International Stock Investments

[chinaco]

How would you structure your international stock investments?

For example: VG has 3 index funds:

• PAC Stock Index
• EUR Stock Index
• Emerging Stock Index

They also have the FTSE all world (Ex US) index which is a combination of the three plus some other stocks and even though it is an index... the management policy allows for some active management.


The answer to this depends on whether you want to slice and dice yourself or let the manager do it.

How are you going to position you portfolio for the next Bull Run... and let's be positive and pretend there will be one in the next 5 years.

[walkinwood]

I use a developed international value fund HAINX, and an emerging market index VWO.
I've owned HAINX for over 15 years and since its done well, I've let it be rather than switching to an index fund.

Right now, this is in disarray. But, I'm moving small amounts into both monthly to bring them back up to their asset allocation.

[DblDoc]

I have most of my international in a taxable account. That captures the foreign tax credit. I switch between VEA + VWO with VEU when tax loss harvesting. VEU contains about 20% EM, VEA has all developed markets ex Canada.

DD

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chinaco The answer to this depends on whether you want to slice and dice yourself or let the manager do it.

I'd rather go with an index of dividend-paying stocks. Foreign disclosure and GAAP compliance are probably even more shaky than American companies, but it's pretty hard to lie about a record of paying dividends.

PowerShares International Dividend ETF-- PID.

[LOL!]

PID is not as value-y as EFV. PID may even have a smaller yield.

Vanguard has other int'l index funds. VEA is one of them. I own VEU now, but tax-loss harvest between VEU and VEA+VWO just like DblDoc. In essence, you are gonna have to own these at some point in time, so there is really no point in worrying about the details. Flip a coin and go for it.

So what I do is buy VEU and overweight emerging a little bit by buying additional VWO or EEM.

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LOL! PID is not as value-y as EFV. PID may even have a smaller yield.

The ongoing concern about EFV (and most other MSCI EAFE funds) is its exposure to Japan. But oboy what a yield.

OTOH maybe I should be thinking that Japan can't possibly get any worse and that the Japanese companies in EFV represent the survivors best of a beaten-up bunch. That logic has worked for 18 years, right?

[freebird5825]

i had 12% in international funds. i don't feel like looking right now to see what it had degraded to. my imaginary ostrich sez not to look for now...
i like the KISS method - all international is now parked in VEURX. a few of my balanced funds have some international exposure, mostly the Americas.

[bamsphd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chinaco How would you structure your international stock investments? For example: VG has 3 index funds: PAC Stock Index EUR Stock Index Emerging Stock Index How are you going to position you portfolio for the next Bull Run... and let's be positive and pretend there will be one in the next 5 years.

More by historical accident than any other reason, I have one third of my international equity exposure in each of those three funds. I've decided to stick with that allocation going forward.

If I was starting off fresh today, I would use Vanguard's total world market fund for my equities, and keep it really simple.