How much of your money should be in ETFs?
You expose your portfolio to much higher risk with sector ETFs, so you should use them sparingly, but investing 5% to 10% of your total portfolio assets may be appropriate. If you want to be highly conservative, don't use these at all.
A good rule of thumb is to not invest in any fund with an expense ratio higher than 1% since many ETFs have expense ratios that are much lower. Also, ETFs tend to be passively managed, which keeps the management fee low.
Generally speaking, fewer than 10 ETFs are likely enough to diversify your portfolio, but this will vary depending on your financial goals, ranging from retirement savings to income generation.
The value of assets of exchange traded funds (ETFs) worldwide grew markedly during the period from 2003 to 2022, reaching almost 10 trillion U.S. dollars in 2022. The number of ETFs worldwide grew as well during the period, from 276 in 2003, up to 8,754 in 2022.
The greater a portfolio's exposure to the S&P 500 index, the more the ups and downs of that index will affect its balance. That is why experts generally recommend a 60/40 split between stocks and bonds. That may be extended to 70/30 or even 80/20 if an investor's time horizon allows for more risk.
ETFs can be a great investment for long-term investors and those with shorter-term time horizons. They can be especially valuable to beginning investors. That's because they won't require the time, effort, and experience needed to research individual stocks.
Compare the ETF's Market Price to the NAV
Compare the market price to the NAV to determine if the ETF is trading at a premium or discount to its NAV. If the market price is higher than the NAV, the ETF is trading at a premium.
What's the minimum investment? Because they trade like stocks, ETFs do not require a minimum initial investment and are purchased as whole shares. You can buy an ETF for the price of just one share, usually referred to as the ETF's "market price."
Exchange-traded fund (ticker) | Assets under management | Yield |
---|---|---|
Vanguard 500 Index ETF (VOO) | $406.2 billion | 1.4% |
Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG) | $75.6 billion | 1.9% |
Vanguard U.S. Quality Factor ETF (VFQY) | $298.0 million | 1.4% |
SPDR Gold MiniShares (GLDM) | $6.1 billion | 0.0% |
With enough time and consistency, you can earn well over $1 million with ETFs while still limiting your risk. Data source: Author's calculations via Investor.gov.
Why not invest in ETF?
The single biggest risk in ETFs is market risk. Like a mutual fund or a closed-end fund, ETFs are only an investment vehicle—a wrapper for their underlying investment. So if you buy an S&P 500 ETF and the S&P 500 goes down 50%, nothing about how cheap, tax efficient, or transparent an ETF is will help you.
You should therefore only keep as many funds in your portfolio as you're comfortable monitoring. For example, if you hold 10 or 20 different funds, you'll need to keep a close eye on the changing value of all these investments to make sure your asset allocation still matches your investment goals.
Exchange-traded funds are similar to mutual funds in that they hold a collection of stocks and bonds in a single fund. Unlike mutual funds, they are bought and sold on stock exchanges, can be traded anytime the exchange is open, and you can start your ETF investing even if all you have to invest is $50.
ETF issuers collect any dividends paid by the companies whose stocks are held in the fund, and they then pay those dividends to their shareholders. They may pay the money directly to the shareholders, or reinvest it in the fund.
Bond ETFs are used to provide regular income to investors. Their income distribution depends on the performance of underlying bonds. They might include government, corporate, and state and local bonds, usually called municipal bonds (or munis). Unlike their underlying instruments, bond ETFs do not have a maturity date.
A $1000 investment made in November 2013 would be worth $5,574.88, or a gain of 457.49%, as of November 16, 2023, according to our calculations. This return excludes dividends but includes price appreciation. Compare this to the S&P 500's rally of 150.41% and gold's return of 46.17% over the same time frame.
Warren Buffet's 2013 letter explains the 90/10 rule—put 90% of assets in S&P 500 index funds and the other 10% in short-term government bonds.
In 1980, had you invested a mere $1,000 in what went on to become the top-performing stock of S&P 500 (^GSPC -0.12%), then you would be sitting on a cool $1.2 million today. That equates to a total return of 120,936%. The stock? None other than Gap (GPS 0.84%).
An ETF can stray from its intended benchmarks for several reasons. For instance, if the fund manager needs to swap out assets in the fund or make other changes, the ETF may not exactly reflect the holdings of the index. As a result, the performance of the ETF may deviate from the performance of the index.
Stock-picking offers an advantage over exchange-traded funds (ETFs) when there is a wide dispersion of returns from the mean. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offer advantages over stocks when the return from stocks in the sector has a narrow dispersion around the mean.
Can an ETF go to zero?
Leveraged ETF prices tend to decay over time, and triple leverage will tend to decay at a faster rate than 2x leverage. As a result, they can tend toward zero.
One way to think about it is every three months taking whatever excess income you can afford to invest – money that you will never need to touch again – and buy ETFs! Buy ETFs when the market is up. Buy ETFs when the market is down.
Symbol | Name | 5-Year Return |
---|---|---|
GBTC | Grayscale Bitcoin Trust | 66.04% |
USD | ProShares Ultra Semiconductors | 58.01% |
FNGU | MicroSectors FANG+™ Index 3X Leveraged ETN | 54.66% |
FNGO | MicroSectors FANG+ Index 2X Leveraged ETNs | 50.35% |
ETFs are less risky than individual stocks because they are diversified funds. Their investors also benefit from very low fees. Still, there are unique risks to some ETFs, including a lack of diversification and tax exposure.
A well-constructed dividend portfolio could potentially yield anywhere from 2% to 8% per year. This means, to earn $3,000 monthly from dividend stocks, the required initial investment could range from $450,000 to $1.8 million, depending on the yield. Furthermore, potential capital gains can add to your total returns.
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