Posted by Cathy on November 07, 2009 at 00:23:51:
In Reply to: Changing allocations of balanced funds are a selling point posted by Snow on November 06, 2009 at 14:33:49:
Thanks, Snow. OAKBX is on my priority list to check. I made an excel sheet of all the tickers for portfolio and specific recommendations from Forum members (incl who recommended them and any specific comments) to see which funds had the most recommendations. Most recommendations for a specific fund was 7, OAKBX had 4 (now 5). Since this is a Large Blend Core Fund, that makes it one of the priorities for me starting out.
: : If one decides on a Portfolio holding 40% bonds, then also has some Balanced, Blend or Large/Small Caps funds that also include bond percentages, should the percentage of bonds held by these funds be included in with the total percentage of the all-bond part of your portfolio?
: ++++ One reason to buy a balanced fund is to bet that the manager is better at moving money between stocks and bonds than you are. Not all are successful of course. One very good one, Oakmark Equity and Income (OAKBX), allows for up to 35% in non U.S. issues and the stock/bond mix varies from quarter to quarter. Seconding others, I wouldn't sweat it too much.