What is the 90 10 investment strategy?

Asked by: Ms. Yadira Reilly IV  |  Last update: July 9, 2025
Score: 4.7/5 (58 votes)

The rule is relatively simple, advocating for splitting your portfolio, placing 90% of your assets into a low-cost S&P 500 index fund and the remaining 10% into short-term government bonds. The rule was first mentioned by Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and one of the best-known investors in the world.

What is the 90/10 approach?

The 90-10 principle, or the Pareto Principle, asserts that approximately 90% of outcomes result from 10% of efforts. This concept originated from the observations of Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who noted that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population.

What is Warren Buffett's number one rule?

Rule 1: Never lose money.

By following this rule, he has been able to minimize his losses and maximize his returns over time. He emphasizes this so much that he often says, “Rule number 2 is never forget rule number 1.”

What is the 90 10 rule of money?

The rule stipulates investing 90% of one's investment capital toward low-cost stock-based index funds and the remainder 10% to short-term government bonds. The strategy comes from Buffett stating that upon his death, his wife's trust would be allocated in this method.

What is Warren Buffett's golden rule?

Many novice investors lose money chasing big returns. And that's why Buffett's first rule of investing is “don't lose money”. The thing is, if an investors makes a poor investment decision and the value of that asset — stock — goes down 50%, the investment has to go 100% up to get back to where it started.

Warren Buffett's BEST Investment Strategy (90/10)

16 related questions found

What is the buffet $1 rule?

“We test the wisdom of retaining earnings by assessing whether retention, over time, delivers shareholders at least $1 of market value for each $1 retained.” This will assess whether management's capital allocation decisions are creating value for shareholders.

What is a 70/30 investment strategy?

This investment strategy seeks total return through exposure to a diversified portfolio of primarily equity, and to a lesser extent, fixed income asset classes with a target allocation of 70% equities and 30% fixed income.

What is the 90/10 rule example?

There is a big difference between eating ice cream every night as opposed to enjoying it infrequently. I called it my 90/10 rule: If you eat right 90 percent of the time, going off the reservation the other 10 percent won't have an adverse impact. It's the same for business.

What is the 50 20 money rule?

What Is the 50/30/20 Rule? The 50-30-20 rule involves splitting your after-tax income into three categories of spending: 50% goes to needs, 30% goes to wants, and 20% goes to savings. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren popularized the 50-20-30 budget rule in her book, "All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan."

What is the 70/30 rule?

The mistake most people make is assuming they must be out of debt before they start investing. In doing so, they miss out on the number one key to success in investing: TIME. (See Time, Return Resources) The 70/30 Rule is simple: Live on 70% of your income, save 20%, and give 10% to your Church, or favorite charity.

What is the #1 rule of investing?

Rule No.

1 is never lose money.

What is Warren Buffett's 2 list strategy?

Buffett's Two Lists is a productivity, prioritisation and focusing approach where you write down your top 25 goals; circle your 5 highest priorities; then focus on those 5 while 'avoiding at all costs' doing anything on the remaining 20.

What are Warren Buffett's 5 rules?

Warren Buffett's TOP5 Ground Rules
  • Never try to predict the market.
  • Investing in the "Deep Value"
  • Approach investment with a long-term mindset.
  • Have something to compare against.
  • Pay attention to the compound interest.

What is the 90 10 rule Warren Buffett?

According to Buffett, you should invest 90% of your retirement funds in stock-based index funds. According to Buffett, the remaining 10% should be invested in short-term government bonds. The government uses these to finance its projects.

What is the 90 10 method?

HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah -- Author Stephen Covey described a principle he called the 90/10 principle. Ten percent of life is made up of what happens to you. Ninety percent of life is decided by how you react. We really have no control over 10 percent of what happens to us.

What is the 90/10 model?

In the 90:10 dual language immersion (DLI) model, the target language is used in kindergarten for 90% of the instructional time and English is used for 10%.

What is the 4 money rule?

US financial planner, William P Bengen, is credited with developing the 4% rule. This states that withdrawing 4% initially from a pension pot and increasing this each year by the rate of inflation means there is little likelihood of running out of money during a 30-year period.

What is the pay yourself first strategy?

The simplest explanation is that paying yourself first means depositing a portion of each paycheck directly into your savings. The remainder is then spent on your expenses. The budget's simplicity is an important reason why it can work well.

What is the best time to start saving for retirement?

It's best to start saving as early on in your career as you can, but no one has a time machine to go back and begin stashing away money earlier if they procrastinated a little longer than they should have.

What is the 90 10 rule in finance?

The rule is relatively simple, advocating for splitting your portfolio, placing 90% of your assets into a low-cost S&P 500 index fund and the remaining 10% into short-term government bonds. The rule was first mentioned by Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and one of the best-known investors in the world.

What is the 90 10 rule for profit?

The 90–10 rule refers to a U.S. regulation that governs for-profit higher education. It caps the percentage of revenue that a proprietary school can receive from federal financial aid sources at 90%; the other 10% of revenue must come from alternative sources.

What is the 90 10 thinking strategy?

What percentage of your success (good results, good experience, good relationships) is tied to the outside and what percentage is tied to the inside? The thinking of Top 20s is that most (90%) of their happiness or success is tied to the inside world and that very little (10%) is tied to the outside conditions.

What is Warren Buffett's investment strategy?

Buffett follows the Benjamin Graham school of value investing which looks for securities with prices that are unjustifiably low based on their intrinsic worth. Buffett looks at companies as a whole rather than focusing on the supply-and-demand intricacies of the stock market.

What is 4 3 2 1 investment strategy?

Analyzing the 4-3-2-1 Rule in Real Estate

This rule outlines the ideal financial outcomes for a rental property. It suggests that for every rental property, investors should aim for a minimum of 4 properties to achieve financial stability, 3 of those properties should be debt-free, generating consistent income.

What did Warren Buffett tell his wife to invest in?

Warren Buffett has said that 90 percent of the money he leaves to his wife should be invested in stocks, with just 10 percent in cash. Does that work for non-billionaires? As far as asset allocation advice goes, 90 percent in stocks sounds pretty aggressive.