Retirees Who Check Their Balance Every Day Sell at the Worst Times. These 3 ETFs Are Built to Be Ignored for a Decade
Checking your brokerage app every morning feels responsible, but Morningstar's research suggests it costs retirees far more than any fee ever could. Three iShares ETFs are specifically engineered to make you stop looking, and that boredom is exactly the point.
You know the pattern. Coffee at 7, brokerage app at 7:03, and by 7:04 your mood is set for the day. When the market wobbles, your finger hovers over “Sell.” That habit is quietly one of the most expensive things in your retirement, and three iShares funds are engineered specifically for the retiree who needs to stop looking. The iShares Core Moderate Allocation ETF (NYSEARCA:AOM) is the one-ticket balanced portfolio. The iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF (NYSEARCA:ITOT) is the entire U.S. stock market in one line. The iShares Core Total USD Bond Market ETF (NASDAQ:IUSB) is the ballast that keeps you from jumping ship.
Your Real Problem Sits in the Mirror
Morningstar’s latest Mind the Gap study puts a number on the damage: investors earned roughly 1.2 percentage points per year less than the funds they owned, equivalent to forfeiting around 15% of the funds’ total gains over the decade from 2015 through 2024. That shortfall comes from timing. It is you selling in March when the VIX spiked to 31.05 on March 27 and buying back in July when it settled to 14.87.
The fix is a portfolio boring enough that checking it feels pointless. These three funds are built for exactly that.
AOM: One Ticker, Whole Portfolio, Zero Rebalancing
AOM is a fund of iShares funds calibrated to a 40/60 stock-to-bond mix. As of April 30, 2026, roughly 49% sits in the iShares Core Universal USD Bond ETF, another 8.5% in international bonds, 23.8% in the S&P 500, and the rest spread across mid-caps, small-caps, developed international, and emerging markets. BlackRock rebalances it for you.
The net expense ratio is 0.15%, meaning about $998.50 of every $1,000 keeps working. It has paid quarterly distributions since 2008, with a trailing 12-month payout of $1.52 per share. Returns are modest and steady by design: up 7.55% over the past year and 78.7% over the past decade. That is the point. When stocks drop 20%, the bond half cushions the blow so your statement doesn’t scream at you.
ITOT: The Entire U.S. Stock Market for Three Basis Points
If you want a bit more growth in the mix, ITOT is the cleanest equity core money can buy. It tracks the S&P Total Market Index, which holds thousands of U.S. companies from Apple down to the smallest listed names. The net expense ratio is 0.03%, so $9,997 of every $10,000 remains invested. There is no active manager to second-guess, no sector bet to unwind, no reason to tinker.
Performance has rewarded the sit-and-wait approach: up 17.54% over the past year, 80.21% over five years, and 300.51% over the last ten. Its trailing 12-month distribution of about $1.69 per share arrives quarterly and grows with corporate earnings.
IUSB: The Monthly Paycheck That Steadies Your Hand
Pair ITOT with IUSB and you have the do-it-yourself version of AOM at even lower cost. IUSB holds a broad slice of investment-grade U.S. bonds across Treasuries, agencies, corporates, and securitized debt, at a 0.06% expense ratio on roughly $43.85 billion in assets.
Two features matter for the daily-checker. First, IUSB pays monthly distributions, most recently $0.167975 per share on September 1, 2026, adding up to a $1.95 trailing 12-month total. Twelve small income payments a year give your brain something positive to focus on when equity prices are falling. Second, with the 10-year Treasury at 5.01%, newly purchased bonds are generating real income again after years of near-zero yields.
Real Trade-Off Before You Buy
None of these funds will win bragging rights at the dinner table. AOM’s bond-heavy tilt means it will lag a raging bull market, and its price is essentially flat over the past month at $49.62. IUSB is barely positive on the year at a 0.25% one-year gain, because rising yields pressured existing bond prices even as the coupon stream improved. And ITOT will still hand you a 30% drawdown in the next real bear market. That is the nature of stocks, and a drop that lands in your first few years of withdrawals does far more damage than one a decade in, which is exactly the case we made in a free guide to defending the first five years of retirement.
They belong in your account because they remove every reason to trade. No sector calls, no manager risk, no story to abandon. You already know your weakness is the app, not the market. Embrace the boredom, close the app, and let a decade of compounding do the work.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Ryne Mauck is an investment writer covering exchange-traded funds, retirement planning, and portfolio strategy. Through his work at 24/7 Wall St. and other investment platforms, including Seeking Alpha, he aims to provide clear, research-driven insights that help investors make more informed decisions while maintaining a long-term approach to investing.
Ryne holds a B.Sc. in Finance and an M.A. in Political Science. He is a formerly registered Municipal Advisor Representative and has passed the Series 50, Series 63, and Series 65 exams. His articles are not intended to be, nor should they be interpreted as, financial advice.
