Scott Burns Couch Portfolio
The Couch Potato Portfolio is a portfolio by Scott Burns, a finance columnist and co-founder of AssetBuilder.com, proposed in 1991. It's a dead-simple Lazy Portfolios with a 50/50 mix of stocks and bonds. The basic idea behind the portfolio is that stocks drive returns while bonds protect against market crashes and lower the overall portfolio's volatility.
Asset Allocation
| Position | Category/Sector | Target Weight |
|---|---|---|
TIP iShares TIPS Bond ETF | Inflation-Protected Bonds | 50% |
VTI Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF | Large Cap Growth Equities | 50% |
Performance
Performance Chart
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The earliest data available for this chart is Dec 5, 2003, corresponding to the inception date of TIP
Returns By Period
As of May 31, 2025, the Scott Burns Couch Portfolio returned 2.20% Year-To-Date and 7.49% of annualized return in the last 10 years.
| YTD | 1M | 6M | 1Y | 5Y* | 10Y* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
^GSPC S&P 500 | 0.51% | 6.15% | -2.00% | 12.92% | 14.19% | 10.85% |
| Scott Burns Couch Portfolio | 2.20% | 2.80% | -0.25% | 9.95% | 8.34% | 7.49% |
| Portfolio components: | ||||||
TIP iShares TIPS Bond ETF | 3.73% | -0.63% | 1.95% | 5.88% | 1.39% | 2.43% |
VTI Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF | 0.38% | 6.25% | -2.68% | 13.67% | 15.23% | 12.13% |
Monthly Returns
The table below presents the monthly returns of Scott Burns Couch Portfolio, with color gradation from worst to best to easily spot seasonal factors. Returns are adjusted for dividends.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2.20% | 0.12% | -2.54% | -0.30% | 2.80% | 2.20% | |||||||
| 2024 | 0.73% | 2.13% | 2.00% | -3.02% | 3.25% | 1.92% | 1.81% | 1.47% | 1.76% | -1.30% | 3.62% | -2.40% | 12.38% |
| 2023 | 4.50% | -1.89% | 2.78% | 0.57% | -0.38% | 3.24% | 1.86% | -1.38% | -3.38% | -1.68% | 6.06% | 3.90% | 14.61% |
| 2022 | -4.06% | -0.78% | 0.59% | -5.64% | -0.64% | -5.60% | 6.82% | -3.23% | -8.00% | 4.76% | 3.55% | -3.69% | -15.79% |
| 2021 | -0.03% | 0.72% | 1.72% | 3.24% | 0.73% | 1.62% | 2.21% | 1.34% | -2.64% | 3.88% | -0.32% | 2.12% | 15.42% |
| 2020 | 1.04% | -3.50% | -7.54% | 8.05% | 3.12% | 1.63% | 4.05% | 4.07% | -2.06% | -1.32% | 6.50% | 2.97% | 17.16% |
| 2019 | 5.00% | 1.77% | 1.67% | 2.08% | -2.43% | 3.84% | 0.87% | 0.10% | 0.32% | 1.04% | 2.06% | 1.60% | 19.24% |
| 2018 | 2.18% | -2.43% | -0.49% | 0.16% | 1.54% | 0.68% | 1.39% | 2.07% | -0.37% | -4.47% | 1.22% | -4.18% | -2.96% |
| 2017 | 1.37% | 2.06% | 0.03% | 0.76% | 0.49% | 0.04% | 1.17% | 0.59% | 0.87% | 1.21% | 1.58% | 1.06% | 11.79% |
| 2016 | -2.06% | 0.63% | 4.25% | 0.43% | 0.55% | 1.25% | 2.32% | -0.06% | 0.46% | -1.37% | 1.20% | 1.02% | 8.81% |
| 2015 | 0.27% | 2.10% | -0.82% | 0.65% | 0.14% | -1.35% | 1.12% | -3.54% | -1.67% | 4.14% | 0.24% | -1.57% | -0.51% |
| 2014 | -0.54% | 2.60% | -0.01% | 0.69% | 2.05% | 1.49% | -1.04% | 2.36% | -2.34% | 1.82% | 1.33% | -0.52% | 8.04% |
Expense Ratio
Scott Burns Couch Portfolio has an expense ratio of 0.11%, which is considered low. Below, you can find the expense ratios of the portfolio's funds side by side and easily compare their relative costs.
Risk-Adjusted Performance
Risk-Adjusted Performance Rank
The current rank of Scott Burns Couch Portfolio is 65, indicating average performance compared to other portfolios on our website. Here’s a breakdown of how it compares using common performance measures.
Risk-Adjusted Performance Indicators
This table presents a comparison of risk-adjusted performance metrics for positions. Risk-adjusted metrics are performance indicators that assess an investment's returns in relation to its risk, enabling a more accurate comparison of different investment options.
| Sharpe ratio | Sortino ratio | Omega ratio | Calmar ratio | Martin ratio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
TIP iShares TIPS Bond ETF | 1.25 | 1.74 | 1.22 | 0.60 | 3.74 |
VTI Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF | 0.68 | 0.98 | 1.14 | 0.63 | 2.36 |
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Dividends
Dividend yield
Scott Burns Couch Portfolio provided a 2.10% dividend yield over the last twelve months.
| TTM | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio | 2.10% | 1.89% | 2.08% | 4.31% | 2.75% | 1.30% | 1.76% | 2.37% | 1.89% | 1.70% | 1.16% | 1.71% |
| Portfolio components: | ||||||||||||
TIP iShares TIPS Bond ETF | 2.90% | 2.52% | 2.73% | 6.96% | 4.28% | 1.17% | 1.75% | 2.71% | 2.07% | 1.48% | 0.34% | 1.67% |
VTI Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF | 1.29% | 1.27% | 1.44% | 1.67% | 1.21% | 1.42% | 1.78% | 2.04% | 1.71% | 1.92% | 1.98% | 1.76% |
Drawdowns
Drawdowns Chart
The Drawdowns chart displays portfolio losses from any high point along the way. Drawdowns are calculated considering price movements and all distributions paid, if any.
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Worst Drawdowns
The table below displays the maximum drawdowns of the Scott Burns Couch Portfolio. A maximum drawdown is a measure of risk, indicating the largest reduction in portfolio value due to a series of losing trades.
The maximum drawdown for the Scott Burns Couch Portfolio was 31.99%, occurring on Mar 9, 2009. Recovery took 393 trading sessions.
The current Scott Burns Couch Portfolio drawdown is 0.97%.
Depth | Start | To Bottom | Bottom | To Recover | End | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -31.99% | May 20, 2008 | 202 | Mar 9, 2009 | 393 | Sep 28, 2010 | 595 |
| -19.76% | Feb 20, 2020 | 20 | Mar 18, 2020 | 56 | Jun 8, 2020 | 76 |
| -19.57% | Dec 31, 2021 | 189 | Sep 30, 2022 | 359 | Mar 7, 2024 | 548 |
| -10.63% | Aug 30, 2018 | 80 | Dec 24, 2018 | 59 | Mar 21, 2019 | 139 |
| -9.44% | Feb 20, 2025 | 34 | Apr 8, 2025 | — | — | — |
Volatility
Volatility Chart
The chart below shows the rolling one-month volatility.
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Diversification
Diversification Metrics
Number of Effective Assets
The portfolio contains 2 assets, with an effective number of assets of 2.00, reflecting the diversification based on asset allocation. This number of effective assets suggests a highly concentrated portfolio, where a few assets dominate the allocation, potentially increasing the portfolio's risk due to lack of diversification.
Asset Correlations Table
| ^GSPC | TIP | VTI | Portfolio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ^GSPC | 1.00 | -0.11 | 0.99 | 0.91 |
| TIP | -0.11 | 1.00 | -0.10 | 0.22 |
| VTI | 0.99 | -0.10 | 1.00 | 0.92 |
| Portfolio | 0.91 | 0.22 | 0.92 | 1.00 |
AI Insight on Diversification
The portfolio is moderately diversified with a mix of positions that contribute differently to overall risk and return characteristics. The correlation matrix shows that TIP (Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities) and VTI (a broad U.S. stock market ETF) have a slightly negative correlation of -0.1, which is beneficial for diversification as these assets tend to move somewhat independently or in opposite directions. This low correlation helps reduce overall portfolio volatility.
However, the portfolio's correlation with VTI is very high at 0.92, indicating that the portfolio's performance is largely driven by the stock market exposure represented by VTI. In contrast, the portfolio's correlation with TIP is much lower at 0.22, suggesting that TIP provides some diversification benefits but does not dominate the portfolio's behavior.
Since VTI has a strong influence on the portfolio's returns, it likely represents a substantial portion of the portfolio’s allocation, making the portfolio somewhat concentrated in equities. The relatively low correlation between TIP and VTI helps mitigate this concentration risk to some extent, but the dominance of VTI means the portfolio is more sensitive to equity market movements.
Overall, the portfolio balances equity exposure with inflation-protected bonds, achieving moderate diversification. It is not heavily concentrated in highly correlated positions that would undermine diversification, but the strong influence of VTI suggests the portfolio leans toward equity risk rather than being broadly diversified across uncorrelated assets.