Opinions on first portfolio starting Jan/2022

[jenny777]

Hi,

I am assembled my first serious portfolio after having gathered money that was sitting in in high-commision banks, etc.

I live in the EU and the broker that I could find as for now is Degiro, although I might switch in the future since I am concerned -if my understanding is correct- that with this broker apparently only 20k€ are guaranteed concerning the investments positions (100k€ are guaranteed concerning the deposits in the Flatex separate bank account as per the European deposits guarantee fund, but that is irrelevant since the money is invested in active positions). In any case, if this is not correct or there are better brockers to operate in Europe, I thank in advance for opinions and recommendations.

As per the portfolio, I am starting with some savings around 30k and I am looking to keep investing regularly keeping approximately the same weights.

I am 34 y/o, and realized that I might not buy a house anytime soon or ever, so I decided to use the money to generate some returns meanwhile. I deliverately included some defensive % given the current outlook and in order to keep the balance considering the riskier bets in emerging markets, sectorial etfs and the tiny % of crypto.

I do not need to generate very high returns as in principle retirement should be covered in the EU, with my current stable job situation. But rather gain some decent return in order to potentially use the money in a more or less mid term horizon, maybe 10 years, in case I buy a house for example.

Is there a way to make the overall more round? or, am I missing something that would be important to include?



Defensive -24.4%-

Xtrackers MSCI World Utilities UCITS ETF 1C (60%US, 6%ES, 5%IT, 5%UK, 4%CAD, 3%FR, 3%DE, 2%HK, 2%JP, ...)

SPDR® Dow Jones Global Real Estate UCITS ETF (60%US, 10%JP, 5%UK, 5%AUS, 3%SG, 2%HK ...)

Regional (Developed) -39.0%-

iShares Core S&P 500 UCITS ETF USD (Acc) (100% US)

iShares MSCI Europe ESG Screened UCITS ETF EUR Acc (20%UK, 28%FR, 15%CH, 13%DE, 8%NL, 6%SE, 4%IT, 4%DK, 4%ES, ...)

Regional (Emerging) -16.2%-

iShares MSCI EM Asia UCITS ETF USD (Acc) (35% China -Alibaba/Tencent/banks,etc-, 20%Taiwan, 15%India, 15%Korea,...)

Speculative, Thematic/Sectorial -13.6%-

VanEck Vectors Semiconductor UCITS ETF (76%US, 12%NL, 10%Taiwan. -TSMC, AMSL, INTEL, NVIDIA, QUALCOMM, etc.-)

VanEck Vectors Rare Earth and Strategic Metals UCITS ETF (43% AUS, 28% China, 12% US, 10% CAD, 4% NL, ...)

Speculative, cryptocurrency -6.8%-

Mostly BTC, ETH

Thanks in advance

 

[britxleir]

@jenny777 Why do you want to invest in 10 different ETFs? Don't do this unless you can very very well answer question: "why i have special insight, that most people dont have, that semiconductors/rare metals/europe/us will grow more than other areas and why it is currently underrated by other investors". And no "well semiconductors will always be useful" is definitely not enough. Just buy VWCE and chill bro. This is classic example of people over complicating investing and losing money because they dont know what they are doing.

 

[jenny777]

@britxleir I guess if I could answer that I'll be rich already or I'll be a professional investor.
Basically what I'm trying to do here is build a diversified enough portfolio that is not solely relying in the US economy -although mostly- and that also has some defensive and speculative % in it. Guided by what I read in the news and research, but of course I can't answer whethert semiconductors, Lithium, EVs, will make us all rich.

I see the point on buying just VWCE, and that if you diversify to much you might end up practically with the same general world Etf.
The usual recommendation is 3-4 ETFs I guess, this might be too much, could be reduced.
Anyhow, luckily commissions under my calculations are almost the same with a 1etf scenario VS several ETFs scenario.

Thanks

 

[britxleir]

@jenny777 Exactly, that's why we buy global etfs, because we are not professional investors. What you actually did is decrease diversification of your portfolio by inserting all those random etfs. Less is more in this case unless you really really know what you are doing. You should aim to have as little etf's as possible (ideally just one) and you should have very good reason for adding a new one.

 

[jenny777]

@britxleir See the point. Thanks

 

[oncemore]

@jenny777 Too complicated for my taste. Why not just keep it simple? Check out VWCE & chill!

 

[shippingreturns]

@jenny777 I, for one, like and use Interactive Brokers, but I'm not familiar how they compare with Degiro (in terms of fees, for example ).

 

[ancyss]

@jenny777 I was looking at your emerging markets and i have been doubting myself if i should go with an exChina etf. Right now China gives me 0 confidence after what has happened with tech, education and construction sectors.

I also work in china atm so i don’t want to be expose to their stocks. And 35% of the ETF in china seems a little to much in the current conditions.

Any opinions?

 

[tekela]

@jenny777 There is a case for overweighting some sectors with sectoral ETF like using utilities like you did.

However the weighting of it becomes very important as you don't want to have too much idiosyncratic risk left. It requires from you to do some correlation matrix, historical back tests and mean variance analysis.

If you want something defensive but simpler, you have low vol ETFs.

 

[tek454btu]

@jenny777 Lol, identical story for me even almost the same etf allocation. Will lurk here for people comments.

 

[ricksterrick]

@jenny777 I'm not sure how this Global REIT will help you in a recession.. I got the concept.. and actually like the idea of REIT as defensive strategy.. but this particular ETF is full with mall / warehouse developers.. which will - I guess - drag the price down even more during recession.. or?