Eating His Own Cooking: Our Columnist Details How He Invests His Portfolio
Today, I reveal all. Try to contain your excitement.
Readers often quiz me about how I invest my own money. But until now, I have been a little coy.
It isn't that I have anything to hide: I follow the same investment principles I encourage others to use. Rather, I have always worried that readers will duplicate my precise investment mix when, in fact, it doesn't make any sense for them, given their time horizon and tolerance for risk.
After almost a decade of writing this column, however, I figure it is time to loosen up -- and talk a little more about my own portfolio.
Counting accounts. In addition to helping various family members, I directly handle nine pools of money.
For starters, I have college funds for my two kids. My daughter is two years from college, so I am gradually moving her college account out of stock funds and into a short-term bond fund. In a few years, I will do the same for my son, who is six years from college.
INVESTING GUIDELINES
Here are four portfolio-building tips:
? Hold core positions in funds that track U.S. stocks, foreign stocks and high-quality bonds.
? Diversify further by adding smaller stakes in REITs, junk bonds and emerging markets.
? Favor low-cost funds, especially index funds.
? Set target portfolio percentages for each fund -- and rebalance back to these targets each year.
That leaves me with seven other accounts, where I am investing for the long haul. All seven accounts are invested entirely in mutual funds, mostly index funds. I think ordinary investors should avoid individual stocks, partly because it's so tough to pick the winners and partly because it's risky to have a sizable sum riding on a single company.
What are the seven accounts? There is my regular taxable account, my individual retirement account and both a money-purchase plan and a 401(k) plan at work. In addition, I manage three variable annuities, one each for my children and one for myself.
Surprised by the variable annuities? It is true that I am not exactly a fan, because the fees involved are often exorbitant. Indeed, I wouldn't buy a variable annuity unless it had rock-bottom annual expenses.
So why did I buy three of these turkeys? I purchased a variable annuity for myself because I was maxing out on both my IRA and my company retirement plans, and I wanted to sock away even more money on a tax-deferred basis.
Meanwhile, I opened variable annuities for my kids as a way of getting investment compounding on a grand scale. Think about it: My children are 50 years from retirement, which means they will get 50 years of tax-deferred growth. Yeah, I suspect they will remember their old man fondly.
Common ground. While I am happy to have all these accounts, it's a juggling act to maintain the right overall investment mix. To make things easier, I try to own three core holdings in all seven accounts. First, all include a total-stock-market index fund, thus locking in broad U.S. stock exposure at low cost.
Second, six of the seven accounts include a foreign-stock fund. (I would have a foreign-stock fund in the seventh account, but that isn't one of the investment options.) In each account, I typically target around 30% of the stock holdings for foreign stocks.
Third, all seven accounts include at least a modest investment in bonds or a stable-value fund, which provides a healthy yield while maintaining a steady share price. History tells us that a mix of 90% stocks and 10% high-quality bonds has generated roughly the same return as an all-stock portfolio, but with somewhat less risk.
How can the 90-10 mix match the all-stock portfolio's results? It has to do with the rebalancing bonus. By regularly tweaking a portfolio to keep stocks at 90% and bonds at 10%, you slightly goose performance, because you are forced to sell stocks when they are riding high and buy when they are suffering.
Taking my cues from that insight, I keep 10% of each kid's variable annuity in high-quality bonds. At age 41, I am more cautious with my own portfolio, earmarking 25% for bonds.
Fringe players. While I endeavor to own a total-stock-market index fund, a foreign-stock fund and a bond fund in all seven accounts, I also own other investments in each portfolio, depending on what options are on offer.
For instance, in my kids' variable annuities, I target 10% for real-estate investment trusts and 10% for high-yield junk bonds. Meanwhile, I own a small-company foreign-stock fund in my IRA and an emerging-markets stock fund in my taxable account.
With these other investments, my goal isn't to pick the next hot sector. Instead, I am looking for additional diversification, with a view to reducing risk and hopefully snagging an even larger rebalancing bonus.
For every fund in every account, I have a target percentage. Once a year, I aim to rebalance back to these targets. In doing so, I try to avoid selling investments in my taxable account, preferring instead to rebalance by directing new savings to underweighted areas.
Matters of principal. With just 25% in bonds, my portfolio might seem aggressive. But you have to look at the total picture.
As I see it, having a mortgage is like having a negative position in bonds. Suppose you have $200,000 in bonds, which means other people owe you money. But you also have $200,000 of mortgage debt, which means you owe money to others. Overall, I would contend that your net bond exposure is zero.
Thanks to years of extra-principal payments, I have less than $25,000 of mortgage debt. Thus, my net bond position is fairly large. In fact, despite my 75% stock allocation, I consider my overall finances to be relatively conservative, especially compared to more heavily indebted homeowners.
说一说我自己的投资组合
今天，我要把我的投资情况完全公诸于众。
读者们常常询问我个人的投资状况，不过以前我总是有所保留。
我并没有什么需要藏著掖著的东西，我也遵循那些我向其他人推荐的投资原则。让我一直担心的是，读者们可能会一样不差地照搬我的投资组合，而事实上，由于各人所处的时期不同、对风险的耐受力也不同，我的投资组合可能对于其他人而言毫无意义。
不过，在为这个专栏写了近10年的文章后，我觉得是时候向读者们说一说我的投资组合了。
投资帐户的数目
除了给家庭成员提供理财帮助外，我直接管理著9个投资帐户。
首先，我为我的两个孩子准备了大学基金。我的女儿再有两年就要上大学了，因此我正逐步将她大学帐户里的资金从股票基金中转移出来，放到短期债券基金上。我的儿子6年后也要上大学，再过几年我也要对他的大学帐户进行同样的操作。
其他7个帐户里面放著的是我的长期投资。所有7个帐户全部投资在共同基金上，其中多数是指数基金。我认为，普通投资者应该避免投资单只的股票，部分原因是要找到能盈利的股票并非易事，另外，将大笔资金投入到单个公司中也颇具风险。
这7个帐户具体都是哪些呢？其中有我日常的应税帐户、个人退休帐户以及雇主提供的现金购买退休金计划和401K退休金计划。另外，我还管理著3份浮动年金，两个孩子每人一份，我自己一份。
我的浮动年金是否让你感到意外？我的确并不是特别喜欢浮动年金，原因是它涉及的费用过高。实际上，除非它每年的费用降到最低点，我一般是不会购买浮动年金的。
那么我为什么购买了三份浮动年金呢？我为自己购买浮动年金的原因是，我在个人退休帐户和公司提供的退休计划中的投资额度都达到了最大限度，而我又希望将更多的资金投入到延税帐户中。
同时，我为孩子们也购买了浮动年金，为的是使投资品种更为的丰富。想想看，我的孩子离退休还有50年的时间，这意味著他们能够享受50年的延税成长。是呀，我都怀疑孩子们到时候是否还会记得他们老爸的这番苦心。
投资帐户的共同点
虽然我对这些帐户都很满意，但要维持好所有的投资组合需要很高的技巧。为了让事情简单一些，我尽量保证所有7个帐户中都包含有3类核心的投资。首先，所有帐户中都包含有完全股市指数基金，这样就把投资美国股市的总体风险成本锁定在较低的水平。
其次，我的6个帐户中都包含了外国股票基金。（我原打算在第七个帐户中也加入外国股票基金，但该帐户不提供这样的投资选择。）在每个帐户中，我通常会把外国股票占股票总额的比例定在30%左右。
第三，所有7个帐户中至少都要有一项风险较低的债券投资或是稳定价值基金投资，它能在保证获得较好回报的同时，将股价维持在一个稳定的水平。历史告诉我们，如果投资组合中包含90%的股票和10%的优质债券，其产生的回报与纯股票的投资组合大致相同，而需承担的风险却更小。
为什么90-10这样的投资组合比例能够产生与纯股票投资相同的回报呢？这与平衡调整收益(rebalancing bonus)有关。通过定期调整投资组合比例，你往往会小有收益，原因是，为了保证股票90%、债券10%的比例，当股票价格上扬时，你将不得不卖出这些股票，而在其价格下挫时再行买进。
出于这种考虑，我将孩子们浮动年金中的优质债券比例定在10%。而我今年41岁了，需要更加谨慎地处理我自己的投资组合，因此我将自己投资组合中债券的比例定在了25%。
其他投资
我尽量使7个帐户中都包含有完全股市指数基金、外国股票基金和债券基金，此外我还根据每个帐户提供的投资选项来选择其他的投资。
比如，在我孩子的浮动年金帐户中，我将房地产投资信托基金的比例定在10%，并将高收益率的垃圾债券的比例也定在10%。同时，在我个人退休帐户中，我还加入了小型公司外国股票基金，在我的应税帐户中还有新兴市场股票基金。
我进行这些投资并不是因为我认为它们会成为日后的投资热点，我这样做是为了增加投资的分散性，降低风险，并希望因此获得更多的平衡调整收益。
对于每个帐户的每种基金，我都设立了一定的目标比例。我每年都会按照这些目标比例对帐户进行一次调整。在进行调整的时候，我会尽量避免卖出应税帐户里的投资品种，而将新的资金投向那些投资不足的领域。
本金问题
我投资帐户中债券的比例只有25%，这样的投资组合似乎比较冒进。不过，你还要看一看投资组合的全貌。
在我看来，抵押贷款相当于持有债券的负头寸。设想你持有200,000美元的债券，这表明别人欠你的钱，但你同时还有200,000美元的抵押贷款，说明你又欠了别人的钱，总地看来，我认为你持有的净债券头寸为零。
经过多年的还款，我的抵押贷款已经少于25,000美元了，这样，我的净债券头寸就相当地可观。事实上，虽然我有75%的投资是投在了股票上，我仍认为我的总体投资还是相对保守的，特别是和那些还背负著大量债务的房主们相比。
本文作者乔纳森?克莱门茨(Jonathan Clements)自1994年10月起一直在为《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal)个人理财专栏“Getting Going”撰稿。乔纳森出生在伦敦，毕业于剑桥大学(Cambridge University)伊曼纽尔学院(Emmanuel College)，在校期间曾编辑过学生报纸。在他1986年移居纽约之前，曾担任过伦敦Euromoney杂志的撰稿人和研究员。乔纳森在1990年1月加入《华尔街日报》，此前他曾在《福布斯》(Forbes)负责共同基金的报导。
