Simple Asset Allocation Yardstick

Generally, a portfolio should consist of more classes than merely US stocks and US bonds, but it is nonetheless interesting to keep tabs on how various allocations between those two classes are working out.

The table shows the YTD total return and trailing yield of eleven allocations between the Russell 3000 stock index and the Lehman Aggregate Bonds index.

So far this year, only bonds are positive, and not much at that.

The typical 60/40 allocation of stocks and bonds in US balanced funds is down 7.67%, and yields just over 3%.

Note that total return includes dividends received.

We provide return information on a variety of funds by type on our site.  You can access them here.

One of those charts, shown below, presents returns for several important asset classes.  The charts are updated weekly in the evening after the last trading day.

[click to enlarge]