How much of the stock portion of your portfolio is International?

[hpnutty]

Vanguard is now recommending that we should keep 18% of our portfolio in International (headquartered outside of the US) stocks. This is an increase of 12% from last year. How much of your portfolio is in International stock?

 

[Alan]

Vanguard is now recommending that we should keep 18% of our portfolio in International (headquartered outside of the US) stocks. This is an increase of 12% from last year. How much of your portfolio is in International stock?

Do you have a link to the article?

18% of entire portfolio regardless of age? or 18% of the stock portion of portfolio?

 

[hpnutty]

Do you have a link to the article?

18% of entire portfolio regardless of age? or 18% of the stock portion of portfolio?

Part of a conversation with my Vanguard CFP today. No link.

 

[hpnutty]

18% of total regardless of age.

 

[Alan]

Part of a conversation with my Vanguard CFP today. No link.

18% of total regardless of age.

I assume that if it is after a review with yourself, then it will be tailored to your circumstances.

e.g. I can't see an 80 year old being advised to keep 18% of their total portfolio in international stocks.

I guess what I am saying is that your poll will not mean a lot if you are looking to see what others in a similar situation as yourself are doing.

 

[photoguy]

I'm surprised your top category is only 20%. My target is that international should be 40% of equities which is 73% of my total portfolio.

 

[hpnutty]

I assume that if it is after a review with yourself, then it will be tailored to your circumstances.

e.g. I can't see an 80 year old being advised to keep 18% of their total portfolio in international stocks.

I guess what I am saying is that your poll will not mean a lot if you are looking to see what others in a similar situation as yourself are doing.

Agreed with your assessment. I think I should have changed the poll to read what percentage of your stock investment is in international stocks? Alan, since you are a mod how about we delete this thread and start again with the appropriate question and categories that are more appropriate?

 

[Alan]

I changed the title and poll to reflect the stock portion of one's portfolio.

That should work I think as each asset class should be diversified. (according to many)

 

[pb4uski]

I currently have 27% according to Portfolio Watch which gives me an "OK - Your investments in foreign stocks are adding an important level of diversification to your portfolio". My current target is 25% of equities.

 

[FIREd]

About 5% for me. I get currency diversification in other ways.

 

[Animorph]

Tops out at 20%? I'm at 50%, roughly following global market cap and equal portfolio AA weighting. More to rebalance with, and in the long run international stocks should perform about the same as the U.S., only different.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

0%, although many of the stocks in my portfolio derive a majority of their earnings from outside the US.

 

[NW-Bound]

70% of my portfolio is in equities. Of that 70%, 1/3 of it is in international.

 

[target2019]

60% equity
:
2/3 US, 1/3 Int'l
:
3/4 Developed, 1/4 Emerging

 

[foxfirev5]

Currently 20.6% . My personal range is 20-25% of equities

 

[RockyMtn]

5% of total portfolio in International which equals just under 10% of my equities allocation.

 

[rescueme]

25% international (compared to all equities held) for us...

I can't see ever going below this percentage with the equity holdings that I/DW hold.

Heck, our heavy investment in the health care (drugs, development, services) sector has most of the companies based in Euroland, along with various other sectors in the world, outside of health care.

It's a flat earth for equity investments, IMHO.

 

[Alan]

The equities portion is 38% of of the portfolio, of which 12% is international.

 

[MooreBonds]

Equities are ~85% of total investment portfolio*
Foreign stocks are ~33% of the equities (28% of total investments).


*Basically, all holdings (REITs, utilities, which aren't bond ETFs or preferred stocks are lumped as "equities". Also excludes money held in savings bonds earmarked for paying off the house.

Also, because it's not that critical of a calculation, and because my portfolio has an unwieldy # of holdings (exceeding 400), I marked down the numbers above by 1% to reflect small positions in Wellesley/Wellington/etc. which have some bond holdings.

 

[Focus]

This 2009 post by the Oblivious Investor provides a good overview:

International Allocation: Maximum and Minimum

He mentions Vanguard's recommendations. Based on a Vanguard report I read, I ended up choosing 30%.

 

[Sirka]

International investment

we should keep 18% of our portfolio in International (headquartered outside of the US) stocks.

I reduced the global investment from 15% to 11.9%, because I am worried about the Spain and Greece taking down the Euro zone further into recession.

 

[Sirka]

When I changed my calculation to stocks only I got 31.8% global. That is much higher %, now that I have lot more cash and less stocks. It's tricky!

 

[devans0]

I am an extreme outlier. Avoiding home bias is my reason. Global wealth is 60% to USA's 40%. My equity and bond ratios are both aimed at that asset allocation.

 

[NW-Bound]

For people who do not mind spending the time and are willing to tinker, one can get ETFs that are country specific, if he does not feel comfortable owning the entire world market.

 

[HFWR]

Approximates: 35% equities

20% S&P500
5% Russ2000
5% VGK (MSCI Europe)
5% VPL (MSCI PAcific)