any investors???

[madmann26]

Are there any investors here?

I just started investing recently in ETFs and would like some advice on the best, the worse and "stay the fk away" ETFs.

Thanks,

[Anonymous]

Hey there! First, a couple of questions:

1. How old are you?

2. How much "investing knowledge" do you think you have? (Let's say from a scale of 1-5, 5 being the highest).

[madmann26]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hey there! First, a couple of questions:

1. How old are you?

2. How much "investing knowledge" do you think you have? (Let's say from a scale of 1-5, 5 being the highest).

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1. 39

2. 1

@I picked ETFs because of the low buy in against regular mutual funds. My goal is to increase my income with having a nestegg @ retirement age.

I currently have 16 ETFs. I've picked Vanguard, iShares Morningstar that when looking at >5 years, they are a decent return.

Thanks for replying, I look forward to your thoughts.

[Anonymous]

You are totally right. That is an advantage of ETF's and index funds. Do you mind sharing the ETF's you selected? I can probably take a look at how diverse your portfolio is.

One more thing, whenever you look at fund performace of over the years, take into consideration 5-10 years, specially the later since it takes into account 2008, and most likely if a fund was solid (or didn't lose much, really) during that period of time you are probably looking at a strong fund. 

[madmann26]

There is the list.

[compassion101]

For well respected ETFs, I think one of the major factors to consider is the fees they charge. Alot of times people think there is no fee, simply because they aren't paying anything directly. Often they will take their fee out of the dividend that they should be paying you, so you receive a little less than you would optherwise. Take a look at the prospectus to see what you are really paying in a fee.

[Anonymous]

Too complicated, keep it simple IMO.  And yes it's pretty much all about low expense ratios.  With compounding interest over many years, the expense ratios truly make a difference.

Just do something like 50% VTI, 30% VXUS, 20% BND.  You can change the percentages based on your age/ability to handle volatility.

This is assuming you are talking about actual investing, which to me is holding/adding to your portfolio for 20+ years.  In this case you NEED to select an asset allocation you are comfortable to continue holding even if the market drops 50% temporarily.  In fact, you should be extremely happy if that happens, and just keep adding on the way down.

Needless to say, I am a big fan of Bogle and the 3 fund portfolios.  Read more here - http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund_portfolio

[mongstradamus]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Too complicated, keep it simple IMO.  And yes it's pretty much all about low expense ratios.  With compounding interest over many years, the expense ratios truly make a difference.

Just do something like 50% VTI, 30% VXUS, 20% BND.  You can change the percentages based on your age/ability to handle volatility.

This is assuming you are talking about actual investing, which to me is holding/adding to your portfolio for 20+ years.  In this case you NEED to select an asset allocation you are comfortable to continue holding even if the market drops 50% temporarily.  In fact, you should be extremely happy if that happens, and just keep adding on the way down.

Needless to say, I am a big fan of Bogle and the 3 fund portfolios.  Read more here - http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund_portfolio

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a basic 3 fund portfolio is very solid if you don't want to have to tinker around. another option you can look at is an target retirement fund offered by Vanguard. Just figure out what you want your asset allocation to be and find corresponding fund. The "buy-in" is 1,000 dollars which i think is on the lower end when it comes to mutual funds so thats an option. 

Buying the individual etfs is also an pretty good idea, I am running something similar to 3 fund etf portfolio, but i have some value etfs, VTV(large cap value) and VBR (small cap value) to tilt toward value.