The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Investor Alley => Topic started by: BooksAreNerdy on January 02, 2015, 08:54:49 AM
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What is the difference between a total world stock index (VTWSX) and a total international (VTIAX)?
My first guess would be that world includes the US? So, for diversification, I would want international?
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Yes, the world stock index is about half US and half rest of the world where as the international fund is the rest of the world outside of the US. So, if you already have a US total stock market index fund then purchase the international fund so there is no overlap in funds owned.
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Owning a total US stock fund and total international stock fund is usually cheaper. But if you wanted the stock allocation that VTWSX has and you didn't want to have to rebalance, you could just go with the single fund.
This post shows the allocation of VTWSX: https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0628&FundIntExt=INT#tab=2
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Thanks!
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Most people don't want to go with the global ratio of US vs international. in addition, the total world fund does not have as many of the individual international holdings than the Total International fund.
i think one could do fine with Total World as a lazy portfolio.