Wealth Habits Model Portfolios

Time horizon is the master input. The bond-heavy models exist because money needed in a few years cannot wait out a deep stock-market decline. The stock-heavy models exist because money not needed for fifteen years can. Matching the mix to the horizon, not predicting markets, is the design principle behind the whole ladder.

The tradeoff is symmetric. Historically, portfolios with more stocks have grown more over long periods and fallen harder in bad years. No mix offers the growth without the declines; the ladder just lets you choose how much of each you take on.

Costs are certain; markets are not. Every model's blended fund expense ratio is between 0.05% and 0.11% per year. That is the one number on this page that is locked in regardless of what markets do.

Want the numbers? A full analysis of any model, including how it would have behaved in past markets and in historical crises, is available in a one-on-one conversation, where it can be put in the context of your own situation.
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Same funds, different mix. Every model draws on one lineup of funds. Moving up the ladder changes how much sits in stocks versus bonds and Treasury bills, not the ingredients. That is what makes the seven models comparable: the only variable is the mix.

Low-cost and broadly diversified. The building blocks are index-style exchange-traded funds holding thousands of underlying securities across large, mid-size, and small companies, growth and value styles, and both investment-grade and high-yield bonds.

Global, with a home base. In every model that holds stocks, roughly 70% of the stock sleeve is invested in U.S. companies and 30% internationally, across developed and emerging markets.

No token positions. Every funded position is at least 3% of its model. A holding too small to move the result is complexity without a purpose, so anything below that threshold is folded into a broader fund of the same asset class.

These are construction rules, not market predictions. They are published here so the reasoning behind each mix is visible, not to suggest any mix is right for you.