Is Your Investment Mix Right for Your Age?
There's a decades-old rule of thumb for how much of your portfolio should be in stocks versus bonds, based on your age. It's worth knowing where it comes from, and where it's just a starting point.
The classic version of the rule
The most common formulation is "110 minus your age" as your target stock percentage, with the rest in bonds and more conservative holdings. A 30-year-old, by this rule, would target roughly 80% stocks.
Why age is the variable at all
The logic is about time horizon, not age itself — someone with decades until they need the money can ride out market volatility for higher long-run returns, while someone closer to needing the funds has less time to recover from a downturn.
Where the rule is a reasonable starting point
For someone with a fairly typical retirement timeline and moderate risk tolerance, this kind of age-based glide path is a defensible, simple default — better than no framework at all, and it automatically shifts more conservative over time without requiring active decisions.
Where it's genuinely just a starting point
Risk tolerance varies enormously between two people the same age. Someone with a pension or other guaranteed income may reasonably hold more stocks than the rule suggests; someone anxious about volatility may sleep better with less, even at a real cost to expected long-run returns.
The other thing the rule doesn't capture
It says nothing about concentration — a portfolio at the "right" overall stock percentage that's heavily concentrated in one company or one volatile asset carries very different risk than one spread across a broad index, even at an identical stock/bond split.
See your own mix compared to the benchmark
Grade My Finance Pro's Allocation tool compares your own estimated stock/bond split to the age-based benchmark, and flags concentration risk in your actual numbers.
Check My Allocation →Frequently asked questions
Is 110 minus age the only version of this rule?
No — older versions used 100 minus age, and some planners suggest higher stock allocations given longer modern life expectancies. All are rough guidelines, not precise formulas.
Should retirement accounts and taxable accounts use the same mix?
Not necessarily — tax treatment can make it more efficient to hold certain asset types in one account type over another, a strategy sometimes called asset location, separate from the overall stock/bond split.
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