I haven’t blogged in a while and might not for some time as I’m really busy right now with work and personal things. I am waiting for one more transfer from Clearsight to E*Trade in my wife’s RRSP (yes, my wife is coming over to E*Trade as well) then I will provide an update on our portfolio allocations. Suffice to say that our combined portfolio is an all-ETF, all-index portfolio and is very low-cost. It is also very simple, with so far just 6 ETFs in total. It will remain that way for the foreseable future. I dumped all the old mutual funds after looking closely at their past performance vs. the indexes and not being overwhelmingly convinced that any of them were beating indexes.
Your strategy makes perfect sense. My portfolio is essentiallly the same – ETFs across different asset classes, using the portfolio asset allocation advice offered by David Swensen.
However, just recently, I started exploring some supplementa investments. Fine art. While it will not play more than a very, very minor part of my total assets, it will serve as a small part. Why? Well, it is great to have an asset that provides non-monetary value to me (the painting I bought will hang in my living room!) And, well-researched art investments help minimize risk – and help ensure your choice will enjoy a nice rise in value. David Blackwood prints, for example, have consistently risen in value over the 20 years he has been a print-maker.
I have also started to explore investment properties (small, multi-unit dwellings). There is certainly risk here – but, research and sticking to your guns (not paying more than what you determine is a maximum price, enabling your investment to still yield an appropriate risk-adjusted return) is key.