💰Best ETF % By Age - Updated for 2026!

In the late 1970’s, early 1980’s investor and former Vanguard CEO Jack Bogle created what he considered “the perfect investment strategy”.

It consisted of a portfolio comprised of 60% US stocks, 20% international stocks and 20% US or government bonds.

And this worked well…until it didn’t.

Nowadays, this investing strategy gets CRUSHED by a new 3 ETF portfolio.

It’s a simple way to invest for financial freedom, and can be adjusted for any age group or life stage.

So if you’re looking for:

You’re gonna want to read this.

If you’re like most people, your retirement account is likely still following the old-school method that worked 40-50 years ago.

In 1980, Jack Bogle’s perfect portfolio allocation was 60% US stocks or equities, 20% international stocks and 20% bonds. The whole point was to diversify in case of a market crash.

And while that’s a solid strategy in theory…

If you’re still following this today, you’re essentially setting yourself up for protection against that one year of bad, while missing out on the next 10 years of good.

The whole point of having bonds was that if the market crashed, at least a portion of your portfolio would be safe and stabilized. And this worked well until 2022.

That year, the S&P 500 dropped around 18%.

And against that big drop, you would’ve expected the bond market to hedge well. But in fact, it hedged terribly — dropping a whopping 13%!

That’s supposed to be the safest, most sustainable part of your portfolio?

No thanks.

If we then look at international stocks, the purpose of them in the portfolio was to provide a safety net if things in U.S. markets went south.

Many investors incorrectly believe that this portion is just there so you’re invested in something outside the U.S., and that somehow makes your portfolio safer.

But there’s a saying out there:

“If the U.S. sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold.”

The truth is, if the U.S. really does have a downturn, the rest of the world is likely to as well.

The fact of the matter is, international ETF’s simply underperform. Average appreciation of VXUS is around 5%. You can almost get that kind of growth with your money sitting in your high-yield savings account.

This new 3-fund portfolio takes the same strategy as Jack, but updates it with the correct funds for 2026.

Starting off with the 60% U.S. stock portion — we’re keeping this the same.

Because I still strongly believe that everyone should have a foundational, broad U.S. index that tracks the S&P 500 in their portfolio. You can go with ETF’s like VOO, SPY, or SPMO. Or you can trade this out for a total U.S. stock market ETF like Vanguard’s VTI.

This is where we start to change things up a bit.

This is the section all about providing safety — it needs to be less volatile then the S&P 500.

Where the old portfolio had BND here, with today’s inflation, this is all but losing you money.

For most of us still building our portfolios, I highly recommend something that produces a good cash flow, but still has high upside and low volatility. For this I want a dividend fund.

And even though it’s been getting a lot of hate recently, I’m sticking with Charles Schwab’s SCHD for this.

It has a nice solid dividend of 3.5%, and other than the past year, has been growing steadily for the past decade.

The third part of the portfolio is supposed to be a little higher risk, but (hopefully) much more upside than the S&P.

Nowadays, the biggest powerhouse and money maker in the market is tech and AI.

But you want to take advantage of not just these two sectors, but all the sectors currently in a growth phase. And there’s a bunch of ETF’s that fall into this category for you to choose from.

Me personally, I’m going with broad growth ETF’s over a more specialized sector ETF. My current favorites are QQQM, SCHG or VUG.

If you compare the old strategy of VXUS (approx. 5.09% return) vs. the new of SCHG (approx. 16.54% return)…

If you invested $500/month for the next 30 years, you would have:

VXUS: $398,000
SCHG: $3,500,000

That’s a hell of a difference!

Now moving on to the age categories. And to caveat this part — for any age, I would be very comfortable with recommending this style of portfolio.

But I completely understand it’s nerve-wracking to try and do this alone.

I walk people through this all the time in my private financial coaching where we do about a 1-hour Zoom. We figure out the optimal portfolio for you based on your specific goals.

I can also help you simplify your portfolio all for a flat fee, rather than taking a percentage of your portfolio forever like a financial advisor.

If that’s something you’re interested in, simply email me to get started.

I’m going to start with the oldest age group, so that if you’re younger and you’re reading this, you can see how things switch as you get older.

Because while this is a semi- “set it and forget it” strategy, you do want to be aware and adjust your allocations as you hit different life stages.

In this stage, you’re likely living solely off your investments without a regular income coming in. The key here is you should only be taking out what you actually need to live on, and leaving the rest invested so it continues to grow and make you more money.

At this stage, we’re mostly concerned with safety and preserving the money we do have.

First, I recommend having at least three years’ worth of living expenses saved up in a high-yield savings (HYSA) or money market (MM) account. Something completely outside the market.

Also, make sure to deduct any Social Security, pensions and other income off your monthly expenses you need to make up with investments.

Here’s my recommended breakdown for this age group:

In this stage, you should be getting very serious about building your 3-years’ worth of cash reserve.

You also don’t want to take your foot off the pedal when it comes to building your portfolio. By this stage, you should have at least one year’s worth of living expenses saved in your HYSA or MM account.

Here’s my recommended breakdown for this age group:

At this stage, you don’t want to go too conservative, because you’ll likely still have time to experience another bull market cycle before you retire. So you want to make sure you get every piece of profit from your investments as you can.

Here’s my recommended breakdown for this age group:

You’re in your prime earning potential period. You can still weather any storm the market throws at you, but you definitely want to be smart and take advantage of all the ups, while not dropping too low in the downs.

You’re also probably making a pretty good income, so you don’t want to have too much money in dividend ETFs — especially in a taxable brokerage account. This will help lessen your tax liability.

Make sure by now you have at least 6 months of living expenses saved in your HYSA or MM account.

Here’s my recommended breakdown for this age group:

You’ve got a BUNCH of breathing room here, but this isn’t the time to fall into the YOLO (you only live once) mindset by investing all your money into crypto, meme stocks, or get-rich-quick schemes.

The bulk of your portfolio should still be these 3 ETFs. Though if you really want, you can add a small portion (I recommend no more than 10%) into more riskier bets like individual stocks or speculative assets.

Here’s my recommended breakdown for this age group:

For those just starting out, no matter if you’re 18 or 80, I recommend an even 33/33/33 split for at least one year, and just watch how the market moves, and how simple you can make your investment strategy.

After a couple years, change it up however you see fit, based on your life stage and financial goals.

Hope this helps, and remember to email me if you’d like to sign up for my private financial coaching!

Your friend,

Charlie | Your Wealth Hype Girl

This article provides educational information about investment strategies, not personalized financial advice. Consult with qualified financial professionals before making investment decisions. Charlie Dice and OJD LLC are not responsible for any investment gains or losses as a result of following advice given here.