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Is there a super index fund?

The more I read about investing the more it seems that diversification is the key. In other words don't put all your eggs in one basket. Have a mix of stocks, bonds: mutual funds, CDs, real estate etc. The problem is that the more you invest in so many investment products the more time you have to spend managing all of them. So it becomes like a full-time job just keeping track of everything. That seems to defeat the whole purpose behind investing. you already worked hard to earn the money and now you have to work hard to keep the money!

So is there some kind of super index fund that invests in pretty much everything? I would think this index fund would try to match the GDP growth of the whole world. So it kind of invests in everything imaginable. This way you just buy one product instead of dozens and get all the diversification that is possible. Does such a monster of investment exist?

Reply to
nonsense
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There are some globally diverse funds: Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT) SPDR S&P World EX-US ETF (GWL) Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US ETF (VEU) Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US Small-Cap Index Fund ETF (VSS)

PowerShares Autonomic Balanced Growth NFA Global Asset Portfolio (PAO) PowerShares Autonomic Balanced NFA Global Asset Portfolio (PCA) PowerShares Autonomic Growth NFA Global Asset Portfolio (PTO)

Reply to
Alvin

[snip]

Hoping to help a bit with the rage about asset (over) diversification ... there've been a few threads on bonds recently. Interesting, since interest rates are scraping bottom. A few months ago there were questions about whether or not stocks were at a bottom. They weren't. But last year a hypothetical portfolio popped up, and a broad-based fund for comparison.

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19%

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6%

It hasn't even been six months yet, but now seems a propitious time to provide an update:-) The idea was to try to show that one need not work very hard, nor be very bright, to screen stocks whose earnings are increasing, and companies that are honest. Granted, ten stocks is maybe a bit of a hill, but putting some 5% money into one or two companies that are the best of a screen, and that one has familiarized oneself with, might be a better bet than a bond fund.

Please note this is not a recommendation of any specific stock nor collection of stocks - just a suggestion that it is fun to do this hypothetical portfolio thing :-) I once owned a mutual fund - it was more work trying to keep track of their 60 some odd ever-changing stocks, and their short and long term gains and reinvestments, than it was to keep track of ten stocks' annual reports, and the fund went essentially nowhere.

Reply to
dapperdobbs

You're right. Diversification is key. But you don't need to make it all that complicated.

Mutual funds are just a way of buying stocks and bonds, so you don't need to buy individual stocks and bonds unless you want to.

The Vanguard Balanced Index fund being discussed in another thread gives you excellent diversification all by itself. If you own a home, you are probably over exposed to real estate already, but you could buy a REIT fund if you'd like a little more. Go to your bank and get CDs for whatever money you expect to need in the next three to five years.

If you want to keep it simple, you're done. You might want to add an international fund, but now we are getting fancy.

-- Doug

Reply to
Douglas Johnson

I would not buy such a product in a taxable account, because it makes it difficult to harvest tax losses.

For example, if the fund owns municipal bonds and stocks, it is possible that the stocks go down and the muni bonds up, and I am forced to realize gains on the bonds if I want to sell fund shares to realize the stock losses.

Reply to
Beliavsky

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