Simple solutions in your 40s

Hello Community!

I´ve been doing my FIRE journey in the opposite direction from MP. I started with real estate and only got into stocks in my 40s. A banker once told me, what are you going to do in an emergency? Sell a wall of your flat?

Anyways, if I follow the advice MP gives in his book (yes, I know) for a Swiss investor like me it would be a strategy of 45% in bonds, then 30% in global ETFs, and 15% in Swiss ETFs.

Again, following the book´s guidance, to choose the global ETF on etf.com I applied the filters of Equity/Expense Ratio/Global/Total Market/AUM/Trade Volume and then another dose of Expense Ratio and Vanguard Total World Stock ETF comes out on top.

For the Swiss ETF and such filters iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF comes out on top. It´s Expense Ratio is .50% which is much higher than Franklin FTSE Switzerland ETF at .09% but it has so much more AUM and Trade Volume that I feel it is worth it for the added security.

So do I just buy VT and EWL every quarter or am I missing something? Just opened my IBKR account, looking forward to any advice before pulling the trigger.

For the bonds percentage I’ll continue to contribute through my 2nd pillar.

Thanks for taking the time to read and, maybe, write back!

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Are you living in Switzerland ?

If yes, I will never choose a US ETF to invest in the Swiss market. Extra layers of taxes and you cannot claim back the Swiss withholding tax.

As a Swiss investor, I will go for a Swiss ETF. For example: https://www.ishares.com/ch/individual/en/products/264107/ishares-spi-ch-fund

It seems like a good mix if you’re looking for a safe portfolio that won’t crash 50%. Although in case you didn’t know be informed that investing in bonds is discouraged by our tax system as interest is 100% taxed as income. (So are dividends, but capital gains are tax free.) Also 45+30+15% doesn’t add up to 100%?

I will never understand home country bias, but if you really want to invest in Switzerland I’d recommend the ishares SPI ETF (CHSPI). 0.1% TER, domiciled in CH for headache-free dividends.

VT is a great choice. Probably the single best ETF in the world.

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…unless you compare it to something like SPY, let alone QQQ :wink:

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You have some basic misunderstanding problem here. Etf.com only lists US-domiciled ETFs. For European ETFs look at https://www.justetf.com/. The best ETF on Swiss stocks for me is CHSPI

And you should be fine with VT only anyway.

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Thanks Guillaume! Yes I live in CH, in Geneva in fact. Looks like you are from there too! I saw there is a cafés section on the forum, are in-person event organized as well? Thanks again for the advice!

Yes, maths is not my forte, not a good thing for investing! I guess my bias comes from wanting to have an investment that grows in the the main currency in which I spend. I guess it removes some forex risk…Thanks for the input! Much appreciated!

Yes! That was a big misunderstanding! Thanks for clearing that up. It is great to have this resource and be able to pic the brains of more experienced people. Though I know that none of this is financial advice! Thanks Dr.PI!