What percentage of my savings should be in stocks?
After an emergency fund, a common starting rule is 110 minus your age in stocks and the rest in bonds. A 30-year-old lands near 80 percent stocks. Adjust for how well you sleep during a 25 percent drop.
Start by taking the emergency fund and any money needed in the next few years off the table; that stays in cash. Of what is left, the classic rule of thumb is to hold your age in bonds and the rest in stocks. A more modern version, reflecting longer lives, says 110 or 120 minus your age in stocks. For a 30-year-old that is 80 to 90 percent stocks; for a 60-year-old, 50 to 60.
The logic is time. Younger people have decades to recover from a bad stretch, so they can afford the swings that come with stocks. Someone five years from retirement cannot afford to have half their savings vanish in a crash and needs a bigger cushion of bonds and cash.
The rule of thumb is a starting point, not a prescription. The real test is behavioural: if an 80 percent stock portfolio dropping 25 percent would make you sell everything, then 80 percent is too much for you, whatever your age says. A portfolio you can hold through a crash beats an optimal one you abandon.
A target-date fund makes this decision for you and adjusts it every year, which is why it is a reasonable default for anyone who does not want to think about it.
Informational only, not financial advice. Updated September 4, 2026.
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