How Much Do You Have Saved?

[Our03z4]

My account did 14.24% in 2017. Mixture is 10% REITs, 10% Emerging Markets, 20% Small Cap, 20% International, and 40% Large Cap. The stocks I personally picked and sold did 37% for 2017.

[AlpineWhite_SJ]

Originally Posted by qba335i

S&P 500 consists of only US companies. Even if you want to be all equities, you still should have some international exposure (developed and emerging markets).

Having 100% allocation to something following MSCI World Index is a better recommendation.


Diversification is the only free lunch in finance. you can diversity in many ways: various asset classes, various products...

True, but you’d be forgoing a better return as the s&p500 tends to outperform MSCI over the last 30 years.

Diversification lowers risk and as such, returns.

[qba335i]

Originally Posted by AlpineWhite_SJ

True, but you’d be forgoing a better return as the s&p500 tends to outperform MSCI over the last 30 years.

Diversification lowers risk and as such, returns.

And as we all know past performance is not indicative of future performance.

I could argue that going forward there is more opportunity in the international markets vs domestic market.

[amw896]

Whats the ticker and/or company name?

Originally Posted by Xtabi

Sounds similar to mine. My wife and I max out our 401k every year. We put in $18k our employer dumps in $9k.


This year I believe they upped it to $9,500 for 2018.

I also dump 8% of each check into my ESPP. At a 10% discount. Part of our bonus each year is paid via stock too.

The stock pays a great dividend and is up 350% since I joined the company

Can't beat free $!

I also very closely follow the other items on your list.

[BayMoWe335]

Originally Posted by Our03z4

My account did 14.24% in 2017. Mixture is 10% REITs, 10% Emerging Markets, 20% Small Cap, 20% International, and 40% Large Cap. The stocks I personally picked and sold did 37% for 2017.

Numbers don’t add up. Everything you listed did better than 14.24% in 2017. Everything except the REIT, maybe.

If th stocks you picked were up 37%, you should be well over 20%. Emerging markets killed last year.

This is why I say everyone is full of shit when they talk money. Maybe you just did your math wrong or you are paying 5% in fees.

[BayMoWe335]

Originally Posted by qba335i

S&P 500 consists of only US companies. Even if you want to be all equities, you still should have some international exposure (developed and emerging markets).

Having 100% allocation to something following MSCI World Index is a better recommendation.


Diversification is the only free lunch in finance. you can diversity in many ways: various asset classes, various products...

Overrated finance textbook speak. Most companies in the s&p do international business anyway, so you get emerging markets exposure. Most of AAPL’s sales are overseas, for example.