December 26, 2008:
Ever wonder where the people giving you advice keep their money? Here’s a peek into my personal portfolio.
NEW YORK (Money) — Question: Financial advisers always know our net worth and investments, but we never know what they are invested in. What are the Mole’s investments?
The Mole’s Answer: What a great question! In the land of “do as I say not as I do,” there are many stories about the adviser or fund manager selling expensive investments to others while investing themselves in ultra low-cost broadly diversified index funds. Could the Mole be one of those – preaching low costs, diversification, and rebalancing only to be in annuities, loaded-mutual funds, and hot performing companies and countries?
Well, I assure you that I’m not. Here’s a look inside the Mole’s portfolio. I’ll start with my equities and then move on to fixed income.
The vast majority of my holdings are in broad index funds, with roughly two-thirds in the U.S. and one-third in international. I would love my portfolio to be as simple as owning the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) (.07% expense ratio) and the Vanguard FTSE All World Ex US ETF (VEU) (.25% expense ratio).
Unfortunately, neither of these existed when…
