How Many Asset Classes Should Your Investment Portfolio Contain?

Do you like putting all of your eggs into one basket?  Are you a day trader, gambler or a stock investor?  Do you know the different types of investments available to you?  What percentage of each type of asset should your portfolio contain?

The basics of investing asset classes shown at www.barclayswealth.com, discusses some key ingredients to your portfolio.

You should definitely have cash available so that you can rebalance accordingly if certain asset classes show a sale price.  You definitely should have some bonds as a defensive strategy for principal protection.  You also should have some real estate and consider your own home as an investment in your portfolio, even if it has a low return since you are living in it.  Finally, you should have a nice portfolio of well diversified stocks.

What else do you think you need?  What percentages are you using?  Do you have an overall strategy that encompases why you have this percentage breakdown?  Do you have an overall strategy that encompases all accounts?

This post was reposted from http://finlit.biz/retirement-2/how-many-asset-classes-should-your-investment-portfolio-contain/, originally written on February 5th, 2013.