Vanguard Investors' Cash a Record Low
Dan Wiener, Editor of "The Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors," released a statement entitled, "Vanguard Investors' Heavy in Stocks, Low on Cash." He explains, "Vanguard investors haven't been this heavily invested in stock funds since the tech bubble. Combining U.S. and foreign equity funds, annuities and ETFs, Vanguard investors now have 69% of their assets invested in stocks. (In fact, since the market bottom their allocation to stocks has risen by almost 55%.) Another 4% of assets are in balanced funds. Cash allocations have been trending down since the market lows of early 2009 and driven no doubt by low, low yields.... Money market funds now represent just 5% of invested assets at Vanguard." Wiener, who produces the totals from his monthly tracking of Vanguard fund assets, asks, "Is it any wonder then that panicky Vanguard investors may have been part of the reason the firm's systems were overloaded during the market swoon on Monday?" He adds, "Vanguard also predicts that global bonds will compound at just 2% to 3% over the next ten years. With Total Bond Market Index currently yielding 2.63% one can expect U.S. bonds to generate returns of between 1.6% and 3.6% over the next decade. Low expectations for bond returns may be one reason Vanguard investors have slowly allowed their allocations to bonds to drift downward. Over the last 25 years or so the average allocation to bond funds has been 23%, about where it is today." Wiener's series shows money markets totaling over 20% in 1995, about 17% in 2000, around 12.5% in 2005, approximately 10% in 2010, and 6% in 2015.
