S&P 500 Ireland

[submission]

Hi All,

I was listening to Steven Bartletts podcast and he had Ramit Sethi on it and he was talking about investing in the S&P500 and he uses vanguard. Is there an equivalent in Ireland to vanguard or how does one go about investing in the S&P500 in Ireland.

Thanks

 

[tony58]

@submission Brokers such as Degiro will allow you to access S&P500 ETFs, but I wouldn't do it until you understand the tax implications of doing so, and are comfortable with investing

 

[submission]

Thanks guys. I’m going to look into it a bit more before I do anything. I haven’t maxed out my pension contributions yet and think might be the way to go but I’d like to have some savings and investments that are separate to a pension that I can access if I need to.

 

[mimi1990]

@submission If you get Degiro, remember to ask someone for a referral code and get your discount

 

[pinkdragon]

@submission How did you get on with this?

 

[rosyy57]

@submission Be aware of October the student loan repayments in America kick back in. And the stimulus that was pretending they might ever forgive student loans to stimulate spending in a pandemic will be over. Just because the S&P has done so so well in the past that does not guarantee it will in the future.

The problem for me with over indexed companies like those in the S&P is that it’s not only relying on company performance but also those that default invest in it.

Honestly I’d suggest buying a variety of indexes that you’ve researched and understand. Don’t try to win the game, just try to ride the over all market up while cash is suffering from inflation.

I’d second Degiro as a platform for short term investing. Any longer I’d go into pension.

 

[resjudicata]

@rosyy57 No need to anything more than the S&P 500. Maybe go All World ETF instead if you want.

Absolutely no need to go for "a variety of indexes" when you can get sufficient diversification from max 2.

 

[rosyy57]

@resjudicata What basis or research have you done in relation to this? Bar listening to some short term thinking internet Bros?

S&P is significantly weighted with Tesla, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple (7.5%) and a few others at the top. Meta is in the top 10 and really I’m not hot on their future. Buying an ETF is just buying a diversified stock. No harm in diversifying again with others like Vanguard All world (which I like).

I just think we need to be careful about offering one size fits all advice.

Best advice is don’t try to beat the market just try to own some of the growing ones.

 

[resjudicata]

@rosyy57 There is an extensive body of academic research into this topic. I did my finance masters dissertation on this topic.

Buying an ETF is not necessarily buying a diversified stock. All an ETF is is an exchange traded fund. There are many many many undiversified ETFs. Being an ETF and it being diversified are not synonymous.

As I said in my comment, buying an ETF which tracks an all world index is a good idea if you're concerned about the possible underperformance of the S&P500.

Beyond that, as I also said, absolutely no need to buy ETFs that track a variety of indexes which will inevitably have overlap with your All World index tracking index if you choose to hold that.