The Perfect Portfolio Doesn't Exist: 10 Reasonable Asset Allocations for US Military Investors #241
There is no perfect portfolio. A Bogleheads study looking back over 20 years found no diversified portfolio beat a similarly risky one by more than 1–2% per year — and that edge usually gets eaten up by advisory fees, behavioral errors, and poor tax management anyway.
Stop optimizing. Spencer Reese walks through 10 reasonable asset allocations for military service members, from the simplest set-and-forget option to the one he uses himself. The goal isn't the best portfolio — it's a low-cost, automated, diversified, and simple (LADS) portfolio you can hold through good times and bad, applied consistently across your TSP, Roth IRA, and taxable brokerage account.
The 10 portfolios:
- Lifecycle (L) fund — under 10 basis points, rebalanced automatically
- 100% global market cap weighted stocks — VT, or 48% C / 12% S / 40% I
- The Warren Buffett 90/10 — S&P 500 plus short-term government bonds
- Pure S&P 500 — 100% C fund, and what you give up
- The Simple Path to Wealth — JL Collins' total US stock market approach
- The 50/50 two-fund portfolio
- The Bogleheads three-fund portfolio
- The classic 60/40 — and how it maps to the 4% rule
- Rick Ferri's Core Four — three-fund plus a REIT
- Spencer's personal allocation — 60% US / 30% international / 10% bonds
Also covered:
- Why your asset allocation applies across every account, not fund by fund
- Fads worth avoiding: small cap value tilts, crypto, long-term bonds
- Why REITs belong in a Roth IRA, not a taxable account
- How Spencer shifted from 100% stocks to adding bonds after reaching financial independence
- Rebalancing: every two or three years is plenty
- "The enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan" — Clausewitz
Got value out of this episode? Send it to someone in your unit and leave us a five-star review on Spotify or Apple. It's the best way to help other service members find the show.
