VXUS

Oogawooga9999

19.6%, 89% of portfolio is VOO and 10% is VXUS which performed phenomenally with 28% growth in 2025

MassiveBoner911_3

Around 16%. Little less. I hold a LOT of VXUS which is international. Rest is VTI.

HumidMind

Had a great year: 25.09 and left the Mag 7 and S& P behind doing it. Had big gains realized last year and changed gears. Basically 1/3 us stocks 1/3 foreign gold plated stocks and the rest in metal. IRa only has 5 diff stocks and some GLDM and VXUS. Gold was the big win this year.Foreign currency gains spanked as a bonus.

BenjaminDanklin1776

56% MP, LAC, LYNAS, FCX, LUNR, RKLB, LNG, VTI, VXUS. Im big into critical minerals, space, and energy.

clingbat

Lol go into /ETFs or /bogleheads and VT vs VTI+ VXUS comes up pretty much daily... Anyone can buy VT. I'm holding it in my Fidelity account without issue. Heck here's one from just a few hours ago... https://www.reddit.com/r/Bogleheads/s/BmoIdS4Hsg

clingbat

Yes, in fact I think for Fidelity at least, you can actually get a check book and debit card to a CMA which is linked to your money market funds so you can freely swap money between the two (and your investments) and use the CMA essentially as a checking account. We don't do this, but it's an option. We just have our TD bank checking account directly linked to our MMFs. I doubt FZCXX can be set up in Schwab given its a Fidelity MMF, but you can always check, or they may have their own version of the same thing. No I mean VT. VT is vanguard's total world stock ETF that self balances US and international stocks across the entire globe (almost 10k stocks). I believe currently it's a 62% US / 37% international stock split. I can't think of a single more diversified single ETF that exists, hence me choosing it for my set and forget stock in taxable account. VTI is vanguard's total US stock ETF, so it lacks the international component (hence people pairing it with VXUS for international exposure).

Aquabullet

35.03%. I was honestly very lucky... GOOG, LEU, MLI, NLR, ASTS, FCX, RDDT And I moved a portion of my holdings into VXUS. Vast majority of my holdings are still VOO and a target index fund though.

FewCinnamon

Yeah VXUS is up 28% this year

NewPhoenixRising

I would stick with a three fund portfolio minus the bond fund. [https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund\_portfolio](https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund_portfolio) I would do 80% VTI and 20% VXUS (they can be purchased just as easy at Fidelity or Vanguard, doesn't make much difference). I am guessing you currently have the funds invested in a taxable brokerage account at Schwab, which means you would have to sell the fund you have at Schwab since you want to make a portfolio change but that could incur a capital gains tax. Unless the fund you are currently invested in is terrible, you might also look into the option of keeping it and investing all future money in 80% SWTSX and 20% SWISX at Schwab.

GitDaHellOuttaDoge

And VEA outdid VXUS obvious pivot away from weakening dollar and hedge against perceived tech valuations

legible_print

And VOOG has out performed VTI. And VTIAX has outperformed VOOG. And VXUS has outperformed VTIAX.

alwayslookingout

Internationals has been on a tear this year. VXUS almost doubled VOO at 31.85 vs 16.89.

CanYouPleaseChill

There are options beyond the S&P 500 with far less AI bubble risk and lower valuations, for example: \- AVUV and AVDV: small-cap value \- VXUS: international ex-US

hungover247365

Only thing up in my portfolio in the last week is VXUS, Sadly VXUS is only 5% of my portfolio........ The world is diversifying away from the US and has been all year, don't know why I didn't reallocate more to VXUS.

plasticbug

Given your investment time horizon (30+ years), I wouldn't buy SCHD in your Roth. Your Roth is the most powerful tool you have to grow your wealth. Rather than SCHD, I would buy VT, or mix of VTI/VXUS that will give you more growth than SCHD, even with all the dividend invested. For example, in the last 10 years, SCHD with dividend re-invested, had total return of around 11.5% a year. VTI did 14% in that time frame. That doesn't look like much difference, but assuming same rate of returns, over 30 years, you will have twice as much, if you went with VTI rather than SCHD. Once you near your retirement, and want more stability in your portfolio, you can sell off your positions with no tax drag (isn't tax advantaged account wonderful?) and rebalance.

Rockatansky77

It's okay to make mistakes if you learn from them. SP 500 is a good starting position. International markets have been out performing U.S. markets. Consider adding VXUS or IXUS or just chill for now. Keep educating yourself and add to your portfolio whenever you can.

BarefootMarauder

Ouch. Those were tough stocks to hold, especially this past year. Stick with low-cost total market index funds like VTI and VXUS. If you're going speculate, especially on stocks like MSTR, do it only with money you're willing & able to lose.

Emotional-Power-7242

VT does not qualify for the foreign tax credit as it is not currently more than 50% international equities. So holding VTI+VXUS is slightly more tax efficient. You will get the foreign rsx credit for VXUS. You may have to do a little rebalancing (just once yearly is fine) to maintain the correct ratios.

LurkerFailsLurking

VXUS is +29% YTD. QQW Losing to VXUS is a pretty bad sign

jvick3

I even left out dividends. VTI has a dividend of about 1.1% compared to VXUS 3.2%.

jvick3

They’re nearly even last 6 months: VTI 11.3% to VXUS 9.9%. But in 2025, VTI did 17% to VXUS 29%. Do you really think US is always gonna beat international? There are lots of periods where it doesn’t.

jvick3

2025 has entered the chat. VXUS had much higher returns than VTI

wegster

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!

Trevor4032

Need advice. Have been maxing out my Roth IRA for several years, and now finished grad school and have a job where I have enough to also invest in a brokerage account. I invest in VOO, VXUS, and BND for my Roth, and will likely do mainly VOO, VXUS, and maybe QQQ for brokerage (still researching). I have around $30k I want to pull from savings to invest as well. Should I lump sum invest all of it now, or spread out throughout the year (e.g., invest weekly/monthly)? Will also be investing a portion of my income monthly into the brokerage as well. Does anyone have any advice? What are some great ETFs to invest in for a brokerage account? General pointers/advice appreciated as well. (27 years old, employed with $110k salary, not super risk-seeking, and looking for medium/long term).

Trevor4032

Need advice. Have been maxing out my Roth IRA for several years, and now finished grad school and have a job where I have enough to also invest in a brokerage account. I invest in VOO, VXUS, and BND for my Roth, and will likely do mainly VOO, VXUS, and maybe QQQ for brokerage (still researching). I have around $30k I want to pull from savings to invest as well. Should I lump sum invest all of it now, or spread out throughout the year (e.g., invest weekly/monthly)? Will also be investing a portion of my income monthly into the brokerage as well. Does anyone have any advice? What are some great ETFs to invest in for a brokerage account? General pointers/advice appreciated as well. (27 years old, no debt, employed with $110k income, not super risk-seeking, and looking for medium/long term).

Gimme_All_The_Foods

Splitting them makes it far easier to tax-loss harvest the individual asset classes so I would recommend purchasing shares of VXUS so the total percentage is roughly the market cap of VT.

EliteAsFuk

I agree with the other user pointing out that VT is the entire stock market. So you're doubling up on VOO and VXUS by sticking with VT. Personally, I would probably just toss that money into VOO or spit it amongst VXUS and VOO at you desired balance. Others may have different opinions.

Casual_Expert

Thoughts on my current ETF split: VGT 11% - VOO 51% - VXUS 24% - VT 14%

UwU_MilkDrop

I would stick with VTI + VXUS if you already have a large amount in VTI, especially in a taxable account. VT is convenient, but tax-wise it doesn’t change things dramatically.

BackstrokingInDebt

- VT: this is certainly easier however you are then at the mercy of the index methodology rules. Vanguard replicates the FTSE all world index. - VTI + VXUS: requires some maintenance from time to time (maybe annually if not every 3-5 years) along with a “plan”. By plan I just mean set a default target like your 80/20. The benefit is you get to set your own risk metrics here when it comes to US vs world balance. - for example I do 2 funds to keep a different mixture to the world index. The reason is historically US tend to account for maybe 45%-50% of the market cap. Due to the sharp run up in the last 5-6 years, now US cap accounts for ~70% and I view that as out of balance. So I use 2 funds to bring the allocation back down about 50% target US vs world. - it also allows me to take a view for the short term like lowered US exposure to 40% since beginning of 2025 which helped out a lot this year because of the outperformance of international markets.

OD_prime

I went 30% with VXUS because if you look up the portfolio make up of VT, the international market makes up about 35%.

AICHEngineer

Benefit on the tax end is that if you ever end up having enough itemized deductions to do itemized rather than standard, you can claim foreign withholding tax for VXUS, but you cant for VT. Makes more sense to keep them separate. Could push it to 70/30 imo.

Emotional-Power-7242

I mean VXUS. It's 23% financials, 5% energy, 8% healthcare, 15% industrial, and only 15% rechn.

Athensmw

I understand. I turned $50,000 into over $300,000 during SPAC craze / Covid… when everything reversed over a 3 to 4 weeks span. I was too slow to react and let it get down to about $170,000. I then went Blue Chip and VOO, VXUS. It has taken 3+ years to get back to $290,000. Mentally draining at the time, but hopefully I have a long life ahead of me to keep investing wisely.

MaxCapacity

My cat prefers VXUS.  I think it's just that he hates America.

BiglyRetarded

VXUS is up more than SPY on the 1 year chart by 10%

InjuryEmbarrassed532

Why is trash like VXUS up?

PapaCharlie9

LEAPS calls only offer one advantage, and many disadvantages, over just buying SPY shares, or if you want to go more concentrated, QQQ. You don't have to buy 100 shares, you can buy whatever you can afford and then DCA more in over time. The one advantage is leverage, so unless the one and only thing you care about is leverage, enough to put up with all the disadvantages, just buy shares. The CSP trade you described is called The Wheel. The Wheel is just a bull stock trade with more steps. It performs worse than just holding shares in a bull market. It performs slightly better than shares in a bear or flat market. So my advice is just stick your 5% back into reliable ETFs. I'm not sure what "slow growth" means -- kind of sounds like bad ETFs to me -- but if they are good ones, just reinvest. The good ones would be SPY, VOO, VTI, VXUS, VT, or QQQ. If you don't have shares in any of those, you are probably leaving money on the table.

QuantumPractitioner

Congrats, you’ve worked hard. If I were in your position, I’d first read through the personal finance subreddit wiki to understand where you stand and where to invest 401k, Roth IRA, taxable accounts, etc. Answering your question, assuming you have no high interest debt or recent major goals like buying a house, I would slowly invest $1,000–$2,000 per month into VOO or VTI (you can add VXUS if you want international exposure). Do this until your savings balance drops to $150k, then re-evaluate whether you want to continue or adjust the plan. I personally don't like picking stocks as I prefer owning ETFs. If you want small portion, no more than 10% of your total balance, tops 15%. Best advise is to be consistent in investing and don't over complicate you plan. The more you touch it, the more you get anxious. Just set it up and check up on it quarter or yearly.

Historical_Low4458

You are significantly overweight in U.S. large cap. I would absolutely trim it a whole bunch and add more VXUS. I would skip the WM.

Kitchen-Safety4218

Your allocation mirrors the "Quality Factor" dominance seen since the 2008 GFC. It’s a fortress. But at 23, you’re paying a high premium for defensiveness you won't need for decades. UNH, PG, and KO are modern "Nifty Fifty" plays. They provide excellent ballast. So, holding 11% in staples and legacy healthcare suggests a fear of drawdowns your 40-year horizon doesn't justify. It’s a defensive posture for a long-distance race. MELI is your alpha engine. It captures both e-commerce and fintech tailwinds in a developing theater. Which is where the real compounding happens. AMZN and CRWD provide the necessary digital infrastructure exposure. These should be the core, not the satellites. The VXUS and WM additions are concessions to "Modern Portfolio Theory." VXUS is often a performance drag disguised as prudence. WM is a great business, but it's another anchor. Because you're adding capital daily, you don't need this much protection.

er824

Great job starting young. Personally, I'd buy a total market index fund (VTI) and live your life. Or if you want to live a little add VXUS. Or if you're lazy but like global diversification just buy VT.

jreadersmith

VXUS is the standard international diversification. AVUV and AVDV are the small value funds for the US and international developed markets which are less correlated with bigger companies. BND, and IEF are solid bond funds for uncorrelated assets.

Beitasitmaybe

Recommending what I buy: BTCI QDVO IDVO DIVO VXUS. Love the income building and considering more ROC heavy ETFs like QQQI and GPIX.

Emotional-Power-7242

30% VOO 10% AVLV 10% AVUV 10% VXUS 10% AVDV EM portion stays the same It ain't that easy to stay the course with a completely factor tilted portfolio. Back it off a little, hold some of the market.

Horror-Appeal-190

Sell DOGE, lol. As far as picks, I think you got some good ones. If you do get back green please just put like 90% into VOO/VXUS or IVV/IXUS SOFI and HOOD are actually good choices, but bro if you just would have bought VOO and VXUS you'd actually be up 20% on your account. You can't out stock pick the market as you can see here.

OD_prime

VXUS

CornerOne238

You could add 10% or so VXUS for international exposure.

Beautiful-Affect-443

I’m an 18 year old college student. I have money saved up and was planning on opening a Roth IRA and taxable somewhere. The two brokers I’ve been deciding between are Fidelity and Robinhood. Common recommendation is Fidelity but the 3% match at RH intrigues me, along with the UI and some of the other pretty cool features over there. I would pay for Gold if RH is the better recommendation, but do any of you guys have some thoughts? I’d be auto investing weekly dollar amounts into VTI and VXUS in my RIRA.

Machine8851

I find UPRO runs well with either VT or VXUS. Such as 50% UPRO and either 50% VT or VXUS

Fine-Target2563

This is the way OP. Your advisor is basically trying to charge you premium fees to underperform what you could get with a $20 Schwab account and some basic ETFs That JGASX expense ratio is probably gonna eat into your returns more than any "professional management" could ever add back. Skip the middleman and go straight to VTI/VXUS or just VTWAX if you want it even simpler

wsbmozie

The fun thing about that is buying VGK and VXUS

manlymatt83

Do you split VTI and VXUS or just stick with VT?

gmenez97

Too many funds. Why not just do total market funds for your base (VT or VTI + VXUS) then set a percentage allocation for speculation and momentum?

CloudAnchor2021

Putting aside all the advices here asking me why I'm asking question here when I've a FA (not going to waste my time answering those)... Sounds like majority here is saying, fire the FA and build that portfolio using low cost ETFs, mix of VTI VXUS QQQ VOO IWV. For those that think I should keep my FA, what do you think are the advantages of the SMA over these low cost ETFs? Appreciate your insight.

CloudAnchor2021

haha thank you! I turned 50 recently but I have lot more to catch up and don't believe in bonds. Wonder why you suggested bonds. Did you mean VTI, VXUS?

nevxr

Got it, great info I switched my VOO recurring investment to AVUV instead to help me diversify a bit. My understanding is that VOO is basically just S&P500, in which case if tech growth slows down then VOO will reorganize, right? This leaves me with $75 biweekly investments in SCHG, VOO, AVUV and VXUS. Do you think that's enough diversification? My recurring investments are my primary contribution to my portfolio, but sometimes if I have extra money I'll buy dips in AMZN/GOOG.

1kpointsoflight

I’m not the richest person in the world and you probably aren’t either. Holding 35% VT and 15% VXUS and 40% in BND and 10% in cash and rebalancing that yearly has been working superbly for me in retirement. Holding 100% S&P until 5 years out worked superbly too. Paying 20k a year for that is stupid imho.

Andeo23

I used Edward Jones as well, up until April of this year. I read “The Little Book on Common Sense Investing” by John Bogle and it changed my life. I wasted so much money in fees for so many years and did not realize there was an alternative. I removed my money from EJ and am now 65 VTI and 35 VXUS using Vanguard.

That_Astronomy_Guy

Potentially. It may even grow greater than 2x. However, given the SP500 performance over the last five years, you could double your investment in a corresponding ETF like VTI if past is prologue. Personally, I have $50k invested in NVDA and $100k in VTI as well as another $50k in VXUS. I’m planning on exiting a portion of my NVDA position and moving towards more international exposure. NVDA will probably continue to grow but I’m risk adverse. I’d diversify that $200k with maybe half in NVDA and the rest in broad market funds. Obviously that’s assuming this is a significant chunk of your portfolio.

Nosemyfart

Not individual names, but I'm thinking of buying the nifty 200 or something like that. I'm a complete proponent of just sticking with VT or VTI +VXUS, but as an ex Indian, I do see the tremendous growth potential back there and am willing to risk a small portion of my net worth directly in the nifty index

Inevitable_Pin7755

You’ve already done most of the hard stuff right. Emergency fund is solid, tax-advantaged accounts are maxed, and you’re not overcomplicating things. The VOO + VXUS split is fine and pretty standard. If anything, 15 percent international is a bit on the low side compared to global market weight, but it’s not wrong, especially if you’re more comfortable being US-heavy. The 30 percent in SGOV makes sense given you’re planning to buy a house in about 5 years. That part is basically acting as dry powder and volatility control. The only thing to think about is whether that 30 percent is meant to be truly “house money” or just ballast. If it’s for a down payment, you might want to mentally separate it and gradually increase the cash like allocation as the purchase gets closer. One thing I’d also consider is whether you actually need a taxable brokerage for more equities right now, given how much you’re already putting into tax-advantaged accounts. It’s fine to do, just be aware you’re adding some tax drag compared to stuffing more into Roth or mega backdoor space if available. Overall though, nothing here screams mistake. It’s boring, diversified, liquid where it needs to be, and aggressive enough for someone in their mid 20s. That’s usually a good sign.

AffectionateEcho7759

Yes thank you for the advice I’m going to be freezing pltr for the first few months of 2026 because I feel very un easy with it being such big part of my portfolio lol. When I first started in June I was like 40% pltr and 60% spy till I started realizing if pltr drops im beyond cooked because I didn’t really get into pltr at a cheap price so everytime it moves a little down my profits diminish so yea I’m going to stop pltr for awhile. I’m thinking of maybe not having qqq I have stronger conviction in those tech giants so I might just focus heavy on them and drop qqq and replace with an international etf. For my Roth in opening in 2026 im going VTI and VXUS

dooknuckduster

I'd recommend low cost, globally diversified index funds such as VT (65% US, 35% ex-US), or VTI (total US) and VXUS (total international ex-US). You have decades and decades of runway for your portfolio to grow. Dividends don't really matter in this case, total return makes sense in accumulation. [https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Lazy\_portfolios](https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Lazy_portfolios)

Newbiewhitekicks

So you have another taxable account that’s pure gambling? It’s difficult to give advice if you don’t give us the full picture. Do not buy dividends at all, and especially do not buy them in a taxable account. Total return is all that matters. VXUS is total ex-US. You add it to diversify your portfolio and insure wealth when you’re old. Ideally you’d pick VTI to couple it with, but you seem to like the S&P only. VOO is missing small cap so you’ll need to add it. Remember, dividends, or sell anything in a taxable account will create a taxable event.

HenriST2

I already have separate money investing pretty aggressively. I'm doing this because I want to start with this $1500 into super low risk stuff and grow it over the years. Why do you recommend VXUS?

Newbiewhitekicks

You do not want to buy SCHD, ever. First off, when investing in a taxable account your goal is to be as tax efficient as possible. Dividends are completely irrelevant; total return is all that matters. If you need cash; sell stock! This has been studied extensively and a good first read would be: Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller: dividend irrelevance theorem. A dividend is just a forced sale and hasn’t been a useful investing tool for at least a decade. Adding SCHD to VOO is a little redundant; you have no diversity. Historically, small cap and value is what succeeds and the analysts think that large cap/mega cap won’t keep outperforming in the future. A portfolio using VOO as your foundation looks like: VOO/(a small cap)/VXUS

KawaiiGeorgiaPeach

VTI VOO VXUS etc r/bogleheads

PossibleIsopod131

I don’t know what the apy is for ally high yield savings but personally I put cash in BOXX or USFR the yield is around 5%. If you’re looking for more return and a bit more risk VOO, VXUS, QQQM, SPYM are all popular. These are a low cost index funds that track the overall market. (S&P500, International, and the Nasdaq100)

Newbiewhitekicks

VTI/VXUS at 70/30 and don’t look at it for 30 years. When investing in a taxable account, your goal is to be as tax efficient as possible.

SprinklesMany2038

Deduct 3k for the next 12 years. Invest in a globally diverse fund like VT or 60% us VTI & 40% international. VXUS And keep invested for the long haul. People have lost more just browsing wallstreetbets will help knowing more has been lost. Read some investing books to reassure you you are doing the prudent thing and disable options trading as well. You are young and you still have close to 40k to invest. Most don't.

OrdinaryReasonable63

The Bobbleheads would tell you to do something like VTI/VXUS (70/30 or so) and some allocation to bonds (advocated by Bogle but increasingly being abandoned for all equity portfolios). I say you bet the house on Gold, baby!

iloveu3thousand

This has been answered 1000 times. Look into VTI/VXUS or other low cost ETFs. Ultimately if you have to ask you probably need an advisor to manage money for you. Also, I'm not sure I understand your original statement, is most of your current investments in NVDA? If so, that's an entirely separate concern.

Ok-Piano8789

10 years short VTI long VXUS free money

house9

Might just want to invest in good ETF instead of picking individual stocks? VOO / VTI / VXUS / VT / VGT

OrdinaryReasonable63

VXUS (🔥 💵🔥)

neonam11

Forgive yourself. We have all been there and lost some significant amount of money. The important thing is to learn from your experiences. Stay away from options and daytrading start investing in VTI and VXUS until you are comfortable. Only then, invest a small portion of your total investment, about 10% or less in single stocks

Machine8851

The sp500 outperformed VXUS in the last 6 months and most years since 2010. It will more than likely lessen your returns long term.

Machine8851

Im not big on international as it will more than likely lessen your returns long term and there's no guarantee it will reduce volatility. The sp500 has outperformed VXUS in the last 6 months and most years since 2010.

AdmirableLead6134

Just buy 80% VOO 20% VXUS.

AdmirableLead6134

Just buy VOO or 80%VOO/20%VXUS or VTI

Poundcake2RedVelvet

Do this 1. Majority ETFs, only 20% maximum should ever be devoted to any tilt or individual stocks. 2. Your ETFs should be passive, low cost index funds with exposure to the entire world. VT is generally the standard all world ETF, VTI + VXUS if you want to control % each is in your portfolio. I'm unsure what the Canadian equivalent is but there is always an equivalent in any developed market. 3. Learn your tax advantaged accounts and take advantage of those accounts. One of the biggest pitfalls in investing is not planning for future tax events, especially if you are withdrawing for a house down payment you will pay a big tax bill without any planning for this event. 4. ***IMPORTANT*** While places online, like reddit, can offer very good advice, the best information comes from you directly researching and learning from verified, professionally organized and edited information, like an online encyclopedia like Investopedia or from your brokerage company. 5. Learn what FOMO is and how to recognize it in others and yourself. 6. Learn what DCA is and understand timing the market only ever works if you are extremely lucky.

NaughtyOnCrutches

Both VTI and VOO have their merits. VTI offers broader exposure to the entire U.S. stock market, while VOO focuses on the S&P 500. Diversification can help manage risk, so adding VXUS and bonds could be a smart move. It's important to consider your investment goals and risk tolerance.

ETP_Queen

VOO vs VTI is mostly a rounding error because they overlap a lot, VOO is the S and P 500 and VTI is the whole US market so you just add some mid and small caps on top, either one can be a solid core if you keep contributing and stay the course, the bigger decision is whether you also want international like VXUS for diversification outside the US and whether bonds fit your risk tolerance and time horizon, if you want the simplest diversified setup many people just do VTI plus VXUS and adjust a bond slice only if it helps you sleep at night

KuroFafnar

QCOM, 222 @ $158 WY, 350 @ $31 MDT, 180 @ $90 MKSI, 165 @ $109 UPS, 135 @ $112 Gotta harvest at some point, didn't feel those would outperform even VXUS this year. I was wrong about MKSI but correct on the others.

Nosemyfart

At this point I feel I have added enough to my individual positions through this year's volatility specifically Reddit. Very recently I loaded up on more Meta for the long haul and also bought some Netflix. I'm hoping to just pile all extra money into my VTI + VXUS positions for 2026.

bowle01

Most people can make money by doing the boring ETFs like VOO and VXUS. I started off with stock picking and did extremely well until.. eventually losing big and a large chunk of it 2-3 years in. Now I prefer slow and steady growth and gamble 20% of my portfolio. This year I’m up 34% and last year 32%. I’m exceeding my yearly financial goals year over year by a small margin and if I keep it up- in 10-15 years- should have $5M+ invested if things keep going the way they are.

thetreece

VTI vs VOO hardly matters. VTI is theoretically the better choice, as it offers a bit more diversification. But they will have nearly identical returns and have 99% correlation. VOO vs VTI+VXUS+Bonds is a different story. Nearly every respected academic in the finance space will at least recommend international in your portfolio. It improves your risk adjusted returns, and helps protect against single country risk. Whether or not you want bonds right now is a personal choice based on your time horizon and risk tolerance. VOO is good. VTI+VXUS is better.

Prudent-Corgi3793

You probably got paid a dividend. VXUS was up +0.61% and IXUS +0.62% today. Both beat the four major US indices, so they weren’t your laggards.

Marcel_Janbey

Okay great so overall, I should simplify my etf picks. What do you think about just VOOG VXUS and VBR. Next I should trim down my picks, maybe just Netflix AMZN and NVDA. Take out oklo and just do URA and NXE? Is this better?

Emotional-Power-7242

The benefit to using a target date fund is your can't mess it up. If you instead buy a global index fund like VT and a bond index fund like BND you could decide on the wrong ratio of stocks to bonds. If you split VT into a US index fund like VTI and an international index fund like VXUS you could decide on the wrong ratio of US to international. Every choice you add is another opportunity to make the wrong choice, and many investors will make the wrong choice. Nobody in this sub knows what they're talking about so don't worry if they say bonds are bad. Bonds are necessary. Young investors don't all need bonds, which is why a target date fund has you in a low percentage while youre young. Market cap weighted just means you buy more of the companies worth the most and less of the companies worth the least. You weight the index based on how much the companies are worth. Diversification means you invest across a wide spectrum of industries, countries, values, so that if say the US market ranks your entire portfolio doesn't tank with it because it isn't 100% in US stocks. Your target date fund (or global index fund like VT) also has stocks from the UK, Japan, China, Africa, etc.

ForeverInTheSun82647

I’d have just done VOO, VXF, and VXUS. Soothing like 40/10/10. I have the same but VTI instead of the VOO. I’m already heavy into the VTI so I left it since it’s heavy weighted into the s&p already. If you want some growth tilt/satellite cap it at 2-5 percent. Something like VUG is solid. If you really wanted to get crazy you can go with VB and VO instead of VXF but IMO it’s not that crazy. It’s only if you’re trying to dial in certain market caps. As for individual stocks, we all have our own game-plan. I personally believe in tech. I’m heavy into tech and robotics. I believe in having some tilt into specific sectors. So I have some VFH and VHT. I do have a couple growth based pharma companies and a couple growth based financial companies. Just more into tech and robotics.

haze_from_deadlock

For 2026? Go heavy VXUS

Emotional-Power-7242

VOO or VTI doesn't matter. You definitely want VXUS. Bonds really depends on your personal risk tolerance.

AnselmoHatesFascists

I used to swing trade and far prefer holding VTI, the only thing I’d consider adding is some VXUS for international exposure and maybe a tiny bit of bond fund like BND, especially if you’re older.

ConcentrateOk523

This is good advice. Owned and got rid of Intel like 20 years ago. Now own VTI, VXUS and other index funds.

Glad-Lie8324

I'm not sure what your referring to, maybe when I said one of the pro's of VOO only (the husbands point of view) is better than investing in three funds? I was trying to say (unclearly) that it's simpler to invest in one fund (VOO or VT or VTI, doesn't matter), than to do a mix of VT, Bonds, and VXUS that needs rebalancing every so often. So, nothing to do with VOO specifically, more just talking about 1 fund vs 3 fund approach and trying to make the point that VOO (and VT) are already plenty diversified so as to make a 3 fund approach probably overkill.

ConcentrateOk523

That is the problem with bonds. They return next to nothing and then the Fed lowers rates. Thinking of just unloading my bond funds and putting more into VTI and VXUS.

EstimateWest4370

For clarity - buy VTI or VOO and some VXUS. If you don't want all that hassle, go straight to VT. But make sure you do the most important part: chilling and not mucking around with your strategy.

AviPaz

I do not think this is really a question of right or wrong. VOO versus VTI versus adding VXUS and bonds is less about which fund is better and more about what kind of uncertainty you are comfortable living with together. Concentration can feel simpler and more confident. Diversification can feel slower but more forgiving over time. For new investors especially, the most important part is choosing an approach you can both stick with through good markets and bad ones, not optimizing the last few percentage points on paper