Advisor just recommended higher percentage international equity

[45th Birthday]

I'm not sure why it took him eight calls to mention this, but maybe there were more pressing issues to deal with? Fidelity has target asset allocations, and they put quite a bit of research and analysis into them. Advisors usually stick pretty close to these. You can (and should) ask how they arrived at what he is recommending. You can then agree or disagree and make your own decision. I don't think it's a matter of following the herd at all, but it seems like 5% is too low.

 

[stephenson]

Ha ....yeah, we had a LOT to talk about ...

 

[alaska55]

Truth be told, I have never looked at the fund's holdings. Per the prospectus: "The Fund employs an indexing investment approach designed to track the performance of the FTSE Global All Cap Index, a float-adjusted, market-capitalization-weighted index designed to measure the market performance of large-, mid-, and small-capitalization stocks of companies located around the world."

That said, your results surprise me a little bit. IIRC US large caps comprise about 40% of the world market cap so I would definitely expect to see them well represented but 9 out of 10 is unexpected.

Regardless, I'll take Jack's and the boys' word for it that I own a world index stock fund.

Thanks for the post.

Jack also says you don't need any international but if you must have some, no more than 20% of your equities. He like the Vanguard Balanced index fund VBINX. it has about 0.5% international.

 

[Totoro]

.. and if one doesn't live in the US?

Asking for a friend.

 

[OldShooter]

Jack also says you don't need any international ...

Yes, I know. That has always been a bit of a puzzle to me. Buffet, with his recommendation to buy only a S&P 500 fund is implicitly saying the same thing.

In the church of Fama and French we are encouraged to hold the world "market portfolio," so as a good disciple that is what I do.

I did go to Portfolio Visualizer and play a little bit as a result of your post. With the huge rise in the US in the past few years, a 100% US portfolio does win against an mixed portfolio, but the volatility is much reduced with significant international content. If you could tell me how that's gong to work out in the next decade or two, I'd be grateful.

.. and if one doesn't live in the US? ...

IIRC Ken French does a pretty un-jingoistic treatment here: https://famafrench.dimensional.com/videos/home-bias.aspx The guy interviewing him is Canadian.