As market grows and my 65/35 starts to creep closer to 70/30, I take my largest funds VOO and VDGIX and have dividends and cap gains go to cash, such as market we are in right now. When market falters, and equity portion goes lower, i reinvest.

@MikeW: I have been adding to ARTJX, which I bought after I sold OSMAX which I had for 5 years. I like Kanovich too, I think that much of the old portfolio has been sold if you can judge by the return ytd, my highest international performer so far this year.

For the week... VVPSX+2.96, FARNX +2.54, FSCCX+1.87, OAKIX+1.62. In total 20% of portfolio with the last 2 funds being 16% of portfolio.

FYI: ( While a couple of MFO Members who contribute little or nothing to MFO with a poor attempt of humor "Clean up in the condiment aisle" the Linkster's hard working staff searched to see which funds were major holders of KHC. That's why some of us lead and others follow. :) :) :)
Consumer foods giant Kraft Heinz (KHC) has taken quite a hit in the wake of its earnings announcement Thursday after the bell, which included news that the company was writing off $15.4 billion of the value of its brands and is facing a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of its accounting policies and controls. The stock was down 27.27% at $35.04 at 12:45 p.m. ET Friday, not far from its session low of $34.51.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, which had a 26.71% stake in Kraft Heinz at the end of 2018, looks like the biggest loser. But which mutual funds and ETFs are likely to feel the pain from the packaged food company’s sell-off? Click through to see a list from Morningstar Inc. of the 10 funds with the biggest stakes in the company.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.investmentnews.com/gallery/20190222/FREE/222009999/PH
1. Eagle Capital Growth
2. First Trust Consumer Staples AlphaDEX Fd
3. Gabelli Food of All Nations NextShares
4. WestEnd Advisors Large Cap Core Eq- UBS
5. FT AQA (R) Large-Cap 2
6. Frontier MFG Global Equity Institutional
7. Oppenheimer S&P Ultra Dividend Rev ETF
8. Frontier MFG Global Plus Fund
9. FT AQA (R) Large-Cap 1
10. Sims Total Return Fund
M* Funds Holding KHC: (Click On Ownership)
https://www.morningstar.com/stocks/xnas/khc/quote.html

Interesting question @Soupkitchen.
I've contemplated it-retirement, but at 65 I haven't pulled the trigger yet. But I have given plenty of thought to when I do. My thought for setting up withdrawals for when I do retire would be to have a cash bucket (MM, CD, maybe a short term bond fund) that held maybe 3 years of expenses needed. The rest of the pot would just be distributed in an overall risk-tolerant portfolio bucket. I've even thought about simplifying everything and just sticking the entire 'investment' bucket in a 60:40 robo (1/2 my savings are in one now and I've been satisfied so far). If done that way, the 2 bucket system, I would be more concerned about total return and not dividend income. But in saying that, it would probably be a good idea to have any income generated from the investment bucket not reinvested but go directly to that cash bucket to lessen the need for replenishment. In my case, the 3 year cash bucket would still need to be replenished periodically when markets are up. Investment income alone would not be enough to keep the cash bucket full.
Thanks for posting the question. I look forward to others responses.

Hey @MSF, thanks for the heads up that HNASX is managed by the same manager as TRLGX. I've been interested in the TRLGX but it has a $1M minimum. Looking to invest in either AKREX, TRBCX, BIAWX or this one for my large cap growth exposure. Any thoughts??

No brilliant insights here, I'm afraid. A nice thing about large cap growth is that there are a lot of good funds to choose from. It really depends on personal preference.
For example, all else being equal (which it never is), I try to keep expenses down, especially in large cap, so while many people like AKREX, it's not one on my list. They're all rather concentrated (40+% in top ten holdings) with AKREX "insanely" so (75%). On the other hand, to its credit, AKREX's top ten list isn't filled with all of the usual suspects. As a fund family, I like T. Rowe Price because it usually handles manager succession well.
My personal preferences run toward funds like the Primecap ones - more diversified (though that may mean less upside potential), still low cost, team managed (helps with succession), a bit less "growthy", a tad more international. But that's me. Everybody looks for different things and has different comfort levels and objectives.

So Mark Yockey is no longer the fund manager... He used to be pretty good manager until the drawdowns in 2000 and 2008. Also notice the ER has reduced to 1.38%, a bit lower than the previous 1.5%. International smaller caps had a hard time in 2018. OSMAX did better than most peers in that category if that is an indication of risk.

For the week the three best performing areas within my portfolio were found in commodities, emerging markets and a dividend payer. My funds held representing these areas were PCLAX +1.91% ... NEWFX +1.64% & DWGAX +1.59% ... and, SVAAX +1.26%. In comparison, the equally weighted S&P 500 Index fund VADAX, that I sometimes use for equity ballast, was +0.70% for the week.
Linked below are the Lipper Indexes. You can view to find the leaders.
http://www.barrons.com/mdc/public/page/9_3020-lipperindx.html
Wondering what worked best for you?
Have a good weekend.
Old_Skeet

FYI: For decades, Wall Street has claimed that professional investors are “the smart money” and individuals “the dumb money.” That’s been one of the most cynically lucrative propaganda campaigns in history, with billions of dollars in fees and commissions flowing to people who didn’t turn out to be smart at all.
Investors on Main Street are nowhere near as naive as Wall Street has long contended. That’s the finding of recent research that casts new doubt on the distinction between smart and dumb money.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.wsj.com/articles/wall-street-has-it-wrong-youre-a-smart-investor-11550851234

FYI: Charles Shriver earned his college degree in economics and rhetoric, otherwise known as the art of persuasive speaking. You win by “lining up your facts,” says Shriver, who runs about $40 billion across several portfolios at T. Rowe Price .
The facts line up well in Shriver’s case. Both the $4 billion T. Rowe Price Balanced fund (ticker: RPBAX) and the $2 billion T. Rowe Price Personal Strategy Growth fund (TRSGX) beat their respective Morningstar-assigned benchmarks and at least 85% of peer funds over the past three years through January. The more conservative Balanced fund returned 9.4% annually in that span, while the more aggressive Personal Strategy Growth returned 11.4% a year.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.barrons.com/articles/reits-amazon-com-and-other-pockets-of-growth-51550880847?mod=hp_DAY_5

FYI: Market volatility is commonplace. Interest rates, which a few months ago seemed certain to rise, now look likely to remain flat or possibly decline. The chances of an economic slowdown in the U.S. and overseas are high. So it’s tempting to follow the S&P 500, our own portfolios, and investment opportunities the way some of us check the weather—constantly and doggedly.
Online discount brokerage firms are happy to accommodate. They provide mobile apps that let customers monitor, analyze, and trade, often with the same speed, ease, and completeness as a desktop, and with complete interoperability. Live video and television feeds are now ubiquitous on desktop and mobile. A few brokerage firms have even begun to furnish information and research via Alexa and Siri. One, TD Ameritrade Holding (ticker: AMTD), recently added the ability to trade through Amazon Echo.
How They Stack Up
Regards,
Ted
https://www.barrons.com/articles/who-are-2019s-best-online-brokers-51550882807?mod=hp_DAY_2

FYI: For decades, Mario Gabelli, one of the premier investors of our age. has regaled the Barron’s Roundtable with his insights, wit, and banter.
Gabelli, however, has been reticent about the funds he holds himself, both of the open- and closed-end varieties. But a perusal of public records shows that he personally owns significant stakes in several closed-end offerings of his Gabelli Funds. Indeed, in some cases, he’s the biggest shareholder. And his largest investments are an interesting and eclectic mix.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.barrons.com/articles/what-gabelli-funds-does-mario-buy-51550858564?mod=hp_DAY_5

FYI: Kraft Heinz stock (KHC) was down more than 27% on Friday after the company took a $15 billion asset write down, cut its dividend, and disclosed a regulatory probe into its procurement and accounting practices. The stock was downgraded by five Wall Street analysts, too.
That’s a bad day.
Some big names have been caught up in the Kraft vortex, including Warren Buffett and private-equity firm 3G Capital. But one fund manager steered clear of this week’s Kraft Heinz bloodbath: Nuveen Asset Management. Nuveen avoided the decline for a unique reason: It shunned Kraft Heinz stock because the company has weak scores in ESG, the sustainable investing philosophy that looks at, and is short for, environmental, social, and governance metrics. Kraft Heinz isn’t the only high profile stock debacle Nuveen has managed to avoid. Nuveen’s ESG philosophy should give investors something to think about when assessing corporate risk in the future.
Nuveen offers a few exchanged traded funds for U.S. investors, including the NuShares ESG Large-Cap Growth Fund (NULG) and NuShares ESG Large-Cap Value Fund (NULV). In those funds, Nuveen only invests in companies that are in the upper half of a sector based on Nuveen’s ESG scoring.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.barrons.com/articles/esg-nuveen-asset-management-kraft-heinz-stock-51550862080?mod=djem_b_Weekly barrons_daily_newsletter

@Sven you are right and there are some people going around to get rid of that minimal FDA oversight as well. Regulations are there to protect the public but companies have money to buy politicians. As long as we have corporate money in politics, needs of the public becomes secondary.
Anyway, steering back to topic. I used to think 50 US/50 International portfolio was an appropriate one and some people were even suggesting a larger percentage for international. I think with the exposure of US companies in international markets, I would consider 60/40 a reasonable portfolio.

Yes this is a simple portfolio but Maximum drawdown should give an investor an idea of how much they can stand to lose. A lot of people have much less loss tolerance than they imagine probably because they have no idea what to expect. They are surprised and they quit the market losing the recovery.
After 2008 crash which was pretty bad, a 40 stock/60% short term bond portfolio recovered in about 2 years (assuming re-balancing). But that portfolio has a maximum draw down around 20-25%.

MikeW: Checked buy at Schwab, 5 million $ !!!
Derf

(1) ... but we don’t even talk about recent buys or sells anymore.... “
(2) “... can’t we play in the sandbox a little nicer?”

Thanks for the comments @Graust. I won’t even try to defend the politics that seeps in. It’s indefensible - but also hard to avoid in the current political climate.
(1) As to fewer trades, I’ve noticed it too. Couple thoughts: The group of perhaps 25-35 regulars who post often are growing older and more conservative. Heck, I can think of 2 or 3 who’ve gotten out of the market completely in the past six months. They still have a great deal to offer here - but trading funds isn’t where they are anymore. Other oldsters like myself are still investing in the market, but trading a lot less as a means of reducing risk. My most aggressive holdings nowadays tend to be balanced funds (the more boring the better). And I’ve stopped making speculative bets on beaten-up sectors because there’s a very real chance I wouldn’t live long enough to see them come to fruition.
Another factor - We’ve just experienced a 10-20% stock market correction (depending on the index). That experience has, I think, dulled the “animal spirits” a bit. Folks after something like that become more risk averse for a while afterwards. That may be another reason why there’s less talk about buying / selling than 6 months or a year ago. There are some nice exceptions. @Puddenhead posts occasionally about trading for quick profits. I always enjoy his “longneck” ramblings. And @Old_Skeet does a real nice job weekly dissecting his approach and telling you which sectors he likes or dislikes and why. Lest I forget, @MikeM too is always looking for an edge and mentions his buys / sells from time to time. No doubt there are others I’m omitting. Apologies to them.
(2) Re the sandbox - Unfortunately, it just takes one child peeing in it and throwing sand to ruin it for everyone.

Was curious if anyone had done some due diligence on this fund. I've been running the numbers on MFO Premium and its risk adjusted performance is impressive over the 1, 3, and 5 year time frames. Also held up well in the October-December selloff. It looks like a winner to me. Top performer in International Growth category and available for no load at Schwab. Looking to add this fund as well as ARTJX as my new international holdings.

I've also never heard of buying a mutual fund at a discount unless like @JoJo26 implied, you are saying you don't have to pay loads on A-shares for certain families. If so, that is not unique. A share loads are waved at many brokerages like Schwab, probably Fidelity and probably others.

Yep, Fidelity too. Just from my experience, frequently looking up A shares there, I'd rough-guesstimate something like 3/4 of commonly held/traded A shares are load waived. As far as ETFs go, there's a long list that don't even charge the usual $4.95 commission on exchange-traded products.
OS's note that "under certain circumstance load funds can be purchased at discounts; and, in some cases at nav" apparently refers to partial to fully waived loads on load shares. Unless there are some very rare outliers, there's no such thing as a partial load waiver on A shares at Fidelity, and I assume Schwab.
Whatever broker Skeet's working with now, it sounds like a migration to Fidelity or Schwab would do him a world of good. That's the takeaway I get from this thread.

We're just looking out for you @Old_Skeet. It seriously sounds like you're paying a lot of fees that are not necessary whether it be wraps, loads, advisory, etc. IMO, if you can't simply determine what you're paying in total fees, then you're likely paying too much.

I've also never heard of buying a mutual fund at a discount unless like @JoJo26 implied, you are saying you don't have to pay loads on A-shares for certain families. If so, that is not unique. A share loads are waved at many brokerages like Schwab, probably Fidelity and probably others.

Yep, Fidelity too. Just from my experience, frequently looking up A shares there, I'd rough-guesstimate something like 3/4 of commonly held/traded A shares are load waived. As far as ETFs go, there's a long list that don't even charge the usual $4.95 commission on exchange-traded products.
OS's note that "under certain circumstance load funds can be purchased at discounts; and, in some cases at nav" apparently refers to partial to fully waived loads on load shares. Unless there are some very rare outliers, there's no such thing as a partial load waiver on A shares at Fidelity, and I assume Schwab.
Whatever broker Skeet's working with now, it sounds like a migration to Fidelity or Schwab would do him a world of good. That's the takeaway I get from this thread.