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Personal FinanceExplainerPast Article

Rebalancing Is Housekeeping

Putting a mix back to the weights you wrote down is not a market call. It is maintenance.

By Claire Ng, Retirement Columnist

New York1 min read

Storm clouds gather over a dense cityscape
Storm clouds gather over a dense cityscapePhoto by Nikolai Kolosov on Unsplash

A target mix is a written proportion: so much in stocks, so much in bonds, so much in cash, if those are the buckets you chose. Markets move the proportions without asking. Rebalancing is the act of trading back toward the page you wrote.

It is not a forecast. You are not claiming the thing you sold will fall. You are claiming that the mix you wanted last year is still the mix you want. If it is not, the task is to rewrite the page, not to disguise a new bet as maintenance.

Costs and taxes sit between the idea and the trade, and they are specific to the account. A rule you do not write down will be replaced, in a stressful month, by whatever story the market is telling that afternoon.

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