Afford Anything · Tuesday, August 11, 2026
Joe Saul-Sehy expresses a general agreement with the caller that risk parity portfolios might be too conservative for early retirees. He notes that while the math behind risk parity is sound, he has concerns about its behavioral aspects and the rigidity of adhering to a single investment philosophy, especially when many experienced investors do not strictly follow it.
“And so to jump straight into it, first of all, I am with you on the thinking risk parity is a little bit too conservative. I'm totally there.”
“I think it's requires an allocation that might be a bit not ideal. I think there's some other issues with risk parity which have mostly been outlined in a recent piece, a very recent piece from our friend Bigger Earn, uh, Karen Gjesky wrote, uh, pretty much a takedown of risk parity and talked about why he does not like risk parity.”
“I also don't like being locked into a single philosophy because everything works until it doesn't.”