What is a Glide Path? A Glide Path is a pre-planned schedule for shifting a portfolio’s asset allocation, typically from stock-heavy to bond-heavy or vice versa, over time as an investor approaches or moves through retirement. Target-date funds use a glide path automatically; FIRE practitioners often build a custom one to manage Sequence of Returns Risk around their specific retirement date.
Worked example: a “rising equity glide path” starts conservative right at retirement and grows more aggressive over time. At retirement (age 50), hold 50% stocks / 50% bonds. By age 60, shift to 70/30. By age 70, shift to 90/10. This structure protects the portfolio during the highest-risk early retirement years, then leans into growth once the sequence-risk window has passed.
| Age at retirement | Stock allocation | Bond allocation |
|---|---|---|
| 50 (retirement) | 50% | 50% |
| 60 | 70% | 30% |
| 70 | 90% | 10% |
This is the reverse of the traditional “declining equity” glide path used by most target-date funds, which get more conservative with age. Research on early retirees (via the Bond Tent concept) suggests the rising-equity path can improve portfolio survival odds specifically because it protects capital during the years when a crash does the most damage. Whichever direction, the point of a glide path is to remove emotional guesswork, the allocation shift is decided years in advance.