Most investors tend to become more conservative as they age. Advisors often recommend that investors move more of their retirement portfolio into “safer” bonds and cash investments and reduce their percentage of stocks the closer they get to retirement.
“An optimal lifetime allocation of 33% domestic stocks, 67% international stocks, 0% bonds, and 0% bills vastly outperforms age-based, stock-bond strategies in building wealth, supporting retirement consumption, preserving capital, and generating bequests,” the researchers said. Further, a couple investing in the target-date fund must save 16.1%, or 61% more, to match the expected utility of the optimal fixed-weight strategy.
In fact, the researchers point out that including international stocks is “rare in the lifecycle investing literature.” But they underscore the importance of not just allowing for international diversification, but for giving it more weight.