Pushing More into the Markets
Today, I made progress by a few yards. In fact, I made a first down! I reduced my cash balance by 7%!!!
Specifically, I was buying the Vanguard FTSE All-World Index (VWCE). As well as a couple of other index and high-dividend funds of SCHD and UMAX.
The FTSE All-World index covers 90-95% of the investable securities in the world. It’s weighted by market cap, so the largest holdings are Apple and Microsoft. 60% of this index is invested in the United States, but 40% is not.
This is my largest single holding, with this one ETF being 15% of my total invested portfolio. The Schwab Dividend ETF SCHD is my second largest at 9%.
My cash and money market total is still too high at 45%, but it’s coming down.
WHY DON’T YOU INVEST ALL THE CASH TODAY? WHAT’S THE HOLDUP?
Indeed, what IS the holdup? Good question.
One-third of that cash figure is in money-market funds or short-term T-Bill funds. So, I am actually earning interest with those funds. I’m OK with that.
And the rest is held up by the restrictions on moving money around the world. This is either geographical (i.e., I am not in the same country as the money and cannot go to a bank branch to do an international money transfer) or tax-related (i.e., the money is in a corporate account and not my personal account, and moving it will cause taxes).
Weak excuses, probably. I will have to work harder to move the money.
My investment mix yesterday was:
- Index Funds – 29% (goal 35%)
- Individual Stocks – 3% (goal 5%)
- High Div ETFs – 11% (goal 30%)
- Bond ETFs – 4% (goal 15%)
- Cash/Money Markets – 52% (goal 15%)
The latest mix is:
- Index Funds – 36% (goal 35%)
- Individual Stocks – 3% (goal 5%)
- High Div ETFs – 12% (goal 30%)
- Bond ETFs – 4% (goal 15%)
- Cash/Money Markets – 45% (goal 15%)
