DFIV
Dimensional International Value ETF
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Playing around with a possible portfolio of ETFs.. tel me what you think and why and possible suggestions.. I’m wanting something we diversified and to be able to set it up on auto invest. I think these are ETFs so I believe that leaves me with M1 or E*Trade..
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I rode gold and silver up, managed to keep most of the gold gains but only a little of the silver because it fell so fast and I forgot my stop order. I'm out of both and beat S&P pretty handily (even accounting for the losses) over the last 10months when switched out of majority US originally. I can't believe I forgot the stop orders on Gold and Silver but I'm ahead. Anyway, I'm now majority international. VXUS, VYMI, DFIV, VPL and KXI with a sprinkle of IDNA (my sole US this year so far). The rest of the money 33% is waiting on a buying opportunity in the US market. I wish I had kept VDC as the sole US ETF to hold but oh well. When the US market crashes, I might jump on a little gold again if it drops before then and I can see a US crash coming. I will add a good US dividend ETF and a US broad market ETF. But it has gotta drop a lot more because right now the US market seems way overbought.
I use AVNM as a proxy for VXUS. It seems to outperform, don’t ask me why. Also have IDMO, DFIV and VEA for ex-US exposure. If you want a large cap ETF more like VOO rather than VTI, but outside U.S., check out AVIV. That’s one of the funds that goes into the broader basket for AVNM.
This is why I like ETFs like ACWX, LVHI, DFIV, GCOW etc.
Look - I do think you're getting \*wrecked\* by some of the comments, but they're also not wrong. You're background whining about more or less being an incel and 'woe is me,' before the market losses, and I get it - life can be a bitch. However: 1. You're young. You've got plenty of time to improve your life and to make better choices. 2. You're employed. A ton of people aren't - a someone who has been hiring in tech over the past years, it's been damned obvious the entire market (including hiring in AI unless you have a \*very\* special/unique pedigree (e.g. leaving Deepmind or a few others) has been utter crap for at least 3 years now. 4 years ago, couldn't get submissions. 2.5-3 years ago would get 300 submissions in 2-3 days. Make yourself seen in a \*useful\* way at work. 3. I see you've already posted about 'maybe coming back in a bit and trying again' - this doesn't sound like 'lesson learned,' it sounds like 'once I have enough money to gamble, I'll do it again.' It's your call, but hey, S&P is up 18% or so and VXUS even more - you could have taken the cash, or profits and dumped 90% of it into VTI or SPYM/VOO and VXUS or DFIV and had - <something>. I won't even ask if you've got retirement accounts, but there's a reason for the mantra of emergency savings, pay off high interest debts, max retirement allocations, etc. before brokerage or trading accounts. RE: no friends, no dates, blah blah. Try to take a look at yourself from the outside. Are you obsessed with trading that any convos you have are about that, or do you actually listen to other people? Do you give monologues or actually interact when you engage with others? Do you bathe, shave, wear clean clothes, etc. ? These are all things you can work on. Look at Meetup groups or equivalents, hopefully for something besides options trading. Get out of the house/apartment/etc. It's ALL work, man, but the endless 'woe is me' is a self-perpetuating cycle, and even real friends can get tired of hearing about it if everything they get from you is negatives. You can take lessons from the past, but nothing good comes of obsessing over it as it can't be changed, but you can change in how you look at things, and plans for the future. If you want to jump back on the options train, how about limiting it to for example, 10% of your holdings max, no matter what happens? It's all on you if you take any sane lessons away from this, and use it to improve your own future, or stay in the 'woe is me, maybe I get fired, no one likes me' mentality. And you're not the only one - many of us have had serious ups and downs in their lives, and had to 'adjust' as to 'now what?' I've moved across 10 states or so not knowing a soul - a whole lot of lonely 'new starts from scratch' with accompanying moments of loneliness and 'wtf am I doing?' at times. Came damned close to losing a house, temporarily lost a career in one of the big crashes, but you don't give up - you take the lumps, the lessons learned, and move the F on. Good luck!
Set up direct deposit to your brokerage and recurring investments. Fidelity makes this mostly easy, although it could be slightly better like 'when a deposit from X comes in, do this in percentages' instead of direct amounts with hard dates, but for an example: I have $1K going into my brokerage account every paycheck which hits every other Friday. On Mondays, I auto-invest in VTI, DFIV, etc. in fixed amounts, tailored to more or less keep my asset allocation ratios, which if I were for example only in those two funds and wanted a 65/35% US/non-US split, I'd set it as $650 VTI, $350 DFIV.
If I buy DFIV and foreign govts want their taxes from its earnings do I get a tax letter or tax notice directly from the country or company of a foreign country? Or how does that work? Some people say the Foreign TaX Credit is really negligible, I just don’t want to get taxed twice. Any suggestions welcomed.
1) 70% VTI (broad US market) or SPYM (S&P 500, US large cap - pick whether you want the whole market or just large companies, either is a defensible choice) 2) 20% FIVA, IVLU, VYMI or DFIV - international value large caps 3) 10% AVDV or DISV - international value small/mid caps
401k is just VOO, VEA, VWO. IRA is FXAIX/FZILX/AVUV/RPV/AVDV/DFIV
I don’t know how you could possible come away with that impression unless you asked Siri for a summary. AAPL is up 16% since I sold. My portfolio is up 35% over that same time frame because I rotated into better opportunities—even higher if you look at the specific equities I bought because of the AAPL sale (GOOG, NVDA, DFIV, AVDV, AVEM).
DFIV looks interesting and is kind of new
I like the overall theory but there are international value funds I like better than SCHY: VYMI, DFIV, FIVA, FIDI, FNDF, and IVLU. They do all have higher expenses but worth it IMO.
Spot gold is up (barely) International value is up (DFIV, DISV). DFEV is down, but overall, it's up.
Hey man, solid setup for 25 – you're crushing it with that income and low cost of living situation. Let me break down what I'm seeing: **The Good Stuff:** Your savings rate is insane (like 60%+ after expenses), you're maxing tax-advantaged accounts, and the international arbitrage play is smart as hell. That 401k match is basically free money, so props for capturing the full 12%. **The ROTH – Here's Where I'd Tweak:** Your allocation isn't *bad*, but it's kinda all over the place without a clear strategy: * **VOO at 50%** – Fine, but it's just S&P 500. Pretty vanilla. * **DFIV at 20%** – International value is cool, but Japan/UK/Canada specifically? That's a weird tilt. * **EMQQ at 20%** – Emerging market *consumer internet*? Bro, that's basically a tech bet on China/India e-commerce. High risk, high reward, but also kinda meme-adjacent territory. * **AVUV at 10%** – Small cap value is solid for diversification. **My Take:** You're young with a long runway, so growth makes sense, but you need a *plan*. What's your thesis here? Are you going for: 1. **Income** (dividends/cash flow)? 2. **M&A plays** (companies likely to get acquired)? 3. **Growth** (high-quality compounders)? 4. **Sector diversification** (tech, healthcare, industrials, etc.)? Right now it feels like you're just throwing darts at different regions. I'd consolidate around a clearer strategy. Maybe: * Keep VOO or swap for VTI (total market) * Add some **dividend growth** (SCHD, DGRO) for income * Consider **sector-specific plays** instead of random geographic tilts * Drop EMQQ unless you have a strong conviction on EM consumer tech
A lot of LCV is going to be heavy in FAANGS, NVIDIA, and so on. For example, I just looked at FDRR and the top 3 holdings are NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Apple. But others will be less so -- VTV has no tech stocks in its top 10 holdings. You should be able to see holdings on Morningstar. Ways to avoid: sector funds (industrials and energy seem to be doing well, check on FIDU and FUTY). International value is having a bang up year and has very little technology and certainly no FAANGS etc. You could look at FIVA, JIVE, DFIV, VYMI, or even small/mid cap international value such as AVDV or DISV,
DFIV is gonna rip in the morning
There aren't many financial sector billionaires who got there with leverage. Including options. If you're thinking about markets as a casino, you'll be skinned. If you're doing better than the S&P 500 with investment, great. But the turtles who just consistently make 20% CAGR on principal per year are the long term winners, not the hares that are playing options casino games. It's can take a decade to recover from a 78% loss. Save. Read financial and general news and read books on financial history, when you'd rather play games or watch sports. Understand that there are times like now when whole national markets are perilous, and its wise to sidestep to companies that don't mainly trade on US markets, or asset classes that aren't correlated to them. Its a full time 2nd job, and in time, will pay better than one's primary employment. Stick that last $2k into something that isn't going to participate in the US market correction. Could be gold, could be DFIV. And read everything you can about the successful investors of the past. Edwin Lefèvre's *Reminiscences of a Stock Operato*r or *The Essays of Warren Buffett* still have relevance.
I like AVDE myself, but second the rec for DFIV. I also like DFIC, IVLU, and SCHF.
Depends on your tax bracket. The bracket that benefits most from optimization is the 35% ordinary/15% qualified or the 37% ordinary/20% qualified bracket. For this group, I recommend splitting tax-efficient developed from the tax-inefficient emerging: - DFIV in taxable for large cap value, this is actually better than US equities since it is nearly 100% qualified plus gives you foreign tax credits - DISV or AVDV in taxable for small cap value. DISV is more tax efficient but AVDV has performed very slightly better - AVDE is reasonable too, but less tax efficient - Your choice of emerging market fund. AVEM, DFAE, DFEM are pretty good with better liquidity than heavier tilted options, but you probably want them in tax advantaged if you have some room there. The DFA funds are more tax efficient but haven’t performed as well. If you’re in a lower tax bracket (for instance 20-22% ordinary/15% qualified), then it’s actually better to get them all in taxable. This is because the advantages of the foreign tax credit outweigh the disadvantages of lower QDI.
I slightly prefer Avantis, mainly because of the cheaper ER. However, DFA tends to focus more on tax advantages, so I especially like them for my international allocation in taxable accounts. In particular, I think DFIV trounces AVIV on all fronts.
Foreign markets ripping today: - IDEV (MSCI Developed ex-US): +1.82% - DFIV (DFA Developed Large Value): +2.39%! - IEMG (MSCI Emerging): +0.90% I prefer VEA and VWO for their lower expense ratios, but DFIV benchmarks against the MSCI instead of FTSE.
Here are the performances of VOO (S&P 500), VTI (total US stock market), VXUS (total international stock market), and a DFIV/AVDV/AVES portfolio (international value tilted portfolio, as the value factor has performed much better in international equities). I chose two time frames, since [Inauguration Day](https://testfol.io/?s=aUi41pgL4Sa) and since the [April 8 bottom](https://testfol.io/?s=c6zwkit3ZtK) (which would assume you had perfect insider info): |Returns as of 6/26/25|VOO|VTI|VXUS|Intl Value| |:-|:-|:-|:-|:-| |Since 1/20/25|2.10%|1.29%|14.57%|18.12%| |Since 4/8/25|23.52%|23.87%|24.47%|26.88%| Even if you had insider info telling you to buy on 4/8/25 right before the stock market recovered, you would have still done better to rotate to international.
International stocks have trounced US stocks and actually recovered even more quickly. From a comment I made on r/ValueInvesting , so this includes a value-tilted portfolio. Here are the performances of VOO (S&P 500), VTI (total US stock market), VXUS (total international stock market), and a DFIV/AVDV/AVES portfolio (international value tilted portfolio, as the value factor has performed much better in international equities). I chose two time frames, since [Inauguration Day](https://testfol.io/?s=aUi41pgL4Sa) and since the [April 8 bottom](https://testfol.io/?s=c6zwkit3ZtK) (which would assume you had perfect insider info): |Returns as of 6/25/25|VOO|VTI|VXUS|Intl Value| |:-|:-|:-|:-|:-| |Since 1/20/25|1.30%|0.43%|13.45%|16.75%| |Since 4/8/25|22.55%|22.81%|23.25%|25.40%| That's right, even if you had insider info telling you to buy on 4/8/25 right before the stock market recovered, you would have still done better to be in international.
That would definitely be better. I have DFIV (basically S&P 500 but for non US stocks) and EWJV (Japanese top 100) and both are weighted to have a P/E as low as possible while still reflecting the market. I know they exist for the S&P 500 but I just want a small tweak. I thoroughly enjoy both DFIV and EWJV and I enjoy owning VOO for it's own merits. It would be cool to own an index without overly relying on a stock I wouldn't purchase independently of the ETF. I was thinking about this question for a while after I saw EWY (Korean top 100) with 22% Samsung. I like Samsung I'm just not thrilled it has 22% in the ETF and would like to not be so reliant on over weight companies.
DFIV is interesting. I made a play into EUAD, but it is a little volatile. I wanted exposure to European defense.
They are downvoting machines in this reddit I post positive stuff all the time here and just be saying normal things sometimes and will get downvoted. I will say “let’s goooo” when the market is ripping and get absolutely downvoted into oblivion 😂 Yeah I always keep 15-20% in international it’s good to be a little diversified check out $DFIV for an international ETF I’ve ran the back tests and DFIV brings the most returns
Great content here, I read all the guide and a bunch of comments. Can you summarize your approximate allocation by asset class without giving away too much? I tried backtesting an earlier version of your portfolio which you recommended as 60/25/15 VFMF/DFIV/IEMG by replacing those funds with US Stock, ex-US Value, and Emerging Markets, but it sounds like you are more broadly diversified now into commodities and other types of assets. In my layman's understanding, that update, with rebalancing, should be a much more robust portfolio over the long term. I can't say how reasonable it is to simulate VFMF with US Stock, as that specific fund hasn't existed for more than a few years. Happy to share what PortfolioVisualizer spits out if you're willing to play along. There may be a HFEA angle here - can't help it :-)
I have 6 that have a value and small cap weight overall, with world market cap allocations based on US, International, and Emerging Markets. Historically weighting towards small caps and value provide the best return, whether that holds up is anyone’s guess… anyway these are my 6 that I think are tilted as aggressively as possible and give me the best change for the highest risk adjusted return without going overboard and doing something wild like 100% small caps. This is 65/35 us to international weighted, and 8% is emerging value. Small cap to med/large cap is around 1:1. AVUV-32.5% RPV-32% AVDV-14% DFIV-13.5% DGS-4-% AVES-4% Edit: There are no bonds here since you are in your 20s. Personally I am 100% stocks because I have diamond hands and don’t sell and don’t get emotional no matter how bad things get…I also have a pension when I retire which replaces the need for bonds for me
I have 6 that have a value and small cap weight overall, with world market cap allocations based on US, International, and Emerging Markets. Historically weighting towards small caps and value provide the best return, whether that holds up is anyone’s guess… anyway these are my 6 that I think are tilted as aggressively as possible and give me the best change for the highest risk adjusted return without going overboard and doing something wild like 100% small caps. This is 65/35 us to international weighted, and 8% is emerging value. Small cap to med/large cap is around 1:1. AVUV-32.5% RPV-32% AVDV-14% DFIV-13.5% DGS-4-% AVES-4%
Here we are basically talking about Dimensional Fund Advisors and Avantis fund advisors. The make the best value /size/profitability factor tilt funds. Classics involve AVUV/DFSV, AVES, DFIV, AVDV, AVGV, AVMV, AVLV, AVNV, etc
Tax loss harvesting will explain why I don't have some of them any more. And not wanting to realize gains will explain why I have some I don't want or repeated stuff (like VOO and VTI). If I could start again, I'd do 60/25/15 VFMF/DFIV/IEMG. All smart-beta except EM (where it's too expensive IMO to implement). But over time, as you TLH, you'll end up with more positions. Complexity is the price you pay for lower taxes I guess.
I have DFIV and SCHY in my long term and happy so far.
I hold AVDV but I also hold IJS (small cap value) as well as DFAT (us value) and DFIV (intl value). Just FYI, DFA (dimensional funds) have a long track record of market over performance- not surprising since the two directors/advisers there are Fama and French, the two guys who figured out value over performance and got the Nobel Prize for it
Personally I hold shares of Dimensional International Value (DFIV with 0.35% ER), but the most popular ETF would be iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF (EFV) with a similar (.39%) expense ratio.
The advantage of DFIV over AVIV is that DFIV contains more value stocks.