Your ideal allocation isn’t fixed for life. The risk you can afford falls as you get older and your time horizon shrinks — so a good portfolio evolves.
The glide path
A glide path is a plan to gradually shift your allocation from stocks toward bonds as you age. Early on, with decades ahead, you can hold mostly stocks and ride out the swings. As retirement approaches, you steadily dial down stocks and build up bonds and cash, so a crash just before you need the money can’t wreck your plans.
It’s the risk/horizon idea from the beginner tier, applied across a whole lifetime.
Target-date funds
Doing this by hand takes discipline, so the industry packaged it: a target-date fund. You pick the fund named for roughly your retirement year (e.g. “Retirement 2055”), and it automatically follows a glide path — starting stock-heavy and gradually getting more conservative over the decades, with no action from you. One fund, fully diversified, self-adjusting.
The caveats
Target-date funds are a genuinely good default, but they’re one-size-fits-all: two people retiring the same year get the same glide path regardless of their other wealth, risk tolerance, or goals. Glide paths also differ between providers (some end more conservative than others), and fees vary. They’re an excellent starting point — just know it’s a generic plan, not a personalised one.
The takeaway
A glide path shifts your mix from stocks toward bonds as your horizon shortens with age; target-date funds automate it in a single, self-adjusting holding. A great hands-off default — just remember it’s generic, not tailored to you. (This is education, not financial advice.)