Vanguard's 4 fund portfolio is Total US Stocks, Total US Bonds, Total International Stocks and Total International Bond is a no-brainer way to cover all the bases. The Trick is in allocation and rebalancing. Personally, I think the portfolios by Paul Merriman Vanguard suggestion which are more slice-and-dice are more efficient based on you risk tolerance. I fund the the weight allocated to bond funds to be too great, and also, the international bond funds to be undesirable.
Finally, since, in recent years, bond funds have trended with, not oppose, stocks, that my bond fund strategy is to use short and mid-term US govt bond funds.
JMO
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