So, I am 60 years old and pretty much retired. For many years I have been a “buy and hold” type investor, and an MF subscriber (Rule Breakers and Stock Advisor). Over the last few years, I’ve modified my strategy to not necessarily hold as long as MF typically advocates holding, as well as to do a lot more of my own due diligence. For the last year or so, I’ve been focusing on high growth companies, many of which are discussed on this board.
My investment results have improved significantly over the last few years. As a result, I find myself now in a position where I would still like to “grow” my net worth, but am becoming more concerned about looking to preserve the wealth I’ve accumulated. I feel pretty comfortable that, barring some unforeseen catastrophe, what I have accumulated up to now should last me the rest of my life so, realistically, growth is not an absolute necessity for me.
As a result, what I’ve been doing over the last several months is to put cash when I have it into index funds (small cap, large cap, and mid cap), and recently purchased shares of an index fund with a focus on dividends…my thought being that when this bull market cools off, reverses, or whatever, the income will, to a certain extent, balance things out.
I am not invested in bonds or bond funds, and I am reluctant to invest in them because of the insanely low rates of return. I know there are many on this board who steer clear of bonds including, as I understand it, Saul himself. But I also know that many “professionals” advocate having at least a certain percentage in them, especially if you are in my age group.
So, what I’m wondering, for whoever is inclined to chime in, is whether I should keep doing what I’m doing, ie- gradually segue from individual stocks to index funds and dividend paying funds so I can devote less time to individual stock picking- or preserve a percentage of my “wealth” by investing in bonds or bond funds. Thanks in advance!