Looking for advice

I realize nobody has a crystal ball, BUT was looking for opinions.  Wife and I are 31.  Sock a good chunk of our salaries into 401ks as well as funding our IRA's.  Strictly invested in mutual funds in everything.  I only really look at performance about once a year, and usually rebalance, but rarely change much around, due to the time horizon ahead of me...

In my uneducated opinion, I don't see how the market continues  upward or even flat for the forseeable future.  I don't want to see upwards of 20-25% eroded from my savings, much like it did a few years ago.  I feel somewhat lucky that i have regained all of that in the most recent upswing over the last year or so.

Do I shift out of my aggressive growth into cash equivalents/bonds/etc?

Thanks in advance

Do I shift out of my aggressive growth into cash equivalents/bonds/etc?

personnally I would go pretty much to cash. there has been NOTHING done to rein in the rampent speculation by these "too big to fail" banks and brokerage firms which just sets up yet ANOTHER "financial crisis" sometime in the future. all that is needed is another spike in oil, which was the trigger for the LAST crash, and it's gonna be "look out below" once again.

If you want to go more conservative. Take a look at Pimco Total Return Fund.  It's bonds and whatever their strategy is it works no down years last 10 yrs no 2yr down period going back to the seventies.  Another good bond manager is Loomis Sayles Investment Grade. Average into these and overtime you'll get rich slowly but not take the huge losses.  Individual step up and floating rate bonds should do well here too if you have an open platform in your 401k JMHO.

I'm the same age as you and am extremely aggressive if I'm not wealthy by 45 then I'll change my strategy but we have time on are side and for me that means Biotechs, Small Caps, BRIC, and a ton of metal stocks.

BTW: How much money are we talking about?

pjrez,

Good for you brother most 31 year olds don't have any retirement money.  I ran a little calculator assuming you maxed out 401k for you and wife and retired in 30 yrs.  I used Pimco's average historical return. https://www.pimco-funds.com/ff_reports/Total%20Return%20Fund%20Administrative.pdf

After running this I may have to rething my strategy.  I'd be happy with 6.2mm in my 401k at 61

33k year would be awesome, but I assume that means you make 330,000 a year (between you an dyour wife)....you shouldnt have too much trouble saving money pulling in 1/3 mill per year.

Also, 7.92 is a pretty lofty rate imo

gl bro

Why would you need to make 330k to max out 401k's?  I've made as little as 80k and still maxed out my 401k.  I was saying 33k as 16.5k per spouse so even if they made 55k each they could put 30% in an maxout 401k.