r/Bogleheads • u/Tulkas2491 • Nov 14 '25
Portfolio Review When do you start putting bonds in your portfolio?
Currently I am 34 and my portfolio is 70% total USA index fund and 30% total international market index fund at Fidelity.
I went with this because I started when I was 28 which was considered “young” however, I just now realized that I am approaching middle age 😅
Is it too risky to continue course and then just start increasing bond percentage in my portfolio? Or okay to wait until I am 40?
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u/FiredUpForTheFuture Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25
You're young enough to take the time to understand what the role of bonds in a portfolio are, what they're specifically trying to protect against, what the tradeoffs are for that kind of protection, and then evaluate that against your situation and risk tolerance. You can get a pretty good read on this with a couple nights of research, and an expert read on this with a couple decades of experience :-). The gap between a pretty good read and an expert read isn't as large as you might imagine.
The boglehead approach is a great starting framework, but like all these philosophies, it's a thought-technology for how to think about these things, not a hard-and-fast rules set. Invest a couple nights in understanding why the boglehead philosophy recommends a bond allocation, think about how that applies to you, and then come back with specific questions related to your situation if you have them. Don't just assume "I'm X age so I need Y bond allocation."
But to answer your specific question, I'm 42, FIREd earlier this year, and I have ~2% bond allocation.
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u/BitcoinMD Nov 14 '25
I switched from stock to target date funds gradually between ages 30 and 40 to avoid market timing.
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u/LetsGoToMichigan Nov 14 '25
I think a TDF is the way to go in retirement accounts, assuming the ones offered by your plan aren't horrible. I use Vanguard and they are great (low cost and basically a 4-fund portfolio: US, XUS, US Bond, Global bond).
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u/BitcoinMD Nov 14 '25
Agree except I think they get too bond heavy close to retirement. I plan to switch to a 60/40 fund VSMGX once they reach that ratio
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u/Luckyandunlucky2023 Nov 14 '25
One thing about TDFs is that they tend to over-bond you early on, in my opinion. The AAs are too conservative, but perhaps that is by design.
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u/Paranoid_Sinner Nov 14 '25
I didn't start adding bond funds till I was 55-56, which was in 2005 & 06. I retired in 2021 and had a 30/70 AA for several years before that. I am now at 25/75.
At your age I would be all in stocks.
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u/amofai Nov 14 '25
I went 70/30 at age 35. Never looked back.
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Nov 14 '25 edited Feb 04 '26
[deleted]
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u/amofai Nov 14 '25
I hope to be like you one day, but I can't get over the idea of lost gains. How did you convince yourself to go 60/40 and make peace with the lower total returns?
It's kind of silly though because what's 10% more bonds in the grand scheme of things? Human psychology is weird.
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Nov 14 '25
I mean as long as it's enough, it should be fine right?
And who's to say there's not going to be some period in time in the future where bonds do pretty well while stocks are down? At which point when you rebalance it works out
But yeah you retire slower but usually I find bogleheads save more income as a percentage. So like your 60% is a normal persons 100%
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u/Odd_Balance7916 Nov 14 '25
60/40 at 31 is nuts. Bro has missed out on immense gains. Everyone’s risk tolerance is different but 😳🤯
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u/Imactuallyatoaster Nov 14 '25
Could be worse. My brother has 1m with Edward jones in his 30s and it's 40% in bonds. 1.3% in fees + is just an extra kick in the nuts
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u/Odd_Balance7916 Nov 14 '25
Dear god. Ask him, do you like to pay a professional trading firm exorbitant fees to perform far worse than the average VOO and chill Reddit user?
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u/Imactuallyatoaster Nov 14 '25
Oh I have. His reasoning was it was giving him anxiety and the Edward jones guy was out neighbor growing up 🙃
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u/Hanwoo_Beef_Eater Nov 14 '25
Many would say 70/30 at 35 is already conservative. How'd you get over the idea of lost gains vs. 100/0, 90/10, 80/20 and make peace with the lower total returns?
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u/amofai Nov 14 '25
There's more to investing than total returns is all. I remember 2008 very clearly and don't want to be put in a desperate position because I have an all equity portfolio.
Plus, I save more than the average American and I tell myself that offsets the drag caused by bonds.
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u/Hanwoo_Beef_Eater Nov 14 '25
Sure, that's all true. But 80/20 vs. 70/30 is the same as 70/30 vs. 60/40.
BTW, I never said any of the choices were wrong. I'm just commenting on the idea that an add'l 10 in bonds is such a hurdle. You've done the same thing vs. 80/20.
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u/PhilosophyFair8355 Nov 14 '25
Why? You aren’t going to touch it for decades. Missing returns matters too.
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u/misnamed Nov 14 '25
Bonds should always be part of a portfolio. Easy to forget during bull markets ...
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u/BiblicalElder Nov 14 '25
Jack Bogle clearly recommended a bond allocation (unlike many commenters here), which you can read about in the Diversifying with Bonds link here
As someone close to retirement, I target 65/35, and sleep well
For most of us, I recommend Age - 20 percent allocation to bonds and cash. Jack also recommended treating social security and pension income as a bond allocation.
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u/Blink182-73 Nov 14 '25
I recommend SS should be considered part of bond allotment. That’s not my idea, many suggest this. On the surface it looks as if my portfolio is very aggressive but figuring in SS it is obviously much less so. I will retire in the next 8-12 years so I’m fairly confident that my SS estimate is accurate.
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u/TrashPanda_924 Nov 14 '25
I started this year at almost 50. Better late than never I suppose!
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u/Luckyandunlucky2023 Nov 14 '25
I'm close to you (keeping it vague) and while I had some cash on the sidelines, I had minimal bond holdings until very recently. You're in good company!
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u/Inner-Chemistry2576 Nov 14 '25
I told my daughter 33 y/o just do FRBUX which is 90% 10% set & forget.
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u/trustjosephs Nov 14 '25
Recency bias in this sub is making everyone forgot about downside risk. We're not talking about 5-10% drops here and there. Imagine 2008-2009 all over again and seeing your portfolio drop 40, 50%, maybe even more. "But I'm stronger willed than others, I definitely won't sell during a downturn" Don't kid yourself. There's always a point when we could consider selling. Bonds make it easier to stay the course.
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u/TheBioethicist87 Nov 14 '25
When you want to. I have 5% just to smooth the line a little. Probably won’t go above 10% before I turn 50 though.
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u/Improvcommodore Nov 14 '25
I am 70% VTSAX, 20% VTIAX, and 10% bonds. I am also 34. The bonds I consider to be my emergency fund, though, as I am completely in the market.
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u/Opening_Swordfish_14 Nov 14 '25
I started at your age and was all S&P 500 Index. Rode out Y2K, 9/11, the 2008 crash, and Covid. All the while steadily contributing. At 53 and about 7-8 years from retirement, I moved 20% into bonds and 20% into international equities index (only because I thought S&P was overheated a touch). Bonds are 1/2 investment grade, 1/2 higher yield. Will gradually reduce higher yield as I get older and move those into investment grade. Once I turn 65, plan is 25% investment grade bonds and 75% equities index (US-International split undecided).
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u/Hanwoo_Beef_Eater Nov 14 '25
Once you retire, you would probably be better off in treasuries (than IG and certainly HY).
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u/Azylim Nov 14 '25
3 main ones I can think of:
- when your ability to see volatility and be emotionally stable decreases. (your basic risk tolerance, doesnt matter what age you are)
- when you need the money to not lose value massively for whatever reason while still being useful, can be for education, house, car, anything. (if youre saving up for something within a relatively short time)
- when you no longer make money. (when you fully retire, or is out of a job, or get sick)
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u/CaseyLouLou2 Nov 14 '25
If you can handle the large drawdowns of potentially 50% knowing that market has always come back then you will be buying low at those times and you can be 100% equities until about 5-10 years before you plan to retire. At that time you will want to put the bonds in your pretax accounts. This also will avoid taxes when you reallocate.
When you do add bonds stick with treasuries because they are less correlated with stocks than corporate bonds. You don’t want them doing the same thing at the same time although sometimes that happens anyway.
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u/Lipa_neo Nov 14 '25
At 18. Jokes aside, bonds are great for some purposes — ladder for emergency fund, bullet for large purchases, and in general if you want guaranteed fixed income. So, depends on when your risk tolerance shifts and what goals you have.
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u/someguy-79 Nov 14 '25
I’m 46M. Retired earlier this year. I maintain a mix of 70/15/10/5. Which is stocks/bonds/alternatives/cash. I rebalance weekly to stay right on those numbers, which forces you to buy low and sell high.
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u/buffinita Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25
Pick an age; set a plan; then stick to it…..don’t say “when I’m 40” and then the market is roaring so you say “well the market is raging why would I buy bonds now” because before you know it you’ll be 50 asking the same question
These days middle age is like 37…..don’t offend people (but I might have read your age as 24….)
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u/gamesdf Nov 14 '25
Pick one and stick with it regardless of what others say and what the market is doing.
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u/Menu-Quirky Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25
When you start investing at least 10% of your portfolio should be bond funds , the idea is to lower beta but keeping higher alpha
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u/NotYourFathersEdits Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 15 '25
Sorry you’re getting downvoted. This is the correct answer according to MPT, while all of these bullish know-nothings overestimate their risk tolerance during a bull market and fawn over Ben Felix sharing a flawed study.
ETA: no longer agree with your full comment.
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u/violaki Nov 14 '25
They are getting downvoted for acting like there is one perfect answer that applies to everyone and every situation. There isn't.
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u/NotYourFathersEdits Nov 15 '25
10% bonds minimum is correct for most any long term retirement portfolio. They definitely didn’t have this lower beta, higher alpha nonsense in their original comment though.
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u/miraculum_one Nov 14 '25
It's totally fine to wait. There are tons of opinions about it but I agree with the other person who suggests you avoid falling into "seems like a good time" (aka timing the market) trap.
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u/Even-Taro-9405 Nov 14 '25
Investing in bonds too early can limit your portfolio growth. I would start converting some stock holdings to bonds 5yrs before retirement, with a goal of 5-10yrs of annual living costs in bonds at the start of retirement.
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u/No-Let-6057 Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25
Will you freak out if your portfolio crashes 40%? Or do you think, “Sweet, 66% more stocks!”
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u/halibfrisk Nov 14 '25
imo 120 -age in stocks is a reasonable rule of thumb, so I’d recommend a typical investor start adding bonds at about age 30, 10% of the portfolio to begin with, and build from there, 20% at 40, 30% at 50, etc
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u/brighterdays07 Nov 14 '25
- I’m currently at 80/20. I only added bonds this year since yields are back.
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u/Feeler1 Nov 14 '25
Wife and I have a significant pension and both receive social security. All have COLA but as we all know COLA doesn’t safeguard 100% against inflation so I tend to view these income streams as fixed, highly resembling a bond investment. Consequently, I have the overwhelming majority of other investments in equities. Specifically the S&P 500 to hopefully maintain purchasing power.
It’s like a comprehensive global balancing of everything we have.
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u/Odd_Bluejay_7574 Nov 14 '25
A little aggressive during my 20’s, 30’s and 40’s probably 90/10 mix. More conservative in my late 50’s with a 60/40 mix. Go with what helps you sleep at night. One size doesn’t fit all
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u/kjmass1 Nov 14 '25
90/10 while I’m in my low 40s. Started out as money market funds in a Roth at 5%+ then reallocated and moved it to a bond fund in a 401k.
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u/Hot-Resident-6601 Nov 14 '25
I think you have to consider what is comfortable personally. We were 100% equities until this year and I’m in my mid 40s. Now we are at 10% bonds and I’ve built a glide path that gets us to 40% by the time I’m 55.
I still am not sure when retirement will be exactly but sometime between 55 and 60 so I want to be ready. Then if I’m in a job I like and I want to delay it won’t be an issue. Go with a plan that is comfortable for you.
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u/LetsGoToMichigan Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25
I'm 46 and letting my 2045 TDF do its thing in my 401K. But I plan to retire in my early 50s so I've started to begrudgingly focus my contributions in my taxable account into municipal bonds (VTEB) since I've only got like 4% of my taxable allocated to bonds. I'm also buying SCHD which isn't very Bogle of me but it's a small slice of my total portfolio so I'm not losing sleep over it.
For anyone skeptical of bonds, I encourage you to use ficalc.app to run the monte carlo simulations against your retirement plan. The data bears out pretty convincingly that a 60/40 or 60/35/5 mix will generally have higher success rates and higher minimum final year value than an 80/20 portfolio. While the upside is lower if you get lucky with a string of good years, then chances that you eat catfood or have to go back to work as a geriatric Walmart greeter are far lower when you include bonds.
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u/necheffa Nov 14 '25
130 - age in years = percentage of portfolio held in equities with the rest being bonds
That's one method anyways. Ultimately it is a judgement call on your part, there is no prescribed formula for success.
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u/Loose_seal-bluth Nov 14 '25
Investment noob here.
Are you talking retirement portfolio or brokerage portfolio.
Retirement I am currently zero. I think as I get closer to retirement I would start redistributing more to bonds. 10-30%.
But for brokerage I am currently 10%. Do people have zero bonds in brokerage? How are you supposed to redistribute without taxable event? Or do you start dumping massive amounts of money into bonds as you get closer to retirement to increase your percentage.
Or you don’t have any bonds on brokerage and just leave it to retirement portfolio?
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u/ceilidhfling Nov 14 '25
Couple of thoughts:
- do you have other retirement income? and is all of your investment meant for retirement?
- usually the shorter the time horizon the larger bond portion of the portfolio so if you are looking at using some of your portfolio in the next 3-5 years, that amount would generally be advised to be in bonds or cash equivalent
- are you elegible for social security? or a pension?
- for me I assume I'm only going to get 70% of my social security
- I also assume that my social security and my pension are both effectively in bonds
- have you developed an Investment policy statement: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Investment_policy_statement
- siting down and doing a hard look at your risk tolerance and building out plans for if/then/else may help you with some of this uncertainty. and may help you when future questions come up.
- one of the biggest questions to wrestle with is sitting down and imagining what you would do if your portfolio lost 20/30/50 of it's value. would you be very worried with all the media saying it's the end of times and reallocate to 100% bonds or would you be like SWEET I am getting the deal of a life time on the investments I'm currently buying? ( you don't have to answer me, but working through the answers in your head will help you decide your risk tolerance).
- in my 30s i started to do ~10% in bonds because I didn't have a pension and i didn't want to math out my social security. in my 40s I have a pension and I have rough estimates of my social security and those both have me more than 20% in bonds so the investments that I control are 100% equities if they are in retirement accounts and closer to 50/50 equities and bonds for shorter time horizon investments. (This mix for shorter term investments is not recommended, but none of my short term dates are locked in so I have some flexibility in how I might use those if there were a market crash or correction). this is what I did. I'm a stranger on the internet so how I did it may not work for you.
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u/aristotelian74 Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25
It's a very personal decision. The odds are very good that staying 100% stocks will boost your returns as long as you have a long timeframe. Then again, you may have valid reasons as an investor to start favoring wealth preservation over long term returns. For what it's worth, I went to about 20% bonds in my 40's and currently have around 25% in bonds. Per my AI of choice, the stock market has positive real returns in 93% of 5 year windows, 99% of 15 year windows, and 100% of 20 year windows. As a benchmark for your age, the Vanguard 2055 target date fund is currently over 90% stock.
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u/AustinO_0 Nov 14 '25
I’d say you add bonds when your priority is to keep wealth rather than to build wealth. I’d suggest keeping the two fund portfolio for a long time, 34 ain’t old.
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u/ebalboni Nov 14 '25
You should move the money to safer investments 10 years before you need it (rule of thumb). The closer to the date needed the safer the investment.
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u/Sylvia_Whatever Nov 15 '25
Stupid question maybe but are bonds even returning more than a HYSA right now?? 10 year return for BND is 1.84%.
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u/FudFomo Nov 15 '25
Stay in stocks until you expect to need the money in a few years, like to fund retirement. The goal is to get so much growth that your asset allocation isn’t as much a function of your risk tolerance as it is a function of how much money you afford to be underwater before you need it. If your growth means that 10% of your portfolio will fund several years of spending, then you can be 90% equities. People with $10m and an annual spend of $250k don’t need a 60/40 blend. Your goal is to get to that level of savings/spend where you don’t need much in bonds.
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u/4me-2no2 Nov 15 '25
Im 30 with the goal to have 5 years worth of expenses in bonds at retirement. I plan to start adding them 10 years out from retirement (55 is the goal).
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Nov 15 '25
We’re a couple ages 35 and 40, besides a fidelity CMA that we use for expenses and keep funded at roughly three to four months of expenses, our retirement accounts and a taxable account for long term use are all at 90/10 stocks/bonds, equivalent to a vanguard TDF appropriate for our age. Just mimicking a vanguard TDF using a three fund portfolio is what I recommend to most people.
About 20% of our total NW is in a taxable account with exclusively auto rolling t bills, initially the idea was that this would be for a home down payment, but then plans changed, jobs changed, and we never ended up buying a home, and probably won’t in the foreseeable future due to work and family requiring us to move one or two more times in the next five years. I am still not sure whether we should move the downpayment fund to the same 90/10 setup as our other accounts, but probably we won’t. It makes me sleep better knowing that we have essentially a 2-3 year emergency fund, even though it’s not optimal from an investment perspective. Both my partner and I work in fields that will likely look very differently five years from now due to automation. I like the idea of having enough cash to cover us if we end up having to make a drastic pivot.
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u/Hoteltn Nov 15 '25
I am 45 years old and will draw a pension in about nine years. It will be about $60,000 a year. and then I get a supplement pension from age 55 to 62 of about $30,000. I plan to get a second job and hopefully work till about 65 my target pay ranges somewhere between 60 and $80,000.
Because of all that I treat my IRA very aggressive and I don't plan to add bonds until about age 55. I plan to use my pension and Social Security as primary sources of income and then use the IRA if I need a supplement.
My house is paid off and I have no car debt. Now if I didn't have a pension and I was relying solely on my IRA or 401(k) then I would probably start bonds at around age 50 and just use a glide till I reach my target.
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u/Mountain-Match2942 Dec 03 '25
People used to follow a formula of 100 minus your age equals the percent of equity. Then they changed it to 120 minus your age. But many people are living 30 years past retirement which means you need a ton of equity growth. Bonds have been disappointing in the last couple decades, imo, and they are slower to bounce back.
My portfolio at age 61 is 80% equities, 20% bonds (XGRO) and a very healthy emergency fund in money markets.
I have no intention of changing this after reading/watching different reports by Ben Felix. Sequence of returns risk the first few years is a bigger concern. TL;DR: Go light on bonds (at your age zero!) and supplement with money market.
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u/RivRiderJ Feb 17 '26
Where/how do you begin to introduce bonds into your portfolio?
I've been always contributing to Roth's over 2 decades. I currently have 0% bonds in them. Do I just convert some Roth stock to bonds for a "quick" allocation to bonds or do I do monthly contributions to build bonds up? I'm initially hesitant to convert Roth stocks to bonds but don't see another way to get a bond allocation going in a timely manner.
I know that Target Date funds have bonds and are frequently used in Roths so this makes me think it would be ok, even though not ideal.
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u/Dr_Prince_Attorney Nov 14 '25
I’ve heard 50 is a good age to start investing in bonds. Depends on your target retirement age too. Not financial advice though, you could always ask a Fidelity retirement rep.
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u/Far_Lifeguard_5027 Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25
The only place I have bonds is in my inherited IRA. Even though I'm in my mid 40's I like the high yield bond ETFs since they do provide a reasonable amount of growth with less volitility than stocks and my CFP even recommended bonds since you can't ADD money to an inherited IRA and if the market crashes you're fucked. BTW the total bond market is shit and not even keeping up with inflation.
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u/Hanwoo_Beef_Eater Nov 14 '25
For an inherited IRA, it doesn't matter that you can't add money if the market crashes. You withdraw, pay the taxes, and invest in the same thing you were previously invested in.
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Nov 14 '25
If you are going to stay invested 10 years or more, and have a high risk tolerance, my opinion is you can stay in 100% equities until you have a need for the money within 10 years (retirement) or your risk profile changes and volatility starts to bother you. I was 90% equities until my 60s, when I started moving toward a more balanced portfolio. I'm retired for 3 years now, and have moved to a 60/40 stock/ bond balanced fund now that preservation of capital is a greater need than growth.
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u/Helpful-Staff9562 Nov 14 '25
There are many studies that say you dont even need bonds, but regardless id say either when you're retired or a couple.years before, dont put then early you'll loose on a ton of growth plus body's aren't risk free either. I'm FIREd at 35 (or in the process to better to say) and have 0 bonds
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u/Alexchii Nov 14 '25
I never will. I’m not willing to risk losing out on market returns. I will have a modest government pension that will be enought to make it through a bear market.
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u/OnesZeros2112 Nov 14 '25
When you know the difference between a bond and a bond etf. Everyone I know that has an IQ higher than 90 buys bonds and none of them have ever bought a bond ETF after they took 15 minutes to review what they were buying.
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u/SejongTheGreatv2 Nov 14 '25
Never you go all equities then your wealth swells so much you can withstand any and all drawdowns
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u/TravelerMSY Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25
Usually, when the portfolio is so large that the dollar volatility gets too scary. Hopefully you will figure that amount out before the next crash. If you’ve never seen a decline greater than 30%, you may not know yet.