International Equities

[al4trade]

How best to enter international equity exposure to the allocation section of advanced Firecalc? Most of my international exposure is via EFA (the EAFE ETF).

Thanks

 

[mickeyd]

How best to enter international equity exposure to the allocation section of advanced Firecalc? Most of my international exposure is via EFA (the EAFE ETF).

I'm sorry, I have no idea what this means. Could you rephrase it for me?

If you are looking for a great international fund, look at the Vanguard "Total International Stock Index Fund". It has a 62% Euro, 26% Pac, 12% EM mix. I have owned it for several years and it is a perfect fit for my AA.

Here is the link to TIF https://flagship4.vanguard.com/VGApp/hnw/FundsSnapshotSec?FundId=0113&FundIntExt=INT

 

[al4trade]

Sorry for the confusion.

I'm trying to determine where to put my international equities when filling out the allocation page. There are places for micro cap, small cap, small cap value, large cap value and S&P 500, but no where to allocate to international.

Thanks

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

mickeyd,

After messing around for years trying to sort out an international protfolio, I have 4/5 of my international in Vanguard's Total International Stock Index Fund.

al4trade,

I have 100% of my money in equities, 50% of which is in international funds. According to Less Antman, a 50/50 domestic/international indexed portfolio has never been underwater for more than 5 years (later modified to 5.5 years, but close enough for me).

Paul Merriman at http://www.fundadvice.com/articles/retirement/the-ultimate-buy-and-hold-strategy.html
also claims something similar and shows the numbers. (This is only one of a couple of his articles on the subject. You may have to do a little searching.)

Best of luck.

Ed

 

[al4trade]

Ed

When you are entering your asset allocation into Firecalc Advanced's "how is it invested" allocation section, where do you put your 50% international exposure?

Thanks
Al4trade

 

[REWahoo]

When you are entering your asset allocation into Firecalc Advanced's "how is it invested" allocation section, where do you put your 50% international exposure?

Thanks
Al4trade

From FAQ's: "FIRECalc's standard model uses the overall US stock market performance."

For that reason, there is no place to include international exposure in FIRECalc. That option was discussed when Dory36 updated the program earlier this year. Here's what he had to say when asked about it:

I built the new version to accommodate new sources of data as they become available, but haven't done much to acquire such data -- as most providers seem to be selling to very well funded research departments and not lowly retired Dilberts, and even with stiff prices, most data cannot be used in a tool like this without violating their licenses.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

al4trade,

Once again I was answering the wrong question. Sorry.

I don't know much about Firecalc itself (although I did some exploring with it a couple of years ago), and nothing about Firecalc Advanced. It wasn't my primary tool.

I did use John Greaney's calculator and a couple of gummy's to get a feel for the sensitivity of the calculations and decide which asset categories to look at closer. The basic priciples are simple and all I need is 'simple'.

Ed

 

[clifp]

Hum, I didn't see a satisfactory to Al4trade's question.

When entering data in Adv FIRECalc what is the best category to allocate the portion of one's portfolio invested in international equitys.

For example I have a 55% Domestica Equity/30% Fixed 5%0Cash and 10% international equities. I understand that FIRECalc doesn't model international equities. But when filling out the asset allocation are we better off putting the 10% in SP500, Large Values, Small growth, small value etc. I.e. which asset class is international equities most closed aligned with?

TIA

Clif

 

[heyyou]

My international is spread across various sizes, so I just added to the domestice size allocations. The REITs went in domestic SmallValue, may not return as much but are low correlation to Large Caps.