Ok I’m very interested in this and won’t derail with unserious play money diversions.
I keep my money assigned into three piles: the first is a two to three year cash reserve that will pay for bills, house, emergencies, etc. I keep this in income producing funds (50 percent) that don’t fluctuate much, like Fidelity’s tax free bond funds, and the other half in a combination of CDs (which kind of sucks right now) and in a premium money market account.
The second pile is investment (IRA, 401k) and is about half my net worth. This is spread into a Pimco bond fund (expenses are high but yields terrific), Putnam large cap value, a couple of index funds, and a Blackrock balanced fund that I’ve been underweighting due to their ESG direction (no CR for my investments please). I would call this a growth allocation but not too aggressive and minimal international exposure.
The third pile is wildly speculative and is where I’ll buy international stock and other silly ideas. By doing this I can stay disciplined on real money.
What I am most interested in is not complex stock market trading but finding return without a) leverage and b) too many unknowns. I avoid individual stocks I don’t understand. The only one I ever made real money on was a utility company that was a client, that eventually got bought out by private equity. Wish I had put more in but that’s how it goes.