(CBS News) - Retirement planners typically tell Americans to invest 60% of their retirement funds in stocks and 40% in bonds. But that time-tested strategy fell apart this year as poor performance in many financial markets wiped out many workers' savings. A classic 60-40 portfolio has lost 15% this year, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The downturn might have some investors itching to alter their investment mix. But that's probably not the best idea, Wall Street Journal reporter Akane Otani told CBS News.
"For people with a longer-term horizon, I think the advice generally stays the same even in a year like this year — which is to not do anything too crazy and not try to shift a lot of your money from one part of the markets to another because it usually tends to backfire," she said.
For Americans inching closer to retirement, one of the better options could be to hold retirement funds in savings or money market accounts "that are earning more in interest now than they were for the last several years," Otani said.
A major reasons retirement accounts slumped this year is because returns on both stocks and bonds are down. Recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine and continued snags in the global supply chain have all weighed heavily on the U.S. economy this year, dragging markets down.
Still, the 60-40 rule was designed to give investors an average annual return of 7%, Vanguard Chief Economist Roger Aliaga-Diaz said in a research note Tuesday. The strategy has generated 8.8% in returns on average every year since 1926, he said, noting that, because that is an average, some years will bring less than 7% while others will garner more.
"Prominent and useful as a benchmark though it is, 60/40 is not magical," Aliaga-Diaz said in the note. "This isn't the first time the 60/40 and the markets in general have faced difficulties — and it won't be the last."
By Khristopher J. Brooks
November 16, 2022
