Running the Numbers: Will 60/40 Split of Stocks, Bonds Still Yield Retirement Security?

The origin of the 60/40 strategy lies in the research of American economist Harry Markowitz, a longtime professor of finance at the University of California, San Diego, who died in 2023. He was renowned for his 1950s work on modern portfolio theory, which argued investors should blend a mix of high-risk, high-return assets with low-risk, low-return assets. For his work on reducing investor exposure to risk through diversification, which was acclaimed for its “algebraic simplicity,” he won the 1990 Nobel P ...