The Top Funds for a Simpler Retirement Portfolio

One of my friends lives in a perfect but petite house. To keep clutter from taking over, she operates with a simple principle: Nothing can come in without something going out. If she buys a piece of pottery on a trip or a new pair of shoes, she’s simultaneously strategizing about what she’ll donate, recycle, or throw away to make room for it.

Wouldn’t it be great if we all operated with a similar principle for our investment portfolios? Some investors do, of course. But unless you’re vigilant, you’ll likely end up with more investment accounts—and more underlying investments—than you actually need.

There’s that brokerage account you opened when you were keen on picking stocks but haven’t revisited in years, and the IRA that you rolled over from your old 401(k) and haven’t gotten around to rolling into your other IRA assets. Given that each of these accounts comes with its own basket of investments, it’s not surprising that many individuals’ and couples’ holdings can pile up and might even run into the hundreds.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. It’s not complicated to reduce the number of moving parts in your portfolio—at the account level and in other respects, too. And when it comes to selecting investments for each part of your portfolio, you can really slim things down by focusing on investments that provide a lot of diversification in a single shot.

Here are some of Morningstar analysts’ favorite funds for retirement accumulators as well as for folks who are already retired.

Minimalist Funds for Accumulators: Single-Fund Options

Target-date funds are the ultimate in set-it-and-forget-it simplicity, providing investors with an inclusive lineup of age-appropriate investments. Fees have come down over the past few decades, and results also indicate they’re effective, as investors in funds that blend multiple asset classes tend to reap much of the gains their funds generate. (Investors in many other fund types haven’t been as successful.) Not all target-date funds are strong, as nearly all employ the “house brand” of mutual funds, but the best ones are very effective. Among Morningstar’s top-rated target-date fund lineups are the BlackRock LifePath Index Target-Date series, Fidelity Freedom Index series, and the Capital American Target Date Retirement series.

Static-allocation funds can also make sense for investors looking to reduce the moving parts in their portfolios, but they have a couple of drawbacks relative to target-date vehicles. First, they don’t typically change their allocations in a meaningful way, whereas most retirement savers would like to reduce their equity allocations as retirement approaches. And with a few exceptions, allocation funds aren’t typically designed to serve as stand-alone options; many omit important investment categories like foreign stocks and Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities. That said, the Vanguard LifeStrategy funds, all of which receive Morningstar Medalist Ratings of Gold, are worthy options for investors seeking an all-in-one fund with static asset allocations for their retirement portfolios.

Less inclusive, but still worthy, multi-asset funds for accumulators include Fidelity Multi-Asset Index FFNOX, Vanguard Wellington VWELX, and T. Rowe Price Capital Appreciation PRWCX. (The last fund is closed to new buyers.) Vanguard Tax-Managed Balanced VTMFX is a super choice for taxable accounts.

Minimalist Funds for Accumulators: The Building-Block Approach

Retirement savers who would like to maintain control over their portfolios’ allocations can’t go too far wrong with the low costs and broad diversification that accompany index funds and exchange-traded funds. Several traditional index funds garner top ratings from Morningstar analysts; most core index funds reside in the large-cap blend, foreign large-blend, intermediate core bond, and intermediate core-plus bond Morningstar Categories.

Minimalist Funds for Retirees: Single-Fund Options

The target-date retirement category, a subset of the target-date universe, is home to several worthwhile multi-asset funds geared toward retirees. BlackRock LifePath Index Retire LIRKX and Vanguard Target Retirement Income VTINX are highly rated options in that group. Target-date funds take different tacks when the target date hits; some flatline their equity allocations, while others continue to change the portfolios’ allocations.

Static-allocation funds can make sense for retirees, too. Vanguard LifeStrategy 40/60 VSCGX and Vanguard Wellesley Income VWIAX are two options that fall into the moderately conservative-allocation category. Retirees who desire higher-equity allocations can look to fine options such as Vanguard LifeStrategy 60/40 VSMGX.

Minimalist Funds for Retirees: The Building-Block Approach

As with accumulators, index funds can make a lot of sense for retirees who would like to exert control over their portfolios’ asset allocations. Importantly, maintaining discrete stock/bond positions gives the retiree the ability to shake cash out of the portfolio via rebalancing; doing so would often be preferable to selling a slice of an all-in-one fund and, therefore, selling a slice of both stocks and bonds at the same time. Investors seeking core index funds can find excellent options among top-rated funds in the large-blend, foreign large-blend, and intermediate bond categories. Vanguard Dividend Appreciation, available as either an ETF VIG or a traditional index fund VDADX, is a core equity position in many of my model Bucket portfolios for retirees.