2 Funds for Life Aggressive (2045 Example)
Paul Merriman and Chris Pedersen
In brief
A dated example of the Aggressive glide path: a 20% small-cap-value base plus 2.5% for every whole year remaining until 2045.
Profile sources: Merriman Financial Education Foundation
- Published
- Last reviewed
At a glance
2 asset sleeves
Recalculate the target annually and rebalance to a 20% base plus 2.5% in small-cap value for each whole year remaining until 2045.
Growth assets
0%
Bonds & reserves
0%
Other diversifiers
100%
Target allocation
What the portfolio holds
Vanguard Target Retirement 2045 Fund — 2026 example weight
VTIVXVTIVX
32.5%
U.S. small-cap value — 2026 example weight
AVUVAVUV
67.5%
Tickers are liquid U.S.-listed examples, not recommendations or exact historical fund selections.
Allocation sources: Merriman Financial Education Foundation
Decision context
Potential advantages and trade-offs
These observations follow from the displayed allocation and implementation. They are not a recommendation or a prediction of future performance.
Potential advantages
- Uses only 2 sleeves, which makes the displayed target allocation straightforward to understand and maintain.
- Makes its factor tilts explicit rather than hiding them inside a broad-market allocation.
- Publishes explicit target weights, making drift and rebalancing decisions measurable.
Important trade-offs
- Very high risk means losses and drawdowns can be substantial even when the long-term thesis remains unchanged.
- The largest sleeve is 67.5% of the portfolio, so its behavior can dominate the result.
- The displayed equity allocation has no dedicated international sleeve and is exposed to U.S.-market concentration.
- Factor tilts can lag broad markets for long periods and require tolerance for persistent tracking error.
Portfolio Visualizer
Compare historical performance
Compare this documented changing-allocation ETF proxy beside two familiar U.S. equity benchmarks. The comparison starts with $10,000 and uses monthly total-return data.
Growth of $10,000
Monthly total returns · maximum available history
Portfolio 1
2 Funds for Life Aggressive (2045 Example)
Target allocation from this profile
Portfolio 2
S&P 500
SPY benchmark
Portfolio 3
Nasdaq-100
QQQ benchmark
This local chart applies the cited annual glide-path formula to a transparent 2045 example. It is not a personal retirement recommendation, and results begin at the latest common fund inception.
Historical analysis
Risk, return, and implementation context
These are modeled historical statistics for the displayed ETF implementation—not actual investor results, a forecast, or a recommendation. The calculations use bundled adjusted-price observations obtained throughYahoo Finance ↗; market data was refreshed Aug 21, 2026.
Historical statistics unavailable
This rules-based portfolio requires its changing-allocation engine; static target-weight statistics would be misleading.
Estimated fund expenses
Incomplete issuer coverage: not applicable to this profile. Missing fees are not treated as zero.
Overlap warning
Ticker-level weights do not reveal security-level duplication. Review each fund’s current holdings before concluding that the sleeves are independent.
Tax context
Fund distributions and rebalancing sales may create taxable income or gains in a taxable account. Account type and individual circumstances matter; this page does not estimate after-tax return.
IRS Publication 550 ↗Related portfolios
Implementation note
The displayed 32.5/67.5 allocation is the transparent 2026 snapshot of a changing rule, not a permanent target. The local chart applies the rule historically with 2045 as the assumed retirement year, caps small-cap value at 100%, uses VTIVX and AVUV as investable proxies, and omits taxes and trading costs.
Sources and context
Target allocations are educational examples, not personalized advice. Fund availability, taxes, trading costs, account type, time horizon, and capacity for loss can all change the appropriate implementation. Historical diversification does not guarantee future results.
Sources document the strategy, underlying methodology, or the representative funds used here. ETF tickers are illustrative U.S.-listed implementations and may differ from an originator’s original funds or current model.