Merriman/Pedersen 2 Funds for Life (Easy)
Paul Merriman and Chris Pedersen
In brief
The Easy implementation pairs a target-date retirement fund with a 10% U.S. small-cap value allocation.
Profile sources: Paul Merriman
- Published
- Last reviewed
At a glance
2 asset sleeves
Use contributions and withdrawals to nudge the portfolio toward 90/10; review at least annually.
Growth assets
0%
Bonds & reserves
0%
Other diversifiers
100%
Target allocation
What the portfolio holds
Vanguard Target Retirement 2045 Fund
VTIVXVTIVX
90%
U.S. small-cap value
AVUVAVUV
10%
Tickers are liquid U.S.-listed examples, not recommendations or exact historical fund selections.
Allocation sources: Paul Merriman
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
- The largest sleeve is 90% 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.
- Representative ETF results can differ from the originator's indexes, funds, taxes, fees, and execution.
Portfolio Visualizer
Compare historical performance
Backtest this allocation beside two familiar U.S. equity benchmarks. The comparison starts with $10,000, reinvests dividends, and rebalances annually.
Growth of $10,000
Monthly total returns · maximum available history
Portfolio 1
Merriman/Pedersen 2 Funds for Life (Easy)
Target allocation from this profile
Portfolio 2
S&P 500
SPY benchmark
Portfolio 3
Nasdaq-100
QQQ benchmark
Portfolio Visualizer opens in a new tab because its site does not support embedded frames. Results begin at the latest common inception date for the selected funds.
Implementation note
VTIVX is an illustrative target-date choice, not a recommendation for every investor. Select a target-date fund appropriate to the investor's circumstances. The chart holds the two funds at 90/10 and cannot reproduce contribution-based nudge rebalancing.
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.