How often do you rebalance your portfolio?

[Pat Southern]

I've never rebalanced my portfolio and due to unequal returns I'm pretty sure I should. The only thing I really know about investing is that I know nothing. With that in mind, over the past 2.5 years I've sporadically thrown my money into 3 vanguard funds: S&P, small cap value and emerging markets (as a tournament player most investments came in large chunks not consistent deposits).

My cost basis for these 3 are about 40%, 40%, 20%(respectively).
My portfolio is now about 35%, 35%, 30%.

My question is is this disparity worth reallocating to my normal investments?

[jut111]

if it's in a taxable account, i'd say don't bother rebalancing. If it's in a tax sheltered account, go ahead and rebalance, once a year is a good rule of thumb to take advantage of trending.

[Sniper]

If you wanted to kepep it simple, you would do your rebalancing when you add to your invesments.

Should you rebalance is a question that only you can answer... are you comfortable with the current distribution of your equity?

[Nomad84]

If nothing else, each time you make new deposits, you should use them to try to bring your portfolio back to your desired allocations. In other words, you may or may not actually need to sell anything in order to rebalance.

[Pat Southern]

I haven't put money in since last September when I pretty much stopped playing poker, and don't plan on putting money in anytime soon. Its not sheltered from taxes and I guess I'm comfortable with the allocation so I'll just stay put. Thanks for the advice.

[Jeff W]

If taxable, I would only rebalance by addition (new assets) to avoid capital gains tax. In an IRA, there's no reason you shouldn't rebalance.