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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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.