VXUS
Vanguard Total International Stock ETF
stock NASDAQ ETF

Since the inception of the first bond index fund (VBMFX) in 1986:
* VTI vs. BND 1986-2009 (22.24 years): [https://testfol.io/?s=bPhjvFHfo47](https://testfol.io/?s=bPhjvFHfo47)
* VTI vs. BND 2000-2020 (20.04 years): [https://testfol.io/?s=2BIK8I7SNgK](https://testfol.io/?s=2BIK8I7SNgK)
* VT vs. BND 1987-2020 (32.90 years): [https://testfol.io/?s=8pI2VowCc4k](https://testfol.io/?s=8pI2VowCc4k)
* VXUS vs. BND 1987-2025 (38.26 years): [https://testfol.io/?s=lb3OqBaSU8t](https://testfol.io/?s=lb3OqBaSU8t)
It's surprising that there are many periods as long as 20-40 years where bonds outperformed stocks. I know there are many investors here with 100% stock portfolios, like me. Does this information change how you think about asset allocation?

Looks solid. I’d add some international to your brokerage. My split is 70% US (VTI), 20% international (VXUS), and 10% VGT.
Did Vanguard finally allow to purchase fractional shares of QQQM?

Not necessarily more fees, the overlap indicates you have multiple funds with similar exposure to certain stocks. For instance, the top 5 holdings will be virtually the same for certain funds in your portfolio.
What you want to do is capture the market efficiently, you can do this with ITOT and VXUS. Then, if you want to tailor towards more growth, you can add in some allocation to SCHG or something tech sector. The reality, most people are fine with just ITOT and VXUS. But, you can derive extra alpha from adjusting the asset allocation yourself like I mentioned before.
Lastly, don’t focus too much on fees here. Many people like to focus on fees as a way to axe the financial advisors. The reality is, it’s two separate things. You pay an advisor for the other things, asset management fees come down to the type of investments, you’re in the ETF space. *MOST* will be affordable and have little to no impact long term on your gains

VXUS, vanguard market cap weighted ex-US etf

I would say go with a couple of major broad based diversified ETFs. Maybe 75% VOO (S&P 500) and 20% VXUS (International stock ETF). Bitcoin can be pretty risky but I think it’s ok to own a little bit. Maybe 5% of your portfolio through IBIT.

some people like simplicity and buy one ETf - VT by Vanguard, it holds about 65% US stocks and 35% foreign from all over the world
I prefer to have two, VOO for sp500 and VXUS for foreign, and to buy different amounts based upon their PE multiples, so with the US sp500 being very expensive/over-priced today, I am buying both but at a 40/60 ratio with more foreign then USA, this has worked for me well since Trump won the election in 11/2024, Foreign stocks have doubled the sp500, and should continue with his war on everything outside America \[foreigners are selling US stocks and buying their own or other foreign stocks since he got elected on promises of Tariffs\]
the 2nd option allows you to craft your balance, not have it fixed for you

>But since we don’t know what the next Australia or South Africa are, we’re kinda left with two choices: invest in them all (VXUS)
Right.
>and suffer the poor performers dragging it down
This is true of ALL funds, as not all companies are winners. The problem is knowing ahead of time which ones will be the winners.
>or stick to a market that has consistently been shown to dominate the global market consistently
This is either a lie or you're misinformed. There's plenty of periods, even fairly long ones, where the end winner would have been VXUS, not the US.
The US was only the 4th best developed country to invest in from 2001-2020, 5th if you include Hong Kong: https://www.evidenceinvestor.com/which-country-will-outperform-next-is-irrelevant/ (archive link: https://web.archive.org/web/20240527200134/https://www.evidenceinvestor.com/which-country-will-outperform-next-is-irrelevant/) or shifting that to 2002-2021 drops the US to 6th (and a proper 6th this time, as Hong Kong dropped further, to 10th): https://www.saltmarshcpa.com/cpa-news/blog/which_country_will_outperform__here_s_why_it_shouldn_t_matte.asp or if that doesn’t work: https://web.archive.org/web/20250422033628/https://www.saltmarshcpa.com/cpa-news/blog/which_country_will_outperform__here_s_why_it_shouldn_t_matte.asp
While there's no questioning the US has had a strong recent past, that doesn't tell us about the future like you seem to think it does, history is filled with market favor changing between companies, sectors, and countries at different times. Identifying past winners is easy, future ones far harder.

VXUS is what you're looking for.
>Plus the recent trend of de-dollarizing the global economy makes dollar investments less desirable. VT and other US international ETFs don’t seem to address this problem.
That's not true. A huge reason why VXUS (and VT) did so well in 2025 (better than the S&P 500) was because of how much the dollar weakened against global currencies.
When you use USD to purchase shares of companies that earn revenue in currencies that strengthen against the dollar, you get excess returns. This works both ways though. That's a big contributing factor of why inernational stocks did relatively poor compared to the S&P 500 from 2011-2022 (the dollar strengthened massively during that time).

But since we don’t know what the next Australia or South Africa are, we’re kinda left with two choices: invest in them all (VXUS) and suffer the poor performers dragging it down or stick to a market that has consistently been shown to dominate the global market consistently… I guess I just have faith that U.S. will remain a safer bet. But it’s a point well taken especially in regards to the small cap premium you see over time

too many ETFs wont give good returns. Its just noise in the portfolio. You might feel good in bull market (short term) but not in long term!
Stick to VTI+VXUS

VTI 70%, VXUS 30%, put money in every month and no touchy. You’re done.

if you are going to own 70% VOO, owning 20% VTI isn't doing much for you. VOO follows the s&p and the s&p makes up like 85% of VTI already. If you're trying to diversify you could get away with something like 80% VTI and the rest in VXUS. But if you are trying to tilt, you could do something like VTI, IJR as a small cap, and then either a growth or value tilt with IWF or IWD. Just remember that tilt and diverisfying aren't the same thing.

$500/month into a broad index fund for 30 years at historical average returns gets you well past $1M, the math works out way better than you're calculating cause you're ignoring compounding on the contributions along the way. Also, worth widening beyond just VOO (e.g. VTI/VXUS for full global diversification including small caps that VOO misses entirely). Here's a breakdown of VTI ad VXUS at 70/30: [https://insightfol.io/en/portfolios/report/6c1ebd63fa/](https://insightfol.io/en/portfolios/report/6c1ebd63fa/)

Glad you are thinking ahead at such a young age! Some thoughts to start you out...
1. VOO is a good choice. There are people here who will try to sell you up and down and left and right on using VTI instead, and who will advocate for adding VXUS into the mix. However, with such a small amount to start with, VOO is a great choice.
2. QQQM has a lower expense ratio than QQQ. They offer basically the same thing. If you want to buy and hold one, choose QQQM. If you want to trade regularly, QQQ makes sense.
3. Because you have just a little bit to invest initially, consider just VOO for now. You can add QQQ (or QQQM) later on.
4. If you want to stick with VOO and QQQ for now, that is OK. No harm in an even split with a small amount of money, as long as you understand the risks associated with that, but you should lean much more heavily towards VOO than QQQ (perhaps 80/20) as the amount of money increases.
5. Feel free to tinker around with VXUS (or VEU) and other ETFs when you are older, more experienced, and have more money to think about.
6. If you decide you want to be completely passive in your investing experience, then go with VT.

I do VOO, AVUV, VXUS, QQQ. Could easily take out QQQ but I’m young and want the added tech exposure.
I like to be able to manually rebalance if I want to go heavier in any one (US Large, small/medium, international) segment.

Hey everyone,
I (23M, student) recently got the idea that’d I’d like to start investing, and I’m about to buy my first few assets. I have roughly $3000 that I want to use as a jumpstart, and then make $100-$150 deposits monthly. I’m not in for quick cash turnaround, but more of a set and forget investing.
I’ve been looking into ETF’s and would love some input on those. I’ve seen a lot of talk about VTI, VOO, QQQM etc. I’m located in Denmark and I have also noticed people tending to avoid heavy US influenced stocks when located in Europe. I’m personally not against it, but would love to get second opinions.
I currently have this spread in mind:
\- VOO 70%
\- VTI 20%
\- VWCE/QQQ/VXUS 10%
If anyone has comments or another 3-5 spread of ETF’s to set and forgot I’d appreciate any advice given.

What do you recommend over VXUS?

People buy VXUS for diversification. The market ebbs and flows, so today’s winners may easily be tomorrow’s losers. That being said, I don’t buy VXUS. I buy only VOO and VUG. My personal belief (based on my own research and data points) is that the US will continue to do well by the time I retire and that the S&P 500 is already globally diversified by virtue of its top holdings being global as well. That’s just my opinion, and I could be wrong. My point is that if you buy VXUS, buy it because you believe that’s the way to go based on your own research and understanding and not just for the sake of it.

A Punnett Square style visual version:
||**ETF**|**Mutual Fund**|
|:-|:-|:-|
|**Actively Managed**|Actively Managed ETF (ARKK)|Actively Managed Mutual Fund (FBGRX)|
|**Index Based**|Index ETF (SCHF)|Index Mutual Fund (FSKAX)|
VTI and VXUS would be in the same box as SCHF, VTSAX and VTIAX same box as FSKAX.

I always look at asset diversification when I want to stabilize my portfolio. If you are 100% in equities then when equities hurt, you will hurt. Think in Sleeves:
Growth Sleeve which is your VTI now (should be most of your portfolio) 45%
Dividend Growth sleeve like SCHD is a separte sleeve, maybe 15%.
Throw in some real estate (5 or 10%) O, MORT, or other REIT ETFs
A small portion of Bonds (BND, BNDX, etc.) around 10% total
Get some international diversification with VXUS (or consider changing some of your VTI into VT which is VTI+VXUS). 10%
Then I like to lean a bit heavier into commodities and utilies that survive well in downturns with some XLU or BCD (5%) each.
You can even throw in an income based sleeve like JEPI (10%) as well structured CC ETFs can mitigate downturns and continue to provide results, note these are riskier investments though.
I know this is 110% but pick and choose what you feel you like and customize it. There are other ways to diversify but this is a good start. Each of these produce some kind of dividend so you won't win as much as you would if you stayed 100% growth, but if we hit a major recession, only 70% of your portfolio will be resilient instead of 100% of it being vulnerable, and you won't be leaving that much on the table.
Not investment advice, this is just what works for me and helps me sleep at night.