This page displays low-risk portfolios available on portfolioeinstein.com.
Some words on risk
Risk comes in many shapes and forms. In academia and in much of the investing industry, risk in investing is measured by standard deviation (a measure of how much the price of an asset bounces around).
Now, a standard deviation is, well – academic. This isbecause, for you and me, the risk is the pain we go through when we lose money. That pain is called draw-down. The draw-down of a portfolio is the amount of money the portfolio will lose in a given year. So, for example, a portfolio with a draw-downof -20% has at some point lost 20% of its value. That’s a good indication of what could happen in the future.
Now, that’s pretty actionable information that we can plan around and relate to.
A rough rule of thumb is that for each 20% of stocks a portfoliohas it has a draw-down of -10%. So a 100% stock portfolio has potentially a draw-down of -50%. A 60% stock portfolio has a potential draw-down of -30%.
There are other forms of risk however but the draw-down is what we will focus on when dividing the portfolios into the various risk levels. You should also look at standard deviation as well as the stock to bond ratio.
How the risk levels are determined
We have given the portfolios a risk level from one to three. = 1 – 3.
1 is the least risky but also offers the least reward.
3 is the riskiestbut offers the most rewards.
The portfolios have been divided into tertiles. In the first tertile, the first 33.3% represent the portfolios that have the lowest draw-downs. The last 33.3% are the ones with the highest draw-downs.
You can find the other 2 risk portfolios here
This page is displaying the low-risk portfolios. They are suited for short term savings and even then you may be better off with a CD (certificate of deposit) or a standard savings account.
Disclaimer: There are many factors that go into choosing your right portfolio, though not as many as you would think. Therefore, the information here presented are not specific recommendations but instead for information purposes only.
Now it’s your turn!
Which portfolio are you leaning towards and why?
Why do you think a low-risk portfolio is right for you?