International Investing Percent Allocation

[UnrealizedPotential]

I have about 20% international exposure. I feel that is plenty. I want exposure but I don't want to rely on other parts of the World where if something goes horribly wrong I can't recover.

 

[W2R]

I still believe the USA is the place to be.

+1

My AA calls for 45% equity funds. Of that,

12% is the equity portion of Wellesley and Wellington
20% is VTSAX (Total Stock Market Index Fund)
13% is VFWAX (FTSE All-World Ex-US Index Fund)

This is not very high in international but it is satisfactory for me. I have had the same AA for years and do not plan to change it.

 

[rodi]

I have about 10% in international.

 

[Lsbcal]

Regarding international correlation with US, I think that large cap international is pretty highly correlated with large cap US. But small cap international is more where the action is and the correlation is weaker i.e. international small cap can have periods of strong out performance versus US small cap.

 

[Senator]

Regarding international correlation with US, I think that large cap international is pretty highly correlated with large cap US. But small cap international is more where the action is and the correlation is weaker i.e. international small cap can have periods of strong out performance versus US small cap.

Exactly. That is what makes international stocks/ETFs/Funds hard to 'pick'... The USA small caps can be tracked with the Russel/IWM.

 

[kramer]

62% International, 38% USA

 

[target2019]

We use a simple formula for int'l equities. Ratio of US:Int'l 2:1. Ratio of Developed:Emerging 6:4.

 

[Walt34]

I have about 10% in international.

Same thing here.

 

[braumeister]

I keep about 5% of my total portfolio in international equities.

Since the standard Jack Bogle recommendation is no more than 20% of your equities, if your equity allocation is 60% of the total, your international equities would be a max of 12% of the total, right?

 

[NW-Bound]

My stock AA is currently 50% (it used to be as high as 70-80%).

About 1/3 of the equities is foreign. This ratio is somewhat constant, as I trimmed back proportionally my stock AA between the domestic and foreign categories.

 

[tennisplyr]

My overall AA is 50/50. My international allocation tends to be 15-20% of equities...that's enough for me.

 

[brett]

30 percent of our equities are international. They have been our best performers over the last several years.

 

[bamsphd]

The equity portion of my portfolio is split 50/50 US/International and has been since before the the DOT.COM crash. The International portion is split into equal portions of Vanguard's European, Asian, and Emerging Market indexes because those were the only choices when I started, and I would not want to pay the capital gains needed to switch now.

I rebalance towards my target whenever I buy/sell equities. If my portfolio or the US market is hitting a new one year or longer high I allow myself to decrease my portfolio's overall equity percentage, but don't change the 50/50 US/International split. Likewise if hitting a new one year or longer low I allow myself to increase my portfolio's overall equity percentage. At the moment I'm 55% equities, 45% bonds with a rule that if the portfolio's equities drop below 51% or exceed 59% I must rebalance. Given this week's stock market highs I could lower the target percentage of equities right now if I wanted. That is my only "market timing."

Rebalancing means I was buying as Europe headed south, buying as Asia got "messy," and farther in the past was buying when Emerging was crashing. I've also sold when rebalancing.

International has lagged US for years at a time, but US has also lagged international for years at a time. The joy of diversification.