Vanguard Wellesley Income Fund

[Ad Orientem]

VWIAX, once upon a time this was much discussed as one of the few managed funds that might be worth a look for those seeking one stop shopping. MediumTex opined that with a 10% allocation to gold it was likely to hold up well in any reasonably foreseeable scenario. As of 03-05-2020 it is up about .6% for the year. Not bad given the general state of the markets.

[drumminj]

Right now my savings is roughly 75% PP(4 x 25) and 25% VWIAX.

I'm not convinced it's best for me from a tax perspective, but overall I've been happy with my choice to diversify strategy/holdings a bit.

[mathjak107]

the fidelity insight income model ( 25%) equity is up .36% ytd ..

while i like wellesly , if i want to be conservative i prefer the insight income model and if i want more aggressive i prefer the 50-60% equity growth and income model .

while wellesly is a fine fund for retirees it is kind of in that no mans land for my investment taste. to conservative when i want to be a bit more aggressive and not conservative enough when i want to be more protective .

i also have the option of splitting the funds between them for different goals or outlooks .so i find it more flexible than wellesly.

[KevinW]

Yes it's a good conservative fund, especially for people that want a single-fund portfolio.

[I Shrugged]

As of yesterday it was dead nuts even for the year. That is good in my book.

[Kevin K.]

I've followed Wellesley closely for years and of course greatly admire its track record but wanted to share this post by the excellent personal finance writer Darrow Kirkpatrick about Wellesley over the years (it's a major part of his portfolio). I'll post a link to the whole post so you can see his comments abou W in context:

https://www.caniretireyet.com/investmen ... olio-2020/

A few years ago I read an in-depth analysis of the fund that said that its "secret sauce" (Alpha) over its many decades has to do with the skill its managers have had in picking corporate bonds more than anything else. Not sure if that's true but it does make sense to me - as does Kirkpatrick's leeriness of the fund's active management of late. Personally I'd just go with a https://portfoliocharts.com/portfolio/larry-portfolio/ or even Vanguard's LifeStrategy Conservative Growth if I were tempted to do anything other than the PP or GB. YMMV

[Ad Orientem]

VTI YTD 15.65%
VWIAX YTD 4.35%