MY ASSET ALLOCATION MODEL FOR GROWTH & INCOME:

To be used when the market(s) are trading above the 200 DMA:
and, to manage your 401K. Do not buy company stock in your 401k.

Read: Need Cash? Stay Away From Your 401(k)

Thanks to the sweeping Pension Protection Act of 2006, employers must now allow workers to cash out their company stock within three years to diversify their 401(k) investments, and many employers now allow their employees to transfer out at any time.

+ Large Cap Stock Funds - Growth, Value and Blend: 10%
+ Mid Cap Stock Funds - Growth, Value and Blend: 5%
+ Small Cap Stock Funds - Growth, Value and Blend: 15%
+ International Stock & Bond Funds (Global): 15%
+ Long-Short Funds: 5%
+ Inverse Exchange Traded Funds: 5%
+ Intermediate-term Bond Funds: 10%
+ Short-term Bonds Funds: 10%
+ Managed Futures: 5%
+ Gold/Silver ETFs and Natural Resources Funds: 10%
+ Cash: 10%
Diversify by using Mutual Funds and/or Exchange Traded Funds

The ultimate buy-and-hold strategy from Paul Merriman

Over the last eighty years, small-cap stocks have been the best-performing size category of stocks. I got this data from Professor Ken French's Web site.

According to William Bernstein, in his book “The Intelligent Asset Allocator”:
1. The key to long-term success in the stock market lies in a coherent strategy for allocation among broad categories of assets, principally foreign and domestic stocks and bonds.
2. Asset allocation is the only factor affecting your investments that you can actually influence.
3. Nobody consistently calls the market, i.e. no one consistently times the ups and downs of the stock market.
4. "Market timing and stock or mutual fund picking are nearly impossible long-term. They are at best a distraction."
5. Asset allocation policy was 10 times as important as stock picking and market timing combined, according to two studies Gary Brinson did of 82 large pension funds in the late 1980s.

NOW READ:

• Asset allocation: Introduction
• A dynamic asset allocation strategy for do it yourself investor.
• Why asset allocation is important.
• “Fine Tuning Your Asset Allocation”
• Complex Simplicity from Roger
• Abu Dhabi Investment Authority
• Do alternative investments still make sense?