

Probably best not to ask people of varying ability to analyze a 43-fund portfolio for free on the Internet.

I disagree on the MLPs, though. They're really just equities. With only 2% in them, the exact structure of the MLPs doesn't matter much.

The most important information is missing, which is the ratio of assets to annual expenditures.