A.I.M. Users Bulletin Board

[AIMster]

AIM'ing perhaps VTI, TTL and IAU
Correction : That should have read TLT not TTL

I noticed. <grin>.

Seriously, though... The PP does offer the utmost in simplicity. And if that's what you're after, it seems to me a good way to go.

However! (and you knew there had to be one to provoke a new message, right)? The PP does fall short in terms of respect involving whole swaths of asset classes. It might have been best when the US economy was one of the primary dominant markets and owning a broad-spectrum representation made the most sense.

Keeping the original three as you have, I've added five more for a total of eight holdings (nine if you count cash separately).

These are:

RMT - Royce Microcap Trust - invests in the small end of the market so it would complement VTI to give a very thorough US market representation.

What's missing are any representations of foreign markets, which are now major players:

EFA - MSCI Europe, Far East & Australia - mainly largecaps of developed economies.

EMF - Templeton Emerging Markets Fund

Given the decline of late, the following is a fairly safe and broad way to get into the US real estate market:

IYR - iShares Dow Jones Real Estate Index fund

Finally, to round it out for more income and a good performance return, at least lately:

PHK - PIMCO High Income Fund

To see how this selection measures up, check out

http://stockcharts.com/charts/performance/perf.html?VTI,IAU,TLT,RMT,EFA,EMF,IYR,PHK

This would give a more well-rounded portfolio, even if there is a bit more work to it.