Author Topic: international stock allocation?  (Read 4678 times)

droh82

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international stock allocation?
« on: December 25, 2017, 07:35:20 PM »
Out of your equities allocation, how much is in international stocks compared to US domestic stocks and why?

I've been going back and forth on 70/30, 75/25, 80/20 US to International trying to find a sweet spot. Would like to know you guys decided on your allocation.


Indexer

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Re: international stock allocation?
« Reply #1 on: December 25, 2017, 09:33:08 PM »
60% domestic. 40% international.


waltworks

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Re: international stock allocation?
« Reply #2 on: December 25, 2017, 10:12:59 PM »
I do 50/50. The US stock market is ~20% of world stocks (as of 2016, AFAIK) so I figure I'm still overweighting domestic stocks considerably. I think the conventional wisdom is just 10-25%, though. To be honest I wanted lots of international exposure and just chose some round numbers. I'd love to hear from folks who have a better thought out rationale.

I believe the Vanguard target date funds have larger foreign stock allocations as they get longer time horizon/more aggressive. So you could base your allocation on your general stock/bond allocations/volatility tolerance I suppose.

-W

frugal_c

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Re: international stock allocation?
« Reply #3 on: December 26, 2017, 08:02:04 AM »
Roughly 40% US, 15% canada, 30% europe, 15% emerging markets.

alexpkeaton

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Re: international stock allocation?
« Reply #4 on: December 26, 2017, 08:10:25 AM »
I do a 50/50 split for domestic/international. Within international I'm 60/40 developed/emerging. I want to be weighted toward emerging markets because a) that's where the growth is and b) currently they're not as richly valued as domestic stocks.

ardrum

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Re: international stock allocation?
« Reply #5 on: December 26, 2017, 08:13:24 AM »
I'm currently at 37.7% international, and I tend to keep it around there (35-40%).  I'm split evenly between total international and emerging markets to tilt toward the latter.  Honestly I don't have any specific reason why I'm at 35-40% instead of 30% or 50%.  I'm very open to changing the ratio if a convincing argument is made, but otherwise I'm pretty comfortable with this amount of exposure.

nihilism122

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Re: international stock allocation?
« Reply #6 on: December 26, 2017, 11:48:39 AM »
25% Canadian

20% U.S.

20% International

ysette9

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Re: international stock allocation?
« Reply #7 on: December 26, 2017, 11:50:09 AM »
Our AA goal is 60% US, 40% everywhere else. This is based on advice I got from an advisor at Vanguard and also, I believe, reflects the weight of the US stock market as compared to the rest of the globe.

waltworks

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Re: international stock allocation?
« Reply #8 on: December 26, 2017, 12:44:23 PM »
There are all kinds of different numbers out there. I find 50/50, 60/40, 20/80... none with any useful citations. Does anyone actually know the market cap of US vs International?

-W

ysette9

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waltworks

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Re: international stock allocation?
« Reply #10 on: December 26, 2017, 01:51:11 PM »
https://personal.vanguard.com/pdf/ISGGEB.pdf

Vanguard says it's roughly 50/50 (as of 2013).

Now that I think about it, I think I read that paper 4 years ago and that's what made me pick 50/50. I just want to basically own some of everything/go long on humanity.

-W


Dollar Slice

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Re: international stock allocation?
« Reply #11 on: December 26, 2017, 02:03:04 PM »
The ratio constantly fluctuates, so you're not going to find lockstep agreement if you search among online articles that are written years apart.

For that reason I don't worry about the exact ratio too much, but I try to keep it in the ballpark of actual market caps. Right now they're at 47/53.

The 585

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Re: international stock allocation?
« Reply #12 on: December 26, 2017, 02:17:30 PM »
60% US domestic, 40% international. No bonds. I try to keep approximately this allocation in all my accounts and plan to re-balance occasionally.

Makes it pretty easy with Vanguard's VTSAX and VTIAX.

 

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