Portfolio Strategies That Stand the Test of Time

The canonical institutional benchmark: 60% equities for long-term growth, 40% bonds for stability and income. Bonds historically cushion equity drawdowns while still allowing participation in market upside. It's not exciting — that's the point. This allocation underpins trillions in pension and endowment capital worldwide.

Total US market, total international market, and total bond market — three funds, nothing else. The 80/20 equity-to-bond split gives strong growth potential with modest bond ballast. Adding international developed markets captures growth beyond the US and reduces home-country bias. Beloved by the Bogleheads community for its simplicity and low cost.

Equal 25% splits across four economic scenarios: stocks for prosperity, long-term bonds for deflation, gold for inflation, and T-bills for recession. The idea is that one of the four environments is always occurring — so the portfolio always has a winning slice. Designed for investors who want to sleep soundly regardless of what the economy is doing. Historically remarkably stable.

Dalio's risk-parity framework, designed to perform in any economic regime — growth, recession, inflation, or deflation. Rather than equal dollar weights, the strategy weights assets so each contributes roughly equally to portfolio risk. The heavy bond allocation (55%) acts as ballast, while commodities and gold provide inflation protection. This is the publicly disclosed retail approximation of Bridgewater's All Weather fund.

Five allocation slots sized by successive steps of the golden ratio (~1.618): 42% / 26% / 16% / 10% / 6%. The equity sleeve splits evenly between large-cap growth and small-cap value, capturing two historically persistent return premiums. Long bonds provide deflation protection, gold covers inflation, managed futures add trend-following diversification, and cash buffers volatility. Vasquez hosts the Risk Parity Radio podcast and has refined this framework through years of community testing.