1.
JL Collins' "Wealth Accumulation" Portfolio
100%
VTSAX
Also fondly referred to as the "VTSAX and chill" strategy, This portfolio invest 100% in Vanguard's total stock market index fund. By holding this single fund, you own a piece of over 3,000 publicly traded companies in the United States. This portfolio is as simple as it gets and easy to implement. The challenge with this strategy is staying the course. It only works over the long run if you are able to stay fully invested even in the most harrowing of times. As JL Collins says, "Toughen up and stay the course."
2.
Jack Bogle's 2 Fund Portfolio
70%
VTI
30%
BND
Jack Bogle's famous quote "Don't look for the needle in the haystack, just buy the haystack" is the cornerstone concept of this portfolio. 1 total US stock market fund and 1 total US Bond fund. The idea behind adding a bond fund, is that it creates diversification that tempers the volatility of the stock fund, hopefully making it easier for investors to stay the course in the worst of times.
* note that VTSAX and VTI are the same total US stock market fund. The only difference is that VTSAX is a mutual fund, while VTI is an ETF.
3.
Taylor Larimore's 3 Fund Portfolio
56%
VTI
14%
VXUS
30%
BND
The addition of VXUS gives this portfolio more of an international tilt. Taylor Larimore, a disciple of Jack Bogle, believed that by adding this International fund to the 2 fund portfolio, your portfolio would have even greater diversification and potentially greater results. Larimore argues that by owning the whole market at a lower cost (i.e through index funds) than those trying to beat it, you are statistically guaranteed to come out ahead of the majority of professional investors.
4.
Paul Merriman's Factor Tilted 4 fund portfolio
35%
AVUS
35%
AVUV
15%
DFIV
15%
AVDS
In 1993 Nobel Prize winning economist Eugene French and Kenneth Fama published one of the most influential documents in modern finance titled, "Common Risk Factors in the Returns on Stocks and Bonds." They posited that 3 factors lead to stock outperformance over time: risk, size, and value. Dimensional Fund Advisors and Avantis Investments have constructed index funds to tilt their portfolios towards smaller and value stocks, which Fama and French argued will outperform a total stock market fund over the long run. Paul Merriman uses these funds to create his 4 fund worldwide portfolio.
5.
Ray Dalio's "All Weather" Portfolio
7.5% DBC
7.5% GLD
30%
VTI
40%
TLT
15%
IEI
The all weather portfolio looks to keep up with the returns of an all stock portfolio while limiting volatility and drawdowns. The theory is that by doing this an investor could sleep better at night, do better in recessions and in times of inflation, and in the end come out at least even to what a much more volatile all-stock portfolio could offer. This portfolio is much more heavily focused on bonds, commodities, and gold.