CGDG

The-Big-Picture-

There are way better international ETFs than VXUS. For international, because of how erratic the economies of developing countries can be, some type of selection is good. Yes I know the US is becoming more erratic, but it's worse in many other countries. I like IDMO (large cap momentum) and AVDV (small cap value). I also have CGDG although that is 50/50 US and ex-US.

The-Big-Picture-

So I do 40% of my total port across all 3 to fill my "International." However, CGDG is *up to* 50% Ex- US (currently 47% I believe), so it's not really 40% Ex-US. I try not to overthink it, so I'm just doing 15% IDMO, 15% IDVO, and 10% CGDG. IDVO just has more history than CGDG, but I might rebalance later.

The-Big-Picture-

Yeah too many people are caught up in recency bias since we're about 20 years of an epic bull run in the states. I like a combo of IDMO, IDVO and CGDG for international exposure. VXUS isnt great because there are too many losers in just the total ex-US market.

The-Big-Picture-

There are other periods of time where Ex-US outperformed it's just that the average redditor is way too young to know about it. That's why the traditional advice is to allocate 20-40% of the equities portion of your portfolio to international/ex-US funds. One caveat is that funds like VXUS are trash because they just take everything in the global market regardless of the metrics. With international, it's best to get some type of factor fund like IDMO or managed funds like IDVO and CGDG. You do need an expert to sift through all the bad companies in other markets.

FringeDerivatives

40 year old Canadian. Fairly low income. Self directed TFSA @ $35000 USD NTSX 50% NTSI 15% CGDG 10% BTGD 10% KMLM 7.5% DBMF 7.5% $10000 CAD in 5 year GIC, 2 years to go. $25000 CAD in aggressive allocation options in work RRSPs