My ISA following Tim Hales 60 is £124k now. Life changing for me, yes.

My SIPP is a tad over £300k now, also technically life changing, but I'm 36 so plenty of time left.

I'll be honest, I keep looking at the Trustnet Chart Tool and thinking for my ISA, why not just move to Lloyds Share Dealing (£40 a year) and split the ~£120k 4 ways between:

- Vanguard LifeStrategy 60
- HSBC Global Strategy Balanced
- VT AJ Bell Balanced
- Fidelity Multi-Asset Allocator Growth

And move the SIPP to ii (£155 a year) and split 4 ways between:

- Vanguard LifeStrategy 80
- HSBC Global Strategy Dynamic
- VT AJ Bell Moderately Adventurous
- Fidelity Multi-Asset Allocator Adventurous

And that way I've got 4 Multi-Asset funds in each portfolio:

- 2 use passive products with fixed asset allocations (Vanguard and Fidelity)
- 2 use passive products but with actively managed asset allocations and tilts (HSBC and AJ Bell)

All 4 are very cheap.

I'm a little bit conflicted. But then when I step away, my current portfolios are full of intermediate global government bonds which will offer some crash protection should there be a crash, and the returns look favourable for the first time in a long while (4%+ yields). And there are tilts to both value and small caps, should the Mag 7 come tumbling down and things change in terms of the market cap weighted index. And there is property which adds some diversification, and in my ISA I have short dated inflation linked global government bonds. These are not bad portfolios I don't think.

It's a difficult one, that's for sure! But I will continue with the Tim Hales portfolios.

Thanks! Yes, I've really upped my contributions in the last few years as my salary has increased. I figure I may as well take advantage of this period, as who knows if I'll always be earning this much!

I figure a 20% allocation to bonds will help with volatility, and the outlook of bond returns (intermediate global government bonds) is much more positive than a few years ago.

It's quite unsettling the advice given to so many (on social media, not just here) to go 100% equities. Oh you've got 5+ years, go 100% equity, you can ride out the volatility etc. A lot easier said than done. A lot easier when we have had so few corrections (10% drops) in the last few years, let alone a full blown crash (30% drop).

Anyway, I am going to continue with the Tim Hale portfolios in both ISA and SIPP. One consideration is that in the book, Tim suggest short duration government bonds only. Something like IGLS which is 0-5 year Gilt ETF. That would certainly help with volatility, and maybe something worth considering for my ISA whilst I leave my SIPP as is, with intermediate bonds.

I mean for my pension, a big correction like that would be a gift. I'm piling in nearly £3,500 a month, so it would be ideal buying up units at 40% down from peak.

Any views on short vs intermediate duration government bonds? I feel ditching the intermediate now, of all times, is poor timing... Rates could be cut, we might see a recession, the stock market looks frothy.... All scenarios where slightly longer duration does better...

Intermediate tends to diversify stocks better. You're also securing decent nominal yields for quite a few years – if we were back to sub-inflation yields in 5 years, we'd all be back in this situation where bonds don't really make sense.

My own preference would be a barbell of short-term inflation-linked bonds, and longer-duration inflation-linked. So if you had 10% in each, you'd automatically be rebalancing out of the one that held up better, depending on what's happening.

With global debt where it is, there is an argument you shouldn't be holding much of it. Inflation-linked bonds kind of ticks the box as a real asset, so I'd rather build a base of them, which they're on yields that guarantee growing your capital after inflation.