Compare whatever you have vs a benchmark (VBIAX or your desired VYM/VCIT allocation). Many times a 10-30 fund portfolio will under perform over 5 year rolling periods. Choose your key metrics. That, in turn, may provide guidance how to think about this question.

Too much for me to digest tonight. But I trust ProPublica. On YouTube, I've run into a guy who runs a business geared for the ultra-wealthy. He helps them strategize about how to hide money from the tax man. It can get extreme. He mentions that there are countries around the world that SELL citizenship, for a donation into a "National Fund." Alternatively, you could buy and hold real estate for at least 5 years. Then, after 5 years, you could apply for citizenship there. (Until then, you're granted a 5-year "golden visa," residency permit.) St. Lucia. Vanuatu. Dominica. Granada. Trinidad & Tobago. Serbia. Montenegro. Portugal. Ireland. (Got that one covered.) Even Egypt.
This guy recently RENOUNCED his US citizenship. THAT will take care of the higher US tax in a big way..... He chose St. Lucia.

7 mutual funds. And just since yesterday, ONE single stock. I don't use buckets, but I do my best to cover large, small, foreign, domestic. Stocks. Bonds. (Currently: 40 stocks, 56 bonds. And 4 cash.)

China seems to think so.
As far as the list of “Assets for Protection Against Inflation”, proceed at your own risk. One might consider that there are shaper minds in the world than Ms, Peters who have already identified the potential and bid these assets up. Wish investing were as simple as opening a book and looking up “What to Buy” for any occasion that might present itself. Not to say these ideas won’t work - just that the game’s not as easy as it sounds nor the playing field as level as one might assume.
How about Katelyn Peters? Is she under any obligation not to invest in these areas first? Is she forbidden from sharing her list with her closest friends or family members before releasing it to the public?
#5 - S&P 500? Really? What a unique idea!
#10 - TIPS? In theory only. There’s been numerous articles in recent months attesting to their being wildly overbought. Some discussion here as well.

LOL - Wonder if 54321 would be better?
The “Speed of Light” would be cool. But how to express that in 4 digits?

@Mark,
A CIT is a Collective Investment Trust.
CITs may be available via some defined contribution plans [401(k), 457(b), etc.].
They are similar to mutual funds but have less reporting requirements and are not governed by the SEC.
CITs usually have lower expense ratios than corresponding mutual funds.
For example, I own MIEIX (0.70% er) in my 401(k).
When my 401(k) plan replaces MIEIX with a CIT "clone" on 07/01, it will have a 0.58% er.

Link

Thinking about the original question, I've tried to take a step back and reformulate the question a bit: what is a bond, and why would one own a bond (or in the aggregate a bond fund)?
From a business finance perspective, a bond is a way to raise cash without selling part of a company. Funds are characterized as bond funds if they hold these financial instruments; not if they behave like traditional bonds. This is an important distinction because it affects what we mean when we talk about bond funds.
From an investor perspective, a traditional IG bond is a way to get a better return than in a bank. In exchange, one takes on a modest amount of risk, some of which can be diversified away in a fund. IG bonds preserve nominal principal, though inflation gradually reduces their value over time.
One diverges (slightly) from this traditional perspective of bonds as pure income streams when one starts trading bonds in an attempt to increase total return. This began in the 70s, largely with Bill Gross and total return funds. These funds take on a measure of equity characteristics, especially as they add junk bonds. At this point, ISTM one is at the edge of crossing over from "bonds" to "allocation" funds, in behavior albeit not in name.
Moving on, multisector bond funds behave significantly like allocation funds. But because they're still bond funds from a finance perspective, people can feel good about eating their vegetables - investing in "bonds" while getting better returns.
Here's Portfolio Visualizer's correlation matrix of a "pure bond" (albeit leveraged) multisector fund PDIIX, a multisector fund with a 13% equity kicker RPSIX, and a rougly 40/60 allocation fund (disregarding cash) FTANX. The five year time frame I selected is the period covered by PDIIX's current management team including Ivascyn.
They're all pretty well correlated. Further, annualized standard deviations are quite close together, ranging from 5.62% to 5.84%. In terms of risk and performance these multisector funds feel like hybrid funds.
I do own a multisector fund (none of the funds here), but I expect it to behave like a hybrid fund. It's just another way for me to get that risk/reward profile.
To the extent that I use IG bond funds, they're there to serve as the last bastion before dipping into equities should stocks swoon for several years. On the short end, I use short/ultrashort funds as backup to pure cash - a bit more return in exchange not drawing upon them monthly in case of hiccups.
I've no bond funds for a traditional, widows and orphans, monthly pension type cash flow.

“PRWCX was a very conservative balanced fund years ago … Giroux has produced stellar total return, but it does not fit very well into a "bond" thread…”

I was merely responding to this sentence from FD-100 (same thread): “PRWCX performance since 2000 shows that it made more money than the SP500 with lower volatility.”
Of course PRWCX’s not a bond fund. I do like stepping on sacred cows now and than (like PRWCX) - even though I own the fund myself. As far as bonds, Giroux in the last year has described them a very poor investment which he avoids - except for a few of the high-yield and convertible types. (Perhaps that qualifies him for inclusion in this thread?)
As far as risk, Giroux asserts in his most recent fund report that he thinks he can preserve investors’ principal over a 3-year time horizon. That, I think, remains to be proven. Yes - a more aggressive fund today. Exposure to tech and large caps has hurt his performance recently. However - I wouldn’t bet against this guy.

5 in my long-long term account that I rarely touch (several AFs)
3 in my more actively-managed account (PRWCX, MGGIX, PRILX)
1 as the only holding in my 403(b) (RWMGX)
The vast majority of the OEF holdings are in equity. (There's FI in PRWCX, and I hold a modest 30+ year position in FKTIX.)

I try to structure my portfolio into three buckets.
Bucket 1 - Cash / Bond Funds (for Income)
I hold a cash or bond positions with each account I have. Presently this bucket has 17% of my portfolio and represents 3-5 years of income (I may need to spend in retirement).
Bucket 2 - Asset Allocation Funds (for Capital Preservation)
I hold 3 AA funds and they make up 35% of my portfolio. These funds attempt to outpace inflation, reduce downside market risk, and achieve moderate growth.
Bucket 3 - Sector / Category Funds (for Growth)
I hold 10 funds here. These tend to be buy and hold positions and represent 48% of my portfolio. My plan is to periodically sell shares to replenish/enhance bucket 1 (Cash / Bonds) especially when these "Bucket 3 funds" capture above normal gains. I am more actively evaluating these funds for consistent performance, manager risk/reward, and trend momentum.

5. I played the 20-30 game at one time but found that I was never able to strike a meaningful position in any particular one, enough to move the needle on total portfolio performance that is. As mentioned by hank I also grew tired monitoring all of them finding better things to do with my time. Everyone is and can be different though.

I own 9 funds and seek to keep my fund total no more than 10. I usually own closer to 5 or 6.

@shipwreckedandalone : Found it or one would say part of the problem.
How did the Fund’s overall asset allocation shift from beginning to end of the semi-annual period?
At the end of September 2020, the Fund had a weighting of approximately 56% in stocks, 36% in fixed income securities and
8% in cash equivalents. This compared to the allocation at the end of March 2020 of approximately 62% in stocks, 31% in fixed
income securities and 7% in cash equivalents. After the U.S. equity market rebounded sharply from its first quarter 2020 lows,
we positioned the Fund more defensively by increasing its allocation to fixed income in recognition of the heightened
uncertainties faced by the market.
Thanks Derf

When a fund's performance suddenly takes a nosedive or soars into the stratosphere, there are a few things I check before even delving into the fund's details:
- Is the performance naturally volatile, bouncing from top quintile to bottom? Not here.
- Has the fund recently switched categories? Not here.
- Does the fund typically invest in a portion of the market that has done well long term, but has recently seen its fortunes change?
Yes. Of the 50%-70% equity allocation funds, fourteen distinct funds, including VLAAX focus on large cap growth funds. Of these fourteen funds, aside from the notable exception of Puritan (FPURX, FPKFX), these funds have pretty much all done miserably YTD, generally in the bottom quintile, despite over half being 4-5* funds.
Puritan sits on the blend/growth border so would tend to be less severely hurt by the rotation from growth to value.

LOL - Always controversial. I find it really cumbersome to track more than 15 (plus 2 or 3 cash accounts). So strive to be in the 15-16 fund ballpark.
Sure, you can compile a single list of 50 funds if you want - and track. Not hard to do. But when you start arranging those into meaningful sub-groups, portfolio sleeves, or whatever else you call them … that’s when the rubber hits the road and tracking difficulty intensifies.
Currently, I hold 15-16 traditional type funds which provide exposure to a variety of investment types & styles. Here’s a list of those types.
(1) domestic growth
(2) domestic value
(3 ) global growth
4) gold / pm miners,
(5) commodities
(6) EM bonds,
(7) global investment grade income
8 domestic investment grade income,
(9) high yield municipal
(10) 2 risk parity funds
(11) a hedge-type fund
(12) a conservative multi-asset “tracking fund” which I own and also against which I measure my own performance
Honestly, I don’t think it matters much. I’m always looking for ways to consolidate / lessen the number. I’d say let your allocation model, goals and personal style dictate how many funds - as long as you can track them well.

I would recommend reading each quarterly fund commentary from their website going back 1-1.5 years. I remember one of those commentary briefly discusses reducing their risk.

For Value Line Asset Allocation Fund, Inc.: Ranked by Morningstar in the 92
nd
percentile for one-year (666 funds), 11
th
percentile for three-year (641 funds), 12
th
percentile for five-year (574 funds) and 7
th
percentile for 10-year (412
funds) periods ended March 31, 2021. Four-star rating for 3-year (641 funds) and 5-year (574 funds) periods en
You will have to read between the lines ,sorry.
Stay Kool, Derf

Thank you. The chart is a good reminder. The 10 year treasury yield is lowered to 1.53% today. Feel like the rates are being manipulated despite higher inflation is expected this year.

@little5bee I'm not sure if you're joking but I don't think that's the strategy and only reflective of current positioning. This fund has outperformed its peers every single calendar year since its December 2013 inception with a very high expense ratio and little explanation as to why it has managed to do that. There were a number of years it's outperformed when there was no liquidity crunch.

Old filing as of 2/12/21:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1355064/000158064221000669/alphacentricstratincome485a.htm
Prospectus as of 6/8/21:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1355064/000158064221002688/acstrategicincome497.htm