One of my projects this year was to monitor and reallocate my 401(k) every so often. I didn’t feel like I need to be completely on top of it regularly, but since it has been a couple of months now is as good as time as ever.
Back in January, I turned to ChatGPT with two simple questions:
- Should I rebalance?
- How should I allocate future contributions?
The analysis showed I was 98% in equities and only 2% in bonds/cash, with 83% in U.S. equities and about 15% international. That put me well beyond a typical moderate-aggressive allocation.
The recommendations were straightforward:
- Trim a tiny bit and
- Adjust how future contributions are allocated
I took the advice and did the following:
Here’s how things look—where I started, where I am now, and my target:
| Allocation | Goal | 1/6/2026 | 4/28/2026 | 9/2/2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Large Cap Equity | 40% | 49% | 44% | 45% |
| U.S. Mid/Small Cap Equity | 20% | 34% | 35% | 35% |
| International Equity | 20% | 25% | 16% | 15% |
| Bonds | 10% | 1% | 2% | 2% |
| Cash / Stable | 10% | 1% | 3% | 3% |
| Total | 100% | 100% | 100% |
WOW.
Despite another three or four months of contributions being split evenly between cash and bonds, I am basically no closer to my target allocation.
I guess that shouldn’t be all that surprising. The broader equity markets have continued to move higher, so the denominator keeps getting bigger while I’m slowly adding to the much smaller bond and cash buckets. And when you’re dealing with percentages like 1%, 2%, and 3%, even a decent amount of new money doesn’t move the needle all that much.
So, I guess it’s time to ignore it for another three months.
We’ll see where things stand in January. But given my age and the fact that I’m still comfortable with a fairly aggressive allocation, I doubt I’ll be making any massive moves anytime soon.