What ETF portfolio do you use?

Baptiste Wicht

Baptiste Wicht

The Poor Swiss
Staff member
Since I just made a small change to our portfolio, I was thinking it would be interesting for people to share their ETF Portfolio.

I just switched from:
  • 80% VT
  • 20% CHSPI
to
  • 85% VT
  • 15% CHSPI
I did the change because we now have enough in our second pillar and property to reduce our home bias in the portfolio, by considering the big picture.

What about you? What ETF portfolio do you use?
 
Happy to share also my buy-hold portfolio, which is a bit more complex:
  • 55% VT
  • 15% CHDVD
  • 15% CSBGC0
  • 5% SXRS
  • 5% 4GLD
  • Remaining 5% are Cryptocurrencies
Additionally have usually 1-2 single company stocks to play around.
 
Sure, essentially when coming up with my strategy and reading the varied recommendations, I decided to add that building block. Essentially taking a clue from the Ray Dalio portfolio or ARERO strategy.

Still debating whether or not to keep it, but for now have not sold it.
 
Baptiste Wicht said:
Since I just made a small change to our portfolio, I was thinking it would be interesting for people to share their ETF Portfolio.

I just switched from:
  • 80% VT
  • 20% CHSPI
to
  • 85% VT
  • 15% CHSPI
I did the change because we now have enough in our second pillar and property to reduce our home bias in the portfolio, by considering the big picture.
Click to expand...
Baptiste Wicht said:
What about you? What ETF portfolio do you use?
Click to expand...
The answer to your question is here and now - none. But since I have about CHF20.000 lying about I am setting up a portfolio as we speak.

I am looking at ETFs and have found an investment strategy called core-satellite, https://www.justetf.com/en/news/etf/how-to-implement-the-core-satellite-strategy-with-etfs.html that seems to be combining the best of both worlds. What would it look like if you were to set up a core-satellite portfolio?

My premises are the following:
  • one-time investment of CHF20.000
  • monthly investment of CHF800
  • preferable accumulated investments
  • investment horizon 10 years
I currently have a 3rd pillar account with Finpension, meaning I can use it to invest in ETFs. However, it seems like none of the ISINs I entered can be found, which has had me doubting their offer. So I am open to to opening a secondary account with another broker.
 
Ellen Bogen said:
The answer to your question is here and now - none. But since I have about CHF20.000 lying about I am setting up a portfolio as we speak.

I am looking at ETFs and have found an investment strategy called core-satellite, https://www.justetf.com/en/news/etf/how-to-implement-the-core-satellite-strategy-with-etfs.html that seems to be combining the best of both worlds. What would it look like if you were to set up a core-satellite portfolio?

My premises are the following:
  • one-time investment of CHF20.000
  • monthly investment of CHF800
  • preferable accumulated investments
  • investment horizon 10 years
I currently have a 3rd pillar account with Finpension, meaning I can use it to invest in ETFs. However, it seems like none of the ISINs I entered can be found, which has had me doubting their offer. So I am open to to opening a secondary account with another broker.
Click to expand...
If you take the definition of core-satellite from here:
www.moneyland.ch

The Core Satellite Investment Strategy Explained

Some investors swear by the core-satellite strategy, in which your investment portfolio is divided into a core on the one hand, and one or more additional components on the other. This moneyland.ch guide explains how the core-satellite strategy works.
www.moneyland.ch www.moneyland.ch
You'll come to the conclusion that @Baptiste Wicht's strategy is actually a core-satellite, where the core is world-ETF (VT) and the satellite the country-specific CHSPI. You can of course go wilder (meaning more different stocks/ETF) if you like, but doesn't mean it will work better.

My own approach is ~76% VT, ~19% CHSPI, 5% "play-stocks" (up to 3-5 stocks where I feel like I know it better than the market. ^^ In my case, those are actually smaller companies that aren't included in VT or CHSPI)

To be honest, the 5% are mainly to keep my brain entertained. If that goes very wrong the next years (meaning the 5% crash), I might reconsider it and move the remaining play-money fraction into VT 😅.
 
Ellen Bogen said:
What would it look like if you were to set up a core-satellite portfolio?
Click to expand...
As pointed by @Michael, my current portfolio already qualifies as a core-satellite since we have 85 VT / 15 CHSPI.
I think VT is a great ETF for the core part of the portfolio. Then, for the satellite it really depends on your bias. You could 80 VT / 20 VOO to have a US Bias or 80 VT / 20 VGT to get a tech bias. It really depends on you and your goals.

Ellen Bogen said:
I currently have a 3rd pillar account with Finpension, meaning I can use it to invest in ETFs. However, it seems like none of the ISINs I entered can be found, which has had me doubting their offer. So I am open to to opening a secondary account with another broker.
Click to expand...
This should not make you doubt Finpension. Finpension 3a does not invest in ETFs, but in retirement-class pension funds, which are cheaper and offer better tax efficiency for the third pillar.
 
Baptiste Wicht said:
As pointed by @Michael, my current portfolio already qualifies as a core-satellite since we have 85 VT / 15 CHSPI.
I think VT is a great ETF for the core part of the portfolio. Then, for the satellite it really depends on your bias. You could 80 VT / 20 VOO to have a US Bias or 80 VT / 20 VGT to get a tech bias. It really depends on you and your goals.


This should not make you doubt Finpension. Finpension 3a does not invest in ETFs, but in retirement-class pension funds, which are cheaper and offer better tax efficiency for the third pillar.
Click to expand...
Hi, I don't doubt Finpension ;), they were very clear when I opened the account. In fact, even if they offer investment tools, even the advisor hinted it could be good not to have all eggs in one basket.
 
Baptiste Wicht said:
Since I just made a small change to our portfolio, I was thinking it would be interesting for people to share their ETF Portfolio.

I just switched from:
  • 80% VT
  • 20% CHSPI
to
  • 85% VT
  • 15% CHSPI
I did the change because we now have enough in our second pillar and property to reduce our home bias in the portfolio, by considering the big picture.

What about you? What ETF portfolio do you use?
Click to expand...

Baptiste Wicht said:
Since I just made a small change to our portfolio, I was thinking it would be interesting for people to share their ETF Portfolio.

I just switched from:
  • 80% VT
  • 20% CHSPI
to
  • 85% VT
  • 15% CHSPI
I did the change because we now have enough in our second pillar and property to reduce our home bias in the portfolio, by considering the big picture.

What about you? What ETF portfolio do you use?
Click to expand...

If not chosing the simple way (which would be still an excellent choice, though: pure MSCI World ETF !),
I feel, it could be interesting to put together an ETF portfolio out of the most successful Western-style countries plus China.
For me these countries would be (but at which %-allocation ?):

U.S.
Switzerland
Sweden
Denmark
Norway
Netherlands
Taiwan
South Korea
Japan
Singapore
China including Hong Kong

just my private thinking.
(most country ETFs have relatively high TERs still.)
also possible, that on very-very longterm a cheap & large S&P500 ETF will perform better than any other ETF.
 
Baptiste Wicht said:
Thanks for sharing!

May I ask why you are investing in commodities? I know scarcely any one doing that outside of Robo-advisors.
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Gerd Kommer seems also to have liked them, but maybe no more:
"Let's come to the conclusion: commodities are a less clear investment story than the other asset classes presented in this book. Ultimately, science is divided here. If the logic of commodity futures investments does not convince you, you should avoid this specific portfolio component. Personally, I have found myself in the camp of skeptics since 2016 (where I almost always am when there is no strong consensus in science) and would therefore vote to avoid commodities or commodity futures in the future."
(quote from his excellent book "Souverän Investieren", as said, the book is particularly outstanding because of scientific/empiric evidence he cites very often and because of his criticism against the unfair and biased mainstream players.
 
FrankieS said:
I feel, it could be interesting to put together an ETF portfolio out of the most successful Western-style countries plus China.
Click to expand...
How do you define successful? You would have to have a good criteria and adapt your countries over time, which feels like active investing to me :)

It may make sense to do your own VT/VWRL by choosing regions and rebalancing by market cap over time, but I feel like unless you have a very high net worth, it's not worth it because the transaction costs will be higher than what you could save with the TER.
FrankieS said:
also possible, that on very-very longterm a cheap & large S&P500 ETF will perform better than any other ETF.
Click to expand...
That's quite possible indeed. And that's been the case for the past decades. However, we don't really know the future. But I know many people investing only in the S&P500.
FrankieS said:
5-10% physical gold in not to big units as an emergency 'currency' seems also nice,
but the gold price went very high up lately.
Click to expand...
Gold is more volatile than most people think. It's a good keeper of value, but it can go down significantly as well, even though it has not been doing that in a while. I feel like it's dangerous for an emergency fund.
 
Baptiste Wicht said:
How do you define successful? You would have to have a good criteria and adapt your countries over time, which feels like active investing to me :)

It may make sense to do your own VT/VWRL by choosing regions and rebalancing by market cap over time, but I feel like unless you have a very high net worth, it's not worth it because the transaction costs will be higher than what you could save with the TER.

That's quite possible indeed. And that's been the case for the past decades. However, we don't really know the future. But I know many people investing only in the S&P500.

Gold is more volatile than most people think. It's a good keeper of value, but it can go down significantly as well, even though it has not been doing that in a while. I feel like it's dangerous for an emergency fund.
Click to expand...
of course, there are more questions than answers.

successful would mean better than the index(es): MSCI World, S&P500 over very long-term (> 20 - 30 y).
yes, that would be active, somehow. Given that it is not the S&P500 over every decade that is most successful,
a mix of the 'best' integer countries (plus recovering non-integer China) seem worthwile to me.
Yes, the UCITS country ETFs are TER-expensive, at least the U.S. domiciled from Franklin possibly not quite so.
Yes, we do not know the future. And yes, S&P500 only seems o.k. also to me.
15 years or so I bought 250 g gold, it only went down, down, down. So it seems better for a super-long term
addition, like 40-50 y-perspective. The price currently feels too hot, but we do not know the future ...
 
Baptiste Wicht said:
How do you define successful? You would have to have a good criteria and adapt your countries over time, which feels like active investing to me :)

It may make sense to do your own VT/VWRL by choosing regions and rebalancing by market cap over time, but I feel like unless you have a very high net worth, it's not worth it because the transaction costs will be higher than what you could save with the TER.

That's quite possible indeed. And that's been the case for the past decades. However, we don't really know the future. But I know many people investing only in the S&P500.

Gold is more volatile than most people think. It's a good keeper of value, but it can go down significantly as well, even though it has not been doing that in a while. I feel like it's dangerous for an emergency fund.
Click to expand...
there is quite some overlap between low corruption and per capita wealth (and perceived happiness)
 

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MIG said:
Can anyone explain some good products for the emergency fund in Switzerland (Ch)?
Click to expand...
Keep it in cash, in the highest interest rate account you can find without any withdrawal limits. Mine is in Neon spaces, but you should not invest your emergency fund.
 
Baptiste Wicht said:
Keep it in cash, in the highest interest rate account you can find without any withdrawal limits. Mine is in Neon spaces, but you should not invest your emergency fund.
Click to expand...
From what I understand in Neon Space the interest rate is 0.75% per year (up to 25,000 CHF), right ?
 
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