DFAX
Dimensional World ex U.S. Core Equity 2 ETF
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For an ETF... how much does liquidity, AUM etc matter?
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Yeah, I didn't so much mean they differ in regard to performance. If past history was all that is needed to play the game of money, the richest people would be librarians. What I said, but you oddly chose to ignore, is that they're both international but the comparison stops there. Once again, an international dividend factor tilt may make sense for some depending on how their portfolio is constructed. But for many more, it will just create drag and overlap. Again, for those seeking purely international diversification, VXUS is dead simple and holds 8,772 stocks. It is a clean international building block which is why so many choose it. For those seeking global diversification + a value and profitability tilt, DFAX is probably the more apt alternative as it holds 10,000 international stocks and uses a Fama-French Factor tilt. Nothing wrong with having VYMI in a portfolio, it just shouldn't be compared to VXUS as they're very different.
I don't think they're very comparable. VXUS is a total international market fund that has thousands more holdings than VYMI, including small caps and emerging markets. VYMI has a factor tilt for dividend and a much larger concentration in financials. So the dividends could be a tax drag for many and it's a different strategy altogether. VXUS's Ex-US and broad diversification across small,mid, and large caps versus VYMI's ex-US dividends. With all ETFs, it's worth asking what your goal is. If you want to own the world outside the U.S. then you go with VXUS. If you want to own the higher dividend subset of the world outside the U.S., then go with VYMI. Many people construct a three fund portfolio of VTI, VXUS, and AVGV (factor tilt) which would also cause significant overlap with VYMI. If you're focused on mature dividend paying companies then a two fund portfolio of DGRO and VYMI might be what you're after. For a VXUS alternative with a tilt, DFAX would probably be worth consideration. But again, then you're introducing a factor tilt.
How old are you? Once you have a certain amount of money, you basically just need it to be safe for 5-10 years and that amount will grow to be enough to retire off of even in a safe account. What is your risk tolerance? Do you think there is an AI bubble right now? **SCHD** \- this is the common defensive etf option. Sacrifice some growth but if AI crashes, this will do better than **VOO/QQQM**. Good to have a percentage in this ETF depending on your fear level/need for a safety net. 950K after 10 years I think has you getting paid around 52K a year without needing to sell. I wouldn't recommend dumping it all in there though. I personally am avoiding this until retirement then i'll probably consider putting a decent chunk of my roth into it. Take a look at **SPMO**. I use it instead of **VOO**. It seems to recover just as good as **VOO** and outperforms it. A small percentage in international ETF's would be a good idea. People default to **VXUS** but **AVNM** or **DFAX** are worth researching. US and international take turns outperforming each other. **QQQM** and **VOO** have a lot of overlap. Technically it doesn't hurt to have both. They are just doing similar things. Voo performs a bit worse I think but has a larger safety net. But for both funds, at this point they are heavily weighted in tech. Goes back to the risk conversation.
I would recommend \~15% maximum for a sector/thematic/factor tilt — large cap growth isn’t one of the most favorable factors. Small cap value is, but even I cap SCV at 10-15%. You want to diversify with international. Add VXUS, AVNM, AVNV, or DFAX. The latter three attempt to beat the benchmark VT and have so far, but you take tracking error risk. If you’d regret some underperformance then stick to the benchmark. If you believe in Avantis/Dimensional methods and implementations, try out the latter three funds, with AVNV being my favorite for a larger value tilt.
What about using funds like Dimensional and Avantis that have shown to beat the indexes with flexible trading and implementation? I don’t own DFUS, but it has beaten VTI over time. DFAX has beaten VXUS, they’re very similar but they try to have a slight edge. Don’t own those funds though - it’s not a free lunch and it is some risk. But they do estimate a tiny amount of gains for the patient, flexible trading as opposed to being forced into the index rules. https://stockanalysis.com/etf/compare/dfus-vs-vti-vs-dfax-vs-vxus/ Of course this is a short time period and they can underperform, but with all their research they totally could edge out the market over time.
Typical humpty dumpty advisor portfolio, with an extra dash of fancy stuff (SMA) to get you to pay more fees. I'm going to assume this is a taxable account based on their proposing municipal bonds and a tax-managed fund. If this were my money, I would just go buy 100% AVMA, which is a 70/30 balanced fund with very low tax drag. Alternatively, use the 30% to buy CGMU or VTEB and with the 70%, buy DFAX and a broad market US fund such as SPTM, VTI, or SCHB in the percentage split of your choice. No 1.5% fee taken out of your returns!
VXUS is not tech heavy, it has 20% in financials and 12% in technology (3rd in the pie chart). If you are fine with smaller assets under management, alternative is DFAX (dimensional ex us - usually fairly well traded with tight bid ask spreads) with 17% in financials and 10% in technology (5th item in pie chart) -- holds financials, industrials, other (?), consumer discretionary, then tech. Be aware though that all of these (ex us ETFs) had significant run-up Q4-25,Q1-26 - my guess for what it's worth is they will be sideways for a while.
Same trying to keep it as simple as possible too. DFAX seems to compliment AVDV. Small Cap Value US (DFSV, AVUV, VIOV, etc) seems like a tougher commitment. May be alone in that opinion though. Like that DFAX has TSM & Samsung.
AVDV + DFAX for international?
DFUS/DFAX 65/35. Sleep well
I personally do 80/20 DFUS/DFAX as an alternative to VTI/VXUS. I believe DFUS is superior to VTI because it uses academically-informed flexible implementations like filtering out junky small caps and delaying investing in IPOs (there's a YT video by Ben Felix on this). These strategies should allow it to beat VTI in the long run (and it has so far since its 2021 inception). Similarly, I expect DFAX to beat VXUS in the long run. Outside the US, factor tilts have had superior performance to "vanilla" market cap weighting. This combined with the above-mentioned academically-informed flexible implementation should allow it to beat VXUS long term. After months of researching this topic, I came to the conclusion that this combo works best for me because of its simplicity and the fact that I don't have to worry about winning sectors/countries. Plus, there's a satisfaction in owning a part of 12,000+ companies worldwide.
Ha, well I haven't fully either, just know enough to get by. Basically, there are so many types of portfolio designs. For instance, retirees and Ivy league endowment funds may invest similarly. The point is to hold assets that have low correlation to each other. You can run the asset correlation analyzer on [portfoliovisualizer.com](http://portfoliovisualizer.com), basically just plugging in different funds to see the effect. This approach of investing basically takes advantage of the Shannon's demon effect of volatility harvesting. It's not as profitable long-term as 100% equities, but it's designed so something's always up while others are down. Things like AVUS, DFAX, GLDM, EDV, DBMF, etc.
P/E ratio is a little high. The weighting has changed a lot because of the mag 7 bloat, so now indexes are more dependent on what they do. That's why I like QGRO, AVLV, DFAX & AVUV
DFAS has consistently outperformed the Russell 2000, its relevant benchmark. Solid fund. At first glance DFAX doesn’t look spectacular compared to IEFA or VEA but DFAX actually includes emerging markets, not just developed markets. Compared to VXUS it has shown a slight but consistent edge.
> I am okay with the risk since I intend to hold it longer term. I'm more focused on not having overlap. I don't think overweighting the US is taking more risk. Arguably it's the exact opposite. > Feel free to drop your ideal portfolio. RSSB *would* be the ideal "core" of portfolio, and I'll probably buy into later when it's a bit older and more established. For now I use NTSX instead of VOO or VTI and mix it in with AVUV and DFAX.
I like active funds with low expensive ratio and some factors applied: AVUS DFUV DFAX
You didn’t include weightings but too many individual positions and not enough diversification. You would be better off with 60% DFAC and 40% DFAX. Rebalance and invest your new contribution annually.
In any given year, observed returns are likely to deviate greatly from expected returns. Their prediction is not that you can consistently observe a slight outperformance by VXUS, and switch once you’ve decided you can see momentum. Anyway, I don’t especially recommend funds like VXUS, but instead those with a value tilt like AVLV, AVDV, AVES, or DFAX.
Advice for taxable brokerage Hi - 30year old looking for feedback on portfolio used for extra investment cash in a taxable brokerage account. I have separate retirement accounts maxed out with boring/traditional total us market, total international market, total is bond holdings. Here is the idea, all equal weight: DFAC SPLG SCHD QQQM DFAS DFAX SCHY My questions: Should I bother with a small cap fund? Same for the two internationals? I picked dimensional instead of a VTI etc. for the profitability tilt and active management with somewhat low expenses for a potential edge. I’m tempted to just scrap all this complexity and go 100% SPLG like the Oracle says.
Paying off all of your debt is what I would start with if the interest rate is greater than 4%. If you don’t have an emergency fund, I would place some cash in there. Next, I’d buy some I Bonds. They currently have a 6 month yield of 9.62%. If inflation remains high, the next 6 month yield will also be attractive. Then I would invest the rest of the money in VTI, VXUS, and BND. If you believe in the small cap and value premium, you can add exposure there in your portfolio. I’m personally long DFAC (VTI alternative), DFAX (VXUS alternative), and BND.
DFA is not straight profitability unless you are talking about the three funds out of many that specifically target that factor. DFAC and DFAX are weighted just the same as avantis AVUS, AVDE AVEM.
The Chief Investment Officer at Dimensional explained [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJMDLS6xCz8&t=4979s&ab_channel=TheRationalReminderPodcast) why that kind of portfolio (VT + AVUV) is pretty different than something like [DFAC](https://us.dimensional.com/etfs/dfac/us-core-equity-2-etf) \+ [DFAX](https://us.dimensional.com/etfs/dfax/world-ex-us-core-equity-2-etf).