patrick.net

Pretty diversified although it won't save a substantial loss on a real general recession/downturn unless you have short hedges. Most people don't so that's alright to be at least diversified. Maybe ratchet up Basic Materials, hogs/fertilizers, energy and healthcare (unless Dems win) once you see a recession coming closer. Definitely good to keep some precious metals for that. Maybe some crypto but not too much. Bonds are good but low interest policies are here to stay so the returns will be paltry but safe.

I usually don't pitch but I have a true long/short hedge fund run by a friend netting around 10% per year, regardless of bull or bear market (I have been a client for ~10 years now). Of course during a steady decade-long run where index funds made you 15% per year it's a harder sell but as soon as the market goes sideways or down it's good to have some money in a fund that truly is both long and short (many hedge funds are long only outlets and not really hedge funds, they lose bug in recessions) and trades everything like my friends does from coffee, grains future to tech to healthcare plus options. Send me a message if you're interested and I can send you a link and more info.

• If the economy goes down and stays down, we're all doomed. You would want an aggressive short position during the crash and then a switch to hard assets afterwords. What you have above isn't going to give you that.

• If the economy goes down and then comes back up, the main goal is to have a few cash-like items to hold you over the 3 or 4 years you'll need to wait for the rebound.
• 5 years of saving on paying that fee would give you some cash you need to hold you over for a rebound after a crash.
• Buy yourself some 2-year and 5-year government bonds to also hold you over in the downturn. Sure, they don't pay any meaningful interest, but when they mature you get your money back and can pay your living expenses.

I question a 0.79% fee. Is that an annual "management" fee as a percentage of your total account worth? That's a substantial cost in the long term.
Here's what Motley Fool says:
https://www.fool.com/retirement/costs-of-an-ira-account-fees-you-should-minimize.aspx

I would 1. not pay 0.79% management fee. Check out Vanguard and also some Zero funds at Fidelity.

2. I like capital appreciation USA and small % international stocks; I don't know your age but avoiding a downdraft is not your goal until you are retired; capital appreciation is.

3. Consider that your Social Security will be like a bond allocation. So, $2000/month x12=24,000/0.05=$ 480,000=value of your "virtual bond fund/immediate annuity" from Social security.

4. "recession proof" is a description of all stocks today.

5. Vanguard had excellent funds managed by Primecap in Pasadena; they are now closed to new investors. But, you can buy funds directly from Primecap Odyssey. They are outstanding funds.

I'm 62 and actively looking for work. A few more years will add a nice cushion so we can take vacations and such.

I know the fees sound "high" - they are about half what Fisher would charge, but 2.5x what Vanguard would charge (but there are fund fees too, right?) I'm going to let them manage my stuff for a while and compare their performance. They really worked hard for my business, and their online tools for Retirement Planning, Net Worth Dashboard, etc. are excellent. I can see everything at a glance. Plus a free iPad and three months free of fees.

I got the sales pitch from PC last year. I’m not convinced by their equal sector weight approach. And they charge too much.

You didn’t say if the money is ira or something else. I use Wealthfront for my taxable portfolio, they charge way less (.25). Non tax I just have a boggleheads 4 fund (USA, USA bonds, international, and reit). Although if I had to do it again I’d just do the 4 fund for everything. The biggest danger to you not making money in the market is messing with it. A simple portfolio is set it and forget it + you won’t be paying .79 to have PC underperform.

Just re-read your title. This is an IRA. No way would I pay for management. You don’t need to worry about taxes so there’s really nothing fancy they can do for you. Even fancy hedge funds like mell has is just guessing which is why he’s been underperforming for the last 9 years. Just stick it in a bogglehead 3 or 4 fund and enjoy retirement.

Rocketjoe, a free iPad? I don't want to sound too snarky but you're paying thousands of bucks for it.

For full disclosure: I was once "in the business". I thought it would be cool but realized I couldn't stand a sales environment, etc. I learned a few things which were mostly a reaffirmation of my beliefs before I got in.

Some facts which may be useful; the managers of money are largely similar, it's sort of like pro sports; however once in awhile an amazing manager can show ability above the others.

The other fact is the fantastic managers do not charge the highest fees.

The reason Blackrock is growing so huge is that it is attracting smart investors who don't even believe a manager can do anything for their returns; most of the dough is invested in ETFs which are like Index funds.

The final fact is that the "financial advisers" are just skimming the cream from your net worth; 1% of $1 million is $10,000 per year just to be owning mutual funds.

I showed my father where he was paying Morgan Stanley in Boca Raton, FL $15,000 to own mutual funds. "Where is that???"

He had $1.5 million and in very small print they showed "1% annual fee charged quarterly"

The other fees were the mutual fund fees themselves which included a "12b-1" fee which went also to Morgan Stanley.

The finest money managers today are at Primecap in Pasadena; check out Primecap Odyssey and see their fees.

Other outstanding money managers are Wellington in Boston; they manage Vanguard Dividend Growth, Equity Income, Wellington, Wellesley Income.

Yet, the management fees charged by Wellington Management are not high.

You will be OK sending all your dough to : Vanguard, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, Dodge&Cox.

My father lived until he had an accident just before turning 96. He had income from social security, an annuity, and bond funds and the rest was invested for capital appreciation.

I once cut out an article from the Wall St. Journal about this "star financial adviser to the rich" who only takes people with $1million to invest ($10,000/year per person!)

"Hey, she uses a lot of the same funds as I have now that we transferred to Vanguard." He was a bit surprised.

"But you don't have to pay me $15,000"

Addendum to Rocketjoe:

I vote no; I looked at the CEO Linkedin

His profile reads like gobbledygook.

He is not an MBA, he has some degree from UC Santa Barbara "business economics"

The guys managing my money have MBA from 1. Harvard 2. Wharton 3. Stanford

He has learned that "wealth management" is a gold mine; trillions of dollars are in retirement accounts and he wants to skim some of it.

Agreed, Clambo - but Personal Capital does have people on staff that are knowledgeable, and take care of the customer. In this case, it was the online apps that won me over. They made it clear what our best options were. No other site, service, or person we talked to had the software needed to do projections into the detail we needed to make the right decision. And they counselors helped us clarify the analysis more precisely.

I could never have built out our portfolio as well as these guys did. I'm not a financial wizard and I've never traded an individual stock. So, to make the decisions and buy all the diversity they chose for me would have been impossible. I would have had analysis paralysis - for months. Now that it's all done, I can get the helicopter view and drill down however I like. Pretty cool. And I can override any decision they have made - if I think I'm smarter than trained pros.

What tools does everyone else use to manage their net worth?

Also, my son never finished his degree, yet he's very successful in business. MBA's aren't the only measure of success, especially in the digital world. Ask Bill Gates.