A query for the historically minded:
1. For some decades, the 60% stocks / 40% bonds allocation has been *the* balanced fund standard. Many other allocations exist, but 60 / 40, as in VBIAX, is the standard. You don't read headlines in 2022 that "30/70 is dead." But you do see that charge levelled at 60 / 40.
2. Over at Bogleheads, I read that people had looked for the first mention, the smoking gun, the white paper or other authority that initially advocated for that precise 60/40 mix, presumably based on reasons or evidence. But no one has found any such thing.
3. I know from looking at old copies of Wiesenberger that balanced funds are almost as old as stock funds (1928, 1929); and also, that there was no standard allocation in the early decades, with various mixes in play across funds.
4. I'd guess that sometimes in the 1950s or 1960s, some authority, perhaps a pension fund consultant, maybe a fund management company, made the pitch and 60/40 entered the lexicon. I pick that time period because by then, the largest balanced funds (Investors Mutual, Wellington) were almost as large as the largest stock funds (e.g., Mass Inv Trust).
I'd be curious if anyone here at mutualobserver.com could point me to such a founding document; or at least, a document that predates the 1970s and argues for 60/40 as some kind of optimum or superior mix.
