How do I build an All Weather Portfolio?
If you want to build your own All Weather Portfolio but dont know where to start, dont worry. Heres a suggestion for comparable securities that you can invest in yourself (courtesy of Nasdaq.com):
- 30% Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI)
- 40% iShares 20+ Year Treasury ETF (TLT)
- 15% iShares 7 – 10 Year Treasury ETF (IEF)
- 7.5% SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD)
- 7.5% PowerShares DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund (DBC)
If you’ve never invested before and dont know how to actually buy the above shares, you’re in luck: There is a wealth of great, reliable brokers to help get you started building your portfolio.
My best advice for choosing a broker? Pick one of the big ones.
My suggestions:
- Vanguard (This is the one I use)
- Phone #: 877-662-7447
- T. Rowe Price
- Phone #: 800-225-5132
- TIAA
- Phone #: 800-842-2252
- Charles Schwab
- Phone #: 800-435-4000
BONUS: If you want my insights to a few great companies that provide great brokerage services, be sure to check out my video on how to choose a Roth IRA.
How to set up your All weather portfolio with brokers
You can easily sign up for these brokers by following seven really easy steps:
- Step 1: Go to the website for the brokerage of your choice.
- Step 2: Click on the Open an account button. Each of the above websites has one.
- Step 3: Start an application for an Individual brokerage account.
- Step 4: Enter information about yourself name, address, birth date, employer info, social security.
- Step 5: Set up an initial deposit by entering in your bank information. Some brokers require you to make a minimum deposit, so use a separate bank account in order to deposit money into the brokerage account.
- Step 6: Wait. The initial transfer will take anywhere from 3 to 7 days to complete. After that, youll get a notification via email or phone call telling you youre ready to invest.
- Step 7: Log in to your brokerage account and start investing in the above assets.
NOTE: The wording and order of the steps will vary from broker to broker but the steps are essentially the same. Youre also going to want to make sure you have your social security number, employer address, and bank info like account number and routing number available when you sign up, as theyll come in handy during the application process.
The application process can be as quick as 15 minutes. In the same time it would take to watch this weirdo tell you how much to charge your customers, you could set up a new brokerage account and start investing in your future.
If you have any questions about funds or trading, call up the numbers provided above. Theyll connect you with a fiduciary who works for the bank in order to give you the best advice and guidance they can.
Pro-tip: Automate your All Weather Portfolio
You can take your investing even further by automating the whole process so you can easily invest money each month when your paycheck arrives.
Automating your personal finances lets you know exactly how much you have to spend each month while setting aside any worries about paying the bills or investing consistently.
How does it work? Your money is sent exactly where it needs to go to pay utilities, your sub-savings account, your rent, whatever as soon as your paycheck shows up each month.
Check out Ramits video below to learn exactly how to set it up today.
How do I rebalance my All Weather Portfolio?
Dalio also suggests rebalancing this portfolio each year in order to maintain the original asset allocation.
If you want to know more about portfolio rebalancing, be sure to check out our article on how to rebalance a portfolio. To quickly recap, though, rebalancing your portfolio is the process of modifying your asset allocation as the amount of money in each investment fluctuates with the constantly changing market.
And it all boils down to one thing: Asset allocation. This is how much money you invest into certain asset classes in your portfolio, the major ones being stocks, bonds, and cash.
To rebalance your All Weather Portfolio, you just have to follow three super simple steps.
- Step 1: Find your target asset allocation.Remember the asset allocation for the All Weather Portfolio: 40% long-term bonds, 30% stocks, 15% intermediate-term bonds, 7.5% gold, and 7.5% commodities.Thats the goal asset allocation you should have when youre finished rebalancing.
- Step 2: Compare your portfolio to your asset allocation target.How has your portfolio changed since you last saw it? Which investments got bigger and which need pruning?If your stocks ballooned so now it takes up 50% of your portfolio, youre going to either prune it back or invest in your other assets to balance it out which brings us to:
- Step 3: Buy and/or sell shares to get your target asset allocation.To get your original asset allocation back in the above example, youre going to need to either invest more into the other assets OR sell your shares in stocks to go back to the All Weather Portfolios original mix.
Once its reverted back to your target asset allocation, congratulations! Youve successfully rebalanced your portfolio!
Always have money to invest in the All Weather Portfolio
The Scottish poet Robert Burns once wrote, The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry.
For all you nonformer English majors out there, that means you can have your whole life route planned out, but when life throws a wrench in your spokes everything can turn off-course.
The All Weather Portfolio was designed to get through the times when the market throws you off-course while making you money during stable ones and unless youre a billionaire hedge fund manager with a track record of predicting recessions, youre not going to be able to anticipate the next one.
The best thing YOU can do then is prepare for the worst. That starts with having the money to invest and spend even when the market falters.
