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what percentage of portfolio to be in equities?

I have been wondering lately about this issue. Why am I asking myself? As a person who is approaching 50 and does not have an income at present, I need to be strategic in allocating my assets. My concern is that if I invest too much in equities, a big crash could put me in a difficult situation because I still require cash flow to pay for mortgage and bills. There is no assurance of dividends being there when the market turns. What if some of the counters I have cease to distribute or even go bankrupt? So it's important to maintain a portion as cash/bonds, serving as a buffer to sustain me in times of need. Plus, the ability to buy into distressed companies and wait for them to recover is a must-have skill set for investors like myself. Currently, I am at about 67% allocation for my own portfolio and this becomes 50% when adding cash from my spouse's funds. While I will maintain a balance of 70% equity/equities ETF allocation for myself, I will put a hard limit of 70% combined with wife's funds to prevent me from being overweight in stock market. If the value of equities exceed the 70% hard limit, I will take profits and convert them into cash/bonds/SSS/T-bills/FD accounts.


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