Are these ETFs what I'm looking for?

[NU Star]

I'm looking to make some long term medium risk investments. Right now I have a portfolio worth about 17K in stocks, which I don't pay as much attention to as I used to, so I'm thinking I should liquidate it and pick up some indexes/ETFs.

Here's how I'm planning on diversifying:

40% SPY - S&P 500 - UTS SPDR TRUST SER https://www.smithbarney.com/app-bin/...s/QuoteServlet


20% ILF - ISHARES S&P LATIN AMERICA 40 INDEX FUND
https://www.smithbarney.com/app-bin/...s/QuoteServlet


20% FXI - ISHARES TRFTSE XINHAU HK CHINA 25 INDEX
https://www.smithbarney.com/app-bin/quot...ip=464287184000


20% EWS - ISHARES MSCI SINGAPORE INDEX FUND
https://www.smithbarney.com/app-bin/...s/QuoteServlet


Thoughts/Advice?

[jws43yale]

The foriegn investments are definitely high risk, but I have a significant portion alloted the same way. I have several mutual fund investments, but you might consider the Vanguard International Equity Index ETF (VWO). IShares Singapore I know is highly regarded, I recently saw it mentioned as a good investment on Forbes.

[Eihli]

Why not break down the LA, China, and Singapore funds into one Emerging Markets fund? Give you more diversification.

[Perplexity]

You can make it simpler and better diversified by just using two Vanguard ETFs:

40% VTI (Total US Stock Market)
60% VEU (All-World ex-US)

[yellowbastard]

Foreign ETF's are > foreign open end funds because you avoid purchase and redemption fees. There was an interesting discussion on the boards not to long ago about indeces that are more value oriented and the ETF's that track them. They seem to have achieved higher returns over long periods of time.

See Jeff W's post towards the bottom here

[Jeff W]

Those international funds suck... very concentrated/volatile(substantial undiversified company, country and sector risk) and expensive.

50/50 VTI (U.S. Market)/VEU(International Market) is my recommendation.

[NU Star]

Ok, rethinking it and taking some advide, how does this look?

VWO 20%
VEU 30%
SPY 20%
VTI 30%

[gull]

NU Star, that looks fine.

I don't see the reason for SPY, though. VTI is more diversified and has broader exposure to the US market.

[SubaruSTiMike]

Is there anything wrong with VEIEX, Vaguard's Emerging Market Index Fund? I'm looking into this and if I believe that Asia is going to grow much more during the next few years, should I buy this? They have most of their assets allocated in Korea, China, etc...

I was looking at the singapore index fund and that looks very interesting, but do I want to diversify with the emerging market index fund or just stick with growth in singapore. Also, VEU seems geared towards european market, and it's expensive as hell.