The one thing scratching at the back of my head is the lack of International exposure...which lead to this overlapping mess of equally weighted lazy portfolios once I add Bill Bernstein's "No Brainer Portfolio (4xUS,Intl, Small cap,Cash):
Gold + LTT + US Stock + Cash + Small Cap Value + International Stock
- Gold + LTT + US Stock + Cash
- Gold + LTT + US Stock + Cash + Small Cap Value
- xxxxxxxxxxx US Stock + Cash + Small Cap Value + International Stock
It does a few things things for us:
1) It pushes the stock allocation up to 50% which really should be higher given our mid-40's age, but we are both tempermentally conservative.
2) It adds explicit international exposure, which I think is a good diversification play even if the back testing doesn't really play out
3) It pushes the "niche" investments of LTT's and Gold down to 15% of the overall portfolio.
As noted above, our gameplan is to build up the Golden Butterfly at first, then any extra money will start buying the intl stocks. The timing works well because we'd be adding the more volatile investments after I've vested into my State pension so we'll have more "in the bank" at that time.
But, truth be told, I'm just an architect so I'm most likely winging it on the symmetry of the numbers and a lifetime of living in a base-12 profession.
In any case, I be curious what y'all think of this "trivial pursuit" pie. Cheers!