I spend a lot of time with financial planners – normally at conferences where planners often have a cleansing ale or seven… And they always ask what I am investing in personally.Why do they think a tax nerd knows anything about asset allocation…

But i like to pretend I don’t put it all in listed banks and tell them this…

Each quarter the Commissioner releases a summary of SMSFs and in it he gives the average asset allocation for SMSFs – http://www.ato.gov.au/Super/Self-managed-super-funds/In-detail/Statistics/Annual-reports/Self-managed-superannuation-funds–A-statistical-overview-2011-2012/?default=&page=41#Table_15__SMSF_asset_allocations__2012_

This tells us the following allocation is the average:

33% cash and fixed interest
29% listed shares
12% commercial property
8.5% unlisted trusts
4.3% other managed investments
3.6% residential property
3.5% listed trusts

So i say 1/3rd cash, 1/3rd listed shares, 1/6th property and 1/6th trusts… And i spent a year studying applied finance… What ever they say after this I say “that’s not the general allocation” and then i get back to my beer…