The single biggest mistake I see investors make is needlessly complicating their portfolio. I see that happen whenever somebody picks more than 3 funds. I see that happen whenever somebody decides to buy an European index fund along with a Global index fund because “US has too much weight in the Global Fund”. I see […]
Most of the personal finance literature is written from a US perspective and as a result suggests holding US domiciled funds like the SPY, VOO, VTI/VTSAX, VXUS/VTIAX and BND among many others. Due to PRIIPs many European investors can’t access US domiciled funds. Moreover, there are a few US tax traps which make investing in […]
Not infrequently I see ETF portfolios which include the following funds: iShares MSCI World iShares STOXX Europe 600 iShares S&P 500 The problem of this portfolio is that it contains different ETFs which hold the same assets. These funds have the following investment strategy: iShares MSCI World – invests in companies of 23 developed countries […]
Equities provide high returns but are very volatile – their value fluctuates significantly and it can take years to recover after serious declines. To mitigate this risk, investor often combine equities with fixed income – assets that have low volatility but have low returns. When your portfolio has a portion of fixed income, a serious […]
A typical portfolio for investors looking for global equity exposure through accumulating index funds is a combination of the iShares MSCI World and the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets. Which percentage should you allocate to which? My preference is to have exposure to each country’s companies in proportion to each country’s contribution to the world economy. […]
Occasionally I hear things along these lines: I think technology has excellent prospects and will continue to grow like no other sector. Therefore, I am willing to take an additional risk by holding a (US) technology-focused ETF so I can get exposed to its high potential returns. It is reasonably understandable to hear that given that […]
You just created your portfolio and you would like to get a second opinion: Did I miss something? How can I improve it? Should I make any changes? You may be wondering. Below is a checklist of things I pay attention to whenever looking at other portfolios. These reflect the preferences I have therefore you […]
People may recommend you to hold IWDA but you can only find SWDA on your broker. To add to the confusion you go to the iShares profile of the funds and realize that there aren’t any differences between IWDA and SWDA. What’s the catch? IWDA, SWDA, EUNL are all tickets for the iShares Core MSCI […]
justETF lists 14 S&P 500 ETFs. Which one should you choose? How do you decide which fund is more appropriate when all track the same index? When faced with choices between comparable alternatives I prefer to use defined criteria to guide my decision making. In this case I think the important criteria is (in this […]
The choice between accumulating and distributing funds is one of the most important choices you will make when picking a specific ETF. It will narrow down the amount of funds to choose from, and it will affect your returns as well as your tax-related bureaucracy. A distributing fund is a fund that will periodically, usually […]