Hippie Green Beret

The Path to Freedom & Unconventional Wealth

Get More!!?? If I Only Owned Two Funds…

by HippieGreenBeret
Weighing The Week Ahead: Time To Look Under The Hood

Here’s the deal. After all that work of building my Janky Portfolio, reading everything I could, and then doing it FOR REAL (buying said stocks, bonds, funds, REITs, etc. and running experiments), I am still learning. And looking under the hood, here’s the best-of-the-best of what I learned:

If you want to be a bad mo’fracky investor and business owner of the entire US and world, you might use these two funds, or something similar:

  1. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Admiral Shares (VTSAX)
  2. Vanguard International Growth Fund Investor Shares (VWIGX)

Owning both of these makes you a partial owner of nearly 3600 US Companies and 127 of the best International Companies. And both funds are self cleaning.

So what exactly do you own? Let’s look under the hood:

The top 10 Holdings of VTSAX

So what exactly does the entire VTSAX consist of? It’s a nice spread of all 11 sectors. Heavy in Tech… but makes sense in current world…

Top 10 Holdings of VWIGX

Interestingly, VWIGX also has a good spread across the entire world, including hand picked emerging markets. As you might deduce, this is an actively managed fund, hence the 0.43% fee. It is the Lone-Survivor active fund… by which I mean, after endless hours researching, it is the only active fund that I recommend to my friends and use myself. Go over $50k, and you’ll get a reduction in 11 basis points to 0.32%. What a deal!

How much of each should I have?

This is a personal choice, and there are arguments and reasoning for what you should own and why. Good on you for using your brain and determining your own way! Personally, I like having around 30% international. However, starting out, make it simple and just split it down the middle. 50 / 50.

  • Start with $3000 to VTSAX and $3000 to VWIGX.
  • Then add equal amounts automatically each pay period.
  • And when you have extra money, split it between the two!

Congrats, you are now a business owner of multiple US and International Companies! For something fun to educate (annoy?) your significant other(s), kids, or friends, take a look at all the holdings (companies in the fund). Then, when you’re out and about, you can say something like:

“Check those NOOBs out, driving through the Drive-Thru at McDonalds. They unknowingly sponsor my financial future with their BIG MACs and Supersized drinks. Right now, I only own that corner brick right above the entrance in that McDonalds, but soon enough, I’ll own that entire wall, then that Golden Arch out front, then the ice cream machine, then the french fry deep fryer… and I never have to pay any upkeep or deal with any unruly, moody teenage workers, or even eat a Big Mac! Amazing!”

-Eerily similar conversation between me and my kids anytime we pass a McDonalds, or other business that I “own”.