I’ve been tracking these "Lazy" portfolios as a benchmark for my own active investing. In my case, I know if I'm not beating the Aggressive Benchmark in actual dollars, I'm making a mistake.
If you're doing your year-end portfolio review, here is the 2025 performance data and the 2026 YTD returns for the standard passive benchmarks (based on efficient, low-fee iShares ETFs, XAW/XIC/XBB and PSA.TO):
|**Portfolio**|**2025 Return**|**2026 Return**|
|:-|:-|:-|
|**Aggressive**|**20.2%**|**4.2%**|
|**Balanced**|**13.5%**|**2.7%**|
|**Conservative**|**8.0%**|**1.6%**|
|**Risk-Free**|**2.6%**|**0.1%**|
The **"Benchmark Gap"** I’ve been running these numbers for myself to see the "Benchmark Gap" which is the actual dollar difference between my account and these portfolios had I just invested in them. Seeing that gap in dollars has completely changed how I view the time and effort I spend on my active trades.
Good luck.