| Core Anchors for Any Portfolio and Create a Retirement Paycheck With a Total-Return Approach |
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Question: I have been trying to streamline and upgrade my portfolio, so I appreciated your recent article about what constitutes a core holding. But can you name some favorites?Answer: As I noted in my article (http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=351716), there's no clear-cut definition of what constitutes a core holding. An investment that may be a perfectly legitimate linchpin holding for one investor, such as the aggressive bond fund Loomis Sayles Bond (NASDAQ:LSBRX - News), might be far too volatile, and decidedly noncore, for another.A key first step, then, in finding the right core holding for you is to consider what type of investor you are. [Read the full article] Many people rely on their 401(k) account as a safe, trustworthy ticket to a stable retirement. Unfortunately, several common mistakes could sabotage your 401(k)'s performance over the long haul.Eggs, basket -- you know the drillFor starters, many folks' 401(k) accounts mostly or entirely contain shares of their employers' stock. It can be dangerous to hold too much in any one stock, especially if it belongs to the company you work for. You already rely on your employer for your income, so you're adding even more eggs to that basket this way.Wildly off-targetTarget-date funds have become one of the most popular 401(k) investments among younger workers and new hires. These funds, each tied to a particular retirement year, aim to relieve you of the responsibility of shifting your investments from stocks to bonds as you age. [Read the full article] For most Americans in their 50s, that's all the personal savings they'll have to look forward to during retirement, according to Wells Fargo's annual retirement survey.The survey, which polled nearly 2,000 middle-class Americans ranging from 20 to 60 years old, found that Americans aren't saving enough, they are underestimating the amount of money they will need in retirement, and they are more likely to end up working through retirement.While most Americans predict they will need a nest egg of $300,000 to live on for 19 years in retirement, the average savings of 50-somethings is only $29,000, which comes out to an income of $190 a month over 20 years assuming a 5% rate of return."$190 a month is not going to cut it," said Laurie Nordquist, co-head of Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust. "This reinforces the huge gap in terms of what people are going to need and what people have. [Read the full article] 
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