Balanced stock heavy portfolio with low costs and a tilt toward smoother ride low volatility exposure

Report created on Apr 22, 2026

Risk profile

  • Secure
    Speculative

The risk profile, derived from past market volatility, reflects the level of risk the portfolio is exposed to. This assessment helps align your investments with your financial goals and comfort with market fluctuations.

Diversification profile

  • Focused
    Diversified

The diversification assessment evaluates the spread of investments across asset classes, regions, and sectors. This ensures a balanced mix, reducing risk and maximizing returns by not concentrating in any single area.

Positions

This portfolio is built mostly from broad index mutual funds, with a single ETF and a small cash position. Around half sits in a 2040 target-date index fund, which itself mixes stocks and bonds on a glide path that gradually gets more conservative. The rest is split across US total market, S&P 500, international stocks, high-dividend stocks, a core bond fund, and a money market fund. That mix gives exposure to many parts of global markets through a relatively small number of building blocks. Structurally, this is a simple, “fund of funds plus a few satellites” setup, which tends to be easy to maintain while still offering broad diversification across asset classes and investment styles.

Growth Info

From early 2019 to April 2026, a $1,000 investment in this portfolio grew to about $2,277. That works out to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.17%, meaning the portfolio grew as if it earned roughly 12% per year on average. Over the same period, a US market benchmark returned 15.99% and a global benchmark 13.33%, so the portfolio lagged both, especially the US. The worst drop, or max drawdown, was about -29% during early 2020, which was smaller than the benchmarks’ drawdowns. This shows a tradeoff: somewhat lower long‑term return than pure equity benchmarks but also a gentler fall in stressful markets.

Projection Info

The Monte Carlo simulation projects many possible 15‑year paths using the portfolio’s historical risk and return as inputs. Monte Carlo is basically a “what if” engine: it reruns history thousands of times with slight variations to estimate a range of outcomes. Here, the median projection turns $1,000 into about $2,635, with a central band from roughly $1,867 to $3,820. There are also more extreme but less likely paths on both the upside and downside. These numbers aren’t predictions; they’re statistical scenarios built from past data. The key insight is that most simulated outcomes are positive, but the range is wide, underscoring that long‑term investing involves both opportunity and uncertainty.

Asset classes Info

  • Stocks
    78%
  • Bonds
    17%
  • Cash
    5%

By asset class, the portfolio is roughly 78% stocks, 17% bonds, and 5% cash. That’s a clearly equity‑tilted mix, which is in line with a “balanced but growth‑oriented” profile rather than something heavily conservative. Stocks are the main driver of long‑term growth, while bonds generally help dampen volatility and provide income, and cash offers stability and immediate liquidity. Compared with a pure stock portfolio, this structure usually trades some return potential for a smoother ride. It also lines up nicely with the stated balanced risk classification and helps explain why drawdowns have been smaller than those of all‑equity benchmarks over the historical period.

Sectors Info

  • Technology
    24%
  • Financials
    15%
  • Industrials
    10%
  • Health Care
    9%
  • Consumer Discretionary
    9%
  • Telecommunications
    8%
  • Cash
    5%
  • Consumer Staples
    5%
  • Energy
    4%
  • Basic Materials
    3%
  • Utilities
    3%
  • Real Estate
    2%

This breakdown covers the equity portion of your portfolio only.

Sector exposure is spread across technology, financials, industrials, health care, consumer areas, telecom, energy, utilities, real estate, and materials, with no single sector overwhelmingly dominant. Technology has the largest share at 24%, which is common in modern index‑based portfolios because large tech firms make up a big portion of major indices. A sector mix like this, where weights roughly mirror broad markets, tends to avoid making strong bets on any one industry. That alignment with benchmark sector patterns is a strong indicator of diversification. It also means sector performance will likely follow general market cycles rather than hinging on a narrow theme or highly concentrated industry view.

Regions Info

  • North America
    68%
  • Europe Developed
    10%
  • Cash
    5%
  • Asia Developed
    4%
  • Japan
    4%
  • Asia Emerging
    4%
  • No data
    3%
  • Australasia
    1%
  • Africa/Middle East
    1%
  • Latin America
    1%

This breakdown covers the equity portion of your portfolio only.

Geographically, about 68% of the portfolio is in North America, with the rest spread across developed Europe, Japan, other developed Asia, emerging Asia, Latin America, Africa/Middle East, and a small cash slice. This US‑tilt is typical of many global portfolios and broadly similar to common global equity benchmarks, where North America is the largest component. Having meaningful exposure outside North America adds diversification benefits tied to different economies, currencies, and policy environments. At the same time, the majority US exposure means portfolio behavior will still be strongly influenced by US market and economic conditions, which have been a major driver of global stock performance in recent years.

Market capitalization Info

  • Mega-cap
    32%
  • Large-cap
    27%
  • Mid-cap
    14%
  • Small-cap
    3%
  • Micro-cap
    1%

This breakdown covers the equity portion of your portfolio only.

The market capitalization breakdown shows a heavy tilt toward larger companies: 32% mega‑cap, 27% large‑cap, 14% mid‑cap, 3% small‑cap, and 1% micro‑cap. This pattern closely matches broad index funds, which are usually weighted by company size. Larger firms often have more diversified businesses and more stable earnings, so they can be less volatile than smaller companies, though they may offer fewer dramatic growth spurts. Including some mid‑ and small‑cap exposure introduces additional growth potential and different business profiles without dominating risk. As a whole, this size mix supports a balanced risk profile that leans toward stability while still keeping exposure to the broader corporate spectrum.

True holdings Info

  • NVIDIA Corporation
    0.05%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
  • Apple Inc
    0.04%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
  • Microsoft Corporation
    0.03%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
  • Amazon.com Inc
    0.02%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
  • Alphabet Inc Class A
    0.02%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
  • Broadcom Inc
    0.02%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
  • Alphabet Inc Class C
    0.01%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
  • Meta Platforms Inc.
    0.01%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
  • Tesla Inc
    0.01%
    Part of fund(s):
    • LS 1x Tesla Tracker ETP Securities GBP
    • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
  • Berkshire Hathaway Inc
    0.01%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
  • Top 10 total 0.22%

This breakdown covers the equity portion of your portfolio only.

Look‑through data currently covers only a tiny slice of the portfolio, mainly capturing a few top US mega‑cap names through ETF holdings. The exposures to companies like NVIDIA, Apple, and Microsoft appear at fractions of a percent, reflecting that they’re held indirectly through diversified funds. Because coverage is limited to ETF top‑10 positions, it understates the true look‑through picture, especially given the dominance of mutual funds here. Even with this partial view, it’s clear that no single underlying stock is dominating the portfolio. The main takeaway is that concentration risk lives at the fund level, not at the individual company level, based on the data provided.

Factors Info

Value
Preference for undervalued stocks
Neutral
Data availability: 92%
Size
Exposure to smaller companies
Neutral
Data availability: 92%
Momentum
Exposure to recently outperforming stocks
Neutral
Data availability: 92%
Quality
Preference for financially healthy companies
Neutral
Data availability: 92%
Yield
Preference for dividend-paying stocks
Low
Data availability: 100%
Low Volatility
Preference for stable, lower-risk stocks
High
Data availability: 92%

Factor exposures are estimated using statistical models based on historical data and measure systematic (market-relative) tilts, not absolute portfolio characteristics. Results may vary depending on the analysis period, data availability, and currency of the underlying assets.

Factor exposure is generally close to market‑like across value, size, momentum, and quality, which sit in the neutral band. That means the portfolio behaves broadly like a standard diversified index mix along those dimensions. The most notable tilt is toward low volatility, which is rated high. Low volatility as a factor captures stocks and funds that historically moved less dramatically than the market. A tilt like this often leads to smaller swings and potentially shallower drawdowns, though it can lag during sharp, speculative rallies. Yield exposure is slightly on the low side despite the dedicated high‑dividend fund, suggesting the overall portfolio isn’t aggressively chasing income at the expense of balance.

Risk contribution Info

  • TIAA-CREF LIFECYCLE INDEX 2040 FUND INSTITUTIONAL CLASS
    Weight: 58.00%
    58.6%
  • Vanguard High Dividend Yield Index Fund Admiral
    Weight: 13.50%
    15.2%
  • VANGUARD INSTITUTIONAL INDEX FUND INSTITUTIONAL PLUS SHARES
    Weight: 8.90%
    11.7%
  • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Admiral Shares
    Weight: 7.00%
    9.3%
  • VANGUARD TOTAL INTERNATIONAL STOCK INDEX FUND INSTITUTIONAL SHARES
    Weight: 4.10%
    4.4%
  • Top 5 risk contribution 99.2%

Risk contribution shows how much each holding drives the portfolio’s ups and downs, which can differ from simple weights. Here, the 2040 lifecycle fund, at 58% weight, contributes about 59% of total risk, so its impact is very proportional. The next two positions, the high‑dividend fund and the institutional S&P 500 index fund, together bring the top three holdings’ risk contribution to roughly 85%. That means most of the volatility comes from a small number of core funds, which is expected in a concentrated “core‑satellite” structure. The smaller satellite positions move the needle far less, so portfolio behavior will mostly track whatever these main funds experience.

Redundant positions Info

  • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Admiral Shares
    Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
    VANGUARD INSTITUTIONAL INDEX FUND INSTITUTIONAL PLUS SHARES
    High correlation

Correlation measures how similarly different holdings move, on a scale from -1 (opposite) to +1 (in lockstep). The highly correlated pairs here are the S&P 500 index fund, the S&P 500 ETF, and the total US stock market fund, which all track closely related indices. When funds are this tightly linked, they don’t add much diversification relative to each other, even though they are distinct products. Instead, they mostly reinforce the existing US equity exposure. This isn’t inherently a problem, but it means that, within the equity sleeve, diversification mainly comes from international stocks, factor differences, and the bond allocation rather than from owning multiple similar US index vehicles.

Risk vs. return

This chart shows the Efficient Frontier, calculated using your current assets with different allocation combinations. It highlights the best balance between risk and return based on historical data. "Efficient" portfolios maximize returns for a given risk or minimize risk for a given return. Portfolios below the curve are less efficient. This is informational and not a recommendation to buy or sell any assets.

Click on the colored dots to explore allocations.

The efficient frontier analysis compares the current portfolio with the best possible mixes using the same holdings. The current portfolio has a Sharpe ratio of 0.57, while the mathematically optimal mix of these funds reaches a Sharpe of 0.82 at higher risk and return. The key point is that the current allocation lies on or very close to the efficient frontier, which means that, for its chosen risk level, the tradeoff between risk and return is already efficient. In other words, based on historical relationships among these specific funds, there isn’t a large efficiency gap; the portfolio is making good use of the components it already holds.

Dividends Info

  • TIAA-CREF LIFECYCLE INDEX 2040 FUND INSTITUTIONAL CLASS 3.60%
  • Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund Institutional Shares 3.90%
  • Vanguard High Dividend Yield Index Fund Admiral 2.30%
  • VANGUARD INSTITUTIONAL INDEX FUND INSTITUTIONAL PLUS SHARES 2.60%
  • Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund Investor Shares 3.70%
  • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF 1.10%
  • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Admiral Shares 1.10%
  • VANGUARD TOTAL INTERNATIONAL STOCK INDEX FUND INSTITUTIONAL SHARES 2.80%
  • Weighted yield (per year) 3.13%

The overall dividend yield is about 3.13%, combining income from equities, bonds, and the money market fund. Individual funds show yields mostly in the 2–4% range, with the bond and money market funds at the higher end and the broad equity funds somewhat lower. Dividends and interest can be a meaningful part of total return over time, especially when reinvested, because they compound on top of price gains. This portfolio’s yield sits in a moderate, balanced range: higher than many pure growth‑oriented stock portfolios, but not maximized for income. That blend fits well with its broader goal of providing both growth potential and some ongoing cash flow.

Ongoing product costs Info

  • TIAA-CREF LIFECYCLE INDEX 2040 FUND INSTITUTIONAL CLASS 0.10%
  • Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund Institutional Shares 0.02%
  • Vanguard High Dividend Yield Index Fund Admiral 0.08%
  • VANGUARD INSTITUTIONAL INDEX FUND INSTITUTIONAL PLUS SHARES 0.02%
  • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF 0.03%
  • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Admiral Shares 0.04%
  • VANGUARD TOTAL INTERNATIONAL STOCK INDEX FUND INSTITUTIONAL SHARES 0.06%
  • Weighted costs total (per year) 0.08%

The weighted total expense ratio (TER) of this portfolio is about 0.08%, which is impressively low by industry standards. Individual funds range from 0.02% to 0.10%, reflecting the use of institutional and Admiral share classes, as well as low‑cost index strategies. Fees like TER are charged annually as a percentage of assets, quietly reducing returns in the background. Keeping them low leaves more of the portfolio’s gross performance in the investor’s hands, and the benefit compounds over many years. This fee structure is very well aligned with best practices for long‑term investing and is a clear strength of the overall setup.

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