A low cost cash heavy portfolio that keeps volatility tight but lags broader stock markets
Report created on Apr 29, 2026Risk profile
2/7
Diversification profile
3/5
Positions
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SG iShares Trust
SGOV - US46436E7186 75.00% -
VO Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
VOO - US9229083632 25.00%
This portfolio is built from just two ETFs: a 75% allocation to an iShares cash-like fund and 25% to a Vanguard S&P 500 ETF. That creates a very simple structure with a large anchor in short-term, low-volatility assets and a smaller slice in US large-cap equities. Simplicity like this makes it easier to understand what’s driving returns and risk. With most of the money sitting in cash-equivalents, the equity position acts more like a “satellite” than the core. This structure naturally limits big swings but also caps how much the portfolio can benefit when stock markets rise strongly over time.
Growth
Over the 2020–2026 period, $1,000 in this portfolio grew to $1,528, a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.46%. CAGR is the “average yearly speed” of growth, smoothing out ups and downs. The max drawdown, or worst peak‑to‑trough fall, was only -8.13%, noticeably gentler than the US market’s -24.50% and global market’s -26.42%. So historically, this mix has traded much smaller drops for lower returns: it underperformed the US market by about 9.7 percentage points per year and the global market by 7.7. This kind of pattern is typical when a portfolio holds a large cash allocation alongside equities.
Projection
The Monte Carlo projection simulates many possible future paths using past return and volatility patterns, a bit like running thousands of “what if” scenarios. Here, the median outcome shows $1,000 growing to about $2,079 over 15 years, which is roughly a 5.11% annualized return across simulations. Most outcomes fall between about $1,715 and $2,491, though extreme cases range wider. A key detail is that the assumed cash return leads to $1,839 after 15 years, so a big chunk of the projected growth comes from the cash component. As always, these projections are not guarantees; they just illustrate a range of plausible futures based on historical behavior.
Asset classes
- Cash 75%
- Stocks 25%
Asset allocation here is very straightforward: around 75% in cash or cash-like holdings and 25% in stocks. Compared with broad market benchmarks, which are largely equity-focused, this is a strongly conservative stance. Asset classes matter because they tend to respond differently to economic conditions; cash is usually stable but grows slowly, while stocks swing more but can compound faster over long periods. In this portfolio, the large cash position is doing most of the work in stabilizing returns and keeping risk low, while the smaller equity slice provides some exposure to market growth without dominating the overall risk profile.
Sectors
- Cash 75%
- Technology 8%
- Financials 3%
- Telecommunications 3%
- Consumer Discretionary 3%
- Health Care 2%
- Industrials 2%
- Consumer Staples 1%
- Energy 1%
- Utilities 1%
This breakdown covers the equity portion of your portfolio only.
Sector data shows 75% categorized as cash, with the remaining 25% spread mainly across technology, financials, telecommunications, consumer discretionary, health care, industrials, staples, energy, and utilities. Within the equity piece, technology is the largest identified sector, which is common for US large-cap funds today. Sector mix matters because different industries react differently to interest rates, growth expectations, and regulation. For example, tech-heavy allocations can be more sensitive to changes in interest rates, while utilities and staples often behave more defensively. Here, the dominant cash allocation dampens the impact of sector swings, so sector differences mainly affect only that 25% equity slice.
Regions
- Cash 75%
- North America 25%
This breakdown covers the equity portion of your portfolio only.
Geographically, 75% of the portfolio is in cash and 25% is in North American equities. That means the growth-oriented piece is heavily tied to one region’s stock market, while the bulk of the assets behave more like short-term US dollar cash. Geography matters because economic cycles, politics, and currency moves differ from place to place. Global benchmarks typically spread across many regions, but this portfolio’s equity exposure is concentrated in North America. The cash allocation, however, reduces overall sensitivity to regional equity shocks, so market events in other parts of the world have limited direct impact on this mix.
Market capitalization
- Mega-cap 11%
- Large-cap 9%
- Mid-cap 5%
This breakdown covers the equity portion of your portfolio only.
By market capitalization, the portfolio indirectly holds about 11% in mega-caps, 9% in large-caps, and 5% in mid-caps, with the rest effectively in cash. Mega- and large-cap companies tend to be more established, with deeper markets and often more diversified businesses, while mid-caps can bring a bit more growth and volatility. A cap-weighted tilt like this is very much in line with mainstream index funds, meaning the equity part behaves similarly to major benchmarks in terms of company size. The big difference overall is not the size mix of stocks, but that equities are only a quarter of the portfolio.
True holdings
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XT BlackRock Cash Funds Treasury SL Agency 5.53%
Part of fund(s):- iShares Trust
-
NV NVIDIA Corporation 1.90%
Part of fund(s):- Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
-
AA Apple Inc 1.67%
Part of fund(s):- Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
-
MS Microsoft Corporation 1.23%
Part of fund(s):- Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
-
AM Amazon.com Inc 0.91%
Part of fund(s):- Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
-
GO Alphabet Inc Class A 0.75%
Part of fund(s):- Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
-
AV Broadcom Inc 0.66%
Part of fund(s):- Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
-
GO Alphabet Inc Class C 0.60%
Part of fund(s):- Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
-
ME Meta Platforms Inc. 0.56%
Part of fund(s):- Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
-
TS Tesla Inc 0.47%
Part of fund(s):- LS 1x Tesla Tracker ETP Securities GBP
- Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
- Top 10 total 14.26%
This breakdown covers the equity portion of your portfolio only.
The look-through data (only top-10 holdings per ETF) covers about 15% of the portfolio, so it gives a partial but useful picture. It shows significant exposure to large US names like NVIDIA, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Broadcom, Meta, and Tesla, plus a sizeable allocation to a BlackRock cash fund. Overlap between funds means some of these stocks appear more than once, which can create hidden concentration even when there are only two ETFs. However, because cash dominates the overall allocation, this concentration mostly affects the behavior of the equity chunk rather than the whole portfolio’s volatility.
Factors
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 exposures are mostly neutral across value, size, momentum, quality, and low volatility, meaning the equity holdings behave a lot like the broad market on those dimensions. Factors are characteristics, like “value” or “momentum,” that research links to long-term return patterns. The one notable tilt is yield, which is rated “high” at 73%. That suggests an above-average focus on income-generating holdings relative to a purely market-like mix. Combined with the large cash component and its own interest yield, the portfolio leans toward generating ongoing income rather than strongly emphasizing capital growth or style tilts like deep value or small caps.
Risk contribution
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Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
Weight: 25.00% 99.9% -
iShares Trust
Weight: 75.00% 0.1%
Risk contribution shows how much each holding drives the portfolio’s overall ups and downs, which can be very different from simple weights. Here, the S&P 500 ETF is 25% of the portfolio but accounts for essentially all the risk (about 99.9%), while the 75% iShares cash fund barely moves the needle. This is typical: one volatile instrument can dominate overall risk, like a loud instrument in an otherwise quiet band. It means day-to-day and year-to-year performance is largely dictated by how that one equity fund behaves; the cash piece mainly stabilizes the picture rather than creating additional volatility.
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 this portfolio’s risk and return with the best possible combinations of the same holdings. The Sharpe ratio, which measures risk-adjusted return relative to a risk-free rate, is 0.59 for the current mix. The model shows both an “optimal” portfolio with higher return and risk, and a “minimum variance” portfolio with extremely low risk and return, but importantly, your current portfolio sits on or very near the frontier. That means, given just these two ETFs, the chosen allocation is already efficient for its risk level. In other words, the current balance between stability and growth is coherent from a pure optimization standpoint.
Dividends
- iShares Trust 3.90%
- Vanguard S&P 500 ETF 1.10%
- Weighted yield (per year) 3.20%
The overall dividend yield is about 3.20%, with the iShares cash fund around 3.90% and the S&P 500 ETF at roughly 1.10%. Yield is simply the income paid out each year as a percentage of the amount invested. In this portfolio, most of the income clearly comes from the cash-like holding rather than the equity slice. For a mix where capital preservation and steady income matter, a yield above 3% is a meaningful contributor to total return, especially when combined with the historically low volatility. Just keep in mind that yields can change over time as interest rates and market conditions shift.
Ongoing product costs
- iShares Trust 0.07%
- Vanguard S&P 500 ETF 0.03%
- Weighted costs total (per year) 0.06%
Total ongoing costs are very low, with a blended TER (Total Expense Ratio) of about 0.06%. TER is the annual fee charged by the funds as a percentage of assets, quietly reducing returns in the background. Here, both ETFs are at the lower end of the cost spectrum, which helps more of the portfolio’s income and growth stay in your pocket over time. Over many years, even differences of a few tenths of a percent can compound into real money, so this cost profile is a genuine strength. The structure is doing what it should: providing exposure efficiently without unnecessary drag.
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