From memory equities was 7%pa, gold 5%, bonds about 3.5%, cash...

From memory equities was 7%pa, gold 5%, bonds about 3.5%, cash at 0.5%, and oil negative.
so maybe our robo adviser for the long term investor isn’t so naive after all?

@Just_a_guy

Looking at where long-term Treasury yields were prior to the GFC, your 3.5% return on bonds certainly doesn’t include coupon accruals? If you do include them (i.e. if you look at Total Return), I suspect Treasury Bonds would be very close to Equities (inclusive of dividends), and Corporate Bonds would actually be ahead of them.

But, an investor with a higher location to Fixed Income (Treasuries and Corporate Bonds) would have achieved that result while keeping a more prudent risk profile (and with far less mark-to-market volatility), i.e. would have performed better on a risk-adjusted basis.

This is what I mean, in the context of portfolio allocation, by common sense.