VXUS
Vanguard Total International Stock ETF
stock NASDAQ ETF

QCOM, 222 @ $158
WY, 350 @ $31
MDT, 180 @ $90
MKSI, 165 @ $109
UPS, 135 @ $112

Gotta harvest at some point, didn't feel those would outperform even VXUS this year. I was wrong about MKSI but correct on the others.

Lack of portability is the real drawback. I’d just do VTI + VXUS if it were me.

If you want international exposure and dividends, look at VYMI. Not only is the dividend yield higher with VYMI (3.82%) than VXUS (2.73%), the total return is higher with VYMI than with VXUS.
https://stockanalysis.com/etf/compare/vymi-vs-vxus/
Scroll down to "Growth of $10,000" and "End Value" in this link.
https://totalrealreturns.com/n/VYMI,VXUS

It's a fine investment per se, but you could also do with more diversification instead. VTI with VXUS is the boglehead way for owning the whole world. Plus maybe also some bonds. You never know when you might need to withdraw significant capital. Life happens, so more diversification for less intense drawdowns isn't bad. Plus with the direction the US is going... well that's another issue.

At this point I feel I have added enough to my individual positions through this year's volatility, specifically Reddit. Very recently I loaded up on more Meta for the long haul and also bought some Netflix. I'm hoping to just pile all extra money into my VTI + VXUS positions for 2026.
Edit: If openAI and SpaceX IPO, I will be buying

Most people can make money by doing the boring ETFs like VOO and VXUS. I started off with stock picking and did extremely well until.. eventually losing big and a large chunk of it 2-3 years in. Now I prefer slow and steady growth and gamble 20% of my portfolio. This year I’m up 34% and last year 32%. I’m exceeding my yearly financial goals year over year by a small margin and if I keep it up- in 10-15 years- should have $5M+ invested if things keep going the way they are.

If you calculate your true asset allocation accounting for taxes the "high return assets in roth" advantage almost entirely goes away. Though taxable vs tax advantaged is still relevant.
For similar reasons, asset location strategies have the downside of making it more difficult to ascertain your true after tax asset allocation, since it will depend on uncertain estimates of future tax rates. Mirroring the same allocation removes the dependence on future tax rates- and therefore the uncertainty- entirely.
It is a mistake to say that VXUS has lower expected returns than VTI. Generally the boglehead approach would be to presume they're the same. There are maybe some arguments to be made that VXUS has higher expected returns based on greater risk and/or lower valuations. But either way the expected returns are not lower (though actual realized returns can of course always surprise us in any situation).
VXUS is not more tax efficient than VTI. Yes there is the foreign tax credit but it has both a higher dividend yield and a higher portion of those dividends that are unqualified, which is especially impactful for higher earners like yourself. If I were to do any of these asset location strategies in your position it would be to weight taxable towards VTI and offset that in tax advantaged. Though that is still not at all necessary if you feel more comfortable keeping the domestic/international ratio the same in all accounts.
Finally, I would not wait for new taxable contributions to correct your domestic/international weighting. If you really want to stick to 1-fund-per-account you could do something like switch your entire 401k or roth ira to VXUS which would get you in the ballpark. Otherwise you could use two funds to get your overall ratio exactly right. Then eventually when new taxable contributions catch up you could gradually get back to having all accounts with the same domestic/int weighting.
Overall I think the VT/TDF in tax advantaged + VTI/VXUS in taxable approach is totally reasonable once you get there, though there may be a few years of having to have VXUS in tax advantaged before your taxable account can be balanced. And if there is a tax optimization to be done, it would be leaving taxable as VTI and holding VXUS in tax advantaged. Nothing beyond that seems necessary.

I'm thinking about putting 10k in VXUS. I'm 63 and have had JEPQ/JEPI .

Follow up question, if someone has VT, VTI, and VXUS in a brokerage, is the benefit to have options to eventually sell while avoiding wash sale rules and/or selling following recent underperformance relative to other index funds meaningful factors?
Those considerations I mentioned are counterpoints I’ve encountered compared to the otherwise conventional position highly favoring simplification, even to just VT.

How much is the actual tax credit for VXUS? For each let’s say 100k invested, how much tax is saved?

Yeah... there's no known-good answer for the balance between VXUS and VTI. VOO is slightly less broad than VTI but not so much that I worry about it. I've seen everything from "international is bad" (0% VXUS) to "I live in America so I should overweight international" (45% VXUS). I just use VT or the equivalent split (37% VXUS).
But I would generally warn against thinking about what might be the next Nikkei. Decide whether you want to go broad ("the whole world, on average, goes up") or 30% less broad ("America, on average, goes up"), pick an allocation, and go do something more fun.

Hi all, I’m trying to finalize my asset allocation and contribution strategy for the next year and would appreciate a sanity check.
Current situation:
• 401k: $200k in Vanguard TDF 2055
• Roth IRA: $100k in VT
• Brokerage: $300k in VTI
• HSA: $20k in VT
• Emergency fund: ~10 months cash/MMF
• Extended emergency / bonds: $20k in short-term bond fund in brokerage
Goal:
Keep things as simple as possible without giving up much in expected outcomes.
My idea is to use the Vanguard Target Date Fund date in 401k as a “single knob” to control my overall stock/bond allocation as I get closer to retirement.
Plan for the next years:
• Keep tax-advantaged accounts as they are (TDF in 401k, VT in Roth & HSA) and contribute up to their limits.
• In taxable brokerage, start directing all new after-tax contributions to VXUS until my overall US/international mix is closer to global market cap (~60/40), since I’m currently very US-heavy from holding mostly VTI.
Question 1 — Any issues with this plan?
Does this seem reasonable from a simplicity + tax efficiency standpoint?
Where I’m conflicted: asset location optimization
I’ve seen advice (and even ChatGPT) suggesting something like:
• Put higher expected return assets (US stocks / VTI) in Roth + HSA since growth is tax-free.
• Put international (VXUS) in taxable and traditional 401k since they’re lower return and/or benefit from foreign tax credit.
That would mean:
• Roth/HSA: mostly or only VTI
• Taxable: mostly VXUS
• 401k: TDF or bonds + intl
This is more “optimal” on paper, but breaks my simplicity goal and the clean VT/TDF structure.
Question 2 — Is this optimization worth it?
Or is the benefit likely marginal enough that a simple VT + TDF + VTI/VXUS approach is fine?

VTI vs VOO hardly matters. VTI is theoretically the better choice, as it offers a bit more diversification. But they will have nearly identical returns and have 99% correlation.

VOO vs VTI+VXUS+Bonds is a different story. Nearly every respected academic in the finance space will at least recommend international in your portfolio. It improves your risk adjusted returns, and helps protect against single country risk. Whether or not you want bonds right now is a personal choice based on your time horizon and risk tolerance.

VOO is good. VTI+VXUS is better.

Just buy the top 3 that are listed for income and see how it goes. Add VOO and perhaps VXUS to round out the portfolio. Obviously it depends on your age and investment goals

I worry about the S&P being the next Nikkei 225, I do think I maybe should invest more in international, perhaps just keep my VOO and purchase VXUS and adjust by market weight when I reinvest.

Around 20% from VTI+VXUS

DFUS / SPMO / AVUV / VXUS / IDMO / AVDV

Okay great so overall, I should simplify my etf picks. What do you think about just VOOG VXUS and VBR. Next I should trim down my picks, maybe just Netflix AMZN and NVDA. Take out oklo and just do URA and NXE? Is this better?

The benefit to using a target date fund is your can't mess it up. If you instead buy a global index fund like VT and a bond index fund like BND you could decide on the wrong ratio of stocks to bonds. If you split VT into a US index fund like VTI and an international index fund like VXUS you could decide on the wrong ratio of US to international. Every choice you add is another opportunity to make the wrong choice, and many investors will make the wrong choice.
Nobody in this sub knows what they're talking about so don't worry if they say bonds are bad. Bonds are necessary. Young investors don't all need bonds, which is why a target date fund has you in a low percentage while youre young.
Market cap weighted just means you buy more of the companies worth the most and less of the companies worth the least. You weight the index based on how much the companies are worth.
Diversification means you invest across a wide spectrum of industries, countries, values, so that if say the US market ranks your entire portfolio doesn't tank with it because it isn't 100% in US stocks. Your target date fund (or global index fund like VT) also has stocks from the UK, Japan, China, Africa, etc.

I’d have just done VOO, VXF, and VXUS. Soothing like 40/10/10. I have the same but VTI instead of the VOO. I’m already heavy into the VTI so I left it since it’s heavy weighted into the s&p already. If you want some growth tilt/satellite cap it at 2-5 percent. Something like VUG is solid. If you really wanted to get crazy you can go with VB and VO instead of VXF but IMO it’s not that crazy. It’s only if you’re trying to dial in certain market caps. As for individual stocks, we all have our own game-plan. I personally believe in tech. I’m heavy into tech and robotics. I believe in having some tilt into specific sectors. So I have some VFH and VHT. I do have a couple growth based pharma companies and a couple growth based financial companies. Just more into tech and robotics.