Don't Act Now

Sitting tight may be the best responseto the recent interest rate increases fromAlan Greenspan and gang, some financialgurus say. If your asset allocation isalready where you want it to be, shiftingmoney now from one asset class to anothermay hurt your portfolio in the longrun. Although your bond funds may takea hit early on in the rising interest ratecycle because of lower bond prices, overtime, the higher yields will overcome theinitial drop. You can lower your interestrate risk by shifting some of your bondallocation to a higher-risk sector like junkbonds, but that increases your creditrisk. And although money market yieldsshould bounce off their historic lows, itmay be several months before they're outof the inflation-adjusted negative territorythey've been in for the past few years.