Build The Couch Potato Portfolio With ETFs
What is the Couch Potato portfolio? The Couch Potato portfolio is built with 2 ETFs. It holds …
William Bernstein’s Portfolios can be built with 2-12 ETFs. They are exposed to between 0% and 100% equities. William Bernstein has built low-risk, medium-risk and high-risk portfolios.
Here is how you build William Bernstein portfolios with ETFs.
This is the asset allocation for the No Brainer Lazy Portfolio.
This is just one of many portfolios made by William Bernstein.
We cover 32 ETF portfolios by William Bernstein below.
Portfolio data was last updated on 11th of November 2022, 11:40 ET
Name | Year to date | Return in 2021 | 10 year return | CAGR since 1989 (%) | STDEV | Draw Down | Expense ratio | Yield |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
William Bernstein No Brainer Portfolio | -15.69 | 15.8 | 10.03 | 8.37 | 12.48 | -27.62% | 0.07% | 1.85 |
William Bernstein Cowards Portfolio | -12.55 | 14.12 | 8.23 | 8.23 | 9.51 | -19.94% | 0.07% | 1.93 |
William Bernstein Four Pillars High Risk Portfolio | -15.43 | 14.51 | 8.44 | 8.39 | 11.98 | -27.41% | 0.11% | 2.33 |
William Bernstein Four Pillars Medium Portfolio | -12.51 | 14.75 | 8.74 | 8.15 | 9.33 | -19.66% | 0.06% | 1.82 |
William Bernstein Four Pillars Low Risk Portfolio | -13.43 | 11.54 | 7.74 | 7.5 | 8.04 | -15.91% | 0.05% | 1.7 |
William Bernstein Sheltered Sam Portfolio | -11.79 | 15.01 | 8.14 | 8.39 | 9.48 | -21.03% | 0.09% | 1.78 |
William Bernstein Taxable Ted 100% Stocks | -20.97 | 24.61 | 13.4 | 9.91 | 15.82 | -37.86% | 0.06% | 2.07 |
William Bernstein Taxable Ted 90/10 | -20.1 | 22.13 | 12.39 | 9.58 | 14.3 | -33.83% | 0.06% | 2.02 |
William Bernstein Taxable Ted 80/20 | -19.22 | 19.64 | 11.37 | 9.21 | 12.78 | -29.79% | 0.06% | 1.98 |
William Bernstein Taxable Ted 70/30 | -18.35 | 17.15 | 10.34 | 8.82 | 11.29 | -25.76% | 0.06% | 1.94 |
William Bernstein Taxable Ted 60/40 | -17.47 | 14.67 | 9.3 | 8.39 | 9.82 | -21.73% | 0.06% | 1.9 |
William Bernstein Taxable Ted 50/50 | -16.6 | 12.18 | 8.25 | 7.94 | 8.4 | -17.70% | 0.06% | 1.86 |
William Bernstein Taxable Ted 40/60 | -15.72 | 9.7 | 7.19 | 7.46 | 7.04 | -13.66% | 0.06% | 1.82 |
William Bernstein Taxable Ted 30/70 | -14.85 | 7.21 | 6.11 | 6.96 | 5.8 | -9.63% | 0.06% | 1.78 |
William Bernstein Taxable Ted 20/80 | -13.97 | 4.72 | 5.03 | 6.43 | 4.76 | -5.60% | 0.06% | 1.74 |
William Bernstein Taxable Ted 10/90 | -13.1 | 2.24 | 3.93 | 5.87 | 4.1 | -1.85% | 0.06% | 1.69 |
William Bernstein Taxable Ted 100% Bonds | -12.22 | -0.25 | 2.82 | 5.29 | 3.99 | -2.30% | 0.06% | 1.65 |
William Bernstein Sheltered Sam 100% Stocks | -15.66 | 23.82 | 12.3 | 10.21 | 15.32 | -36.95% | 0.11% | 2.36 |
William Bernstein Sheltered Sam 90/10 | -14.92 | 21.62 | 11.36 | 9.83 | 13.97 | -33.64% | 0.11% | 2.25 |
William Bernstein Sheltered Sam 80/20 | -14.17 | 19.41 | 10.41 | 9.43 | 12.62 | -30.34% | 0.10% | 2.14 |
William Bernstein Sheltered Sam 70/30 | -13.43 | 17.2 | 9.45 | 9.01 | 11.31 | -27.03% | 0.09% | 2.02 |
William Bernstein Sheltered Sam 60/40 | -12.68 | 15.0 | 8.48 | 8.56 | 10.02 | -23.73% | 0.09% | 1.91 |
William Bernstein Sheltered Sam 50/50 | -11.94 | 12.79 | 7.5 | 8.09 | 8.78 | -20.42% | 0.08% | 1.8 |
William Bernstein Sheltered Sam 40/60 | -11.19 | 10.59 | 6.51 | 7.6 | 7.61 | -17.12% | 0.08% | 1.69 |
William Bernstein Sheltered Sam 30/70 | -10.45 | 8.38 | 5.52 | 7.08 | 6.54 | -13.81% | 0.07% | 1.58 |
William Bernstein Sheltered Sam 20/80 | -9.7 | 6.18 | 4.51 | 6.55 | 5.64 | -10.51% | 0.06% | 1.46 |
William Bernstein Sheltered Sam 10/90 | -8.96 | 3.97 | 3.49 | 5.99 | 5.0 | -7.20% | 0.06% | 1.35 |
William Bernstein Sheltered Sam 100% Bonds | -8.21 | 1.77 | 2.46 | 5.41 | 4.72 | -3.90% | 0.05% | 1.24 |
William Bernstein Young Yvonne Portfolio | -16.19 | 13.55 | 8.65 | 8.77 | 9.64 | -20.11% | 0.08% | 2.27 |
William Bernstein Charlie Cringe Portfolio | -13.36 | 11.88 | 7.83 | 7.49 | 7.99 | -15.62% | 0.05% | 1.69 |
William Bernstein Wendy Wonk Portfolio | -15.43 | 14.51 | 8.44 | 8.39 | 11.98 | -27.41% | 0.11% | 2.33 |
William Bernstein Between Charlie and Wendy Portfolio | -12.44 | 15.08 | 8.83 | 8.14 | 9.28 | -19.38% | 0.06% | 1.82 |
The Rip Van Winkle Portfolio William Bernstein Taxable | -17.95 | 15.1 | 10.11 | 8.44 | 10.5 | -23.66% | 0.10% | 1.78 |
William Bernstein The Small Investor Coward Portfolio (SICEI) | -20.91 | 18.12 | 11.16 | 8.95 | 17.75 | -41.54% | 0.12% | 2.54 |
William Bernstein The Academic Coward Portfolio (ACEI) | -14.96 | 19.99 | 10.51 | 8.92 | 16.44 | -38.39% | 0.29% | 3.0 |
Here is what the table is showing you
Year to date: This shows what the portfolio has returned this year starting from the first trading day of the year.
10 Year return: This shows the compounded annualized growth rate over a ten-year period. The current year is excluded from calculations.
CAGR since 1989: This shows the compounded annualized growth rate since 1989. The current year is excluded from calculations.
Expense ratio: This shows the cost of holding the portfolio if you were to construct the portfolio using the proposed ETFs.
Yield: This is the expected dividend yield of the portfolio.
Please note that past performance is not a guarantee of future returns.
Below you can see the returns of the best portfolios that we have benchmarked.
William Bernstein is a former doctor, an investment consultant, and an all-around good guy in the investing world. He has presented a host of portfolios throughout his career.
His book,The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio,is required reading on investing. His investing philosophy is broad diversification, common sense, and a realistic expectation of future returns.
Other books that come highly recommended are Rational Expectations: Asset Allocation for Investing Adults and The Intelligent Asset Allocator: How to Build Your Portfolio to Maximize Returns and Minimize Risk.
William Bernstein is one of the first names you encounter when entering the investing world, especially the personal investing world. But his investing principles apply to institutional investing as well.
His book William Bernstein: The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio,is one of the best books on investing you can read. It is on our concise list of the very best investing book ever written.
William Bernstein is also one of the very few good guys in investing. He has gone above and beyond in helping the everyday investor to get better returns through a robust investing framework.
Get this on Amazon – The audiobook is especially recommended as the narrator is phenomenal.
The one thing that William Bernstein focuses on in his portfolios is diversification through many asset classes. He is a self-proclaimed asset class junkie.
Therefore his portfolios display extensive diversification.
In addition to this, William Bernstein is a 360-degree investor, so he takes into account a lot of factors. For example:
All this makes Bernstein shine as a useful guide in all of your investment endeavors.
Finally, he is adamant about facing reality and being very aware of what you can expect in the returns of your portfolios.
William Bernstein’s most famous portfolios are the lazy portfolios. The two are the No-brainer portfolio_ and the Cowards’ portfolio. You can read more about those specific portfolios in our posts on Lazy Portfolios and 5 Reasons Why A Lazy Portfolio Is Right For You.
If you are interested in learning way more about William Bernstein and his investing philosophy, pick up one or two of his books. Apart from his book Four Pillars I very much recommend the following two:
Get it on Amazon – The audiobook has GREAT narration.
Here is how you build all of William Bernstein’s portfolios.
The No-Brainer portfolio is part of the group of Lazy Portfolios.
His website The Efficient Frontier details Williams Bernstein’s many many books and a few other resources
His many books on Amazon. He has written on other topics other than investing. His book A Splendid Exchange is a fantastic inquiry on how trade enabled the modern world.
He has appeared on many financial and investing podcasts, use this search to find them all.
He is one of only three good guys in investing.
Finding the right portfolio is hard. Maintaining your portfolio is also daunting.
If you want access to our high-performing portfolios then you want to take a look at the premium portfolios.
This is a paid product that gives you the 20 best-performing portfolios since 1989. The portfolios represent a great opportunity low-cost for you to get more money from your investment portfolios. We think it’s a no-brainer. The 20 portfolios are the best among the literally hundreds of other portfolios we have benchmarked since we started.
You stand to gain thousands more dollars EACH YEAR for the price of a few months of Netflix.
If you have already committed to a portfolio – good for you! If you need help maintaining the portfolio you will find our rebalance worksheet useful.
Rebalancing your portfolio lowers your risk and may provide higher returns in the long run. It is completely FREE.
You can find the rebalance worksheet in our article Here Is The Most Easy To Use Portfolio Rebalance Tool.
Rebalancing lowers your portfolio risk and can increase your returns.
William Bernstein’s website is the Efficient Frontier.
The best book is The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio.
Here is the Coward Portfolio.