target date funds are trash, wayy too heavy in bonds and international for anyone that's trying to build real wealth over time, most just default into it not knowing any better thinking it's the best standard or they can't mentally stomach short term volatility and rob themselves of returns over time
target date funds are like the Dave Ramsey of investments, helping the poor stay slightly less poor
Any specific reasons American's should not be too heavy in international stocks?
I personally just try to evenly weigh my portfolio, so about 50% USA and 50% international.
The standard argument is American exceptionalism. I buy the argument but I suspect I am in the minority on this board in that respect.
I actually buy the American exceptionalism argument, but in a dystopian way. The U.S. makes extreme tradeoffs to prioritize economic growth and the ability of equity owners to make large amounts of money. We accept extreme downsides in exchange for economic prioritization that other countries are unwilling to accept.
U.S. policy decisions such as low taxes, car-dependency, privatized healthcare, prescription drug monopolies, a lack of mental health or addiction care, over-use of disposable products, the standard American diet, wars every 10 years, etc. all reduce our quality of life, but generate lots of economic activity. Our cities are graceless moneymaking places, with six-lane stroads lined with billboards, chain restaurants, and retailers, each with huge parking lots scattered with fast-food trash, cigarette butts, and liquor bottles. Beggars with unaddressed addictions, mental health issues, or simply medical debt work most intersections now. Our houses are similarly graceless, and flimsily built, requiring remods or demolition every 20-40 years. Our life expectancy is reduced by all the time we spend on the road breathing carbon monoxide, nitrates, and carcinogenic soot, by the toxins we call food, by a lack of opportunities to walk or ride bikes, and by the violence of the people around us whose primary value is the acquisition of money and stuff.
All these decisions led to a highly productive labor force that must work extremely hard to manage oppressive debt loads that have become culturally normal. All these decisions opened up opportunities for business owners and stock holders to earn fortunes, even if their products make people's lives worse.
I might prefer to live in a country that bans billboards from blighting their cities and countrysides, that taxes rather than subsidizes petroleum products, that has public transportation and healthcare, that aggressively regulates the sale of harmful things, that does something to help their less fortunate, and that offers cleaner air and water.
However I would prefer to invest in the country where people are working like medieval serfs on a never ending treadmill of consumerism. The later country, basically a money-obsessed labor camp converting people's lives into dividends, will outproduce any country which tries to pursue the common good, even a little bit.
