” The average stock market return is about 10% annually in the U.S. over time — but realistically, that figure varies widely from year to year, and it’s more like 6% to 7% when accounting for inflation. For context, it’s rare that the average stock market return is actually 10% in a given year. When looking at nearly 100 years of data, as of September 8, 2022, the yearly average stock market return was between 8% and 12% only eight times. In reality, stock market returns are typically much higher or much lower.” Source
Since gold has been mentioned, personally I’ve held small exposures to it through “thick and thin”. But more “thin” than thick. Nonetheless I remain optimistic. Folks are usually referring to p/m mining funds when they reference gold - albeit it is possible to buy ETFs that invest in the less volatile metal itself. Be aware gold funds have in the past declined by as much as 70% over shorter periods (3-4 years). How many small investors possess the fortitude to hold an asset like that when it’s in a downtrend?
Not promoting or discouraging gold. Just pointing out why you don’t hear a lot about it here. Hasn’t shined for at least a decade - few really good years over my 50+ years investing. Recently it has been hot. Friday alone my fund (OPGSX) and one mining stock I own were both up well over 3% on the day.

+1

+1 hank No etfs were available 50 years ago, as SPY was launched in January 1993 !

The permanent portfolio devised by Harry Browne in the 1980s. consists of an equal allocation of stocks, bonds, gold, and cash, or Treasury bills.
Michael Cuggino's Permanent Portfolio Fund (PRPFX) follows a similar strategy, investing "fixed percentages in gold, silver, Swiss Franc assets, stocks of real estate and natural resource companies, aggressive growth stocks, and US Treasury securities."

“ Did no one rtfs?”
I did a quick read of the advertisement / article. Was only allowed to access it once on M/W and was cut off from subsequent reading.
This did not seem to be written in any kind of objective manner. Those who read the WSJ, Barrons, fund reports and prospectuses are not accustomed to simplistic analysis (using words like “crazy, amazing, simple”). However, if you think the world of equities, bonds, commodities, previous metals, real estate, derivatives can be boiled down to a “simplistic” formula that even a 12-year old could grasp - than by all means study the author’s scheme and take away his suggestions.
Reading Level / Text Analyzer
If the intent of the writer is to emphasize the importance of diversification across asset classes and regular rebalancing, I agree. In the past I recall more discussion on this board and its predecessor about both of those issues. Threads like “How much do you allocate to commodities?” or “How frequently do you rebalance?” were quite common. Today, less is said of that for whatever reason.
Does the plan involve owning ETFs? How many were available to retail investors 50 years ago - the date from which the success of this plan is purportedly measured?
50 years is a long time if the author’s assessment is accurate. While past performance does not necessarily predict future performance, I’d think it entirely possible to generate a 9% annual return over very long time periods with a well diversified portfolio and annual rebalancing.
As I said, I no longer have the article / Ad to view, so am going here with what I rirst glimpsed.

"Neel Kashkari" wants 2% inflation target.
--- Wednesday, January 4
--- Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari said the US central bank has at least another percentage point of interest-rate increases to deliver in 2023 even as inflation, which he compared to Uber surge pricing, shows signs of slowing.
“It will be appropriate to continue to raise rates at least at the next few meetings until we are confident inflation has peaked,” Kashkari said in an essay published Wednesday on Medium.com.
“I have us pausing at 5.4%, but wherever that end point is, we won’t immediately know if it is high enough to bring inflation back down to 2% in a reasonable period of time,”
Catch says, "Good luck with that 2% thingy, and that not too many 'things' become broken during the journey to that place".
---Friday, January 6. There were so many data reports issued this week, that I would need to hire a 'staffer' to keep track. Read the current Bloomberg Real Yield thread for information. Anyhoo, the equity and bond markets were smiling at midday. Perhaps both markets are OD'd (over done) at this time. We'll find what holds, eh? Perhaps none of this matters right now; pending the vote on raising the government debt ceiling to keep the U.S. finances moving along.
-"Predicting the future is always a waste of time; but preparing for it, makes sense", Mark Okada-
Worth a view for your brain cells, the below, with Mark Okada.
Mark Okada, IG Bonds, Thursday, January 5, 8:38 minutes video
A sincere thank you to Devesh Shah @Devo for his fine write regarding TIPS, and VTIP, in particular; in the January commentary, to help us better understand another potential investment path. I've added VTIP to the bond performance list.
---Several selected bond funds returns since October 25, 2022. I'll retain this date, as it is a recent inflection point when bonds began to have positive price moves. We'll need to watch if this was just a 'blip'.
NOTE: I've kept the prior dated reports in the beginning of this thread; and have added YTD to this data.
For the WEEK/YTD, NAV price changes, January 2 - January 6, 2023
***** No love for short term issues this week.....
--- AGG = +2.2% / +2.2% (I-Shares Core bond etf) widely used bond benchmark, (AAA-BBB holdings)
--- MINT = +.25% / +.25% (PIMCO Enhanced short maturity, AAA-BBB rated)
--- SHY = +.43% / +.43% (UST 1-3 yr bills)
--- IEI = +1.4% / +1.4% (UST 3-7 yr notes/bonds)
--- IEF = +2.7% / +2.7% (UST 7-10 yr bonds)
--- TIP = +1.4% / +1.4% (UST Tips, 3-10 yrs duration, some 20+ yr duration)
--- VTIP = +.21% / +.21% (Vanguard Short-Term Infl-Prot Secs ETF)
--- STPZ = +.32% / +.32% (UST, short duration TIPs bonds, PIMCO)
--- LTPZ = +4.7% / +4.7% (UST, long duration TIPs bonds, PIMCO)
--- TLT = +5.6% / +5.6% (I shares 20+ Yr UST Bond
--- EDV = +7.5% / +7.5% (UST Vanguard extended duration bonds)
--- ZROZ = +8.3 / +8.3% (UST., AAA, long duration zero coupon bonds, PIMCO
--- TBT = -10.3% / -10.3% (ProShares UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury (about 23 holdings)
--- TMF = +17.2% / +17.2% (Direxion Daily 20+ Yr Trsy Bull 3X ETF (about a 3x version of EDV etf)
--- BAGIX = +1.77% / +1.77% (active managed, plain vanilla, high quality bond fund)
*** Other, for reference:
--- HYG = +2.6% / +2.6% (high yield bonds, proxy ETF)
--- LQD = +3% / +3% (corp. bonds, various quality)
--- FZDXX = 4.26% yield (7 day), Fidelity Premium MMKT fund
*** FZDXX yield was .11%, April,2022. The rate of rise in the yield remained flat again this week.

Comments and corrections, please.
Remain curious,
Catch

https://www.barrons.com/topics/mutual-funds-quarterly
(Performance data quoted in this Supplement are for 2022/Q4 and YTD to 12/31/22)
Pg L2: BOND and INCOME funds are back after a disastrous 2022 in which the FED hiked rates rapidly. The Fed isn’t done yet and there may be a recession, so stick to quality short/intermediate-term funds (core, corporates, munis, convertibles/preferreds). Mentioned are ABNDX, AGG, BND, DFCF, DFNM, MDNLX, MUB, PFF, PPSIX, SBFMX, SHY, SLQD, SPTI, VCSH.
Pg L5: ESG funds struggled in 2022 as they missed the boat on energy and defense, while growth and tech stocks sank. Criticisms of the ESG grew and several states banned then from state funds. Inclusive/relative-ESG funds did better than exclusionary/absolute-ESG funds. Still, there were inflows into the ESG funds vs outflows from general funds. A Morningstar study of the ESG funds with 15-yr history found that 44/69 funds outperformed their peers and a list of 10 such funds follow (M* owns the ESG rating firm Sustainalytics): BOSOX, CLDAX, CSIEX, FIW, MMDEX, PARWX, PHO, PIO, PRBLX, VCSOX.
Pg L7: Investors started venturing into stock funds in 2022/Q4 with blend and value (IVV, SPYV, etc) outperforming growth; energy was a partial explanation. Foreign funds rebounded (CIVVX, FIVLX, OAKIX, PRESX, TRIGX, etc); weaker dollar was a partial explanation. Several funds had strong outflows (and high yearend CG distributions; FCNTX, TRBCX, etc); some of the outflows went into the ETFs in the categories (and into the related CITs). Inflow champions were IVV, VTI. Tesla/TSLA sank several previous highflyers (BPTRX, BFGFX, FSCPX, VCR, XLY, etc). Alternatives funds (PQTAX, etc) couldn’t play good offense in Q4 after playing good defense previously. Among the bond funds, HY had inflows (HYG, etc) while TIPS had outflows. (By @LewisBraham at MFO)
Pg 10 (Fits better here): Cathie WOOD’s ARKK fell -67% in 2022 but she is mostly sticking with her convictions (EXAS, ROKU, SQ, TDOC, TSLA, ZM, etc). She believes that her holdings in innovative technologies will bounce back. She thinks that the US has been in recession since early-2022 and the Fed is overtightening. There is also a short-ARKK ETF SARK.
Pg L33: In 2022/Q4 (SP500 +7.37%): Among general equity funds, the best were LC-value +12.80%, multi-cap-value +12.63%, MC-value +12.39%, SC-value +12.01%, and the worst were multi-cap-growth +1.82%; ALL general equity categories were positive. Among other equity funds, the best were natural resources +19.76%, Europe +19.66%, international multi-cap-value +19.08%, and the worst were sc & tech +1.76%, real estate +3.44%; ALL “other equity” except short funds were positive. Among fixed-income funds, domestic long-term FI +2.03%, world income +5.71%; ALL FI categories were positive too (FI isn’t very refined in Lipper mutual fund categories listed in Barron’s). So, a good Q4, but still a bad 2022.
LINK

+1.

Doug Ramsey is the Leuthold manager. Dave Ramsey is the arrogant theocratic investment adviser who tells his clients to invest in growth stock mutual funds returning 12% chosen by his Endorsed Local Providers who of course charge their own management fees. Also, if you can't invest for retirement and tithe at the same time, just make sure you don't stop tithing !

I think this approach makes more sense than relying only on an index of "clean energy companies" that by definition excludes any firm that is not exclusively in solar, wind, geothermal etc
Fossil Free Funds does not exclude sizeable utilities that use fossil fuels so long as that accounts for a minority of their revenue:

[Fossil Free Funds does not exclude] utilities that have fossil fuel operations but meet the criteria for inclusion on our Clean200 screen - USD revenue of at least $1 billion, and over 50% of total revenues are from green sources

https://fossilfreefunds.org/how-it-works

FRNW has virtually the same carbon footprint as ICLN: 354 vs 358. Still off the chart.
https://fossilfreefunds.org/fund/fidelity-clean-energy-etf/FRNW/carbon-footprint/FS0000GZWZ/F00001AEZV
FRNW does invest a smaller percentage of its portfolio in fossil fuel-burning utilities, so it does score better by that metric than ICLN.
A significant part of a company's business can be "clean" while the company overall is still a bad actor. If decarbonization is your focus, then it may be better to look at a company's overall carbon footprint than to give it a good grade because part of the company is "clean".

@Sven
Not to mislead you or anyone else and to be fair to the Utah 529; my initial link was directly mostly to the Vanguard choices, as this was the conversation company in this thread. Utah has a full line of choices, which by law; may be adjusted 2 times in a calendar year.
An overview of the other plan choices.

Other Vanguard 529 funds in other states have a decent exposure to developed and emerging markets in both stocks and bonds.
The LifeStrategy series of funds are constructed the same. For example, LifeStrategy Moderate Growth, VSMGX, is consisted of 37% Total stock market index, 25% Tot int’l market index, 27% Total bond index, and 12% Tot int’l bond index. https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-funds/profile/vsmgx#performance-fees
Last year this 60/40 global allocation fund lost 16%! So the MarketWatch article is puzzling that 50/50 allocation is better. Also I cannot locate the original source of the information in Vanguard site.

Market fell over 1% today due to fear of more rate hikes in coming months.

But gained better than 2% today. Fed seems to be trying to splash cold water on the rally of late. But few appear to be listening.
Gold’s closing in on $1900 - highest level in at least a year. Silver’s much more erratic, but running hotter overall. Dollar’s been sliding against some foreign currencies for couple months now - but not in a straight line. EM has turned up as of late. Bonds (investment grade) have been scalding hot this week. If you were “on the fence” a week or two ago you’ve missed a good portion of the bond rally.
Recent Article Re The Fed: https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-market-crash-fed-interest-rate-cuts-december-meeting-minutes-2023-1

FRNW has a similar mix of sectors as ICLN, minus Con Ed, plus a healthy dose of Hong Kong. It's only been around a few years. So it's entire track record is in the red.
More info from etf.com:

FRNW provides exposure to the global clean energy industry utilizing an ESG overlay. The fund specifically includes developed and emerging markets firms of any size that generate at least 50% of their revenue from one or more of the following business activities: clean energy distribution, clean energy equipment manufacturing, and clean energy technology. Eligible companies are initially assigned with ‘thematic relevancy scores’ based on a proprietary natural language processing algorithm—which identifies clean energy firms using keywords from publicly available company documents. Firms are then further screened for various ESG factors. The highest scored companies are selected for inclusion and are weighted by market-cap. The index rebalances quarterly.

That's good enough for a C from fossilfreefunds.

ICLN invests in global clean energy companies, which is defined as those involved in the biofuels, ethanol, geothermal, hydroelectric, solar, and wind industries. Aside from holding companies that produce energy through these means, ICLN also includes companies that develop technology and equipment used in the process. Selected by the index committee, the fund is weighted by market-cap and exposure score — subject to several constraints — and reconstituted semi-annually. Prior to April 19, 2021, the index followed a more narrow methodology.

Given the weight of utilities in both funds (56% and 52%), it's going to be hard to get good carbon grades. A plain old utility index, like VUIAX makes ICLN look like Mr. Clean.

Wolf Street has a very negative piece on Silvergate/SI - eroding capital base; huge withdrawals; regulators may be watching.
https://wolfstreet.com/2023/01/05/crypto-bank-silvergate-details-its-own-implosion-much-of-its-equity-capital-wiped-out-im-waiting-for-the-fdic-to-show-up/

@catch22,

Relative to bonds and no market support in 2022; a 50/50 mix of a broad based U.S. equity index and a broad based U.S. bond index had a combined total return of -16.32 % for 2022. The indexes I used are VITPX and VBMPX ,which are inside a 529 college account.

Does Vanguard really think 2023 will be vastly better than 2022 ? If you look at the chart carefully, the breakdown is global allocation and not US only. Nevertheless the risk profile may be somewhat different, but not a significant improvement as the MarketWatch article implied. In addition, many details were left out from Vanguard.
Do 529 funds have oversea exposure too? VITPX and VBMPX are US stock and bond index funds, respectively.

There are 200 million Muslims living in India, a nation of 1.4 billion people. Hinduism under Modi’s nationalist regime is increasingly being seen as the state religion. The unsettling reality is you can still have an authoritarian nationalist ruler who oppresses a minority but who is also democratically elected by the majority and that leader can be very popular with the majority. You end up with situations like this:
https://hrw.org/news/2022/10/07/india-surge-summary-punishments-muslims
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/05/19/opinions/indian-muslims-violence-hindu-nationalism-singh-abbas/index.html