Asset Allocation Calculator
Answer six questions and get a model stock, bond and cash mix matched to your risk profile, with the expected return and risk it carries, and how to get there from what you hold today.
1Your risk questionnaire
1When will you start drawing on this money?
2Your portfolio drops 25% in a year. You…
3What is this money mainly for?
4How stable is your income?
5Your investing experience is…
6Watching it fall for months, you would feel…
2What you hold today
$
$
$
$
Total portfolio$120,000
Your recommended profileScore 12 / 24
Moderate60% stocks
The classic balanced portfolio: roughly 60% stocks, 40% bonds and cash. Growth with a real cushion for the rough years.
US stocks36%
International stocks24%
Bonds35%
Cash & equivalents5%
Expected return5.9% / yr
Typical year-4% to 15.7%
Volatility±9.9%
-10%22%
In about two years out of three, the annual return lands inside this range. Roughly one year in six could be worse than -4%.
To reach the target from what you hold
AssetNowTargetAction
US stocks$52,00043%$43,20036%Sell $8,800
International stocks$10,0008%$28,80024%Buy $18,800
Bonds$18,00015%$42,00035%Buy $24,000
Cash & equivalents$40,00033%$6,0005%Sell $34,000
Drift: 35.7%To move: $42,800
Your profile is Moderate, with 60% in stocks. The expected annual return is 5.9% with a volatility of 9.9%.
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How to use this calculator
From a few answers to a plan, in four steps.
1
Answer six questions
In card 1, work through the short questionnaire. It weighs both your willingness to take risk and your ability to, including your time horizon and how stable your income is.
2
Enter what you hold
In card 2, set what you currently hold in stocks, bonds and cash. We prefill it from your linked accounts when you are signed in. This drives the rebalancing plan.
3
Read your profile
Your score maps to one of five model portfolios. A short horizon caps how aggressive the recommendation can be, so appetite never outruns ability.
4
See the moves
Compare the target mix to what you hold now, with the exact amount to buy or sell in each class, and the return and risk the target is expected to deliver.
Key concepts
The ideas behind the mix.
Asset allocation
How you split money across stocks, bonds and cash. Decades of research find this split, not individual stock picks, drives the large majority of a portfolio's long-run risk and return.
Willingness vs ability
Risk tolerance has two halves: how much volatility you can stomach (willingness) and how much you can afford to take given your horizon and income (ability). A good allocation respects the lower of the two.
Diversification
Because asset classes do not move in lockstep, a blend is less volatile than the weighted average of its parts. That is why the expected risk here is computed from correlations.
Expected return and volatility
The expected return is the long-run average a mix might earn; volatility is how much it bounces around that average year to year. A higher expected return almost always comes with wider outcomes.
Rebalancing
Over time, winners grow and drift your mix away from target. Rebalancing sells a little of what has run and buys what has lagged, restoring the intended split.
Home bias
Investors tend to hold too much of their own country's market. Splitting equities between domestic and international holdings spreads the risk across more of the world's economy.
The 110 minus age rule
An old shortcut for equity weight: subtract your age from 110 (variants use 100 or 120). At 30 it says 80% stocks, at 55 about 55%, at 70 about 40%. It captures one real force, ability to take risk falling as the horizon shortens, and ignores everything else: income stability, experience, and how you actually behave in a crash. That is why this tool asks six questions instead of one. Use the rule as a sanity check; if your questionnaire result differs wildly, make sure you understand which assumption is doing the work.
Bonds vs cash
They feel similar but do different jobs. In this model cash earns 3% and barely moves (about 1% swings), while bonds earn 4% with 6% swings and a low 0.10 correlation to stocks. Cash is for spending within a year or two and for the sleep-at-night buffer; over long periods it roughly treads water against inflation. Bonds are the portfolio's shock absorber, cushioning equity falls while still compounding. Parking years of long-term money in cash instead of bonds quietly gives up about 1% a year.
Tips that keep a portfolio healthy
Small disciplines, better outcomes.
Answer honestly, not aspirationally
The questionnaire only helps if it reflects how you actually behave in a crash, not how you would like to. The right allocation is the one you will hold through a bad year.
Rebalance on a schedule
Once or twice a year, or whenever a class drifts more than five points from target, is plenty. Rebalancing too often just racks up costs and taxes for little benefit.
Use new money first
Where you can, rebalance by directing fresh contributions to the underweight classes. It nudges you back to target without selling, which avoids tax in a taxable account.
Mind the account
Hold tax-inefficient assets like bonds in tax-sheltered accounts where possible. The same target mix can be far more efficient depending on which account holds what.
Revisit after life changes
A new job, a house, a child or nearing retirement all change your horizon and capacity. Re-take the questionnaire when your circumstances shift, not when markets do.
Keep emergency cash separate
Your three-to-six-month emergency fund is not part of this portfolio. Typed into the cash field, it makes the tool tell you to invest money that exists to be spent at short notice. Enter long-term investment money only.
FAQ
How is my profile decided?+
Six questions each score from 0 to 4, covering your time horizon, how you react to losses, your goal, income stability, experience, and temperament. The total maps to one of five model portfolios. A short horizon caps the result.
Where do the return and risk numbers come from?+
Each asset class has a long-run expected return and volatility, and the portfolio figures are computed using a correlation matrix, so diversification is properly credited. They are reasonable long-run assumptions, not forecasts.
What does the volatility range mean?+
It is a rough one-standard-deviation band: in about two years out of three, the annual return is expected to land inside it. One year in six could be worse than the bottom of the range.
Should I really hold international stocks?+
These models split equities between domestic and international holdings to reduce home bias and spread risk across more of the global economy. The exact split is a judgement call.
How often should I rebalance?+
For most people, once or twice a year, or when a class drifts more than five points from target, is enough. Using new contributions to top up the laggards is the gentlest method.
Is this financial advice?+
No. It is an educational starting point based on broad model portfolios and long-run assumptions. Your full picture may point somewhere different. Treat the output as a sensible default to discuss.
Is the classic 60/40 portfolio one of these profiles?+
Yes: the Moderate profile is this tool's 60/40, with 36% domestic stocks, 24% international, 35% bonds and 5% cash. Under the assumptions used here it works out to roughly 5.9% expected return with 9.9% volatility, so a typical year lands between about -4% and +16%. It has been the default balanced portfolio for decades because it captures most of the return of stocks while bonds soften the worst years.
Why is my result capped at Moderate?+
Because you said the money will be needed within about five years. With a short horizon, a deep equity fall may have no time to recover: history includes drawdowns that took the better part of a decade to claw back. So the tool caps the recommendation at Moderate regardless of how boldly the other questions score, putting ability to take risk ahead of willingness. Only pick a longer horizon if the money will genuinely stay invested longer.
How much difference does the allocation really make?+
Compounded over decades, a lot. Using this tool's assumptions, $100,000 left for 25 years grows to about $320,000 in the Conservative mix (4.8% expected return) versus about $528,000 in the Aggressive mix (6.9%). The price is the ride: a typical Aggressive year spans -7% to +21%, and genuinely bad years are worse. The best allocation on paper is worthless if you sell in the crash, so pick the strongest mix you can actually hold.
Where do real estate, gold or crypto fit?+
The tool sticks to the four core classes with the deepest data history. If you hold others, map them by behaviour: REITs and rental property equity act mostly like stocks, gold is a volatile diversifier usually kept to 5 to 10% of the defensive side, and crypto is best treated as very high-risk equity and capped at a few percent. Your own home is shelter, not a portfolio line, so leave it out entirely.
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Risk questionnaire mapped to model portfolios. Return and risk from long-run asset-class assumptions and a correlation matrix. Illustrative, not advice.
Risk questionnaire mapped to model portfolios. Correlation-based risk. Illustrative, not financial advice.