Steady return.

These days, most money managers talk about "beating the market," or "minimizing risk." But from his vantage point on Indian Hill in Claremont, investment adviser Don Gould has a different outlook: He wants to aim an arrow at real, inflation-adjusted returns of 7 percent a year.

To achieve his goal Gould, who founded Gould Asset Management LLC in 1999 after working for money giant Franklin Templeton for six years, first makes estimates on the expected returns of 20 different asset classes, including domestic and foreign stocks and bonds, high-yield instruments, REITs and other categories, on a monthly basis.

Then he makes an allocation among the 20 categories, to hit the 7 percent real target (currently about 10 percent, after inflation), while minimizing risk.

As a private adviser, Gould does not reveal his exact portfolio, but last week allowed that its about 30 percent in equities currently, and the rest in bonds. He does not buy individual stocks and bonds, but rather indexes or funds, and he does not leverage or short the market, he said.

Though tight-lipped, Gould did say his portfolio has little or no exposure to the Far East, high-yield bonds, and perhaps surprisingly, nothing in the fat dividend-paying REIT sector.

The strategy "has worked since 1994," in hitting the targets, says Gould, a Pomona College grad and Harvard MBA holder.

He has back-tested the data to the 1920s -- though it should be noted that investment schemes of all sorts are routinely shredded by the market, and Gould's best-laid plans could suffer the same fate.

Why even settle for 7 percent real return? Gould answers that Wall Street is not always a winner. From 1968 to 1982, it was not, and historically many five-year periods are not. "If you want part of your portfolio to be reliable," said Gould, "you might want to invest with me."

But bring along $250,000; that's Gould's minimum account size.

Contributing columnist Benjamin Marl Cole writes about the local investment community for the Los Angeles Business Journal.