olympicpeninsula

The Shallowest Generation

While many excellent points are made, I take exception to the fact that 1) the author tries to tar all us boomers with the same brush and 2) he ignores the - for want of a better term - the class war of the past 28 years that has ravaged the better-off working class we call the "middle class." I, for one (and all my circle of family and friends), lived within my means, dutifully paid off my 30 year fixed rate mortgage, did not use my home as a piggy bank (nor flip it when the market price became temptingly ridiculous), saved 8% each year dutifully in my 401K and IRA, and lived a life of service and responsibility to my community. And yes, I feel that rage of seeing my hard-earned dollars bailing out those who sucked profits from my sweat and the seat of millions like me.
On the second point, while, yes, many blithely used their credit cards and home equity to live beyond their means, just as many, and I suspect more, did so out of sheer necessity, as their wages failed to keep up with prices (or productivity for that matter) and millions of good-paying manufacturing jobs were off-shored to exploit cheaper labor - or as their health insurance was lost due to loss of job due to the very illness that bankrupted them to pay medical bills. A transfer of wealth of monumental proportions happened, and the beneficiares - however deservedly - were to a large extent the Greatest Generation whose Social Security and Medicare came to a higher percentage of my income than I was able to save for myself.
When labor was granted a fairer share of the wealth it created from the late 40's through 60's (thanks in great part to the labor movement), our economy thrived and savings were healthy. The so-called neo-liberal Thatcher-Reagan Washington Consensus of smoke-and-mirrors debt-propelled prosperity that gutted the middle class of this country is equally at fault.
When you point your finger, free-market capitalist, there are three fingers pointing back at yourself.

A Lazy ETF Portfolio Underweighting the U.S.

I agree with adding PCY, some FRN, PSP, and PFP. One can make a case for GLD as a subset of the commodities allocation, since gold is not only a commodity. Also, there's evidence that annual rebalancing is far more effective than monthly rebalancing (check out PIMCO website for article making case for commodities in portfolios to reduce overall portfolio risk - apparently monthly rebalancing greatly diminishes the effectiveness of this allocation strategy). I rebalance bi-annually, with good results.